Chess Knight

This is the first Kingdom match I think I've ever watched, and I liked the format of only 5 rope breaks and/or downs each creating quick but escalating drama. They're also wearing gloves which is pretty unlike any other shoot style promotion (not even Vader wore gloves in UWFi) but thank god they were because they fucking HANDED it to each other when throwing blows. I actually said "fuck me" aloud at one of the bursts. They mostly spent the match grappling though, which I was enamoured with. Really quick chess game of steering with the skid, slapping on a submission no matter how close to the ropes to force a point loss, and gripping onto to themselves to try to stop a hold. The cross-armbreaker played a strong part, being the first rope break and being responsible for a couple more down the road. Was a really easy to create tension (physically and dramatically) because the guy in it would rush for the ropes like a cat every time, once their own vice grip was busted. The only actual down of the match comes when Sakuraba tries to duck a kick, I think not realising Kanehara is actually aiming pretty low, and catches it square in the face - and let me tell you, people - this is straight up as nasty and violent a kick I can remember in a match (outside of Akira Maeda actually trying to injure people, I guess). I wouldn't wish it on anybody but it sure as hell made for a perfect surprise down, especially because Sakuraba was looking exhausted by then and looked to let his guard down by a bit. Sakuraba tries to return to submissions after getting up from that - including a cross-armbreaker attempt - even to try to whittle away Kanehara's score (Sakuraba was down 3-1 by now) which really helped put the kick over. I won't spoil the last few minutes but it ties in the rest of the match really, really well, including the finish. I will note Kanehara trying and failing to swing near the end, as a desperate attempt to finish it because he got the only down in the match earlier. Wouldn't surprise me if the first Kingdom match I watched is the best of them all.

Badass match initially based around Honda's superior ground work before they start trying to finish each other off with suplexes and lariats. Ikeda's first real chance comes minutes after Honda keeping him in check. Ikeda starts blasting Honda with kicks and forearm blows (that first kick looked stiff as hell, too), which at least wore Honda down, but Honda just keeps going low and bringing him lateral to give himself a breather. Honda had some strikes of his own but he was against the Potato King himself so he had to be smart in tying up Ikeda's limbs instead. Ikeda, finding any opening he could, delivered a GREAT counter where he was holding onto the ropes to prevent a German, but then instead improvises by pushing on the rope with his boot, going down with Honda and from what I could tell landing on Honda's HEAD. Awesome end stretch filled with almost each move, no matter how basic, being a potential ender. This is the kind of match that makes you respect every suplex or takedown. Great finish, too, thanks to Honda actually kind of slipping up on that STF and having to change gears.

I still love this so much. I don't know whether it qualifies as a "sprint" but with the amount they crammed into the time they had, and how quickly they moved from moment-to-moment (e.g. Rey on bottom usually lasts a lot longer than this), I wouldn't think it's a stretch to say it is one. I honestly don't remember a more compelling heel Punk match than this one, just for how tenacious he is beelining for any opportunity to smash Rey to bits. Once that barricade backdrop hits (a spot that's been burned in my memory since I saw this in 2010) he takes no chances in unleashing, smashing Rey with a clothesline on the outside, dropping him a vicious backbreaker, shoving him off of the ropes, trying to keep the match grounded with holds. He throws in some talk too because of course he does. "I CAN SAVE YOU!" Like I said Rey on bottom doesn't last very long but that I think makes it more unpredictable because it's out of the norm for him to start dodging around this successfully, this early. Absolutely loved how they managed to integrate Gallows and Deeb at the end without having them just sloppily run in and ruin the match, too. From what I remember I thought this was actually better than any of their PPV matches back when, but I will watch those again. I'd be a-ok with this being the best though because it is indeed the fuckin best. I might call it a top ten SmackDown match.

