February 2016

Losing Unit Disbands 12 Man Three Way Tag Team Elimination Match: Dia.HEARTS (Big R Shimizu, Dragon Kid, Kzy & Masaaki Mochizuki) vs. Monster Express (Akira Tozawa, Masato Yoshino, Syachihoko BOY & T-Hawk) vs. VerserK (Kotoka, Naruki Doi, Shingo Takagi & YAMATO) - Dragon Gate Truth Gate 2016 - Day 2 04/02/2016 A Dragon Gate special. 12 men all in the ring, interchanging at a frantic pace, tons of storytelling in the ring, big stakes involved, incredible wrestling. It could be very easy to be lost in this match but this had tons of memorable spots, even without taking notes. The 1 v 1 v1 exchanges early on was amazing, Doi being a chickenshit and not w…

Match Link This is a 'Survivor Series' style tag with battle royal over-the-top eliminations as well. The World team gets off to a good start by being the more in sync team, which was surprising. They actually put over Viper strong as she pretty much takes out all of the Stardom women on her own, pinning Kyouga to get the first elimination. In the middle portion of the match they do a good job of giving the lower ranked women a chance to work some competitive sequences before getting eliminated. There is even some nice top rope teases before both Hojo and Santana get eliminated at the same time. Just a really fun match from start to finish, which is just what you want…

This match was setup at the previous TV taping when Carmella won a battle royale for a title shot. They also played up the real life friendship between the two of them. I really liked how Bayley worked this match. She controlled most of the match but managed to find some nice ways to keep Carmella looking competitive. Also thought that Carmella's selling was very good throughout the match and the way that she built up to the back-to-back dives was tremendous. Realistically, this match was as good as you could hope for given Carmella's experience level. ***3/4

Another match better than the previous one at the Tokyo Dome. This match actually focuses on selling and psychology as apposed to the spectacle (a great spectacle none the less) of two guys taking turns hitting each other hard. I had my worries this would just be a repeat of the Tokyo Dome match when they let each other hit suplexes on each other, but they proved me wrong, even if that spot did bug me a lot. A total war that's more than a spectacle. ★★★¾

This one is for the vacant Triple Crown Championship. Zeus looks like such an asshole with his sunglasses at a closed building. Great look for a heel. The match itself features your usual story of strenght vs speed. They thankfully leave the feeling out process to a minimum, and while there is some matwork, it feels like they are actually testing each other instead of doing it for the sake of doing it. Story of the match is Miyahara working from underneath after Zeus works on his back, doing a whole lot of slams and holds targetting that region. However, he just cannot get a sustainable offense, instead doing short flurries before getting cut out by Zeus over…

Chris Hero's performances fluctuate as much as his weight. He was almost Ikeda like here-not as stiff, with weird pausing during strike exchanges you'd see in Daisuke Sekimoto matches that many of Hero's big proponents shit on, and a lot more thigh slapping but the general idea of mixing in some comedy in the brutality is there. I absolutely loved the missed shoulder block spot and the idea behind Chris Hero failing to no-sell Trent's.....some move to the gut/chest, though that particular spot would've been beter if Hero had emoted/sold it better. The Tope Con Giro counter was unreal-I thought Hero was going to Piledrive him on the floor, it was just so smoooth and perfec…

Yet another entertaining Thunder Rock tag match. I can't really say that they are the best team in the world right now but, to me, they are the most reliable because they always have at least a good match with everybody that they face. Here, they are up against two newcomers in Diemond and Viper. Diemond is really solid in-ring and plays the role of foreign heel well. Viper is fun as a big woman in the mold of a John Tenta or One Man Gang. I really like how she throws her weight into all of her offense which makes it extra squishy. Iwatani is great here, fearlessly eating her opponents offense and selling like crazy. Io is just puts in her usual great performance. A high …

If we take AJPW as an Indy promotion, then our expectations won't be set too high. At this point, AJ is an Indy and nothing like the venerated promotion of the 90's. Well, except for the style. With Akiyama back and in charge it is decidedly a throwback to the early 90s. Omori & Jun play the tough but a little over the hill vets with champ Miyahara teaching Jake Lee the ropes. Lee has good potential as he's young, a stiff worker, and not too handsome. He'll hone his craft rather than worry about modeling and super stardom. This match was very good at telling the above story to the fans. Everyone was solid and the work was snug. There wasn't anything aweso…

This is a battle of 2010s best indy style guy with 2015 best indy style guy and it lives up to that billing. Callihan is really great at beating on high flyers and Bailey is awesome at fighting back from a beating and they mesh wonderfully. I can tell this will be a great touring match, the same way Bailey v. Busick was. Loved Callihan's super nasty shoot JYD headbutts, and him dickishly ripping away the ankle pad. Bailey mixed in his kicks nicely and Sami really made them look violent. Normally I hate one count kick outs, but I kind of dug it here, because Bailey didn't jump back on offense and instead just died a little slower.

