Loss

Is your only reason for wanting that to see people get mad? Or is there some other reason?

That opening clothesline is in the running for GOAT bushwhacks in a wrestling match. It set the tone for a much better than expected match between an underachiever and a guy who keeps delivering, despite his best days seemingly being long gone. Omori's run of early offense was awesome and the best part of this. It did lose a little something when Doc took back control, even if the work was sound and Doc was cranking in the chinlock and using it to set up the backdrop driver. Like, technically, he was doing it well, but the thrill of the conquer was gone because he was above Omori in hierarchy, so him being dominant just wasn't as fun. Omori kept rolling through a lot of Doc's attempts to slow this down and take it to the match, which is probably both a way to cover for some sloppy sequences and create some real friction in the fight for Doc to lock anything in. I do wish his pin had been just slightly more built up, but the sudden nature of it also worked the way they did it. I'm glad I saw this. ***1/4

Ha, I started this one and it was so horrible that I actually just stopped it in its tracks. I can handle bad if it's at least telling of something, but this was two nothing wrestlers having a nothing match. Nothing wrestlers having a something match or something wrestlers having a nothing match I could handle.

This was supposed to be Jericho vs Test and was built up to be that until like the week before the show, when it was swapped out. He and Stacy Keibler missed a Raw because of a snowstorm, and they were punished by being taken off the show. But this match was thrown together at the very last minute, which is why it comes across as having no point.

Apparently, they are arguing because people were "fooled" that they have legit heat based on some recent Twitter arguments. Sigh ...

I'm so confused. I thought everyone was "fooled" according to Twitter and that the match isn't happening. If that's not the case, what exactly are Jericho and Chris Cruise arguing about?

Why did they stop doing UK-only PPVs, by the way?

The rasslin' approach would be to offer big cash bonuses with a life-sized check and trophy for the winning side. A suitable WWE-style compromise would be for the GMs to say the winning team "will have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season" and create mystery around what that means.

This was far better than I expected - not because the talent involved isn't awesome, but just because this wasn't given much time. But they certainly overdelivered with the 10-ish minutes they had. Emilio, Panther, and Wagner owned this, I thought. I am literally dozing off as I'm writing this, so I'm about to go to bed, but it's worth your time. ***1/2

The first televised meeting of Atlantis and Villano III after 3/17. There isn't really much for them to settle at this point, as they left it all in the ring one week earlier, so they wrestle some nice mat exchanges to start us off. It's the rest of the match that's a bit more spirited, particularly when Perro is in with Salvaje. This is also when Villano's turn was first teased, as he was hesistant to join in the beatdown on Perro. This was kind of a rebuilding match, but the match came together pretty well. ***1/4

Good sprint between these two that builds in a totally different from any of their other matches that I've seen. I keep expecting Taue to drop off, but I still like what I'm seeing. ***

If they have Kane for one more run, the 100% correct use of him is to feed him to Braun. These segments are not putting Kane over, they are putting Braun over in the long haul. Of course, Kane has been around way longer than any wrestler should probably ever be in one place -- imagine Superstar Graham, Bobby Duncum, or Spiros Arion headlining in 1996 WWF -- but time also moves slower than it used to.

Well, this was a hell of a debut match for a wrestler. Maybe the GOAT debut match in wrestling history. To be fair, a lot of that can be credited to the gimmick, and this much grappling, kickpads, and gloves is always going to win over my heart a little, especially when it's executed so well. But I really liked how this built to the big moments so well, especially Murahama's first real strike that knocked Hoshikawa loopy, along with Murahama's failed attempt at a German, which Hoshikawa quickly responded to in his only really strong moment of the match. More than that, this was terrific at getting over Murahama as a force without squashing Hoshikawa -- he won, but not in a way where he comes across as a booker's pet or anything like that. The match was still competitive, and he still had to fight and earn that victory. Murahama has pretty unquestionably had the best rookie year I've ever seen in pro wrestling, right out of the gate. ****

In fairness, the track record for wrestling companies that are "hot" when they are small, then try to expand isn't great. So maybe that's wise.

