July 2017

Here's what I wrote about this match:

Akane Fujita vs. Maika Ozaki It's not often you see a heavyweight clash in Ice Ribbon. These two are chunkier than most of the roster, and they're capable of dishing out and taking impactful moves. Fujita displays as viciousness when she grabs Maika's hand away from the ropes while applying her new submission finisher, and the struggle looks brutal. Great match. ****

International Ribbon Tag Team Title #1 Contendership: Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi) I feel like there has been too much Lovely Butchers at the top of Ice Ribbon cards lately; they're easily my least favorite joshi at the moment. But this fucking ruled. They brought an aggressive approach to this match, answering Arisa & Tsukasa's nastiness with some of their own. There's a backdrop here from Miyagi to Arisa that looked bone-crushing, and Fujimoto executes one of the best Tsukadora's I've ever seen. The pacing is fast, and the heat just keeps building. ****1/2

This was exactly what it needed to be - an ugly brawl between two bruisers. I loved it. ***1/2

"The usual" between these 2. They beat the crap out of each other, showcasing their MANLINESS. Goto & Ishii are also really good at doing the usual fighting spirit no-sell stuff while also selling the pain they're in. Really good, borderline great match. ***3/4

This was my most awaited match of the whole tournament & it sure did not disappoint. You got a man who is known for his ways to punish an opponents arm vs. a man who has a banged up arm. Couldn't ask for a much better dynamic there. And they worked that dynamic super well - Tanahashi was one step ahead in the early exchanges, but once Zack started to target that arm, things started to go downhill for the Ace. Zack's work over that arm was fantastic as always & Tana sold it excellently. Loved how Tana countered that brutal arm work of Zack's by going after his leg - just like with Zack's arm work, Tana's leg work was fantastic as always. Zack's selling of it was go…

Absolute madmen, that's what these two are. This was an absolutely spectacular match w/ them going all out - loved Naito's performance, he was terrific working over the neck of Ibushi & then later selling the damage Ibushi did to him with those goddamn crazy big moves & kicks. Just a total spectacle with these 2 lads destroying each other. ****1/2

Fun back & forth to start things off, but the match really picks up when YOSHI-HASHI is talking shit to Nagata, who was down, just getting up - Nagata has this look on his face that says "really son?" & then he starts kicking the crap out of YOSHI-HASHI. Awesome stuff. Great way to start this G1! ***1/2

This Raw monster division has really been something else this year, and it looks like it might be getting even crazier going into Summerslam. I wish we got this without the commercial breaks, but still, I really enjoyed it. Both Roman and Joe are wonderful at looking like huge, incredibly dangerous monsters while selling for each other's monster-ness. Roman does it with an "I don't know how I'm gonna continue" look; Joe looks more angry than anything, but it works for both of them. In addition to their usual spots we get a Roman trying to put his shoe through Joe's face and Joe cutting off a Drive By with a great clothesline. But this isn't actually just a Reigns/Joe …

This is a really fun trios match. A lot of that is because both Avid Rival (Mizunami & Ohata) and Over Sun (Ohka & Miyazaki) are really good, established teams so that allows both Yamashita and ASUKA to be bit players. They do spend a share of the match building up the Ohka/ASUKA match for the upcoming anniversary show. ASUKA, the first transgender wrestler to be part of a joshi group, looks good if a bit of a generic joshi high-flyer. Good showcase for WAVE's talent. ***3/4

This was a fantastic styles clash which told a damn good story. Loved all of Gulak's technical ground based offense & Ali's spectacular highflying style was a great counter to that. The Dragon Sleeper spot where Gulak got his first fall was tremendous as was the finish with him almost doing what he is against; fly, and that ended up costing him the match because he was wondering should he do it or not. Great stuff. ****

I appreciated that we didn’t get any faction collusion teasing up front. However, they really seemed to make this into a big brawl from the onset and I didn’t feel the hatred or intensity whatsoever. The chair flying into the cameraman was nice but coincidental. Inside, the action was really back and forth without any flow. My hope was that the stunner to the floor would kickstart things and the selling by both men getting in was excellent. Then they just do a forearm exchange so EVIL who just took a stunner to the floor is still able to go 50/50. Talk about a wasted highspot. The back and forth as we head to the finishing stretch is full of good looking moves mainly base…

This was a fun opener that I put on par with something like YH vs Nagata from Night 1. Juice had his back worked over and sold it well and then fed into his comebacks with good openings. Kojima was willing to give him a lot here and put him over as a big player that could go on a run throughout the tournament. After Juice’s big win, I liked the show of respect they each gave to each other. I don’t know if Juice will reel off many “great” matches in this G1 but his floor seems to be pretty high overall and I am excited to see him work the variety of opponents in his block. ***1/4

