August 2017

These two had a match in the 2015 G1 that was spectacular from a moves standpoint but that forced the narrative to take a backseat and the egregious selling of the leg by Ibushi was too much for me to overcome in viewing the match as great. This match starts off with a bit of a feeling out and then Tanahashi works on the leg. He does this for a couple of minutes and kind of clumsily puts on an Indian Deathlock. Ibushi is able to power out of that and then is kicking and running around right over the leg that was just worked on. Limb selling is always in the eye of the beholder but this was a match based around perseverance so in this singular regard, I had no issue with I…

The early stages of the match saw Ishii be an arrogant bully to Nagata - that created a nice little story for this to go with them just beating the crap out of each other. I loved Nagata gaining the control over Ishii & Ishii selling those deadly kicks. The last third of them just busting out big bombs for those nearfalls was great - Ishii's facial expressions & body language when Nagata kicked out of his big stuff were so amazing. Sold the frustration perfectly. Great match. ****

Chad Gable & Rusev are 2 guys who have always got tons of hype, but I've never really been super impressed with their in ring work. That changed here as both of them gave absolutely fantastic performances; you got Gable as the stamina machine, never getting tired, trying to ground Rusev w/ that leg work & then busting out those gorgeous Suplex's - and you also got Rusev as the big Goliath throwing the smaller man around, all the while selling his ass off for him. Great dynamic & great stuff all around. Fantastic match. ****

Great match. Nothing mind blowing, but this is presumably the first of multiple encounters in the next year or so between them, so things will only get more epic. That said, I really liked this match. I thought it had a good flow with nothing wasted. The closing stretch was well done and the crowd was fully invested. No tricks, just an old fashioned "scientific match" with a clean as a sheet finish. The bump at the end was nasty and could've been disastrous. Instead, it added a dose of "real" to the match, the unplanned kind, and fortunately for everyone involved served to make things feel more epic and not tragic. Excited to see what these guys will do against each other…

NEO Biishiki-gun (Saki-Sama & Martha) vs. Aasa Maika & Riho I was excited when this was announced, but with it taking place at a Beer Garden show I was worried there would be too much comedy, or even drinking, and luckily none of that was here. Just a straight up wrestling match. Aasa takes a good beating and Paradise Lock (!!); she is just a wonderful FIP. Riho was the workhorse, and brought this match to the next level with her high-flying offense and set-ups. Biishiki-gun were compelling characters as always. Great match. ****

This was your classic Zack Sabre Jr. torture show. He worked all over Naito w/ his submissions & slick transitions - in many ways this was similar to the match ZSJ had vs. YOSHI-HASHI on Day 5 of the tournament (I gave that match ***), the difference is that in that match, it seemed like only ZSJ brought it while YOSHI-HASHI gave a very soulless performance working from underneath as ZSJ tortured the crap out of him with those submissions. That sure wasn't the case with Naito here as he definitely matched Zack's great performance w/ his selling & great comeback flurries. Loved his selling post-match, too. ****

This was really good. Liked how both guys tried to match each other's usual strategies - Tana tried to slug it out w/ Ishii & Ishii tried to work that leg of Tana. By the end it was just a complete war with big bombs being thrown. ***3/4

Was very enjoyable seeing these two take it to the mat, great counters & momentum shifts. Also really liked Zack's arm work which Nagata sold well. ZSJ's work on top in general was really great as usual & Nagata fighting from underneath was fantastic w/ him battling in his last ever G1 to get those 2 points. Great match. ****

Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. MK4 (AKINO & Sonoko Kato) & Rina Yamashita This was highly enjoyable, and easily one of my favorite OZ matches of the year so far. It's Ozaki's homecoming in Saitama and the match had an energetic vibe. Yamashita was on fire; I dug her lariat exchange with POLICE. Ohka looked really great, knocking everyone down with her deadly boots. Everyone had their moment and delivered a great main event! ****

Queen's Quest (AZM & HZK) vs. NEW-TRA (Takumi Iroha & Rin Kadokura) Takumi spams superkicks like a western indie wrestler; she rarely makes tape so I was anticipating her every move, seeing what interesting techniques she would use, and I dig this NEW-TRA team. Kadokura is getting out of her rookie phase, and showed off some new moves in her new attire. I thought Queen's Quest did great as well; AZM gave a strong effort. Very solid tag match. ***1/4

This was a long, grueling warfare that was paced & structured masterfully. Great dueling neck targeting throughout - both guys, especially MiSu, were on point with their brutal onslaughts on each other's necks. Loved the Inoki tribute by MiSu - that was such a great moment. It fit right into the atmosphere w/ his hometown crowd being mostly behind him. Those slap exchanges were absolutely amazing - MiSu putting his hands behind his back & asking Okada to slap the shit out of him was so great, as was the brilliant character moment of Okada when MiSu was slapping the soul out of him, he falls down, BARELY gets up & puts that forced cocky smile on. Outstanding ch…

Yehi is the smaller competitor, so he spends a good portion of the early going trying to establish his ground, but WALTER isn't having any of it. He toys with Yehi, tossing him around the ring with ease, employing suplexes and bodyslams to assert his dominance. Yehi is a master of unconventional offense, so he manages to sneak in a few nasty stomps to WALTER's knees, wearing the larger man down. Yehi's offensive creativity never ceases to amaze me. When WALTER tries to take the fight to the outside, Yehi out-wits him by baiting him up to the steps and going right back to those vicious stomps. Back in the ring, WALTER is equally great as an imposing force, showing no signs…

