Superstar Sleeze

Kazuchika Okada vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW G-1 Climax Finals 8/10/14 The dream match that NJPW booking has wisely put off since Okada burst onto the scene in the beginning of 2012 pits two stablemates from CHAOS against each other for the G-1 Climax Championship and pretty much a mortal lock to headline the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. Okada has reminded me a lot of old Nakamura. From a technical execution standpoint, Okada is a great wrestler, but he seems disinterested in the outcome of a match and just is not showing passion. In this match being challenged by one of the other two top natives in NJPW, he seems hungry to assert himself as the premiere pro wrestler in the world. I want see more of that from Okada. Nakamura has been great in the matches I have seen in 2014. His new oddball persona of wearing Michael Jackson-inspired jackets and dancing like MJ is entertaining outside the ring and inside he is the last of the Strong Style workers which means a heavy emphasis on counter submission wrestling and strikes especially blows to the head. It is not fancy, but it is going to get the job and it may get it done quickly. Okada does not really have a flash submission or knockout in his arsenal so he is susceptible in his long setup times to a wrestler like Nakamura. Nakamura is what made this match dynamic. He forced Okada out of his comfort zone and to react to how he was wrestling, which made it more compelling than the Okada-style which can be mechanical at times. Early on, it was all about posturing and bravado. Psyching each other out in a macho pissing contest, Okada does his cocky clean break so Nakamura responds with stare at the belly button. Because these two have never faced off, Nakamura feels like the favorite because of his experience in big time matches. So when Nakamura is fucking around during this break, Okada immediately clamps on his a DDT. Right there, I know Okada came to play. Okada is still a cocky punk so he can't resist putting his one foot on Nakamura's chest and hitting the Rainmaker pose. We get the first strike exchange and of course the King of Strong Style wins with a knee lift. Okada has to avoid those exchanges because that is an area that Nakamura will crush him in. Nakamura just lays waste to Okada in pretty much every conceivable fashion of using a barrage of knee lifts. Now it is Nakamura's turn to get cocky and does little playful kicks to Okada. What is going to be Okada's strategy? When Tanahashi feels overwhelmed, he neutralizes his opponent by attacking the knee. What does Okada have in his arsenal to set up the Rainmaker? The answer is of course, his dropkick. Nakamura goes for a running knee one too many times and Okada is able to counter by setting him up top hitting a dropkick causing him to tumble all the way to floor. Okada presses his advantage on the outside with a Hangsman DDT. Normally, Okada would let this run for a countout, but he is not fucking around in this match and he is not going to give Nakamura a second to breathe. Big Elbow Drop! Okada really has a case for best elbow drop ever. It is fucking pretty. RAINMAKER POSE~! GEDO IS JAAAAAACCCCCKKKKEEEDDDDD! Now this is where Nakamura shines, his counterwrestling game. First it is a lungblower to buy himself time. Then when Okada goes for a submission, he walks right into the trap. Nakamura gets a rear naked choke and is looking for a cross armbreaker, but settles for a Triangle. As Okada stands to reach for the rope, Nakamura uses his long legs to force him over into a cross-armbreaker. Gedo is freaking out as Okada writhes and flops around looking for the rope. Perfect way to respect the cross-armbreaker. Nakamura buries knees deep into Okada and is looking for the Boma Ye. Okada counters with the White Noise into the Knee (not my favorite move). Okada successfully avoids Nakamura's wild roundhouse kicks and uses dropkicks to set up the Tombstone. Now it is time to Make It Rain in Seibu, FLYING CROSS ARMBREAKER OUT OF THE RAINMAKER~! Holy shit! Definitely one of the best spots of 2014! Nakamura the counterwrestler strikes again. Okada steps on his face to force the release. BOMA YE~! to the back of the head. This is treated like it levels the playing field, but i felt like Nakamura was in the driver's seat. Strike exchange ends with an Okada dropkick. Nakamura pulls one out of the Suzuki game plan and baits him into hitting dropkick again. He collapses on a rope running spot and Okada goes for the dropkick again, but Nakamura was playing possum so Okada crashes and burns and BOMA YE~! KICK OUT! Okada will not be denied tonight. Nakamura gets a running start but as we saw in the Shibata match if you can guard against that it is his downfall. Okada hits with a dropkick on the button. Nakamura blocks The Rainmaker with a knee and looks for Boma Ye, but Okada closes the gap by running towards it and grabbing the leg. Love that! Nakamura uncorks two closed fist to set up Landslide, but Okada reverses out with a backslide. When Nakamura kicks out, Okada hangs on to hit not one, not two, but three Rainmakers to win the G-1 Climax. That was the story of this match Okada was not fucking around and he was taking no chances. I loved that there were no kickouts. It was Okada ensuring his victory. Okada looked like a boss here using the dropkick liberally like a Misawa would with his elbow to set up his offense. We saw with Shibata how you can defend against Nakamura's Boma Ye and Okada executing that strategy perfectly. He survived Nakamura's counterwrestling and the Flying Cross Armbreaker out of the Rainmaker was an awesome spot. Kicking out of Boma Ye was definitely a big star-making move! You really felt like Okada wanted it more on that night. I distilled action down to its best parts but there was some fluff and overkill late paired with a lukewarm beginning that I think this is behind Styles/Suzuki and Nakamura/Tanahashi, but I would peg this no worse than a top 5 NJPW Match of the Year and Top Ten Match of the Year overall. Nakamura's counterwrestling/strikes versus Okada's dropkick & heart made for one epic story on this night. ****1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kota Ibushi - NJPW 3/6/14 Ibushi would need to be having one of the best nights of his career just to hang with Okada, but to beat him he was going to need that rare A+ performance. That is the story of this match, this is not a junior heavyweight underdog hanging on by a thread against the Man. This is the underdog totally overachieving and beating the champion for the majority of the game. Ibushi came to play and Okada clearly underestimated him. Early on, you see Ibushi beating Okada to a dropkick and having Okada's dropkick scouted. Okada because he is the champ did eventually get things under control with the dropkick his preferred momentum-changer. The Hangsman DDT off the railing put him in a strong position and again he starts to gloat. It is the one foot cover and the crowd is booing. Okada is taking his time between moves and fixing his kneepads. He is going to take care of his light work when it suits him. Next thing you know, he is thrown to the outside by an Ibushi hurricanarana and then is taking a moonsault press on the floor. Sleep on Ibushi and he will make you pay. Okada has the double jump moonsault scouted with knees. For the first time watching Okada in 2014, I get that feeling of desperation. The pressure is on him as Heavyweight Champion to win the match. Ibushi is one with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Okada hits his pretty big elbow drop and the prelude for the Rainmaker. When you got nothing to lose, you can take big chances and that's what Ibushi did in the match. He smacks Okada in the face with a Pele kick. Okada roars back with a massive sitout dropkick. He is getting frustrated. I like this, Okada. Ibushi has all of Okada's moves scouted the Tombstone and The Rainmaker even hitting his own version of the Rainmaker. Okada desperately tries to climb to the top rope to hit a bomb and Ibushi nails him with a backhandspring mule kick, which was fucking awesome! The crowd seemed behind Ibushi most of the way, but Okada fans have become more vocal as it seems that their boy may actually be out of it. Ibushi is feeling it and he goes for the home run. The Phoenix Splash and he crashes and burns. It was an excellent run, but you can feel that it is over for Ibushi. Unfortunately, they do go a little longer than necessary with a strike exchange and Okada hitting a couple counters. Finally a dropkick to the head, a nice stacked up German and The Rainmaker wins it. All the build was to the Phoenix Splash, once you hit that payoff, there is no real reason to delay inevitable. I would have had Ibushi struggle for a bit then go with dropkick, stacked up German and Rainmaker. Best Okada performance yet, where you feel like he actually cares about the outcome of the match. He is cool and cocky early, but as thing get out of head he becomes frustrated and desperate. Ibushi was great as overachieving underdog. He left it all in the ring and he pulled the trigger on his best shot. It missed, but he can at least say he tried. Very well-done heavyweight vs junior heavyweight match that stayed true to both characters. ****1/4

