Dick Togo vs James Mason, ASW 8/2
Taken from Togo's retirement world retirement tour, this is from a Liverpool indy show. Pretty cool to see Togo adapt to this kind of match, working as a stooging, cheating heel instead of a more prototypical juniors style. Mason was very game, and is a really slick grappler, which meant some pretty cool mat exchanges between the two, and he hits his offence pretty well. He played to the crowd way too much for my liking, though. Whatever he was doing - in control, selling, mounting a comeback, he was always turning to the crowd and trying to get noise out of them; Felt like he should have focused more on his opponent.
Go Shiozaki vs Jun Akiyama, NOAH 8/6
First part of the match is pretty dry, but everything after Go getting his jaw cracked was really good stuff. Akiyama smashing and kneeing Go in his bloody mouth was not only really sick but a smart way of gaining and maintaining control through the match. Go gave his best effort since the Sasaki match, I thought he was really good and didn't do anything stupid. He has some crazy chops. Akiyama was also excellent, as he always is in the clutch, and the two of them put together a really well built, dramatic match. For a 30 minute match, I was also surpised at the lack of downtime once they got going. Best GHC title match since Morishima vs Sasaki IMO.
Black Terry/Negro Navarro vs Los Traumas, LUCHA POP 8/27
This was pretty awesome. Started off with Terry and T2 going on the mat, and it was actually pretty bleh. Too your-turn-my-turn and too nice, but it did serve it's purpose in helping to build to the big Navarro/T1 stand-off, with T1 instantly slapping his Dad down. Navarro sold that slap like a gunshot and Terry's "what the hell? I thought we were being sportsmen?" reaction was great. And then Navarro getting up and tying to rip his son's arm off as a receipt was SUPER-great. The mat wrestlig wasn't super tricky or flashy, but instead was intense and felt like guys trying to tear each other's limbs. T1 must have never got the presents he wanted for Christmas.
Randy Orton vs Mark Henry, WWE Night Of Champions
This was a good match with a really great, satisfying outcome. Henry has been the hottest act in the company since they nerfed Punk, and has been awesome all year, so to see him finally win the big one felt well deserved. The match itself was exactly what it should have been, with Henry being a total monster and Orton putting up a fight, but ultimately putting Henry over bigtime. Henry's offence all looked brutal (especially the bear paw swipe that knocked Orton to the outside) and Orton made him look like a killer. The commentators actually did a fine job and made the apron DDT feel like a huge moment, and the finish was great with how un-formulaic for a WWE match it was. Let the Mark Henry era begin.
CM Punk vs HHH, WWE Night Of Champions (No DQ)
Hunter is really reaching at this point, I don't think it's possible for him to work a match anymore without a bunch of smoke and mirrors. All of the brawling was actually pretty cool, and Punk's Savage elbow through the announce table was a "holy shit" spot. Once the over-booked interferences started this quickly became a pile of crp, though. Not only did they seemingly go on for what felt like forever, but they made no sense as the guys interfering were attacking both dudes. Punk may have survived one Pedigree, but this was still a massive step back for him.
Masato Tanaka vs Necro Butcher, Zero-ONE 9/17
Thought this was pretty underwhelming seeing as this is a good pairing on paper. The bumps were nasty but not anything memorable and I thought it was blatantly exhibition-y and went from spot to spot, instead of being a brawl. It may have been the bad camera angle but it also looked like Necro was pulling his punches quite a bit on the sitdown duel. Necro punching out the chair was great, but that was all I'll remember about this.
Munenori Sawa vs Hayato Fujita, Zero-ONE 9/17
Rock solid juniors kickfest. This kind of kneepad juniors kickfest is kind of generic and not really that compelling, but it's still better than a mastabatory spotest. Both dudes hit very hard and there was some good exchanges, but it never really reached that "wow" level. This was all about Sawa, giving him a last hurrah before his retirement at the end of the year, and Hayato sold his ass off for him. Sawa can be pretty goofy, and he toned it down a lot here, but still had a stupid grin on his face when getting his ass kicked, which was a little annoying.
The Wrestling Bucket
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Thursday 22 September 2011
PWG EIGHT
Kevin Steen vs PAC
This was a pretty love-it-or-hate-it kind of match and I was more in the latter half of that unfortnately. For me this is Kevin Steen at his worst, constantly doing lame comedy and playing to the crowd too much instead of focusing on the match. It's all so mastabatory and self-indulgent, which I wouldn't mind if he was a heel in PWG, which he isn't. It was even worse here as there moments where he would throw out stupid one-liners while trying to be serious. The big spots were all pretty big, and PAC in particular does some breath-taking shit like a twisting asai moonsault, but that wasn't enough to keep me into the match, and for an opener this was typically PWG-ish in going too long and having too many nearfalls. I did get a good kick out of Hero referencing Kelly Kelly on commentary, though.
Brian Cage-Taylor vs Brandon Gatson
This was an interesting match to watch. Not necassarily good, but interesting. Two (relatively) young guys going out and putting on their own match without being lead by a more experienced guy like Hero. Some of their ideas were good, some were not - a lot of stuff was just thrown at the wall. Gatson has some pretty slick highspots, and ate a pretty nasty clothesline bump on the apron. He also threw some nice kick combos and hit a pretty spectacular Sasuke Special and landed on his feet. Some parts were pretty sloppy, though, and some parts just felt like an indy moves exhibition.