This may be construed as nitpicky and it isn’t his general style but I was hoping for less animated selling from Omega being in there with Suzuki than what we got in the early going. The leg work was really well done with Suzuki going after it with ferocity and Omega selling it well. One legged moonsault was a nice touch. Then we get the ref bump and the Suzuki Gun and Bullet Club clear out. This will set up faction wars I suppose in the future but I can’t be bothered to care about that in the slightest and it disrupted the flow of the match greatly for me. When the match restarts 1 vs 1, it is very engaging from the leg lock submissions to the V-Triggers that Kenny lands…

Tonga was given another chance in the G1 this year which felt like filibustering to get to 20 guys to me. I didn’t see what he did in last year’s tournament to warrant a return but I digress. This match was the definition of middling. They did some intro power stuff, went to the outside for a quick exchange and then went back inside for the finishing run. The main positive I had for the match was Elgin’s selling in avoiding the cutter of Tonga. That played into the finish well with Tonga hitting it from the top rope off of a DVD position. **1/2

We get the Yano greatest hits package here. Okada being from the DG system does have a good sense of comedic timing in matches and it was on display here. Them being in a faction worked as well as we saw Okada and Gedo on the outside try to uproot some of the Yano tropes but instead, Yano just added a new layer. The throwing the turnbuckle pad to Gedo and the low blow to Jado on the outside were highlights. Yano gets a variety of rollups that have the crowd biting so that was refreshing to see. In a nice wrinkle, Okada ends up winning with the Red Ink which felt different. I had fun with this match. ***

Man did I love this match. The concept is a group of AIW students challenged team of old school AIW guys. The first section of this match has the Old AIW laying a 75% Kurisu level beating on the rookies. Matt Justice nearly beheads Tre Lamar with a leg lariat, the Jollyville Fuck Its (who are a team I love and I need to seek out more of) have this great spot where T-Money puts Lamar in an airplane spin and Russ just punches him in the face on every spin. Garrison King has light up shoes an awesome secondary nickname (Garry "The King" Baller) and takes an absolute shellacking. After a really long one sided beating the rookies get a bit of an advantage with AJ Gray (who is …

I am always very happy to see a big time Eddie Kingston singles match. Kingston isn't going to grapple with you, so this had less jujitsu rolling then the other Lawlor matches I have watched, but they replaced with grappling with Kingston chops and backfist to the face. This was these guys doing an All Japan main event and Kingston's selling put it at a higher level then most matches of this style. Every shot was impactful and every suplex was compressing. Lawlor has really good looking suplexes and is willing to take an asskicking. Lawlor does his neck snap move and Kingston sells it like it gave him nerve damage. Even the suplex no sell section had Kingston fighting th…

Fantastic encounter - a resourceful Tanahashi working around a hurt arm and playing the smaller guy in a big-man/little-man match. I can't imagine a more entertaining Fale match, he works the arm and looks like a monster, but Tanahashi works in just enough counters to escape and then hits a great HFF to the outside and then the snap slingblade to get the count-out win. ***3/4

I actually felt that this was more suspenseful than Ibushi/Naito. ZSJ keeps on working the already fucked neck of Ibushi, and his counters to pretty much all of Ibushi's offese kept the crowd invested, as it really looked like Ibushi was going to tap out at anytime. However, considering the difference in striking ability and how Ibushi has the bigger bombs, once he actually gets his hands on ZSJ, he sure lays it in. Not a fan of Zack's selling. Be it an overhead chop or a kick to the chest or a german suplex, he always does the same facial expressions. However, he is very good at being a skinny cunty bully. Overall it is ***3/4 - ****

Two grown men wailing away on each other as expected. So all your tough guy spots are here, including chest smacking each other, punching away lariats and a lot of clotheslines. But I didn't feel it overstayed it's welcome and liked the closing stretch fine. ***1/2 PTBN review from Ioan Morris:

These guys took the main event slot seriously, thought this was really hard hitting and a great Naito performance carrying YH to a ***3/4 match. From Ioan's review at PTBN:

This was excellent, hard-hitting and I really liked the layout. When Nagata got on his roll, I really thought he had Goto here. A smart transition into the bulldog gives Goto the advantage and he gets the best of a slug-off before hitting a headbutt into the GTR. Nagata sold this great, I really like that combo finish for Goto. ***3/4 From Ioan's review at PTBN:

Talk about it here. Ioan's review at PTBN:

Talk about it here. Ioan Morris at PTBN review: