April 2016

Timothy Thatcher may not exactly be my favourite wrestler but he's far from being the dirt worst like Tracy Williams or Gulak. He's been in some good matches before. He looked REALLY good against Chris Masters and actually carried himself like a real pro wrestler there. He's trained with Yuki Ishikawa. So I think he isn't a great wrestler more due to the same reason he can't cut a promo to save his life than due to a lack of grappling abity or something like that. Thatcher's facial expression just before he came back into the ring after the injury angle was embarrassingly bad as was his selling of the angle itself but at least I like the idea of booking fuckfinishes in 20…

Pretty great performance by Sabre and a not so great one by Ospreay. I've tried to but I just can't like to guy. He'll drop selling in order to move on to the next MOVE all the time, the selling he actually does doesn't look convincing and doesn't last long enough and his shit just isn't impressive. It doesn't look good. He's good at jumping around but not good at incorporating his leaping ability into creating good pro wrestling sequences and moves. Chad compared him to a young AJ Styles in his article-I couldn't disagree more. I think young AJ Styles actually had a really good basic sense of pro wrestlng, certainly a million times better one than Ospreay. I'm sure Ospre…

Pretty simple story here as the beloved champion takes on the dangerous undefeated challenger. This does get off to a slow and even awkward start, (Asuka stiffs Bayley with a forearm after their first lockup.) Once they they settle down, they do get into a nice groove with each other. I do like that Bayley went right at Asuka and never showed any fear but that does cost her at times as she gets out-struck and outclassed on the mat. She does adjust and learns to pick her spots which leads to some nice counters. Also, I enjoyed the announce team as both Phillips and Graves put over both of the matchup plus point out little stuff like Bayley trying to use submissions that ha…

I was hoping we would see some matwork that was interesting for a change when Yehi started going for single legs and Hero would shrug them off-play up the size difference! It's easy! Efficient! Interesting! Do it! But. No. Arm wringers. I respect Chris Hero for his attitude of just doing what he wants and not caring much but I can get pretty tired of his formulas. He knows how to build a match and it was apparent here-they didn't just exchange control segments. Hero dominated the match and they build heat through his control segments. I really liked the Big Boot cutoff to Yehi's corner flip. Having my first impression of him be a match vs. Tracy "please quit wrestling an…

Worst Evolve match I've seen so far. It actually started off pretty good, doing junior chain wrestling with Johnny Gargano was the best Tracy Williams ever looked, and Galloway was a solid hot tag, still the majority of this was so dull and uninteresting, Gulak and Williams had one nice combo move and Gulak will do one thing per match that I like like steal a Finlay spot or something that looks like a Finlay spot at least, here it was dragging Gargano by the feet into his corner, but outside of that it's clear he and Williams have no idea how to work, they're just so boring, so many stomps and armbreakers leading to nowhere. The double submission spots are also getting ri…

I'd like to see Riddle's strenghts used in the manner a Battlarts-esque style would use them, or see him work as a shootish base in matches that would be worked like New Japan vs UWFi, but since that just isn't going to happen since most Evolve guys aren't good or creative enough for that I'll gladly take him vs. a charismatic showman like Zack Sabre Jr. This was more Sabre's match than Riddle's, Sabre did a great job of selling the threat of Riddle's submissions and I like the way Riddle countered Sabre's flashy submissions with simple and logical counters many wrestlers don't even see are there for the taking due to bubble they're used of thinking in. This may sound lik…

This is the tag title match that was setup after Matsumoto trash-talking at the end of the last Korakuen Hall show. They don't mess around here, during a breakdown after the intial feeling-out, Hiroyo grabs Iwatani off the top rope for a powerbomb on the apron while Kagetsu lines up Io along the ring post and starts drilling her with kicks. The challengers then turn their focus to Iwatani and this allows Mayu to show off some awesome selling. The thing I like the most about her selling in this match is that she isn't instantly back to normal after tagging out, if she gets back involved too early she pays for it. That being said Hiroyo Matsumoto is the real star of the mat…

Man Chris Hero's throwback Golden State Warriors gear makes him my new favorite wrestler, that is so dope. Hero was awesome in this match, I think it is his best performance in year. He totally brutalizes ZSJ while delivering some sweet smack talk, at one point he calls Sabre sweetheart while begging him to hit him. I loved how Hero used typical indy counter stuff as a shit talking move, he would counter Sabre's stuff and use it to taunt him, nice use of something which can come off like applause pandering under other circumstances. Sabre is still a little unnatural to me, his KO selling and fired up faces seem pretty performative, it isn't nearly as bad as Davey Richards…

I loved this, Yehi is one of my favorite new guys in wrestling and it is really fun to watch him match up with a true pro like Gulak. His offense always looks a little different then regular wrestling offense. The angles he throws suplexes, the parts of the body he stomps it is just a bit off. Gulak has a much more traditional wrestling base, but knows how to work interesting struggles around Yehi's weird stuff. I agree with Eric about Yehi's leg selling it was awesome , and I loved how aggressive Gulak was when he saw it, they way a great counter puncher will parry until he sees any opening.