Very good match that could have been elevated a bit more had it been more logical. It's just, I think Savage hurting his leg and taking his boot off to further expose the leg (especially the ankle), especially against a technician, is a bit of a dumb move. Hart is kind of dull on top before the leg injury but is much more fun being flung into the ring post and bumping into the turnbuckle pads and whatnot. For a heel he's not a very theatrical bumper but he'll take some rough shots to make his opponent look great (something he obviously continued becoming WWF's #1 throughout the early 90s). The guardrail shot off the apron looked particularly good; big fan of wrestlers flying into things and flopping down while holding onto said thing. Again not a fan of Savage's boot being off because it becomes a more vulnerable target, but Hart is naturally good working a limb and I dig the flash finish a lot as a convincing way for a one legged man to pull off the victory.

Utterly vicious offensive showing from Otani, repeatedly digging his heel into Tajiri's face, stomping the shit out of him in the corner, grinding his forearm across the cheek, etc. He even does Tajiri's tree of woe sliding dropkick (maybe that's where Tajiri got it!) and we get a close up of Tajiri's squished face after it. Tajiri gets a few hope spots in those first few minutes but it's usually killed by Otani using his superior size and tenacity. Tajiri's actual competitive comeback starts with a fucking awesome spot where Otani blocks a high kick with his forearms, but only manages to hit a limp slap in retaliation, so Tajiri uses the ropes for momentum and launches his feet at Otani's leg. Can't believe how much heat they managed to create within the time, and I can't believe what has to be one of the best Tajiri matches happens in 1997.

I hope these motherfuckers had beers together after this. Kitahara and Kabuki were totally relentless kicking heads in and levelling throats with lariats, and making exactly none of it look flashy. Orihara when selling for all that shucked out about as good a Never Say Die showing as I can remember, even with some of the flubbed moves and that random pointless backflip. His exchanges looked really unruly when he was just swinging wildly at any body part in the way before being minced. He somehow sold to make a swinging neckbreaker look violent, and that thing usually looks like garbage. The Ganso Bomb looked utterly fucked; like CCTV footage of an assault and battery from that angle. Also on the lariats he took late in the match, there were women in the front row clasping their hands in front of their mouths and made a great visual. I thought it was pretty brilliant how they didn't immediately let Tenryu come in hot after the first Orihara FIP bit either; Kabuki blindsiding him really allowed the second hot tag to feel like The Big One instead. Tenryu obviously doesn't take kindly to that though and starts breaking up half of every pinfall, which helped the match fly further into a chaotic spectacle. The ref didn't need to squeeze in a cardio workout that week, let's say that much. And Tenryu breaking up the pinfalls with the most unpretty kicks to the head looked possibly even more disgustingly violent than anything, especially thanks to how Kitahara didn't bump or turn for them, but instead just jolted his head and stayed in place. Deranged classic.

I can barely watch full shows most of the time unless it's something I specifically set out to do with friends, or in terms of a long running project, e.g. I currently have a running list of good Velocity matches, and am watching every match, but use uploads that don't have the Smackdown recaps and stuff. Even then, I started it in early...2019, I think, and have only made it through around 16 months of shows....shows that go like 25 minutes once you slice out the recaps and ad breaks. Keeping up with AEW since Punk came in, I'm already finding myself skipping over matches I don't care to see a month in. I've said for a long time I'd like to do full watches of some short-running promotions (like SMW) but I don't actually know if I could pull it off if I'm honest with myself.

That's actually really, really yuck from me. I don't know whether this is popular/unpopular, but I think wrestlers should have the live audience in mind before anybody else. It can really be a judge of a wrestler to me, seeing how they play off of whatever reaction they're getting (think the famous Dallas Raw 5 vs. 5, pretty basic set of moves but everything perfectly placed to keep the crowd erupting). Dozens, hundreds, thousands of eyes and voices right there, so I'd rather tv viewers be thought after them. Let alone having literally just one man in mind. I'm not anti-Meltzer (it's kind of weird to be reallllly anti-him considering he's a dude who just likes certain things in the pro wrestling), but for so many wrestlers to go out there and appease him I hate it I hate it I hate it. Although, ironically, Meltzer seems to favour matches that connect with the live audience anyway but STILL it's the thought process that bothers me.

