Dick Togo vs HARASHIMA, DDT 2/27
Great performance from Dick Togo, shame about the rest of the match. This was your prototypical lengthy juniors attempted epic, complete with a bunch of legwork that isn't sold and is forgotten about very quick, but Togo atleast did plenty of cool shit that made it halfway decent. His selling was tremendous, his dancing around HARASHIMA and picking apart his leg was awesome, his senton looked BRUTAL, I dug his random heart punch and the finish was excellent. HARASHIMA just furthered the stereotype, though.
The Wrestling Bucket
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
NOAH 2/6 (God NOAH sucks)
Yoshinari Ogawa vs Naomichi Marufuji
This was pretty bad. Ogawa's stranglehold counter was NIFTY and would have made Johnny Saint proud, and the finish was neat, but everything else was mediocre and the interference from the seconds was weak. However it was less offensive than the usual Marufuji match, so there was that.
Kotaro Suzuki vs Genba Hirayanagi
Wow this was just a total mess. I thought Genba may have been able to make this fun with his heel antics, but after watching this it's crystal clear he isn't cut out for high profile singles matches at all. Ths was just boring beyond belief most of the way, with some parts being all over the place. His table bump was cool but really what was the point of it? Another shitty lengty juniors match.
Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki/Shuhei Taniguchi/Taiji Ishimori
This was solid but not without it's flaws. Takayama is probably the only NOAH guy these days who seems consistantly good, and Taniguchi has grown from one of the worst to one of the best guys on the roster (not that that's saying much, as most of the roster are shitty). The Takayama/Taniguchi exchanges were easily the highlight, offering both hard-hitting action and the vet vs upstart dynamic NOAH is so sorely missing these days. Nakajima also kicked Taniguchi's face off with a sick kick at one point. But Go brought nothing once again, and the Nakajima/Ishimori exchanges were the usual mediocre junior shit. Everything involving Taniguchi was good, everything else less so, and I never thought I'd be saying that.
Takashi Sugiura/Akitoshi Saito vs Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson
This was pretty rock solid and more proof Sugiura is better suited to tag wrestling than singles. The gaijin managed to keep the heat and make the beatdown on him look like a beatdown. The action was pretty consistant without any real luls, and it always felt like an uphill struggle for Sugiura and Saito, which is exactly what it should have been in order to set up Bernard for a title shot.
This was pretty bad. Ogawa's stranglehold counter was NIFTY and would have made Johnny Saint proud, and the finish was neat, but everything else was mediocre and the interference from the seconds was weak. However it was less offensive than the usual Marufuji match, so there was that.
Kotaro Suzuki vs Genba Hirayanagi
Wow this was just a total mess. I thought Genba may have been able to make this fun with his heel antics, but after watching this it's crystal clear he isn't cut out for high profile singles matches at all. Ths was just boring beyond belief most of the way, with some parts being all over the place. His table bump was cool but really what was the point of it? Another shitty lengty juniors match.
Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki/Shuhei Taniguchi/Taiji Ishimori
This was solid but not without it's flaws. Takayama is probably the only NOAH guy these days who seems consistantly good, and Taniguchi has grown from one of the worst to one of the best guys on the roster (not that that's saying much, as most of the roster are shitty). The Takayama/Taniguchi exchanges were easily the highlight, offering both hard-hitting action and the vet vs upstart dynamic NOAH is so sorely missing these days. Nakajima also kicked Taniguchi's face off with a sick kick at one point. But Go brought nothing once again, and the Nakajima/Ishimori exchanges were the usual mediocre junior shit. Everything involving Taniguchi was good, everything else less so, and I never thought I'd be saying that.
Takashi Sugiura/Akitoshi Saito vs Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson
This was pretty rock solid and more proof Sugiura is better suited to tag wrestling than singles. The gaijin managed to keep the heat and make the beatdown on him look like a beatdown. The action was pretty consistant without any real luls, and it always felt like an uphill struggle for Sugiura and Saito, which is exactly what it should have been in order to set up Bernard for a title shot.
Manobu Soya/Seiya Sanada vs Daisuke Sekimoto/Yuji Okabyashi, All Japan 2/6
Kind of hard to rate a match like this, because they only showed 20 minutes of a thirty minute draw, and you *know* the other ten minutes were either a bunch of restholds or laying around because there's no way these guys would have been able to go hard for half an hour. But still, they paced themselves reasonably well considering they all still had enough in the tank at the end of the match, and the 20 minutes that is shown is actually very good. 20 minutes of rock solid Japanese heavyweight wrestling, with big dudes hitting hard, slamming into each other and throwing each other around. The spots were cool, the crowd was hot, plenty of drama down the stretch and everyone seemed really motivated. The BJW guys make a great team, their double splash and double German suplex were both epic. Best Sekimoto match in a while and best AJ match in forever.
Best Of 2011
Kind of hard to rate a match like this, because they only showed 20 minutes of a thirty minute draw, and you *know* the other ten minutes were either a bunch of restholds or laying around because there's no way these guys would have been able to go hard for half an hour. But still, they paced themselves reasonably well considering they all still had enough in the tank at the end of the match, and the 20 minutes that is shown is actually very good. 20 minutes of rock solid Japanese heavyweight wrestling, with big dudes hitting hard, slamming into each other and throwing each other around. The spots were cool, the crowd was hot, plenty of drama down the stretch and everyone seemed really motivated. The BJW guys make a great team, their double splash and double German suplex were both epic. Best Sekimoto match in a while and best AJ match in forever.
Best Of 2011
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Team Michinoku Pro vs Team Minnesota, Chikara King Of Trios: Night 1
This was solid but to be honest I thought it was a massiive letdown. Togo was fucking awesome and seemed to be the only guy genuinely busting his ass, the moment where he interupted Shinzaki and Kid doing generic dream match stuff to cheapshot Kid on the outside and insantly gather a tonne of heat was easily the highlight of the match. He also had a good exchange with Cannon where they punched each other in the face a bunch, but even that wasn't as good as I was hoping for. Kid also hit a pretty crazy dive, but otherwise everyone seemed stuck in bland indy dream match mode. Way too much Shinzaki, way too much Corbin, and all I thought all of the slow-mo comedy was dreadful and killed the match.
