April 2018

Big time main event LA Park singles matches are such a rare treat, and Fenix is a great opponent for a monster brawler (Park is basically the platinum version of Mil Muertes). Starts out with Park wrecking Fenix, javelining him into the crowd headfirst into chairs, throwing about fifty chairs on to him (and encouraging the fans to hurl chairs at him too, Tijuana is a different place), he even brains him with a giant drink cart. Fenix fires back with one of the best spin kicks I can remember seeing, and sends Park into the crowd with a tope con hilo. He then hurls Park four rows deep into the crowd where he obliterates a lady who didn't move fast enough. It goes from there…

A-Kid defends the Triple W Absolute Title. Talk about it here

OH HELL YEAH. This had me marking out all over the place - a goddamn WAR between two grumpy veterans in Akiyama & Suwama. Had a super wild feel to it w/ the chaotic brawling & the super nasty strikes - BRUTAL stuff. And while it was wild & chaotic, it wasn't completely just that, as both guys had gameplans too; destroy the neck of your opponent. My goodness. What a damned match; a wild ass war w/ some real strategy in it. ****1/2

Daichi did absolutely nothing for me when he was on the offense, but Hideki's performance was absolutely masterful & carried the match to greatness. His selling of Daichi's offense was fabulous & the way he targeted Daichi's neck was so awesome - laser focused & super compelling to watch. ****

This was beautifully structured & built; started off w/ the Lucha lads attacking Tozawa & Hideo right away, stunning them. They run wild on them for a while, until Tozawa & Hideo get back into things and isolate Dorado completely from Metalik. Dorado's FIP segment is wonderful; the work by Hideo & Tozawa over him was fantastic - this was my first time watching the Tozawa & Hideo tag, and I loved the contrast between them; Hideo is still the nasty heel, demanding respect & ripping Dorado's mask, while Tozawa is Tozawa. It's pretty great. Metalik coming in with that big dive OUT OF NOWHERE was awesome & the whole finishing stretch with them going…

First of all, I know Rusev's been getting a lot of love in recent months w/ the whole Rusev Day shtick, but goddamn this was the first time I realized just how over he/it is. Dueling chants vs. AJ STYLES & the "Rusev Day!" -chants might've even won that exchange. The match itself is a very traditional & basic in it's structure - shine for the babyfaces to start it off, Bryan looked great in it; loved those jabs he unleashed on English in the corner. After a while of AJ getting to run through the heels, we go to the commercials & as we return it's a FIP segment w/ him. AJ's of course a wonderful FIP; great selling from the man, and I loved how he did those hot …

I'm down for any Best Friends main event tag, but what got me really excited about this one was Bolshoi being involved; she's really terrific at everything and doesn't get in against Nakajima and Fujimoto very often. She's much less involved in this match than YOSHIKO it turns out, but does manage some really cool stuff. Her beginning with Nakajima is cool, with a relatively MMA-ish struggle after a mount and armbar that Bolshoi turns into a different armbar as Nakajima struggles. There's some of her more lucha-ish stuff later on too. Anyways, she's great. The fact that a higher percentage of the match is focused on Best Friends vs. YOSHIKO isn't even disappointing, b…

This is a rescheduled match from the Catch the WAVE tournament as Arisa suffered a concussion when this match was originally slated to happen. The match starts out exactly how you would expect a match between this two to go with Momono acting like a mosquito-level irritant while Arisa waves around trying to crush her. Eventually, Arisa is get enough shots in to finish off Momono but she puts up a good, entertaining fight on the way down. ***3/4

Ayako Hamada vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai 4/19) was a really fun match between two thickly built wrestlers. I really liked the opening exchanges, nice matwork and shoulderblocks, with Hamada's snappy lucha armdrags looking credible against Hashimoto's amateur stuff. I loved how well they worked stuff like abdominal stretch reversals and with Hashimoto moves like a hip toss or senton look brutal because she's so thick. The match didn't have great direction but there was some sense of build (e.g. building to Hashimoto hitting the 2nd rope senton, building to the first german suplex, building to first big Hashimoto nearfall with the short arm clotheslines etc). Ayako Hamada…

