AstroBoy

Kind of a disappointment after their last match. Spanky does perhaps the best job I have ever seen of doing the cartwheel spot when Dragon uses the monentum from his legs to flip him out of a boston crab attempt. This was good enough in the short runtime. *1/2

Haas brothers look like big timers and Kelly shines as a sneaky opportunistic manager. Great cutoff spots including Kelly trying to land a chop then getting reversed and scurrying to the corner for Russ to save him with a clothesline. The fireball was a legit crazy surprise here and a fitting end to a surprisingly good match. ***

Way better than it had any right to be considering the age of the Briscoes. A lot of the flash and offense is deliberate but pulled off cleanly and you get two veteran guys making Jay and Mark look like a million bucks in front of a crazy crowd. This really was a showcase for all kinds of fancy offense from Jay and Mark. Good old school heel tag team work by the veterans which leads to a good hot tag by Jay and a win for the Briscoes. ***1/2

ragemaster . . . always a peacemaker

Of course there's a difference. But at the core, it comes down to reporting a fact. And he is just pointing out a fact, it shouldn't matter if that is correcting a higher number or a lower number. It only represents accuracy. If anything the "when" and "how" of it makes it even more innocuous, as he was just responding to people throwing around numbers without a full understanding of them. It's not like he did it in a provoking way or called people idiots or something.

Seriously? If Dave tweeted out a correction saying that he actually headlined MORE shows that people typically think, would anybody have a problem with it? It's not hurtful to point out a commonly misunderstood fact and he wasn't being malicious about it in any way.

My review for the match that Matt D gave me is linked below. Fantastic stuff. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41655-la-ola-lila-rudy-reyna-sergio-el-hermoso-bello-greco-vs-los-cadetes-del-espacio-solar-1-super-astros-ultraman/

Jesus this really was awesome. From the opening we get some very good matwork with everybody working nice exchanges with each other. Everything is so smooth and effortless without appearing fake in any way. This eventually transitions into a Rudo dominant sequence that caps the first fall. And this is where things start to get really great. I don't exactly know what I was expecting but it wasn't this. Obviously for 1984 this had to be incredibly state-of-the-art action. I will cop to not being able to keep straight who was who at certain moments but there were so many standout spots as The Space Cadets take it to the rudos in the segunda. Unbelievably crisp action one particularly death-defying assisted Plancha to the outside and great comedy. The glue running through this is the rudo team constantly paying for their pomp and prancing and flamboyance. At every turn the tecnicos are there to one-up them and get a great pop from the crowd. Instead of going into individual spots I will just say that the match comes together like a crazy Rube Goldberg machine of people being in the right place at the right time in logical ways, always getting great reactions at the right time and building constantly to a super satisfying finish Lucha is still new to me and I don't have the deepest knowledge base to reference from. It was with some trepidation that I went into this match, fearing that maybe I just wouldn't grasp it as well as I should. I was completely wrong. This is a match that transcends it's era and holds up to the test of time and actually made me more excited and interested to dive into 80s Lucha.

Tozawa and Itami against the Lucha House Party from 205 Live last night was just awesome. Great tornado tag with huge spots, great nearfalls and teases, and really fantastic character work and dynamics that brought it all together. I really might have to watch 205 Live every week now.

Treating these two "matches" as one, Low Ki is crazy for diving to the floor like that and the injury angle seems pretty legit. I loved Scoot's attack on the leg and Low Ki looks a little silly trying to still prepare for a kickboxing battle on one leg. The guy's intensity can border on the cartoonish. Scoot has hurtful looking ways of working over the leg and nails the portrayal of a guy in control but vicious at the same time. Sort of a more dynamic Randy Orton in control of a match. I didn't think this match really needed a fluke pin by Ki and it felt shoehorned in against the grain of the story they told, but whatever. **

In a way, I wish they would have stayed with the shoot elements for just a bit longer but what they had here worked magnificently. Reil comes across as a super tough guy for taking the amount of punishment he takes from Ki and always finds a way to hit a big move and keep himself in the match. I would have liked for some more defined roles, particularly Reil to be more heelish and underhanded, but for a match built on big spots and battling for respect, this was really good. ***1/2

I quite liked the opening parts of this with Homicide in particular looking good in his sequences with Monsta Mack. They go to the sort of strange dynamic of putting Mack in the face in peril role but they pull it off pretty well, even if I think that Montoya does not add much to the match. But then Montoya yells something about Memphis and drops a nice fist drop and he's showing some modicum of charisma. The second half of this was such an over-the-top jumble that it really blended together after a certain point but I did think the finish was a severe statement in making Homicide look like a killer. **1/2

My match for Matt D. BOSJ from 1997. El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto.

Hey, Matt D, I want back in this coming week.

This struck me as far more engrossing than some of their other bouts. Nice clean snug mat work to begin gave this a solid little base to work from and this showed that Spanky could hang doing that stuff as he gets the better of Dragon on some of these spots. Dragon cuts him off and works over the midsection admirably with Spanky selling well -- down and hurt but with surprising grit considering how his character carries himself. The armdrag off the top was a nice nod to the early match sequences and the finish played off the midsection work, though it came out of nowhere. **3/4

As entertaining as this whole deal has been -- I really just kind of enjoy having shodate's different wrestling opinions here on the board. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to deal with his opinions on politics/gender/etc. . . But regardless of who he is or why he types differently than we would expect, he has brought some different viewpoints and discussion to all the wrestling stuff we talk about.

Commentators won't shut the fuck up during the pre-match promo. It is. . . bizarre to see Cena like this looking back on it now. Equally funny/interesting is him doing a couple of shoulder tackles and then going for the pin instead of the five knuckle shuffle. He clearly was still working himself into smoother ring experience but he hung in here. Anderson was a nice measuring stick to put him against, worked well with him, made him look credible, and the two put together a solid match. **1/4

Daniels goes after the leg of Angle to good results. Kurt is a real trooper in selling it but his inexperience shows here as he just doesn't have enough to carry a match on offense yet. Lots of bad looking punches and nothing really interesting between his spots. Daniels, on the other hand, was excellent here. He really wrestled like a pro and impressed with good leg work, came across credible against a legit WWF main eventer, and held together a match very proficient in execution. Daniels also worked in some exciting and credible near falls down the stretch. ***1/4

This clicked a little better for me. For the first time Dinsmore came across more effective and serious than douchey to me and Conway has natural charisma and a willingness to be led here. He's green but most of his natural abilities cancelled that out here. The overbooking is expected but after the ref bump they at least pull off the finishing sequence cleanly and we get a title change. **

This was fine though I think Paris would have come across better if not for trying to fit all his cool indy offense into the match. He had a decent heel presence and command in the ring but his offensive arsenal kind of detracted from it for me. Jacobs looked competent as they work a fine short TV match that ends with some angle advancement. *3/4

Spanky with a nice promo. His charisma comes off well here. Fun stuff and a great run of high energy nearfalls from Spanky before Regal puts him away. Cool glimpse at what looks like good chemistry from these two. **

Rocket seemed pretty damn atrocious here trying to fit in his lame flying offense and not really selling for Dragon. Dragon was game and gets the win with the Regalplex but this wasn't much. *1/2

This spread out and became really good. The pacing of the opening matwork leading to the body of the match was gradual and nice though Kid's offense is kinda cringeworthy. Punk's tiltawhirl slam was a great cutoff and then they get a hot finish too. ***1/4