Tuesday 31 May 2011

Daisuke Ikeda/Tiger Shark vs Super Tiger II/Ryuichi Kawakami, BattlARTS 3/21

IKEDA SMASH. Ikeda was terrific in this, totally bringing it and destroying his opponents. It's just a shame that's all this had going for it as the other 3 dudes flat out sucked and took up most of the match. The mat exchanges between the two Tiger's in particular were life-drainingly dull.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Kieta Yano, BattlARTS 3/21

This was a pretty fair carryjob from Ishikawa. Most of the matwork early was dryer than a camel's uretha, but it got better as the match progressed thanks to the vocal selling. Yano was pretty uninteresting and doesn't do much to make his holds look dangerous, but Ishikawa sold really well for him - him yelling in pain from the first jujigatame attempt changed the complexion of the match. His strikes also looked and sounded nasty, but Yano really, really sucks so this was never going to be anything great. How you going to wrestle in BattlARTS looking like a Jeff Hardy wannabe?

Jun Akiyama vs Taiyo Kea, All Japan 4/8

Very difficult match to rate, I had to watch this a second time to really make up my mind on it. I find myself agreeing with much of Craig from DVDVR's review of the match, and it is layed out very well. However I still struggled to get into it. The matwork at the start felt purfunctory, Kea's control segment on Akiyama was lacking in drama due to the lack of big offence and attempts at putting Akiyama away, and as a result the outcome just felt telegraphed the whole way through. Akiyama gave a really solid effort, and I think anything positive about the match came from his end of the bargain, but ultimately the match never really got out of first gear, and neither guy broke out the big guns or felt like winning until the very, very end. It's solid, but that's about it.

Daisuke Sekimoto/Yuji Okabayashi/Ryuichi Kawakami vs Yoshihito Sasaki/Shinya Ishikawa/Kazuki Hashimoto, BJW 4/18

After being dissapointed in the 2/12 tag with 5 of these 6 guys, I didn't have the highest of expectations for this. And indeed, this still felt lacking. Sasaki brought it and managed to get some fire out of Okabayashi, their first exchange was pretty hot with neither guy co-operating with simple spots such as the snapmare. K. Hashimoto is much better than M. Otani and brought it whenever he was in, but once again Sekimoto's team failed to deliver a compelling beatdown on him. There were a couple of good exchanges such as the initial Sekimoto/Sasaki throwdown and the finish between Sekimoto and Hash, but really I am still left waiting for Strong BJ to get back on track.

Sunday 29 May 2011

BattlARTS 2/27, fucking up the monkey show

Yuki Ishikawa vs Bison TAGAI

This was fun. Most mat-based BattlARTS matches don't do it for me, and this was unashamedly an exhibition, but both guys looked like they were having a blast wrestling this. After not really caring for any of his 2010 stuff, I had forgotten how good Ishikawa is on the mat and he carried this nicely, coming up lots lots of sick reversals and constantly moving the match forward. Bison has enough charisma and personality to make up for any shortcomings.

Katsumi Usada vs Ryuichi Kawakami


This was just an exhibition for Usada to show off some nice submission and counter work on the mat. I'm not sure if that's how the match was intended to be, but due to Kawakami being pretty useless in this envorinment, that's how it went. He was more of less just a broomhandle for Usada to kick and lock in some nasty holds on. He got in next to no offence, and when he did Usada would just counter it effortlessly in swank fashion. Kawakami was just totally outclassed and made to look second rate in the ring with Usada.

Yuki Ishikawa/Hideki Suzuki vs Daisuke Ikeda/Super Tiger II

Yeah, this is what you want. The moment Ikeda tagged in and blasted Ishikawa with a kick to the hamstring you knew this was going to live up to the standards for Ishikawa vs Ikeda. What a war these two put each other through. You *know* none of those shots were pulled, and they totalled murdered each other. You don't see slaps like Ishikawa's at a monkey show. Loved how everytime Ishikawa seemed to get the upper hand, Ikeda or ST2 would come in for a cheapshot. What dicks. Tiger was pretty damned awful; seriously son, this is BattlARTS, stop dancing around and make sure your damn kicks connect. The match quality dropped significantly whenever he was in, but thankfully everyone else was on point. Suzuki stepped up, both on the mat and in the end run - dug all of his big throws and suplexes. Still, to reiterate: this was Ishikawa vs Ikeda, and they will fucking murder each other for you.