By popular, I meant trendy.

Another match that I thought came across much better pro-shot on the 1/28 TNN show, even though it is complete here. Both are probably worth watching as companions.

Same match as the 1/28 TNN match, but I do think being pro-shot helps this one a lot. Worth a rewatch.

This feud seems to have produced a lot of disappointing matches even while being fun as an idea. But this particular match rocked and is easily the best of their series by a pretty big margin. I think that's because it's unique. They close out the feud by letting Spike get lots of shots in, which in turn makes Awesome look even better than by dominating him because of all the kickouts after taking so much punishment. Spike also comes out looking better for going toe-to-toe with Awesome as much as he did. He used a chair as a big neutralizer here, which didn't bother me in the least because it's pretty much the only way this would hold up as a credible fight I think. And I think this resembles the best FMW matches in that it's not so much about the plunder as it is the cadence of the match - look past the weapons and you see a strong and psychologically sound performance from two guys where the live crowd really gets into the babyface comebacks because the work in the ring is set up to generate specific reactions. This was the final chapter of their series and I guess the best match of it as well. ***1/2 The post-match angle with RVD has genuine excitement because it looks like Van Dam is finally feuding with the world champ. I understand Heyman's mindset in not rushing RVD's big moment and agree that it wasn't a magic bullet, but it's a shame they were never able to deliver the obvious coronation.

Like Guido's match with Crazy two weeks earlier, this only got about 7 minutes, but wow, did they make the most of it. The commercial break after the intros and then again after a minute or so of action is more than a little frustrating, but at least we get to see a fully realized match that's far more violent than their usual fare. It's amazing how these guys were truly able to create something different almost every time out. Tajiri was mostly the showcased guy in this case, but Guido wrestled like a guy pissed off with something to prove. I thought this was pretty awesome and I liked the extra emphasis on hate. ***1/2

I have no clue who any of these guys are. My main takeaway was that maybe that bizarro tag from the previous week wasn't canned heat after all, because this was just faint noise, which between that and Chris Cruise announcing made it feel like a random episode of WCW Pro. Perfectly fine representation of the tag formula, but nothing special. Another testament to how effectively that formula can help matches along. Weird post-match angle I don't care about enough to recap. Skippable.

I'm suddenly wondering if Hack Myers was always awesome and it just somehow eluded me and just about everyone else because he looks pretty great here while this lasts. These two worked a sprint with Myers doing an amazing Northern Lights suplex and showing some really great fundamentals. I've liked Scoot, and he held his own, but he was pretty much along for the ride here. There's little I hate more in wrestling than someone getting a monster push coming in and destroying both guys having a match, and in this case, Dan Severn, gets to do that, cutting short what was developing into something really good.

This was a good showcase for Tony Kozina, who feels like a big fish in a small pond in this environment. He reminds me a bit of Neville in terms of his style, and probably needed to work with guys better than him to keep growing as a wrestler. Still, he looked excellent here. Disco Fury is an okay base, but there's a clear difference in talent level here, and that made the match a little uneven at times. Still, it's obvious Kozina is the star of this promotion. ***

Well, this was something I took a chance on and I'm glad I did. As Southern-fried as it gets, and a total throwback to 1980s rasslin'. This was a crowd that loved their hero (Mantell) and hated their villains (The Bronx Bombers, of which Vinny was one half), and this match is a masters class in pro wrestling psychology. It's easy to get wrapped up in the nostalgic feel and the hot crowd, but the action is pretty good too. Slow building, but violent. There's a pretty nasty looking kneelift from Vinny (who worked like a vet and I'm assuming has worked under other names) down the stretch, and he's also got a really nice piledriver. I feel confident saying this would have made the Mid South set -- it probably would have blended in during final ranking, but the match would have made the set pretty easily. ***1/2

This was given some time so I thought it might deliver, but it didn't, really. I think they used up all of their good ideas in their team names, which I will admit were awesome. There was nothing at all inspired or structured about this. They were just doing things to do things. Skippable in every way once you know their cool tag team names.