El Generico/Ricochet vs Alex Shelley/Roderick Strong
For some reason I thought this was supposed to be Shelley and Aries? I figured since I'd downloaded it I'd give it a watch anyway.... so yeah, this pretty much sucked. First half of the match was horribly dull and boring, second half was just a shitty indy MOVEZ spotfest. They tried to make Generico vs Shelley a hot match-up with cheapshots, but I wasn't buying the intensity from either guy. Highlight of the match was a pretty insane out-of-nowhere dive from Ricochet.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Chris Hero
This was very, very good and easily the highlight of the show. I'm not sure wether I liked it over their first title match or not, but the did a good job of making it different enough whilest also keeping most of the things that made that match good. All of the opening matwork was really fun. They worked a bunch of different holds and kept it feeling like a chessgame, I especially loved the fight for leverage over the full nelson. In their first match Claudio targetted Hero's arm, and managed to keep control, but Hero was still managed to come back with elbows after a while, in this match Claudio targetted Hero's leg to much greater effect. They built really well from the mental chess opening stages to both guys getting testy and kicking it up through the gears. Hero moving his knee pad from his good leg onto his bum wheel to give it more protection is the sort of REALLY neat touch that makes a good match great, and I liked him not being able to hit the big discus boot because of it. Claudio used the legwork to hit a fucking insane Giant Swing into a Nuetralizer, and the finish itself was also sick as hell.
This was a pretty love-it-or-hate-it kind of match and I was more in the latter half of that unfortnately. For me this is Kevin Steen at his worst, constantly doing lame comedy and playing to the crowd too much instead of focusing on the match. It's all so mastabatory and self-indulgent, which I wouldn't mind if he was a heel in PWG, which he isn't. It was even worse here as there moments where he would throw out stupid one-liners while trying to be serious. The big spots were all pretty big, and PAC in particular does some breath-taking shit like a twisting asai moonsault, but that wasn't enough to keep me into the match, and for an opener this was typically PWG-ish in going too long and having too many nearfalls. I did get a good kick out of Hero referencing Kelly Kelly on commentary, though.
Brian Cage-Taylor vs Brandon Gatson
This was an interesting match to watch. Not necassarily good, but interesting. Two (relatively) young guys going out and putting on their own match without being lead by a more experienced guy like Hero. Some of their ideas were good, some were not - a lot of stuff was just thrown at the wall. Gatson has some pretty slick highspots, and ate a pretty nasty clothesline bump on the apron. He also threw some nice kick combos and hit a pretty spectacular Sasuke Special and landed on his feet. Some parts were pretty sloppy, though, and some parts just felt like an indy moves exhibition.
El Generico/Ricochet vs Alex Shelley/Roderick Strong
For some reason I thought this was supposed to be Shelley and Aries? I figured since I'd downloaded it I'd give it a watch anyway.... so yeah, this pretty much sucked. First half of the match was horribly dull and boring, second half was just a shitty indy MOVEZ spotfest. They tried to make Generico vs Shelley a hot match-up with cheapshots, but I wasn't buying the intensity from either guy. Highlight of the match was a pretty insane out-of-nowhere dive from Ricochet.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Chris Hero
This was very, very good and easily the highlight of the show. I'm not sure wether I liked it over their first title match or not, but the did a good job of making it different enough whilest also keeping most of the things that made that match good. All of the opening matwork was really fun. They worked a bunch of different holds and kept it feeling like a chessgame, I especially loved the fight for leverage over the full nelson. In their first match Claudio targetted Hero's arm, and managed to keep control, but Hero was still managed to come back with elbows after a while, in this match Claudio targetted Hero's leg to much greater effect. They built really well from the mental chess opening stages to both guys getting testy and kicking it up through the gears. Hero moving his knee pad from his good leg onto his bum wheel to give it more protection is the sort of REALLY neat touch that makes a good match great, and I liked him not being able to hit the big discus boot because of it. Claudio used the legwork to hit a fucking insane Giant Swing into a Nuetralizer, and the finish itself was also sick as hell.
Sunday 18 September 2011
ROH Death Before Dishonor IX
Tommaso Ciampa/Rhino vs Homicide/Jay Lethal
This was just there. Totally unexciting opening match. Lethal looked good whenever he was in, hitting all of his stuff pretty crisply, but that is all there is to say. Ciampa pretty much sucks, and Rhino and 'Cide did nothing.
Shelton Benjamin vs Mike Bennett
I 100% legit fell asleep during this match watching it live. Granted, it was around 1AM UK time, and I was tired, but still. Watching it the next day, I got drowsy all over again. Totally boring and uninteresting match. Bennet kinda worked Benjamin's back with lots of tedius restholds, and there was some crap with Brutal Bob interfering, and that was that.
The Young Bucks vs FutureShock vs The Bravado Bros (Elimination Match)
This was OK for your undercard spotfest. There was some good spots including a sweet dive train, FutureShock hitting a Doomsday Device/Suicide dive combo, and one of the Bravados getting suplexed off the apron to the floor, but it never really hit that level of "holy shit this is crazy". The Bravados were heeling bigtime, and while I appreciate the effort it really did nothing but slow the match down. Once they were eliminated it picked up a lot, but was still not great or anything. This should have been the opener.
El Generico vs Jimmy Jacobs
This was the first half a really good match, interupted by the big Steen angle. It started with Jacbs being tentative and Generico aggressively trying to light a fire under him, and I was enjoying it all well and good. Jacobs hit a dive, a Spear on the apron, and then a big DDT off the top. At this point Steen comes out from the crowd to call Steve Corino a pussy before getting his mic cut-off. Security comes out to escort him before Jabobs decides this is too civil and dives on Steen to start a brawl. And it was awesome. Then Generico hits a big dive, only for Steen to dodge it (leaving Generico to whipe out security) and start cleaning house in the ring. Cary Silkin stepped in the ring and they teased Steen hitting Package Piledriver on him, which would have really been taking one for the team, but it was all broken up. Cornette managed to pop Steen in the face during all of the crazy, and Steen was escorted out while Generico and Jacobs still try to get at him. I am not sure what to make of the angle, as the ROH fanbase WANTS Steen to fuck up the place, which kind of kills it, but the whole thing came of feeling chaotic and REAL, and it made me want to see Steen vs everyone involved, so it did it's job.
