April 2018

Talk about it here.

This had the makings of being the best match of the entire weekend, but ultimately I thought Ospreay got too much of his weak looking offense in. Riddle looked like a damn killer in it, what a meanstreak! Watching him destroy the shit out of Ospreay was amazing & Ospreay was overall a good FIP, but like I said, he got way too much offense in. And those nearfalls after the whole referees-checking-on-him -angle were quite ridiculous. Ospreay showing that "fighting spirit" is never not cringeworthy. All in all, a really good match, loved it, but it was also quite disappointing at the same time, because it had makings of being a classic. Easy MOTN of Mercury Rising though…

Sabre actually worked a FUTEN show in 2015, and seems to be really excited to work a BattlArts guy. He keeps this mostly BattlArts style, with the matwork being pretty shooty, and really dialing down his flourishes (in fact any of the goofy stuff in the match was done by Sawa). There is some really nice grappling early. With Sawa working for leglocks, and Sabre attacking the arm. They exchange some nasty slaps to the ear which is the stiffest I can remember Sabre working, he really laid into Sawa and bloodied his mouth. Finish run was awesome, with Sabre yanking Sawa out of the air on a kick attempt and putting on a nasty STF variation. After Sawa gets to the ropes, they …

Miyahara's flash offense doesn't bode well with leg selling but he did better than most in that regard all things considered - you could argue he should change his formula when the story of the match is his leg getting worked on, but made the effort to sell as much as possible - and Shingo was awesome working on top. The Wada fuckery at the beginning made this fun from the get go too. Strong main event for Day 1.

Loved this. It did get a bit too generic w/ the 50/50 stuff towards the end, but everything before that was pretty damn great. Suwama's targeting of Zeus' knee was fantastic & Zeus' selling was absolutely awesome. They told the story of Suwama weakening that knee of Zeus to the point where after he had been working it for a while, he was "free" to just lariat the crap out of him & throw him around. Really good stuff. ***3/4

Watched this 2 times back-to-back, and MY GOD. First of all, both guys looked pretty banged up & tired from the weekend at this point. It didn't affect their performances whatsoever, but I think it actually added to the match. The match starts with a little feeling out process, where WALTER establishes that he is the stronger of the 2 (as usual). He overpowers Zack in every position they're in, but eventually Zack bridges up while WALTER is on top of him. That gives Zack some confidence, he is like "YEAH, AREN'T I THE SHIT, MOTHERFUCKER?" & as they get up, he SLAPS WALTER. A friendly competition gone wrong; WALTER then is like "why you did that, man?" & s…

This ruled. The atmosphere was amazing & Cody was on absolute fire - EASILY the better performer in this match. His performance was terrific; great facial expressions, awesome storytelling w/ his overall body language, loved him talking shit to the crowd & spitting beer at them, that Shattered Dreams tease was AWESOME, his work on top in general ruled.. So much good stuff! I thought Kenny's performance fighting from underneath was very dull, but Cody looked like an absolute star. Nothing funnier in wrestling right now than people "mocking" him for being a "3-Star Savior" or whatever, because 3-3.75 matches fucking RULE. This was one like that. Real good stuff, wou…

Other than some of the vintage MARTY THE VILLAIN WOOP WOOP SHTICK~!, this was absolutely awesome. Dalton is so good - his selling in this match was fantastic. Marty was, for the most part, very good too; his work on the arm of Castle was very enjoyable - he did bust out some of that annoying shtick of his that I mentioned, which is what keeps this from being a ****+ classic ROH Title Match. Even if it wasn't, I am still absolutely amazed that Dalton Castle & Marty Scurll had a match that went over 30 MINUTES & it was so, so good. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though because Dalton was coming off of that classic match vs. Lethal & Scurll's been having some g…