Last night, we had a break through between me and The Rainmaker. Between the Ibushi and Nakamura match, I got a much better feel for him as a wrestler and character. Now, granted, he is decidedly fourth on my depth chart of the New Japan Big Four, but I do not think he outright sucks or is boring. He reminds me of a disinterested Barry Windham, a cooler Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura circa 2008 all wrapped into one. Where he is just so graceful and fluid in the ring, his dropkick and that elbow drop are two of the best looking moves in wrestling. Yes, the Tombstone and Rainmaker could have some more impact, but overall he knows his way around the ring. However, much like Orton there is no connection for me until finisher time whether that be the RKO or The Rainmaker. Okada's offense, while pretty, seems like a random mish-mash of moves thrown together willy-nilly because they look cool. There is no real natural connection between moves. I do love that he uses the dropkick like Misawa would use an elbow. It is a high risk elbow and it shows when he misses it at least once a match. The other Orton comparison is he moves so slow in the ring, which I get is supposed to be his thing because he is the cool, cocky punk. He is way cooler than Orton. I love the nickname and the entrance, dude looks like a fucking boss. So I dig that. The problem is much like Nakamura circa 2008, he just is not selling to me that winning the match he is in makes a difference to him. There is no sense of urgency, struggle or desperation. It has just been going through the motions while others are being awesome around him. Now because he is so naturally gifted, he has not gotten in the way of Styles or Suzuki having a great match, but he has not contributed either. I think last night I finally saw two matches where he started to contribute. I have gotten past other people have wonky movesets, but if I am going to invest in Okada he needs to make me believe that winning the match I watch him in means the world to him. That's all I am asking.

They edited out a midget match and Muraco vs Santana even though they refer to the latter in the show description. However Tony Garea vs Jose Luis Rivera was left there in its entirety. That was an odd edit. There's some other show where one of the devices (Android, I think) mentions a Mil Mascaras vs Moondog King match that isn't there either. Not a big deal but it looks like they are recycling descriptions from 24/7 or something. Editing out that Tito/Muraco match for the best. What a borefest. Only Muraco could extinguish Tito's eternal flame

They edited out a midget match and Muraco vs Santana even though they refer to the latter in the show description. However Tony Garea vs Jose Luis Rivera was left there in its entirety. That was an odd edit. There's some other show where one of the devices (Android, I think) mentions a Mil Mascaras vs Moondog King match that isn't there either. Not a big deal but it looks like they are recycling descriptions from 24/7 or something. Editing out that Tito/Muraco match for the best. What a borefest. Only Muraco could extinguish Tito's eternal flame

AA's career ended in January of 1997 and Waltman came in September of 96. It is a short window, but possible! The heat would have been nuclear if Arn Anderson came out of retirement to face him after the Four Horsemen "Spot" parody promo.

I loved this match! Awesome fundamentals-based match with Horner looking great in the shine and Hawk being a straight up boss during the heat. Nice find.