Best Of 2011

Friday 27 May 2011

ROH Manhattan Mayhem IV

The Briscoes vs The All Night Express

Watching this I came to the conclusion the Briscoes are the best tag team in wrestling right now and it's not even close. This was really good Southern tag, with all the intensity and hate we want in a blood feud. The ANX have also improved a lot and are infinitely better as babyfaces (King especially is a good hot tag). Jay is usually the better of the two Briscoes, but Mark was pretty great here in his own right, biting and gouging Titus's bloody face and unloading on him with punch combos. Everything the Briscoes do connects with force. The finish was also really well done, King took a totally nuts bump over the top to outside and it did a clever job setting up the 4/2 match. Post-match brawl also ruled, the Briscoes are such dicks.

El Generico vs TJ Perkins

This was fun but I wish it could have gone longer. Kind of lacked the neat, creative stuff of most Perkins matches, but everything was hit pretty well. Perkins's quick flurry of kicks to the gut during the knuckle-lock was cool, and it was kind of refreshing to see a brainbuster on the apron actually finish a match instead of just be a huge spot.

The Kings Of Wrestling vs L.A.X.

This was also pretty good, though maybe a little overshadowed by the Briscoes tag. Kind of similar in that both teams were being really agressive and really bringing it to each other. The Hernandez/Claudio match-up was exactly what you want from it with two big dudes clobbering and tossing each other around. Heck, Hernandez was probably the best guy in this match and really impressed. The spot with him Border Tossing 'Cide out of the ring onto the Kings was crazy shit. The finish was pretty flat, as it felt like it should have taken more to put 'Cide down, but whatever, I'll take it.

Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards

This was definitely a Roderick Strong match. Which means it wasn't good. I like Eddie, but he is certainly vanilla, and matched with a guy who is even MORE vanilla.. yeesh. They do a whole bunch of utterly role "we are equal" routines, and the whole match had no direction or substance to it at all. Just blindly walking from one spot to another, with the inbetween either being chinlocks or tedious, tired flurries of visible legslap kicks and enziguri's. Seriously, Roderick might have some of the god damned shittiest offence going, more or less everything he does looks like utter crap and his big offencive moves are retarded. His chops usually atleast are stiff, but in the ring with Edwards even they looked Chikara-league. Eddie chopping Roddy's chest to a bloody pulp was a cool visual, and the finish was admiteddly pretty great, but that's it for shit that didn't make me want to never see a Strong match ever again.

Best Of 2011

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Masato Yoshino vs Don Fuji, Dragon Gate 1/18

This actually not bad and pretty enjoyable, though not anything great. First half was merely OK, but the second half was fun. Fuji isn't a super-athletic prettyboy, and brought some structure and personality to the match. The end run was surprisingly non-overkilly for a DG match and they got some hot nearfalls of more simple stuff. Yoshino was kind of just running through his shit like always, and doing the weeble-wobble "refusing to go down" sell on Fuji's lariats was pretty dumb, considering he's the skinniest guy on the roster.

Eddie Kingston vs Akira Tozawa, Chikara KoT: Night 3

I was originally dissapointed when Chikara chose not to run Kingston vs Togo, but Tozawa is a more than servicable replacement. This is what it says on the tin - two charismatic wrestlers whaling on each other. Both guys lay it in with stiff chops, kicks, sentons and Kingston takes a particularly nasty suplex. Tozawa's multiple dives spot is one of my favourites right now.

