January 2018

Very good back & forth to start things off - both guys establish their styles from early on. Eventually Makabe hits B-Boy w/ a very nice looking corner dropkick, which hurt B-Boy's hand, which resulted in Makabe attacking that hand & arm in vicious fashion for rest of the match. He busts out some terrific armbars + stretches & stomps the crap out of it. B-Boy sells it wonderfully. Great match. ****

This was a fantastic, intense battle between these two. They beat the crap out of each other w/ some truly great looking offense by both (especially Riddle) while telling a really good story of Riddle having the advantage for most of it & Starr getting more & more back into things as it went on. Between this & their CZW match from last year, I think it's safe to say that David Starr & Matt Riddle have quite great chemistry with each other. ****

The main event of this show is an interpromotional match between New-Tra and the Actwres girlZ' team of Maki and Honma. Natsumi Maki looked really good. I haven't see her in a match the got a significant amount of time in a while so it's nice to see how much she has improved a fair bit. It's also good to see New-Tra have another quality performance after neither of their tag title performances in December were that good. A very good match between four up-and-coming young joshi workers. ***3/4

Great match overall, but it had the same issue that most New Japan main events do. It went on for very long & had a forgettable first third or so - once Tanahashi does the High Fly Flow where he lands directly on his bad knee though, that's when this gets amazing. Suzuki tortures the crap out of him w/ brutal submissions & Tanahashi's selling is superb; this was a clinic in that regard - milking amazing drama w/ simple, yet brutal submissions & amazing selling of those. I liked the story of MiSu refusing to go for the pin, wanting Tana to give up, but Tana refusing to do so which lead to the stoppage. I did think there was quite bit of dull stuff in it in the …

I've just finished watching it for the second time. This is the best NXT match ever and Johnny Gargano is one of the best sellers I have ever seen in wrestling. He manages to look totally destroyed just from facial expressions yet at no point does it feel hammy, just pitch perfect. The structure of this match is so excellent, it feels fairly conventional in the opening but then takes you on so many twists you really don't know what's gonna happen next. When's the last time a WWE match had so many believable nearfalls, and yet the match never feels like it's peaked too early? The multiple acts of interference from Zelina Vega really added to the match by adding more insurm…

First of all: Shayna fucking rocks. Her presence reminds me of Minoru Suzuki, like one of those people that is legit dangerous, but at the same time they actually draw your attention to the violence they display. Considering she's new to pro-wrestling, it's amazing she can project that aura so well. As for the match itself, I enjoyed it a lot. Baszler being in control for much of the match, with Moon having offensive spurts is the best idea. The fluke-y finish worked well, and albeit some might have problems with the length of the armbar spot, I felt it was some well-made suspense. Good stuff. Shayna HAS to win the title on the near future.

This was a really well done David vs. Goliath tag battle. Loved the AOP completely overwhelming Fish & O'Reilly w/ their power in the early stages of the match. The champs were looking to be in BIG trouble until Akam tweaked his knee - that then became a big part of the Undisputed Era's attack on him, which lead to a really good FIP segment. Akam sold the good work by Fish & O'Reilly wonderfully. After he gets the hot tag to Rezar, they start to get that power move game rolling once again, but Fish & O'Reilly bust some really good counters to those, including going after that bad knee of Akam. Really good stuff all around with awesome performances from all inv…

Velveteen is MONEY. Oozes charisma, airbrushes his opponent's face in his attire, has incredible mannerisms... and of course, the top tier entrances. The 30 or less knockout was a fun semi-stipulation to the match, and did they deliver. Crowd was so much into it from the get go. A fun slugfest with some sloppy moments. Ohno is a good base to make people shine (like Sullivan on the previous Takeover), but man did Dream make this match work wonders. Fun stuff. Dream deserves to be in the main roster after some polishing - that first Death Valley Driver spot was SCARY

Ishikawa's already off to a hell of a 2018 and this match, given the technical difficulties, was pretty great. I really love the role HARASHIMA has established for himself as the scrappy aging ace who has quite a mean streak behind that smile. I dug his early matwork and thought it worked well against Ishikawa with the added double stomps. On the outside, Ishikawa stops his momentum by lobbing an unfolded chair at him before hitting the double stomp from the guardrail to set up the backwork. After the ropes break, they improvise with Ishikawa continuing to focus on the back and while it's a little slow, they pick it back up after Ishikawa swings HARASHIMA into the chairs.…

I didn't like this as much as their Dome match, but it was still really good. Great chemistry between The Bucks & RPG 3K. Fun action from start to finish w/ a really good structure & psychology. Matt f'n Jackson! Great performance from the man. ***1/2

A brutal masterpiece between the two members of the best tag team in wrestling right now. Great feeling out process to start things off; the mat work & the way they battled over the control felt so natural & looked pretty gritty, which I obviously loved. Quickly after it's the WALTER show; he just mauls the shit out of Thatcher - I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again: Thatcher is quite possibly the best FIP in the biz, so of course it was a joy watching him sell his ass off for the brutal beatdown he received. He eventually gets the control by doing the classic "chopper-chops-the-ringpost" -bit, and after that it's Thatcher on the attack, super foc…

This is for Queen's Quest's Artists of Stardom titles. As someone who was never enjoyed this feud, I was surprised that I ended up liking this as much as I did. This was one of the rare times that Oedo Tai's heel shtick worked well within a match. They also manage to work some nice sequences and pulled off some nice double teams. QQ were also able to give their typical trios level performance because they weren't weighed down by Oedo Tai's antics. A much better match than the overrated elimination match from the week before. ***3/4

I thought this was super fun. Lots of women got a chance to shine - Ruby Riot looked great, Kairi Sane looked great, Mickie James looked great, Becky Lynch looked really good, Nikki Bella looked really good, Ember Moon looked great, Asuka looked great, Sasha Banks looked really great. All the surprise entrants were handled in super enjoyable fashion & all of them looked really good in the ring, too! Overall just a really well structured Rumble match. The post-match w/ Ronda coming out was quite something (that Piper jacket! ) - I LOVED Asuka slapping her hand away when she tried to go for a handshake. All in all, a really good time from start to finish! ***3/4

This match had no right to be as fun as it actually was. From Braun and Brock being unprofessional with each other to a barrage of non-stop bombs. Kane was there, true, but considering how quickly Lesnar gasses, his presence is kind of a breather and necessary, even if he is almost useless from a wrestling perspective at this point.

My favourite TV match so far this year that didn't have Roman Reigns in it. Sasha is full of aggression and cockiness early on playing on her earlier promo that she's not intimidated by Asuka. This leads to a lovely set of exchanges leading to Sasha getting Asuka into an armbar from the armdrag. Good chemistry already and this is the first time these two have wrestled. It's a strange dynamic with two babyfaces both working heelish taunting each other but it works. Sasha's really trying to fight Asuka at her own game to try show she isn't all that, starts a striking exchange by slapping her across the face and mocks her poses. Of course that didn't end well for her coz…

What a hoot. Not only we had delightful dynamics in-ring with Zayn being heelish towards the crowd and being a cunning coward against Braun, but also he was supportive of Becky sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Lynch and Bliss wer much more comfortable here than in many of their matches, which is good, and Strowman is no stranger to Zayn. Alexa and Braun are unbelievable. Their dynamic is great and it went into play in the finish. The post-match is HYSTERICAL. What a fun match.