I really want to watch Waltman vs AA now.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs NEVER Champion Tetsuya Naito - NJPW 01/04/14 Tokyo Dome SHOW SOME FUCKING EMOTION! That felt good. This was one of the most boring matches I have watched in quite some time. It just seems like they are going through the motions for over 30 minutes and there was no discernible narrative. My only enjoyment came from ridiculous amount of dropkicks hit in this match. The first fifteen minutes was particularly dry. Naito wins the first exchange with a dropkick and gets a painful looking arm submission. Naito gets a little too cute and Okada dropkicks him off the apron. Okada does a weird submission on the ramp, which strikes me as an odd thing to do, but then does the normal thing a running dropkick on the ramp. Okada is so damn slow in the ring. Even the Japanese announcers are bored and they start talking you about Tanahashi/Nakamura coming up. I shit you not, I was so bored I tried understand as much Japanese commentary as I could. Naito hits that cute dropkick and now more dropkicks. This is when I was like damn there has been a lot of dropkicks. Finally some heat when Naito won't let Okada up in the corner by putting his boot on the throat this draws boos! Naito hits a springboard dropkick and goes for his Koji Clutch. Naito is just not following up his work. Okada starts goading him and Naito gets wild with headbutts. Ok, here we go, Naito goes up top. Okada counters with a dropkick, of course and Naito wrenches his knee on the way down. That might be a cool hook, here we go. Okada hits his hangsman DDT and I am liking his aggression. They milk the count and Naito makes it back in. Okada hits the big elbow drop and Rainmaker Pose! Naito counters the Rainmaker into the DDT. Okada misses the dropkick. NAITO HAS IT SCOUTED! Naito runs through his shit: Koji Clutch, enziguiri, German Suplex looking for Stardust Press, but Okada breaks it up. Okada hits a flapjack and DDT. There is some nice struggle over the Tombstone and Naito hits a big forearm. I like Naito's staggered selling after scoring that big forearm and is best selling of the match, which has not had much. Naito hits more offense, but crashes and burns on Stardust Press. Rainmaker is reversed into the rollup and then exactly what this match needed a strike exchange. OKADA DROPKICK! WHAT ELSE! Rainmaker->reverse->Dropkick BABY! I would have rather Okada won with a dropkick, but we get a pair of Tombstones and the Rainmaker to win. Blame the Dome maybe, but there was no heat for this. One of the better things about Okada is using the crowd loves him, but he does not have the Dome presence that a Choshu, Hashimoto or a Kobashi does. There were flashes of aggression, but it sure felt perfunctory until the end. I would say Naito two runs to Stardust Press, which did not feel like much to me at least had some sort of direction. I have to say the Rainmaker reversals are fun and the best part of Okada matches. Okada looking more and more like Orton for me. C'mon brutha, lets pull this one out of a tailspin.

Kazuchika Okada vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW G-1 Climax 8/8/14 This match takes place from the last night of the round robin portion of 2014's G-1 Climax. If Suzuki wins the match, then Okada will not go to the finals and Styles would enter the finals. For these high pressure stakes, I don't think Okada is wrestling like this at all like anything special. Minoru Suzuki is wrestling at a very high level throughout match and really carries the day. Okada disrespects early with the cocky clean break. Suzuki takes exception and takes him down with an armbar. Okada lunges for the ropes. Suzuki is relentless on the arm using the Tarantula and his big kick on the apron. Suzuki has worked the arm pretty well and Okada just blows it off with some elbows. He hits his big elbow drop early so he calls for the Rainmaker. Suzuki goes right for that arm and when Okada misses the dropkick. Suzuki rifles the arm with a kick. There is a nice progression in the armwork now with Suzuki using submission moves that could lead to a submission: Fujiwara Armbar & Cross Armbreaker. In an absolutely awesome moment, Suzuki plays possum by not being able to run the ropes so Okada looks foolish on a leapfrog and when Okada turns his back Suzuki drills him with a dropkick. Suzuki is so fucking good. Suzuki applies a sleeper and is looking for the piledriver to win, but Okada escapes with the White Noise on the Knee. We finally get the strike exchange which Okada wins with a pretty dropkick. Okada hits the weakest Tombstone ever. Suzuki blocks the Rainmaker and BIG CLOSED FIST! GO SUZUKI GO! Okada hits a pretty dropkick and the Rainmaker to win! I don't know about this Okada guy. He is just there in these matches. He is pretty, adequate at everything and has a really pretty dropkick, is he the Randy Orton of New Japan? It is just a small sampling size so we shall see. Okada could have sold more and had more emotion in this finish stretch, but still he was fine. Suzuki is so awesome in this match and is just a great showcase for him. ****

The Lord Byron namecheck is for the "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" either that or Mr. Hughes fought for Greek rights in the 1990s against the Turks. I wonder if Northern Cyprus bothers Hughes to this day. WINNIE THE POOHING WITH POORIDGE was hilarious! Reading the note that Parv accidentally reviewed the wrong AA/Windham match has me rolling laughing after all his high praise. God that's so funny!

