December 2016

I really loved their 2/24 match and this felt like the perfect companion piece. It don't know if it was necessarily a superior match, because Nakajima is playing a much different role here, but I think it worked as a closing chapter. Nakajima is no longer the spunky, baby-faced underdog, but at the top of the promotion and full of confidence. The legwork here wasn't quite as central to the story as the 2/24 match but Suzuki's focus was on point and I liked him jumping (literally) at the opportunity to attack the leg. Both guys sold very well and there was a good callback to their previous match when Nakajima high kicks Suzuki in the head, seemingly KO'ing, and he can't ev…

This is one of Gulak's final matches on the indys before taking off and being with the WWE full time. He mentions in a promo before the match he was asked some weeks ago who he wanted to face on his final run on the indys before he took of so they could try to put those matches together and Quack was the second opponent on that list. The match itself is fantastic. They develop a teacher vs. student story throughout the match with Gulak's more gritty grappling vs. Quack's more flashy faux WoS grappling. They start off with a great double knuckle lockup and there's a bit where Gulak tries to trip Quack, but Quack is smart enough to see it coming and counters it by moving ba…

Imposible is one of my favorite indie guys in lucha, I don't think I ever seen Relampago before, but if it's a singles with Imposible, I don't care. Relampago jumps the champion on the stairs giving him no time to breath, tossing chairs onto his head, ripping up his mask, standard stuff, but it works really well. When they hit the ring, Relampago quickly opens the cut on Imposible's forehead and wins the fall (botching a moonsault, of course). The second fall is more lengthy than usual (if you are used to modern CMLL, it's a breath of fresh air) and after a few minutes, Imposible achieves his comeback. And it's great. And brutal. He goes on a rampage, throws a chair …

This was a great main event to close what was otherwise a pretty mediocre show. The storyline going in is mainly revolving around the rivalry between Mayu Iwatani and Io Shirai. Mayu is on a losing streak against her and Io recently dumped her as a tag-team partner and started her own faction Queens Quest who she's tagging with here. Match starts hot as Mayu dropkicks Io straight after she does her post-announcer pose and the match breaks down into a brawl on the outside with Mayu pretty decisively getting the worse of it getting thrown into the fans. HZK (Io's new 18 year old sidekick) has probably her best performance to date in this match showing real meanness …

Tables Match for the SD Women's Title As I mentioned re their SD Live match in November, these two bring a lot of intensity. It's not Asuka levels of violence, but they're definitely operating at a higher level. These two aren't going to be meeting in the middle of the ring and hugging it out afterwards. There's one moment when Becky gets DDT'd onto the edge of a flipped over table. (Bliss's shoulders hit the table's edge, too.) It's a cool-looking but potentially nasty bump (20 years ago, it would have been an excellent moment for a bladejob, actually). The camera zooms in, just as you hear one of them say "I'm okay". I had to rewind and listen again to make sur…

I really enjoyed this, it felt like the worlds greatest Sabu v. Brian Lee match. If someone told you they found an awesome Sabu v. Brian Lee ECW HH on Youtube, you would want to go watch that right? Corbin was pretty great in this, I liked some of his early squashes, but I wasn't sure he had a actually match this good in him. Maybe my favorite spot of the match was him pinning Kalisto's head against the barricade and smashing it with forearms, it felt like the kind of thing Finlay or Ikeda might do. I also loved him stalking Kalisto around the ring trying to squash him with chair shots. Kalisto hit all of his big spots cleanly and they were high risk crazy stuff, it was a…

This is one of Uto's better singles matches. It helps that Okabayashi works really well with the young guys, giving them plenty of offense and always selling well. A very simple but well-executed match. The opening is your standard hoss smash-and-chop but once Uto sends Okabayashi to the outside and Yuji lariats the ringpost, Uto makes Yuji work hard to get back on top. He works the arm and uses the injury to his advantage to squash Yuji's momentum builds. They bounce off each other with lariats but Yuji isn't using his strong arm so Uto is able to take him down with a reverse armbar. Loved the finish, with Uto booting the injured arm of Yuji on the lariat attempt, forci…

