Dylan Waco

The worst ballet move in wrestling is that thing Okada does that made him 1a star in Japan

The general lack of heat sections that even border on being compelling is probably my single biggest problem with much of modern indie and Japanese wrestling. The general and cliched criticisms about "MOVEZ" and nearfalls out the ass are things I don't entirely disagree with, especially when so many of those MOVEZ look like utter trash (for example Okada's finish, damn near all of Tanahashi's offense, aforementioned Goto crap, et), but ultimately the biggest problem is that so many of the matches just lack the sort of heat segments, hope spots, cut offs and comebacks that I really want out of a wrestling match. The funny thing about Scott Keith's insane Brock v. Cena line is that the Sak v. Nak from the Dome was pretty damn close to an NJPW version of that match and was in no way similar to Shibata/Goto. Also if you want to see a match with solid control segment and pretty solid groundwork I'd recommend TAJIRI vs. Shinya Ishikawa, Dradition 5/29. It's a total Tajiri carry job, but it's pretty awesome stuff, probably my number three match of the year from Japan so far.

I don't think it's any secret that I think NJPW is wildly overrated by many, but I also think it's almost certainly the best current company in Japan. I would rather watch Akiyama and Hama than anyone in NJPW besides Sakuraba and I could see a case for the Akiyama v. KAI Carnival final over Sakuraba v. Nakamura as Japanese MOTY, but AJPW has almost as much deadweight as NJPW, the booking is more annoying (though I still contend this years Dome show had shit booking that would have been viciously criticized across the board if it had been any other company on earth) and the cards are not as well put together and don't have as big a feel as NJPW. I could care less about or actively hate many of NJPW's biggest stars (Tanahashi, Okada, Goto, Devitt, Makabe, Anderson, Nagata, Makabe), but some of those guys can be reeled in and there are several guys on the roster I do like to some degree or another (Suzuki, Ishii, Nakamura, Sakuraba, Harry Smith, Naito, Shibata (at least in tags), maybe others I'm forgetting). In general New Japan isn't my thing, but I'm glad they seem to be doing well, and I really can't imagine any other company that runs regularly in Japan being superior to them at this point.

This is starting to become more than just an annoyance

Because of strange circumstances when watching it I won't do a full review, but I did watch PWG's DDT tourney over the last couple of days and liked it a lot better than the other show. Wasn't really any match I loved, but nothing as awful as the other show either and I did like the evolving Steen/Generico storyline over the course of the show (although the finish of the finale was complete trash). Also Mark Briscoe marking out for Generico's post-finale antics was highly amusing.

I hate O'Reilly but he's had at least two matches in the last few years I really liked so it's not a complete lost cause like Eddie Edwards would be.

Watched this just now and hated it. The first ten minutes were actually way better than I would have expected and pretty smartly worked, but that's a staple of Elgin matches over the last year. The last twenty were just painfully awful and everything I hate about modern wrestling.

You are very close to the right answer, but not quite there. The right answer is actually Doug Somers, the only guy I've ever seen who took that move in a way that made it look like a finisher

Big fan of tons of tag teams to be honest. Love Saito/Bock and on the right day I could probably be convinced to include them

I'll try and explain them in some detail later but... Rose/Somers Eaton/Condrey Footloose Smothers/Guido (FBI) PG-13 Honorable Mention - The Rockers, Los Traumas, Rock N Roll Express, Mikey/Spike, The Islanders

With DGUSA and Chikara I am willing to watch recommended matches, but I'm not a fan of either fed. PWG I will usually can get a hold of. IWC is the PA fed that runs it's own best of indies tourney right?

Favorite or best? Because my answer will be slightly different

I think the lesson here is that if you like PWG, "go, go, go, go" style you will like the show, if you are indifferent or don't care about it you won't. I still contend Edwards v. Lethal is the run away "worst match of the year"

I could absolutely see how someone would hate Drake/Sami. The live crowd went batshit for it, but it is clearly a match that that isn't for everyone. I go to PWponderings semi-regularly and often disagree with them, but never more than that Eddie/Lethal review. If that dude thought the hammerlock bit was high end wrestling, I'm terrified to think about what he would consider bad.

