August 2017

This is an historic match because it's the first main event of a major joshi show to feature a transgender wrestler. The match itself was better than I expected it to be. Ohka has looked really good in tags this year but usually comes off as bland in singles matches. Here she looked good. Her offense is pretty basic but she used it effectively and hit some nasty shots. ASUKA looked good as well, even hitting some great, Manami Toyota level spots as highlights. They do go a bit long as the match loses some steam towards the finish. Given the historical context of the match they both give a quality performance. ***1/2

I don't know, guys. I think they broke me. Perhaps I just understand the "grammar" of this style more now or perhaps they really just have finally refined this main event NJPW style to something that I completely enjoy because I LOVED THIS. It starts off a little slow but without much of the meandering matwork that comes from matches earlier in the year. Here, they go right for the good juicy meaty stuff. Lots of mind games from both guys as expected and lots of personality. Both guys target the neck relentlessly and there are some pretty fantastic moments that surround it. Omega not being able to complete his usual kip up and springboard was MASTERFUL (5 star moment…

Amazing, just as I expected it to be. Started off with Thatcher & WALTER completely owning Bate & Seven - they got to do work over them for a pretty lengthy amount of time & it was amazing. Both of them are really great on the offense. It was only after Seven did a low blow on Thatcher that BSS got some real offense in - they did really good work over Thatcher and Thatcher, as usual, was excellent with his selling. I've said it before & I'll say it again - he might just be the best seller in the business right now. WALTER was an awesome hot tag as well. The finishing stretch was also really hot & a great way to cap off a classic tag match. ****1/2

Gallagher & Banks killed it with this excellent sprint. Just super fun, great back & forth action between two wrestlers with some really great looking offense. ****

World of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Kagetsu Mayu and Kagetsu had a great High Speed match last year, but this was horrendous. It wasn't connecting with me, and by the end of it I stopped caring. The action was dull, the pacing felt very off, and of course they have to shoehorn a stairwell spot in every single Stardom Korakuen main event. This was no good! bad

Artist of Stardom Championship: Team Jungle (Hiroyo Matsumoto, Jungle Kyona & Kaori Yoneyama) © vs. Queen's Quest (HZK, Io Shirai & Viper) A solid match for Io's return. I thought she looked great, and she did some new flippy stuff. Viper ends up crushing Kyona's face and causing a nosebleed, and I thought it added to the match visually. It's also nice to see HZK pick up the big win. ***

This had a suspiciously high rating on Cagematch for a Nia Jax match, especially for one that occured during the cold era of 2017 Raw. And yet, it's not undeserved. This is some hard hitting Big Wrestler vs Small Wrestler action. There are a couple of nasty spots owing to Nia's recklessness, which will occasionally add to a match, as they do here. This match was a bit of a system shock, having become accustomed to modern WWE, with its crowd sweetening and mid-match monologues. None of that here. Just a hot Boston crowd who were genuinely into the action and decent commentary from an announce team I have hated in other times. Really quite taken aback by how good this was. …

I thought this was a solid match but my least favorite Suzuki defense of the year. Daichi didn't do a whole lot to differentiate his performance from every other mediocre Daichi performance, and it definitely lacked the pissy-ness I was hoping he'd tap into. He showed some dominance early on with his kicks and his headlock, but once Hideki finds a way out, it becomes the Hideki show, cranking cravates and throwing suplexes. He quickly adapts to Hashimoto's strike-based strategy so that when Daichi comes kicking again, he's able to catch a leg and capture suplex him. I liked Daichi's knee counter to the Robinson backbreaker attempt, which sets up a run of offense building …

Super Asia Championship Tournament - Semi-Finals: Riho vs. Aoi Kizuki What a match! This was a very well paced back and forth with exciting sequences and counters. Aoi~chan impressively pulls off her signature high-flying techniques within the confines of Chocolate Hiroba. ****

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: HZK vs. Tam Nakano Tam got loads more streamers than HZK. What was meant by this? This was a fine match, it had an extra bit of heat with HZK being the bully, and the slap exchange was enjoyable. Tamu has potential and she is already over with the crowd, I'm excited to see how she'll perform in this tournament. **1/2

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Io Shirai vs. Mandy Leon Mandy Leon has a great look, I understand her appeal, but she is not a good wrestler. Fortunately, this match was worked smart, with a layout that was easy for her to follow. There were still some bad spots when Mandy was on offense, but for the most part I thought she worked well within her limitations. Io did a swell job leading, and was putting in a tremendous effort to make her loss look credible. ***

I really liked the SWA title match that these two had earlier this year so I was looking forward to this one. While being shorter than that match, this one is almost as good. They just cut straight to the heavy hitting and keep it up the whole way till Toni wins it with a nasty piledriver. I hope these two work together more in the future cause they have surprisingly good chemistry together. ***3/4

It's amazing that for a twenty year old wrestler with just over a year of experience that Hana Kimura knows how to use her ring presence so well. She only does a few moves regularly (big boot, dropkick, and a standard vertical suplex) yet her matches rarely feel overly basic and bland. You would expect a broken down twenty year veteran to work like this not someone so young. Just a surprisingly very good match here. ***3/4

