September 2017

Best match of the night. Jonah Rock looked great in his PWG debut as he got to showcase his monster role against one of the absolute best in the world, Zack Sabre Jr. He did great work over ZSJ, showcasing that move-set of his while ZSJ worked the David role super well as expected - loved how he worked more & more over that leg throughout match, weakening Jonah as the bout went on. Jonah sold it really well, one of the highlights was him not being able to go & do that Frog Splash right away because of the damage he had taken. Great stuff. ****

Definitely my most awaited first round tournament match up in this year's edition of BOLA. And it did not disappoint - the big lads delivered just as expected! Loved all the stuff on the mat, glad to see WALTER & Keith showcase their technical skills & of course we got some beefy BIG BOY action between them as well. All in all, a really good, borderline great match. 2nd best 1 vs. 1 match of the night behind Travis Banks vs. Mark Haskins. ***3/4

This was well on it's way of being a **** match, but then the finish happened. Usually stuff like that doesn't bother me much, but this time it was so goddamn confusing that it made the match lose quite a bit of it's fire. But yeah, it is what it is - if we do not count the huge botch by the ref in the finish, this was an absolutely kickass match. Mark Haskins & Travis Banks kicked the crap out of each other & it was lovely. Very strong performances by both. ***3/4

An incredibly entertaining trios match. The heat segment on Fenix was great, the comedy was fine & pretty much everything apart from those 2 things I mentioned were straight up highspot after highspot stuff - and it was pretty damn amazing. ****1/2

This is my favourite match between these two so far. Ray's strikes were pretty good as she threw out some nasty forearms and overhand, slap style chops. She also had some nifty cutoffs to Io's comeback attempts. Io is finally able to get some momentum going after Ray's leg and teases the Texas Cloverleaf. The do a neat finish where Ray makes the fatal mistake of blocking an Io moonsault with her bad leg, which eventually leads to Ray taking too long to hit a swanton allowing Io to lock on the Cloverleaf for the win. Good stuff! ***3/4

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Konami vs. Tam Nakano Very good match between these GPS girls. Konami was the aggressor, and Tam was selling those kicks. This had a feel of tension and urgency, and I was impressed with the raw emotion/conviction coming from Nakano. ***1/2

This is somewhat clipped but it doesn't seem to be anything substantial, probably like 2 minutes at most. I went and found the unclipped version and it frankly doesn't add a whole lot worth mentioning bar some downtime and brawling. Violento Jack is primarily known for his gory deathmatch schlock which is why it's somewhat shocking that GENTARO not only actually wrestled the guy but additionally did it llave style and pretty damn good to boot. It's nothing like a Masters match or anything, was still quite impressed with what they threw out here, the two clearly knew their stuff. We get a couple of neat sequences where the two basically just go back and forth applying…

I didn't have any expectations coming into this but it was such a weird match-up I just had to watch it. I'm sure everyone remembers the well known story of Kobashi coming into ROH expecting nobody to know him and being ready to play a generic stereotypical heel-that's kinda what happened with Kojima here. Some of his offence really did look more suited for lucha than traditional jwres-some of it due to the lack of stiffness, some of due to how cartoony his mannerisms were. Kojima did manage to get heat for whatever that's worth, but watching him cosplay Dr.Wagner Jr. in playing to the crowd more than doing anything wasn't interesting. Structurally the match wasn't much-K…

This was a fun tag main event for a B show. Hiroyo and Kuragaki make a good powerhouse team. Shida has some impressive power spots of her own along with her kendo stick for backup. I haven't been a fan of the changes that Yoshiko has made to her in-ring style, (being more of a fast paced, quick hit wrestler) but it worked well her in a tag setting. Good showing from everyone here. ***1/2

This was just absolutely ridiculous in the most positive way possible. Not only was this an absolutely incredible collection of insane moves, sequences & memorable moments by two huge monsters, it also told a great story of Dijak doing everything he possibly could think of to try & put his biggest rival down. Keith answered with the same thing; he did everything he could do to put the super focused Dijak down. The no sell, fighting spirit moments were super well timed & done. Amazing match. ****1/2

This was such a great David vs. Goliath sprint. Keith dominated most of the match because of his superior size & strength - he threw Fenix around in an awesome fashion. Fenix was brilliant as the fiery underdog fighting from underneath with his sick chops & fast paced flurries of dives. Excellent stuff. ****

This was super enjoyable. Riddle & Penta brought their destructive offense against each other in an excellent, intense bout. ****

This was so incredibly entertaining. Trevor Lee's TNA heel shtick, Chuck Taylor joining the match & having to go to the back & get geared up for it, him accidentally slamming his own partner Joey Janela, confusing him with Trevor Lee because of their similar gear, WALTER having none of the fun & games, Flamita coming in & showcasing that freakish quickness of his, WALTER & Jonah brawling to the back... This one was just absolute gold from start to finish. A PWG classic! ****1/2

