Boss Rock

My guess is Lana keeps getting him into trouble.

Looks like it.

Elias being one of the biggest acts on Raw is something I never expected. And yet he kills it every time.

I thought they got a little messy in some of those corner spots they kept trying to set up. I generally enjoy them both. Yeah other than that spot I thought it was a fine match. Alexa just controlled too much of the action.

I still have to catch up on a lot of Casas' work this decade, but from what I've seen he always delivers in a big match setting and is frequently the highlight of any trios match. I actually prefer 2000's work to his 80's/90's stuff.

Another great match between these two. Excellent learned psychology as both seemed to have counters and escapes for each other's signature moves. Ospreay was back in full screaming mode which is always obnoxious, but he still did a really good job selling damage to the neck and arm. KUSHIDA was an offensive dynamo as he hit a dragonrana, a jumping DDT to the floor, and a brutal knockout punch. Still, Ospreay's resilience won out in a hot comeback. ****1/2.

Despite the number of times these two have fought over the past 6 years (this being the 9th singles match), Okada and Tanahashi managed to have another great match. However, the unofficial "30 minute rule" was in full effect here and the beginning stretch of the match featured your typical NJPW main event padding. Even still, they found cool ways to introduce learned psychology, such as Tanahashi skinning the cat after being hit with the turnbuckle dropkick by Okada. Okada also tried to hit the tombstone multiple times but Tanahashi escaped each time. I was hoping to see Okada be a bit more aggressive considering he was out to kill Tanahashi in pretty much every tag match leading up to this bout, but things didn't really get cooking until the 10 minute mark when he began to crank on the neck of Tanahashi. It was here that we began to see much more of a struggle, as each man knew what move was coming and would try everything in their power to escape. Okada's cockiness and disrespect towards Tanahashi would allow the Ace to mount his comebacks, such as a High Fly Flow to the outside. Okada was finally able to hit the tombstone on Tanahashi, and somehow both men were spent even though Tanahashi took the higher impact move. The final 10 minutes was perhaps the most thrilling of any Okada title defense this year, with both men's hatred seeping through and Tanahashi returning Okada's disrespect. It was also interesting to see both men recover quickly from the other's signature moves. This wasn't just fighting spirit: it was both Okada and Tanahashi being battle-hardened from their prior matches together. They had taken so many dropkicks, slingblades, and suplexes that they no longer had the same effect they once had before. However, while Okada's focus had led him to victory at Wrestle Kingdom 10, it was his braggadocio at Wrestle Kingdom 9 that almost cost him this match. Having Tanahashi right where he wanted him, he instead chose to laugh and relish in the moment which allowed the Ace to fire back with strikes that nearly knocked the Rainmaker out. Still, Okada knew when to counter the High Fly Flow and looked to put Tanahashi away with the Rainmaker when we got one final callback. Tanahashi slapped Okada to escape the Rainmaker only for Okada to maintain wrist control, which won him the match at Wrestle Kingdom 10 and would become an instrumental part of his winning ways going forward. This time, Tanahashi was prepared and managed to do what no one else had: break wrist control. Tanahashi finally had the recipe to beat Okada but like his rival, who had been undone by his arrogance in the past, Tanahashi spent too much time playing to the crowd. Okada, desperate not to let Tanahashi surpass him again, grabbed his tights and pulled him in for the finishing blow. Wow, I put down a lot more words than I expected. Even though I wrote three paragraphs gushing about this story, it wasn't a perfect match. The beginning was too padded and Okada seemed to sell exhaustion even though he had controlled most of the match simply to create more drama leading into the finishing stretch. That being said, this was an awesome main event match and a fitting way to close the book on this rivalry for good...I hope. ****1/2-****3/4.

I'm curious in regards to your take of him being overrated. He's usually the guy who puts on bangers and most folks agree he's great and wonder why he doesn't get a bigger push, yet seems to be absent from most "best in the world" discussions.

I thought the arm work was overdone just a tad, but loved just how brutal and merciless Ashino was. Soya was also a great babyface who had just enough gas and power in the tank to overcome Ashino. However, pinning him with the lariat arm that had been worked over so severely was a bit off. Still, a wonderfully violent match and nearly picture-perfect way for Ashino's reign to come to an end. ****1/2.

Braun destroying people and getting all the pins in the beginning was fun, but overall a pretty by-the-numbers chamber match. Not bad, but not great. Just sort of a decent match that happened. Unless you have a few storyline hooks like the women's chamber had (Sasha and Bayley's growing tension, Absolution working together, etc) or a ring general who can hold everything together like A.J, chamber matches just aren't all that great.

