Superstar Sleeze

Calling an elbow drop off an ambulance "pretentious" is pretentious. I am totally on board with the lack of face/heel dynamics in modern WWE. Heels just arent heels really more in the context of the match. Did Wyatt give an all-time great heel performance? No. Was he effective in cutting Ambrose off and presenting an obstacle for Ambrose to overcome? YES! In modern WWE that is about as good as we are going to get, but that is not enough to make this an excellent match. What makes this match so good is that Ambrose gives one of the best babyface performances of recent memory. His selling of the leg was great and you really got the feeling he is fighting through all that pain that this victory really meant something to him. Goddamnit, the only chance he had was to climb a top of that ambulance and fling his body off on top of Wyatt. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO LOOK GOOD! He just had his body mangled and distorted. It was a last ditch home run to take out his opponent and he knew it would hurt himself in the process. You want face/heel dynamics, but then you don't want rawness in your matches. Yeah, I was not in love with the finish and they are way too reliant on SIster Abigail out of nowhere. I fully admit that I may be overrating this from watching this live. I will rewatch this in a year or so. But to claim the match is not even good, just seems off base to me.

Zayn really opened my eyes to how good of a babyface he is when I watched the 2013 Two out of Three Falls match against Cesaro. El Generico always struck me as a lame gimmick and too cute for its own good on the surface. I saw a couple of his tag matches with Steen in person when I went to ROH but was never really blown away. However, in going back to watch NXT specials from last year, I think Zayn is best pure babyface in the world. Was he this good as Generico? Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT Arrival 2/14 NXT is where pro wrestling lives, baby! Where has this Cesaro been on the main roster? No, it is not completely booking's fault. I am taking that bully mentality and those violent heel tendencies. Cesaro is damn great wrestler, make no mistake about it, but he has the same problem that many midcard heels on the main roster have. They do NOT do anything heelish in the context of the match. This is why "This is awesome" is so prevalent because there can't be good without evil and no one is evil in the ring. On this night, Cesaro was a total, unmitigated, unadulterated prick. Zayn is the consummate babyface. He is the lovable underdog character that you believe can win, but know it is not going to be easy. You know he is going to leave it all in that ring and you will never be disappointed by Zayn win, lose or draw. Watch the two out of three falls match first, before you watch this match. Ok, you watched it now, good. Unlike most modern WWE series of matches, this series actually builds layers on top of other matches. The only WWE series that comes close recently is Cena/Lesnar. The beginning of this match was probably my favorite beginning to any match of 2014. It was just so perfect. Zayn has proven from the previous matches that his best chance to elude Cesaro with his quickness, but now being familiar with Cesaro he is combining his natural elusiveness with actual scouting experience. Cesaro shows him up early with his power and gives him a playful slap to the back of the head that gets a rise out of everyone. Cesaro goes for the Giant Swing, but Zayn eludes it with a armdrag to the outside. Zayn goes flying out onto Cesaro and it is fastbreak offense that gets the crowd rocking. Cesaro nips in the bud by catching Zayn off the top and into a backbreaker. Cesaro is just in total bully prick mode throwing Zayn around on the outside and he looks to use the post, but Zayn yanks Cesaro into the post with his feet. Zayn looks to repeat his awesome dive through the turnbuckles, EUROPEAN UPPERCUT! HOLY SHIT! Cesaro had it scouted. Now, we get Cesaro going back to the post and wrapping around the post. Cesaro working the knee was incredible and some of his best work in the WWE. Zayn is killing it selling, but also mixing in hope spots. I loved the whiff on the enziguiri triggering the single leg crab. I love sequences like that. His next spot was for Zayn was his split legged moonsault caught by Cesaro and slams him into the ramp. Damn! That was actually credible countout finish tease and you really feel Zayn's grit and determination to return to the ring. Zayn's first big score is the Exploder into the turnbuckles. I agreed that Zayn needed to get hit some offense at this point in the match, but I thought it was a bit too easy for Zayn and felt more like it was his turn than him earning it. Cesaro goes back to the knee to cut off Zayn’s string of offense and applying a leg wrench using his neck as a fulcrum. Then you move to another interesting aspect of the characters. Cesaro starts to get a little cocky and Zayn takes advantage with roll up out of the Giant Swing. I love how Zayn fights during the Swing; it really makes for an awesome visual and puts over Zayn’s character. During a sloppy Cesaro cover Zayn slides Cesaro over for a two count. Cesaro almost more pissed at himself for letting that happened, crushes Zayn’s head with a double spot that had me popping like crazy. Zayn has another burst of offense using a hurricanarana off the top to set up his Yakuza Kick (I could not understand what Zayn’s name for it is.). Zayn won the first fall of the last match with that move. 1-2-NO! OH shit, you just gave Cesaro your best shot and that has to take a lot of wind out of your sails. Cesaro starts to obliterate with European Uppercuts and Zayn is just rocked, but won’t stay down. Zayn has one last burst of burst and the fists start flying. He throws a wicked German. Can he pull it off? I love Zayn’s selling with him holding his mouth, fighting through the pain and showing great fire looking for that Yakuza Kick, but Cesaro demolishes him with a big boot. Cesaro throw him up and European Uppercut only get one, but Cesaro will not be deterred and hits a roaring European Uppercut and Neutralizer for the win! Zayn and Cesaro just crushed it out there. If there is any NXT match as good as this, then hot damn I am going to be in for one helluva run. Cesaro showed some of his best character work here as an arrogant bully. Zayn’s story of craving that respect and proving himself by defeating the main event bully made for a great hook. He fought to the very end, but eventually succumbed to Cesaro. Then Cesaro comes back to the ring and gives him that respect in the form of a hug. This is a perfect representation of how to get someone over by losing. Everyone came out looking better from this masterpiece. ****1/2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze – NXT Takeover No. 1 Contender’s Match Let’s get this out of the way first, I love Tyler Breeze! This type of gimmick is right up my alley. Mmm Gorgeous is such a great catchphrase and he is actually pretty entertaining promo from the video package. I loved him calling a Sami loser because of the Cesaro loss. Also, I love how NXT eschewed long promos and opting the video packages. It gives more of a sports feel. Zayn has come up short against Cesaro, but it was a valiant effort. Now he has set his sights on the NXT Championship. Coming out of this match is when I realized how great Zayn is as a babyface. The hook of the entire match is Zayn’s quest to win the No. 1 contendership. He just lost to Cesaro and the Triple Threat No. 1 Contender’s match, so you really want him to get the win over Breeze to launch him up against the winner of Neville/Kidd. Standing in his way was Breeze who did an admirable job. Breeze will face an uphill battle to be taken seriously with the gimmick unfortunately even though I do love the gimmick. I was pulling for him to either be a great cheating heel or ratchet up the violence, but it was just fine, a bit pedestrian. I really liked the transition from the shine to heat with Breeze shoving Zayn off the top turnbuckle to the floor. The match suffers from inconsequential moves and Zayn not having a great obstacle to overcome. Zayn carries the match through selling and fire. The finish was really great. Zayn goes for his Yakuza Kick, but Breeze ducks and puts his hand up to protect his face and by accident hits Zayn in the balls. Breeze takes advantage with the Beauty Shot (the Close Up would be better). The finish makes the match and the Zayn character all the more interesting. Zayn looks to have it won and then bad luck takes it all away. Breeze is able to hang on and take advantage of an opportunity. Breeze needs to show more in the ring to complement his character. Good stuff, but not nothing great. A cool stop on Zayn’s road to the title and worth the watch to see Zayn. ***