No real build for this match but these two just match up so well naturally I don't think anyone will complain. This opens up with some very nice matwork that both of them use to set up each of their main offense. The main body of the match has a tremendous flow to it. There is a fair bit of back and forth but the transitions are done so well that it never comes off as spotty. The finish worked because they were just in the middle of a finishing run so the draw felt natural. Just a phenomenal match. ****1/2

I also watched a fun Dradtion opening tag - Super Tiger & Sanshu Tsubakichi vs. Ryuta Hasumi & Nobuyuki Kurashima (4/20). Kurashima has been an opening match guy for 20 years and he is an underrated dude. He will always do something cool like bust out a nice judo throw or look in a nasty hold. He also has a mustache now so he looks like 60s-70s era JWA midcarder and he hit some nice european uppercuts and back elbows too. Some cool matwork, stiff shots especially from Tsubakichi, young guy Hasumi looking fine and Super Tiger 2 getting the most out of his miserable self hitting a nice kick combo and cool Octopus Hold variation for the finish.

Taiji makes his PWG debut in a great match against the up and coming lucha star, Bandido. This match was all athleticism as both guys pulled out some great spots and sequences, perfect for their type of fast paced wrestling. It's obvious that Bandido is going to be a star eventually, and hopefully Taiji can come back to PWG eventually, ****1/4.

No offense to Thatcher and Bateman, but this intense match was ALL WALTER and Brody. Really though this match was literally just a tease for a singles match between WALTER and Brody King who (un)surprisingly stole the show with their very different big man dynamics. Bateman in all honesty did not make a good impression at all, and Thatcher didn't get enough time to show off his technical skills either. That said though, a WALTER vs Brody King singles match will destroy the entire state of California, ****1/4.

Insane match that combined the best of old PWG and the new breed of talent. It was an all out spot fest with the Bucks superkicking every head in sight including a ref, Wentz and Xavier showing off their great high flying chemistry, and the Bros beating down the other two teams as well. Rick Knox getting in a final "fuck you" to the Bucks was the cherry on top of this wild match, ****3/4.

A very good match. Loved Marufuji showcasing those technical skills of his in the beginning & the Headlock stuff was lovely. I think by the end the match dragged a bit w/ those nearfalls & all, but it didn't hurt it too much, because it was still indeed a very good one. ***1/2

Great match and possibly the best of the tournament thus far. Zeus was eager to earn Jun's respect but the grizzled veteran wouldn't let him earn it the easy way in a test of strength. Zeus gets incensed and absolutely annihilates him with chops and whips into the guardrail on the outside. This essentially became a war of attrition as the stronger, younger Zeus tried to overwhelm Jun with chops as the older, wiser veteran took everything and tried to dish out even more with repeated knees. Though not a brawl, this really felt like a knock-down, drag-out FIGHT with both guys just throwing everything into their strikes. A bombfest of the highest order and continued proo…

A big boy sprint of a match that had all three guys beating the hell out of each other. Both WALTER and Keith Lee absolutely decimated each other with chops galore, and the latter was also especially athletic in this match. I can’t say Jonah was too much of a third wheel because he did get in some good shots here and there. WALTER in my opinion was the clear star of the match as he was a killing machine stomping and chopping anything in sight. He even pulled out his rare top rope big splash! In the end he managed to pin Lee clean to get the upset and win the title. I’ve seen sprints, but nowhere as meaty as this one, ****3/4.