This was solid but to be honest I thought it was a massiive letdown. Togo was fucking awesome and seemed to be the only guy genuinely busting his ass, the moment where he interupted Shinzaki and Kid doing generic dream match stuff to cheapshot Kid on the outside and insantly gather a tonne of heat was easily the highlight of the match. He also had a good exchange with Cannon where they punched each other in the face a bunch, but even that wasn't as good as I was hoping for. Kid also hit a pretty crazy dive, but otherwise everyone seemed stuck in bland indy dream match mode. Way too much Shinzaki, way too much Corbin, and all I thought all of the slow-mo comedy was dreadful and killed the match.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Austin Aries vs Jon Moxley, EVOLVE 7
This was pretty underwhelming. Everything at the start was OK if standard indy match stuff. They took a double bump over the top to the outside but the camera angle was terrible and made it look really weak, and the bump came way too early into the match and was forgotten about after a matter of seconds after they recovered. Everything after that seemed to just be your-move-my-move trading of big moves mixed with some really forced acting from Moxley. Nice send-off to Moxley, though.
This was pretty underwhelming. Everything at the start was OK if standard indy match stuff. They took a double bump over the top to the outside but the camera angle was terrible and made it look really weak, and the bump came way too early into the match and was forgotten about after a matter of seconds after they recovered. Everything after that seemed to just be your-move-my-move trading of big moves mixed with some really forced acting from Moxley. Nice send-off to Moxley, though.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Ikuto Hidaka vs Takafumi Ito, Zero-ONE 3/6
Nifty quasi-shooty style/juniors hybrid kind of match. Didn't think Hidaka was anything great in it but Ito impressed (in his first pro wres match), selling really well, showing emotion and busting out neat submission counters. I'm pretty tired of endless kick exchanges in juniors matches but the finish was built to pretty well here.
Best Of 2011
Nifty quasi-shooty style/juniors hybrid kind of match. Didn't think Hidaka was anything great in it but Ito impressed (in his first pro wres match), selling really well, showing emotion and busting out neat submission counters. I'm pretty tired of endless kick exchanges in juniors matches but the finish was built to pretty well here.
Best Of 2011
Monday, 18 April 2011
The bad, the bad and the ugly (slightly less bad)
Vader/Jesse White vs Shinjiro Ohtani/Daichi Hashimoto, Zero-ONE 3/27
Vader was decent, looked the best he's done in almost a decade (which isn't really saying much), but even then I thought he probably sold too much for Daichi. The young guys are still green but thats not a knock on them (Jesse debuted last year and this is Daichi's third match), but they were too sloppy for this to be a good match.
Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett, TNA Lockdown (2/3 Falls)
What a festering pile of shit this match was. Sloppy as shit, utterly rote perfunctary opening falls, no sense of hatred at all, a whole bunch of recycled spots, Russo bullshit over-booking and some of the worst selling I've ever seen from Angle. On top of all that, its become extremely uncomfortable and unsettling to watch Angle continue to kill himself in the ring, someone should really step in and tell him he needs to stop because he's looking like he won't make it to 2015 at this rate. Worst match of the year contender.
Ric Flair/Matt Hardy/Bully Ray/Abyss vs Christopher Daniels/Beer Money/Kazarian, TNA Lockdown (Lethal Lockdown)
This was alright. Not really anything worth talking up, but Daniels's dive was nuts, Flair and Ray are still really entertaining despite their age and the ending was atleast a well booked pay-off, which is a rarity in TNA. Abyss is still unfathomably bad, though.
Vader was decent, looked the best he's done in almost a decade (which isn't really saying much), but even then I thought he probably sold too much for Daichi. The young guys are still green but thats not a knock on them (Jesse debuted last year and this is Daichi's third match), but they were too sloppy for this to be a good match.
Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett, TNA Lockdown (2/3 Falls)
What a festering pile of shit this match was. Sloppy as shit, utterly rote perfunctary opening falls, no sense of hatred at all, a whole bunch of recycled spots, Russo bullshit over-booking and some of the worst selling I've ever seen from Angle. On top of all that, its become extremely uncomfortable and unsettling to watch Angle continue to kill himself in the ring, someone should really step in and tell him he needs to stop because he's looking like he won't make it to 2015 at this rate. Worst match of the year contender.
Ric Flair/Matt Hardy/Bully Ray/Abyss vs Christopher Daniels/Beer Money/Kazarian, TNA Lockdown (Lethal Lockdown)
This was alright. Not really anything worth talking up, but Daniels's dive was nuts, Flair and Ray are still really entertaining despite their age and the ending was atleast a well booked pay-off, which is a rarity in TNA. Abyss is still unfathomably bad, though.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
You know you're a nerd when you're sick of watching obscure German indys
Daisuke Sekimoto vs El Generico, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
Even as a fan of these two I found this pretty obnoxious. They worked stiff, and they played up the flier vs power story to an extent early on (though no where near as good as the Generico/Elgin matches), but all of Generico's FIGHTING SPIRIT!!! no-sell shit was really dreadful and there was an absurd amount of overkill. Typical mindless indy bullshit where they get the reactions in the cheapest ways possible.
Big Van Walter vs Sami Callihan, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
Most of Sami's best stuff seems to be with him in a heel role, but this was a really great babyface performance from him. This was as hard hitting as you'd want it to be with both dishing it out, but became much more than just a stiff-fest once Walter started destroying Sami on the outside. Ramming him into the lighting rig, bouncing him off the apron, tossing him through a table - the sort of beatdown that makes you think "how the fuck is Sami going to come back from this?". And he came back in the best way possible, not by doing some lame FIGHTNING SPIRIT Hulk-up no-sell, but by capitalizing on a mistake then being relentless in cutting down the big tree. I dug how Sami struggled to lock in the Stretchmuffler on Walter's elephant-sized legs, and the finisher with Walter roaring to life and teasing an escape only for Sami to start desperately kicking him in the head while in the submission as if his life depended on it was fantastic.
Big Van Walter/Brodie Lee vs Michael Elgin/Johnny Moss, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
This was a decent match with four big dudes tossing each other around. Moss is a green roided up musclehead who sucked as a FIP, but atleast hit a crazy dive. Elgin was once again just a total fucking beast, he is quickly becoming one of my favourite guys to watch. Him firemans carrying Walter and Brodie at the same time was fucking nuts, as was him taking a lariat bump right on his neck and BRODIE LEE hitting a hurricarana. Finishing run was also fun with everyone getting suplexed and thrown around. Moss's suckage stood out pretty badly, though.
