June 2017

I'm not a big comedy match guy but I haven't unintentionally laughed this much in a pro wrestling context. Suzuki's comedic timing is so awesome, between his looks, the little smirks, and his pissy interactions with everyone around him, real and imagined. I don't think I can rate this as a match but as a collection of moments, this was incredible. Here's a few gems: Suzuki's imaginary ring entrance complete with kicking at an imaginary young boy. Suzuki trying to hide his smirk during Aja Kong's entrance. Both guys playing to a crowd that doesn't exist. The interactions between Suzuki and Gota Ihashi The look Suzuki gives Ladybeard. Jun Kasai moonlighting as a janitor…

This is a nice example of KUSHIDA adapting to another style to overcome his opponent, but still working in his arm stuff and his new finisher. This was very much a take turns kind of match - one guy does a dive, the other guy then does the same thing to match him. And they're all executed fine. And super ranas, they did that too, which was impressive. Something just rang really hollow about the whole thing for me, but KUSHIDA amps up the intensity just in time for the arm stuff and then the finish to move onto the finals. ***1/4

A really fun sprint for the King of DDT first round. I thought KUDO's strikes in particular this match were excellent as he sprinkled them in when appropriate but didn't spam the match overall with them. Takao is a journeyman type wrestler that I haven't thought much of when I have seen him before good or bad but he hung with KUDO here. ***1/4

Akira Jo tells us he's going to show us a new version of himself! I'm not sure exactly what the old version of Akira Jo was, but let's not dwell on that. Apparently he made some changes on his gear and whatnot. In his way stands Katsumi Oribe, a senior wrestler nicknamed "Mr. Karate". You will be shocked to learn Mr. Karate's signature offence includes karate kicks. A fun little match-it's weird some of these NEW matches manage to be eerily similar to modern puro matches but unique in that they get the important stuff right. They do a bunch of elbow exchanges here-and their elbow shots look fine, but it's the way they sell the aggression and dedication that really makes i…

Eh. Neither here nor there. The finish was fun, as the crowd got into Feng (KENSO's cornerman work may deserve credit there but the camera didn't really focus much on him) and his roll-ups and Moribe started busting out some violent offence like the Backdrop, but the opening matwork was really pedestrian and Feng's fundamentals are worryingly lacking. **1/2

Kanemoto was so great here-just playing a marvelous prick and bullying Nakai and Susumu. Nakai put on a really good performance himself, trying to match Kanemoto both in stiffness and dastardliness. Tanaka did his shtick, which is putting more effort into getting his pose in than the actual wrestling, and Susumu looked like a generic japanese indy wrestler, even busting out a Pedigree Codebreaker at one point. Assuming Kanemoto does more in NEW I could see him and Nakai having a great feud akin to the one he had with Kazuki Hashimoto a few years ago, we really could use more kicker vs kicker match-ups. Handshakes are refused after the match once again and NEW shines as a …

A new challenge arises as I wonder how to accurately transcribe chinese names, almost wishing they'd just gimmick them in a full caps single word. Lin is a natural-his charisma and wit really shine in a match like this. It doesn't look like he's quite figured out what to do offensively yet, but here it didn't matter much, as all he had to do was pinball was Takaiwa's offence and make goofy faces. An entertaining squash. ***

The first shoot style match of the show! This was something like a RINGS match with a more focused narrative-some nice matwork at the start before Funaki catches Aoki with a HUGE leg kick, after which Aoki's leg becomes a target and Funaki uses it both for direct attacks and feints. Funaki's dominance lasts until he goes for one his more pro-style moves (the Penalty Kick) which Aoki uses for a counter and they end up in a whirlpool of lightning fast hold counters. It really is saying of both man's talents (but especially Funaki's-since he's the one that's done them regularly for many years) that a mostly methodical short match can be this good. ***1/4

**Spoilers** My understanding is that even though this was a MVW show, this will be on CWF down the road so if you keep up with the show and avoid spoilers, stop here I had pretty high expectations going into the building and these two really lived up. I thought Elgin gave this a big fight feel, a super fight feel. He worked it to a bigger crowd that gave it some gravity, but it also made some of the moments feel somewhat awkward and out of place in the small room. That is, there were just some spots where things didn't flow quite right, a few little moments here and there where things felt disjointed. That was really my only critique (and I am really nitpicking) of t…