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Io Shirai vs. Konami Another awesome match between these two -- they've got good chemistry. Konami stepped it up here. ***3/4

These two had a very underrated match at the beginning of the year to kick off Kyona's run of title matches. Kyona uses her power to control the early going until Ray gets in some quick shots from unusual angles. The match turns into a nice back and forth between the two of them. They could have used more time to build up a better finish as it feels like Ray wins out of nowhere. Still one of the better matches of the tournament so far. ***3/4

A great match up between a ruthless, brutal veteran that is Minoru Suzuki and a younger fella by the name of GO Asakawa who has only been in the business for a little over 2 years. I have never seen him wrestle before but I really liked his performance here - he brought a very nice amount of fire. He looked really, really good everytime he got to be on the offense. Minoru sold just enough for him & obviously Minoru himself looked like a killer just stretching & slapping Asakawa around. ****

THE BIG LADS DO IT AGAIN. Another great match between these two. Just really fun, great hoss action from start to finish w/ absolutely epic big spots. ****

TOKYO Princess Tag Team Championship Tournament - Round 1A: Itoh Respect Army (Itoh Maki & Mizuki) vs. Muscle Strikers (Reika Saiki & Miyu Yamashita) The atmosphere here is insane; the crowd is hanging on every movement, and the performers were playing to it with some very dramatic moments. Mizuki & Itoh deliver one of the best underdog performances I've seen this year and 1stRING was going nuts, it was magnificent. ****

TOKYO Princess Tag Team Championship Tournament - Round 1B: Miracle Apricots (Yuka Sakazaki & Syoko Nakajima) vs. Konkatsu-gun (Azusa Takigawa & Nonoko) This was really entertaining. Konkatsu brought kitchen utensils as weapons and they were amazing on offense. Nonoko introduced the devastating Oppai Driver, which is a Fire Thunder piledriver into her boobs. Her high wrestling IQ shined here. Azusa's new attire is just incredible. ***1/2

Fake shooter Nakatsu, now with Cro Cop inspired gear, does some decent ground passes. Yasu Urano is the worst, he wrestles in a Yes shirt and part of his offense is yelling really loud. Sekine and Nakatsu do all their shtick but what makes this match good are the interactions between Hino and Sekine. Hino chopping Sekine's legs is something that shouldn't work and yet, it does. When Nakatsu gains the upper hand on Urano, Sekine rushes out to knock Hino from the apron to the floor and Hino starts a brawl in the corner. There's a handful of funny moments, because Hino is good at comedy but for the most part Hino just kills Sekine. Entertaining match, despite Urano being the…

Feel like I'm stealing Aguakun's thunder a bit here, just watched this today and it's probably my 2nd favourite match of the tournament so far. At the start of the tournament Oedo Tai played rock paper scissors to decide who of them would win the tournament and Hana Kimura won, so Kagetsu announces that this will be a 10 second match as she's going to let Hana get 2 easy points. So don't anyone go crying and complaining, you were warned! She starts the match by lying down and lets Hana pin her, 1, 2 .... kickout! And goes flying into offense onto a bedazzled Hana, as if Kagetsu was ever going to just lie down for you. Kris Wolf on the outside doesn't know who to take …

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Io Shirai vs. Tam Nakano Tam looked strong with her dragon sleeper and near-fall. Love the somato Io has been using lately. Good match, the crowd reaction was strong. ***1/2

This is a weird match. Ohata bringing down a rainbow coloured hula hoop with a bag of golf balls perfectly sums up the match. It seems so out of place for such a brutal street fight to mix in comedy spots the way that they do here. Ohata also does a pretty nasty blade job that ends up looking like she has put on zombie makeup for Halloween. The work itself is really good as they do a nice job of flowing towards each spot. Definitely not a match for everyone but an interesting one none the less. ***1/2

Man, I miss Jason Jordan. He was saddled with a spoiled brat/oblivious kid gimmick, son to GM Kurt Angle, and made that shit work with charisma and absurd talent. Here, its essentially a showcase match for him to show how he can hang with the big boys. The week prior, he had another great match against Cena, and on this event, went against John's No Mercy 2017 opponent, Roman Reigns. The story for this match is clear and concise - you have a young, hungry, talented wrestler going up against a much more established star. He has the tools, but his experience and novice mistakes end up costing the match. He just looks so damn good here with smooth counters, amazing…

I am SUPER high on this match. I thought it was so, so, so excellent. Amazing performances by both & great storytelling throughout the thing; loved Baszler establishing dominance with her MMA-esq work over Kairi. Her strikes were really great. Loved the arm work, that had such a charm to it - gave me some Billy Robinson vibes. Great stuff. Kairi's selling of that was great, as it was in general from start to finish - she showed such great heart & fire. Her countering that brutal arm work of Shayna's by going after her ribs was excellent & played well into the finish with her dropping that beautiful Elbow on her. Absolutely loved everything about this. The way …