Boss Rock

Loved this. You could just feel the hatred and disdain these two had for each other. There was much more of a chaotic brawl feel in this match than any of the others in the tournament. Loved how we got a submission finish here with Suwama just absolutely choking Jun out and wanting to get a few more shots in. Such a unique match that hasn't been seen in AJPW this year. ****

100% agreed. LayCool was awesome and I am loving the Iconic Duo. I'm really amazed at how great Peyton's impressions are. I don't really have anything bad to say about Billie Kay but to me, Peyton Royce looks so much like the Shawn Michaels of this duo. Her upside is tremendous, especially on the mic. Peyton is definitely the better in-ring worker of the two. Think they're both about even in terms of character and mic work.

Anderson was a pretty capable singles wrestler. Don't think they were ever anything special as a tag team. They work much better as goons.

Their social media has been silent since February.

I think it depends on the match and the story they're telling. I also tend to like a mix of both.

Love Cagematch.

Was really pulling for Zeus but seeing that he was in the opening match, knew he had no chance. Guessing Joe or Hino wins the A Block. We haven't had a draw yet, have we? Could see Kento and Yuji going 30.

I've only just been diving into his work, but I might say El Samurai just for the fact that he's not as celebrated a high flier as his contemporaries. But from what I've seen, he was pretty great.

I remember he was vaping while doing commentary for Cage-Tessa at Wrestle Circus. Crazy to believe he's also Jervis.

My take on the match structure was to try and make Reigns look as good as possible while still losing, hence the reason he kicked out of six F-5's. That being said, I could still see them doing the exact same match if Reigns was going over. After months of everyone being put away by just one F-5, they thought it would be even more impressive of Reign to kick out of six as opposed to one or two. Bad strategy. And I wouldn't doubt Heyman's involvement considering how good Joe looked (who Heyman is high on) compared to Braun (who Heyman is rumored to have seen as a threat to Brock).

Great match and possibly the best of the tournament thus far. Zeus was eager to earn Jun's respect but the grizzled veteran wouldn't let him earn it the easy way in a test of strength. Zeus gets incensed and absolutely annihilates him with chops and whips into the guardrail on the outside. This essentially became a war of attrition as the stronger, younger Zeus tried to overwhelm Jun with chops as the older, wiser veteran took everything and tried to dish out even more with repeated knees. Though not a brawl, this really felt like a knock-down, drag-out FIGHT with both guys just throwing everything into their strikes. A bombfest of the highest order and continued proof that not only is Zeus one of the best in All Japan, but that Jun is still capable of some tremendous performances. ****1/4

Fantastic, did not catch that the first time.

That is true, but he also failed a test right after that before Mania when he was most likely going to win the briefcase.

Zeus-Jun is probably my favorite match so far. Just a tremendous war. Marufuji-Suwama was a bit slow in spots but that second half was absolute fire. Really hope the Bodyguard's limp isn't legit but he and Shuji had a really good sub-five minute match.

Seemed like a terrible decision at the time for Jeff to drop the belt a month later, but massive bullet dodged in hindsight.

I thought most of if not all of his title matches were must-see. Didn't always get a ton of time in tag matches, but he'd usually do something interesting.

Will need to re-watch that re: after Kawada taking the Tiger Driver. I took it as Misawa just letting Kawada get back up.

It's always difficult to tell who draws for that as the name "Wrestlemania" seems to be the biggest draw for the show. Granted, you could probably credit Goldberg for at least some of Mania 33's success and the announcement of Shane-Taker supposedly moved the most tickets for Mania 32. Can't say for sure it would have been the same for Mania 30, though.

Mask vs. mask match with Ultimo Guerreo from 2015 and mask vs. mask match with La Sombra from 2016. 1984 match with Satanico is also fun but he's super awkward in it.

I hear you on Thatcher, I've always been fascinated by what he does with his arms. He either just holds them straight at his sides with his fists balled or he flails them when taking offense.

That's probably why I would lean more towards Hardy, although Bryan getting hurt in 2014 certainly didn't help even if he was ultimately going to be fed to Brock.

It is, I think, kind of a common problem with a certain kind of young wrestler. Stringing move after move together with a kind of "Look at me! Look how many moves I know!" type of attitude rather than trying to tell any kind of coherent story or develop dramatic tension or whatever. It not just jumpy flippy guys who are spot monkeys. Hopefully they'll grow out of it eventually. One of my favorite talking points over the years is how wrestling is symbolic and everything a wrestler chooses to do, be it matwork, a garbage spot, a high spot, a strike, or even just playing to the crowd, is just a tool, and it's all about how the tools are used (and to a lesser degree how they're executed). The tools, in and of themselves, are not necessarily better or worse, though they may lean more towards your preference or may signify a trend of specific-tools-being-used-better-than-others-historically. I feel like it's never gotten all that much traction. That's an argument I've always leaned towards. Obviously anything can become excessive, but I've always believed that it's HOW you use certain spots rather than the spots themselves. Sort of like how Onita would always build suspense towards the barbed wire explosion or how Rey would weave high-flying moves and acrobatics into his comebacks or early blitzes to catch his opponents off-guard.

When it comes to Sabre, I see him as someone who's offering something different. Now whether or not "different" is good in this case ultimately depends on the viewer and personal preference. Working over one limb is effective storytelling, but not necessarily something I want to see every time. But one of the things I really like about Zack is that even if he's stringing multiple holds together, he's doing it in a way that looks legitimately painful to his opponent. It goes back to my argument that he's playing the long game. Break down his opponent physically in so many different ways that they won't know what to do to stop him. And I can understand the argument that a lot of his matches being longer means that it's tougher to bite on submission attempts early in the match, but by the same token I don't necessarily bite on submission attempts Thatcher and Yehi are working on five minutes into a match. I know that most of the time it's not until the Koji Clutch or Fujiwara that we're going to see a finish.

I could actually see WALTER not going. Same. Guy seems pretty dedicated to training.

Definitely thought it was more likely they would sign Lee first when there was speculation WALTER would sign.