While the NEXTREAM lads will eventually go on to big things, at the moment they are the clear underdogs here and still have no points in the RWTL as the B-squad; and they know it, immediately attacking the two vets before the match to try to get the advantage and trying for early roll-ups. This is essentially a sprint as Kashin and Akiyama go as humanly fast as possible here: one second Kashin is choking someone out, the next Akiyama is firing a knee shot from the apron on Aoyagi's poor back, very blink and you'll miss it stuff. Aoyagi gets worked over by the pair as they just beat him down with shots and make sure he can't tag out by dragging him back and isolating the r…

A match for the trios title. The match goes outside the ring early on. Sasaki starts attacking people with a crutch. Takanashi sold the subsequent beatdown really well. KUDO and Sakaguchi are the nominally better wrestlers in Shuten Doji but the best in this match is really Takanashi. It's amazing how often you get the sense that he just narrowly escaped a pinfall by outsmarting DAMNATION. Mad Paulie is good in this too, he no sells everything (he always does, it's cool) but he's a good stooge for Takanashi in this. The finish is great because it's so surprising but it still makes sense for the people involved, as Takanashi rolls up Sasaki and the crowd loses it. I guess …

Class tag team roles and formula here. The Batiri are looking are undersized babyfaces who are a regular tag team looking for revenge vs. two guys who regularly tag, but also do more singles stuff. Tag team babyface fire to start, eventually the Legion of Rot (pretty cool name tbh) work over Obariyon and really build to the big hot tag. Hallowicked cuts this off a couple times, casually strolling over to the opponents corner to pull him off the ropes, and then back to more heat. Crowd is totally into this. Finally Kodama sees him coming and kicks him away to make the tag and we get a good sequence which sees both Hallowicked and Frightmare have to make saves on pin attemp…

This is a sneaky really good match. First, unlike many CHIKARA matches, these guys use stiff strikes, including a nice punch from Lobster early with sends Ophidian down. Ophidian is real crisp here - corkscrew enziguri with a lot of spin, big double knees. There's a reversal of the ropes where he goes from a wheelbarrow into a big facebuster. Really solid offense. And Rock Lobster is game - couple unique things from him. He reverses rolling over Ophidian's back and to the outside by spinning back and hitting a sweet arm drag. He hits a bulldog through the ropes to the outside, stunning Ophidian. They tease the big dive to the outside about three times, which all plays int…

For the Grand Chikara Championship. The entire show is built around Mr. Touchdown looking to prove himself after the events of season 16. He works a very good babyface match here. He looks to be in control but jams his knee, which Hallowicked works over for the rest of the match. TD still gets in his big power stuff, and Hallowicked gets a big kickout of his finisher, before ending TD's valiant attempt with his really sweet cradle DDT finish. TD sells the knee even harder post-match, which is a nice touch from a guy posing as a pro athlete. The adrenaline was fleeting and it started to lock up after he fought through on it for so long. This was a very good main event. ***…

Really good, borderline great match. All 4 guys looked great, especially Hero who was great as usual, and then Bobby Fish who was really great here too. It went almost 30 minutes, but it never felt like a long match, and that was something I was afraid about when I read how long it went, but these 27 minutes were very enjoyable as Fish, O'Reilly, Hero & Dunn beat the crap out of each other w/ their great looking offense. ***3/4

An absolutely great way to kick off Mystery Vortex IV. This was really good - they told a good story of Trent wanting to win, but not having the heart to put Candice away at times - and that ended up almost costing him the match. Really good work on top by Trent, really good work from underneath by Candice. Both were on point & produced a high energy, fun, really good match. ***1/2

This was a blast. Easily the best looking match on the card, and it delivered big time. Started off with Riddle & Cobb making Bucks their fools by throwing them around and striking the crap out of them + Riddle also busted out some real nice submissions. Then Bucks got the advantage by their tag tactics, which was something I really liked because they obviously are way more experienced as a team. It made perfect sense. The transition was done super well. Matt Riddle was a really good FIP, and Cobb was a tremendous hot tag; loved him just throwing Bucks around. From then on, the match kicked into the finishing gear, and it was as awesome as you'd expect. Amazing, amazi…

5 minutes into the show. This was a really fun match. We get a real struggle at the start. Both guys battling for control. Walker is a smart worker here. He's great on top. Giving Andrews all these openings to go after the arm. Which turns into the story of the match. Walker throws a nasty looking knee. I feel Rex Andrews is a guy who has a real upside . Walker was the glue with his selling, and making the most out of moments. 3 1/2*