Charlie Haas vs Michael Elgin
I like both of these guys more than most people seem to, but even I thought this was pretty underwhelming. They tried to play this off as a power vs power match, but how strong is Haas really? Elgin might be stocky, but he's not really that big, and I am not wowed by Haas being able to suplex him. The brief moments where they fought on the floor were good, but everything in the ring was pretty dry. Haas won with a lariat, which came off really flat as A) it isn't an established finisher in 2011 ROH and B) it didn't look like a match-ending move.
Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards (Ring Master's Challenge)
I debated wether to bother watching this or not, as I knew there would be no way this could be good. I started watching it for five minutes then realized it went atleast 45 minutes and said "fuck it". No thank you.
The Briscoe Brothers vs The All Night Express (Ladder War)
This iPPV was a one match show, and this was the one match. This wasn't the best match in the feud, and it wasn't as good as the Briscoes/Steenerco ladder match, but it was still very good. It kind of lacked the sense of wrecklessness and "shit is out-of-control" from their earlier matches, instead it was much more deliberate in it's violence. All four guys were killing each other with chairs, ladders and bits of broken tables. Titus and Jay were both completely drenched in their own blood, which was sick, and big bumps were taken by all. Mark did the Terry Funk helicopter spot, and then a pretty crazy splash off the big ladder through a table. King not bleeding kinda sucked, and I would have prefered a couple more big holy shit spots before the finish, but still a good blow-off to one of the best feuds of the year.
This was just there. Totally unexciting opening match. Lethal looked good whenever he was in, hitting all of his stuff pretty crisply, but that is all there is to say. Ciampa pretty much sucks, and Rhino and 'Cide did nothing.
Shelton Benjamin vs Mike Bennett
I 100% legit fell asleep during this match watching it live. Granted, it was around 1AM UK time, and I was tired, but still. Watching it the next day, I got drowsy all over again. Totally boring and uninteresting match. Bennet kinda worked Benjamin's back with lots of tedius restholds, and there was some crap with Brutal Bob interfering, and that was that.
The Young Bucks vs FutureShock vs The Bravado Bros (Elimination Match)
This was OK for your undercard spotfest. There was some good spots including a sweet dive train, FutureShock hitting a Doomsday Device/Suicide dive combo, and one of the Bravados getting suplexed off the apron to the floor, but it never really hit that level of "holy shit this is crazy". The Bravados were heeling bigtime, and while I appreciate the effort it really did nothing but slow the match down. Once they were eliminated it picked up a lot, but was still not great or anything. This should have been the opener.
El Generico vs Jimmy Jacobs
This was the first half a really good match, interupted by the big Steen angle. It started with Jacbs being tentative and Generico aggressively trying to light a fire under him, and I was enjoying it all well and good. Jacobs hit a dive, a Spear on the apron, and then a big DDT off the top. At this point Steen comes out from the crowd to call Steve Corino a pussy before getting his mic cut-off. Security comes out to escort him before Jabobs decides this is too civil and dives on Steen to start a brawl. And it was awesome. Then Generico hits a big dive, only for Steen to dodge it (leaving Generico to whipe out security) and start cleaning house in the ring. Cary Silkin stepped in the ring and they teased Steen hitting Package Piledriver on him, which would have really been taking one for the team, but it was all broken up. Cornette managed to pop Steen in the face during all of the crazy, and Steen was escorted out while Generico and Jacobs still try to get at him. I am not sure what to make of the angle, as the ROH fanbase WANTS Steen to fuck up the place, which kind of kills it, but the whole thing came of feeling chaotic and REAL, and it made me want to see Steen vs everyone involved, so it did it's job.
Charlie Haas vs Michael Elgin
I like both of these guys more than most people seem to, but even I thought this was pretty underwhelming. They tried to play this off as a power vs power match, but how strong is Haas really? Elgin might be stocky, but he's not really that big, and I am not wowed by Haas being able to suplex him. The brief moments where they fought on the floor were good, but everything in the ring was pretty dry. Haas won with a lariat, which came off really flat as A) it isn't an established finisher in 2011 ROH and B) it didn't look like a match-ending move.
Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards (Ring Master's Challenge)
I debated wether to bother watching this or not, as I knew there would be no way this could be good. I started watching it for five minutes then realized it went atleast 45 minutes and said "fuck it". No thank you.
The Briscoe Brothers vs The All Night Express (Ladder War)
This iPPV was a one match show, and this was the one match. This wasn't the best match in the feud, and it wasn't as good as the Briscoes/Steenerco ladder match, but it was still very good. It kind of lacked the sense of wrecklessness and "shit is out-of-control" from their earlier matches, instead it was much more deliberate in it's violence. All four guys were killing each other with chairs, ladders and bits of broken tables. Titus and Jay were both completely drenched in their own blood, which was sick, and big bumps were taken by all. Mark did the Terry Funk helicopter spot, and then a pretty crazy splash off the big ladder through a table. King not bleeding kinda sucked, and I would have prefered a couple more big holy shit spots before the finish, but still a good blow-off to one of the best feuds of the year.