Really liked this match a lot although I get the criticisms that it went too long. That being said, I thought the opening wasn't quite as slow or inconsequential as the Okada/SANADA match was. Okada tries to beat Sabre at his own game and plays up his lucha training by busting out a few new subs. After realizing he's no match for Sabre on the ground, Okada tries to go back to his bread and butter only to learn that Sabre has a counter for damn near everything. This was a great continuation of Sabre's NJ Cup run where he always had an answer for every big move his opponent tried to put him away with. Although I knew Sabre had no chance of winning, they did a tremendous job getting me to bite on some of the reversals and nearfalls. Even if Okada is booked like Superman, I'm not sure there's anyone who sells peril or being on the verge of defeat as well as he does. It probably helped that I'm big fans of both guys, but I thought this was a great main event match that was maybe just a tad too long. ****1/2.

I actually wouldn't be all that surprised if they don't go more than 60 and are just using the "no time limit" stip to ensure that the match will have a definitive winner. But there's probably still a good chance they get super ambitious and go longer.

I could see them using him as they did before he was let go: Wrestlemania or big ppv nostalgia appearance. Which I normally wouldn't mind (the Mania 30 segment with him, Austin, and Rock was great, as was his birthday celebration angle with Brock), but it's probably just best to leave things as is. Don't whitewash him from history, maybe interview him for a Network special regarding someone he knew or angle he was a part of, but no reason for him to be on TV.

Well said. I'm expecting at least a third of the match to be unnecessary padding and the other two-thirds to be best in the world-level stuff.

One thing I will say about Jarrett is that the guy knew how to make you hate him. I think it got to levels of "go away" heat with how often he dominated the title picture (at least to me anyway), but he was still a terrific scumbag.

Him struggling with the mask is hilarious. It's like he's transitioned from "cool dad" to "drunk uncle".

I'm excited for Dominion but I'm still disappointed with how Naito's been handled. It's one of those things where yes, the company is still doing great business with Okada on top (although slow ticket sales for G1 Special may be proof they're over-saturating the U.S. market), but I can't help but think they could be doing even better with Naito as the ace. Not to mention the fresher angles they could be doing instead of rehashing Okada-Tanahashi one more time and putting the IC title back on Naito. I've also still enjoyed a lot of the matches even if they're not quite firing on all cylinders as last year when they seemed to be putting on an arguable MOTYC every other month. Hopefully Dominion acts as a sort of reboot for the last few months.

This was rather dull and disappointing compared to their overachieving, borderline great match at Wrestle Kindgom. The feeling out process was too long and even with the occasional cool spot like the double foot stomps through the table, the slap exchange, and Ibushi's guardrail-clearing cross body weren't enough to keep this heated for more than a few minutes. Cody is a main event-level character but not a main-event level wrestler.

I actually liked this quite a bit even if it required a lot of flash and a few hardcore spots to make up for Page's shortcomings. The aforementioned hardcore spots on the outside such as Cody's attack before the match started and the table spot gave this a bit of a hotter start than you see with most NJPW main events. Page working heat spots isn't really the most exciting thing but it wasn't terrible either. Kenny's comebacks featured a lot of his more flashy moves (including a knee that legit looked like it knocked Page loopy) and helped heat up the proceedings until the end. While I think this was proof Page isn't a main event-level talent, the smoke and mirrors in the beginning and the big move offense near the end were enough to help make this a pretty enjoyable bout.

Owens is a great call. I do think a good chunk of his stint in WWE has been lazy and uninspired, but he's also not exactly turning in clunkers every single time either. Dude just gets in his own way too often with the chinlocks and trying to be "cute". But he's also had some legitimately really good stuff sprinkled here and there.

The Dads are usually a lot of fun in tags. Their feud with the NOAH guys in 2016 was a hoot.

Liked this episode quite a bit. Not a fan of Gargano-Ciampa continuing as I don't see how you can top their Takeover match, but Candice was tremendous. The match with Bianca was a real showcase for the latter while showing that the former clearly wasn't in the right frame of mind. Heavy Machinery-War Raiders should be a hoot and a half. Looking forward to a possible heel turn for TM61, as they're just Generic Indy Tag Team to me as faces. Street Profits are stars. Dakota is getting some really nice character development and even if Vanessa is just going to put her over, they seem to really use her a lot considering how bad she is. And it's good to see we're getting more women's feuds like Lacey-Kairi. Dunne-Strong was very good and looking forward the eventual six-man tag with Burch and Oney.

Cena's tough because I'd wager the majority of his best stuff was around 2007. He still delivered some great matches here and there, but being a part-timer also hurts him compared to more consistent wrestlers.

I haven't seen enough of Kenny's DDT or early NJPW stuff to say one way or the other, but if he keeps delivering like he did last year I think he'll have an argument.

Unbelievably fun and hard-hitting tag match. Everyone got their time to shine and there were several fun little touches like Hino hurting his foot kicking the guardrail and Joe dancing a bit to the chants for Shingo. Jun also played a great face in peril and the back-and-forth chop exchanges were brutal. ****1/4.