I actually have trouble seeing how anyone could like Edwards v. Lethal. It's just...I mean...I don't have words for how bad it is

I don't think Tajiri/Finlay would get over in that sort of setting because it's a match that takes some investment. That Panther/Casas Lightning Match could really work, BUT it's not the best example of Lucha. A part of me says pick a mini's match as those are all easily digestible and potential gateway drugs.

PWG All Star Weekend Night One Paul London v. Kevin Steen Man alive does Steen look fat here. Honestly his obesity is almost distracting at points, you can almost see him morphing into modern equivalent of Mick Foley. London is doing his space man bit and the front end of this actually has some fun exchanges based around relevant themes of each character i.e. Steen as fat fuck/brickwall and London as fried stoner. Then London literally throws down the gauntlet and challenges Steen to a duel by slapping his face with a glove and from there this is pretty much what you expect. I will say the PWG live crowd really adds a lot to their shows, because I really didn't mind this match and could see loathing it in other settings, but even still I don't get matches like this. There are some huge bombs in this in between shitty Kevin Steen standup spots, but there isn't anything even close to a heat section or anything that feels dramatic. This makes it just seem absurd when Steen hits something like a sleeper suplex and has to act SHOCKED! that London is able to kick out. A lot of the stuff in this was good looking stuff and I thought the finishing combo was pretty neat, particularly the shooting star onto Steen as he tried to get to his feet. So while this was entirely watchable and on some level even fun, it really felt flat and it's the sort of wrestling that actually puzzles me. The Young Bucks v. Johnny Gargano/Chuck Taylor Fuck I can't believe I made it through this piece of shit. On the one hand I have to give them credit for at least establishing a face/heel dynamic and for actually having a heat section. On the other hand I'm not surge I can think of two less likable people in wrestling then Gargano/Taylor. I suppose if the reanimated corpse of Chris Benoit was teaming with Tom Zenk I could get behind Taylor/Gargano as babyfaces, but I can't think of any other scenario offhand. The first half of this was built around pretty good heel team getting heat on guys who I wanted to see be crippled, with the guy getting his ass kicked selling the Bucks offense in a horribly uninteresting way. Half the time Gargano looked annoyed, I assume because he wasn't on offense. Then the last million or so years of this was nothing but guys running through unbelievably phony looking choreographed spots. Not Alex Shelley v. Jay Lethal level choreographed, but not far off. Not even in the spirited PWG crowd could save this trash. Jay Lethal v. Eddie Edwards There is a hammerlock exchange at the beginning of this that might be the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling. It literally looked like they were engaging in some strange square dancing technique I've never seen before. At one point it looked like Edwards was trying to cue Lethal to promenade around the hall, but Jay flubbed it which made this even worse. If you are going to do Godwins spots at least do them right. They run through a bunch of shit super fast and then the match starts to get tolerable when Lethal slows things down and starts working a control segment. And then the new worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling happens as Lethal asks for fan help to whip him into Edwards (I guess?) and they whip him into the ring apron on accident! Except it's obviously not something that could occur accidentally. Probably the single most "hey wrestling is fake, lol laugh with us!" spot in the history of wrestling, vastly worse than anything I've seen from Chikara. To make it worse this is followed up by a bunch of "high impact" style stuff that doesn't have a particularly high degree of impact. In fact some of it has virtually no impact. Edwards knee based offense is especially laughable. And of course this just goes on forever and ever or at least seemed to. Then just as I'm about to shoot my computer, they do this spot where Edwards misses a kick to Lethal's face and Lethal sells it anyway, but worse yet he sells it by pumping his fist. What the fuck is that? When the fuck did Jay Lethal become so terrible? I know Edwards is awful but is it possible that he's this bad an influence? Anyhow, completely terrible match, among the worst I can recall seeing in recent memory. In some ways this was almost a caricature of the 2.9, MOVEZ, interpretative dance style of wrestling. AR Fox/Samuray Del Sol v. Rich Swann/Ricochet This isn't necessarily my thing, but man this was miles better than the last two matches. Yeah there is a ton of your spotty stuff in this, but it's well placed