Karsten Beck vs Necro Butcher, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
Pretty fun one-sided beatdown. Necro CREAMS Beck with the most ungodly headbutt at the bell and from there on it's pretty much all bloody Necro beating the tar out of a shitty dude. I have never seen Beck before, but he seems to genuinely suck, which if anything added to my enjoyment of the match. The finish was frustratingly cheap, but Necro brings the violence and charisma to make this sort of match watchable.
Daisuke Sekimoto vs Chris Hero, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
This may have been the best Sekimoto singles match of the year so far but honestly I'd still have a hard time saying it was much good. on the one hard this was brutally stiff, all of the chops exchanges were nasty (Sek looks like he could have collapsed Hero's ribcage at various points) and Hero occasionally cracks Sekimoto with a straight right to the jaw. But still, this was about twice as long as it should have been and dragged pretty bad most of the way, and naturally that meant there was a whole bunch of overkill at the end. Over the last couple of months Sekimoto may have killed the deadlift german as a finisher, and to make things worse he looked totally dissinterested through the match. I think he had the exact same facial expression all the way through, which makes me think he was just phoning it in. I dug Hero throwing everything he had at Sekimoto's head, trying to knock the unstoppable retard out, but good God does he need to stop doing those awful no sell spots at the end of his matches, it just kills them. You don't even do that shit in Japan, man.
Best Of 2011
Even as a fan of these two I found this pretty obnoxious. They worked stiff, and they played up the flier vs power story to an extent early on (though no where near as good as the Generico/Elgin matches), but all of Generico's FIGHTING SPIRIT!!! no-sell shit was really dreadful and there was an absurd amount of overkill. Typical mindless indy bullshit where they get the reactions in the cheapest ways possible.
Big Van Walter vs Sami Callihan, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
Most of Sami's best stuff seems to be with him in a heel role, but this was a really great babyface performance from him. This was as hard hitting as you'd want it to be with both dishing it out, but became much more than just a stiff-fest once Walter started destroying Sami on the outside. Ramming him into the lighting rig, bouncing him off the apron, tossing him through a table - the sort of beatdown that makes you think "how the fuck is Sami going to come back from this?". And he came back in the best way possible, not by doing some lame FIGHTNING SPIRIT Hulk-up no-sell, but by capitalizing on a mistake then being relentless in cutting down the big tree. I dug how Sami struggled to lock in the Stretchmuffler on Walter's elephant-sized legs, and the finisher with Walter roaring to life and teasing an escape only for Sami to start desperately kicking him in the head while in the submission as if his life depended on it was fantastic.
Big Van Walter/Brodie Lee vs Michael Elgin/Johnny Moss, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
This was a decent match with four big dudes tossing each other around. Moss is a green roided up musclehead who sucked as a FIP, but atleast hit a crazy dive. Elgin was once again just a total fucking beast, he is quickly becoming one of my favourite guys to watch. Him firemans carrying Walter and Brodie at the same time was fucking nuts, as was him taking a lariat bump right on his neck and BRODIE LEE hitting a hurricarana. Finishing run was also fun with everyone getting suplexed and thrown around. Moss's suckage stood out pretty badly, though.
Karsten Beck vs Necro Butcher, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
Pretty fun one-sided beatdown. Necro CREAMS Beck with the most ungodly headbutt at the bell and from there on it's pretty much all bloody Necro beating the tar out of a shitty dude. I have never seen Beck before, but he seems to genuinely suck, which if anything added to my enjoyment of the match. The finish was frustratingly cheap, but Necro brings the violence and charisma to make this sort of match watchable.
Daisuke Sekimoto vs Chris Hero, wXw Kruezzug ZXI
This may have been the best Sekimoto singles match of the year so far but honestly I'd still have a hard time saying it was much good. on the one hard this was brutally stiff, all of the chops exchanges were nasty (Sek looks like he could have collapsed Hero's ribcage at various points) and Hero occasionally cracks Sekimoto with a straight right to the jaw. But still, this was about twice as long as it should have been and dragged pretty bad most of the way, and naturally that meant there was a whole bunch of overkill at the end. Over the last couple of months Sekimoto may have killed the deadlift german as a finisher, and to make things worse he looked totally dissinterested through the match. I think he had the exact same facial expression all the way through, which makes me think he was just phoning it in. I dug Hero throwing everything he had at Sekimoto's head, trying to knock the unstoppable retard out, but good God does he need to stop doing those awful no sell spots at the end of his matches, it just kills them. You don't even do that shit in Japan, man.
Best Of 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
International Invasion Of The International Invaders (Non-Chikara Edition)
Colt Cabana vs Zack Sabre Jr., wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 1
This was a solid little match. They were trying to go for a Euro-style technical match, but instead did a bunch of rote indy roll-up sequences. The comedy was pretty fun though, with Colt chasing Zack around the ring and giving him nipple cripples.
Sami Callihan vs Yoshihito Sasaki, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 2
The opening exchange was fucking nasty and just what you want from this match. Both guys lay it the fuck in with their shots. Sasaki kills Sami with his lariats and Sami's "play possum them hit 'em with a backdrop driver" spot was grand. For a five minute match this brought it.
Sami Callihan vs Davey Richards, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
Kind of a dead average match. Not particularly bad but not really that exciting either. The finish was pretty weird with Sami KO'ing Davey after Davey controlled most of the match and no sold him moments before.
Big Van Walter vs Go Shiozaki, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
I checked this out hoping it would be a no-nonsense slugfest, and it failed to deliver. While they did slug it in the later stages of the match, they spent so much time killing time with restholds and shit before it. And the big exchange where they both blow a gasket and go nuts with chops had probably the worst strikes of the whole match.
Ezekial Jackson vs Kofi Kingston, Smackdown 4/15
This was only a couple minutes long, but it's worth re-iterating that Kofi is the absolute worst guy in the WWE. Zeke is a beast and we're supposed to buy Kofi as a threat with offence like THAT? Atleast Zeke tossing him into his shitbag stablemates was amusing.
