March 2017

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Things seem to be going on the usual TV match route when those two guys lock up. Roman pushes Jinder to the corner, and when the ref tries to split them apart, Jinder uses this break for a cheap shot, and then gives Reigns a god damn potato. What a fucking loud punch, Jesus Christ. That was actually a blessing for the match. Roman working as an angry beast added a layer of aggressivity that kinda made things more personal. Undertaker mind games make Mahal get the upper hand again and holy shit he just beats the shit out of Roman with a basement dropkick. Roman finishes Jinder with two Superman Punches, looking extremely pissed with that many potatoes. An ac…

Another strong Juice big match performance! The dude has been impressive all year long so far, with strong performances against Cody, Goto & now Shibata. Loved Shibata's work over his arm, and then when it was time for Juice to get some of his shit in, he starts to throw these really great looking punches & chops. Loved those. And then Shibata cuts him off with a brilliant looking strike. From there on, the match kicks into the finishing gear and it was remained really damn good till the end. ***3/4

Roode in 2017 isn't very exciting in the ring, but here his opponent happened to be the best wrestler in the world, so I was pretty excited to see how it would go. And it went greatly - loved the match, thought that Ohno was fantastic in it, great selling, great shine, great comebacks, great facials. Roode's work over him was really good too, didn't come off as super boring like in the January match vs. Nakamura. ****

Nanae Takahashi & Arisa Nakajima vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ryo Mizunami I have to agree with Dedy, this is the best Nanae has ever looked. Her segments with Hiroyo and Mizunami were spectacular, and some of the bumps she took were so hard they bounced her off of the canvas! Nakajima prays before delivering a double foot stomp, which is a cute reference to her misogi training. Everyone looked great in this match; Mizunami was hot-blooded as always, and Hiroyo busts out a Styles Clash powerbomb (!). This has that Zenjo-sprint pacing where they go non-stop and momentum shifts can happen in an instant. ****1/2

Sareee vs. Yoshiko This was Sareee's debut as an official member of SEAdLINNNG. The layout was simple, it's a competitive 50/50 type of match, but these two are bursting with charisma and fire. They definitely belong in the main event of Korakuen Hall. The flow is captivating and all of the moves looked great. Yoshiko's performance is remarkable. She's an absolute wizard in the ring; a super natural beast. Everything she did was so crisp and 'effective'; there's a high kick she connects with towards the end that she beautifully follows up on with a lariat. Sareee's movements in the ring are so striking; she's the successor to Ayumi Kurihara (who she adopted her uranag…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pglPdQ7_H2o This one almost snuck by me as I didn't know that it had happened until I read the results of the show. The match itself is what you would hope it would be, a contrast between the technical striking/submissions of Syuri versus the straight forward bulldozer style of Yamashita. The whole story of the match is Syuri trying to avoid and counter Yamashita's power. This is a damn good match that you don't want to skip out on if you don't watch the undercards of joshi shows. ****

On paper this had me very excited, and they delivered a match I knew it had all the potential in the world to be. Callihan was a man on a mission - he wanted to prove that he has learned from his mistakes & that he is just as bad as Low Ki. This was just them beating the shit out of each other w/ awesome looking strikes (Low Ki is still the fucking man) & submissions which were applied with extra intensity behind them. Low Ki looked like a killer, which doesn't surprise me, he just beat the shit out of ol' Callihan Death Machine w/ that killer offense of his. Every time Callihan got the control, even for lengthy amounts of time, Ki always had something in his back…

I dug this a whole lot - their opening sequence of trading counters looked better than a lot of junior choreographed moves. SANADA looks like a boss the entire match, he gets a lot of offense here. Ishii blocks punches in the corner with headbutts because why not? Couple minor timing things, but otherwise this is big power move trading, and then even a pretty convincing roll-up exchange. SANADA is a tremendous bumper too. Comfortably at ***3/4 here.

FANTASTIC shine by the babyfaces to start things off. Chuck & Trent were fired up. The heels get the advantage by cheating. I love it. The visual of Zack stepping on the head of Trent while Marty throws a chair at Chuck = 5 stars. Trent's FIP segment was pretty much perfect. Marty & especially Zack were outstanding working over him. Loved how every time Trent was almost there to make the tag to Chuck, they found a way to cut him off. Chuck's hot tag was tremendous. As was the whole finishing stretch - loved the Zack vs. Trent battle. What a terrific match; Chuckie T was great as the fired up hot tag guy, think this was the first time Marty has ever come off as a …

Really the perfect PWG opener - an action packed, a little beefy even (Cage vs. Lee) spotfest in which the pace never slowed down. Keith Lee made sure in his Reseda debut that everybody in the building will remember his name. ***3/4

Right from the get go Trevor was being a total douchebag to Lio & it was great. Loved the early stuff with him with him showcasing his power in cocky fashion. Lio answered to that by showcasing his quick move combinations. From then on it's enjoyable back & forth action between the 2, the ending of the match was really great too with Trevor low blowing Lio & then going for his classic small package only for Lio to reverse to that into his own. Awesome match. ***3/4

I very much enjoyed the meat of the match. The way it was laid out kinda surprised me; The Chosen Bros really just dominated OI4K. Cobb & Riddle are both excellent offensive wrestlers so that was a blast. Pretty much the only offense (until the finishing stretch that is) that the Crist brothers got was a super short FIP segment w/ Riddle (which was really good, Riddle's fiery comeback was tremendous) & a little bit longer, yet still pretty short FIP segment w/ Cobb (which was also really good). In the end both teams looked really damn good in this. Really fun match. ***1/2

The first about 8 minutes or so of the match are kinda dull w/ them doing meh comedy & all, but then they decide to go nuts and it gets amazing. Just an outstanding, crazy spotfest. On par with the BOLA 6-man. ****1/2

Talk about it here.