This was fun as expected, it's always a joy to watch Big Dog vs smaller guys and Shinobu is a pretty good in the role of a junior who will just die but can pull off comebacks with insane highspots. This wasn't the greatest thing ever but there was a lot of good stuff in there like Ishikawa using his strength to brush off any serious attempts of obtaining control Shinobu had and the general intensity Ishikawa brings in any match he's in. One of my favourite moments in this match was when Shinobu hit Ishikawa with a series of elbows and was about to run the ropes to do the classic spot where he takes the bigger man down but Ishikawa just grabbed him from behind and killed h…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyjUiPAcZLU This is an all out, strait forward brawl. Somehow, Ozaki just shows up by herself so we're saved from this match being booked into oblivion. The start is great as Ozaki tosses to JWP belt out of the ring causing Nakajima to freak out. Then, someone brings the belt back to the ring so Oz just grabs it and whips it right into Arisa's face opening her up. Ozaki just keeps working the cut for the rest of the match so Nakajima white gear doesn't stay white for long. Arisa does some great babyface comebacks but Oz just cuts them off by grabbing a chain and throwing it right at her face. The finish does have a ref bump as Ozaki acc…

via Black Terry Jr. From a small show where Black Terry Jr. didn't even list the promotion. I have been on the "Negro Navarro is really slowing down" train and while I still think that is true, this is a match where Black Terry is running the ropes at Yossino speed yet Navarro doesn't look slow at all. They work the first three minutes based around a hybrid lucha, WOS arm sequence, not even having to take a bump. In fact, one of the holds is broken because Black Terry tells an audible joke that makes Navarro and the crowd laugh. My spanish sucks but it was still a terrific spot. They do the maestro submissions back and forth but they sell each and every one and b…

Man I don't blame AJ Styles for not getting a four star match out of Chris Jericho but I should have had him lower on my GWE list. This was just....I don't even know. AJ should revisit those Ohtani tapes because he's misremembering his big facial expressions after nearfalls. AJ's look really bad. Want to talk annoying WWE tropes? Codebreaker-long pause-kick-out is stupid and served no purpose. Finish was stupid as well and it could've been great-all Jericho had to do was shove the ref onto AJ but he didn't do that for whatever reason and we got another springboard something into Codebreaker counter. Never seen one of those before. And it also showcased another WWE trope w…

I actually liked this a lot more than I ever thought I would. I've been quite disappointed with Lesnar's recent work but I think this delivered on what I'd hoped to see out of it. I've seen statements that this felt more tame and less violent than the usual Lesnar match and my response to that would be that the violence in the usual Lesnar match is probably overstated. Maybe I just dislike Ambrose enough I was fine with watching him get Suplexed a million times but I truly believe there was more to it. Ambrose's wacky character is stupid in 95% of wrestling roles but it might be great at just getting squashed. I didn't see the weapons as an attempt to reach some huge leve…

This was very good for what it was and it is really easy to see why so many people loved it. Personally-I'm just kind of done with this style of wrestling. I really don't have much use for matches where workrate is its own sake. I can still love a spotfest and think it's a great match but I'm not going to be vowed with flashy matches just because they have flash and even for matches which I think have problems with structure selling etc. I would easily take something like Mascara Dorada vs Mephisto from 2/19 over this. Once the initial novelty of them doing all these cool spots wore off they kind of just continued to do more of them and even at just 16 minutes it felt lik…

I loved this, Kalisto is so great, I think they finally found the heir to Rey and I hope at least someone in the back is aware of it. This makes me want to watch all the matches he's had on TV in the last two months that I've missed because I did think he was the best WWE worker of 2016 after my last binge. Just a super fun match built around the size difference with Ryback throwing Kalisto around and him taking nutty bumps, Kalisto busts out a bunch of fun spots that are fluent and pretty yet are simple enough to be worked into most TV matches. Lots of nifty cut offs here and a satisfying finish with Ryback reaping what he sowed. ***1/4