I actually almost skipped this, because of the participants not being very interesting & it getting some bad reviews, but DAMN I am glad I didn't do that. What a helluva match; very physical as a LMS match should be, Silas' work over Kenny was great & King did some very good selling of the back while putting on an overall damn good babyface performance. Wonderfully positive surprising, awesome match! ***3/4

Ricochet predictably shone in this environment. This being his first big WWE match, he hopefully left a lasting impression. That shooting star plancha looked organic and not at all contrived and that's something you rarely see when people attempt big dives to the outside in the 'E nowadays. Adam Cole shown more personality here than any other NXT match I've seen of his. Velveteen Dream has one of the most beautiful elbow drops in all of wrestling right now and I'm thankful we got to see it as many times as we did in this match. The match's 31 minute run time might of been excessive as there was a couple of moments in between the big spots that felt plodding and some o…

I didn't give this my full attention, so take my rating with a grain of salt. Almas is good, but the addition of Zelina Vega has perfected his act. She has the crowd fuming whenever she gets involved, right up until that perfectly executed finish where she gets her comeuppances. Almas hits a brilliant corkscrew plancha here. That reaction got when Black kicked out of Alma's finish was magical, I really thought that was it. ★★★★¼

A few of the exchanges look a touch awkward as if their timings were ever so slightly off. Shayna Baszler came off as someone you wouldn't want to mess with. The arm stomping spot looked devastating and it played into the finish very well. Baszler having to adjust her submission because the damage done to her arm was a great touch. The weakest match on this exceptional card is still very much worth your time, even if their previous Takeover match was much better. ★★★¼

Johnny Gargano has put on two five star matches in a four month span. Unless Daniel Bryan gets booked in a high profile singles feud, I don't see anyone topping the emotional investment and sympathy that Johnny Gargano draws out from a crowd. Pairing him with Tomasso Ciampa, who transformed from fun indie superstar into one of the best most vicious heels in the world today, is just absolute magic. The feud has been built up to simmer and simmer until it came to its insane boiling point here. The match was worked with an immediate sense of hatred and brutality. Big punches, heated brawling, all of them building up to big spots. The incorporation of weapons was ridiculo…

Adam Cole is taken out early and he doesn't contribute to the match at all, which is understandably as he did work a ladder match an hour earlier. This match made me realize how much I want a Pete Dunne vs Kyle O'Reilly singles match. They had great chemistry and Dunne's old school leanings helped O'Reilly from slipping into that land of indy wankery which has entered on so many occasions. Even that silly hybrid no-sell/selling thing from that nasty German Suplex didn't detract from the action too much. A tornado tag-esque tag match where everyone's weaknesses are well hidden and their strengths enhanced. This takes the best from that ROH 'epic' formula and strips out…

I love both of these guys and this delivered almost everything I wanted. From the get go Kento is annoyed by the young kid that the crowd has really grown into in the last year, at first he tries to establish his dominance and act cocky, more concerned about Wada not letting him do what he wants that really treating Nomura as a threat. But Naoya is no slouch and he's in it for a fight, he MAKES Miyahara give a damn by hitting him with elbows and getting up every single time Kento hit him hard. Loved the countout tease and Nomura's comeback afterwards, that spear to roll up pin combination was dope as fuck and had me fooled. Same with Naoya fighting with everything he got …

ICE×∞ Championship: Miyako Matsumoto © vs. Karen DATE This was good! Miyako might be one of the best on the roster when it comes to creating compelling main events, she understands how to make those big moments feel meaningful. The execution wasn't always there, especially on Karen's end, but it's to be expected given her inexperience so I forgive her. ***1/2

I Guess it speaks volumes about this match that it did not have a entry in the match discussion archive. I recently watched aj vs nak from wrestle kingdom recently and while I was certainly not the biggest fan of that match the first time it was still very good, 3.5-3.75 level. But the major difference between that match and this was the shocking difference in Nakamura, I have not watched much of his wwe run but has he always been this boring? In the wk match there was a glint in his eye and a real sense of danger in the way he worked, here he was a character and some silly hand movements, there felt like there was no substance to him. He was often going through the m…

