May 2016

This was a fun squash, one of the Colons busted out a cool take on the tired three suplex combination that he finished off with a Brainbuster which I don't has been done in WWE since like.......Kid Kash was Cruiserweight Champion. Everything they did looked snug, they may not be over but so what, neither is Sheamus and look at all the ridiculous narrative creation that's happened with him. I am totally on board with them turning into the Un-Americans in a month or two.

I wonder if Miz could've carried Steenerico to a great tag match like The Briscoes and Super Dragon did if this were a normal tag and not parejas increibles. I loved the way Miz cheapshoted Zayn off a Maryse distraction and him and Cesaro were way interesting at playing feuding partners than Zayn and Owens. Nice to see a novel concept executed well on Raw. Do wish Cesaro interrupted Miz's Giant Swing attempt a few moments later so we'd have gotten to see him fail but oh well, what can you do. **3/4

This is a match from the block stage of WAVE's Catch the WAVE tournament that also builds off of the rivalry that the two have had in Ice Ribbon. This is quite the sprint. Also, it has a bit of a reverse on the vet/rookie dynamic in the early going, as it Yuuka who keeps hitting the big offense while Ohata is the one who has to keep going for rollups to survive. When Ohata does start getting her big moves in Yuuka doesn't have an answer for it, eventually getting the win with a unique tiger/pumphandle suplex for the win. A whirlwind of a match. ***3/4

Bayley's first TV match since losing the NXT Women's Title to Asuka is a rematch from December. Nia Jax looked a lot better here than she did in that match. She looked much more confident in the ring and as a result, came off as a far more convincing monster. I really liked how she countered Bayley's various sleeper attempts by simply flinging Bayley off of her. Finish was interesting as they went with a freak knee injury leading to the finish even though Jax was in control for most of the match. Very strong performances from both women. ****

This was pretty great. I love chaotic trios brawls and this was a neat take on that, everyone brough it. Rush is of course a great dick and was a great leading rudo, Pierroth gets a lot of criticisms thrown his way but he seems to be really good at hitting people and that's all I could ask for. Escorpion was awesome at cutting people off, Terrible is a guy you always want to have in this kind of match, he throws a great looking punch. I haven't really had an opinion on La Mascara other than that he's associated with wrestlers I like but he was pretty good here, I liked how he tried to fight back when Pierroth and Rey Escorpion would hold him down instead of just taking it…

There were two Chris Hero performances in this match. The first one was great. I really liked the beginning with Cobb throwing Hero around and Hero did a great job of cutting him off, first with a big boot when Cobb dared him to shoulder block him, then with a surprise punch when Cobb was on offence and then again with a big boot after Cobb did a backflip to show off. The second one was dogshit. I can get beihind Cobb no selling a Piledriver beccause he is a monster with no neck, Hero no selling an amazing looking German Suplex only to go back onto offence was pure trash. Then he did it AGAIN, only this time it was after like five suplexes. And speaking of them-I can acce…

Fun match. Lots of PWG matches feel like they go too fast, it's just ZOOM ZOOM from start till the finish. This one wasn't like that, though it felt like some of it was more due to awkwardness and unfamiliarity than it being planned out-Elgin's elevated stunner looked terrible and Kamaitachi's apron dropkick didn't connect properly. What I like about Kamaitachi is that, despite esentially being a workrate junior there are elements of the wrestling I love in his work. There were some fun spots here based on Elgin overpowering him or catching him in mid air and what I liked about the faux fighting spirit strike exchange I usually loathe in a PWG match is that Kamaitachi kep…

Very good match. D-Hash has grown to the point where this isn't a total squash but he still has no chance of winning (though with how unselfishly Akiyama books himself he'll get there in about six months). Akiyama's willingness to express peril often carries his strike exchanges against younger opponents and it was similar here. In particular him wobbling after a Daichi elbow turned what could've been a dull sequence into an interesting and meaningful one. What really stood out here is the way Akiyama utilized his knees, using variations he'd never used before to stay in control. All of his attacks were brutal, and structurally it was what it should've been but I felt it …

