cactus

That tope Aramis hit looked devastating. Nothing like anything you would see out of a Dean Ambrose or Seth Rollins. Props for Casas for taking it as well. Casas takes a lot for a man of his age, although what makes him exceptionally great is all the little things he does. From offering to take off his trunks after Aramis removes his shirt to collapsing to one knee after dishing out one too many kicks as his body can't keep up with him, it's no wonder why people rate this guy so highly. Don't even get me started on that finish. Beautiful stuff. ★★★¼

ZSJ submission work is just wonderful. He's does something that I haven't seen before in most of his big matches. He was put over in a big way here, with any nasty submission feeling like Okada's reign was in jeopardy. That dropkick counter was awe-inspiring. My only gripe with this is hat Sabre no-sold the Tombstone. Looked hokey as hell. Deep down I knew that Sabre had little chance at winning this, but they managed to craft a match where numerous times I thought "Just maybe he might get him here". You know you've got a good match on your hands when that happens. ★★★★¼

Daisuke Sekimoto fits into Battlarts just fine. He adds a bit of pro-style to the mix with his strike exchanges, but they don't look too out of place and they work as a perfect foil for Kazunari Murakami. Murakami starts off much more reserve than usual, although it's not long until we see the utter bastard side of him that we all know and love after a couple of strike offs with Sekimoto helps him loosen up. Ikeda and Ishikawa having wrestled against each other countless times over the past decade, predictably have great chemistry. They have had better encounters against each other and it's usually more interesting to see them mix it up with the other team mate than with each other. With Murakami being involved, you can expect a bit of crowd brawling and thankfully what we got here didn't detract from the match. After a brief Ishikawa hot tag segment, the match reaches a satisfying conclusion. I particularly loved the spot where Ishikawa ducked to allow Murakami to strike Sekimoto, who was attempting to German Suplex his partner. ★★★½

Can't believe I actually choose to sit down and watch a random Togi Makabe match. I'm so glad I did. You don't see bloodbaths like this anymore. Pure hatred. Makabe controls the match until Nagata slips the challenger into the corner and pulverizes him with elbows, putting Makabe on the high end of the Muta scale. All the weapon spots and interference is fine, but all the drama with the referee looking like an idiot hindered this a tad. At one point in this match, Nagata slaps Makabe so hard, specs of blood fly onto the camera and I don't think I can summarize this match better than that moment. ★★★★½

More of a juniors.match with some BattlARTs influence thrown in. Taijiri is full of fire and attempts to put Tanaka away with a Dragon Suplex straight out of the gate. His lucha submission didn't look at all out of place. A easy to digest sprint with plenty of near falls that feel like they could actually end the match. ★★★½

For every cool spot this match has, there was about 5 average ones that didn't add much to the match. It just felt like they threw everything out and hoped that something would stick. This all leads to a very bloated match that felt like a chore to sit through. I'm always a sucker for a good table spot and this match had two great ones. Kenny Omega hesitating to hit the One WInged Angel one of the Bucks made little sense when he's spent the last half hour kneeing them into the next dimension. I found the post-match stuff and the general Bullet Club/The Elite program rather enticing, it's just a shame the match doesn't hold up to the storyline. ★★¾

Not sure if it's been posted yet, but this is one of my favorites bad Ramones song (they had a lot of stinkers in the 80s/90s), mainly because it's all about wrestling.

He's the Tommy Wiseau of PWO. Totally batshit crazy with an odd taste in wrestling, but I'd be lying if I said he didn't like make this place a bit more colorful.