and at least it actually looks special/athletic. So what you want about the Ricochet/Del Sol segment at the jump of this but it's visually impressive and it was done as part of a feeling each other out/shine portion of a match. Richochet is such a shit eating prick that even with all the cute stuff, he comes across as a real heel here which also helps. I very much enjoyed the isolation segment and spots on Del Sol and while the heat wasn't built for a super long period of time, the selling was pretty sustained, to the point that Del Sol's big dive felt like a huge moment instead of just another spot, on a night filled with them. The back end of this actually worked too as you had another meaningful dive from Ricochet, followed by a flurry from AR Fox that came across as a guy taking his shot while he had it and then a really nice finishing sequence, which saw a kill shot, Swann sacrificing himself and a 630 finish. This is how matches like this should be worked. Roderick Strong v. Trent Beretta Is there any indie guy half as bland as Strong? I guess Eddie Edwards qualifies, but Strong has been around so much longer. This match actually gives me real hope for Beretta as an indie guy, because it was well paced and had some degree of build and structure. This was not a perfect match and had it's fair share of shit I didn't like, but I did genuinely enjoy chunks of it. Liked the way the strikes were used, like the Beretta rope counter being used against him, liked him mocking the PWG big move cultural, liked his big dive and how it was set up. I mean yeah the roll up sequence on the back end of this was comically stupid, but what can you do? I also thought this had a pretty sick finish as far as cartoony finishes go. Not really a good match, but I didn't hate it. Michael Elgin/Brian Cage v. Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly On paper this looks wildly unappealing to me. I like Brian Cage for what he is and Elgin is good when he works as a power guy, but I hate rope running Elgin and the other team is a pair of guys I couldn't possibly care less about. So I was surprised that this was not completely boring. Honestly I don't know what to think of this because I think they had some good ideas, it's just hard for them to come off in this environment where so much is invested in getting the "Holy Shit!" spots in. This had a pretty good shine with the suplex power spot being really impressive and I thought the transition to Cole/O'Reilly offense being a chair shot was really smart. They even managed to showcase Elgin's power spots in relevant ways as bridges for hot tags and hope spots. But the need to do a bunch of "stuff" is such a prevailing part of PWG culture I just don't think it's possible to put on a a match I'm really going to love. Just way too much of the "this will look cool, so let's do it" wrestling for me to ever give a fuck and a pretty awful finishing run that killed the solid build on the front end. Another one for the garbage heap. Sami Callihan v. Drake Younger - Guerilla Warfare Match For your car crash, CZW style, matches this was actually good. Again it's not really my favorite thing in wrestling and I could have lived without the opening minute or so, but the Passion of Drake Younger was actually a very effective way to book this. You could argue that Younger's comebacks were too quick, but it's not like he wasn't going right back to sustaining punishment and getting destroyed in some novel way as soon as the surge of energy ran out. Lots of crazy shit in this, including the bump onto the trashcan, the big Mike Awesome style razor's edge over the ropes onto the chairs and just the sheer loss of blood and nastiness of Drake's cut. For my money the best spots were Sami throwing tacks into Younger's face and the staple gun used to cut off the sunset flip which I thought was pretty brilliant even if it was heavily telegraphed. This won't appeal to everyone and in all honesty this is not the sort of Sami match I really want to see at this point, but I did like it and thought it was pretty easily the best match on the show. Overall Thoughts There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand there were some things that pleasantly surprised me or worked enough around the flaws inherent in this style of wrestling that I was really able to enjoy them. On the other hand I really have trouble getting through shows like this and the bad stuff on this show was among the worst stuff I've seen in the last ten years. Two matches I loathed, two matches I liked, another couple that I thought were watchable but didn't grab me and one that was working okay and then crashed down the stretch straight into a pile of shit Biff Tannen style. No way I could recommend this show to anyone who wasn't totally in love with the "go, go, go, go, go!!!" style of wrestling, but I didn't hate it as much as a whole as you might think based on the worst two matches.