Rey Mysterio vs Drew McIntyre, Smackdown 4/15
I didn't think this was as good as their short match from a few weeks back, but this was still pretty good. Drew has the best facial expressions in the WWE, and he sets up Rey's finish in more realistic ways than anyone...ever? His lariat from his knees was also boss.
This was a solid little match. They were trying to go for a Euro-style technical match, but instead did a bunch of rote indy roll-up sequences. The comedy was pretty fun though, with Colt chasing Zack around the ring and giving him nipple cripples.
Sami Callihan vs Yoshihito Sasaki, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 2
The opening exchange was fucking nasty and just what you want from this match. Both guys lay it the fuck in with their shots. Sasaki kills Sami with his lariats and Sami's "play possum them hit 'em with a backdrop driver" spot was grand. For a five minute match this brought it.
Sami Callihan vs Davey Richards, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
Kind of a dead average match. Not particularly bad but not really that exciting either. The finish was pretty weird with Sami KO'ing Davey after Davey controlled most of the match and no sold him moments before.
Big Van Walter vs Go Shiozaki, wXw 16 Carat Gold Night 3
I checked this out hoping it would be a no-nonsense slugfest, and it failed to deliver. While they did slug it in the later stages of the match, they spent so much time killing time with restholds and shit before it. And the big exchange where they both blow a gasket and go nuts with chops had probably the worst strikes of the whole match.
Ezekial Jackson vs Kofi Kingston, Smackdown 4/15
This was only a couple minutes long, but it's worth re-iterating that Kofi is the absolute worst guy in the WWE. Zeke is a beast and we're supposed to buy Kofi as a threat with offence like THAT? Atleast Zeke tossing him into his shitbag stablemates was amusing.
Rey Mysterio vs Drew McIntyre, Smackdown 4/15
I didn't think this was as good as their short match from a few weeks back, but this was still pretty good. Drew has the best facial expressions in the WWE, and he sets up Rey's finish in more realistic ways than anyone...ever? His lariat from his knees was also boss.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
No money and no job means I watch a lot of wrestling
Masato Tanaka vs Fujita Hayato, Zero-ONE 2/17
Good match not without its flaws. They worked the vet vs young lion story well and it was fairly stiff. Unfortunatly they wasted too much time on pointless armwork which was quickly forgotten about, and there were one or two shitty transitions like Tanaka's suplex no-sell. I didn't buy Hayato getting the upset, but he had Tanaka in trouble and got some token nearfalls, and he put up a good fight, so he came out looking pretty legit.
Daisuke Sekimoto vs KAMIKAZE, Zero-ONE 2/17
This wasn't terrible but wasn't really good either. Most of it was pretty dull, though KAMIKAZE's unique style mixed it a bit from Sekimoto's usual offering, but then it also went about 5 kickouts too many and even the crowd in attendence didn't give a shit.
Shinjiro Ohtani vs Hikaru Sato, Zero-ONE 2/17
Boring match. Ohtani is past it, which makes me sad, and Sato brought nothing outside one or two nifty submission counters.
Prince Devitt vs Taka Michinoku, NJ 2/20
I wanted to like this for Taka, but I'd be lying if I said this was above average. Taka can still go, and he did work hard and brought a fair bit to the table, but good lord, Devitt is just sooooo vanilla and bland. He lacks any bite and isn't engaging in any way at all. If he was in the US he'd just be abother generic indy workrate drone.
Good match not without its flaws. They worked the vet vs young lion story well and it was fairly stiff. Unfortunatly they wasted too much time on pointless armwork which was quickly forgotten about, and there were one or two shitty transitions like Tanaka's suplex no-sell. I didn't buy Hayato getting the upset, but he had Tanaka in trouble and got some token nearfalls, and he put up a good fight, so he came out looking pretty legit.
Daisuke Sekimoto vs KAMIKAZE, Zero-ONE 2/17
This wasn't terrible but wasn't really good either. Most of it was pretty dull, though KAMIKAZE's unique style mixed it a bit from Sekimoto's usual offering, but then it also went about 5 kickouts too many and even the crowd in attendence didn't give a shit.
Shinjiro Ohtani vs Hikaru Sato, Zero-ONE 2/17
Boring match. Ohtani is past it, which makes me sad, and Sato brought nothing outside one or two nifty submission counters.
Prince Devitt vs Taka Michinoku, NJ 2/20
I wanted to like this for Taka, but I'd be lying if I said this was above average. Taka can still go, and he did work hard and brought a fair bit to the table, but good lord, Devitt is just sooooo vanilla and bland. He lacks any bite and isn't engaging in any way at all. If he was in the US he'd just be abother generic indy workrate drone.
Monday, 11 April 2011
ROH Wrestlemania Doubleshot
El Generico vs Michael Elgin, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
This wasn’t as good as their first match, due it being an opener and having a screwy finish, but was still good in similar ways, without being a repeat of it. It wasn’t as stiff or spectacular, but there was more heat and they played off of some of the spots from the first match nicely. Good stuff.
The Briscoes vs Adam Cole/Kyle O’Riley, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
This was really fucking good and easily the best match Cole and O’Riley have been in to date. The Briscoes were in the process of turning heel, so this was all about the established vets bullying and beating the shit out of two youngsters and giving them hope spots. The Briscoes were great assholes, just treating their opponents like trash and running through them mercilessly, but also making them look good. By the end of the match, the crowd were fully behind Cole and O’Riley, and hating the Briscoes, which is exactly what they were going for and then some.
The Kings Of Wrestling vs Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
Holy shit was this boring. Easily the weakest of their three matches, and the other two were overated to hell. Pretty much nothing happened for the first 20 minutes, with Shelton Benjamin being maybe the most uninteresting FIP around, before the predictable finishing run where they were just going through all their trademark spots. Not good.
Eddie Edwards vs Christopher Daniels, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
This wasn’t that bad but was still pretty mediocre. Kind of a typical modern ROH main event – excessively long with not much quality content to justify it. It looked like it may have started to become a good match after 15 minutes when Edwards got put through a table, so obviously Daniels followed up with… a chinlock. That kind of says all that needs to be said about how dry this was.
Colt Cabana vs Dave Taylor, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
Decent match though way too short for my liking. The strangle-hold trading was nice, but I would have liked to have seen more grappling. Taylor’s uppercuts were beast though.
