April 2016

A good match at last. Early on Miz gets heat out of a shoulder block. A SHOULDER BLOCK. Think about that for a second. He might be the only WWE heel that knows how to properly stooge and get some shine on the babyface. Shocking to see a match in WWE in 2016 actually get the desired reaction. Ryder's offence seemed quite Dropkick heavy, they provided a lot of movement in the match which kept the fans thoroughly invested. I enjoyed the wacky interference in the finish. Good little three star match.

Axel most certainly has the right bloodline to still be employed, I'm sure that The Rock likes working with him helps as well. This was the best Crews showcase match so far, no long chinlock and Axel took the less than anyone did vs. Crews and didn't work in a needlessly long chinlock in a 2 minute match. He also took a great over the top bump off a early Crews punch. Fun for what it was which is more than I can say for the other XX Crews main roster matches I've watched so far.

Going from Emma matches to this seems like a real downgrade. Man there are definitely better ways to spend my time than to watch these two do slow motion chain wrestling. Natalya does that one move of hers I like, the slingshot back suplex atomic drop followed by the cool back stomp. Stuff happens. Then Summer Rae viciously throws Natalya onto the ropes and kicks her out of the ring. Suplex on the floor! Seems kinda stupid to take bumps like that in a throwaway TV match but as the one person commenting on them-yeah I'm fine with them. Natalya dropping Summer Rae on her face and dragging her into the middle of the ring for the Sharpshooter finish looked really good. Props …

Rematch for the IC title. Ryder has a lot of fun babyface shtick but also adds some new stuff here like the neat slingshot splash and a final cut. Miz took a cool bump off Ryder's Apron Dropkick into the barricade and busted out a counter Liger Bomb out of nowhere which completely caught me off guard. These two did a good job of using learned psychology and I loved the finish with Miz just punching Ryder in the eye off a Maryse distraction. ***-***1/4

Marco doesn't do much but his punch looks really good so that's good enough for me. He also did a couple of big dives that looked great. Rush sticks to being Rush here and doesn't do any german suplex no sells to infuriate me. Pretty cool finish with Marco kicking Rush in the balls and then punching the ref. ***

While these two have been going at each other for almost 18 years, this is actually the first singles match that they have had since 2012. There is no way to describe this match other than an outright slugfest. Both of them just start clubbing away at on another and it lasts pretty much the entire match. Aja is just in no-bullshit mode here, just dishing out a straight forward asskicking. Meiko's selling is pretty good, as she picks some good moments to attempt comebacks. The match may seem short, but it works in the sense that they come out of the gate so hard it wouldn't too long. Just great stuff as you would expect from these two. ****1/4

This was awesome and worked in a strange hybrid neo King's Road/Battlarts style, you could tell by the early grappling this wasn't going to be the usual All Japan match, I loved how Akiyama pulled Super Tiger out of the ring to transition into offence and he followed it up by just blasting him with knees, they smacked each other around a lot but any time Akiyama had even the smallest opportunity to obliterate Tiger with a knee strike he'd go for it. Tiger fired back with a bunch of kicks and slaps and the sense of constant struggle really added to the match. Incredible out of nowhere KO finish that was sold and presented perfectly. ***1/2

This match was totally badass. Hideki Suzuki is a Billy Robinson trainee and someone I always love to see make tape and Ishikawa is one half of my favourite modern tag team and has also grown into a really strong singles worker in the last few years. I liked the matwork here a lot, you have Suzuki using his skill by applying cravates, leglocks, wrenching on Ishikawa's fingers, doing neat takedowns and transitions, Ishikawa can't really compete with him in that so he'll put him in an Iron Claw and grab him and just throw him off himself to combat Suzuki's superior ability. Some really great stuff happens outside of the ring as Ishikawa replies to Suzuki lowering the middle…

This was an effective six man tag to jump into the promotion with. The storyline centered around Matsumoto and Kato and they got the signature pairing. Toyota still can still have short glimpses of athleticism and then she gets out of the way. Kobayashi is a really fun underneath worker that had great spark when she was taking a beating. Overall, I look forward to the upcoming singles match between Matsumoto and Kato. ***

THE BIGGEST POP FOR THIS MATCH LADS. Not exactly the "Hideki Suzuki" match I wanted but I was pretty happy with what I got. This was a smart and efficient match, especially in context of the Strong Climb Tournament. Kamitani jumping Hideki before the bell made for an interesting dynamic, the big strike exchange was awesome and showcased how much better it is to sell during them instead of acting like a bulletproof robot, Hideki's jab headbutt was especially great. I'm not the biggest fan of the brawling around the ring but it was very well done here with Kamitani continuing to fight back after Suzuki would attack him instead of just laying there for twenty seconds, the ri…

It shouldn't be so hard for japanese wrestling to be good. Look at this match. It didn't exactly set the world on fire but it was really fun. No one did anything stupid. Ishikawa and Daichi start striking each other, Ishikawa strikes Daichi out because he is bigger, Daichi transitions into offence by utilizing kicking and continues to rely on kicks and running moves to take the bigger man down, Ishikawa continues cutting him off with brutal knees and eventually hits one too many. That was 8 minutes of my time used well thank you BJW. ***-***1/4

This could've been an amazing match but it being modern puro this is about as good as you're going to get. I liked the beginning with Kamitani getting some shine before Ishikawa took over. Then Kamitani makes his comeback and they, uhm, do stuff for a couple of minutes before transitioning into the finishing stretch. It seems fine. My biggest problem with the match was how they connected the dots. You have Ishikawa ragdolling Kamitani on the outside, throwing him into the chairs, dumping him with a brutal Bodyslam, yet he's kind of limping for no reason, not really acting like you'd want a monster in control to. You don't really actively think of how stuff like how a wres…