NXT Champion Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn vs Tyson Kidd vs Tyler Breeze - NXT Takeover 9/14 Overall, I tend to like NXT crowds they remind me of ECW crowds where they are smart and play along. I think the best representation of this was the double chant of "Nattie's Better!" "That's a fact!". That might be the most creative and appropriate chant ever. I love chants that exist to get under the heel's skin like Paula and are sorely missing in today's current product. The NXT crowd really nailed it with that one. While they did chant "CM Punk!" "999" and then "This Is Awesome" during the finish, they can't do any wrong in my eyes after the awesome double chant. So talking about the crowd as the opening may seem pretty damning for the content of the match, but I thought this was a pretty good fatal 4-way. Everyone plays their character really well, the spots were fun and the finish was great and really sets up the next show. Before we get there, lets talk about the match. Early on the best spot is Zayn getting one up on Breeze and then taking a selfie, which is a fun early spot. Kidd/Breeze take out Neville and Zayn with double suplexes on the entrance ramp. I like Kidd's selling on those suplexes let's you know how much damage is really dished out. The best part of the match up until the finish was Kidd playing King of the Mountain on Neville. He was relentless keeping Neville out of the ring and I loved it. Breeze standing on Zayn's head is something we need to see more out of him. Kidd vacillated between being awesome and boring. The slap exchange with Zayn was great, but then he would lock on a chinlock. There is the right time for a chinlock and a wrong time. It really feels like he is squandering his isolation advantage (loved that term from either Byron or Tom). Finally, Neville breaks into the match and it does not get nearly the reaction it should have based on the King of the Mountain earlier. The announcers let us know that Neville and Zayn are friends. Neville steals Zayn's thunder doing top rope Asai Moonsault onto the two heels. We get the Zayn/Neville teaser that the crowd eats up. I really like Kidd shooting Zayn like a dart up onto Neville who was on the top rope and it is a nasty bump. I liked that spot a lot. Zayn is looking for a Yakuza Kick, but is intercepted by a Beauty Shot from Breeze. Breeze was slotted in the Rollins opportunist role and did a fine job, but nothing spectacular. He can't get the pin and that leads to Tower of Doom. Renee asks "What do you call that? Have you ever seen that before?" "Tower of Doom and Yes I have in every multi-man match featuring midcarders post-2002". Now Zayn cant get the pin. Zayn eats a foot from Neville and takes a Shooting Star Press. Breeze throws Neville out and looks for pin, but cant get it. He takes an eternity to follow it up. He squanders his opportunity and Kidd applies the Sharpshooter. Neville stops Breeze's hand from tapping and Zayn breaks it up. Zayn goes for his big tear. Neville takes a HUGE bump to the outside, Zayn dives through the post onto Breeze, YAKUZA KICK TO KIDD! HE IS GOING TO DO IT! 1-2-NEVILLE PULLS OUT THE REF! Gold is a powerful force. Zayn is in shock and Neville cant seem to believe he did it himself. Zayn eats a superkick and Neville hits the Red Arrow on Kidd to win. Breeze was mostly a non-factor and had some decent moments as the opportunist. They showcased Kidd early as the main heel and he demonstrated some violent tendencies and loved King of the Mountain. Then he is sort of disappears and eats the pin. Neville and Zayn were the stars and did great in their roles. Zayn as the underdog babyface just does all the right things, he pops the crowd early with the Breeze selfie, then selling with Kidd and that absolute tear that just has everyone rocking. Neville was the frustrated champion. He was constantly undermined at first with the King of the Mountain, then Zayn being catapulted into him, Breeze stealing the Shooting Star Press. I would be frustrated too that I am the champion and I just can't get anything going. Here I am about to lose my damn title, but I never really got a chance to kick ass and I would just lash out and grab the ref. Great build up to that moment and him snapping. He really sells it like "I can't believe I just did that." I have been liking these NXT shows, but I think what has been missing is the hook for the next show and now i am just itching for Neville/Zayn. The match content was fun, but that finish really makes the match for me. ***1/2

My question is do we know if Hashimoto, Tenryu, Misawa etc... would work hard on shows such as there? I think the one distinct advantage with Japanese wrestlers is I am more likely only sampling from the above average of the distribution because they made sure to turn it on for TV. With New Japan now televising house shows it is exposing Tanahashi & Co. or just the systemic Japanese model of delivering fun house shows, but leaving the great wrestling for the bigger shows? As for New Japan booking, I think Nakamura is the way to go and build to Styles/Nakamura at either 5/3 Fukokua show or later in October since Nakamura/Tanahashi is done to death. Then Okada/Nakamura at the Dome. I like how New Japan has clearly established a top 4, but as All Japan from 90s has shown you really need two more pieces to have a great roster for the year. I would like them to elevate one current member of the roster and bring in one outsider. I really think if you get two more pieces, New Japan would be really unstoppable.

IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada vs AJ Styles - NJPW 5/3/14 AJ Styles proves that he has more tricks up his sleeve in his first match as a full-time New Japan wrestler and competing for Okada. The hallmark for AJ matches in 2014 was the struggle to the Styles Clash and combining his move combinations to successfully pull the trigger on the most devastating move of 2014. In this match, he goes a different route and looks to set up his Calf Killer, which won him his match against Chris Hero in ROH. AJ Styles working over Okada's leg shows that he is just as adept at limb work as he is at heeling and offensive escalation and furthermore how versatile he was in 2014. I freely admit that the Fukuoka did not seem to give one single fuck about AJ and while it was a great performance, it did take the G-1 Climax for AJ Styles to firmly cement himself among New Japan's big four. I am glad that Gedo & Jado had the faith in AJ Styles to get himself over all while carrying the strap. In contrast, Okada is super over with the live crowds and I have found that to be best quality is how much the crowd loves him. I have only watched three Okada matches, but he has not set my world on fire. He is very solid and there is nothing wrong with him. He just is not connecting with me. I love his entrance, but in the ring he is just seems plain good. There is nothing extraordinary. I hope to look back on these sentences and eat them, but these are my feelings now. Okada controls AJ early with a side headlock and AJ just seems overwhelmed with the moment and can't get anything going. Okada hits the Rainmaker poses to mock all the Bullet Club posturing early. Styles desperate lunges with a double thrust to the throat and hits a snap suplex into the turnbuckles to finally swing the momentum in his favor. Styles makes use of the Bullet Club tossing Okada to the outside as they attack Okada. I like the ref not willing to count because he knew there were shenanigans going on even if AJ had obstructed his view. Okada wipes the entire Bullet Club and AJ out with a nice dive over the top, cool moment. My major malfunction with Okada is that his offense seems aimless. He is just going through the motions and while I know that Rainmaker is the end goal there seems to be no destination in mind. AJ Styles catches Okada's foot swings him around and rifles him in the leg with a kick. AJ's leg work to set up the Calf Killer was excellent everything looked like it hurt and he was great being smug while working on top. Okada did not really sell, so that sucks. Again, once Okada battles back there is a string of pedestrian moves. AJ with an eye gouge and a tremendous springboard forearm. AJ is cheating and has a game plan and is laying everything in. It is hard to argue he is not the better wrestler in this match. Okada catches AJ up top with a dropkick and now a kip up. AJ does not jump over the railing and eats a big boot for it. Hanging DDT and tease a double countout, but Okada throws him back in. Okada hits his big elbow drop the set-up for the Rainmaker. Rainmaker reversed into the Calf-Killer was the spot of the match (hey Okada sold) until the AJ Styles strike combo->Rainmaker tease-> PELE KICK! Finish run has picked this match up quite a bit. The first Styles Clash attempt is reversed into White Noise and they go into big move trading with the most surprising thing being that Styles misses Spiral Tap. The only time I have seen him attempt it in 2014. Bullet Club runs in and Yujiro turns on Okada and becomes the first native Japanese member of the Bullet Club. The Styles Clash wins AJ Styles the IWGP Championship in his first match. AJ have an awesome performance early as a big bumping heel and using his friend. Then he switched gears to go after the knee from there they had some great spots late. They went for two or three spots too many before the Bullet Club run in. I think if the Bullet Club ran in aftter White Noise they would have been better off. Okada is over, but he gave a pretty lifeless performance and could have used at least more selling and purpose to his offense. Still there is plenty of AJ goodness in this match to make it a worthwhile. ***1/2