The final contest in their trilogy of matches, and quite possibly, my favorite of the bunch. Tanahashi and Naito have such good chemistry together, and it really worked here, with the Sumo Hall pro-Naito and Tanahashi turning the crowd early with a couple of bad boy slaps to Naito's face in the ropes. Kiss that ace guitar bye-bye. Then he attacks Naito during his tranquilo pose and it's on, with some nasty open hands exchanged in the corner and Naito taking the first seat behind the wheel with an awesome basement dropkick counter to Tanahashi's rounding body press. I like dueling limbwork when it's done well and thankfully, these two make it work. Tanahashi's torn bicep h…

These two have an absolutely incredible chemistry with each other. I thought their match from the G1 Special in USA was the best match from those shows & here they had an even better one. This followed the same story as that one - Ishii's superior striking & toughness vs. Zack's brutal submission game & limb targeting. Terrific storytelling with both guys playing their roles to perfection - Zack was on point with everything he did, I thought he did a great job selling Ishii's strikes & the desperation with his facial expressions. Oh & Ishii, my goodness - the Stone Pitbull once again proved why he is one of the, if not THE best seller in wrestling toda…

This is an opening round match for SEAdLINNNG's Ultra U-7 tournament which mainly featured younger wrestlers. This was the best performance from Iroha since her World of Stardom title match versus Kairi Hojo a couple of years ago as she hits a lot of nasty looking, high impact offense. Kyuri has potential but usually has some rough patches in her matches. This might be the best performance of her career though as she survives Iroha's nasty shots and is able to chip away at her with some leg work. Pretty damn good ten minute match. ***3/4

This was just as much fun as it looked on paper. Really great action from start to finish - great stuff like Hot Sauce sneaking in at times to try & get that victory, Riddle going toe-to-toe with the big lads & of course the exchanges between Lee & WALTER. Those chops were SICK. ****1/2

These two put together the best match of their series by working a simple but effective formula. It was still a nutty Fire Pro Omega match but they managed to work in the spots without being too self-indulgent and it followed the thread of Okada's injured neck and Omega just blasting it with his high-impact offense. Omega as the movez aggressor works so much more than him cartoonishly selling a limb, whereas Okada, who has historically been spotty in his selling, has improved a lot since the Shibata match and his performance here really sold this match for me. The real turning point was the reverse frankensteiner on the floor, which Okada sold beautifully and it injected …

This was absolutely fantastic. Started off with MiSu kicking the crap out of Yano & that continued until Yano made his comeback, but even after that Suzuki really continued to dominate. It was only after Rocky Romero interfered that Yano got to execute his masterplan & my goodness, what a hoot that plan was. The Sublime Master Thief steals one to cap off his G1. Perfectly executed. So much fun. ****1/4

Thanks to SirEdgar for this rec. I'm not a fan of Kojima as he generally comes across too goofy with his mannerisms for me to take him seriously, but he does he decent job here working as a poor-man's late-career Kobashi. First time watching EVIL and he didn't really do much for me. Both guys look kind of limited as much of the match is slow and mainly built around basic strikes, but they build to some big moves and Kojima ends up giving a pretty good babyface selling performance by the end. Not a classic, but an admirable effort for these guys. ***

This was fantastic. Thatcher was brilliant chopping down Dijak w/ his focused attack on his arm - Dijak sold that super well & his comeback flurries were really great. ****

Their 3rd meeting was their best match yet. WALTER & Riddle just beat the absolute shit out of each other while telling a great David vs. Goliath story at the same time. Fantastic stuff. ****1/2

Itoh Maki & Reika Saiki vs. Miyu Yamashita & Yuka Sakazaki This was one hell of a prelude to Reika/Yuka. Such an incredible, well-worked match by all four competitors. Miyu & Yuka were a surprisingly cohesive duo, Muscle Waifu stepped it up, and Itoh's charisma was off the charts in her fighting spirit sequence. ****1/4

I had high expectations for this match after watching the generations trios on the last big Sendai Girls show and on paper this had a more talented lineup. This match doesn't make it to the level that the other match did, mostly due to Totoro (who must have been a sub for Tsukushi.) She only made her debut in March and she sticks out like a sore thumb here, working most of the opening of the match getting knocked around. Things really pickup once Iroha and Chihiro get involved with the nasty interactions of Iroha and Meiko being a highlight of the match. After watching this, I really want to she singles matches between Nanae/Chihiro and Meiko/Iroha. Pretty good stuff. ***…

This is the first of a three match series that these two teams are having during this month. Twelve and a half minutes wouldn't be enough time for a lot of wrestlers to have a fleshed out, action packed match but it's more than enough time for these four. They start rolling right away and since they are both experienced, talented teams they are able to pull off really slick stuff even at a quick constant pace. The only real negative here is that they rely use missed/countered double teams as transitions a bit too much that as the match goes on you start to expect double teams to miss rather than hit. A hell of a way to kick off this series though. ****

Regina di WAVE Championship: Rina Yamashita © vs. Yoshiko It feels surreal to watch a joshi event that takes place in the same venue Okada and Tiger Mask W fought in. This borrowed a lot from the SEAdLINNNG match, but since this is Rina's turf she was the focus of this story. The action was intense and hard-hitting, and the closing lariat battle was epic. ****1/4