This is the last match in the Crazy Block of the Catch the WAVE tournament. Both women came in tied on points so whoever won this match would move on to the final. Yamashita controls the most of the first half of the match with her power. Nozaki, though, chips away through some nice counters eventually locking in her sleeper to level the score. The finishing run starts out even but turns in favour of Yamashita when she locks in a sleeper of her own that Nozaki barely escapes. Yamashita tries to follow up with a Splash Mountain but Nozaki escapes leading to a draw which forces a tie-breaker. The match did a nice job of building up drama to the final few minutes. ***3/4

DAMN this was good. Suwama dominated most of it & he gave Yoshi an absolute mauling on the offense - but Yoshi busted out some absolutely awesome hope spots. Such a well told, very good underdog tale. ***3/4

I had very high hopes for this match, and it delivered in spades. The performance by Togo is fucking incredible, Daisuke plays the role of "unstoppable monster" greatly, as usual, but it's Togo's job as the underdog that makes this match awesome to watch. Don't expect a bomb fest, this was one of those methodical, every move matters, type of Strong BJ match, which I fucking love. The story is as simple as can be: Sekimoto is the big dude that imposes his will and Togo has to scratch and claw to get Daisuke off him. You can feel the struggle in every attempt by Togo to get our of trouble, and the ways he finds to do it are dope to watch - like, everyone goes for a head loc…

Impact World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries vs Pentagon Jr vs Fenix - Impact Redemption 2018 CERO MIEDO! Pentagon not as over as in The Temple, but still pretty over with the Impact Zone. The story going into this is would the Brothers work together to take out the Champion. Impact was smart to partner with Lucha Underground. Their 2017 looked pretty pathetic just reviewing the cards so Aries and the Luchadors were a big shot in the arm! I am not too fond of triple threats. My opinion is you just gotta go balls out, but they didnt quite go high-octane. This is one of those good, not great matches. I thought Aries was tremendous in this. He is a tenacious pitb…

TAJIRI's recent AJPW title run was met with its fair share of criticism but I actually enjoyed most of it and I dig TAJIRI's more grounded approach to wrestling in his older age. Of course, TAKA can still go, especially when he's on his home turf and not just ZSJ's mouthpiece. This was a pretty neat 10:00 match with some very good, focused armwork from TAJIRI and a couple of great kicks. Early on, TAJIRI bails out of the ring, he wipes his face with TAKA's towel, and then he goes to work on the arm. After a high kick into the pin attempt, he catches TAKA in a double wristlock off the kickout. There's a neat little sequence into the facelock but when TAKA lifts him up for…

This is a tie-breaker for top spot in Catch the WAVE tournament's Crazy Block and a subsequent spot in the tournament final. As a whole, this match does a pretty good job of maintaining a back-and-forth between these two throughout the match. Although, that does lead to some less than realistic transitions as one of them are force to quickly shake off a big shot in order to get back on offense. The match doesn't feel like a my turn/your turn type though, and it shows as the crowd gets into the drama during the finishing run. This might have been something special if they had structured it a little better but even as is it's highly entertaining. ***3/4

Wow. I knew Jay and Finlay had good chemistry, but considering how disappointing White's return to New Japan has been, I was not expecting this. This is legitimately one of the best NJPW matches this year. Finlay is aggressive from the onset and dominates for the first few minutes, eager to prove he's on Jay's level. Jay is eventually able to turn the tide and works over Finlay's back, all the while mocking him for still being a "young boy". The disrespect only serves to fire Finlay up even more and he nearly puts Jay away with his own finisher. However, Finlay's desire for revenge is ultimately his undoing as he introduces a table that just refuses to break. Consider…

Holy shiiiiit this was amazing. Drew Gulak is absolutely fantastic. Breaking down the segments, Mustafa Ali vs. TJP I thought TJP was absolutely awesome in this. Just super compelling with his work over Ali w/ those great looking submissions. Everything he did was super focused & all around just a lovely on-the-offense, surgeon like, laser focused performance by the man. That leg targeting in the last third or so of the match set up the next one very well, too. Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak Gulak coming out with a big smile on his face, asking Ali “YOU OK?”, “ARE YOU HURTING?” = amazing stuff. The leg targeting by TJP set this one up perfectly; Gulak knows Ali got a w…