Sunday 11 September 2011
A bunch of matches where the men are men
Low Ki vs Amazing Red, ICW 4/3
This wasn't anything special, but fans of their original series together 9-10 years ago may enjoy this. All of their John Woo faux-ninja fighting sequences are still pretty cool, and both guys hit hard with their chops and kicks. It went way, way too long though, and lost steam pretty quickly after the first 15 minutes. I also thought it was way too even with Red controlling large parts of the match - part of the appeal of their original matches was Red trying not get obliterated by Ki. Ki getting back at some douchebag fan by casually tipping his drink over his crotch was pretty funny, though.
KENTA/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Kotaro Suzuki/Atsushi Aoki, NOAH 5/25
Aoki was fired up and KENTA hits people very hard but this was largely forgettable. The first 25 minutes were uninteresting, the big KENTA/Kotaro counter exchange looked pretty rehearsed and Kanemaru sucked as always. Standard lengthy juniors tag.
Jun Akiyama vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, NOAH 7/10
Solid match and Akiyama working juniors is always fun, but this didn't go beyond being solid. Nakajima brought it and Akiyama beat the crap out of him, but it lost it's heat and momentum pretty quickly and dragged after that. They got it back for the final minute, but meh.
Low Ki vs Necro Butcher, IWA:EC "Stiff Competition II"
Not sure where this would rank with their other two matches, but it's pretty great. All the ass-kicking you would expect. Unlike their first two matches, Necro wrestled more heel-ish here, cheapshotting Ki at the bell (after Ki brought some kid in the ring and gave him his t-shirt, which I thought was very cool), gauging his face, choking him, etc. He connects with one uppercut early that looks like it could have broke Ki's jaw. Ki sold the beating great and his double stomp on the bleachers was fucking nuts. Ki stomping on Necro's bare foot to escape a hold was pretty neat. Only thing I disliked was how in-organic the set-up to the chair stomp was, but it was still pretty brutal. The finish and the move that set it up both made me mouth the words "holy shit".
SHINGO vs Akira Tozawa, Dragon Gate 7/17
I was not in love with this, but I did like it a fair bit. This wasn't the Tozawa who we came to love in PWG, but he still knows how to kick some ass. As much as I detest SHINGO, I've never denied that he can hit hard and also deliver an ass-kicking, and that's what this match was. Both guys worked stiff, took big bumps and punched each other in the face. The dive caught into the DVD on the floor and the apron german suplex were both sick. The armwork was aimless but atleast SHINGO sold it for once and they actually had some struggle in between big moves. The crowd was pretty awful though and the finishing run was too typical of a Dragon Gate match and almost lost me. Still, the best DG singles match I have seen... maybe ever?
Takashi Sugiura vs Kensuke Sasaki, NOAH 7/23
Far, far from a flawless match but I did really dig it for one reason: They beat the living FUCK out of each other. Lord have mercy, this may have even been stiffer than Finlay vs Callihan. All of the suplexes and no-selling REALLY brought this down and they almost lost me with it at several points, but Christ alive if the pure violence and brutality wasn't compelling. Both of these guys are legit tough bastards and beat the living shit out of each other, the no-selling was unnecassary in adding faux-machismo. Still, holy fuck was this brutal and the story with both guys just trying knock the other guy the fuck out really worked. I lost it for the finish with the face-punching.
William Regal vs Darren Young, WWE NXT 9/6
A babyface Regal beats respect into a youngster! Regal is great at so many things, and beating people up has to be one of the best. It wasn't just about the stiff blows, but the coy veteran moves, like stepping on Young's hand as he begged off, and kicking him in the corner while acting innocent to the ref. Regal getting on the headset and asking Young to apologise was 100% Regal, and Young's bump over the turnbuckle before it was pretty damn bonkers. We all need more Regal on TV.
This wasn't anything special, but fans of their original series together 9-10 years ago may enjoy this. All of their John Woo faux-ninja fighting sequences are still pretty cool, and both guys hit hard with their chops and kicks. It went way, way too long though, and lost steam pretty quickly after the first 15 minutes. I also thought it was way too even with Red controlling large parts of the match - part of the appeal of their original matches was Red trying not get obliterated by Ki. Ki getting back at some douchebag fan by casually tipping his drink over his crotch was pretty funny, though.
KENTA/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Kotaro Suzuki/Atsushi Aoki, NOAH 5/25
Aoki was fired up and KENTA hits people very hard but this was largely forgettable. The first 25 minutes were uninteresting, the big KENTA/Kotaro counter exchange looked pretty rehearsed and Kanemaru sucked as always. Standard lengthy juniors tag.
Jun Akiyama vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, NOAH 7/10
Solid match and Akiyama working juniors is always fun, but this didn't go beyond being solid. Nakajima brought it and Akiyama beat the crap out of him, but it lost it's heat and momentum pretty quickly and dragged after that. They got it back for the final minute, but meh.
Low Ki vs Necro Butcher, IWA:EC "Stiff Competition II"
Not sure where this would rank with their other two matches, but it's pretty great. All the ass-kicking you would expect. Unlike their first two matches, Necro wrestled more heel-ish here, cheapshotting Ki at the bell (after Ki brought some kid in the ring and gave him his t-shirt, which I thought was very cool), gauging his face, choking him, etc. He connects with one uppercut early that looks like it could have broke Ki's jaw. Ki sold the beating great and his double stomp on the bleachers was fucking nuts. Ki stomping on Necro's bare foot to escape a hold was pretty neat. Only thing I disliked was how in-organic the set-up to the chair stomp was, but it was still pretty brutal. The finish and the move that set it up both made me mouth the words "holy shit".