Actually for Texas I'm not sure Gordy v. Khan is the best pick. I'd probably go with the Kerry v. Hayes LLT Cage Match

Thugz v. Gangstas Street Fight from SMW's Charlotte Memories show would probably be a ton of fun in that sort of setting. Or any sort of setting really. Because of 2/3 Falls staple I'm not sure there is an ideal Portland match. Maybe the match with Buddy and Curt where Curt hurts Buddy with the top rope dropkick. Buddy v. DK might also. I second the Hansen v. Colon bullrope match.

Tully Blanchard v. Carlos Colon It's been awhile and I'm a bit ahead on 2013 stuff right now so I decided to watch this which I've been sitting on for months. Pretty good match, but it's a better match on paper. Tully is of course the great cocky douche you expect him to be and he does some really awesome little things with his ring positioning but I this lacked the epic heat of the truly great WWC matches. There as some great punches and some good individual brawling spots in this, but it never even approached that "out of control" vibe you often get from PR. It seems odd but my real criticism of this is that it felt more like a real wrestling match than a real fight. Still I loved a lot of the visuals that they worked around the guardrail and thought the way Tully was able to take over on offense was very clever. Again this was good, but the finish being unsatisfying sort of solidified my stance that this wasn't close to high end PR. Ricky Santana v. Moondog Spot - 1991 No clue why I chose to watch this, but it felt sufficiently random. I continue to be really impressed with Santana as a babyface. He is very strong at working from underneath and can make pretty obvious restholds seem really damaging with his body language. He registers every shot Spot throws in this and takes some solid bumps to boot. I also enjoyed the comeback teases. This was still a pretty basic match and not anything particularly special. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. But Santana's stock is rising with me and Moondog Spot looked like a down on his luck, alcoholic, Santa Claus here, so I wouldn't say watching this was a waste either. Thunder/Lightning v. Barry/Kendall Windham This is JIP and I don't know the exact date on it. I seem to remember the Windhams going down their shortly after the West Texas Rednecks fizzled out so maybe 00/01? Anyhow this ends in a huge clusterfuck brawl with half the locker room emptying, but the front end of this is really good stuff. I am a fan of Thunder and Lightning. They aren't the best working team (though they aren't bad), but they have a great look, sort of like a modern version of The Road Warriors. They held up their end fine, but I thought the Windham's looked great in this, especially Kendall. He just had great timing and really seemed to be working his ass off. Windham's unloaded some really good looking offense and then took their ass kicking before the run-in train, but this really made me want to find more from them from that time period. Kendall looked like he a top tier guy.

I think it's pretty clear after watching it that The Shield as a hot, special act is over. They aren't devoid of value, but you don't lose matches like that in that fashion if the goal is to continue to treat you as main eventers (which is effectively what they have been their entire time in the WWE). In hindsight Tim was right when he noted the winning of the titles was a way to slide them into solid mid-card slots.

Had no clue. The promotion I've been watching has random as fuck shit like Dan Maff v. Outlaw Joe Gomez.

Perfectly reasonable response, probably the response I should have had myself

I'll be honest I really want to see RVD work Cesaro, because Cesaro is a freakishly good base and I could see RVD bumping/selling the fuck out of his big power spots.

Let me know what you think/find from these feds. With each fed there are specific matches and wrestlers I would recommend highly if you want more details