I've watched this twice in the past couple months (having never seen it previously) and thought it was incredible, one of my surprise new favourite matches. I've thought about watching it a third time ever since second seeing it. Taker is as old as 2002 Hulk Hogan here and getting his rib cage splintered on the announce table in that demented F-5 like a junior. Lesnar is covered in blood and drool and looked absolutely five stars waiting for Taker in the ring like the world's most vengeful great white shark. I just wish more than anything that the fist fight, after the double sit up, had both guys taking their gloves off because that would have been another cherry on an already cherry-filled cake. Legit would call this the Undertaker's best match and one of the greatest WWE matches of all time.

And on top of that I've more than a couple times just seen it referred to as "the pre-Hulkamania era" or something else lame. Which, as a way to refer to that large period of time in a vacuum is fine, but it's like some want it to stick as the official name for the time period. I just went to the History of WWE wikipedia article and it has the Reality Era as 2014-2016 (I think most have it around when Punk got hot in 2011?), while 2016-present is "the New Era." What the hell like really. NEW Era? New as in, post-Cena? WWE's own website has these in a poll: The Golden Age (‘80s to early ‘90s) New Generation Era (Early to mid ‘90s) Attitude Era (mid ‘90s to early 2000s) Ruthless Aggression Era (2002 to 2008) PG Era (2008 to 2013) Reality Era (2014-2016) The New Era (2016 to present) I dunno. This doesn't weigh on me constantly or anything but like they took what I'm pretty sure were mostly fan nicknames for a group of years and made it some weird canon. -- I sometimes wonder if it's exaggerated that Vince makes sure none of his talent are called "__ Jr." (Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero, Ted DiBiase, Bob Orton, etc) because he doesn't like technically being a "Jr" but yeah no it really does seem to line up.

YMMV with these types of match obviously but the Necro/Klein vs. H8 Club match that was on the same day as Joe/Necro (anniversary of that was yesterday I think, to boot) is the best CZW match I can remember seeing. My comment that doesn't warrant it's own thread is I hate we've felt the need to divide every five year span or so in WWF/E into "eras." It's not enough we just have this one point in history we call the Attitude Era, there has to be the "ruthless aggression" era, the "PG" era, the *barf* """"Reality"""" era. I was gonna put it this in the pet peeve thread but like I truly hate it even if I can't make some formal argument against it.

I love this match so much. 4 minutes of basically perfect Tom & Jerry wrestling. Rey looked as spry as ever, and despite being able to dodge around Lesnar like a bug - and there being an actual moment where he narrowly avoids getting stepped on LIKE a bug - he stills throws his offense around enough for us buy him taking Lesnar by surprise. You see a match like this and think they probably shouldn't squeeze even a tiny slice of comedy into it without it becoming stupid, but Rey sprinting around everywhere, including under the ring, leading Lesnar to get lost and kicking the steps in anger like a rabid bulldog always gets me. Lesnar swinging Rey against the ring post actually sounded gross, like the ring post gave Rey a WALTER chop or something. I'd have to play-by-play this thing move for move to describe every good moment in it. The non finish might be seen as disappointing, but considering what the non finish actually IS, I am alllll for it, and no I won't say it because that would spoil the fun. Again it's maybe 4 minutes long, but I think it's still a really overlooked little match.

Read some of this on a lunch break and it was an incredible way to pass the time. Will go through it all through probably several lunch breaks. Really fascinating stuff especially considering despite any footage I might have watched, I never really read up on IWE/JWA history, or really anything All Japan until the pillars got there.

Really fun seven minutes, felt like you could take any given 90 seconds of it and it'd be about as good a 90 second match as there's ever been. First two minutes in particular were pretty amazing with Cesaro jumping Harper with a drop kick and wailing on him with some strikes, including firing off an awesome punch combo in the corner. Harper tries to get out of dodge and Cesaro reaches out and grabs him by the filthy singlet because he doesn't want any space. The uppercut over the barricade was great and much more unco-operative looking than I'd expect it to be on paper. Back in the ring, they work pretty evenly with Harper mostly trying to nail Cesaro down, or attempting a submission a couple times. Meanwhile Cesaro fruitlessly tries to turn the match into a bomb throwing contest because he knows, and you all know, through the ad nauseam WWE commentary that he is perhaps pound for pound the strongest man in WWE (Cole wasn't commentating so whether or not that was said here I don't remember, I've gotten decent at drowning that shit out), so he would more than likely win that. Harper's continual shots to his head (and that damn cheap eye poke!) just get in the way too often for him to succeed though.

