February 2017

Yet another fantastic Trevor Lee title defense! Can't say that I am surprised. The first third of the match featured some fun, easy to watch action, nothing spectacular, but really good stuff. Once Smith Garrett got eliminated things got really damn great w/ Trevor Lee having fantastic interactions with Cain Justice & ESPECIALLY Chip Day - they just kicked the shit out of each other. That's when the match solidified itself in being ****+ to me. Loved how Trevor & Chip worked together to eliminate the bigger man in Otto Schwanz too. The storytelling throughout w/ Trevor wanting to be in there as much as he could, and only being out of the match when he was being th…

A fantastic brawl full of hate. You could feel Allin's hatred towards Mr. All Ego, he really sold the idea of this grudge match super well. The stuff w/ the handcuffs were awesome - loved Darby's comeback with them on, creative & great stuff. He looked really damn good in defeat. ****

Much like the match Keith Lee had vs. Zack Sabre Jr the night before, this was a tremendous David vs. Goliath battle. Keith Lee continued his streak of great performances - just love him do his work on top. He's tremendous at that. Hot Sauce was great as the fiery hard hitting babyface working from underneath. Great match. ****

One of those matches where everything from the entrances to the finish seem to go perfect. The introductions, the crowd (seriously the loudest I've EVER heard EVOLVE crowd be) & the masterful in ring work of two of the best in the world in Thatcher & ZSJ. Absolutely loved how Thatcher finally fully embraced the dark side w/ his cocky antics & amazing facial expressions. A perfect performance by the man. The mat work, the sense of urgency, the drama, the strikes - everything about this just worked. Hats off to both guys. ****3/4

This is for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. BODYGAA is over in this, to the point that at first he's portrayed not that differently from an underdog fighting from underneath and Kento is doing the dastardly work of a body part (in this case, the neck). The match itself, while not being anything special, is enjoyable because both performers give the sense of urgency a title match needs, and because the crowd is into this the whole way. Kento show much more emotion than Okada usually does. I wonder if they met in their careers, or if they ever will. Bodyguard is charismatic as fuck - considering he's best buds with ZEUS, that isn't a surprise. *** 1/2

AJPW is definitely grooming Iwamoto to be the ace of the junior division and aside from the dead Osaka crowd, this was a star-making performance from him. The legwork was engaging, Iwamoto stepped up his selling from the previous match-up against Aoki, and the set-up to the triangle hold played out well, with Sato going back to the leg in times of need. I like that the judo throw is used as a real game changer, I thought Iwamoto's finishing run made him look really strong. Loved the repeat headbutts into the corner German suplex spot, and the way he slams Sato down with that second judo throw and tightens the triangle choke to force the ref's decision. This could've benef…

This absolutely ruled and was before intermission (!) even. Everyone was fired up and refreshed here - light on comedy and big on double team moves and the Bucks getting pulverized. Perfect booking also - this is a must-watch. ****1/4

I don't if it is because of the break between shows, or that there are a bunch of refreshed faces of the show, or that it's just because the Bullet Club feels new after their hiatus, but these guys were moving way faster (imo) than your standard 4x4 house show tag. This had some spirit to it. The crux here is to pump up YOSHI-HASHI for this ROH title match the next night. One of my favorite multi-mans they've done this year. ***1/4

Kenny's first appearance since 1/4 and the crowd is certainly receptive. A stellar main event with an underlying story of Cole and Omega potentially spitting. But their character work never undermind the Briscoes, who were great as usual. This goes 22 minutes - a very worthy last match to night 1. Two big Omega "wow" moments - the springboard moonsault off the guardrail onto the Briscoes in the crowd and then the big reversal at the end where he powerslams Mark coming off the top as he's on Jay's shoulder for the doomsday device. That was sweet. ****

The aura of Shibata in this match is something as he's on Cody's "list" and this is their first face to face. They start against each other and it's a pretty tepid feeling out, exchanging some holds and a quick tag out. Lethal also wants Cody and his over-aggressiveness lends to Page getting the best of him. Lethal works in peril and it's fine, I actually think Page had maybe the best performance here. Rocky Romero being surprised at Page doing a shooting star off the apron shows he doesn't watch the ROH shows he's on, which made me laugh. Hot tag Shibata time and after a big missile dropkick by Rhodes, Shibata just sits up and it is ON. Cody isn't too bad with the forear…

