Booyah! 2010 16 Carat Gold Tournament is a wrap! Let's jump in to the matches for Day 3, Disc # 3 'cause this entry is gonna be a doozy.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Munenori Sawa: Light Heavyweight strap on the line. A bit of a letdown to get started with. I suppose they were going for a shoot style-ish match but, it came across as winging it. It was fun but, not particularly memorable. Diez minutos.

Matt Jackson vs Nick Jackson - Battle of the Bucks: I have never heard of this happening elsewhere but, second to last match on the final night seems like a fine place to try it out! No worries though. Its 16 minutes of crazy Jackson action...heh you like what I did there? I'm a goofy ass, sorry. This is a great match and one of the best of all 3 nights. The reason it was great was because they didn't have to worry about tournament booking. They could essentially do a PWG match or more fairly a Young Bucks match. Its a quarter hour of moves and counter moves and totally delivers when it needs to.

Chris Hero vs Big Van Walter - Tournament Final: 21 minutes and the match of the weekend. It seems like they saved up all weekend (?) to have a match that told a story. Or at least, a story I could get behind. Hero is looking his best ever, he's got his KO Kid persona in full swing but, Walter is this young, tank who's rolling over his opponents. Hero is the first to show weakness as he injured his hand/arm from hitting Walter in the head. Walter composes himself and methodically clobbers Hero. We're rooting for the golden locked grappler now. It was all fighting spirit chops but, now he's got a Austrian gorilla pummeling him. Of course, it ebbs and flows but, does so in a believable and logical manner. That cannot be said for many of the shows matches...and that's OK. But this is the Finals so, we better see something smart and genuinely dramatic. And we do! It's a

near classic match to me. Maybe like ****1/4+ or ****1/2. It was different and not one of those move heavy, oh-shit type of matches. It was closer to something Tenryu vs Jumbo so it's weird trying to measure it against the Bucks match that happened previously. Great finish, great post match...what a final match! Well done wXw!!

So now, I want to do a recap or summary since all of my other blog posts are all over the place. This match list is from Highspots.

DAY ONE - FIRST ROUND MATCHES

Ares vs. Matt Jackson

Munenori Sawa vs. Paul Tracey

*Martin Stone vs. Yuji Okabayashi- Recommended!

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Johnny Kidd

KAGETORA vs. Nick Jackson vs Tommy End

*Erick Stevens vs. Adam Polak - Recommended!

*The Switchblade Conspiracy vs. Up In Smoke -Highly recommended!!

*Big Van Walter vs. Daisuke Sekimoto - Highly recommended!!

Chris Hero vs. Bad Bones

DAY TWO

Quarter Final Match: Big Van Walter vs. Munenori Sawa

*Quarter Final Match: KAGETORA vs. Erick Stevens - Recommended!

*The Young Bucks vs. Up In Smoke vs. The Crimson City Saga - Recommended!

*Winner faces Switchblade Conspiracy - Highly recommended!!

Paul Tracey vs. Johnny Kidd

*Strong BJ vs. Oberhausen Terror Corps - Highly recommended to Great!!!

*Quarter Final Match: Ares vs. Claudio Castagnoli - Recommended!

*Quarter Final Match: Chris Hero vs. Martin Stone - Great!!!

WXW World Heavyweight Title Match - Falls Count Anywhere: Steve Douglas © vs. Absolute Andy - ~Avoid~

(As a rule, the tag matches kick ass. They delivered every outing. Going through this I realized I left off two reviews from Day #2

The Young Bucks vs. Up In Smoke vs. The Crimson City Saga. Crimson City is ZSJ and Tommy End. The Bucks win and face Switchblade Conspiracy in a 10 minute Highly recommended match.)

DAY THREE

*Semi-Final Match: Big Van Walter w/Terry Frazier vs. Erick Stevens - Highly Recommended!!

Oberhausen Terror Corps vs. Up In Smoke

Semi-Final Match: Ares vs. Chris Hero

Johnny Kidd vs. Terry Frazier

Claudio Castagnoli vs. KAGETORA vs. Paul Tracey vs. Tommy End

*WXW World Tag Team Title Match: The Switchblade Conspiracy © vs. Strong BJ - Great!!!

Zack Sabre, Jr. © vs. Munenori Sawa

*Nick Jackson vs. Matt Jackson- Great!!!

*2010 Finals Match: Chris Hero vs. Big Van Walter w/Terry Frazier - Classic!!!!

Overall, its a great DVD set. Its not a purposeful "cream your jeans PWG BOLA" stuff circa now. Its more like 2010 PWG. Its spaced out yet, it's Indy in terms of structure and pacing for the most part. The highlighted matches are obviously better and each night is booked with longevity and endurance in mind. I like this much better.

Impressions:

Good: Erick Stevens, KAGETORA, Young Bucks and the tag matches in general, and Hero vs Stone & Walter.

Bad: Tommy End, Ares, doing traditional British matches in this setting, the camera angles and black Glad bag canvas take some getting used to.

Ugly: Absolute Andy vs Steven Douglas

Meh: Claudio, Sawa

Um what else? These are DVD+R so if you're interested in buying from Highspots or wherever, triple check your DVD or computer. This might be downloaded on there too, I guess. This was a really international show and totally worth a purchase especially if there's a sale. It'd be a good weekend viewing...or 5 fucking months in my case Click the wXw tags to get back my older posts if you've not read those.

I've got the 2011 Tournament as well! So, that's on the horizon. In the meantime, I should have Masato Tanaka in the 2010's in a couple days. Fantasy booking moment: Tanaka vs Walter