January 2017

Main event of the first show of the year for BJW. Great big man strong style fight. Shuji Ishikawa was the MVP of Japanese indys last year and he started the year off with a great tag match. Sekimoto's head took a beating the whole match and finally popped and was left bleeding like a stuck pig at the end of the match. Above all else this match shows that if you just want to watch a good fight BJW is the place to go. This is definitely a must watch if your into strong style fights.

The Zayn that sells is much more interesting than the Zayn that does Half Nelson Chickenwing Suplexes and Michinoku Drivers, his grin before the match when Strowman's music was such a nice touch, Kevin Dunn did well. Strong performances by both men, Strowman's feats of strength were unique, looked great and Zayn bumped great for them, while the DDT counter was hardly the most original spot it was definitely well done as Braun just annihilated Zayn with a Forearm. The match had its limitations due to them adhering to a formula of "Braun dominates-Zayn reaches for a weapon-Braun fights off-repeat" in building the body of the match but it did play to both of their strengths …

This is the main event of Stardom first show of the year with the new tag champs, Hojo and Bito, taking on Io and her Queen's Quest partner HZK. The QQ duo control the early going with some effective bullying tactics, managing to cut off the ring on both Hojo and Bito at separate times. HZK looked solid working as a heel and was fine holding her own during the finish although she should try to develop her own shtick rather than aping Yoshiko. Io and Hojo carry the the finish of the match. The two of them continue to have fantastic chemistry together. A high quality main event to start off the year for Stardom. ***3/4

Saki Akai beat Miyu Yamashita with a bicycle kick. Man this was good. Akai is the newer version of Yumi Ohka and Yamashita reminds me of a young Chigusa. Both of these girls were really good here. This was all about the kicks and they had tons of nasty ones here. Akai's so lanky that the kicks look really good and Yamashita was really great as the fighting spirit underdog babyface. Akai is so good at working her gimmick and constantly knows how to use her cocky egoist queen persona and does a fabulous job with it. Absolutely loved this and this made the 90 minutes of crap before it almost worthwhile. Go see this match as while these girls do have a few years of wrestling …

DDT Tokyo Joshi Puroresu - 1/4/17 - Yuu vs Shoko Nakajima Full review here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/ddt-tokyo-joshi-puroresu-142017.html Yuu beat Shoko Nakajima with a Last Ride Powerbomb. Excelllent match. Yuu was a total beast here just violently throwing Shoko around and slamming her down. When she throws someone, she throws them then she slams then and it's awesome. Shoko was working as your spunky face here trying to do dropkicks and flying moves to counter beast before failing. Shoko hit the best Northern Lights Suplex I've ever seen and she showed a lot of good babyface fire. Both these girls are legit and while the match was slow in the first few…

Here's your Ring of Honor title match sandwiched on the Wrestle Kingdom card. Initially watching this spoiler-free the morning of the show, it had heightened dramatics given the O'Reilly contract situation. So that story was the elephant in the ring throughout. I realize I'm high man on this one, but I really liked Cole here and thought this was an exceptionally sound, good match and a contrast to their match at Final Battle, which was centered around hardcore/No DQ stuff. Cole hits a couple finishers and wins this one clean as a sheet. ***1/2

This was fine but nothing special, much like everything Cody Rhodes has even done. There was no way he was going to live up to the video package New Japan made for him, his acting was just so shit in this match, he's back to playing an evil genius from a cartoon, it just might be worse than Stardust. Kinda feel bad for Juice as he did look good here, I enjyoed his offence, guy probably could've had a three star match versus Nakanishi, instead he was forced to sell for Cody Rhode's Springboard Enzuigiri that misses by a foot. The Crossbody countered into a leglock was a cool spot that popped me for sheer novelty. An endless whirlpool of twenty second control segments and a…

I was excited to hear this was worked differently than their usual matches but after watching it I don't think that was such a good idea after all. In the typical Shibata/Goto match you'd get 1-2 no-sell sequences, usually one in the middle of a match and one to tease a double KO since that's how one of their matches finished, but here it was just non-stop. I quite liked the opening and how Shibata dominated, his headlock escape was lovely, but the terrible no-sell sequence in which Goto came back to control turned me off big time (seriously. he didn't even bother selling Shibata's corners Forearms by falling down to convince you Shibata could hit his corner dropkick, whi…