This was a fine rookie punishment match. Nomura was ok but his comebacks were quite predictable and not nearly as interesting as Sai dominating him and cutting him off with brutal kicks. It's probably for the best his offence is limited to running forearms right now but it doesn't make for exciting viewing when they're pulled into the generic "rookie bounces off the ropes a couple of times before taking the veteran down" spots. **3/4

I wouldn't really be interested in creating a thread for this or even talking about it if it was just some match between two backyarders, but it's two former WWE guys (or at least one. apparently the real clown wrestler is dead) so...I guess that kind of justifies my interest in it for me? This was a master class in terrible wrestling-everything you could hope for from a low brow indy. Two old guys that have no interest in taking bumps and seriously working having a falls count anywhere brawl in some random place in Alabama, which included them crossing the highway, a Hiptoss into bushes and them slamming each other into a truck. Heidenreich's 2016 babyface character use…

I roll my eye whenever a japanese commentator talks about how O'Reilly is a shooter or how he works "UWFi style" but him and KUSHIDA mesh really well and are way better at working Minoru Tanaka style matches than the actual Minoru Tanaka. Lots of nice flashy faux shoot junior matwork here with some insane counters. Limbwork was entertaining and both of these guys won't forget to sell but the selling itself is very much surface level with not a lot of depth to it. O'Reilly's Rebound Lariat might be as bad as Ambrose's, which is saying a lot, but otherwise this was really fun. ***1/2

This is the final of a one night tournament to crown the first Stardom World Alliance champion. This starts off with some good back and forth matwork with Storm eventually taking over with some power offense. She does work a bit like Emma in that she doesn't do anything really flashy but everything hits well and looks good. One aspect of Io's work that doesn't get talked about is how deceptively simple her work, that's not something that you wouldn't associate with a joshi high-flyer. Overall, a really good main event. ***3/4

This is a very fun, U.S. style tag match. The Owens twins are both solid here and do a good job of playing heels. Both of the Stardom women play good babyfaces. Timing their comebacks well and doing a strong job of keeping the crowd into the match the whole time. Entertaining stuff. ***1/2

This match is held in a pub in London and my favourite thing about this match is that they use the environment that they are in to great effect. It gives the match a different feel as it feels more like a movie/TV bar fight with pro wrestling highspots. The match isn't very long but the way that they both throw out quite a few big spots to make it action packed. ***1/2

I loved the early battle of strength vs speed and how AJ adapted to Reigns' offence. I preferred the way the Payback match was paced and I wasn't really big on the crowd brawling in this one which is why I think the Payback match was better. The stuff with the pre-show panel table felt novel but I don't think it was worth the time they gave that segment. Sealing the Styles Clash for the last two months was probably the best thing they could have done and they did a great job building to it here too, I loved Reigns' Uppercut counter to it. Reigns' leg injury angle wasn't overly significant in the whole scheme of the match but it did provide a valid excuse for him to sell a…

Ziggler is such a dork he started the match off with a worked shoot headbutt that didn't look good. I've noticed the sternum bump in the corner has been used a lot more recently. Corbin has a great punch and I won't have to hear about how this was some great important match in a DVD ten years from now so it's automatically better than the Triple H-Ziggler match. Still Ziggler is pretty bad, going for moves he never does to set up a seguence to his DDT that looked worse than usual, randomly selling to no effect and so on. Enjoyed the finish with Corbin punching Ziggler in the nuts and then going over him but I am ready for him to move on, they should feed Zayn to him next.…

Bad match. Natalya doesn't know how to work and even though I often criticize Charlotte for her subpar acting Natalya's here makes her look like Choshu. She was abysmal. I liked Charlotte's Suplex onto the ropes, her trying to counter the Sharpshooter by climging the ropes, her back elbow/big boot combo and her chops look good, but all in all this was just a heatless mess. They just went through a bunch of submissions no one cared about or bought as potential finishes and didn't do anything to build to them or make them seem like important once they were applied. *1/2