Christopher Daniels vs Michael Elgin, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
This was good if not anything special. Daniels continues to be bland as hell, but was more tolerable here than in the Edwards match as he wasn’t on offence for long periods. Elgin continues to be a beast, here he busted out more high-flying stuff which was cool for a guy his size, dude looked like a rocket with the way he launched himself around, and his corner-hung boston crab was ten flavours of awesome.
The Briscoes vs The All Night Express, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
This wasn’t as good as it is being hyped as, but was still pretty awesome regardless thanks to the heel Briscoes. Again, the Briscoes were just total assholes destroying their opponents, but also making them look like MEN in the process. Titus and Jay both bled a fucking gallon, and there were sick big bumps and spots, the nastiest being Mark getting dropped face-first on the ring post. The final showdown between Jay and Titus, with Jay spitting his own blood in Titus’s face, was fucking epic, and Jay’s post-match shit-talking was also glorious.
Best Of 2011
This wasn’t as good as their first match, due it being an opener and having a screwy finish, but was still good in similar ways, without being a repeat of it. It wasn’t as stiff or spectacular, but there was more heat and they played off of some of the spots from the first match nicely. Good stuff.
The Briscoes vs Adam Cole/Kyle O’Riley, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
This was really fucking good and easily the best match Cole and O’Riley have been in to date. The Briscoes were in the process of turning heel, so this was all about the established vets bullying and beating the shit out of two youngsters and giving them hope spots. The Briscoes were great assholes, just treating their opponents like trash and running through them mercilessly, but also making them look good. By the end of the match, the crowd were fully behind Cole and O’Riley, and hating the Briscoes, which is exactly what they were going for and then some.
The Kings Of Wrestling vs Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
Holy shit was this boring. Easily the weakest of their three matches, and the other two were overated to hell. Pretty much nothing happened for the first 20 minutes, with Shelton Benjamin being maybe the most uninteresting FIP around, before the predictable finishing run where they were just going through all their trademark spots. Not good.
Eddie Edwards vs Christopher Daniels, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 1”
This wasn’t that bad but was still pretty mediocre. Kind of a typical modern ROH main event – excessively long with not much quality content to justify it. It looked like it may have started to become a good match after 15 minutes when Edwards got put through a table, so obviously Daniels followed up with… a chinlock. That kind of says all that needs to be said about how dry this was.
Colt Cabana vs Dave Taylor, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
Decent match though way too short for my liking. The strangle-hold trading was nice, but I would have liked to have seen more grappling. Taylor’s uppercuts were beast though.
Christopher Daniels vs Michael Elgin, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
This was good if not anything special. Daniels continues to be bland as hell, but was more tolerable here than in the Edwards match as he wasn’t on offence for long periods. Elgin continues to be a beast, here he busted out more high-flying stuff which was cool for a guy his size, dude looked like a rocket with the way he launched himself around, and his corner-hung boston crab was ten flavours of awesome.
The Briscoes vs The All Night Express, ROH “Honor Takes Center Stage: Night 2”
This wasn’t as good as it is being hyped as, but was still pretty awesome regardless thanks to the heel Briscoes. Again, the Briscoes were just total assholes destroying their opponents, but also making them look like MEN in the process. Titus and Jay both bled a fucking gallon, and there were sick big bumps and spots, the nastiest being Mark getting dropped face-first on the ring post. The final showdown between Jay and Titus, with Jay spitting his own blood in Titus’s face, was fucking epic, and Jay’s post-match shit-talking was also glorious.
Best Of 2011
Big Japan 2/12
Takashi Sasaki vs Kankuro Hoshino (Ladders & Chairs Match)
This started off pretty damn badly but got good by the end. T. Sasaki has gotten pretty good at working these ace vs lower ranked guys matches where he gives his opponents a lot and lets you buy into them getting the upset over him. The stipulation and gimmicks were pretty lame, but Hoshino is a scrappy underdog whose sentons on various plunder looked nasty, and he bled a bucketload. Had the start been better and the gimmick not awkward this could have been something.
Abdullah Kobayashi vs Masashi Takeda (Light-tubes Deathmatch)
This was one of the most bizarre matches I've seen maybe ever. It was a deathmatch, but with a strong emphasis on lots of shoot-style elements. Whilest I give them marks for trying something new and out-of-the-box, they might be the two most conflicting styles in pro wrestling. These sorts of blood'n'gore, tonnes of tubes used deathmatches push the suspension of disbelief enough on their own, but shoot-style requires the most realistic approach possible. The execution of the idea wasn't bad (Takeda's shoot punches looked great), it's the idea itself that was just a mess. A guy no-selling a german suplex onto a stack of tubes, then getting caught in a flash cross armbreaker just doesn't cut it.
Daisuke Sekimoto/Yuji Okabayashi/Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Yoshihito Sasaki/Shinya Ishikawa/Masashi Otani
This was alright but one of the weaker Strong BJ tags of late. Otani is a rookie who made his debut the week before, so he was spotlighted in trying to earn his stripes. Unfortunately, he is still pretty green and easily the weakest of the Strong BJ crew, but he atleast brought the EFFORT which was enough for the crowd to get behind him. The main problem was that the extended beatdown on him was boring as shit. Yoshihito was pretty good here, constantly berating and smacking Otani about in order to fire him up, and he was great off the hot tag. He is still a visious bastard and it looked like they were going for a hot finishing run, but then they lost steam and went on for another 5 minutes without ever getting the heat or momentum back. Ishikawa was also great and totally brought it to Sekimoto, to the point where you wish he was the one being spotlighted in Otani's role, but instead he was only a backseat character.
This started off pretty damn badly but got good by the end. T. Sasaki has gotten pretty good at working these ace vs lower ranked guys matches where he gives his opponents a lot and lets you buy into them getting the upset over him. The stipulation and gimmicks were pretty lame, but Hoshino is a scrappy underdog whose sentons on various plunder looked nasty, and he bled a bucketload. Had the start been better and the gimmick not awkward this could have been something.
Abdullah Kobayashi vs Masashi Takeda (Light-tubes Deathmatch)
This was one of the most bizarre matches I've seen maybe ever. It was a deathmatch, but with a strong emphasis on lots of shoot-style elements. Whilest I give them marks for trying something new and out-of-the-box, they might be the two most conflicting styles in pro wrestling. These sorts of blood'n'gore, tonnes of tubes used deathmatches push the suspension of disbelief enough on their own, but shoot-style requires the most realistic approach possible. The execution of the idea wasn't bad (Takeda's shoot punches looked great), it's the idea itself that was just a mess. A guy no-selling a german suplex onto a stack of tubes, then getting caught in a flash cross armbreaker just doesn't cut it.
