Boss Rock

I thought the Okada match was very good and when you see his matches against Juice and Finlay, he might start turning it around.

Really good match and great sequel to the New Beginning match. I thought Tanahashi's time in the leg submissions went a bit too long and it didn't affect his ability to hit his normal offense, but it wasn't particularly egregious and his selling was still pretty good. Loved how Suzuki tried to blitz him early with slaps and then continued to do so the longer Tanahashi hung in there. The vicious dragon screw was a tremendous turning point and really looked like it almost snapped Suzuki's leg in half. Simple exercise in booking to wrestlers' strengths: Suzuki as the sadistic heel and Tanahashi as the resilient, never-say-die babyface. ****

Well, this was fantastic. Simple, yet effective story of the seasoned and prickish Nakajima and Kitamiya trying to take out the valiant underdogs in Kamitani and Nomura. Nakajima in particular really shined in this role, relishing in the violence in a laid-back, douchey sort of way. That was a great contrast to the absolutely vicious kicks he was throwing. Kamitani and especially Nomura were great in their comebacks and really came off as being on the former tag champs' level. Nomura smirking right before he smacks Nakajima across the face was brilliant. The heels then realize that they've let the faces come closer than they should have and absolutely brutalize them. The last five minutes here was some of the most violent of the year as Nakajima repeatedly slaps and ground-and-pounds Nomura into oblivion before finishing him off with the KO. Not just one of the best tag matches this year, but purely one of the best overall. ****3/4.

I liked this match more than most but I agree that the ladder stuff really hurt the pace and disrupted what was until then a perfectly solid bout (although the superplex was admittedly cool). I think the reasoning was that they know Cody isn't the kind of guy who is good at wrestling these kinds of matches and they needed a bit of smoke and mirrors to compensate. But really, they should have just shortened the match rather than meet the obligatory 30-minute rule. The finishing stretch was perfectly fine though as Kenny's offense is always pretty impressive, but overall it was just more fluffed-up than what it needed to be. Like G. Badger said, keep it simple stupid. Still, I thought that this was a pretty good match that unfortunately sandwiched an illogical spot that kept it from becoming better than what it was.

Jay White all of a sudden becoming a good heel against anyone other than David Finlay is indeed one of the strangest developments of 2018. Very good match between these two as the more cut-loose Okada tried to mess around and big league Jay only for the latter to brush it off and dominate. Rather than just aimlessly chop and do saitos like he used to, Jay instead frequently targeted the midsection and neck of Okada, trying to take the air out of him (the aforementioned ring skirt spot was great). Okada was fired-up with his comebacks, clearly angered by Jay's disrespect and hit a bit harder than he usually does. The finish also worked perfectly in establishing Jay as a heel and protecting Okada in defeat. ****-****1/4.

Cage-Mil Muertes was just as good as you would expect it to be, but I couldn't help but feel they should have gotten more time. And without going into too much detail for those who haven't seen it yet, the finish of the match and the immediate aftermath didn't really make much sense at all.

I was going with the theory that he took the Solomon Crowe name and replaced the first name with a different Biblical figure and replaced the last name with a different kind of bird, heh. And he's definitely much better in LU than his recent indie stuff. Cuts out a lot of the schtick and gets right to kicking people in the face.

Indeed a great episode, but Debbie is still the worst.

Not much to say other than this was a really good, hard-hitting match. Just two absolute badass, middle-aged bruisers laying into each other with everything they've got. The finish felt a bit weird with Suzuki just shaking off a clothesline from Ishii and rocking him with a forearm before setting up the Gotch Piledriver, but still a match very much worth watching. ****

Despite Cedric being the CW champion, Ali is the clear franchise player of 205Live. Guy hasn't had a single match that hasn't dipped below "pretty good" level. And Buddy Murphy continues to prove he was the most underutilized talent in NXT not named Juice Robinson. Really like how they mixed their usual big moves with some pretty violent spots such as the Spanish Fly on the announce table (Holy no give Batman!) and the insane superplex off the stairs. Not only that, but you could REALLY feel the hatred between these two. Everything they did was done with the intention of not just winning the match, but to severely hurt their opponent. And major bonus points for the most creative steel stair spots I've ever seen. Not just one of the best TV matches this year, but one of the best WWE matches this year. r****1/4-****1/2.