I certainly had no plans to watch this, but I figure someone at SC should weigh in on the canonized best match in wrestling history before we go back to reviewing Black Terry Jr. HH's or Tamon Honda matches. I am really burned out on both long matches and 2010s style CrossFit wrestling, so two guys doing the ultimate CrossFit endurance match for 45 minutes wasn't going to do it for me. By CrossFit style, I mean a wrestling match where it seems like the goal is to pound out one more set of kettlebells to show how tough you are, rather then any sort of sensible progression or story, every match is a show of endurance. It is what Volador is doing in CMLL, Seth Rollins in t…

Mildly disappointed by this. I've been pretty high on Hiromu and said it looks like he's going to be the best junior New Japan's dojo has produced since Kanemoto. I might have spoken too early there. It's not like KUSHIDA's been lighting the world on fire but this match really should have been beter than it was. I was very intrigued by the beginning, where KUSHIDA cut-off Hiromu's sneak attack. That's a very unusual choice-one I off the top of my head don't remember seeing before. The whole point of the sneak attack is that the surprise element knocks the other wrestler goofy, and once you challenge conventions I'm expecting you to bring something interesting to the table…

Decided to watch this since last year's was mindless fun and this year's didn't do as much for me. No Fujiwara was a big blow, and it's pretty funny that the year they have Elgin win it they bring in two 50 year old american wrestlers whom both look bigger than him. Him working hope spots with Cheeseburger by having Cheeseburger do Superkicks and other *moves* was pretty cringeworthy, with how both of them are presented it just goes to show how little creativity Elgin has that he can only create drama through parity. I got a kick out of Hiro Saito being there and Kuniaki Kobayashi trying to do junior sequences with Liger but this match isn't something anyone needs to see.…

The thing about the rope running counters are that they aren't inherently bad-they worked great in 80s/90s All Japan-but you need moves and peril behind them. Naito and Tanahashi did have them-Naito in the Running Low Dropkicks and the Flying Elbow, Tanahashi in the Slingblade. But they opted to not use them for dramatic purposes, and that and the lack of big moves and spamming nearfalls is what made me go "that's it?" when the match ended. I realise these two are never going to do it for some people since they're Keiji Mutoh fanboys and their offence is juniorish in a way some dislike, but I think they structured a very good match that combined the best elements of the m…

In which wrestling is but a live action version of an anime fight. Pretty standard junior match with them exchanging control segments throughout. Ibushi's athleticism is absolutely breathtaking, one has to admire how he he kept his balance on the top rope during the Triangle Moonsault dive and the speed with which he snapped his hips on the German Suplex. Some might be bothered by a one time only character having their finisher kicked out of and Ibushi doing a Tiger Suplex for a nearfall in the opening match of the normal show but it didn't bother me, the match was short and the its "finishing stretch" reflected the length of the match. My favourite version of Ibushi is t…

A bit of a divisive match ratings-wise. There's a narrative out there that if you understood the Rocky/Beretta internal story about how Rocky couldn't get the job done, then the match is four stars - otherwise its 3 and 1/4. I completely see that story, and Rocky gets some big kickouts while Trent is KO'd outside after a missed dive. But Beretta comes back into the match, and RPG wins on a fluke roll-up. I'm all for weaving some fantastic story into the action, but this never reached the pre-described fairy tale. It was what it was (and I dug the springboard destroyer by the Bucks early) - a ***1/4 match.

First two falls aren't much, like usual, but I loved how Cavernario no sold the superkick, it was especially effective because the move itself looked pretty bad, but also it totally seems like something he would do. They really get going on the tercera, both have very nice topes and the match never devolves into your-move-nearfall-my-move-nearfall stuff you are bound to see in this kind of matches. The comparison with the Volador/Mephisto match that happened on the same show is very accurate; here the momentum changes with smart transitions like Cometa reversing the move Cavernario used to win the first fall and they are not afraid of laying some strikes between the big m…

This is a crisp, paint-by-numbers escalating match, that is easy to follow and really, really good. Ultimo's entrance is interrupted and they waste no time fighting. He goes for Valiente's mask and actually rips it, so the heat is established if you're new to both guys. The first two falls are based around quick submissions, but I liked the counter Ultimo used in caida dos to apply his. Made sense, where sometimes those can seem out of nowhere. Valiente (42) and Ultimo (44) are nearly flawless in execution here and Valiente is flying all over the place (he hit a rana early in the match off the top rope that is picture-perfect). Really snug topes and in turn Ultimo hit…

