shoe

The main event. Hero vs Ciampa Ciampa comes out with his ribs taped. We start out with with Hero in control. Ciampa is selling internal injuries, and is awesome doing it. It's all a ruse and Ciampa attacks. That was a great way to set up a heat segment. Ciampa and a kid in the crowd are playing off each other well. We get a little back and forth that eventually sees Hero go over. This was a fun strike exchange battle. We get a post match angle to set up future stuff. 2 3/4* Final thoughts: 1.I loved the crowd. They were great. Plus on top of it they even looked like they could have been watching SMW or WCCW. They had a real Southern feel to them. 2. They seem to have a fun promotion. I will follow them so they sold me. 3. They seem to have some acts that get over huge live, that didn't translate on VOD. An example would be the Smash Bros. 4. Overall a real solid show that makes me want to see more of.

6 man Gauntlet match This has become a staple on a lot of Indy shows. Some things I took from the match is Tarik has a ton of heat. Josh Alexander was booked super strong here. He eliminated 4 opponents with the Spinning Tombstone. Everyone got a chance to shine. Bailey shined the brightest. He got over big, and hopefully going forward he's booked here more often. The finish felt flat with Tarik running away, but in the grand scheme of things if we get Alexander nailing him with a Spinning Tombstone in a singles match this worked. 3 1/2* Vanessa Kraven vs Courtney Rush This was a chair match. This was terrible, especially if you compare it to the females match earlier. DUD Gulak/Tarik vs Overdogs. This was an ok tag match. I was expecting more to be honest though. 1 3/4* More later on.

I started watching the Any Given Sunday show and I thought I'd share my thoughts. Brent Banks vs Matt Cross This started out really hot. Then we get some meandering brawling. Cross has a lot of fun offense. He takes a bump and looks like he dings his knee. Banks takes control and doesn't go after the knee at all. Banks work on top was the epitome of mediocre. He really brought the match down for me. 1 3/4* Candice LaRue vs Kimber Lee These gals worked their asses off. They did some nice mat work, mixed in some snug strikes. Did some dives. I was really impressed. 3 1/4* Goat Brigade vs Smash Brothers Crowd seems to love the Super Smash Brothers. The SSB are pretty charismatic. We get a long shine sequence.The Goat Brigade start a heat sequence that didn't last long. More SSB look good for a little longer. Now we get another heat section for the GB and it's pretty short. A lot of stuff is happening. This is a match that seemed like it got over huge live. I liked the match, but wasn't blown away by it. 2 1/2* Johnny Gargano vs Tyson Dux Some fun mat work to start. It has a real English flair to it. I love Dux nailing Gargano with a forearm on a dive to the outside. Spear through middle rope. Another fun dive by Gargano. Dux with a nice Belly to back suplex on the apron. Spinning DDT into the crowd. Sprinboard DDT by Gargano. Dux slows down Gargano. We see a strike exchange between the 2. Tyson Dux nails a 2nd rope lawn dart. Gargano wins with a roll up. A fun match that ends flat. 2 1/2* Going to take a break here.

Also on 4//29 we'll be getting Ishii vs Makabe. Also on the tour they are tagging up Naito and Honma. This is a team I thought could make a good tag team. So we'll see if I'm right.

It seems like your promotion is growing at a much better pace than Jerry Von what's his name. Would you say that's the case Steven?

According to the Observer the show drew 900 people.

The 1st quarter of the year is closing . So I thought I'd share my thoughts on who's in my top 5 for most outstanding wrestler of the year 4far. 1. AJ Styles 2. Kota Ibushi 3.Timothy Thatcher 4. Brock Lesnar 5.ACH Styles is our touring champion going around and having strong matches everywhere. He's had good matches with Naito,Tanahashi, Ibushi. In ROH he's had strong matches with Bobby Fish, ACH, the 6 man with the Young Bucks, and his match with Mark Briscoe was still good. He had a good tour of Europe. I thought the John Morrison match was good as well. I'm still waiting on a MOTYC from him. Ibushi has the Nakamura match which should be considered a MOTYC. He's had strong matches with Homma and Styles as well. I also enjoyed his NJ Cup match with Naito. Dylan had a match of his in DDT as a MOTYC. I didn't have it at that level. Having a MOTYC helps his case. Thatcher has been solid all year. He really broke out at Mania weekend and had the best weekend when it came to quality of matches. He has a lot of detractors so it will be hard pressed to finish top 5. Brock has 2 matches under his belt. Both of them MOTYC. Enough said. ACH has gotten a ton of opportunities and has done well. He's been showcased. Look at his matches with Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, the 6 man with Sydal and Alexander. He's had Moose best match. Sydal and ACH have had some fun as a team. Lets see what others have.