Daisuke Sekimoto/Yuji Okabayashi/Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Yoshihito Sasaki/Shinya Ishikawa/Masashi Otani
This was alright but one of the weaker Strong BJ tags of late. Otani is a rookie who made his debut the week before, so he was spotlighted in trying to earn his stripes. Unfortunately, he is still pretty green and easily the weakest of the Strong BJ crew, but he atleast brought the EFFORT which was enough for the crowd to get behind him. The main problem was that the extended beatdown on him was boring as shit. Yoshihito was pretty good here, constantly berating and smacking Otani about in order to fire him up, and he was great off the hot tag. He is still a visious bastard and it looked like they were going for a hot finishing run, but then they lost steam and went on for another 5 minutes without ever getting the heat or momentum back. Ishikawa was also great and totally brought it to Sekimoto, to the point where you wish he was the one being spotlighted in Otani's role, but instead he was only a backseat character.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Continuous random indy viewings
Trevor Murdock vs Derek Stone, Metro Pro 1/8 (Last Man Standing)
Fun WWE-style hardcore match. There were some goofy props used, and Stone didn’t bring much, but Murdock was once again tremendous. He’s a heck of a brawler, and did a really sick bladejob as well working the rib injury angle well. WHY is no one bigger signing him?
Eddie Edwards vs Kenny King, ROH “World’s Greatest”
Holy hell are Edwards’s chops insane. Maybe the stiffest in all wrestling. His slingshot double stomp is also a great spot. King is essentially a superior Shelton Benjamin (in that he doesn’t do much outside flashy “athletic” spots) and there were a lot of tired indy wrestling clichés, but I could watch Edwards chop the shit out of fools all day, and this had plenty of it. Solid match.
Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs The Colony, Chikara “Creatures From The Tar Swamp” (2/3 Falls)
First fall was pretty cool with Quack carrying one of the Ants through some shockingly good matwork. The rest of the match was your standard workrate spotfest that wasn’t particularly interesting. Fire Ant is actually awful, everything he does looks like it either visibly misses by a mile, or when it does connect wouldn’t even hurt a child with MS. But still, the first fall was good atleast.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Eddie Kingston, Chikara “Creatures From The Tar Swamp”
This was kind of a mixed bag of a match. On the one hand Kingston was really tremendous and put on a hell of a performance. He throws some stiff shots and talks trash, but really it’s his selling and charisma that makes him so damn compelling to watch at times. He really is one of the best babyfaces going. And even though this went much longer than it should have done, they did a good job of making it feel like along, grueling contest, and there were some pretty good exchanges throughout. But shit, all of the bullshit with the constant interference and the heel ref really killed it too much, and this was a pretty weak effort from Claudio, so it leaves you feeling unsatisfied despite Kingston’s best efforts.
Fun WWE-style hardcore match. There were some goofy props used, and Stone didn’t bring much, but Murdock was once again tremendous. He’s a heck of a brawler, and did a really sick bladejob as well working the rib injury angle well. WHY is no one bigger signing him?
Eddie Edwards vs Kenny King, ROH “World’s Greatest”
Holy hell are Edwards’s chops insane. Maybe the stiffest in all wrestling. His slingshot double stomp is also a great spot. King is essentially a superior Shelton Benjamin (in that he doesn’t do much outside flashy “athletic” spots) and there were a lot of tired indy wrestling clichés, but I could watch Edwards chop the shit out of fools all day, and this had plenty of it. Solid match.
Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs The Colony, Chikara “Creatures From The Tar Swamp” (2/3 Falls)
First fall was pretty cool with Quack carrying one of the Ants through some shockingly good matwork. The rest of the match was your standard workrate spotfest that wasn’t particularly interesting. Fire Ant is actually awful, everything he does looks like it either visibly misses by a mile, or when it does connect wouldn’t even hurt a child with MS. But still, the first fall was good atleast.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Eddie Kingston, Chikara “Creatures From The Tar Swamp”
This was kind of a mixed bag of a match. On the one hand Kingston was really tremendous and put on a hell of a performance. He throws some stiff shots and talks trash, but really it’s his selling and charisma that makes him so damn compelling to watch at times. He really is one of the best babyfaces going. And even though this went much longer than it should have done, they did a good job of making it feel like along, grueling contest, and there were some pretty good exchanges throughout. But shit, all of the bullshit with the constant interference and the heel ref really killed it too much, and this was a pretty weak effort from Claudio, so it leaves you feeling unsatisfied despite Kingston’s best efforts.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
PWG Kurt Russellreunion 2: The Reunioning
Low Ki vs Davey Richards
What are the odds of two good Davey Richards matches in such close proximity? This was all about Ki returning to the indys and reminding everyone who the fuck he is, and showing the current top dog who's boss. As much as he sucks, Davey has never been afraid to work stiff, so the exchanges were as hard-hitting as you'd want them to be, and Ki really beat the shit out of Davey at points. Davey's lengthy control section was pretty dull and chinlock-y, but Ki's sold it well. And the finish looked like it collapsed Davey's ribcage.
Legends Wrestle-Royale
This was mostly just a fun spectacle most of the way, but towards the end became an actively good match. Jimmy Hart was a tonne of fun, and Chavo Guerrero was also awesome. Funk and Douglas had some really fun exchanges that brought back memories, and the final showdown with Piper was epic. Crazy Terry Funk rambling on the mic, bleeding and punching people in the face is about as pro wrestling as it gets.
Chris Hero vs Kevin Steen
Pretty fun stiff brawl. Both guys laid it in with the shots, took some nasty bumps and brawled all over the arena through the crowd. Steen, an overweight fat guy with bad knees, hitting a splash off a lighting rig was totally nuts. The final minutes were admittedly pretty bad and full of bullshit no-selling, but the rest of was good enough to overcome it.