Mutoha's based YT account (ran by the same guy who praised yours truly for talking about how cool the promotion was) recently stuck this up FREE on Youtube if you really wanna see it. You should, because GENTARO grappling matches are always worth the watch. Makoto Kato was a nothing Pancrase guy who moved into super obscure indie pro-wrestling (alongside apparently being a Seikendo-style nerd? Seems cool to me tbh) he doesn't really look the part but he's a pretty good foil for his opponent here. The two have some nice back and forth grappling centred around relatively basic stuff like armbar transitions and Kato using key-locks to maintain control in that regard when he'…

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kenny Omega - NJPW New Beginning 2016 Vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship With the departure of AJ Styles, the ascent of Kenny Omega begins as he is now pushed as the the top gaijin of the Bullet Club as he turfed AJ right before he left. At the very first supercard after the Dome show, he is challenging Tanahashi (#2 Native after Okada) for the Vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship (#2 Belt). The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is vacant because Shinsuke Nakamura departed at the same time as AJ but New Japan gave Nakamura a very respectful sendoff, he did not have to lose the title, which in a lot of ways was his own personal title …

I'm not going to miss out on an opportunity to watch Sakuraba grapple and this delivered as a fun little match. I think both members of ReDragon are overrated and I wish Bobby Fish would stop screaming so much all the time, O'Reilly hit a nice kick combo and Gedo's shtick was fun as usual but this is all about Saku and his grappling exhibition with the lads. **3/4

I don't rate this as a MOTYC like many others do, but I'm curious to hear what people here thought of this one. This match has received mixed criticism and I can see why. There was some really great stuff in this, and some really bad stuff too. This match didn't feel like any other match in NJPW in years (or ever). The interference worked and sent the crowd into a frenzy. I was sucked into the hellish atmosphere of the finishing stretch even if I was majorly irked by them busting reverse frankensteiners and brushing them off like they were light slaps. Omega worked a mean control segment on Tanahashi's arm, but it ultimately went nowhere. A flawed yet memorable main e…

KUSHIDA looked like an absolute star in this and I imagine NJPW will continue to build the Jr. division around him. Minus the few occasion when both guys looked a tad awkward and didn't look too sure what to do next, this was a fantastic match that the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands. The interactions with the ref and the interference were both handled smartly and didn't retract from the quality of the match. ★★★¾

This was fun although I remember liking last year's Casas-Volador Jr. matches more. Opening matwork was fun and Casas' stomping on Volador Jr. before submitting him was a cool spot. Casas' leg work was good looking albeit inconsequential. Third fall had some cool spots like Casas' Powerbomb counter and some nice kicks to the face but Volador seemed lost most of the time and the way these matches are often paces with stuff-pause-stuff you need the stuff to look good and work and a lot of Volador Jr's spots just don't. **3/4

There's nothing more depressing than watching two shoot style guys work through mundane pro style holds. Not bad, and I'd much rather watch a house show match between kickers than pretty much anything New Japan produces right now but nothing special either. They throw some nice kicks with Hijikata's sliding one being a highlight, and I liked how Sato leaned Hijikata on the apron instead of doing so on the ringpost which always looks stupid (especially with the missed ringpost strike being such a lazy transition) but they've seen better days. **1/2

I guess this is why people go to All Japan house shows these days, to hear Shadow Explosion live and see young lions pay their dues. I really liked the spot with Nomura grabbing a waistlock and Ishikawa trying to counter it with strikes only to push Nomura into the corner when he failed to counter it the aforementioned way, looked like something that could be milked out in a big match with a significant size difference. I was surprised how much he gave Nomura, a couple of suplexes and even let him take him down with repeated shoulder blocks, Ishikawa has good enough offence that he can afford to give a guy a little more without losing credibility as a monster, this was ve…

