April 2017

Two technical wizards going at it. Started off with them trading holds in friendly manner, even bantering with each other while they put each other in holds & escaped from them. These 2 are so smooth when it comes to that stuff so it was a true joy to watch. At one point though, ZSJ gets pissed off & just BLASTS Quack with an European Uppercut; Quack is like "haha, alright got me there nice one pal", but then ZSJ does it again - he blasts Quack with ANOTHER European Uppercut! Now Quack knows that shit is on so he slaps the taste out of Zack's mouth - and from then on they continue to trade those holds, but with much more intensity & aggression to them - no mor…

This was heading towards the ****+ GREAT territory, but in the last third of the match or so the match started to overstay it's welcome - it was still good, but the intensity dropped quite a bit. I loved seeing Jay Lethal just kick Cody's ass all over the place - it was phenomenal, Cody sold it well & Lethal looked awesome working over him. Both guys have some really good looking punches, which are important in matches like this. Cody did a good job cutting off Lethal - only for Lethal to start kicking his ass again. Classic babyface getting the revenge stuff. This ruled. ***3/4

This was an outstanding fast paced, spot heavy tag bout. I was afraid that it would come off as too choreographed like every Ospreay match in ROH so far, but it actually was worked with a great sense of urgency & the sequences + big spots all felt very natural. ****

This was a great way to kick off the show. Everybody looked good with Roderick Strong in particular being on FIRE. Truly great seeing him shine. ***1/2

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JWP Openweight Championship: Hanako Nakamori © vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki This is the final JWP Openweight Championship match on the final JWP show ever, so of course it ends on a roll-up. This was actually going well until that puzzling finish, they were beating the shit out of each other, head-drops and head-kicks, Tsubasa being the chunky powerhouse-high flyer hybrid that she is, the kind of stuff you want to see on a final show, but that finish could not have been more anticlimactic. A company's finale should have a decisive finish. Maybe Tsubasa didn't want to do the clean job. Strange booking, in any case. ***1/4

Hana Kimura vs. Natsumi Maki Hana-chan's new gear is a thing of beauty. A thing to treasure. The first half of this is a bit rough, which is a given as these two are still rookies, but this picks up in the second half. There's a great struggle when Hana applies her sleeperhold and I liked the way she presses the advantage with a running boot after Natsumi gets the ropes. She really shined here with her most impressive deadlift brainbuster yet and batshit-impactful front dropkicks. **1/2

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Loved the beginning with Nia establishing dominance, she looked like a monster just beating up Charlotte, Bayley & Sasha. Loved it. Loved the Horsewomen realizing they need to team up to take her out - that was real great, and the whole beatdown of Nia was tremendous. After she was eliminated, the match fell off a bit, but it still remained good & as a result we got a very good, borderline great match. ***3/4

Best sub-5 minute match ever? Yep! This was absolutely tremendous. Easily the best match of the night - loved the beginning with Brock getting too hyped up about getting some of those glorious suplexes in, which lead to Goldberg inducting him to SPEAR CITY. Freaking awesome stuff. The whole ending sequence with Brock doing a goddamn LEAPFROG & then going full beast mode was so gooood. Amazing match. ****1/2

I usually don't review stuff when I watch it live at 5/6AM, and this probably deserves a rewatch, but I have some thoughts on it that I want to get out. My first impression was that it was a great match. The opening wasn't much but as soon as they found focus it became awesome, usually Undertaker's strikes are just a shallow gimmick that feel like a nod to his ego so he feels better about the MMA classes he takes, but here they actually looked good for a change AND had a build that made them feel important. It's not like every punch Undertaker threw was suddenly Sangre Chicana level but when it mattered (the apron counter and the sudden jab) they made for huge momentum sh…

Lin looked very promising, he seems like a natural prick, kind of like a nu-Yoji Anjoh. I loved his dumb mannerisms after refusing a handshake, how he stomped Otsuka's foot to try and escape a standing armlock and his big sell of a German Suplex. The highlight of the match was probably Otsuka deciding to slap the taste out of Lin amidst a forearm smash exchange and the aforementioned German Suplex. The matwork was a little "bigger" as Otsuka would use Double Wristlocks to stretch Lin instead of just rolling around. ***

JIan is a guy from IGF's China Dojo, and I believe this is his first wrestling match. There wasn't much shooty in this match-it was more akin to a standard modern japanese wrestling match, with battles of shoulder blocks and forearm smashes, but it was pretty well done, the crowd bought into it, it looked nice and they kept the nonsense to a minimum. Oribe threw some nice kicks, there were too many pinfall attempts that served no purpose, and that's about it. **3/4

This was pretty good. The matwork wasn't anything special, it was more about the violence, Suzukawa would headbutt Barnett while mounting Barnett, kneeing him when he was in a side mount, Suzukawa would get Barnett in a Double Wristlock from the bottom and Barnett would escape by just pummeling him with body shots, it made it much more interesting than if it were them just rolling around.We also got some nice throws, whenever they'd stand and exchange shots the match ruled, and there were signs of a great match when they'd start shoving each other into the corner and desperately fire away, which felt like something out of WAR. They didn't just sit in submissions but audib…