The Young Bucks vs RockNES Monsters vs The Fightin' Taylor Boys vs The Cutlers
This is just the sort of match that suits the Bucks. A big spotfest where everyone comes in, hits some crazy shit, then ducks out. All of the Bucks's fancy highspots worked well here, and they were pretty fun heels and really came off as a pair of douchebags. Plenty of fun stuff through the match. Cage's power spots are great and Goodtime's stuff always looks terrific. Yuma, Ryan Taylor and the Cutlers all kinda suck, so this wasn't as good as the other big matches on the show, but it was still a bunch of fun, and the finish was totally nuts. Also, Steen nearly kills Yuma post-match!
Claudio Castagnoli vs El Generico
This was also really good mostly thanks to the contrast in styles of both guys. Classic flier vs strength kind of match. Claudio's strength spots are all pretty spectacular and Generico bumps bigtime for them. Generico could have probably sold the legwork a bit better, but it paid off nicely with the great finish. Crowd was pretty burned out at this point though, so it didn't feel as epic as it could have been.
Best Of 2011
What are the odds of two good Davey Richards matches in such close proximity? This was all about Ki returning to the indys and reminding everyone who the fuck he is, and showing the current top dog who's boss. As much as he sucks, Davey has never been afraid to work stiff, so the exchanges were as hard-hitting as you'd want them to be, and Ki really beat the shit out of Davey at points. Davey's lengthy control section was pretty dull and chinlock-y, but Ki's sold it well. And the finish looked like it collapsed Davey's ribcage.
Legends Wrestle-Royale
This was mostly just a fun spectacle most of the way, but towards the end became an actively good match. Jimmy Hart was a tonne of fun, and Chavo Guerrero was also awesome. Funk and Douglas had some really fun exchanges that brought back memories, and the final showdown with Piper was epic. Crazy Terry Funk rambling on the mic, bleeding and punching people in the face is about as pro wrestling as it gets.
Chris Hero vs Kevin Steen
Pretty fun stiff brawl. Both guys laid it in with the shots, took some nasty bumps and brawled all over the arena through the crowd. Steen, an overweight fat guy with bad knees, hitting a splash off a lighting rig was totally nuts. The final minutes were admittedly pretty bad and full of bullshit no-selling, but the rest of was good enough to overcome it.
The Young Bucks vs RockNES Monsters vs The Fightin' Taylor Boys vs The Cutlers
This is just the sort of match that suits the Bucks. A big spotfest where everyone comes in, hits some crazy shit, then ducks out. All of the Bucks's fancy highspots worked well here, and they were pretty fun heels and really came off as a pair of douchebags. Plenty of fun stuff through the match. Cage's power spots are great and Goodtime's stuff always looks terrific. Yuma, Ryan Taylor and the Cutlers all kinda suck, so this wasn't as good as the other big matches on the show, but it was still a bunch of fun, and the finish was totally nuts. Also, Steen nearly kills Yuma post-match!
Claudio Castagnoli vs El Generico
This was also really good mostly thanks to the contrast in styles of both guys. Classic flier vs strength kind of match. Claudio's strength spots are all pretty spectacular and Generico bumps bigtime for them. Generico could have probably sold the legwork a bit better, but it paid off nicely with the great finish. Crowd was pretty burned out at this point though, so it didn't feel as epic as it could have been.
Best Of 2011
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Entertainmentmania 27
Edge vs Alberto Del Rio
This was surprisingly decent thanks to Del Rio really giving it his all. All of the arm-work was good, he took his trademark crazy Hamrick-style bump to the outside, and most of the big spots in the match were well placed. Edge still sucks though, and in 2011 you can't get away with a guy with an injured arm surviving a jujigatame for like a whole minute like Edge did. It's just not believable.
Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes
Pretty awesome match and it was nice to see Rey get a decent length match at Wrestlemania for a change. Rhodes was super-aggressive and had some sick counters to some of Rey's stuff. Loved the way they brought the story with the mask and the knee-brace into play, and every shot to the face felt like a believable match ender because of it. Rey's diving headbutts with the mask were rad.
The Corre vs The Big Show/Kane/Santino Marrella/Kofi Kingston
Why was this even on the show? The entrances lasted longer than the match itself.
CM Punk vs Randy Orton
This was a pretty good one-man-show from Punk. His facial expressions and mocking Orton were great, and all of his legwork was neat and used smartly as a way to cut-off Orton and work his way back into the match. His Warriors Way-style kneedrop and kick out of the RKO were also pretty cool. Orton's selling could have been a little better, but I dug him fighting out of a hold with headbutts, and he was fine in his role. The legwork paying off with Orton not being able to do the punt was also clever.
Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole
I'd be kidding myself if I said this was the match it should have been, but I did enjoy some of it. Cole's outfit and whole persona is just outstanding, Lawler coming out in classic Memphis gear was awesome and Swagger was real good in his role. The problem with this was that Cole was on offence for SO LONG. He should have been on top of Lawler for like a minute or two at best, and it got to the point where the crowd were just waiting for the Stunner instead of caring about the match. Also no Piledriver was dissapointing. And the Dusty finish was the Dusty finish.
The Undertaker vs HHH (No Holds Barred)
Opening minutes of this were actually shockingly good. Undertaker getting outmatched at throwing fists by HHH set the tone well, and all the brawling on the outside was real good. HHH's bump off the table was fucking nuts. It pretty much bombed when they went back into the ring though and turned into the same repetitive boring finisher kick-out crap we've seen a billion times over and then some. Oustide of the HHH Tombstone (which I admit was well done), I don't see how anyone could buy into anything they did ending the match, and they seemed to spend half the time laying around doing nothing. And that was the worst Gogoplatza I've ever seen and HHH once again survived way too long for it to believable.
John Morrison/Trish Stratus/Snooki vs Dolph Ziggler/LayCool
Short if inoffensive tag. Morrison's crazy spot and Snooki's shocking athletisism made it more of a match than the 8-man tag.
The Miz vs John Cena
Bad match for a number of reasons. Cena seemed almost like he was phoning it in with how little he did outside his by-the-numbers routine he does every Monday night. The crowd was dead because *everyone* was just waiting for Rock to do whatever he was going to do, which meant everything before his appearence was just obvious filler. The whole over-booking BS with the re-start and Rock was just bullshit, and the whole match just made Cena and Miz look bad by comparing them to the Rock. Just because Rock is a bigger star than them, doesn't mean you should draw attention to it.