El Generico vs 1-2-3 Kid, Chikara KoT: Night 3

I'm not sure I'd call this a great match or not, and theres one pretty bad botch that kills the momentum at one point, but I still loved this and had a total blast watching it. Waltman put on a hell of a showing and looked almost as good as he did in 1994. I was surprised at how fast and slick he was in a lot of the exchanges, and he took a huge bump into the ringpost that set up the rest of the match really well. Actually Kid took a bunch of bumps beyond the call of duty, busted out his old signatures and just all round did a great job of making this feel like an epic encounter. Finishing stretch was great, you could say they ventued into overkill at the end, but I thought it was fitting for a match as big as this.

Chris Hero vs TJP, ROH "Defy Or Deny"

This lacked head from the crowd, due to no one buying Perkins as having a chance, but was otherwise pretty great. All of the matwork at the start was pretty cool and both men busted out some good shit. Loved all of Hero shit-talking, and Perkins's selling of the beatdown was great. Really dug the way Perkins worked his way back into the match and he busted out some crazy, un-expected stuff like the standing headscissors/armbar submission. Maybe best ROH 2011 match so far.

Eddie Edwards vs Michael Elgin, ROH "Defy Or Deny"

This was pretty good, though not as good as Hero/TJP. Plenty of quality, hard-hitting action here. Elgin is stocky, but neither guy is particulrly huge, but they still pulled off the feel of a heavyweight slugfest quite nicely, thanks to both the stiff shots and the great exhaustion selling in the final parts of the match. There were a few things I disliked such as the goofy double crab spot with Truth (who still sucks as much as ever) and both guys are pretty lacking in personality (Eddie screaming "Elgin!" in a high-pitched voice was pretty cringe), but there's enough effort, heat and good action to overcome them. The powerslam spot on the outside was probably the highlight.

Best Of 2011

Monday 23 May 2011

WWE tests the limit... of my patience

Rey Mysterio vs R-Truth

This was actually very solid and maybe the best singles match of Truth's career. Not saying much, but yeah. Plenty of neat spots and everything was hit really well. Dug the apron crotching to set-up the finish, and I was actually surprised at the outcome. Second time Rey has lost clean to a lower ranked heel on PPV this year.

Wade Barrett vs Ezekial Jackson

This was OK but not really above average. Wade Barrett might not be the worst guy on the roster, but he might be the most boring. Totally dull and dry in just about every way. Zeke was over and worked hard, and the powerslam comeback roll was pretty cool, but seriously: fuck Wade Barrett.

Sin Cara vs Chavo Guerrero

This was also pretty bad. I like Chavo and wanted to like this, but he looked completely off his game here, taking Cara's stuff worse than anyone in the WWE has done so far and looked kind of blown up during the Gory Special attempt. Cara is just awful. His spots would actually be impressive if he could hit them, but they are always sloppy, loose or just plain whiffed. Imagine a Cara vs Kofi match, holy shit that would stink.

The Big Show/Kane vs CM Punk/Mason Ryan

Kane's pre-match line about being pissed off the Rapture didn't happen was better than anything in the match itself. Show was good working on the apron, stamping the steps to get the fans going, and Punk getting wailed on was fun (and his Macho Man tribute), but this was a match with 2 shitty dudes and 2 good talents with the shitty dudes working most of the match against each other. Ryan is almost hilariously green.

Randy Orton vs Christian

The first half was on the dull side and the Spear mimmick spot is goofy as fuck, but man this was still really good stuff. Liked how the crowd seemed to shift between supporting the two, and I dug all of the counters to each other's signature spots - really put over the story of both men scouting each other. The play-off of the finish to the Smackdown match was also so good. The final third was really an exercise in how to do a bunch of hot nearfalls without killing your movesets that a lot of wrestlers should take notes from. Christian's selling was once again amazing, not just of the pain and exhaustion, but his frustration of not being able to put Orton away. Orton's Billy Goat's Curse was also a great unexpected spot that thanks to Christian's selling, I bought as a believable match ender.

Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole (Kiss My Feet Match)

This was fun for what it was, especially Lawler throwing Cole through the Cole Mine, but still I couldn't help but feel it was too little too late. Had this happened at Wrestlemania it would have been great, but two months on the fued isn't hot and Cole getting squashed in 30 seconds then getting sauce poured on him and having to kiss Lawler's foot almost felt not worth it. Bret was pretty random, too.