The weakest BOSJ finals match in years - this just did not come anywhere close to the greatness of KUSHIDA/Ricochet, KUSHIDA/O'Reilly & Ospreay/Taguchi. It was still really good though - thought that KUSHIDA was really brilliant in the match - what prevents the match from being in that classic status though is Will Ospreay. His selling disappointed me greatly. He pretty much no sold KUSHIDA's leg & arm work - that basically made the whole first half of the match pointless. Thankfully in the 2nd half they went into the bomb mode as they started to bust out all the big moves you would expect from them - my favorite of them being KUSHIDA stomping Ospreay's head in. W…

This is a battle of two kickers (well, Yone is a kicker when he's motivated enough to be one) on a Misawa memorial show, and you get exactly what you'd expect. Aside from the opening sequence, there aren't really any differences in the type of work throughout the match-they almost immediately get to striking at each other, with the intensity and urgence being the main difference depending on when it took place. They in their shots nicely, the control segments aren't huge, but Yone does get tangible control over the match and at point Nakajima just goes berserk, mounting Yone and just killing him with forearms, setting off the finishing stretch. Yone's Lariats throughout …

This is the final of the 2017 Catch the WAVE tourney. These two had a great match a month earlier in the block stage so I was excited to see a rematch. Ohata does the smart thing in the early going by grounding Yamashita to keep her from using her power. As a result, Yamashita has to be smarter about her comebacks as she simple can't bullrush her way into control of the match. A nice contrast from their harder hitting match from the month before. ****

I would recommend watching this simply as 44 year old Kaz Hayashi taking no less than 3-4 horrific bumps on his neck for our pleasure in the match. I don't think the match was technically good from a structure standpoint as it has spots like MAZADA completely spiking him with a tombstone sit out driver and then Kaz being on offense 20 seconds later. The match is built around the spots but for two 40+ workers going out and killing each other like they would have in their prime, this was fascinating to watch. ***

I am really becoming fond of Ashino. He has a classical look with black trunks with Metallica font and works his matches around a basic but believable way of suplexes and constantly going for his ankle lock finisher. He also works really well in a META sense of the current client of Wrestle-1 of old vs new as he is a man on an island feuding with both contingencies. This is probably my favorite match of his run yet slightly edging out the Soya May defense. It is worked as the neck of Ashino being worked over and him of course going after Doi's leg. Doi is someone that the promotion clearly has plans for with the NEWERA faction and he does a strong job working the neck her…

This was a jacket vs fan service wager match which provided a fun backdrop from the action. As silly as that sounds on the surface and as silly as Jiro can be wearing the jacket throughout his match, it is over with the crowd and they did work this match with intensity putting over the stakes of the match. Kondo attacks before the bell and overall delivers a really strong beatdown of Jiro throughout most of the match. Jiro timed his comebacks well and the finish of him winning the match was well earned. After the match, Jiro presents Kondo with his own jacket and wig and now it looks like they are going to be a fun tag team for the promotion. ***

Absolutely loved this. Hard hitting, stiff match which showcased Hideo's new character. He dominated most of the match & he was great at it, Oney's big comeback with him grabbing Hideo by the goddamn mouth & slapping the shit out of him was fantastic - and just when it was looking like Oney was getting back into things, Hideo fakes an injury. Brilliant. So he comes back & destroys Oney w/ his strikes and those 3 GTS's. Great, great stuff. ****1/4

This was brilliant. If you ask me, the 2002-2008 ROH is just about the best thing ever & this felt like a complete throwback to those days. The venue, the atmosphere, just the overall vibe of it was so awesome. Cole came in & wrestled the match without any of his trademark catchphrase gimmicks & I was very much a fan of that. Loved the beginning stuff w/ them battling over the control - Cole holding Gresham onto that wristlock was really great. Gresham's counter to that w/ a very nice looking Uppercut to the arm of Cole was also great & ended up starting the big story for the match - Gresham working the crap out of Cole's arm. His arm work was so, so, SO a…

Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto © vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto Hiroyo works over Chihiro's neck throughout, hitting a gruesome Gin and Tonic, and it leads to an amazing finishing stretch where the champion can't maintain the bridge of her German suplex due to the damage done to her neck. The selling was good; the pacing of the match feels smooth with an organic escalation, and Chihiro is just a sight to behold! This was an awesome clash of titans! ****1/2

I wanted to watch this because I have discovered Hana on the Wrestle-1 shows and really like her. Seeing her tagging with Meiko is a plus. This was a good match that was really strike heavy. I was surprised to see Meiko play FIP for a big portion of the match. Hana and her complimented each other well as a team IMO. I know that Syuri has some hype among joshi fans and I find her to be serviceable but still haven't been blown away by a performance I have seen yet. The finish was exciting but also involved some goofy stuff like the kendo stick being used. ***

Kento Miyahara pretty much came off as the best wrestler in the world in this. His work over the arm & the taped up hand of Suwama was excellent + the way he portrayed his character was a thing of beauty; even though his historic title reign just recently ended by the hands of Shuji Ishikawa, he still is the most confident dude around, because he is the goddamn young ace of the company. His facial expressions tell the whole story; he acts like he has the match in the bag because he dominates Suwama w/ that arm work of his, but then Suwama ends up fighting through it w/ his high impact comebacks & gets the W. Great stuff, a brilliant Kento Miyahara show. ****

Took the recklessness of the Tokyo Dome match and toned that down ever so slightly. Made up for that by adding in a health dose of hate and sick strikes. KUSHIDA's new attitude after getting embarrassed at Sakura Genesis was great and he showed this punk who was boss. Back to the Future was such a big move throughout the BOSJ tournament that him going back tot he Hoverboard Lock to secure the win here was just the icing on the cake. ****1/2

I really enjoyed the Dome match as it is in my top 10 for the year at this point. As a result, this disappointed me a good deal. I thought the beginning was going to have an even more heel Tanahashi which I was all for with him jumping Naito before the bell on the outside and them battling with Naito in his suit. Naito spitting at the crowd was amazing too. Then Naito started working over the arm and it was a great attack, that Tana didn't really seem that affected by throughout the rest of the match. Sure, he cringed here and there but he continued to use the right hand a ton in his forearms and ending match Swingblades. Selling can be objective and I don't think I am ov…

Some meh "feeling out process" to start things off. Really nothing happened until Kenny started to attack Okada's knee, he beat the crap out of it, so naturally the champ completely no sells that work done on his knee to run full speed, counter stuff with that "damaged" knee & do his usual signature stuff. Nice. So the knee work was complete filler. Then again we get into a section where it feels like nothing is happening until out comes Bullet Club; they do some dumb drama w/ Cody almost throwing in the towel for Omega. After that the finishing stretch kicks in & it's pretty amazing - they went completely nuts just like in their Dome match. Kenny finally hitting …

If it wasn't for Tanahashi & Naito putting on another masterclass of the graps a few matches later, this would've been an EASY MOTN. Amazing psychology with The Bucks taking out Rocky with an apron powerbomb, so that leaves Trent alone for quite a while - Trent has become one of the absolute best FIP's in the business & he was outstanding here. Just selling & bumping his ass off while The Bucks did great work over him. Loved how when Rocky was first starting to get back to the match, Matt goes and powerbombs him on the entrance ramp right away. Once he does make it back to things, RPG Vice get more offense in, but you just know they can't get it done because o…

Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Hana Kimura This starts off lighthearted with Hana's sexy dance spot, but then she starts to work over the legs, until she decides to single out the leg wrapped in blue with one of the best ankle locks I have ever seen; Mayu is caught when she tries for a superkick and she is frantically trying to escape the hold, and her lankiness makes it look extremely painful. This was an intense and focused match with brilliant selling. Hana was throwing surly boots to the head. Mayu takes a diving dropkick like a car crash, and her comebacks feel like genuine struggle. Great work... up until Kagetsu comes in and the match ends o…