SHINGO vs Akira Tozawa, Dragon Gate 7/17
I was not in love with this, but I did like it a fair bit. This wasn't the Tozawa who we came to love in PWG, but he still knows how to kick some ass. As much as I detest SHINGO, I've never denied that he can hit hard and also deliver an ass-kicking, and that's what this match was. Both guys worked stiff, took big bumps and punched each other in the face. The dive caught into the DVD on the floor and the apron german suplex were both sick. The armwork was aimless but atleast SHINGO sold it for once and they actually had some struggle in between big moves. The crowd was pretty awful though and the finishing run was too typical of a Dragon Gate match and almost lost me. Still, the best DG singles match I have seen... maybe ever?
Takashi Sugiura vs Kensuke Sasaki, NOAH 7/23
Far, far from a flawless match but I did really dig it for one reason: They beat the living FUCK out of each other. Lord have mercy, this may have even been stiffer than Finlay vs Callihan. All of the suplexes and no-selling REALLY brought this down and they almost lost me with it at several points, but Christ alive if the pure violence and brutality wasn't compelling. Both of these guys are legit tough bastards and beat the living shit out of each other, the no-selling was unnecassary in adding faux-machismo. Still, holy fuck was this brutal and the story with both guys just trying knock the other guy the fuck out really worked. I lost it for the finish with the face-punching.
William Regal vs Darren Young, WWE NXT 9/6
A babyface Regal beats respect into a youngster! Regal is great at so many things, and beating people up has to be one of the best. It wasn't just about the stiff blows, but the coy veteran moves, like stepping on Young's hand as he begged off, and kicking him in the corner while acting innocent to the ref. Regal getting on the headset and asking Young to apologise was 100% Regal, and Young's bump over the turnbuckle before it was pretty damn bonkers. We all need more Regal on TV.
Friday 9 September 2011
ROH Catch-up
Homicide vs Rhino, Best In The World
Fun brawl. Started off pretty hot and they kept it up all the way through. I could have done without Homicide no-selling a table bump, but Rhino looked good. He splattered himself on a missed dive and wrecklessly threw 'Cide around like a sack of potatoes. Post-match table Gore was also sick. Interested to see what they do with Rhino in ROH.
Christopher Daniels vs El Generico, Best In The World
This was not a perfect match, but overall was very good. Daniels turned heel at some point, and he actually wrestles like a heel (begging off, eye-raking, gathering heat, etc) instead of a bland indy dream match guy. Most of the match was pretty heated, and all of Generico's spots looked really good. One awesome moment where they are fighting outside the ring and some emo-looking Daniels fangirl is yelling shit at Generico, so he plants Daniels right in front of her and blasts him with a chop as an unofficial "fuck you". Daniels on offence for a long time dragged a bit, and a lot of his counters don't look organic and feel rehearsed, but the finishing run was pretty great. They did a boo/yay exchange, headbutted each other in the face, Generico teased an apron brainbuster but got launched into the railing before eating a suplex on the outside for a hot count-out nearfall. Generico's counter to the BME also looked sick. Easy MOTN.
WGTT vs The Kings Of Wrestling vs The All Night Express vs The Briscoes, Best In The World (Elimination Match)
Long ass match that was kind of just there. It is actually a little remarkable how this went for 40 minutes or so and was never really actively good nor actively bad. It just happened. The Briscoes/ANX stuff was the only real good point, as they still continue to hate on each other, though it came in the form of cheapshots and the like instead of one big moment or showdown. There was also a big dive train, which ended in Claudio teasing a Ricola Bomb on King OFF the top rope to the outside, but instead ended with a Benjamin leap-up superplex, which I found totally hilarious. The final five minutes were pretty exciting, but that is not enough, and it was obvious no one cared about seeing WGTT vs Kings one more round.
Eddie Edwards vs Davey Richards, Best In The World
I wasn't sure what to expect going in to this, as I have seen it pimped by a lot of people, but they were the same people who pimped Davey vs Tyler and that match was an abortion. Thankfully, Edwards is much better than Black and as a result this was much better. Not great, not even close to the ****3/4 match they were trying for, but I came away thinking it was OK rather than hating it. The main thing the match has going for it is just how absurdly stiff and violent it is. Half way through the match I was actually kind of digging it just because of how much they were beating the crud out of each other. Kicks, chops, shoot head-butts, all were hit with brain-cell killing force. Where the match fell down was on the more important stuff though. From both a structure and story-telling point of view this was a mess. For one thing, neither guy ever had a sustained amount of control in the match. It was too back-and-forth, Edwards gets the upper hand for a few minutes, then Davey takes over, then back again and so on. Really killed the heat for the match as they never built heat up on one of them or established a clear story. Secondly, the first half of the match had Davey specifically targetting Edwards's arm (which did include a sick counter to the backpack jawbreaker and some SICK face-stomps out of a juji attempt), then half way though he stops all together and starts working over his leg with his Kurt Angle imitation Ankle Lock routine. Again, this had a cool Indian Deathlock ankle lock variaton, but you can see where this falls down... especially when the finish was a fucking KO of all things. The crowd barely reacted for the finish for good reason, they did pretty much the exact opposite of build towards it. The "story-telling" moments of Davey talking to Eddie were hilariously forced as is Davey Richards nature, and the end run was a mess, with stupid backdrop trading, a 1-count nearfall off a lariat and some other stuff. The match was getting by fine on shear brutality up until the point where Davey was back on offence a minute after getting 2K1 Bombed on the apron, double stomped through a table then again in the ring all in sucession. That kind of says it all.