Backlund is so adored by this crowd and they eat up every big spot of his. The butterfly suplex (which looks fantastic by the way), atomic drop and crossface chickenwing all generate a big pop before Backland executes the moves. You're not going to find a more pro-style BattlARTS match than this, which is quite surprising when you see who's involved. Backlund does a bit of goofy comedy, Ikeda beats on him and then proceeds to mock him. As the OP said, a very easy watch. ★★★½

Short and messy. This is all over the place. Murakami is great at being a dickhead. Feels more akin to a real fight than a lot of BattlARTS matches for better or worse. Murakami brutalizes Ishikawa until Ishikawa catches a leg and throws a legit looking punch right to the jaw and manages to put Murakami with a rear naked. Not sure where I sit with this one. There's not many memorable spots, but things like Murakami's devilish facials and the finish of the match makes it worth your ten minutes.# ★★★

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsbfL1U4sqQ The infamous barbed wire kickpad incident. Shoot style meets hardcore in a brilliant bizarre pairing. Usuda schools Yamakawa in anything technical, so Yamakawa has to get crafty. He turns to brawling which works into his favor. His luck runs out of luck when he tries to bring barbed wire into the mix. Usuda manages to get his hands on it and wraps it around his kickpad and proceeds to kick the living crap out of poor Yamakawa, who is cut to shreds. That punt kick is particularly nasty. Usuda has a grin on his face as he's now schooling this garbage hardcore wrestling at his own game. Usuda gets dumped on his head in a sickening way when Yamakawa finally gets his wind back and lariats his opponent HARD. I can't remember the last time I cringed some many times in a single match. A brutal hybrid of a match. More of this please. ★★★★

I think Bryan is able to get a better match out of any opponent, much better than Kobashi or Misawa in that regard. I remember Bryan facing Great Khali on one of the first episodes of NXT and he got a fun TV match out of him. Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada have more classic matches, but considering All Japan is all about pure in-ring talent, it's expected.

While on the subject of the Flair/Lynch kiss, I have no problem with it as long as Lynch wasn't pressured into doing it. Flair was the scumbag heel, we were not supposed to like him. Plus he was doing it to distract Lynch, not just for his own sexual satisfaction.

Bret Hart was the first guy that came to mind. I've never seen him in a bad match. He doesn't have as many great matches as guy like Kobashi or Han, but he could carry a broom to solid, serviceable match and I think that's why he's seen as great. how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes I couldn't say that for anyone even Volk Han. He's never had a bad match, but I could probably make that case for Bret Hart and he certainly isn't the greatest in my book either. I disagree on the realism trumps versatility point. Volk Han does shoot style brilliantly, but I would rather watch a Kobashi/Funk/Danielson match over his 9/10 because I can expect something different in most matches. nope realism helo buy into the work what does verrslity do I prefer a mix of both. I need to believe in what they're selling obviously. I need more than that to call someone the greatest of all time though.

^ Also it just makes wrestling look pretty bad as a whole. Imagine taking someone who wasn't into wrestling to that show and seeing that. A portion of the crowd cheered. A smattering of the crowd looked uncomfortable during the spot. I looked online after the show and a few fans voiced their displeasure. I didn't leave or anything nor am I bent out of shape over the match. It's just something that I thought would be worth mentioning as an example for rape culture in wrestling.

how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes I couldn't say that for anyone even Volk Han. He's never had a bad match, but I could probably make that case for Bret Hart and he certainly isn't the greatest in my book either. I disagree on the realism trumps versatility point. Volk Han does shoot style brilliantly, but I would rather watch a Kobashi/Funk/Danielson match over his 9/10 because I can expect something different in most matches.

I went to an Indy show in Swindon a couple of years ago that had Tatanka face one of the promotion's main heels. The guy had a valet with him and after she tried to interfere, Tatanka grabbed her and forcibly laid a kiss upon her lips. This was at a family friendly wrestling show. In 2016. I get that it's a classic wrestling spot, but in today's world it was just tasteless to have it in the show, especially when the sexual assaulter was the babyface. Insane.

I watched a lot of Inoki when I was participating in a Pre-80s Puro project over at the long-gone Puroresu,tv board. I was a big fan of him from what I saw. The guy has endless charisma and a legitimacy to him. It's no wonder they threw him in with Ali. I haven't seen much of his stuff post 1980 though. I do like his 1996 match with Vader, although that could be because of THAT German Suplex.