I'm not used to Cesaro getting to play underneath and use hope spots in an attempt to catch out a larger opponent who'll kill his momentum with a boot to the face, so this was especially a treat. Watching Harper on top in WWE makes me wish very badly we got him in the 00s facing all of your babyface tv workhorses like Mysterio, Matt Hardy, Christian, Eddie Guerrero. It's a lot easier to buy any given cut off on a guy Cesaro's size when the opponent delivers such a nasty knee to the face to shut him down. Cesaro getting shine in at the beginning was pretty great to see too and I like how many mini-uppercuts he had in the bank to use. Unfortunately the finish stunk. Cesaro basically shrugged off Harper's awesome headscissor takedown/superkick combo to awkwardly flop a weird pinning combination that didn't look like it should work at the best of times because of how long it took to set up. Well worth the time, still. edit - Cesaro really did have like the worst entrance theme ever at this time god

What this lacks in blood (seriously, wtf), it makes up for in TRASH. As in having the most amount of garbage thrown in and around a WWE ring I can ever remember. Sheik and Volkoff even get soda thrown at them early match. The match absolutely rules. It starts similar to the October match with shine but with no rules Slaughter and JYD can use all the helmets and nightsticks and loaded boot (whatever that actually is) they want while both being in the same ring. There are a ton of momentum shifts in this and it's easy to miss where some of this shit even comes from. I didn't see whether Sheik was wearing the strap he used, but I did see he and Volkoff had it tangled around Slaughter's face and throat at the same time. JYD at one point does his signature headbutt straight into Sheik's balls. There's a DOUBLE CAMEL CLUTCH and I don't mean they had one on apiece. I mean both Volkoff was pulling on Sheik to give him extra leverage for the hold. I don't want to list off all of the fun craziness this match offers but yeah I love it and I don't really understand how I never hear about it.

I only watched this because I remember being blown away by the Texas tornado rematch with a fiery crowd a decade ago on a WWE Legends DVD, but it's fun as hell and has a fiery crowd itself so I think people should see it too. WWF tags could have a habit of doing heel in peril but I think what opens the match here is more of a traditional (was it traditional in 1984? Hell) babyface shine, because it was more Sheik and Volkoff stooging and getting tossed around than it was rest holds and reaching for an out. Once that's over though they get right into Slaughter reaching for an out, and there's maybe the closet non-tag I've ever seen in this. They got Slaughter nice and bloody after a few of his classic ring post bumps and a shot on Sheik's shoe, which was immediately after Sheik gained control. Don't see a face in peril start that quickly too often. Then they get a JYD face in peril even quicker. I don't mind spoiling this in saying it ends in a double dq, because like I said I only actually watched it as a lead in for the Texas tornado, and, well, the double dq causes the Texas tornado. The break down is awesome, with a bloody Slaughter reaching to tag in and getting fed up of Sheik blasting him off of the apron, so he just runs in during a camel clutch attempt and causes chaos. We get a preview of the tornado tag before a downed ref (and that was not accidental) calls for the bell. It really does feel like it almost comes close to breaking down throughout as well, with enough biting (and not just from JYD) and entering the ring illegally and no regard for the dreaded CLOSED FIST, REFEREE! Unsurprising given the lack of "feeling out process" at all from the get-go; the heels get the jump, the faces turn the tables, and no one has any respect for their opponent for a second.

A GOOD AMBULANCE MATCH. Late to the party on Ambrose in 2014 but he was as awesome as everyone said he was, and I would have never watched this (especially with the gimmick that's.....not usually as good as a lot of other gimmicks....attached to it) unless that was the case. And THAT would have been a shame because I can't remember a match with this gimmick that came close to this. Seeing babyface shine start the match was great for multiple reasons; (a) it's not always promised in WWE hate feuds, sadly, (b) Ambrose has a wild man approach to his offense that can easily get a crowd going, and (c) Wyatt has an especially dangerous rep so watching him caught early is a nice rarity. Seeing Wyatt resort to focusing on the leg was appropriately desperate from him at the time, and Ambrose was selling that leg the entire match even long after Wyatt had stopped targeting it. That did a great job of putting over the damage Wyatt had already done to it, and made Ambrose's own already risky offense even more risky. You never realise how much an AMULANCE MATCH can be helped by a guy who's willing to hurl himself into things. They had me a few times in the final moments; I was pretty sure it was over a good three times when it wasn't, and that involved some actually really good use of the ambulance-y weapons they had (including the ambulance table...a WWE table painting white with a red cross on the top). This makes three really good matches these two had around 2014 (this is close to 2014 so w/e), I might need to look for more just in case.