I love finding footage of one of my favorite wrestlers that I've never seen before. I've watched a lot of footage so finding something new to me is such a treat.

This is per the Observer and it looks kind of mediocre. Match 5 and 7 really need to deliver. I have confidence in match 2,4, and 9 The next New Japan PPV show will be May 3 from the Fukuoka International Center Arena. The A.J. Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada title match is being held back until July 5 at the Osaka Jo Hall show. 1) Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan & Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida 2) Tetsuya Naito & Sho Tanaka vs. Kota Ibushi & Yohei Komatsu 3) Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Cody Hall 4) Three way for IWGP jr. tag titles: Trent Baretta & Rocky Romero defend against Young Bucks and Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish 5) Kenny Omega defends IWGP jr. title against Alex Shelley 6) Michael Bennett & Matt Taven & Maria Kanellis vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Amber O'Neal 7) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba & Tomohiro Ishii 8) Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. A.J. Stles & Yujiro Takahashi 9) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto for IC title

Yep, you and Meltzer, the paragon of shitty match ratings. I love how this has become your go to when we disagree on a match.

Also the red hat fan was at the show. I knew he went to all the WWE shows, but does he go to all the ROH shows too?

I haven't seen the tv yet. I really find Elgin pretty blah. That flip leg drop from the top is the shits. Plus a lot of his matches, down to the layout seem so samey to me.

I rewatched the Nakamura 6 man and really short changed it. It was one heck of a match and I hope we get more of these types of matches going forward on the big shows.

I'm looking forward to arguing with Will. I have being right on my side.

The whole blood thing is weird. In the great tag match Kyle gets busted up hardway on the finish. On the Sabin match he started working the cut and then stopped doing it cold. If they were worried about the blood you'd think they would have had Fish work the match.

Obviously the WWE went with Jericho instead of Austin in the podcast role on Monday. The rumor is that Vince and co. weren't happy with the Chyna reference. I haven't heard Austin say anything about it. I listened to his Mania review and he seemed to have more critiques of the show than usual. Even in comparison to Fastlane and the Rumble . I thought his critiques were fair though. Some of them were Sting should have gone over, the interference in the match the allegiances weren't quite right , having a concert hurts the crowd , he had a few others. I was wondering if anyone had some takes on this.

So Austin, the hippest city in the Country, is so cool they know "hijacking" the show is lame shit that other cities do to seem hip. I really need to visit Austin. Johnny ATX is so your town .

In comparison to the talent that's out there he is.

I've compared Styles as a hybrid of Flair, Boc, and Bret.

I want to see Liger work ACH or Sydal. Liger looked real good against Lethal on Super Card, but Lethal is so not fun when he's working on top.