Shout-out to the guy who dabs when the camera cuts to him early in the match. If you like Kevin Dunn-esque quick cuts to the crowd after every move or referee count, CMLL is your wheelhouse. This is a pretty darn good Volador Jr. performance, at times seemingly wrestling himself as Mephisto doesn't do a whole lot. Big raised double underhook facebuster by Mephisto for the quick first fall. There's a nice escalation there when he hits that off the top rope for one of the only decent near falls in the third stanza. Superkick->backstabber for Volador even things up before we head into the referee-count heavy final caida. Volador is expectedly flying all over the place…

Goddamn, what a super fun, great match! They packed lots of action into the 14 minutes they went here: you got Lashley as the arrogant, cocky, monster heel & Davey as the fired up babyface who was all about busting out all the big bombs in his arsenal in order to stop the big bad Lashley. Lashley dominated most of it as expected, while Davey got to get his big shit in, some crazy looking suicide dives & that stupid superplex into a suplex (only negative thing about the match) + he also did some brief work over Lashley's leg - which Lashley sold like an absolute champ. What an awesome match. **** Definitely wouldn't have expected this from Davey Richards vs. Bobby…

1/7/17 Styles Clash Fred Yehi vs Anthony Henry 4 1/4* I really liked this match, and if it was in a different enviroment I would have probably rated it higher. I really liked the mat work early. Both guys did a great job of being s selling and putting over the strikes and moves. Yehi working at least 5 different ways to stomp a hand or hamstring was really masterful. They did this suplex exchange that I wasn't a fan of. I liked the build and the escalation in this. The work was basic but gritty, and got me invested. Going 30 minutes with the champ also helps Henry. So we got a great match, and established Henry in the promotion. When you establish things like wins…

This is a fun six-man that main-evented this show. While Queen's Quest came out with their newly won Artist titles, they weren't on the line here. QQ take control in the early going over Kyona and do a good job of working her over. The match really picks up after Iwatani tags in as she has a couple of great exchanges with Io and Momo. They work in a couple of nice car-wreck spots before QQ cut off Kyona and finish her off for the win. ***1/2

I heard Kotoge had become a heavyweight, and this was one of the first if not the first match he'd had as one, and it's been like two years since I saw a match of his so I was interested to see what it would look like. It was not good. A really terrible structured 25 minute match is not a pretty sight. There was something resembling a narrative with Kotoge using rope pulling, drop toe holds, running attacks and so on while the bigger Shiozaki could get back in control by just chopping him once, but there were so many transitions here that none of them mattered (not that they were creative or really good on their own). Really dry, dull control segments with two guys just g…

I thought about watching 2000 All Japan next but saw this was the next match on the show, and thought you know what, it doesn't even matter if it's good or not, I've already seen most of the All Japan matches anyway and have pretty much made up my mind on all the workers there, this is a match I would've lost my shit for in 2011, let's see how it turned out. And-it turns out it was good, and when you have a good match even a 2017 NOAH crowd will react. Some gauging at the start, one of those quick sequences where wrestlers counter each other's signature moves and then about 16 minutes of strike/kick exchanges, mirror spots and everything that made me love this genre 5 or …

This is Chihiro's second defense of the Sendai Girls title and also a rematch of one of her first big singles matches that happened a year to this day. I loved how Aja worked the early part of this match. She always seemed to have a smart little counter to everything that Chihiro would try. Story-wise, this match tells the vet/rookie matchup a lot better than Chihiro's title win over Meiko Satomura. You get the feeling that if this was prime Aja, she would have chewed up Chihiro and spit her out. But at the same time, when Chihiro goes on her big run, you can see Aja relying on her wits and experience to survive. A smart, well crafted match. ****1/4

An early WWE TV MOTYC for 2017 - The Revival & DIY showcased their excellent chemistry once again in this banger. As always, Revival's sneaky heel tactics ruled, the leg work was awesome & Johnny Gargano was at it again with that excellent selling of his. Then the ending was like cherry on top - the visual of Dash & Dawson hugging each other before getting killed by Gargano & Ciampa was pretty epic. Absolutely not on the same level as their 2 classics from 2016 - but it didn't need to be. Great match. ****

So here we have Kyle O'Reilly's first match post ROH, a surprise opponent for the ECCW champ in his hometown (and old home promotion). These guys have some history in looking through Google (and YouTube), going back 7 or so years. I thought O'Reilly looked on another level here, and admittedly he probably is. He brought the same strikes and selling that he usually does and I didn't think El P could come close to matching. First 6 minutes is O'Reilly working him over, which is then completely written off for the rest of the match as they transition outside. O'Reilly gets thrown around, the crowd is actually pretty much behind El P despite the surprise. We get two dives fro…