Mark Briscoe vs Kenny King, No Escape
Jay Briscoe vs Rhett Titus, No Escape
This was kind of like Bret vs Doink & Lawler from Summerslam '93 - on their own they are two good matches, as an overall package it's great. Granted, this wasn't as good as Bret vs Doink & Lawler, but you get the idea. The angle here was that during both matches their partners would be handcuffed to the ring so they wouldn't interfere. Well, there was still interference as they would get in plenty of cheapshots, but that wasn't a problem. Both matches featured plenty of stiff shots, trash talk, some big bumps and most importantly HATE. I love Mark's punch combo, and half of his match with King was spent wildly throwing each other in the barricades. Jay trying to deflect the "He's a moron" chant towards the ref was awesome. Titus throwing Jay into Mark and Titus's big dive were both cool spots and the big angle with Briscoes using bolt cutters to loophole the situation and beat the fuck out of Titus 2-on-1 style while King goes nuts watching was excellent. Jay scaring the referee out of the ring and then throwing the keys to King's cuffs into the crowd is why he's probably the best guy on the roster right now.
Chris Hero vs Colt Cabana, No Escape
Fun match, but really needed more from Colt to reach the next level. Colt was in comedy mode here and was out there to have a good time. I dug this as a way of throwing Hero off his game and psyching him out early, but the match really needed Colt to get more serious once Hero got the advantage and started beating him up. Even moreso when you consider Hero is higher up in the pecking order than Colt is. Colt does throw some pretty great punches, but his comeback attempt fell flat with the crowd hard, and the ref bump finish was the sort of thing that I grew tired of in Hero matches years back.
Fun brawl. Started off pretty hot and they kept it up all the way through. I could have done without Homicide no-selling a table bump, but Rhino looked good. He splattered himself on a missed dive and wrecklessly threw 'Cide around like a sack of potatoes. Post-match table Gore was also sick. Interested to see what they do with Rhino in ROH.
Christopher Daniels vs El Generico, Best In The World
This was not a perfect match, but overall was very good. Daniels turned heel at some point, and he actually wrestles like a heel (begging off, eye-raking, gathering heat, etc) instead of a bland indy dream match guy. Most of the match was pretty heated, and all of Generico's spots looked really good. One awesome moment where they are fighting outside the ring and some emo-looking Daniels fangirl is yelling shit at Generico, so he plants Daniels right in front of her and blasts him with a chop as an unofficial "fuck you". Daniels on offence for a long time dragged a bit, and a lot of his counters don't look organic and feel rehearsed, but the finishing run was pretty great. They did a boo/yay exchange, headbutted each other in the face, Generico teased an apron brainbuster but got launched into the railing before eating a suplex on the outside for a hot count-out nearfall. Generico's counter to the BME also looked sick. Easy MOTN.
WGTT vs The Kings Of Wrestling vs The All Night Express vs The Briscoes, Best In The World (Elimination Match)
Long ass match that was kind of just there. It is actually a little remarkable how this went for 40 minutes or so and was never really actively good nor actively bad. It just happened. The Briscoes/ANX stuff was the only real good point, as they still continue to hate on each other, though it came in the form of cheapshots and the like instead of one big moment or showdown. There was also a big dive train, which ended in Claudio teasing a Ricola Bomb on King OFF the top rope to the outside, but instead ended with a Benjamin leap-up superplex, which I found totally hilarious. The final five minutes were pretty exciting, but that is not enough, and it was obvious no one cared about seeing WGTT vs Kings one more round.
Eddie Edwards vs Davey Richards, Best In The World
I wasn't sure what to expect going in to this, as I have seen it pimped by a lot of people, but they were the same people who pimped Davey vs Tyler and that match was an abortion. Thankfully, Edwards is much better than Black and as a result this was much better. Not great, not even close to the ****3/4 match they were trying for, but I came away thinking it was OK rather than hating it. The main thing the match has going for it is just how absurdly stiff and violent it is. Half way through the match I was actually kind of digging it just because of how much they were beating the crud out of each other. Kicks, chops, shoot head-butts, all were hit with brain-cell killing force. Where the match fell down was on the more important stuff though. From both a structure and story-telling point of view this was a mess. For one thing, neither guy ever had a sustained amount of control in the match. It was too back-and-forth, Edwards gets the upper hand for a few minutes, then Davey takes over, then back again and so on. Really killed the heat for the match as they never built heat up on one of them or established a clear story. Secondly, the first half of the match had Davey specifically targetting Edwards's arm (which did include a sick counter to the backpack jawbreaker and some SICK face-stomps out of a juji attempt), then half way though he stops all together and starts working over his leg with his Kurt Angle imitation Ankle Lock routine. Again, this had a cool Indian Deathlock ankle lock variaton, but you can see where this falls down... especially when the finish was a fucking KO of all things. The crowd barely reacted for the finish for good reason, they did pretty much the exact opposite of build towards it. The "story-telling" moments of Davey talking to Eddie were hilariously forced as is Davey Richards nature, and the end run was a mess, with stupid backdrop trading, a 1-count nearfall off a lariat and some other stuff. The match was getting by fine on shear brutality up until the point where Davey was back on offence a minute after getting 2K1 Bombed on the apron, double stomped through a table then again in the ring all in sucession. That kind of says it all.