I guess this is The Elite's touring match? Basically, this is them doing their shtick and the crowd eating it up. What's funny to me is that with all the comedy and wink-wink, nudge-nudge shit going on, they just have to get in all the crazy shit they do, and it's the other team that has to take the bumps for the most part. It went from crotch chops, Too Sweet's and ACH's Austin tribute spot (which was the funniest part of the match), right into Matt Sydal taking an avalanche German on the ramp after that headscissor/superkick combo. Anyway, this is what is and I don't think it really warrants any deeper thought than that. This is big fun for their fans, but if you a…

Remember when the Monster’s Ball concept first debuted in TNA, and the participants supposedly were locked away for 24 hours prior to the match without light, food, and water? By now it's just another hardcore match with weapons and this is actually the 45th(!) Monster's Ball match. Poor Abyss can barely move by this point in his career but he takes the two biggest bumps. Creative visual at the end with Rosemary pouring a bag full of tacks on the head of Eddie Edwards, who is trapped in a chair. Nobody phones it in (again, Abyss does what he can) and a couple of unique moments made this worth a watch for me. Here's my link to the full write-up on this match, Day 47 i…

You know what's also classic All Japan? Injury/KO angles(ok, I thiiiink I've heard in the mean time it was a legit KO but hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?). I guess this wasn't a big enough tag for Okabayashi to pull a Jumbo and stretch it out but man I hope they do eventually do something like that. Hierarchy comes into play once again-skinny boy Shinobu can't match Okabayashi in strike exchanges, Maruyama-holy shit I thought he was like a young boy or something but it appears he used to be Tigers Mask. Not that it matters much. He's here to eat D-Hash kicks and YOU will enjoy it. Speaking of.......Shinya's son has grown and is now a solid threat to…

Hideki brings a unique flair to each of his matches, usually matwork and chain wrestling in Sekimoto matches serve no purpose other than to fill time but here Hideki makes everything spectacular, from a Headscissors to a Hammerlock, and the struggle over holds which he brings feels novel in the modern puro. Yuto is an actual young boy and him going after Sekimoto in strike exchanges is a lot more interesting than a regular Sekimoto strike exchange due to the difference in their status forcing Uto to sell every one of Sekimoto's blow like death and also making every time Sekimoto sells for Uto mean more. Sanada looks solid here, and he displayed some nice chain wrestling i…

This is kind of like your classic All Japan tag in that you have a tag of made of a guy higher on the pecking order (hama) and lower on it(Kamitani) and they work that into the match. Twin Towers squaring off is super fun, but watching them absolutely wreck Kamitani is even more so. They work this like you'd want them to with Hama saving Kamitani, cutting Twin Towers off when it seems like they're gonna finish him etc. but that can only last for so long before they eventually finish Kamitani.

A MOTYC out of nowhere. A trios match is a better setting for the type of insane spotfest they wanted to do than a singles match and all the faults of the Casas-Volador Jr. singles match were completely absent here. This is probably about as far as Casas could go in doing crazy athletic stuff and it was great, having him as the glue that holds the match together really helped, as did having Dragon Lee and Kamaitachi as the supporting crew, those guys are lunatics, I think about a minute or two into a match there was a Missile Dropkick countered into an Orange Crush Bomb or something equally ridiculous. This type of match can rule with the right lay out and amount of time …

One of the more well-rounded junior heavyweight matches out of All Japan this year. The first half is your standard juniors fare. The limb work was good and played a significant role throughout. Sato was the standout here, with great kicks, selling, and counterwork. Aoki was hit or miss, especially in the latter part of the match, but he came out looking strong. I really liked the ankle hold -> cross armrbeaker counter-for-counter sequence, and Aoki's Northern Lights suplex counter to the front necklock. The submission finish was really great, as it showed Aoki's desperation in the way he wrenches back and shifts his weight around to find the most painful angle before …

This is a glorified squash and Akiyama is a perfect cast for the role of the rookie executioner as he his attacks are as vicious as anyone's, his knees looked as brutal as ever but he also busted some unusual front kicks that also looked really great. It was a very interesting match to observe, as Akiyama was both working a compelling match while teaching the kid how the work, which was best exemplified when he would just flat out refuse to sell for Aoyagi's weak offence until he hit him with something worthwhile.