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

Kitamiya had less than a year of experience at this point, but he has a huge heart and he believes he can hang with two of the greatest wrestlers of all time. He starts the match trying and failing at taking Akiyama down. Akiyama punishes the rookie for this and gives him an absolutely brutal beating, bloodying his nose before throwing him over to Daddy Kensuke. What. A. Start. Kensuke comes in as does Kobashi. They reenact their Destiny Tokyo Dome chop spot like they have in every match they've had against each other since 2005. It's done to death, but it's still mildly enjoyable and seeing them do it in person must of been a total blast. The match is at it's best whenever Kitamiya is the legal man. The fire in his belly is infectious. I popped huge for the spear on Akiyama, a perfect callback to when the youngster was failing miserably at taking down Akiyama at the start of the bout. Kitamiya kicks out of a big Akiyama knee and he's finally put away after trying a Burning Lariat on Kobashi. Bad move, rookie. Three big hosses of Japanese Wrestling and a fiery young lion have the sleeper MOTYC of 2012. Seriously underrated match. Check it out if you haven't already. Plus, this is probably the only match ever where you could say Kenta Kobashi HURT the match. (I still love watching him though) ★★★★¾

WALTER has some of the most brutal chops I've ever seen. There's even a moment where WALTER gets a believable near fall from a single chest chop. This tells a simple story of WALTER controlling the match with his nasty chops and Thatcher trying to take out WALTER's arm, neutralizing the threat of that bastard chop and it's told so well. Add to that some uniquely compelling and brilliant commentary and PROGRESS's guerilla production and you've got yourself some brilliant pro wrestling. ★★★★½

I didn't think these guys had it in them to keep a half hour match interesting, but they sure showed me. This is one of the rare few times you get a smark-heavy crowd fully immersed with the traditional face/heel dynamic. None of that 'Let's go Gargano, Let's go Almas,' dueling chant bollocks here. Every time Almas would look for a shortcut or his manager would interfere with the match, the crowd were calling for their heads. Johnny Gargano is the best babyface in wrestling right now. His facial expressions were next level when ever he take a brutal move and looked concussed. Speaking of brutal moves, they were plenty here and it never felt like they were there for the sake of popping the crowd. Just pure magic. ★★★★¾

Sam Adonis has a rather creative character and look and I admire his dedication to trying something different with his pro-Trump character. He also hits a gorgeous 450 splash, one of the better ones I've seen in a while. Negro seems like he's phoning it in, but I have to tip my hat to anyone in their late 50's leaping from the top rope for the sake of our entertainment. Decent enough, there's just nothing overly special about this. ★★¾

A part of Laughter7's magic is missing here. It could have something to do with both members losing their singles matches at Wrestle Kingdom or that they aren't rushing their opponents like they have done during their other tag matches, something just seems off about their aura. Goto brawling with Shibata is still worth sticking around for, as Goto seems like a much better fit for Shibata than Makabe. I wasn't a fan of Goto no-selling the back suplex, looked mega hokey. Inoue and Sakuraba's interactions aren't anything special and Saku only just barely managing to hang with Wataru freakin' Inoue doesn't do him any favors what so ever. ★★¾

The awfully-named Always Hypers rush Laughter7 as soon as they're in the ring as they know they don't stand much of a chance playing fair. It seems to work until Inoue is left in the ring with Shibata, who starts brushing off his measly strikes and shows poor Wataru how to dish them out correctly. Shibata just oozes charisma here. Sick of seeing his partner tenderized, Makabe tries to attack Shibata, and they end up brawling into the crowd. Sakuraba takes over Inoue and schools him on the mat before putting him away with a submission. Not as good as the first match, but this sets up the Makabe/Shibata singles match at Wrestle Kingdom perfectly. ★★★