September 2017

Wolfgang had a couple of decent spots, but this match was nearly all Pete Dunne. Wolfgang attempts a body slam at the very beginning of the match. He gets it, but Dunne holds onto the arm and the momentum sends Wolfgang over too, with Dunne in complete control of his opponent's arm. It was neat spot that allowed Dune to call the match in a believable manner. The finish comes out of nowhere, after Dunne hits The Bitter End. The post-match stuff is brilliant. Cole and his indy darlings rush the ring and attack Dunne. Wolfgang saves him, Dunne rolls out and the stable beats down Wolfgang. Dunne runs back in the ring only to grab his belt and to leave again, and he has th…

I must have gone insane, because Kyushu Pro is the last wrestling company in the world that still interests me. ASOSAN has the goofiest mask in the world, but holy shit this dude can work! This was really fun, plenty violent indy wrestling. I really liked the simple opening, with Aso working a basic headlock and really trying to pop little Sasaki's neck, then following up with elbows to the back of the head and neck. Then Aso goes on to just crush Sasaki with nice looking punches, awesome judo throws and lung-squishing sentons and sumo palm strikes. Sasaki, for a guy who wasn't very memorable previously, looked shockingly good selling here, and I really liked his constant…

The new trend of UFC guys (and gals) deciding to do indie wrestling has really led to some great stuff, and this might be my favorite. Filthy Tom Lawlor actually had some pro-wrestling experience before UFC (he is listed as Hack Myers trained by Cagematch) and was a DVDVR poster back in the day. Garrini isn't an ex-UFC guy but is a Brazilian Jujitsu champion and fits in perfectly in this style. Lawlor comes out in a gimp mask and predator wig, and I am not sure what gimmick he is working. Opening matwork was great, both guys rolling around grabbing arms and legs. I imagine this was ju-jitsu sparring and you could tell that the skill level was really high. After the matwo…

Zack Sabre Junior fits the New Japan main event style a lot better than so many of its homegrown talent. He actually can do a slow build match as he has such interesting and varied matwork and grappling skills that I don't feel like the first half of the match was just killing time. The match is 30 minutes and didn't feel that long at all. You can split the 'technical' section of this match in two. The first act is ZSJ imposing his technical superiority over Tanahashi, has the odd setback for overall everything Tanahashi does he has a counter for, the reversing Japanese chokeholds were nicely inventive. Then the second act is Zack moving to attack Tana's injured bicep…

Miyu Yamashita vs. Yuki Kamifuku This was everything I had hoped for, just Miyu putting the beatdown on this awkward rookie. Her strikes were stiff and punishing, and it felt like she wasn't holding anything back. Kamifuku shows fire as Miyu keeps pushing her, and she lands some nasty strikes herself. Nice little match. ***1/4

Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship: Yuu © vs. Nonoko Yuu has a dangerous arsenal of chops, judo throws and submissions, but Nonoko has her powerful boobs. They were brutalizing each other in grand fashion, and Nonoko shows that she can be just as vicious as Yuu. This was a spectacular 7 minutes. ****1/2

This is NEW-TRA's shot at the WAVE tag titles after winning the tag league earlier in the night. The real key to this match was NEW-TRA's ability to keep the Nagahama sections interesting as Nagahama is one of the most dull workers in joshi. The Kobayashi sections were excellent as she has managed to figure out how to be viable offensively while being in the ring with peers who have a distinct size advantage on her and not constantly rely on playing the underdog. Hopefully NEW-TRA have a decent run as tag champs since the women from Marvelous only make tape when they work in other groups. ***3/4

ASUKA's reward for her big win over Yumi Ohka at last month's anniversary show was a title shot at the current Regina Di WAVE champ, Yamashita. This was ASUKA's best performance yet as she really showed off her athleticism and mixed in some spectacular highspots. Her selling still needs some work though. This was yet another strong, big match performance Yamashita. She is pretty much at the point that she should be mentioned in the top tier of workers in joshi. A very strong title match from two women who keep improving. ****

5★STAR GP Blue Stars Block: Jungle Kyona vs. Tam Nakano The crowd was lively for this one. Tam is green, but she makes up for that with her charisma. Kyona's leg gives out when she lifts Tam for her powerbomb finisher and the move falls apart. She doesn't know how to lift. She needs to work on lifting! ***

5★STAR GP Red Stars Block: Kagetsu vs. Mayu Iwatani Kagetsu tries to murder Mayu by pushing the entrance gate on top of her. Mayu's neck ends up sandwiched between the structure and a guardrail, it looked horrific. This was good, these two obviously have amazing chemistry and they put on a fresh installment to their feud. ***3/4

5★STAR GP - Finals: Toni Storm vs. Yoko Bito The Strong Zero kickout here was not as effective as it could have been because Toni and KLR wasted the spot earlier in the mid card, which was total nonsense. This was definitely a Toni Storm match; a lot of movez were happening and not much else. This also had one of the weakest crowd reactions of the show and it's the finals of the tournament. The rolling piledrivers looked cool, though, I gotta say. bad

This match looked like something that would be on Mid South/UWF TV in the mid-80's. Just two big wrestlers going right at each other in a hard, physical way. In her pre-match promo, Bito said that she had to avoid being crushed but unfortunately that's exactly what happens with Viper topping things off with a flip dive off the apron. Bito manages to survive though but she has to swing for the fences if she has any hope of winning. A nice book end to a solid tournament for Viper and a surprisingly strong one for Bito. ***3/4

Both teams agreed to a rematch in the future and I need that shit yesterday because this was fun as fuck. For the most part, it felt like an exhibition more than a bout for points in a tournament, and the length time hurt it, pacing was a little off and the final few minutes felt like overkill as it normally happens with these kind of matches. So a more condensed version of this should be fucking spectacular. Still, all in all, this had TONS to love. I dare anyone not to have fun watching this. I almost spit my drink laughing when 5 minutes in, Yuji just stiffed the fuck outta Daisuke for no particular reason Shingo felt like he belonged right away, as expected - though …