Standard back bumps on offensive moves that don't look like they warrant standard back bumps, e.g. headbutts, Great Khali's big chop, etc. Just never looks to me like a wrestler should be thrown down from it the same way they are a clothesline.

Found this to have several cool ideas, and a triple threat where all three are decently active for most of it is nice, but I came away disappointed with the match. I know Lesnar is Lesnar but he straight up no sells the AA aside from maybe looking sweatier and redder after it. Then he gets laid out near the steps for a moment and instead of Cena taking the opportunity as quickly as he can, he's having to take even longer on the five knuckle shuffle because the crowd are more boo-ier than normal (who's fucking idea was it to have this Reigns victory Rumble in Philly??). Lesnar being the looming threat makes a three way actually super interesting to me when I usually don't care for them, and I think with him out for a bit they missed an opportunity to have Cena try to really bum rush Rollins before Lesnar gets back up (or have try to Rollins bum rush Cena). I liked the elbow drop spot that ACTUALLY (almost) takes Lesnar out though, even if I started drifting away during the Cena vs. Rollins bit. I wouldn't say this wasn't good because it does have a lot of positives (they did a great job of diversifying Lesnar's suplex routine with having two guys, and shout out to Rollins' awesome knee on both opponents), but really did feel it missed a few opportunities that could have pushed it up.

I can safely say I'll never be an actual Dolph Ziggler fan but he's good at more than a couple things, and babyface selling is where I find myself closest to becoming a fan (see also: Payback vs. Del Rio). I tend to think he oversells but when you got such a big guy and such a dangerous environment it makes each noodle-bodied bump feel warranted. It helps this type of match when a guy's not afraid to fall off of a ladder in a horizontal 270 motion and catch his arm on the ropes on the way down. Ladder matches being mostly dominated by one guy aren't totally uncommon, but I can't remember one that I'd call closer to an actual mauling than this. Some of the spots in were nuts and unlike a lot of ladder matches, the offense mixed creativity with interesting ideas really well. Harper placing Ziggler under the ladder and doing a catapult with both of them into one of the ropes looked brutal as hell; if watching live I may have been worried Ziggler destroyed part of his neck. Even worse, I legit googled in 2021 AD whether or not Harper broke his arm on that tope landing. Disgusting especially on the replays. I would have to watch the entire match again to count exactly how many areas of the body these two got lacerated on, it felt like every second camera angle there was a new spot on a finger or elbow where we'd see some blood. I loved how infrequently they actually climbed the ladder, too, putting over Ziggler never saying die, Harper having to maul him harder to try to make him. Also because it means each climb up the ladder feels actually big, and I thought Ziggler's scurrying toward a climbing Harper was as good as anyone's, too. Pretty great match.

I like a lot of the 'brawl-ier' early ROH and would recommend that stuff too: Homicide/Corino, Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 8/16/03 Joe/Jay Briscoe (cage), At Our Best 3/13/04 Styles/Rave (street fight), Homecoming 7/23/05 100th Show (4/22/06) 6-man tag - I actually liked this a little more than Cage of Death on last watch, but yeah that's a must-watch as well.

I loved this Unified match and haven't seen it years, but I'd be optimistic about it holding up to some degree, unlike the hour long stuff (except for Joe at FOTC, pretty sure that's still awesome). Funnily, I was going to mention that I never liked Danielson/KENTA. I'd called it well worked, and ***1/4 is probably what I'd give it (even though I don't rate) but for the life of me I could never really enjoy it or consider it remotely close to a MOTYC.