First of all I will admit that I was super disappointed when this match was announced because I really wanted them to do Ohno vs. Itami on a big stage like this. I am very happy of how this match turned out to be though, as it was absolutely amazing. Loved just everything about it - Hideo showcased great character work right from the get go as he got into Aleister's face when he was still making his entrance. That continued from there till finish; Hideo's performance was really damn great. Loved the start of the match with them going right at it, exchanging those hard hitting strikes - that eventually lead to a pretty lengthy heat segment w/ Hideo working over Aleister &a…

This was absolutely phenomenal. Both women killed it - Asuka showed great cocky character work & Ember showed great fire & intensity. Asuka's arm work to that previously injured arm of Ember's was amazing, absolutely brutal & focused. Ember's selling was great & her comebacks were super great - those 2 big nearfalls w/ the Eclipse & the Superkick were outstanding. The finish was perfect w/ Asuka getting frustrated & desperate as Ember was overwhelming her & her cheating attempts didn't go through - but then Ember makes one mistake & she gets to lock that Asuka Lock. Fantastic stuff. ****1/2

I thought this told a great story of the pure power of McIntyre going against the in ring smart tactics of Roode. Roode worked that neck throughout the whole thing & McIntyre just overpowered him with his high impact moves. Great match. ****

Really great opener. Some convincing near falls that the crowd bough, and a nice Frye/Akiyama tribute trading strikes. I was worried that Gargano forgot about selling the arm during the match, but right on cue he started selling it again. Johnny Gargano may be the best babyface in the world right now. I enjoy Almas' work more than many, and he held his own in the match. The finish was the distraction from Almas' manager at ringside throwing a t-shirt at Gargano, which was a little bit cheap for my liking, however, it plays into Almas' character. ***1/2

Wow, this absolutely ruled! Very hard hitting w/ Wolfe & EY playing wonderful babyfaces against the dominating heel monster work of Akam & Rezar. I thought Wolfe & EY did an absolutely fantastic job playing their part - they sold their asses off & all of their offensive work was great. ***3/4

You know, I’m all for weapons-based dueling limbwork and I think for the most part, it worked here, with some pretty gnarly spots (that diving elbow drop from the top of the ladder to the outside). You had Sasaki targeting Akito’s neck to set up the crossface, doing crazy things like the Russian legsweep onto a ladder with a wooden block across Akito’s throat and ultimately, winning the match with the chair-assisted crossface hold. You had Akito doing his leg-based thing, blasting Sasaki’s knee with a chair while he’s hung up in the ladder and using a ton of kneebreaker variations. Really liked his double kneebreaker counter to the early crossface attempt. At times, Akito…

KO-D Openweight Championship: Konosuke Takeshita © vs. Tetsuya Endo Neither of these guys are interesting characters, but they were working very hard to captivate the Sumo Hall crowd, trading stiff offense and taking hard bumps. It's like watching two Hirooki Goto's go at it. The match was based around mutual neck work, and I thought they did a swell job of selling the damage. The middle finger spot would have worked better for Endo, given his role in the match (working underneath). But that is only a minor complaint. Good match! ****

OZ Academy Openweight Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto © vs. Hikaru Shida This was an amazing payoff to almost 2 years worth of building. Shida targets the neck of Hiroyo in a plethora of ways, knee strikes, mount elbows, shinai strikes, an apron-hung neckbreaker -- her control segment was mesmerizing; rare that she fights so aggressively. Hiroyo's comebacks were strong, and the counters were dramatic. The finishing run was brutal, a proper finish to an epic. Incredible match! ****1/2

5★STAR GP Red Stars Block: Hana Kimura vs. Mayu Iwatani Mayu has been wearing a more revealing attire lately, so this became something of a 'sexy battle', and Hana nailed it with her character work. The boob-targeting is classic Stardom. There's also an octopus hold that looked especially painful thanks to Mayu's lankiness. These two have amazing chemistry. ***

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm Toni is the unbeatable superwoman, and Io is in a vulnerable state due to her neck injury. They play up the danger of the Strong Zero piledriver that caused the injury and it led to intense moments. Io does this counter to the piledriver that was innovative and stunning. I'd go a little higher on this, but Toni's headbutts are atrocious. She has to learn how to disguise her thigh-slapping better. ***1/4

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN. Sheer spectacle. That's what this was and I loved it. I really did. Braun has been on a tear in 2017 and he just keeps making the absolute most of every single opportunity that he's been given. He went out there tonight and just showed why he is an absolute monster. The dominance of putting Brock through two tables and throwing an office chair in the faces of both Reigns and Joe. Add to that one of Lesnar's best sell jobs bumping like a nut for Braun and selling his ass off for Reigns. Sure, Joe was just a bit of an afterthought and that's a shame, but man when this match was on it was ON. I'm honestly unsure how to rate t…

Oh man it feels so good to see Ambrose & Rollins tag again. They are so much better together than as singles guys. This started off pretty slow, but once Cesaro went & got + destroyed that beach ball from the crowd, things got heated & very interesting. From that point on, the match was pretty damn amazing w/ The Bar doing great work over Rollins & Ambrose being a fantastic hot tag. The finishing stretch was also really damn good. Great match. ****