John Cena vs The Miz ("I Quit")

Terrible, just terrible. I like these guys but there really isn't much to defend about this. 30-40 long minutes of a mind-numblingly boring 2-on-1 beatdown with no heat because it was painfully obvious to even the most workable of marks that Cena wasn't going to quit of anything they did. Miz slowly announcing what he was going to do also killed a lot of suspense and was just a lame way of drawing the match out. THEN there was the re-start off a lame rehash. THEN there was Cena making a comeback to win in about the space of a minute with Miz quitting after taking about 3 minutes worth of offence the entire match. Dreadful. This reminded me of Cena vs Batista from last year - an obviously over-booked match where the agents directed these guys to a shitty match when they probably could have done better without the stipulation and booking.

Best Of 2011

Sunday 22 May 2011

This week in WWE

Drew McIntyre vs Evan Bourne, Superstars 5/19

This was on the short side, but still had plenty of highlights. Bourne's armdrags at the start were super-slick, and his apron bump was nuts (reminded me of London's batshit insanity bump in the '05 Rumble). The spot with Drew taking a bump on the stairs was cool, as were Bourne's dive and the set-up to the finish, but my favouirte spot was the epic stalling superplex.

Christian vs Sheamus, Smackdown 5/20

This was good. Kind of what you expect. Christian did some neat stuff like sliding under Sheamus on the apron to trip him, and took a couple nasty bumps as standard. Sheamus hasn't stopped being a total bruiser either. Great finish.

Daniel Bryan vs Chavo Guerrero, Smackdown 5/20

Solid few minutes, though the time limit obviously detracted a lot. Would like to see them in a match where the focus wasn't on beating a time limit, though the finish was atleast well done.

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry, Smackdown 5/20

Henry was great in this, really laying a beating on Orton. Liked his trash talking too. Orton was fine, but what the fuck was with that reaction to the RKO?

Thursday 19 May 2011

PWG DDT4 furthers my crush on Akira Tozawa

The Briscoes vs Kevin Steen/Akira Tozawa

Fun sprint with lots of stiff shots and entertaining personalities. Tozawa riling the crowd up into a frenzy then yelling “SHUT DA FUCK UP” and his screaming contest with Mark were both funny shit. Not anything worth going out of your way for, but I can’t imagine many people not enjoying this.

The Kings Of Wrestling vs Kevin Steen/Akira Tozawa

Steen kind of irritated me in this match, he kind of crossed the line on how obnoxious a babyface can be (why he was a babyface on this show I don't know but that's another rant), but still you aren't watching this for Steen, you are watching this for Hero and Tozawa picking up where they left off from, and that aspect of the match is pretty great. Tozawa was pretty great in this and was a really good FIP, and the Kings did a much better job of working him over and keeping it interesting than they do in their ROH tags. I loved the way they teased and built up the backdrop suplex, and Hero took a hell of a bump on it. I also loved Tozawa later coming in of a hot tag and instantly getting killed by Claudio. There was some iffy selling near the end, but I guess that's just inherent of the style, and it worked in the same way it worked in the first Hero vs Tozawa match.

Kevin Steen/Akira Tozawa vs The Young Bucks

This kind of sucked. The brawling at the start was kind of bleh outside Steen killing the Bucks with powerbombs on the apron and his awesome splash. Tozawa worked an injury angle, so most of the match was spent with Steen working FIP, and he isn't half as interesting in this role as Tozawa, even with a blade job. The Bucks working him over with crappy looking kicks in between posing didn't help matters. Tozawa's final flurry was pretty fun, and the back RAKE got a laugh out of me through shear ridiculousness, but otherwise pass.

Best Of 2011

Monday 16 May 2011

Dick Togo vs Antonio Honda, DDT 1/30

Holy shit this was great, probably the best thing to come from a DDT ring ever. This was all about Honda, a mid-card comedy act, trying to hang with the champ, and they told that story really well. Honda's armwork at the start was a clever way of allowing him to control Togo for a while, before the big dive spot and the blade job. Togo was just off the charts here, great, great selling of the arm that pays off, really great at laying out parts of the match, great offence. The punching exchanges, with Honda covered in blood and Togo still selling the arm, were some of the best wrestling I've seen this year. Great shit.