Mark Briscoe vs Kenny King, No Escape
Jay Briscoe vs Rhett Titus, No Escape
This was kind of like Bret vs Doink & Lawler from Summerslam '93 - on their own they are two good matches, as an overall package it's great. Granted, this wasn't as good as Bret vs Doink & Lawler, but you get the idea. The angle here was that during both matches their partners would be handcuffed to the ring so they wouldn't interfere. Well, there was still interference as they would get in plenty of cheapshots, but that wasn't a problem. Both matches featured plenty of stiff shots, trash talk, some big bumps and most importantly HATE. I love Mark's punch combo, and half of his match with King was spent wildly throwing each other in the barricades. Jay trying to deflect the "He's a moron" chant towards the ref was awesome. Titus throwing Jay into Mark and Titus's big dive were both cool spots and the big angle with Briscoes using bolt cutters to loophole the situation and beat the fuck out of Titus 2-on-1 style while King goes nuts watching was excellent. Jay scaring the referee out of the ring and then throwing the keys to King's cuffs into the crowd is why he's probably the best guy on the roster right now.
Chris Hero vs Colt Cabana, No Escape
Fun match, but really needed more from Colt to reach the next level. Colt was in comedy mode here and was out there to have a good time. I dug this as a way of throwing Hero off his game and psyching him out early, but the match really needed Colt to get more serious once Hero got the advantage and started beating him up. Even moreso when you consider Hero is higher up in the pecking order than Colt is. Colt does throw some pretty great punches, but his comeback attempt fell flat with the crowd hard, and the ref bump finish was the sort of thing that I grew tired of in Hero matches years back.
Monday 5 September 2011
Yoshihito Sasaki/Shinya Ishikawa vs Ryuichi Kawakami/Kazuki Hashimoto, BJW 5/27
We miss the first half, but what we get is pretty decent. Sasaki still hates everyone and everything and that seems to carry every match he's in. Kawakami kinda sucks but can atleast dish out some sick elbows, and kills Ishikawa with a brutal german suplex. Dug the duel kicks on Sasaki and Sasaki really kills Hash for the finish. And then spits on him after, glorious.
Ryuji Ito/Abdullah Kobayashi/Shadow WX vs Yuko Miyamoto/Isami Kodaka/Kankuro Hoshino, BJW 5/27 (Deathmatch)
This was your standard garbage match, but built around resident jobber Hoshino taking an asskicking but then managing to pull out the upset win. That story aspect of the match made this watchable, as Hoshino really eats some gruesome shit and his final sectin facing off with Abby is the highlight of the match. Everything else was pretty bad though, typical shitty crowd brawling to start, Abby busting out some New Jack-esque wolverine glove, Shadow sucking, Ito sucking, etc. Finish was sick, though.
Damien Wayne vs Vordell Walker, GOUGE 6/25 (Falls Count Anywhere)
This took place in a cool outdoors setting. The stiff brawling all over the place was really good and the bumps on the wooden platform and through the table looked good even with the low-budget filming. Wayne's rope-hung legdrop and elbow drop across the chair were both nasty, creative spots and his bump through the ropes from the belly-to-belly was a little crazy. The blood added a lot, and the nearfalls section was really good despite the tiny crowd. Finish was a great way of having the heel win clean without the babyface look bad, and I marked for a piledriver actually being a finish in 2011.
Black Terry/Argos/Multifacetico vs. Dr. Cerebro/Mortiz/Semental, IWRG 8/7
Obviously this is all about Terry vs Cerebro and all of their brawling is pretty damn great. Loved the whipping with the belt. The other four guys did well in secondary roles, I really dug the 3-on-1 beating on Terry in the first fall. Argos's rana off the apron and Multifacetico's dive into the stands were both cool highspots, and I got a kick out of Terry talking shit in Mexican. The heel ref bullshit brought it down a little, but the final Terry vs Cerebro showdown was fairly epic.
Randy Orton vs Christian, Smackdown 8/30 (Steel Cage)
This was OK but had way too much lame WWE-style "escape the cage" focus. The first half was pretty weak and Christian on offence was kind of a bore. The ad break felt like it ate up a lot, but Orton was appropraitely intense and I marked for Christian's Frogsplash. The punt spot and Christian's fake-out before climbing the cage were both pretty clever, and the finish was appropraitely big, if a copy of the Punk/Orton blow-off. Thought the match was largely carried by the hot crowd but it was fine.
We miss the first half, but what we get is pretty decent. Sasaki still hates everyone and everything and that seems to carry every match he's in. Kawakami kinda sucks but can atleast dish out some sick elbows, and kills Ishikawa with a brutal german suplex. Dug the duel kicks on Sasaki and Sasaki really kills Hash for the finish. And then spits on him after, glorious.
Ryuji Ito/Abdullah Kobayashi/Shadow WX vs Yuko Miyamoto/Isami Kodaka/Kankuro Hoshino, BJW 5/27 (Deathmatch)
This was your standard garbage match, but built around resident jobber Hoshino taking an asskicking but then managing to pull out the upset win. That story aspect of the match made this watchable, as Hoshino really eats some gruesome shit and his final sectin facing off with Abby is the highlight of the match. Everything else was pretty bad though, typical shitty crowd brawling to start, Abby busting out some New Jack-esque wolverine glove, Shadow sucking, Ito sucking, etc. Finish was sick, though.
Damien Wayne vs Vordell Walker, GOUGE 6/25 (Falls Count Anywhere)
This took place in a cool outdoors setting. The stiff brawling all over the place was really good and the bumps on the wooden platform and through the table looked good even with the low-budget filming. Wayne's rope-hung legdrop and elbow drop across the chair were both nasty, creative spots and his bump through the ropes from the belly-to-belly was a little crazy. The blood added a lot, and the nearfalls section was really good despite the tiny crowd. Finish was a great way of having the heel win clean without the babyface look bad, and I marked for a piledriver actually being a finish in 2011.