This wasn't structurally strong enough to be a great match but it was a nice return to form for Shibata after the polarizing Ishii matches. Tenzan is too old and broken down to afford to do a bunch of stupid no selling and while it may not reach the preposterous heights of the Ishii matches the violence does get VERY brutal and Tenzan's age and him actually selling made it an easy and engaging watch for me. ***

I enjoy KUSHIDA appropriating the Minoru Tanaka/Kendo Kashin "every move I do is Armbar" gimmick. I really, really don't care for Ospreay-I could do away with indy wrestlers in 2016 who have athletic ability and flips and not much other-but KUSHIDA does a very good job of constructing a match around him and grounding him so that Ospreay's weaknesses don't matter as much. KUSHIDA worked like a true junior ace here and the theme of him working as a base of high-fliers that tries to ground them could be a great formula.

This wasn't even a particularly good match but it was a special experience. Naito actually getting entrance chants in 2016 was a sight to behold and the crowd reactions transformed what would've been an underwhelming title match into a spectacular coronation. Perfectly booked and timed but Okada will still do the worst STF and Indy knee move ever to get me out of it. Naito's post match antics were better than anything in the match itself. ***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFKc040pkfY&list=WL&index=117 This is a match between two women who are mostly known for being jobbers on NXT. I was most interested in seeing Purrazzo here as she get a fair bit of hype online, while I've enjoyed a lot of Santana's indy work. This was worked in a smart way. After some back and forth in the opening Santana picks up the pace with Purrazzo unable to keep up so she has to slow it down through stalling. Deonna doesn't do anything flashy but all of her offense is focused and her selling is tremendous. Santana is pretty mcuh Santana here, just another very good all around performance. Finish is a bit out of nowhere bu…

This match was on a show that was part of the Cauliflower Alley Club. Instead of trying to work a memorable epic, they keep things simple and work a straight forward easy to understand match in front of a crowd that was mostly unfamiliar with them. A great sampler of what the Stardom girls can do. ***1/2

Welp. Botching a headscissors is not a good sign of things to come. Opening portion was worked uncoventionally......conventional? Like it's how every New Japan G1 match starts but you never see matches on Raw naturally progress from chain wrestling to bigger spots etc. Style's apron knee looked really great, don't remember him using it ever before. Not sure what people were expecting out of this but it was a fun three star match, Zayn messed up a couple of things (aforementioned headscissors, small package sunset flip landing) but it was fine outside of that.

Rose took a nice bump off Apollo's clothesline. I still can't get over Apollo Crews being an actual ring name for someone. Another quasi-squash match in which the heel takes half the match and gets a chinlock in. Whoever agented this should be fired. Nothing worth seeing here.

Kevin Owens is a good comedy wrestler but his hilarious trash talk and him posing to the hard cam and saying who's the man isn't stuff that is ever actually going to get real heat. Still his character feels very modern and there is the fact that he has to play to a big part of an audience that just isn't going to boo guys like him. Maybe they would if the workers TRIED, but Vince has obviously given up on classic face/heel dynamics so might as well enjoy the product for what it is. I really loved Cesaro in 2013 but I just haven't been impressed with his work lately. He's been tamed and everything that initially made him special isn't there anymore. Boring match. Why shoul…

Remember when these two had that match at NXT that people have four stars to? I didn't really like that. But I really liked the three minute match they had on Raw like a week after that. I liked the early chain wrestling bit though they should probably counter the waistlock with back elbows instead of hip attacks since they're already doing all these jazz to take the women's division seriously. Natalya's Leglock was hilarious.Why is she working a shooter gimmick? I kind of love the spot where Natalya steps on her opponent's back and her setting it up by slamming Charlotte's face on the mat was cool too. Charlotte's Knee Drop looks much closer to Triple H's than Sayama's. …

Del Rio does the corner punches which are a face spot because he's too old and rich to care. Sheamus too with his apron blows. Lots of solid brawling but not really worked in a way that made me care. Wyatt was an unexpectedly awesome hot tag and him pointing to Reigns' spear made for a cool GIF. Barely above average.

After so many good TV matches I'm regreting ranking AJ Styles as high as I did on my GWE list a lot less. This was another *** match, what really stood out was AJ's amazing bumping, it's not that he'll overbump, he'll just take moves in ways that make them look as possibly dangerous as possible. He had an all time great Backstabber sell and just threw himself on Del Rio's Baseball Slide, I also loved the way he got out of the tree of woe. Styles' apron knee is a thing of beauty. Match had a lovely flash pin finish as well.

This was neat as expected, Ryder is one of the few guys who knows how to work like a proper traditional babyface and is WWE's best JTTS currently. Corbin is also awesome, I love all of his strikes and he did an awesome looking choke where he just stood on Ryder and pushed his throat onto the bottom rope. The sternum bump seems to be used more often these days. Finish ruled as well, it's great whenever Corbin busts out the End Of Days in the middle of a sequence instead of doing the generic WWE set-up.

Solid workrate match. I think Jericho's hilarious is way too hilarious for anyone to boo him. Him knocking the chair down at ringside, calling Ambrose silly names during the match and randomly attacking Ambrose out of nowhere were all awesome. Really only way anyone could boo him is if he was dangerously sloppy and seemed to hold down younger/better talent and well.....you know. They screwed up the set up to Zayn's rope walk DDT and Jericho recovered nicely after a Double Underhook Backbreaker match. Ambrose and Owens at commentary were amusing and this did a good job of incorporating the angle surrounding the match into the match itself. **3/4