Team Michinoku Pro vs Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Manami Toyota, Chikara KOT: Night 2

Another vanilla indy dream match. Once again Togo was really the only guy who knew what to do, instantly bringing heat to the match the moment he tagged in and cheapshotted Toyota and then FLEXED to mock her. He is the king heel. Everyone was just doing usual drea match sequences and shit, apart from Sasuke, who was just doing some bizarre stuff. He took a pretty crazy bump onto a chair, but it was ultimately pretty pointless. The Chikara guys looked pretty second rate, and there was like 10 big kickouts too many, with none of them really getting any heat to boot.

Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio vs The Miz, RAW 5/9

Pretty fun threeway with lots of big spots and huge bumps from everyone. The sequence with Del Rio laying Miz out on the outside then getting whiped out from a Rey dive was cool. There was a bit too much "throw the other guy out and make it 1 vs 1" stuff for my liking but the end run was exciting and actually had me thinking Rey might win.

Drew McIntyre vs Chris Masters, Superstars 5/12

This was pretty god damned great and easily the best match to happen on free TV in a long time. It could have gone a big longer, but otherwise pretty flawless. Drew's legwork was nasty, always love when guys do little stuff like taking down a dude's kneepad to inflict more damage. His dropkick and nip-up was 10 flavours of cool, especially for a guy Drew's size, and honestly I think Drew might be the most natural and believable guy in wrestling right now. And of course Masters was right there to sell like only Masters sells and come back with some great looking chops and power offence. Masters is probably the best bodypart seller today, even during the finish he was down on one knee.

Daniel Bryan vs Sin Cara, Smackdown 5/13

This is getting a little overated on certain boards, but was still a fun exhibition and the best Cara has looked so far. Of course that was mostly Bryan doing most of the work and making his usually loose, sloppy highspots much tighter, but the spots were fairly spectacular (especially in a WWE environment). Also glad Bryan got plenty of offence, he really delt out those kicks.

Best Of 2011

Saturday 7 May 2011

Sami Callihan vs Daisuke Sekimoto, CZW Best Of The Best X

We have seen Sami in a variety of roles lately, and this was him working in a big vs small scenario, and he is pretty fucking great at it. Right at the start of the match Sami puts over the story of the match with a huge bump off a lariat. Sekimoto works well in his role, absorbing flurries and staying on his feet, and beating the shit out of Sami with some disgustingly heavy chops. Sami's out-of-nowhere Saito Suplex is quicly becoming one of my favourite trademark spots. I could have done without Sami kicking out the Deadlift German, just because Sekimoto is killing the move, but the finish was a really fucking great "slaying the giant" moment. This only went around 10 minutes, but still felt epic.

Sami Callihan vs Adam Cole, CZW Best Of The Best X

This wasn't as good as the Sekimoto match, but was still really good. I'm still far from sold on Adam Cole but he was fine here, as he was essentially plugged into what has become Sami's formula. Lots of intense, stiff brawling and both guys take some big bumps. I am not a condoner of man-on-woman violence, but Sami beating up Cole's valet was kind of awesome. Cole reaches an 8.5 on the Edge scale of absurd facial expressions, and his Stretch Muffler was weak, but the finishing run was really good otherwise and pretty dramatic.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Yuji Nagata, NJ 3/20

Thought this was pretty bad. First half was really boring and full of perfunctory stuff. Second half was mostly just mindless sequences of big moves with no flow or direction. The execution on a lot of stuff was also kind of awkward or weak, which made both guys look bad at points.

Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan, Smackdown 5/6

Another really good, stiff match. Such a good pairing this has become. Sheamus bumped hard for Danielson's dive, the slingshot shoulderblock into the LeBell Lock was a sick counter and the finish was fucking 10/10.