This is the type of match where five years from now they'll show a clip of Owens and Zayn brawling and the finish and then enunciate "here at WWE it is all about THE STORIES. We tell STORIES. STORYTELLING. STORY STORY STORY SHAWN MICHAELS IS THE GREATEST WRESTLER OF ALL TIME" but in actuality the match is a total spotfest. I mean. It was fine for what it was. Just them blowing through a bunch of stuff I could have liked and cared about if they gave me reason to care about them. Vastly inferior to last year's ladder match, even in a match that is an inherent trainwreck like this one the lack of ring generals like Bryan and Harper hurt the match tremendously. **1/2

Look it might not match Yoji Kuri shorts in terms of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen but if we look strictly at pro wrestling Triple H's entrance is up there. Roman Reigns gets the Chris Jericho vs CM Punk Wrestlemania 28 entrance, you'd think he's about to be Booker T'd and not win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in front of the biggest Wrestlemania crowd in history. I liked this a lot, it did feel like a match that had more thought put into it than it should've but my impression is that with different participants and a different crowd this same exact match would get completely different reviews. And, I dont want to downplay the importance crowd reactions has t…

A classic for the ages. Seriously, this kind of thing seems pretty counter-productive, not only because it diminishes everyone on their roster but also because it's going to make The Rock eventually having a normal match at Wrestlemania feel less special because he's now there every year. I'm sure it pops the crowd but I don't think his promo makes much difference business wise. Imagine if Reigns had a flamethrower to burn The Great Satan with.

Nothing says peak wrestling like two old out of shape dudes doing a tribute to the Battlarts/BJW feud at Wrestlemania. I liked this way more than I expected, the sloppiness made it feel really gritty like I like my pro wrestling to be. Ideally you'd want workers to know how to sell but the next best thing is for them to just get old enough where they're hurt for real and that's what we get here. I think my problem with a lot of WWE epics is that they try to be these super serious matches when they're actually super ridiculous but this match is such a trainwreck that the fact it's so preposterous and Michael Cole is trying to spout his usual bullshit somehow adds to it. It…

Tokyo Gurentai is my favourite japanese promotion right now and Nosawa's willingness to book Battlarts house show matches among other things has a thing or two to do with it. Some nice kicks, and having Wada in there allowed Ikeda to play off of him and provided some nice comedy. Match peaked when Ikeda had had enough and started blasting folks with brutal Lariats and shoot Headbutts and he would also sell his own headbutts which added to the drama as you start to wonder whether this middle aged man has finally broken down. Also props to the guy who bumped for his Lariats for killing himself on them (I think it was Ito). ***1/4

Not the awesome all out brawl this would've been if Suzuki was around for Big Mouth Loud but still a fun time. Murakami might not do much these days but he's absolutely hilarious and I loved the way he and Wada played off each other here. T-Hash wrestling in an Iverson jersey may not even have been the most random outfit of anyone in the arena as I'm pretty sure I saw fans with ECW, IGF and Slayer shirts in the front row. An entertaining comedy match. ***

These kind of matches are often insane exhibitons of cool spots and athleticism that range from incredible to terrible. Sometimes they're just guys doing stuff and tower of doom spots and that's what this was. Owens' selling being thrown into the barricade by screaming the way he did is the kind of self conscious sell that reddit boys will look at and say "yeah! that ruled". It can never get real heat. The Miz would never do it. Jericho screaming "stay down you stupid man" is also too hilarious and stupid to get real heat in 2016. Owens' Package Powerbomb doesn't really look good or make sense, it got a good pop the first time but still it is very much "hey guys remember …

I bursted out laughing as I was typing the thread title, it's almost hard to believe how ridiculous some of the WWE ring names are. I like the idea of having more 2 minute squashes on Raw but this match was boring, even in a 2 minute showcase match a heel has to get in a Smackdown vs Raw signature move and a Chinlock. I miss Ryback killing local guys. Apollo did some cool flips I guess but man what a waste of time.

"He marches to the beat of his own drummer" is up there with the most WWE commentary lines ever. Ziggler is in the stage of his career Marufuji is now where he looks like an old cat, his Dropkick and haircut are just sad to watch. His punches didn't look too bad, if he dropped alll of his DX tribute offence he might be almost as good of a worker as The Miz. Corbin's Forearms looked good but man I got surprisingly annoyed at how even this was worked. Finish was incredibly stupid as most WWE Dusty finishes are, Corbin goes over the barricade, then screams at the ref for no reason, then proves a point by brutalizing Dolph Ziggler but he does that by returning to the ringside…