Can someone shed some light on what I should expect from Okada? I am not really connecting with him. Sometimes, it helps me to read about what I should look for. I don't feel like his offense really builds to the Rainmaker and I just don't feel the urgency. Tanahashi is one of the best strategists of all time. I understand his intentions in every match and how he believes it will lead him to victory. Okada just seems to hit the same offensive stretch towards the end. He is perfectly fine at everything he does. I just wondering what is that special something I should be looking for. The one big positive I have picked up on is that he is super over with the live crowd even moreso than Tanahashi and Nakamura. They get behind Okada whether he is winning or losing. Tanahashi and Nakamura have no qualms heeling it up and it feels that while they are huge stars the crowd is not always 100% behind and sometime rather root for their opponent. I like that unifying presence Okada has.

Thanks I thought they were saying Hoover Kick at first and then the "All Over" Kick like since he was all over the world as an indy worker. I will queue those recommendations. Thank you all. Keep em coming!

x2 The Elbow Drop was executed fine, but there was no struggle prior to make me care about the spot and the spot itself didn't look impressive. You talk about his body being mangled and distorted and how it was a "last ditch effort that would hurt him". That narrative could be applied but I didn't find Wyatt's offence to be so astonishingly brutal it would make Ambrose half-dead and Ambrose's big desperation spot just looked weak. He leaped from a pretty mild elevation. As for Ambrose's leg selling, well, it just didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. He was doing Nigel's contrived rebound lariats anyway and they looked even more preposterous with him trying to fit quasi leg selling in there. He crawled and made more silly faces then he'd usually but outside of that I didn't get the sense that it affected the match much. Converting enjoyment into numbers is stupid anyway . If you enjoyed it that much then great-I didn't and I gave my reasoning for it. Brutha, what I meant by my last comment was that I am a bit foggy on certain things. Like you said "no struggle" and I am thinking "There was a lot of struggle". This aint like being in a helicopter and being shot at or not. I wanted to make sure you knew that I was viewing this from the context of a month ago and that I did not believe my opinion was immutable or the authority on the subject matter. I waffle back and forth between star ratings. They were wicked useful for Best of Japan in 00s project and I like to think of lists in tiers anyways. I got used to them over time and they are a helpful organizational tool. So I have started tacking snowflakes on the end of stuff. But arguing over star ratings is the most pretentious and boring thing any two wrestling fans can do, no doubt.

Calling an elbow drop off an ambulance "pretentious" is pretentious. I am totally on board with the lack of face/heel dynamics in modern WWE. Heels just arent heels really more in the context of the match. Did Wyatt give an all-time great heel performance? No. Was he effective in cutting Ambrose off and presenting an obstacle for Ambrose to overcome? YES! In modern WWE that is about as good as we are going to get, but that is not enough to make this an excellent match. What makes this match so good is that Ambrose gives one of the best babyface performances of recent memory. His selling of the leg was great and you really got the feeling he is fighting through all that pain that this victory really meant something to him. Goddamnit, the only chance he had was to climb a top of that ambulance and fling his body off on top of Wyatt. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO LOOK GOOD! He just had his body mangled and distorted. It was a last ditch home run to take out his opponent and he knew it would hurt himself in the process. You want face/heel dynamics, but then you don't want rawness in your matches. Yeah, I was not in love with the finish and they are way too reliant on SIster Abigail out of nowhere. I fully admit that I may be overrating this from watching this live. I will rewatch this in a year or so. But to claim the match is not even good, just seems off base to me.