Really liked this match although I agree that it wasn't quite as good as the Sakura Genesis match. Similar story of Zack having a counter for damn near everything Okada had to give him. As much as I love Okada, the criticisms of him not being the, shall we say "hardest" hitter were pretty much on full display here. Still, the guy has a way of elevating a match and making things feel important against almost anyone and that was the case here. He also did a really good job selling the arm by hitting a somewhat limp Rainmaker and being too hurt to follow up on another one. And the finish was perfect as it not only proved that Sabre is clever but that Okada is still reeling from losing the title. ****

Speaking of Marty, he and Okada are in the first "official" match for All In. Rumor has it that it was supposed to be Okada-Rey but WWE finally signed him to a new deal.

I was expecting episode 4 to be bad but it was surprisingly pretty good. Jake Strong looked better this time around and came off a bit more as the aggressive bruiser they tried to paint him as in that awful trios match. But at the end of the day, he's still charisma vacuum Jack Swagger. Worldwide Underground vs. Reptile Tribe was a fun tag match. Daga has to be one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world. And holy crap, the athleticism on Vibora! Did not expect that. Won't go too much into Matanza-Pectacular but Mrzfn was right in saying that the latter is a solid bumper. Main event between Chavo and King Cuerno was a lot of fun, easily one of the best this season. Next week:

I enjoy Famous B's dedication to the thing a whole lot. Him reacting to Mascarita cutting the head off his cutout like it was his own head remains one of my favorite moments.

Tonight's episode looking like Matanza-Pectacular and Worldwide Underground-Reptile Tribe.

Well, definitely watching this later!

I will gladly add to the Kia Stevens praise. She did a really good job last season but didn't really get as much time as a lot of the other characters. With a full episode about her, she knocked it out of the park.

I also must say that considering this was the first Hideki match I saw since the snore-inducing rematch with Daichi, it was nice to see the guy I was blown away by last year.

A very worthy successor to their barn-burner in March. While this match was maybe just as violent as the first, it wasn't so much about the violence as it was Kenoh's defiance and desire to prove himself to Sugiura. From the very beginning Kenoh tries to brush off his mentor's offense as best he can, but eventually Sugiura hits an elevated swinging neckbreaker to the outside and is able to establish control. Kenoh's selling of the neck was very good throughout and had some really clever spots such as grabbing the back of his head due to the whiplash of a Sugiura spear. Sugiura tries to prove he knows Kenoh better than he does with counter ankle locks, but Kenoh is finally able to recover and drag Sugiura into a dogfight. And boy oh boy what a dogfight it is. As much of a wonderful bastard as Kenoh can be, he proved he can be just as good if not better as a fiery babyface, getting nearly knocked out by Sugiura only to struggle back up to his feet as if to say "Is that the best you got?" He is defiant to the end even when he knows defeat is inevitable. It seems like a bit of odd booking that Kenoh couldn't put Sugiura away with two head kicks AND a double footstomp, but the endgame seems to be for Kenoh to get closer with each shot until he can finally overcome Sugiura in a third bout. All in all, a great match with tremendous babyface work by the man who SHOULD be king. ****1/2.

Very much so. And as underwhelming as Cody can be in the ring, his heel persona really is main event level.

I'm pretty sure the whole show will be, but might be split up by each match. Okada-Sabre and Suzuki-Ishii sounded really good.

Also kind of makes sense they wouldn't want to have Cody lose to the IWGP Heavyweight Champion two years in a row as ROH champ.

One of the most unique matches I've seen this year. Really reminded me a lot of an MMA fight, more specifically Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen. You see the underdog exerting his will and even putting the super dominant champion in real trouble, only for the champ to pull out something crazy and get the win. And at less than eleven minutes long, that's not something you see in a whole lot of championship matches. But I'm glad I saw it. ****

Good God the neck bumps. Really good tag match, easily the best NJPW tag that wasn't Lover-Bucks or Bucks-RPG3K. Lots of great tandem offense and despite taking the pin because he's a Junior Heavyweight of course, Hiromu really got to shine in this one. And again, the neck bumps. Good Lord.

I never saw the match itself but have heard that Sojo-Kong is notoriously bad.