The Big Show vs Ezekial Jackson, Smackdown 5/6

Crazy match. Show taking big bumps and Zeke throwing him around like nothing was just nuts. Also dig how stiff Zeke works, and the Corre dudes all took some nasty bumps for Show on the outside.

Christian vs Randy Orton, Smackdown 5/6

This was good but not great, not least because of the outcome. Christian was great, selling his ass off and taking a huge spill on the outside early on. Orton was fine, though his mannerisms were once again kind of cringeworthy and forced. The finishing run was kind of just your-turn-my-turn, and the mid-air RKO finish has become really predictable.

Best Of 2011

Thursday 5 May 2011

Extreme Rules

Randy Orton vs CM Punk (Last Man Standing)

I thought this was a great match and probably WWE MOTY at this point, and one of the best PPV openers ever. The current WWE environment isn't the best for pulling off violent grudge matches due to the ban on blading and weapon shots to the head, yet these two managed to pull off the feeling of a real war through shear brutality. Sick bump after sick bump, with Punk's posting being particularly batshit insane. The kendo stick has been a goofy prop in the past, but here every shot looked nasty. Both men's selling was really great and made most of the nearfalls buyable, and the big finish was a big finish. Punk's mannerisms were great as always, and Orton was the best he's been in forever (the moment with him going nuts with the cane was great). The set-up to the announce table RKO was dumb, but otherwise this was a fucking war.

Sheamus vs Kofi Kingston (Tables)

This was probably as good of a tables match with Kofi Kingston could possibly be. Sheamus once again held everything together, and there were a lot of well done teases and close calls. The finish also looked real good.

Michael Cole/Jack Swagger vs Jerry Lawler/Jim Ross (Country Whipping)

This was not good but better than the Wrestlemania match atleast because it was Swagger Lawler was selling for, not Cole. JR's ankle lock with the whip was goofy as shit, and once again the finish was really flat. Cole's bubblewrap was tremendous, but seriously WWE, learn how to book this sort of shit and we could have something.

Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes (Falls Count Anywhere)

Pretty great arena brawl. Cody has really developed into a good talent, his punches look great and he takes some gnarly bumps. There were plenty of cool spots (Rey's senton off the stage, Beautiful Disaster off the concession stand), but the brawling in between was also very strong and held the match together. They fought tooth and nail, really creating the feeling of a personal grudge match. Rey's flying headbutt was also killer and I dug the unexpected finish. On first watch I thought this was only a few steps below Benoit vs Sullivan.

Michelle McCool vs Layla (No DQ, Loser Leaves WWE)

I usually skip divas matches but this was actually pretty damn solid. The brawling was intense, McCool comes off as a real bitch, both women looked like they actually know how to take bumps without falling on their ass and there were one or two neat spots. If anything this could have gone longer. Best divas match I've seen in some time.

Christian vs Alberto Del Rio (Ladder)

To be honest I thought this was merely "solid" most of the way, but the final third of the match and the emotion of it brought it up to another level. Christian's selling was up to par and made it all the easier to get behind the dude, and Del Rio was also tremendous, giving what was probably his career performance. I dug how he encorporated the ladders into his usual armwork, and the guy took some crazy bumps. His missed senton on the ladder was probably the most spectacular bump on a show filled with violent bumps. All of the over-booking added to the drama rather than taking away from it and I enjoyed Brodus getting cut up.

The Big Show/Kane vs The Corre (Lumberjack)

This was a bunch of nothing though I always enjoy Show running through dudes and dishing out chops, as well as Zeke slamming into people and his ridiculous strength.

The Miz vs John Cena vs John Morrison (Steel Cage)

A triple threat cage match with 3 dudes who have been fairly hit and miss lately sounds like a potential pile of shit on paper, but this was actually surprisingly very good. The spot with the SCF early and Morrison almost escaping was good, actually this probably had some of the best "escape the cage" nearfalls I can recall. Morrison's parquor shit once again added to the match and made for some cool highspots (could have done without the C4 though), but Miz and Cena also were on form. Miz's superplex bump was fucking sick. I was pretty indifferent to the R-Truth stuff, but the big finish was fitting.

Best Of 2011