Zayn really opened my eyes to how good of a babyface he is when I watched the 2013 Two out of Three Falls match against Cesaro. El Generico always struck me as a lame gimmick and too cute for its own good on the surface. I saw a couple of his tag matches with Steen in person when I went to ROH but was never really blown away. However, in going back to watch NXT specials from last year, I think Zayn is best pure babyface in the world. Was he this good as Generico? Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT Arrival 2/14 NXT is where pro wrestling lives, baby! Where has this Cesaro been on the main roster? No, it is not completely booking's fault. I am taking that bully mentality and those violent heel tendencies. Cesaro is damn great wrestler, make no mistake about it, but he has the same problem that many midcard heels on the main roster have. They do NOT do anything heelish in the context of the match. This is why "This is awesome" is so prevalent because there can't be good without evil and no one is evil in the ring. On this night, Cesaro was a total, unmitigated, unadulterated prick. Zayn is the consummate babyface. He is the lovable underdog character that you believe can win, but know it is not going to be easy. You know he is going to leave it all in that ring and you will never be disappointed by Zayn win, lose or draw. Watch the two out of three falls match first, before you watch this match. Ok, you watched it now, good. Unlike most modern WWE series of matches, this series actually builds layers on top of other matches. The only WWE series that comes close recently is Cena/Lesnar. The beginning of this match was probably my favorite beginning to any match of 2014. It was just so perfect. Zayn has proven from the previous matches that his best chance to elude Cesaro with his quickness, but now being familiar with Cesaro he is combining his natural elusiveness with actual scouting experience. Cesaro shows him up early with his power and gives him a playful slap to the back of the head that gets a rise out of everyone. Cesaro goes for the Giant Swing, but Zayn eludes it with a armdrag to the outside. Zayn goes flying out onto Cesaro and it is fastbreak offense that gets the crowd rocking. Cesaro nips in the bud by catching Zayn off the top and into a backbreaker. Cesaro is just in total bully prick mode throwing Zayn around on the outside and he looks to use the post, but Zayn yanks Cesaro into the post with his feet. Zayn looks to repeat his awesome dive through the turnbuckles, EUROPEAN UPPERCUT! HOLY SHIT! Cesaro had it scouted. Now, we get Cesaro going back to the post and wrapping around the post. Cesaro working the knee was incredible and some of his best work in the WWE. Zayn is killing it selling, but also mixing in hope spots. I loved the whiff on the enziguiri triggering the single leg crab. I love sequences like that. His next spot was for Zayn was his split legged moonsault caught by Cesaro and slams him into the ramp. Damn! That was actually credible countout finish tease and you really feel Zayn's grit and determination to return to the ring. Zayn's first big score is the Exploder into the turnbuckles. I agreed that Zayn needed to get hit some offense at this point in the match, but I thought it was a bit too easy for Zayn and felt more like it was his turn than him earning it. Cesaro goes back to the knee to cut off Zayn’s string of offense and applying a leg wrench using his neck as a fulcrum. Then you move to another interesting aspect of the characters. Cesaro starts to get a little cocky and Zayn takes advantage with roll up out of the Giant Swing. I love how Zayn fights during the Swing; it really makes for an awesome visual and puts over Zayn’s character. During a sloppy Cesaro cover Zayn slides Cesaro over for a two count. Cesaro almost more pissed at himself for letting that happened, crushes Zayn’s head with a double spot that had me popping like crazy. Zayn has another burst of offense using a hurricanarana off the top to set up his Yakuza Kick (I could not understand what Zayn’s name for it is.). Zayn won the first fall of the last match with that move. 1-2-NO! OH shit, you just gave Cesaro your best shot and that has to take a lot of wind out of your sails. Cesaro starts to obliterate with European Uppercuts and Zayn is just rocked, but won’t stay down. Zayn has one last burst of burst and the fists start flying. He throws a wicked German. Can he pull it off? I love Zayn’s selling with him holding his mouth, fighting through the pain and showing great fire looking for that Yakuza Kick, but Cesaro demolishes him with a big boot. Cesaro throw him up and European Uppercut only get one, but Cesaro will not be deterred and hits a roaring European Uppercut and Neutralizer for the win! Zayn and Cesaro just crushed it out there. If there is any NXT match as good as this, then hot damn I am going to be in for one helluva run. Cesaro showed some of his best character work here as an arrogant bully. Zayn’s story of craving that respect and proving himself by defeating the main event bully made for a great hook. He fought to the very end, but eventually succumbed to Cesaro. Then Cesaro comes back to the ring and gives him that respect in the form of a hug. This is a perfect representation of how to get someone over by losing. Everyone came out looking better from this masterpiece. ****1/2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze – NXT Takeover No. 1 Contender’s Match Let’s get this out of the way first, I love Tyler Breeze! This type of gimmick is right up my alley. Mmm Gorgeous is such a great catchphrase and he is actually pretty entertaining promo from the video package. I loved him calling a Sami loser because of the Cesaro loss. Also, I love how NXT eschewed long promos and opting the video packages. It gives more of a sports feel. Zayn has come up short against Cesaro, but it was a valiant effort. Now he has set his sights on the NXT Championship. Coming out of this match is when I realized how great Zayn is as a babyface. The hook of the entire match is Zayn’s quest to win the No. 1 contendership. He just lost to Cesaro and the Triple Threat No. 1 Contender’s match, so you really want him to get the win over Breeze to launch him up against the winner of Neville/Kidd. Standing in his way was Breeze who did an admirable job. Breeze will face an uphill battle to be taken seriously with the gimmick unfortunately even though I do love the gimmick. I was pulling for him to either be a great cheating heel or ratchet up the violence, but it was just fine, a bit pedestrian. I really liked the transition from the shine to heat with Breeze shoving Zayn off the top turnbuckle to the floor. The match suffers from inconsequential moves and Zayn not having a great obstacle to overcome. Zayn carries the match through selling and fire. The finish was really great. Zayn goes for his Yakuza Kick, but Breeze ducks and puts his hand up to protect his face and by accident hits Zayn in the balls. Breeze takes advantage with the Beauty Shot (the Close Up would be better). The finish makes the match and the Zayn character all the more interesting. Zayn looks to have it won and then bad luck takes it all away. Breeze is able to hang on and take advantage of an opportunity. Breeze needs to show more in the ring to complement his character. Good stuff, but not nothing great. A cool stop on Zayn’s road to the title and worth the watch to see Zayn. ***

