June 2016

This year's King of DDT has produced some fun matches but this was really fun. Exactly what I wanted from an Ishikawa/Irie encounter. The build to the katahajime and the story that follows after Irie finally gets it locked in is great. Fun midsection work from Ishikawa supported by some great facials and selling from Irie. At one point, Ishikawa just lifts him up by his leg and boots him int he gut. And they hit each other hard. This match would feel right at home in BJW. The exhaustion of the finishing stretch played out so well. Easily my favorite DDT match of the year.

Fun match. These girls all have good offense while at the same time too broken down to do anything to workrate-y so there was no no-selling or annoying prideful screeching. I always pop for Kuragaki's Norton-ish power spots and her moonsault into outstretched legs looked savage. AKINO vs. Syuri section was pretty good and I like Akino's mix of kicks and cradles. Akino still can do some slick spots. Dug the bit where Kato and Akino took turns kicking Kuragaki in her face to cut the big woman down. Some sloppiness keeps it down.

This is Bito first time tagging with either Io or Hojo since her return. This is a surprisingly competitive match considering that you have some of Stardom top girls on one side taking on the B-team of the companies heel group, Oedo Tai. Hojo especially, does a really great job of putting over the offense of their opponents to make you believe that they have a chance, even when none of them have any real big offense. Very entertaining in an unexpected way. ***1/2

This was really neat. If you watch enough of CMLL (or any promotion or wrestler really) you'll eventually notice patterns in how matches are worked and structured. This started out with Rush jumping Volador Jr.. on the ramp and slamming him onto a wall about a minute into a match. That's CMLL signaling to me this is a match I'm going to like. What I really liked about this is that it felt Rush was even more out of control than usual and how little offence Volador got in. Usually Rush would throw a drink into someone's face once, here he did it like six times, he choked Volador with cables and a shirt, it was a joy to watch. I also popped for Puebla staff telling the guy t…

SHOOT STYLE LIVES! Kinda sort of. This was pretty shooty-pretty much a Battlarts/Futen match with pinfalls, and it was more HC than a lot of those. Loved Suzuki in control, he'd do these awesome details like hook Nomura's leg to remain in control and do the greatest small package in history (not really from the standpoint of milking it out from drama but the sheer proficiency in its execution), if there was ever a small package I would show to someone to convince them you could do it in a real fight it was here. There's also awesome stuff like Nomura attempting the Sakuraba stomps on Suzuki only for Suzuki to catch his leg, Suzuki Kneebarring Nomura and Nomura tring to sl…

As much as I love Rush and LA PARK I don't see them keeping up with the insane shit Hideki Suzuki and Nakanoue do to win the prestigious price of the coveted "best wrestling feud of 2016" in the coveted GOTNW awards™. Man. Why can't this be the norm in modern japanese wrestling? Guys start beating the shit out of each other as soon as they enter the ring and continue hating on each other and throwing shoot headbutts even after the match ends. So much happens here-Daichi puts on his best performance yet, he does this insane ninja kicks early on while they're brawling outside that's just insane, up there with this: in terms of powerful kicking images. And h…

I was excited to watch this since i saw a handheld with these two from last fall that was surprisingly good. Was not disappointed here as this turned out to be not just good but almost great. In fact, Bliss herself looked fantastic here. She has found her groove as a bitch heel and has added some really nasty offense. Carmella is still a bit of a work in progress. Her selling has become very good but she need to put together some offense, which is something she is working on. Overall, a couple of promising performances from a two women who don't really get any hype. ***1/2