Best Of 2011
This was surprisingly decent thanks to Del Rio really giving it his all. All of the arm-work was good, he took his trademark crazy Hamrick-style bump to the outside, and most of the big spots in the match were well placed. Edge still sucks though, and in 2011 you can't get away with a guy with an injured arm surviving a jujigatame for like a whole minute like Edge did. It's just not believable.
Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes
Pretty awesome match and it was nice to see Rey get a decent length match at Wrestlemania for a change. Rhodes was super-aggressive and had some sick counters to some of Rey's stuff. Loved the way they brought the story with the mask and the knee-brace into play, and every shot to the face felt like a believable match ender because of it. Rey's diving headbutts with the mask were rad.
The Corre vs The Big Show/Kane/Santino Marrella/Kofi Kingston
Why was this even on the show? The entrances lasted longer than the match itself.
CM Punk vs Randy Orton
This was a pretty good one-man-show from Punk. His facial expressions and mocking Orton were great, and all of his legwork was neat and used smartly as a way to cut-off Orton and work his way back into the match. His Warriors Way-style kneedrop and kick out of the RKO were also pretty cool. Orton's selling could have been a little better, but I dug him fighting out of a hold with headbutts, and he was fine in his role. The legwork paying off with Orton not being able to do the punt was also clever.
Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole
I'd be kidding myself if I said this was the match it should have been, but I did enjoy some of it. Cole's outfit and whole persona is just outstanding, Lawler coming out in classic Memphis gear was awesome and Swagger was real good in his role. The problem with this was that Cole was on offence for SO LONG. He should have been on top of Lawler for like a minute or two at best, and it got to the point where the crowd were just waiting for the Stunner instead of caring about the match. Also no Piledriver was dissapointing. And the Dusty finish was the Dusty finish.
The Undertaker vs HHH (No Holds Barred)
Opening minutes of this were actually shockingly good. Undertaker getting outmatched at throwing fists by HHH set the tone well, and all the brawling on the outside was real good. HHH's bump off the table was fucking nuts. It pretty much bombed when they went back into the ring though and turned into the same repetitive boring finisher kick-out crap we've seen a billion times over and then some. Oustide of the HHH Tombstone (which I admit was well done), I don't see how anyone could buy into anything they did ending the match, and they seemed to spend half the time laying around doing nothing. And that was the worst Gogoplatza I've ever seen and HHH once again survived way too long for it to believable.
John Morrison/Trish Stratus/Snooki vs Dolph Ziggler/LayCool
Short if inoffensive tag. Morrison's crazy spot and Snooki's shocking athletisism made it more of a match than the 8-man tag.
The Miz vs John Cena
Bad match for a number of reasons. Cena seemed almost like he was phoning it in with how little he did outside his by-the-numbers routine he does every Monday night. The crowd was dead because *everyone* was just waiting for Rock to do whatever he was going to do, which meant everything before his appearence was just obvious filler. The whole over-booking BS with the re-start and Rock was just bullshit, and the whole match just made Cena and Miz look bad by comparing them to the Rock. Just because Rock is a bigger star than them, doesn't mean you should draw attention to it.
Best Of 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
NOAH 3/21
Atsushi Aoki vs Bobby Fish
Solid if uneventful low-card match. Fish seemed to be working hurt as he was covered in bandages. Aoki attacks his injuries like a dick and Fish gets somewhat fired up and responds with some hard shots. And that was that.
Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Jun Akiyama/Naomichi Marufuji
OK match. Enjoyed Akiyama working Nakajima over but the beating wasn't big enough. Marufuji was surisingly not awful and didn't do anything too stupid, he actually threw some decent looking strikes instead of doing his usual superfluous bullshit, and he took a wicked bump off a Sasaki lariat. Nakajima's kicks are still brutal but his exchanges with Marufuji were standard juniors dryness. Still despite this it was pretty forgettable and they never really kept the momentum going.
Takeshi Morishima vs Yoshihiro Takayama
Another solid but ultimately forgettable match. Pretty tame by these guys' standards, not nearly enough ass-kicking. Interesting finish with Takayama choking Morishima out, though.
Takashi Sugiura vs Trevor Murdock
Holy hell Murdock was great in this. The guy is a heavy, heavy hitter and is a great heel. Everything he did was really stiff, including his great looking punches to the face, and he busted out lots of other swank offence. Unfortunately the Southern schtick doesn't go over in NOAH, which is a shame because him cheapshotting Sugs at the bell, using a chain and and using low-blows are all great stuff that gets no reaction. Sugiura dished out some hellacious elbows in the corner, but was otherwise pretty medoiocre (the guy just isnt good at lengthy singles matches), and Murdock having less than 0.000001% chance of winning really took any drama out of the match, which is a shame considering how great Murdock was. Why oh why does he not have a full time gig somewhere? WHY.
Solid if uneventful low-card match. Fish seemed to be working hurt as he was covered in bandages. Aoki attacks his injuries like a dick and Fish gets somewhat fired up and responds with some hard shots. And that was that.
Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Jun Akiyama/Naomichi Marufuji
OK match. Enjoyed Akiyama working Nakajima over but the beating wasn't big enough. Marufuji was surisingly not awful and didn't do anything too stupid, he actually threw some decent looking strikes instead of doing his usual superfluous bullshit, and he took a wicked bump off a Sasaki lariat. Nakajima's kicks are still brutal but his exchanges with Marufuji were standard juniors dryness. Still despite this it was pretty forgettable and they never really kept the momentum going.
Takeshi Morishima vs Yoshihiro Takayama
Another solid but ultimately forgettable match. Pretty tame by these guys' standards, not nearly enough ass-kicking. Interesting finish with Takayama choking Morishima out, though.
Takashi Sugiura vs Trevor Murdock
Holy hell Murdock was great in this. The guy is a heavy, heavy hitter and is a great heel. Everything he did was really stiff, including his great looking punches to the face, and he busted out lots of other swank offence. Unfortunately the Southern schtick doesn't go over in NOAH, which is a shame because him cheapshotting Sugs at the bell, using a chain and and using low-blows are all great stuff that gets no reaction. Sugiura dished out some hellacious elbows in the corner, but was otherwise pretty medoiocre (the guy just isnt good at lengthy singles matches), and Murdock having less than 0.000001% chance of winning really took any drama out of the match, which is a shame considering how great Murdock was. Why oh why does he not have a full time gig somewhere? WHY.
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