One of my favorite Japanese tag matches of the year but perhaps more importantly, it served as a great plaform for Nomura to showcase what he's learned over the past year. His selling was fantastic for his experience level, from his facials to the desperation in his strikes. He does a lot of little things in his matches that guys who have been wrestling 10-15 years still don't get. Suzuki rules. One of things I love about Suzuki, and it showed in his early exchange with Ishikawa, is the way he's continually moving, not allowing Ishikawa a solid grip, but shifting around and feeling for a weakness or an opening. Twin Towers are the best bully tag team in Japan and Nomura …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVWwt59rns This is a special challenge match as it is one of the last matches that Nakajima will have while she is part of the JWP roster as she is going freelance in the new year. I have to say that the matwork in this match is amazing. Bolshoi is quite at the level of Mariko Yoshida but she's good enough at times to make you actually think that she might be. There are several points throughout the match where Bolshoi just seems to be one step, sometimes two, ahead of Arisa. There are a few moments where Nakajima's only option is to simply slug her way out of trouble. Nakajima's selling also really puts over the matwork to give it som…

We start with OI4K's entrance and it's nothing special, leading us to the Ugly Ducklings making their way out. Coach Mikey (team manager) is dressed like an elf since 'tis the season, and riles up the crowd to quack for Colby Corino...who couldn't make it but quickly shows up anyway. No drama, just a brief "he couldn't make it but it's time for miracles." What do ya know, out comes Colby. Possibly stoned. The Crists dive out and it's Sami Callihan/Rob Killjoy for a moment but a Death Valley Bomb makes it just Sami. Lance Lude in to take Sami out with tilt-a-whirl heasscissors. Dave Crist with a crossbody to Lude and then Colby takes him out with a springboard gamengi…

This is the rematch of the close title match that these two had in May. The big difference here is that Io turned on her Thunder Rock partner Mayu and switched the competitive teacher/student rivalry into something more bitter. I really liked the approach that both took out of the gate. Iwatani tries to be the aggressor by trying to hit some big offense early. Io takes a more methodical approach, looking to try take Mayu down to grind on her in an effort to slow her down. Io's leg work was really good but unfortunately Iwatani was very selective on how she sold it. This does eventually turn into a bombfest, with Io always seeming to be either just smart or just tough enou…

A really good **** contest with Ultimo Guerrero leading the way. One blow away spot is UG catching Caristico off a dive and power bombing him on the floor. All falls get time and it builds to a hot end.

The children of Kensuke Sasaki are keeping the tradition of meathead battles alive. I am so glad that in this age of flash and GIFs someone is doing a Masa Saito tribute gimmick, Kitamiya may not be able to do the Omaga/Okada feats of athleticism and do Moonsaults over the guardrail but he has really good basics. So many wrestlers these days don't know how to stomp, kick a lag or throw a bodyslam, all things Kitamiya is great at. Even his legwork was badass. They built a smart match with a beginning, middle and end and a clear trajectory. If there was a criticism I could point at the match it's that shaving a couple of minutes would've made it even better, because it seem…

There were some good moments here but a lot of things took me out of this match. I mean, this has literally four different forearm exchanges. I'd still say Irie's performance on this is very good. He really sells the frustration of being unable to put HARASHIMA away. At one point, he single-handedly saves a strike exchange on the apron (lol). The referee was counting them out as they traded forearms, and Irie steps through the ropes, shoves the ref and goes back outside to give Hara a piledriver. That was a cool little moment. There are some good near-falls. I also really like HARASHIMA as the nigh-unbeatable ace, but he can have bad big matches (against Tanahashi, Irie, …

Hard Hit misses a lot but it's fun to see Hideki show up. He's just so much bigger than most of his opponents and while Matsumoto gets in a couple of neat takedowns and reversals, this is mostly Suzuki dominating the mat and submitting him with the double arm suplex hold. Fun stuff but Matsumoto didn't look like he was trying too hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAivOpmbCRc&t=133s This is a semi-final of the tournament for the ICEx Infinity title that was vacated after these two went to a draw at their last match on 11/3. They work at a very quick pace right off the start and get a couple of really nice nearfalls off of rollups. Other than a short crowd brawling section that they seemed to only do to setup a dive, the match stays in the ring with a steady back and forth. In fact, you could almost look at the entire match as an extended finishing run. While this has its pluses and minuses, this two can work a pretty exciting finishing run which leads to a highly entertaining match. ***3/4