If you've read enough of my reviews you know my takes on matches can be quite unique. I didn't think this was a worst WWE match ever candidate. I didn't think it sucked. Didn't hate it. Now I didn't think it was great either-but I'd like to explain my position first. As a serious worker in 2016 Jericho is pretty terrible. Ambrose isn't much better, but at least I think he has some skills that can be used in certain match types against the right opponent even if I think 80% of his output is pure trash. They wrestled a serious wrestling match on Payback and it sucked. It was boring, dull and completely uninteresting. This match was a trainwreck. I'm open to liking trainwrec…

I had pretty high expectations for this but they could've done better. A lot of good ideas, and plenty worked (Rusev's Bearhug was amazing for instance-so refreshing to see it instead of boring chinlocks) but then you got stuff like a Torture Rack, the world's most stupid move being used in 2016 and Rusev overselling Kalisto's terrible Sleeper. Kalisto's apron bump was insane and the Camel Clutch variation Rusev used to finish him off was completely "is this even possible" next level awesome. Hope they get a proper rematch that gets time. ***-***1/4

Good match, I liked a lot of the stuff they did like the elbow smashes Usos pulled out and how Gallows would counter The Usos' offence when they'd take too much time to set them up. Still you had weird pauses between the moves and sequences like this were a Triple H match which wasn't really fitting for a Tornado Tag which you'd expect to be this non-stop action filled chaotic adrenaline rush. ***

Hate to ruin the fun but this didn't do much for me. Still felt very much like a generic WWE four way just with a better workrate and the overreliance on cheap props to produce drama isn't really my thing in 2016. I liked the finish with Miz getting the pin out of nowhere but when you have stuff like Zayn rolling on the floor asking the ref if it was two instead of going for the pin himself after just breaking up someone else's finisher>pin, Cesaro just staring at Owens while he climbed on the rope and so on it's not the type of stuff I'm going to love. I've seen Cesaro drag Miz into the ring when she tried to save him before, I've seen the tower of doom spots, I've se…

This was fun. I had some structural problems with it and the pacing threw me off (too many times where they were just wandering around setting up the next spot, disliked the ringside brawling) but I enjoyed it thoroughly and it had an exciting finish which didn't go overboard with the kick-outs and ended when it should have. ***1/4

Powerbomb.TV delivers with this barrel of fun 3 way dance. Janela gets a great heel reaction from me by turning a singles match into a 3-way, always my least favorite booking move, but bumps his way into my heart, with a missed top rope senton on the ring apron which looked chiropractic. The low celling was clearly fucking up his flying, but outside of that 2 Cold looked awesome, he is wrestling like an athletic Gypsy Joe at this point, as he mixes in shoot punches and chops with great looking flip kicks right into faces. I really enjoyed all of the karate sparring face offs with Bailey early, and Scorp isn't afraid to take a shooting star kneedrop right to his kidneys. T…

Am I blind? How is there not a thread for this match. I feel like this is the most famous match from 2016. Ricochet vs Will Ospreay - NJPW 5/27/16 Dragon Lee, Kamaitachi don't be bringing that shit in my house! This is the real, good shit. I am of the opinion is much, much harder to have a great spotfest than it is a traditional pro wrestling match. The traditional structure of shine-heat-comeback-finish is an almost bulletproof formula. When you do decide to freestyle it, man you better be fucking good. These two are really good. In my opinion, the issue that modern wrestling faces is that the wrestlers are being torn in two directions. On one hand, they …

A pretty cool match that I had already seen last year on British Wrestling Weekly and that I rewatched today. This is Sami Callihan shortly after his requested release from NXT and you can see the fire in him right from the get-go. I always thought that Mark Haskins was one helluva worker on the British scene, probably the most underrated and overlooked because of all the great British guys that popped up lately. Some really fun sequences in this one, particularly towards the end where Mark Haskins particularly shines. I don't know if I'm the only one but I kinda feel a Steve Corino vibe with Haskins' body of work. That's a plus in my book.