Why couldn't we get THIS Daichi for his title match against Suzuki?? As always with the Strong BJ division, the story for this is pretty damn simple: the two young guys show a fuck ton of heart and go all out to get the W against the champ and his outsider buddy. At first we get Daichi trying to prove a point and one up Hideki, but he pays his disrespect dearly as Suzuki fucking destroys his leg in quick fashion. From then on it's all about Kamitani holding the fort and Hashimoto doing an outstanding job at selling and showing babyface fire when needed - fucking LOVED how it looked like it hurt his soul every time he used his damaged leg - I can't get enough of how this d…

My pick for the best match of the night. Which is a big surprise because I think their PWG match is a big time candidate for the worst match of 2017 - so I definitely wasn't expecting much from them in this. Such a pleasant surprise. Chuckie T & Scurll just had a fantastic competitive back & forth match which flowed super well. Matches like this is exactly what I want ROH to be about. Loved it. ****

This was pretty great stuff. I have been wavering on Riddle a bit this year, but putting him in with another MMA guy minimizes some of his more questionable attributes. The opening mat section between the two was pretty great, both guys were just rolling, looking for submissions grabbing advantages, high level stuff which is always good to watch. Riddle is a super impressive athlete and will often do something jaw dropping, after the matwork they exchange tough guy chops, elbows and kicks, and Riddle ends it with a pele kick which looked like it was in fast forward. Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma, shit talking, claiming Dana White sent him to take Riddle out, he is a…

Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Yoko Bito Mayu's a great bully, always enjoy her workover segments. She was stomping Bito's head and hitting these nasty kicks. I thought this was an improvement over the Stardom x Stardom match. They kept things tight and focused. ***1/2

Goddesses of Stardom Championship: Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura & Kagetsu) © vs. Queen's Quest (Io Shirai & Viper) Oedo Tai's heel tactics™, Io's peril session, Viper's hot tag and chemistry with Kagetsu -- all solid. I still don't like Viper as a member of QQ. She's the same Viper! She's made little effort to fit in with the group. ***1/2

This ruled, reminding me a lot of HARASHIMA’s 2010 match against Hikaru Sato. There was a blatant and endearing familiarity between these two that pervaded the match from the initial lock-up to the grinning snug exchanges. HARASHIMA was being quite nasty here, especially with his stompy legwork, which is never fancy, but always looks excruciating, whether it's uppercutting into a leg crank or just wrenching the ankle into precarious angles. When KUDO resists the suplex lift, HARASHIMA slapping that bad leg in order to hit the Falcon Arrow -- very cool touch. I guess if I had one minor quibble, it's that KUDO's selling could've been a little more profound but his in-the-mo…

If you needed any more proof that Juice Robinson is an elite level talent, here it is. Excellent story of Juice trying to keep up with Omega in the early goings and doing the honorable thing by not going for the surgically-repaired knee. But after escaping the One-Winged Angel, Juice realizes what needs to be done and starts working it over. The inner conflict Juice shows on his face is amazing as he looks guilty, almost hesitant at working it over. Juice is able to take control until Kenny hits an insane vertical suplex off the apron to the floor. Juice looks absolutely done and Kenny just blasts him with knee after knee. Kenny is toying with Juice a bit but by hitting s…

Aasa Maika, Emi Sakura & Hana Kimura vs. Aja Kong, Cassandra Miyagi & Hikaru Shida Super enjoyable trios match once it gets past the awkward opening (it was cute, but still...). The action flowed well; fun spots and match-ups. Aasa's charisma really shines in these big venue Senjo matches. ***1/2

Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto © vs. Meiko Satomura I don't think this came anywhere close to their match last year, but it was still a great match. Satomura was trying everything to suppress the thigh-monster, and Chihiro's comebacks had amazing displays of strength and athleticism. There was a distinct lack of hip attacks that I was not a fan of, but Chihiro's powerbomb is terrifying, and this match does its job in establishing it as another move her opponents need to watch out for. The flipping senton from the top rope was also fucking nuts. ***3/4

This is for Bito's newly won Wonder of Stardom title. The match is also in the same building that Kyona won the tag titles earlier in the year with Hiroyo Matsumoto, so there's intrigue as to whether she can win her first singles' title here. Kyona controls the early going with her power but Bito manages to stay in the match with her kicks. With a longer build to the finish, this match might have been up there with Kyona's run of title matches from earlier in the year. Even so, this match ended up being the lone bright spot in a pair of really awful shows for Stardom. ***3/4

This match was dumb. By far the most interesting about it coming in was how they were going to reconcile protecting Braun with the likely result of him not winning the title, and they ended up with a solution that accomplished nothing. Braun overpowered Lesnar early on, which was his one advantage over Lesnar (as is over everyone), but we've seen Lesnar in that position a bunch of times already. As soon as Lesnar grabbed the arm on the Double Wristlock and started spamming Germans the idea Strowman was just another challenge for him to overcome started clearing up, and that's exactly what happened. Lesnar's back being "injured" was dumb-an attempt to put over Strowman as …

Another great match between these 2 teams. Great storytelling with The Bar completely dominating Rollins & Ambrose w/ their awesome team work - Cesaro & Sheamus were really great working the heat on The Shield and the comebacks of The Shield were good. I thought the finish was really good too w/ the champs outsmarting Cesaro & Sheamus big time to get the win. Also much respect to Cesaro for finishing the match after losing some teeth in brutal fashion. That made for an awesome image when Cesaro had Ambrose in the Crossface while his mouth was all bloody. Great stuff. ****