June 2018

I've said this before but O'Reilly and Strong might be some of the best chickenshit bumping heels in the world. They've translated their indie athleticism and energy into an insanely fun ability to feed into the babyface team's offense. This was about as classic of a tag team format as there is. Early heat segment on Trent Seven that leads into a huge hot tag from Tyler Bate and straight into a wild and fun finishing stretch. Thought that Bate looked fantastic with his strikes, energy, and continued freak of nature power spots (the deadlift German while O'Reilly was on his back looked amazing). Liked the story that one of Undisputed Era's biggest flaws is how often they m…

Harper's monstrous work on top goes perfectly with Bryan's amazing work from underneath. Vicious stuff, great arm psychology. The post-match was simply awesome as well. ***3/4

Talk about it here.

I liked this a lot more than the title switch in England. The heel control segment on Bate was much better, with the 'Era keeping him in their corner and working over his ribs with both strikes and holds, I haven't seen a shoulder breaker in forever! Ricochet was a great hot tag, showing off his flashy crowd-pleasing offense, his way of avoiding the high/low combo was awesome. O'Reilly's heel mannerisms have been excellent all year, and this was no exception, mocking Moustache Mountain's pose while he worked over Bate, and his reaction when Ricochet stared him down after he saved Cole from getting pinned. Strong and O'Reilly managed to stay on the same page and not hit ea…

Some are calling this one of the best Lucha matches of all time, and while I wouldn’t go that far, I’d at least say it’s one of the best of the year. Fenix is Fenix of course (or King Phoenix as he’s going by in CMLL), so there wasn’t any surprise that his performance would be amazing. Cavernario really brought it here too with his own brawling style, but still managed to pull out some cool dives as well. Fantastic chemistry all around that led to this match stealing the entire weekend, ****1/2.

Surprising to know that this is the first time ever meeting between these two British stars from two different worlds. I mean you had Ospreay and Bate in a singles match; there was zero doubt this wasn't going to deliver as an epic match. The chemistry was there from the beginning all the way to the finish with a slow start that steadily built to some amazing counters and sequences. Would love to see these two go at it again with higher stakes, ****1/2.

A great main event to cap off Kenny Omega’s first produced show. There was no way this wasn’t going to deliver considering the talent in this match. Naito in a shirt is still very good, but at least he had Hiromu there to pick up the slack. The Lovers of course are one of the best tag teams in the world, so of course they weren’t going to be outshined. Have to honor the respect of the scary bumps both teams took, especially Ibushi and Naito who killed themselves with a few neck bumps. There is potential for an even better match between these two teams, but still great stuff from start to finish, ****1/4.

The match has happened a thousand times by now, but both teams kill it every time. This had the vibe of an old school ROH tag match with it’s fast pace and hot crowd. The Bucks in particular were on fire in this match, but when are they not. The Briscoes also did pretty well with their brawler type style, and they used it efficiently to build the drama. Arguably the best ROH tag match this year, ****1/4.

Easily this would be the best New Japan tag team match of the year if it wasn’t for Bucks/Lovers. This was a total gang fight as Suzuki and Zack just took their CHAOS opponents to school and wrapped them up and beat the hell out of them in and out of the ring. Every interaction here was great; Suzuki/Ishii, Suzuki/Okada, Ishii/Zack, and Zack/Okada. 4 phenomenal wrestlers putting on an amazing classic for the UK fans, ****3/4.