Okay, where to start on this? No where near the heights of their 31 classic. The excessive F5s didn't make Roman look like a star and made everyone who lost to single one the past 12 months look weak as James Ellsworth. They could achieved what they wanted to do with 3 and not burn out the crowd either. Brock's elbow barrage gave Reigns one of the nastiest gashes I've seen in a long time. It was so brutal that I questioned where it was legit blood as their was no way WWE would allow their ace to piss out blood like that. This match was a total spectacle and it gave me a reason to tune into Raw tonight. ★★★¼

Loved this. Big match feel right from the entrances - both women showed lots of swagger & charisma; loved Asuka’s work over Charlotte - her offense was even more violent than usual, those Shibata -esq kicks to the head were amazing as well as those brutal stomps to the back. ***3/4

UNREAL ovation for Bryan; very emotional seeing him walk down that ramp w/ his wrestling gear on once again. The match quality is very much boosted by the story behind his comeback - it's fairly simple in structure w/ KO & Zayn attacking Bryan before the bell rings, leaving him laying for quite a while, which means Shane had to fight alone while Bryan recovered. I thought Shane's FIP segment was really good - both KO & Zayn, especially Zayn, were really good working the heat on him & mocking him all the way while doing it. Shane's selling of his injury was pretty damn good. Maybe it's that magic of Bryan's comeback & it being WrestleMania and all, but I th…

When the build to this match started, my biggest fear was that it would be a 30 minute DRAMATIC™ finisher nearfall -fest forced epic, but MY GOODNESS it wasn't anything like that! The whole angle building to it with Cena on the crowd, coming out to thinking he'll face Taker, Elias coming out, Cena destroying Elias etc was tremendous & once Taker's theme finally hit, Cena sold that tremendously. He had already accepted that Taker wasn't gonna show up, and because of that he wasn't ready at all for the match - that was the story of this under 3-minute sprint squash; Cena wasn't ready for Taker & Taker just absolutely wrecked him. Awesome angle, awesome match. ***3/4

THIS WAS AN ABSOLUTE HOOT. Other than a few comedic moments where Steph managed to defend an Armbar from Ronda, this was so brilliantly put together. GREAT FIP segment w/ Angle - I knew this was gonna be all about HHH keeping him away from tagging to Ronda as long as he could & it was very enjoyable to watch. HHH was very good working the heat on him, and when it was time for Angle to get some offense in, HHH was bumping & selling like he was fucking Ric Flair or something. Steph cutting Ronda off before she could tag in a few times was awesome & when she FINALLY got that hot tag, HOLY SHIT. WHAT A DAMN HOT TAG IT WAS. Ronda's meanface is absolutely incredible…

This is a very good sprint. It has a five minute time limit so they run at each other and start trying to get a pinfall as soon as the bell rings. Katsumata tries to pin Umeda with a magistral and then a series of casadoras. Umeda kicks him very hard in return.The last twenty seconds rule, Katsumata counters a dropkick in the corner with a double foot stomp. He goes to do his finisher but Umeda counters with a knee and does the UMEDA DRIVER, which is a pretty neat finisher. Katsumata tries to block it, which was a nice touch when they had about fifteen seconds left before the time limit. Great sense of urgency and struggle throughout.

A thing of beauty. Just a fantastic back & forth contest w/ a real feel of struggle & urgency to it. Bryan's arm targeting was an absolute joy to watch - as was AJ's leg targeting. And the best thing about this match is that it's just a little preview of what these 2, the best in the goddamn world, are capable of together. ****

I thought this was yet another really good TV match. I don't know how Big E does it. He's a hell of an athlete, but those bumps on a guy his size have to take their toll. The Usos have the finishing stretch down pat, almost to the point that they just forgo the opening part of the match. ***1/2