Black Terry/Argos/Multifacetico vs. Dr. Cerebro/Mortiz/Semental, IWRG 8/7
Obviously this is all about Terry vs Cerebro and all of their brawling is pretty damn great. Loved the whipping with the belt. The other four guys did well in secondary roles, I really dug the 3-on-1 beating on Terry in the first fall. Argos's rana off the apron and Multifacetico's dive into the stands were both cool highspots, and I got a kick out of Terry talking shit in Mexican. The heel ref bullshit brought it down a little, but the final Terry vs Cerebro showdown was fairly epic.
Randy Orton vs Christian, Smackdown 8/30 (Steel Cage)
This was OK but had way too much lame WWE-style "escape the cage" focus. The first half was pretty weak and Christian on offence was kind of a bore. The ad break felt like it ate up a lot, but Orton was appropraitely intense and I marked for Christian's Frogsplash. The punt spot and Christian's fake-out before climbing the cage were both pretty clever, and the finish was appropraitely big, if a copy of the Punk/Orton blow-off. Thought the match was largely carried by the hot crowd but it was fine.
Thursday 1 September 2011
Summer Of BattlARTS
Yuki Ishikawa/Super Tiger II vs Munenori Sawa/Hideki Suzuki, 5/22
Solid match to set up the Ishikawa vs Sawa singles match, though pretty much all the quality was coming from Ish. Wether it was making Suzuki's matwork interesting or smacking the taste out of Sawa, everytime Ishikawa was in this was good. Sawa and Suzuki did an OK job baiting him and no one was afraid to get in some cheapshots. ST2 was pretty awful, doing lots of fancy gymnatics which looked out of place in a shoot-style setting. Highlight was probably Ishikawa catching Sawa's stupid wind-up punch combo into an armbar, and the finish set-up the singles match appropriately.
Manobu Suruga vs Takeshi Takeshima, 6/19
Shoot-style competitive squash, and not a very exciting one. Only went less about 6 minutes but most of it was long holds with no urgency to them. Takeshima did get cracked open, and he had a pretty great comeback/nearfall sequence, but that was it.
Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda vs Hideki Suzuki/Tiger Shark, 6/19
Welcome the Daisuke Ikeda show..again. Similar to the 5/22 tag this was a one man show from Ikeda. Great selling of the youngster's submissions, and wasn't afraid to bite or claw his way out of a hold. What is it with the Tiger dudes doing flips and highspots in BattlARTS? I liked that the youngsters had to resort to devious tactics to gain the advantage over the vets, but it was lacking in the intensity/violence to take it to the next step.
Yuki Ishikawa vs Munenori Sawa, 6/19
Man this was good stuff here. Hot start with a handshake fake-out from Sawa, and plenty of blows being traded. The matwork had an almost viceral feel to it, with moments like Sawa pinning down Ish's hand and punching it. Ish busted out like a dosen swank counters (my favourite being the ankle lock out of the abdominal stretch) and was generally pretty outstanding. He let Sawa get plenty in on him and sold his ass off to make him look like an equal. There were moments where he looked like a tired old guy struggling to keep up with his younger rival. After struggling to make it up for the 10 count Ish said "fuck this" and resorted to dropping bombs on Sawa. Once again I loved Sawa trying to get cute with a stupid Mutoh spot and getting punished for it with an armbar, and Sawa desperately grabbing the ref during the finish was a very cool touch.
Solid match to set up the Ishikawa vs Sawa singles match, though pretty much all the quality was coming from Ish. Wether it was making Suzuki's matwork interesting or smacking the taste out of Sawa, everytime Ishikawa was in this was good. Sawa and Suzuki did an OK job baiting him and no one was afraid to get in some cheapshots. ST2 was pretty awful, doing lots of fancy gymnatics which looked out of place in a shoot-style setting. Highlight was probably Ishikawa catching Sawa's stupid wind-up punch combo into an armbar, and the finish set-up the singles match appropriately.
Manobu Suruga vs Takeshi Takeshima, 6/19
Shoot-style competitive squash, and not a very exciting one. Only went less about 6 minutes but most of it was long holds with no urgency to them. Takeshima did get cracked open, and he had a pretty great comeback/nearfall sequence, but that was it.
Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda vs Hideki Suzuki/Tiger Shark, 6/19
Welcome the Daisuke Ikeda show..again. Similar to the 5/22 tag this was a one man show from Ikeda. Great selling of the youngster's submissions, and wasn't afraid to bite or claw his way out of a hold. What is it with the Tiger dudes doing flips and highspots in BattlARTS? I liked that the youngsters had to resort to devious tactics to gain the advantage over the vets, but it was lacking in the intensity/violence to take it to the next step.
Yuki Ishikawa vs Munenori Sawa, 6/19
Man this was good stuff here. Hot start with a handshake fake-out from Sawa, and plenty of blows being traded. The matwork had an almost viceral feel to it, with moments like Sawa pinning down Ish's hand and punching it. Ish busted out like a dosen swank counters (my favourite being the ankle lock out of the abdominal stretch) and was generally pretty outstanding. He let Sawa get plenty in on him and sold his ass off to make him look like an equal. There were moments where he looked like a tired old guy struggling to keep up with his younger rival. After struggling to make it up for the 10 count Ish said "fuck this" and resorted to dropping bombs on Sawa. Once again I loved Sawa trying to get cute with a stupid Mutoh spot and getting punished for it with an armbar, and Sawa desperately grabbing the ref during the finish was a very cool touch.
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