OZ Academy Openweight Championship #1 Contendership: Hikaru Shida vs. Kagetsu I love Shida-sama's new look. She looks like a feudal demon-slayer. Kagetsu has the charisma of a walnut, but when an arrogant Shida starts egging her on she shows a rare fire and goes berserk. This was back-and-forth with constant cut-offs that made it feel 'competitive'. There's great legwork that unfortunately gets abandoned, but was well-sold up until that point. Kagetsu (just barely) gets the win, which was shocking to me when I read the results. I thought for certain Kami had this won... The Shiri will have its day soon enough. ***3/4

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Syuri POLICE ambushes Syuri with her own Persian club and pulls her by chain through a violent merry-go-round. An 'Ozaki match', fuckery, weapons and POLICE being the biggest scumbag in the world. The 'actual wrestling' isn't too bad either as these two know how to throw snug hits. Syuri put on one of her strongest singles performances I have seen from her in a while, I think I even saw tears in her eyes. ***1/2

Here's your first confrontation between Omega and Okada post 1/4 and Okada blows him off and wants Cody to start the match. Really weird. This is an all-star game of sorts, although the early portion is the BC working over Ospreay and cutting off his tags. I actually felt that section went on too long. Plenty of shtick from both sides (Okada doing "suck-its!" to the Bucks, etc). Ospreay gets a good bit of the showcase here along with Cody. Ospreay saves Okada from the top rope with Cody as they tease the big suplex to the outside on the group of guys. Cody reverses and hits it on Ospreay to wipe everyone out (similar to a spot they did at Global Wars '15). This finally le…

This was an interesting spot for Martinez - he probably had the most to prove after the cards came out. And honestly, he did really well here - exceeded my expectations. Goto worked most of this match fighting from underneath and honestly didn't get a lot of offense in outside a neckbreaker and the big forearm exchange. The match kept building on Punisher's escalated offense; Goto slips to the outside to avoid a top rope move and Martinez dives over the ropes (6'6" dude) near the turnbuckle in a big spot. They reverse around each other as Punisher tries for his choke slam and finally Goto hits his finish off a slick counter and that is it. Really a plucky one-move-does-it…

Total hoss tag team battle here. Great strikes and both teams were fantastic. War Machine handling the G.O.D. just as they did the Bucks - impressive strength. Pop-up powerslam was beautiful. There's a part mid-match where Rowe just casually passes Tama Tonga to Hansen like he's a medicine ball. Rowe powers out of the stun gun and dead lifts Tama into position for Fallout to get the win. Crowd chants for War Machine and afterwards on the mic they proclaim they're after the IWGP World Tag Team titles. Crowd pops for this. Huge two nights for these guys. I really dug this. ***3/4

Cole is over with the crowd, getting quite a few chants - despite being the heel. The catchphrase is of course over as well, and in a fun bit early, YOSHI-HASHI apes it as his own to really miff Cole. Pretty standard Cole title defense, lot of trading, but Cole does come off like the bigger star. They trade finish kickouts and then move into a sequence with YOSHI-HASHI working the shoulder with a submission and a sleeper, where Cole barely survives. Cole continues to sell on offense, he was fine there. More escalation, layout here is booked well; Cole hits his real crappy looking destroyer and a shining wizard (again) for another two count. That's it though, he pulverizes…

An awesome little match, the psychology w/ Cesaro's knee was good - Joe's targeting of it was great & Cesaro's selling was really good. Couple of more minutes and this would've been **** for me. ***3/4

This was all about making Luke Harper look like million bucks in defeat - and AJ did an absolutely fantastic job in that. He bumped all over the place for Harper, sold his ass off. Harper looked like a killer because of that, and because he is really awesome, his offense is great, he came off as super charismatic & the crowd was absolutely behind him - which I actually was quite surprised about because AJ is so over. The whole re-start deal did end up taking a bit away from the match, but this was still an absolute banger between 2 great wrestlers. ***3/4

Another awesome match between these 2 - Mickie & Becky have a great chemistry with each other. Mickie once again targeted that arm of Becky that she has been targeting in every match they have had. Becky was really good selling as usual, and her big comeback was great. Very enjoyable bout. ***1/2