New Exciting Wresting presented its first show this month and I couldn't wait to see what it would look like, I'll jump at any opportunity to see any new shoot style or hybrid shoot style. The opening was kinda dull, reminding me off the dull HARD HIt matches I'd give up on halfway through, just them exchanging weak middle kicks and some pointless matwork with no sense of urgency. Once they moved back on standing it got pretty good, as they started laying in shots, with Funaki's head kicks in particular reminding me of the kind of violence I really missed from this style, and the match was short enough that it more than made up for the pedestrian matwork. ***

Junior shoot style! God this match was infuriating. On one hand they have a bunch of cool ideas that would make for badass GIFs. On the other hand this became a chore to watch. They come up with cool striking flurries, flashy counters and so on-but really suck at connecting them into something cohesive, milking drama and creating urgency. "Boring leglocks" is something that's thrown at shoot style a bunch as a critique of why it's not good, and most of the time people that say that have no idea what they're talking about, but it really applies here. Every time they'd grab a leglock they'd just kill the crowd, there was just no way that was finishing the match, and it didn…

The first match in NEW history faces off a shoot style legend and one of the most notorious japanese MMA fighters of today. When you choose to work a mat-based shoot style match in a more conservative manner, with not many nearfalls and highspots, it's not uncommon to see it become uninteresting. These two absolutely nailed it. Aoki seems to intuitively *get* pro wrestling-their sequences just seamlessly flow. It is like a lucha title match, except wacky lucha holds are replaced with armbars and leglocks, and the use of realistic guard positions almost makes it like a high end jiu jitus exhibition. Almost-because the match retains a certain flair of catch wrestling you'd …

Sendai Girls World Championship: Aja Kong © vs. Chihiro Hashimoto Aja is chewing gum while wrestling in a main event title match, I already want her to lose. She is a mammoth who can adsorb all damage, including wheel barrel slams to the floor and hip attacks from 635mm thighs. The German suplex is the key to victory and C-Hash can't hit it. This was structured like their first encounter this year, but on a much grander and epic scale. Aja has to use her craftiness because she cannot beat C-Hash's matwork, no matter how hard she tries. Outside of the ring is the danger zone, it is where Aja feels most at home, where she batters C-Hash with chair shots to the head and …

Tag Team Championship Challenger Decision Tournament, Final: Hana Kimura vs. Mika Shirahime This was an even stronger version of the match they had last month, I felt like they worked harder. Shirahime gets this scary death stare and her wacky hair is all over the place as she hammers into Hana with elbow strikes. She has an excellent understanding of escalation and building towards a heated finish. Hana-chan has already established her signature stuff and where to place them and when, and I can't say enough about her new attire (!) and high-impact missile dropkick. She sends Shirahime bouncing inside out! This was a great clash between underdog rookie and (justifiabl…

Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Meiko Satomura Breakneck sprint where they throw bombs all the way. ****

TOKYO Princess of Princess Championship: Yuu © vs. Azusa Takigawa The way Yuu man-handles her opponents and destroys their chests with harsh chops is unsavory. She doesn't take it lightly on the comedy wrestler Azusa, she flays her around and tosses her with reckless abandon, and that John Woo kick! Fuccckk! Azusa's strikes looked really bad, and if Yuu were an experienced veteran there's no way she would sell them. Gotta give Azusa credit, though, her chest looked disgusting by the end of this and she was still taking chops. I dug the callback to the codebreaker spot in their prelude tag match. Good match, surprisingly violent. ***1/2

The official time for this is 1:56. 1 minute 56 seconds. KUSHIDA jumped Takahashi as he was making his entrance, he had a gameplan - he beat the shit out of Takahashi before throwing back into the ring where he tried to go for his Hoverboard Lock right away. Once that didn't work out, Hiromu basically just destroyed KUSHIDA in very explosive fashion. Who would've thought that in 2017 we'd see a New Japan title match that goes under 2 minutes. This was so good. ****1/2

What can I even say? This was so unbelievably out-of-this-world great. I was rooting for Shibata all the way through - but in the end, I wasn't mad/sad one bit that he lost because of how goddamn amazing this match. My immediate reaction was that it ranks right up there w/ the best All Japan classics of the 90's, and after re-watching the match I think there's only one match I'd put above it - 06/03/94. This match was full of amazing moments, character work & storytelling. Loved the early parts where Shibata kept Okada grounded with those amazing headlocks of his - love the somewhat WoS-esq stuff he has been pulling out lately. Shibata was simply making Okada his bit…

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Alex Lee vs. Yako Fujigasaki I don't know how this happened, but I liked an Alex Lee singles match! I mean, she is still boring as a personality (at least until she debuts in her Ozaki-gun gear!), but this was solid. I dig these types of short yet 'focused' singles matches. Lee connected a couple of snug kicks and knees, and generally put on a good show, and Yako gets better every time I see her. It has taken years, but Lee is showing signs of improvement! She should stick to joshi forever and become Bosnia's Debbie Malenko. ***1/4