Here are some thoughts on the show. 1. Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho Tanaka & Tiger Mask vs. Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA), Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata Nakanishi is pretty useless here. He tries, buy just doesn't have it. TM looked pretty bad as well. Kinda felt like a nothing match. 1 3/4* 2. BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) & Cody Hall vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Tomoaki Honma Another group tag. I had been digging the Shibata/Honma stuff. I won';t get it here. I love Tonga mocking Honma early.We get a fun face shine. Tenzan gets cut off and goes FIP. This was pretty blah. The Bullet Club don't do that much interesting stuff. Kojima gets the hot tag and he's good in the role.Tama is athletic he really needs to take it to the next level. Kojima gets cut off . Honma gets in and is drilled by a Hall clothesline. We build to the finish. Honma wasn't put in the role to carry this and as a result we got a mediocre match. 2* 3. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title – The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) © vs. Roppongi Vice (Trent Baretta & Rocky Romero) This starts out pretty hot. The Bucks get frustrated and take a powder and start to leave. RPG follow suits to only eat Super Kicks. This ets up the heat beautifully. Baretta is FIP and he's real good in the role. They do some real fun near tag cut offs. Romero in with the hot tag. He does a very good job at it.Romero gets a chance as a FIP for abrief spell. We get a hot finish. This was good stuff. 3 1/2* 4. [/size]IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title – Kenny Omega © vs. Mascara Dorada Both guys need to have a good match here. Omega has been terrible so far as the "Cleaner" so lets see. Having the Jr's out there it kind of makes the match seem important. This was lightning fast right off the bat. So many hot moves it's too hard to list. The big spot was Omega cathcing Dorada on a dive and power bombing him on the apron. He follow up with some good back work including a drop kick to the back. I'm really loving Omega going after the back. Nasty Back breaker by Omega. Dorada's fire underneath is really good. This Omega I like. Dorada with a nice spinning DDT starts a comeback. That rana from inside out was sick by Dorada. I liked this a lot. Dorada provided the flash, and Omega provided the substance. It could have been cut by a minute or 2. Man if Omega can give me more of this that would be just too sweet. I want more matches between these 2. 4* 5. IWGP Tag Team Title – BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) © vs. Matt Taven & Michael Bennett Maria in full babyface mode is odd. Maria even gets the Okada zoom on her ass. She is looking pretty damn good.I love Maria as a character. Here she was used way too much. Match is feeling really flat here. This was bad. Anderson's dance was funny, but it was so dumb. This is straight out of the Godwins/Sunny stuff. This shit is tailor made for Taguchi or Captain New Japan. This did neither team any favors. 1 1/2* 6. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe So far this has been pretty fun. Ishii really feels like he has some pep in his step. He even nails Makabe with his chain. They're really amping up to their singles match next month. Naito is FIP for his team. Makabe and Ishii take center stage again. Nakamura and Goto go at with a lot of back and forth. Everyone pairs off leaving Goto and Nakamura alone. Goto finishes him off. When wins and losses mean something it makes building to something easier.This was a perfect match to have on this card to build to the next big show. I thought the physicality was really great here. Everyone worked really hard. I hope a strong 6 man becomes the norm for NJPW super shows. 4* 7. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano Ok I want a Shibata/Sakuraba match stat. What they were doing with one another I dug. Yano antics paid off for a while. It feels like coyote and roadrunner with him and Tanahashi. Man the finishing sequence was a lot of fun. 2 1/2* 8. Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada This should be the match to put this feud to sleep. Fale with the glasses reminds me of SMW's Killer Kyle. Okada does come across as a big star. These guys are exchanging blows to start. I loved the shoulder block spot. I'm digging that these guys want to hurt one another and am digging the big impact stuff. I spoke a little soon and now Fale goes to a nerve hold. Okada sells it big. Okada's hope spots are solid. Back to the nerve hold. Another awesome comeback attempt by Okada. Okada feels like a southern style babyface here. Another hope spot by Okada cut off. I'm really loving the story of this match. Fale's spear was sick. Everytime Okada feels he's getting momentum Fale stops him in his tracks. This match far exceeded my expectations. This felt like a throwback match to me in the vein of Sting/Vader. 3 3/4* 9. IWGP Heavyweight Title – AJ Styles © vs. Kota Ibushi I'm a huge mark for the IWGP video package. I wish they showed it. These guys are on my top of the list for most outstanding in 2015. Early in the match Styles tries to prove he's the smarter wrestler. Some back and forth early on. Some rope running spots. Big drop kick by Ibushi. A couple of reversals on a Ibushi corner moonsault to the floor results with an inside out suplex by Styles on the floor. Styles is really punishing him in the ring.Ibushi's facials are real good. AJ working on top has been real good. His personality is really shining here. Ibushi is great at getting the crowd behind him. Totally loved AJ switching gears and going after the leg after realizing Ibushi really uses his legs for a lot of his offense. Loved Ibushi crumbling from the weight of his legs. Not a fan of Ibushi kind of shit canning the leg work that seconds earlier he sold so well. Now his after selling isn't bad. Aj's exploder counter was phenomenal. The mirror strike sequence was neat, even if the timing was a tad off. Styles sprinboard forearm was all levels of nasty. Aj going back to the leg with the Calf slicer was nice. Ibushi selling in it made it so much more important. Those knee by Ibushi were grade A nasty. The tease of a top rope Styles Clash was cool, but then gets topped by Ibushi's Super Frankensteiner. Sick lariat by Ibushi. AJ almost a Barry Windham glassy eyed level sell job. Styles sneaks in a Styles Clash.A good booking choice that gives Ibushi an excuse to the loss to the people, and srts up a match with Omega. Omega's mannerisms are great here. AJ is really coming across as a 1st rate wrestler. He's athletic and now seems to understand the importance of the little things. He feels like a hybrid of Bret,Flair, and Bockwinkle. 4* The Okada angle was great. Too bad it sets up a tag 1st.

When did you find out they switched his match up. Was it announced at the start of the show?

I had the dreaded technical issues. So I'll watch the show tonight.

The main event was fucking great. The crowd was so jacked for this. We start with a Lucha pair off. We get some awesome work. We get a triple FIP section with ACH being the real meat . The dive sequence was great. The finish was almost as good as the Styles/Bucks one. I got an ACH chant going . As a show this was awesome. My voice is gone The show had so much good wrestling . The work seemed much tighter than a WWE houseshow. Easy thumbs up. O'Reilly was an Iron Man working 2 long matches, and an interview segment.

Sabin needed to really work that cut and he failed tenfold. O'Reilly underneath work was tremendous . If Sabin worked the cut we might have had a 4* match. With the dynamic of Kyle desperately going for submissions . No we didn't . I still enjoyed the bout in spots, but it should have been much more. Will yelling at Sabin on how he should work was great.