Childs

I'm digging the mix of stuff on these New Japan shows, even if they weren't churning out classics. This feels like the year when Sasaki finally came into his own as a top guy. I can't imagine him working effectively in a match like this in say, 1995. But he was on point with everything from selling to pacing to matwork. Frye also did fine in what was very much a pro wrestling match.

These guys were always good against each other, but this one leaned too heavily on the garbage spots for my taste. The hot opening was terrific, and it was cool that both guys bled. But god, the finishing spot took forever to set up and didn't even look that devastating. When there's more furniture moving than wrestling over the climactic five minutes of a match, there's almost no chance I'll like it, even though it was catnip for the ECW crowd.

Dog shit seems a little harsh. I really liked the beginning of this with the super-intense lock-up and the way HHH put over his panic at Benoit's quickness. Hunter's control section felt a little more paint-by-numbers, but ultimately, they did a good job setting Benoit up as a serious new player in town. His offense looked sensational as always. And the combination of HHH visually tapping and then having to cheat felt like the right finish.

I'm finally jumping back into the 2000 stuff after a long hiatus, and "black suit" Liger was definitely my favorite thing from the first few matches of February. What a nasty little boss. He brought some much-needed aggression out of Tanaka, and I'm eager to see more interactions between those two.

The horrible thing is he may never get back to where he was heading into tonight. I hope that's not the case, but you can't count on it.

Main event fell really flat. I thought Brock would win but just didn't feel special at all.

I would've preferred them to go straight from one main event to the other. This crap is unworthy.

I'm surprised people thought that would be anything other than a center-cut WWE epic. It was a passing of the torch between the chosen ones. I mean, it's not my favorite style either but it was effective.

That Nia bump to the floor, Jesus.

Great performance by Sheamus and Cesaro. Well-designed match. Rollins and Ambrose are ... not good.

And again Balor put him away routinely after a blah match. Accompanied by blather about demons and eaters of worlds. So glad they ran that back.

The Wyatt-Balor feud is unbelievably stupid. Two ill-conceived characters, not to mention Balor already beat him clean in 10 minutes.

Jordan-Miz was a really solid opener.

Despite the fact some excellent wrestlers still work for EVOLVE, I'm happy to have washed my hands of both the promotion and FloSlam. Hadn't enjoyed either for awhile.

I'd take the best Tito-Valentine matches and probably a couple of the best Backlund defenses (Patera, Patterson, etc.) over Savage-Steamboat. Also, Bret vs. Owen was better than Razor vs. Shawn.

The discussion of this incident is far more bizarre than the original story. Who gives a shit?

Drew really suffered from being Vince's favorite toy before he had the chops to back it up. He'd have been better off flying under the radar early. He was actually quite good in-ring before they released him the first time (I always think of that Chris Masters match on Superstars), though it's fair to say he blossomed as a complete package on the indies. When you see him in person, it comes across how massive he truly is. Not just tall but thick, even though he's not absurdly musclebound. A lot of the EVOLVE guys looked like middle schoolers next to him.

I dropped the service for the time being. It just hasn't been worth a damn lately. I'll come back if it does.

Isn't it basically his whole career? He seriously started at the top of heap and just stayed there. If I had to choose, I'd say 93-98. Oh come on. He was precocious but he did not start at the top of the heap. No way he was comparable to any of the pillars until at least '96. My favorite period for Akiyama would be later, maybe 2000-2004. But it's true that his calling card is more that he's been really good for a really long time.

They held on to Okada and Tanahashi, who were always the aces. They did a good job of building Naito to fill the Nakamura vacuum and Omega to fill the Styles vacuum. Gallows, Anderson, Devitt, Honma and Shibata never mattered much as draws. And they've continued to deliver the main event style their fans crave. Pretty straightforward, really.

How far in are you? It picks up after about 3 episodes. I tapped out right around that point. But as I said, I'll probably give it another go eventually. I'm sure I was partially reacting to the dissonance between my tepid enjoyment and the outpouring of critical love.

This has become one of those things where I just don't understand why I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing. I found the show deadly dull--neither funny, nor dramatic nor touching. And I like a lot of the people involved--Brie, Maron, etc. I'll have to give it another shot at some point.

I'd probably give this an extra star just because it wasn't built around Okada's leg being attacked. Seriously though, this was a good match. I liked Okada's little attempts to show off for big brother, and the race to hit a finisher made for a compelling stretch run. But as usual with Okada's better matches, I came away thinking most of the special touches came from his opponent. Nakamura's offense looked so much cooler and more violent.

Okada's opponent worked over his leg. Okada responded with a second-turnbuckle dropkick and some weak-looking neck stretches against the guardrail. Knock me over with shock, why don't you. This was a lesser rehash of their March match, which was no better than pretty good in the first place. I had hope when Naito started throwing his body around ringside and Okada momentarily responded with some top-notch leg selling. But they quickly tossed that away for a my-turn, your-turn stretch run. I guess Okada became the GOAT sometime after 2012.

They struggled to build on what they'd done in February. Again, they went to the leg vs. neck dynamic. I'm not a stickler on leg selling. But why build all of Okada's big matches around it when his key transition spots are ultra-springy dropkicks? I also thought his neck attack was haphazard but maybe that's just because so much of his offense looked like shit. I hate that convoluted neck submission. The finishing stretch felt completely disconnected from the body of the match--just a long string of stuff and reversals and more stuff. The crowd loved it so I'll give them that. And I did buy Tanahashi's passion for recapturing his spot. But this was an undistinguished performance from Okada. He didn't do anything particularly well.