February 2018

It's pretty cool to see AR Fox back in the place where he made a name for himself. I'm glad Fox's posse by the way didn't get in the way of this match because it was a great match for Lee's title. Lee wasn't particularly as flippy as he could be because he was all about the physical punishment, but that was fine because Fox was the one flying everywhere doing some really cool moves. It was a struggle that saw Fox take Lee to the limit, but in the end the latter gets the pin with the Ground Zero out of nowhere for the win, ****1/4.

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Austin Theory is going to be a star one day there is no doubt about that (hell he even had a WWE tryout just recently), and it was really apparent in this match as he had a pretty brutal grudge match with Zack. Theory isn't as technical as Zack, but he makes up for that with smooth agility and Priscilla Kelly by his side. Even with his valet by his side, he still managed to have a pretty even match with Zack as they just beat each other with full on disrespect, mainly instigated by Theory's heel work. Zack of course being the technical wizard kept on a barrage on Theory's leg which with some luck allowed him to capture Theory in a leg lock submission to retain his title, …

Nice little match here with Togo da gawd doing a great control section over Nomura's leg after the young breh got a little too cocky. The comeback is done really well with Takuya fighting his ass off to try to even things out, loved his selling of the leg every time he connected a kick, it wasn't about fighting smart this time, he wanted to show Togo he could deliver damage no matter in how much pain he was in. Ending made sense. Hard not to have fun in these 12 minutes

Very intense battle with Momo throwing every bomb she could but it wasn't enough to put her mentor Io down. Excellent stuff.

This was billed as a dream match with the legend Satomura against the current World of Stardom champion Storm. I had muted expectations for this match since this wasn't a main event title match and neither of these two had really impressed me lately. With that said, I absolutely loved the first half of this match! It's just nothing but matwork. A hybrid of shoot style, UK style, and traditional pro style. I honestly could have watched them do just that for twenty minutes. Things aren't quite as good when they get in to *Big Moves* mode but the match doesn't lose that much. At least things didn't get egregious like they did in the Meiko/Ayako match from January. A great ma…

Saki-sama vs. Marika Kobashi I didn't expect this to be such an intense match. This was definitely Marika's best bout - she pulled through big time with a spectacular underdog performance, and Saki-sama was the perfect opponent. The action was captivating and the finish was highly dramatic. Incredible match. ****

So the WWE decided that this week, they're gonna put together close to two hours of just real good solid wrestling and what a shock, it was awesome! Seth and Roman start the match, getting some good exchanges going with Roman really bringing the tightness and stiffness to the match. Roman's timing and character work really is something else. Something as simple as standing up to a charging Rollins says so much and really creates a very heated moment that ups the intensity of the match. Exciting and hot finishing stretch that protects both guys but does a lot to help out Seth Rollins. Seth takes on John Cena next. Seth jumps Cena to start forcing Cena to work the …

After their classic at the last Takeover, I thought there would be more interest in this match around here. I mean, it's four days later and no thread for what I thought was another awesome match between the two. Is it because it was taped weeks ago and the spoilers were known? It seems not a lot of folks follow the week to week NXT TV. Yes, I know that there are not a lot of "great matches" on the show, but it's only one hour a week and there have been tons of gems like this one over the years. Anyway, this was great. What a rivalry this has turned out to be, and Almas and Gargano have become much bigger stars because of it. In a way it's the US version of Okada vs O…

Fantastic match, the best I've seen between these two and they've had lot of good ones. What I love about it is how they have a really compelling contest even though Walter controls at least 80% of the match, they don't feel any need to do though back and forth quick changes in momentum that's almost ubiquitous in wrestling now. Starr actually does pretty well in the opening few minutes, teases Walter a bit to come at him but dodging him, looking kind of cocky about it. He manages to knock Walter to the outside then looks like he's going for a dive but no.... He's tried that before in a previous match and it didn't end well. He's learning! Instead he lowers the ring-rope …

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THE LOVERS ARE BACK, BABY. This was just pure fireworks from START to FINISH; one of those matches where when it ended I went "man, pro wrestling's the goddamn best". Korakuen was ROCKING, Omega & Ibushi are absolutely wonderful together, the character work by all involved was great (especially by Cody who was on FIRE) & the all around storytelling combined with the atmosphere was just amazing. Lovely, lovely, lovely stuff. ****1/2

Match of the night right here. Sonya and Mandy looked like a threat early on, basically torturing Bayley until Sasha came along to even things up. Mickie had an amazing, albeit sadly very short run in the match, but curiously it was after she was gone that the match turned from good, but mundane, to great. Sasha and Bayley chasing down Alexa made for a good visual, and she managing to outsmart two friends turned foes was incredibly well done. Some batshit spots like the Twisted Bliss from the top of the cell or that spike DDT sure helped things. Alexa then delivers and AMAZING promo playing everyone in the arena. The title looks even more like a big deal and (…

Quite possibly the best performance in Nia's young career so far - she delivered a great monster-on-top performance while Asuka was a terrific underdog with lethal offense of her own. Probably my MOTN. It's very close between it & the women's chamber match. ***3/4

This was another great match. They did a very nice job of establishing all the competitors on an equal level, with no one getting the clear upper hand or looking that much dominant... ... at least until Braun appears. Then the match kind of turns into a game of survival, and that's what it's all about until the end. Braun is put over not as a Kane, or a Big Show, who got beaten by joint efforts in previous Chamber matches. Instead, he is put over as someone that even if you manage to pin for the three count, you are going to lose. Him kicking out of a dozen finishers and eliminating five people, one by one, was scary as shit, when you think about it. He was like J…

A super simply, but very well structured tag bout. The story was all about The Bar working like such a solid unit, keeping Apollo from tagging to Titus for most of it. Cesaro & Sheamus did a good job working over the man & Apollo's selling was good. Titus' hot tag was very good - the Clash of the Titus nearfall was awesome. They even got the crowd into the match when they hit that finishing stretch, which was great to hear because they weren't making any noise for the 4 men involved in the early stages. Very good match. ***1/2

Not even sure how to explain why this match works besides "Korakuen magic", there's some stuff they do that doesn't make a lot of sense, and the selling was spotty. Nakanoue's performance varied from holy shit amazing to "not sure why he did that", but the crowd fucking buys in on everything he does. By the halfway mark they want a new champ and they BELIEVE Nakanoue can pull it off. The atmosphere minimizes the flaws this match has imo, it's not a MOTYC but I'd still recommend it just to see Korakuen elevate a match like only that place can.

Kalisto does his lucha things while Roddy goes after his back in violent fashion. Wonderful stuff. ****