The first half is your usual Shibata vs. Ishii action, just them slugging it out - and it's great, but what made this match reach ****+ levels to me is that in the 2nd half, they started out busting out all kinds of super awesome moments such as Shibata looking like the goddamn Grim Reaper while he is walking towards Ishii after not going down for his lariats (only for Ishii to lariat him one more time), Ishii busting out a FUCKING ARMBREAKER TO THE TAPED UP SHOULDER OF SHIBATA. Popped so hard for that. Ishii trying to break up the deadly Sleeper of Shibata w/ going after the arm was fantastic. Then the finishing sequence with Shibata just murdering Ishii was so damn good…

This is a two out of three falls trios match that's designed to set up the OZ title match between Hiroyo and Kagetsu at the Korakuen show next month. I thought everyone in this match looked really good, even Katsu who has been a big disappointment since returning about a year ago. They kept the flow of the match going throughout more than likely because they didn't do the mandatory crowd brawling that happens in OZ Academy. Like the tag title match in January, this is another showcase of what OZ Academy should be. ****

Started off with some comedy w/ the crowd chants & all, but once we got down to the real business here, things got really good. Got an awesome FIP segment w/ TK Cooper, loved the work that Trent & Tyler did over him. Really good hot tag by Travis Banks too. After that they decide to go balls to the walls with all action, and it was so, so, SO much fun - helps that they didn't go into the overkill zone either. Great opener. ***3/4

First time posting here so why not about a match with all-time fav Dick Togo. I finally signed up for DDT and am running through some fun-looking stuff for this year, and I hadn't heard all that much about this match, which was handily my second favorite on the card. Oyama is an MMA guy in his first, as far as I can tell, wrestling match, and he's the story here. I thought he was quite impressive, more so even in his head/neck selling than his grappling. Togo is his usual masterful self and KUDO is a fine change of pace for Oyama. There's a Takayama/Oyama rapid punch exchange at the end because of course there is, and maybe Oyama's worked punches aren't great at this …

Good garbage wrestling. It's like a good AAA match. What struck me about this match was the way different weapons just kept materializing in-ring, suddenly there's a rake and then a bunch of ladders or a fence and so on and so forth. It was an appropiately crazy match. Kasai suddenly no-selling everything is great in this type of match and the fence spot is really good. Sasaki gets suplexed while holding a ladder, which is also crazy. I don't wanna just write a list of spots but the beating that Kasai takes is something else.

This was a blast. It's DDT's "big match" formula with a good mix of psychology, counter tangos, and high-impact offense. Takeshita working with a little more attitude was great -- loved the pursed lips and head shake at HARASHIMA's handshake offer -- and he was especially focused on HARASHIMA's neck and back to set up his shutdown German finish. Some of the execution was off (Omega = Croyt's Wrath) and selling sometimes gets shelved in favor of high spots but Takeshita does a really good job of bringing it back around, especially in the final minutes. He's got the physical sell down and HARASHIMA's facials were terrific as always. HARASHIMA works the leg to set-up the...S…

As expected, this was very good. Loved the start with Shibata going right after Fale - it was awesome. Shibata gets a good shine in, which then leads to Fale working the heat on Shibata - I thought that Fale for the most part did a good job working on top, but I've seen him do better. Shibata was great selling Fale's work, and his comebacks were super great. The whole finishing stretch with him countering the Bad Luck Fall into a Sleeper & then just striking Fale down was FANTASTIC. Really good match. ***3/4

Hana Kimura vs. Mayu Iwatani Hana Kimura works the crowd like an old school luchador when she's in 'heel mode'. They hang on her every movement, howling when she so much as fixes her hair or adjusts her belt; entranced. I can't think of any modern joshi who can captivate an audience like Hana Kimura. Her body gyrates, crowd goes berserk. They are hungry like the wolf in the Texy Avery cartoons. Hungry for Hana-chan. The match itself was very simple in structure yet the crowd was so into it. These two will be amazing as a unit if Mayu ends up joining Oedo Tai, which is subtly alluded to in the 'semi-shoot' post-match promo. ***1/2

This is for Io's World of Stardom title as Hojo was the last woman to pin Io in a singles match back in the 5*GP last year. It's also almost exactly two years to the day that Hojo beat Io for the then vacant title that started her rise in Stardom. I really like the opening sequences in the match as they established the Io was seemingly always a step ahead of Hojo. They also play off of their last match a fair bit as they tease the ganso bomb type move off of the apron a few times and Hojo takes control of the match by working over Io's back. I was surprised that the finish wasn't nearly as elaborate as you would expect between these two it came off as simple compared othe…