The Wrestling Bucket

The Great Sasuke/Super Delfin/Gram Hamada/Jinsei Shinzaki/Tsubo Genjin vs Kaientai DX, K-Dojo 6/18

This was part of the Dick Togo retirement tour, and if nothing else it was cool seeing these guys go at it one last time. Obviously this couldn't touch the stuff they were doing in 1996, but it was never going to, so it was worked mostly as an exhibition with everyone getting to hit some of their trademarks and get their pops. Hanzo Nakajima (some dude in a Ninja gaiden-ish costume) replaced an injured Hayashi and was perfectly fine. Hamada hit a top rope rana, which was shocking for his age, but ultimately this was nothing more than a solid nostalgia match.

Go Shiozaki/Takashi Sugiura/Shuhei Taniguchi vs Yoshihiro Takayama/KENTA/Yoshinobu Kanemaru, NOAH 9/11

This was still a pretty awesome war. First brawl of this nature NOAH has done in several years and they should really do it more often. Everyone was really bringing it, even Kanemaru. Takayama brawls like a motherfucker with Go (hurling chairs at him, smashing him with the belt, etc), KENTA and Sugiura beat the living fuck out of each other and even the Taniguchi/Kanemaru end run was good. They could have sold the ass-kicking more, and it went a bit too long, but there was so much hate and so much payback I was willing to forgive. Takayama doing a full on "Come at me bro" pose while no selling an exhausted Go's chops was hilarious and their post-match brawling was great at hyping their title match.

Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose, FCW 9/18 (30 Minute Ironman)

I saw this getting a lot of praise and was sceptical because, shit, when was the last time Tyler Black was watchable? But it was actually a good match. Not great, but very good and I imagine one of the best things to happen in a FCW ring. The former ROH champ is still on the bland side, but his execution was much tighter and his chops and kicks all looked pretty stiff. The artist formerly known as Jon Moxley was pretty fantastic in this, he just beams with charisma and everything he does looks so natural. I loved his cocky dancing and taunting, and there was an amusing spot early where he was sea-sawing in the ropes as Rollins laid into him with kicks. They did the Rude/Steamboat story with Ambrose getting DQ'd with a lowblow then using the advantage to score 2 easy falls and keep Rollins in trouble. Rollins came back too early into the match for my liking, which took away a lot of the drama, but he actually sold a missed Pheonix Splash as a game-changing miss. The final minutes were suitably dramatic, and the overtime section started great with a big Ambrose flurry before a terribly Tyler Black-ish finish of bucklebombs and superkicks.