The Wrestling Bucket

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