July 2017

Talk about it here. Ioan Morris at PTBN:

Talk about it here. Ioan at PTBN:

Yano had a fun match vs Okada but that streak ends at 1. This wasn’t entertaining to me at all and just kept going and going. A waste of time. **

Ishii with some incredibly focused and aggressive neckwork, and excellent counterwork, seemingly having an answer to a lot of Takeshita's attempts. For an ace, Takeshita's bumping and selling is some of the best around and while I could nitpick the non-selling on the German suplex bridge, he still did a lot to show the effects of Ishii's neckwork. Like most Takeshita defenses, he displays his dominance early on but Ishii's able to come back and hit his neckbreaker on the guardrail to set up his go-to limb-based strategy. Takeshita's neck takes quite the beating, like a German suplex on the apron, a nasty Ishii Driller, and a tiger suplex hold. Ishii tries to murder him wi…

These two have such great chemistry together. You had Tanahashi heeling it up with his limbwork, tossing the proverbial ace guitar out of the ring to focus on attacking the veteran's leg to plenty of boos. Nagata was as spirited as ever, with the crowd firmly behind him. Nagata's facials and the his selling were great here, especially toward the end of the match. I liked that Tanahashi kept going back to the knee to try and derail Nagata's momentum and that final slap exchange was awesome, with Nagata getting busted open and his exhausted swings and misses before collapsing face first on the mat. This may have been my favorite match of the tournament so far.

This was kind of a base level Fale match. He works over the back of Naito and like usual, the underneath person is trying to find an opening to gain an advantage. I thought Fale’s execution looked pretty sloppy tonight and Naito was unable to generate much offense leading to a bit of a disconnect in the match overall. The teases of the Destino were well done. The first spike slam was a good nearfall and it was smart for Fale to come right back with the Bad Luck Fall to put the match away. With Naito at 2-0 a loss for him was coming and it happened to be tonight. ***

This had some added ooph being in Makabe’s hometown but I didn’t get the slugfest feel they were going for and some of the forearms in particular looked weak compared to the shots that were fired in Ibushi vs Ishii. The best sequence was the final one with Makabe going for the King Kong knee and hitting the first at a unique angle. Big time pop for his win and this ended a good night of wrestling. ***

This was the striking equivalent of Naito vs Ibushi. Just a hard hitting nutso match with multiple strikes that will make you cringe. Ibushi could have some credibility issues in that regard going up against a brick shithouse like Ishii but I do think his precision on his strikes help give gravity to his strikes and allow him to go toe to toe with the Stone Pitbull. Ibushi’s powerbomb is really becoming that knockout finisher as well that much like the One Winged Angel, it is doom if hit. The lack of overarching story kept this out of MOTYC range for me but it was a great slugfest and felt like a battle when it was over. ****

This was the perfect length for a YH match. A quick opening matwork segment leading to ZSJ going after the arm and cranking it out like only he knows how. YH was good in selling the damage and then was able to mix in his comebacks building up the sympathy that had been laid out in the prior 6-7 minutes. I enjoyed him sending Desperado down to the floor before he eats the knees of Sabre on the Swantom. That leads to the finishing run where he narrowly escapes the pinning combo of Sabre and then loses by submission to an adaptation of the octopus hold. ***1/4

Just a crazy match with Banks & Riddle trading excellent looking, brutal strikes & bombs all the way through. I absolutely loved it. ****1/2

HZK vs. Jungle Kyona This match has a vile-sounding headbutt in just the opening sequence! It's amazing that they were able to keep up the pace, because that looked (and sounded) like it hurt like hell. HZK's bully-esque offense was great, with her stomps and kicks to the head, and Kyona brings a certain raw emotion to her performances that draws you in. Great, hard-hitting match. ***3/4

Konami, Michiko Ohmukai & Yoko Bito vs. Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura, Kagetsu & Kris Wolf) So Oedo Tai are breakdancing ninjas now. Alright. At least they've gotten a new and better entrance theme. Konami was amazing. Mommy Michiko is in incredible shape, and showed no signs of rust. Bito pinned Wolf with a Splash Mountain, which was interesting. This was a fun match! ***3/4

Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Viper This was good. An obvious filler match, from the moment it was announced, but good. Mayu puts on a great performance as she fights hard for her big comeback; she's getting cut off and ragdolled before she rallies for her second wind, and Viper bumps like crazy. ***3/4

I give Tama Tonga chance after chance and I just never am going to be on board with him. He has now been given ample opportunity but I don’t feel any violence or hatred in his brawling and much of his uniqueness revolves around a couple of speed spots inside the ring. The brawling here was really mundane and the only highlight was the final two minutes which were basic counters around the cutter of Tonga. The first match accomplished its goal but this was more boring than that match and less memorable. **1/2

Juice’s longterm selling has been splendid. He came hobbling out here and you knew Suzuki would pounce on it. Juice being such a traditional babyface makes the Suzuki Gun interference a bit more bearable even though it is still annoying. Juice musters up a great effort and gets his Juice punch but ultimately succumbs to the damage of the leg and the knockout blow of one of the better Gotch Piledrivers you will see. Really nice breakout style match for Juice. ***1/2

This was a good opening slugfest. Elgin’s forearms in particular looked really explosive and he pounded down Kojima throughout the match. He felt like a bruiser and allowed Kojima to be resilient. This is the type of match that certainly won’t be one I can easily recollect when the tournament is over due to having 80 matches overall but as a beginning of a night to settle the viewer in, it accomplished what it set out to do. ***

A strong main event. These two still feel like they could have a MOTYC within them and havent hit that mark yet, but all of their matches have been enjoyable. SANADA was smart to fake the knee injury in the early going of this one and then pounce onto the attack. Okada was strong underneath and it led to a compelling finishing stretch where SANADA did feel like he had received a reputation bump even in defeat. The sequence of reversals and SANADA going for the Skull Crush only to lay into a final flurry of Rainmakers was particularly intriguing.. ***3/4

You knew this would be ridiculous and it was. It did make me laugh so that is the goal I suppose. I understand the annoyance that someone like Kenny shouldn’t be going 50/50 with Yano and degrading himself doing this stuff, but I try not to think too hard with Yano matches and this didn’t feel overly long like the Kojima match. ***

Talk about it here. From Ioan Morris, PTBN:

Talk about it here. From PTBN:

Talk about it here. PTBN review:

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here. PTBN review:

The interference actually worked here as we got the big faction battle between Suzuki Gun and LIJ and actual hate was felt between the two factions. Couple that with EVIL possibly picking up the biggest win of his entire career and this became a memorable match even if it wasn’t a technically great one. Suzuki still has the goods when it comes to going after a submission and EVIL performed his role well as the young powerhouse that had a lot to prove coming in. ***1/4

Oh man, I love Juice. What a great professional wrestler he has become - Tama Tonga is someone who sure hasn't impressed me in singles action during his G1 runs, but here Juice brought out the best in him. I liked his aggressive onslaught on Juice & Juice's selling of that was just great - the energy, fire & charisma he brought was superb. The standing ovation after the match was very well deserved. ***3/4