My favorite opponents for the MX are the Fantastics. Though I do like RNRs Wrestlewar 90 match more than any MX/Fans match. So it is a toss up. Love the Sheamus/Daniel Bryan match! I am a huge Sheamus fan and it is easy to point to good and great Sheamus matches, but this is his masterpiece so far. Extreme Rules 2012 definitely should be more lauded. Chad, you my boy, brutha! Lets canonize this! It is funny, I grew up loving to read about the history of pro wrestling. I started watching as a kid in 1997, but reading about all the wrestling of the 80s and 90s fascinated me. There was no youtube yet so I was left to my own devices. Towards the end of 2003, WWE began to really exploit their vault in the DVD format releasing a Ric Flair DVD and I was so excited. I just could not wait to watch this. Easily, the most excited I have ever been for Christmas. Pop that sucker in and it is going to be Flair vs Race in a Cage 1983. This is it, baby! I am finally going to see Ric Flair in his prime against Harley Fucking Race after all the hype. Then I watch the match and dud. I was terrified that all 80s wrestling would be like that, but thankfully Flair vs Windham, Flair vs Steamboat and Flair vs Funk was amazing to show me that 80s wrestling is indeed bitchin! Lets decanonize this muthafucka! I love the DDP/Savage feud so much. It is the best feud of the NWO era. DDP as the People's Champion was so cool. I think I would have one of their matches on a list just because it is a personal favorite. I like the Spring Stampede match because DDP gets the big win. Steve, you're my boy, brutha! I love the "Brutha, brutha, brutha, You're married to Kimberly, YOU'RE THE MAN!" promo (It is from Uncensored 1997, for those that want to watch it) always cracks me up, but then it gets sick when Kimberly comes out distraught and spraypainted. Savage attacks DDP. Great fucking angle. The Wrestlemania XIX match has already fallen a bit flat for me. I need to watch it again. Love, love, love the HBK/Y2J 2008 matches. Never saw the first Money in the Bank. I do want to watch that one. I really liked seeing two of them live in Boston least year. I love this Austin/Steamboat Bash at the Beach match and it is my personal pick for the best of their series. Austin's heel work is awesome and a really classic heel performance. Steve, youre not my boy, anymore. You all are crazy! This match rocks! Why is Rock/Taker/Angle on the list?!?!?!?!?!? Pedestrian. Midnight Express 1990 Farewell Tour is incredible! I go with the RNRs match for the match of that tour, but the Southern Boys is right there with it. Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid is killer. Definitely a contender for best RAW match ever. Bret Hart in the babyface vs babyface matches is when he is at his best. Hart just rocks those like no one else. I need to rewatch Flair/Dusty matches. They seemed pretty mediocre when I was a teen, but maybe if I rewatch it. I love Flair/Dusty story going into Starrcade 1985. Wouldn't Flair/Dusty from GAB '86 when he won the title the match to show because at least Dusty wins? I fall in the camp that this is just an Ultimo Dragon's offensive exhibition and really lacked struggle. I prefer Misterio/Malenko especially at GAB '96. Piper/Valentine is bloody awesome. People don't like this match?!?!?!? EAR PSYCHOLOGY BABY! My favorite Piper match by far and I liked the Buddy Rose stuff a lot. I am a huge fan of The Hammer. Valentine definitely needed to be represented. Everyone should be aware how badass he is. I am going to refrain from any Austin/HHH comments until I rewatch. I was at Punk/Taker live at Wrestlemania and top 3 crowd reaction for me personally to attend. Really cool match to see live. For those curious, it would be attending the last RAW before Money in the Bank 2011 (that's the ice cream bar promo), Punk/Taker match and Royal Rumble 2015. The Canadian Stampede match is so much fun and a great character-driven match. Type of match sorely lacking nowadays. Money in the Bank 2011 was one of the loudest crowds I have heard. Bryan/Zigs is from the era where I was watching RAW every week, but was totally checked out and never even looked up the hot PPV matches. Charles has a good point about getting Zigs on the list. This was pretty heralded at the time and considered WWE MOTYC 2010. I have never seen it. Sting/Cactus is one of my favorite non-Vader Sting matches and I really, really liked it when I first saw it, but it has lessen over the years. I love the length of time of this match. They were working at a pace that kills and matches like that should not last long. Punk/Cena RAW '13 was one of my favorite matches of 2013 and my favorite of the new Cena layout where Cena has to earn each of his moves almost like levels you unlock. The story of Cena having trouble beating Punk and then vanquishing him on the head to facing The Rock was awesome. This could be the best RAW match ever. WOW! ALL THREE OF YOU! Thank you Steven!!! I loved Cesaro/Zayn two out of three falls. I disagree totally about being around the spots. The match was totally rooted in a fundamental story of the underdog trying to earn the respect of the big dog. The first fall plays off the fact that Zayn had beat Cesaro won on a flash pin. So the two out of three falls was to have Zayn prove he can definitively beat Cesaro twice. Cesaro is a power-spot guy and I have been all over for Cesaro adding more heelishness to his work since he tends to work very neutral. I thought these two matches against Zayn were his best work as a bully. Cena/Cesaro was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more of a spotfest!!! Zayn is suffocating Cesaro after winning the first fall because he knows he can't fall behind. When he does, it is a battle of Cesaro's strength against Zayn's elsuiveness and it rages to a great climax. Don't see how this was indyriffic? This is a truly incredible match that embodies everything that makes wrestling great: Bully vs underdog, Strength vs. speed, struggle, playing off early matches, great build, bitchin' spots, awesome layout and a tremendous finish. You all are crazy!

Go Shiozaki vs Suwama - AJPW 9/15/14 Royal Road Tournament I really enjoyed Suwama in the two matches I watched for the Best of Japan in the 2000s and the trend continued here. Suwama understood Shiozaki's greatest asset to be his energy. He continually sapped that by effectively using the sleeper. This did not achieve the level of the famous sleepers match between Pegasus Kid and Black Tiger in 1996, but it was a perfect use of the sleeper. The sleeper/chinlock is best used to drain the energy of an explosive babyface and let a heel regain his wind. Too often it is misused and thus triggers people's attention to drift. Shiozaki is all about those chops, but Suwama is going to make sure there is nothing behind those chops after the sleeper. You see how Suwama modulates his selling. Suwama sells the chops at the beginning of the match, but after the sleeper he stands tall. Shiozaki did a great job selling the first sleeper as really knocking him out. He is great at peppering in the hope spots, but his selling leaves a lot to be desired. He just does not have enough emotion. As good as Shiozaki's chops look, Suwama's double chop is so sick and maybe my favorite move in wrestling now. Suwama was wrestling perfectly. He took his time and was cocky when it was time, but anytime Shizaki started to fire off, he would immediately snuff the fire out with a double chop or a powerslam. Go finally mounts a bit of a comeback and is looking for a macho pissing contest so Suwama says fuck that and grabs him by the hair and applies a sleeper. Suwama is my hero. Suwama obliterates Shiozaki with a lariat and then a belly to belly suplex. With the match firmly back in his hand, Suwama looks to polish him off with his powerbomb. Shiozaki escaps and looks for refuge on the apron. Suwama comes flying across the ring with a HUGE dropkick and follows up with a suicide dive. Suwama returns to the sleeper to set up the powerbomb, but Misawa-rana. Man copying Misawa AND Kobashi, now that is just not fair! Suwama immediately clamps on a sleeper. I love Suwama's urgency. Suwama tries to gain the pin three times. Go busts out the classic collapse on a rope run and he really exaggerates his chops not having much. This is some really good shit here. Suwama is all over him, but looks to get a running start and Go roars out of the corner with a lariat. Ruh roh! Shiozaki hits a big lariat to send Suwama tumbling out and HUGE plancha by Go! Shiozaki goes all in on the lariat. Suwama is not going down without a fight, but he is on jelly legs. Suwama is selling like a boss. The double chop crushing a roaring burning lariat attempt was awesome! Eventually, Go hits a big time lariat to set up the Go Flasher & Limit Break for the win. Suwama totally outclassed Shiozaki here carrying him to a great match and the second best AJPW match of the year. Suwama was wrestling at such a high level. He was using the sleeper to debilitate his opponent and set himself up for the powerbomb. He was cocky when it was time and snuffed out Go when appropriate. Go Shiozaki needs more emotion and his selling for the majority of the match left a lot to be desired. The finish run was typical late 2000s puroresu and was fine for what it was. Suwama is underrated and this is a great showcase for him. ****1/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Joe Doering vs Go Shiozaki - AJPW 01/03/15 Hey if you are going to imitate, then imitate the best and there ain't much better than Hansen/Kobashi. Shiozaki is not nearly as histrionic as Kobashi and Doering is not as wild as Hansen, but together they still put together a great match. Unusual for a puroresu match, the eventual winner actually takes most of the offense in this one, but it still feels like Doering was a big mountain to climb. Early on, Go just could not get anything going with his vicious chops. Doering would just steamroll him with shoulder tackles and overwhelm him with power. Go got pissed off after one too many shoulder tackle and took it to Doering with some rapid fire chops. A thrust kick to the head finally stuns the big man. The one thing Doering really captured from Stan was always moving forward. Even when wounded, he was still coming at Shiozaki and you always felt like Go was in trouble. Three DDTs were not enough to keep the champion down because he just kept coming. Finally, Shiozaki threw a lariat so fierce that Doering just collapsed. It was one of the best sell jobs of the short year of 2015 so far with him just hanging out on the middle rope only to topple over. Doering tries to regroup with tag partner, Suwama, but is obviously discombobulated. Shiozaki lets him back in the ring, what a gentleman, only to dump him back over with a lariat and hitting a monster plancha over the top rope. I don't like the Frankensteiner at all during a comeback sequence. As a transition fine, but in the middle of the sequence, it just does not make sense. First Go Flasher only gets two and when he goes for Limit Break (put away Suwama back in September), Doering pushes off and hits a spinebuster to level the playing field. Doering gives Bray Wyatt a run for his money in the best cross body department. He hit two vicious ones. Shiozaki teases the Burning Hammer, which gets the announcers, the crowd and me excited, but he just hits a normal slam. Lame. Doering collapses on his own powerbomb and things do not look good for the champion. Go Shiozaki pays tribute to Kobashi with spinning back chops and a Burning Lariat to win the match and his first Triple Crown Championship. There were way too many strike exchanges in this one for me. I thought Doering outworked Shiozaki, but Shiozaki had looked like the lesser of the workers in all his matches of the past year. Doering sold the wounded animal lashing out really well and you really believed that one of his big bombs could take out Go. Go was able to persevere, keep him at bay, until he could crush him with a Burning Lariat. Go is just bereft of emotion and the needless strike exchanges keep this from being a true classic, but Doering is awesome and this is a great match. ****

I am going to stick with AJPW, but I'll be on the lookout for any matches you pimp. I think NJPW has a full roster but they need at least one more main event piece if not two. Especially an ass kicker baby face or heel. I am not sure if Morishima is the guy, but he has shown flashes of greatness as a monster. Have not seen any post-2008 work so don't know what he is like now. I think it is worth a shot to push him to the top. I think all the possible main event matches with him would intriguing. Tanahashi/Morishima at Fukokua Dome in early May would be one of the few dream matches left from 00s Puroresu.

My procrastination pays off. I'll be getting it this weekend and plan to follow NJPW in real-time this year. I'm excited.

Condescending, prick shoot style heel that liberally cheats is one of my favorite puroresu gimmicks. I have no faith in WWE to do it right but it would be fun to see Sonnen as a chickenshit heel that gets violent once he gets the upper handed. The money is not Sonnen vs Silva. It is Sonnen or Silva versus the current roster.