My favorite opponents for the MX are the Fantastics. Though I do like RNRs Wrestlewar 90 match more than any MX/Fans match. So it is a toss up. Love the Sheamus/Daniel Bryan match! I am a huge Sheamus fan and it is easy to point to good and great Sheamus matches, but this is his masterpiece so far. Extreme Rules 2012 definitely should be more lauded. Chad, you my boy, brutha! Lets canonize this! It is funny, I grew up loving to read about the history of pro wrestling. I started watching as a kid in 1997, but reading about all the wrestling of the 80s and 90s fascinated me. There was no youtube yet so I was left to my own devices. Towards the end of 2003, WWE began to really exploit their vault in the DVD format releasing a Ric Flair DVD and I was so excited. I just could not wait to watch this. Easily, the most excited I have ever been for Christmas. Pop that sucker in and it is going to be Flair vs Race in a Cage 1983. This is it, baby! I am finally going to see Ric Flair in his prime against Harley Fucking Race after all the hype. Then I watch the match and dud. I was terrified that all 80s wrestling would be like that, but thankfully Flair vs Windham, Flair vs Steamboat and Flair vs Funk was amazing to show me that 80s wrestling is indeed bitchin! Lets decanonize this muthafucka! I love the DDP/Savage feud so much. It is the best feud of the NWO era. DDP as the People's Champion was so cool. I think I would have one of their matches on a list just because it is a personal favorite. I like the Spring Stampede match because DDP gets the big win. Steve, you're my boy, brutha! I love the "Brutha, brutha, brutha, You're married to Kimberly, YOU'RE THE MAN!" promo (It is from Uncensored 1997, for those that want to watch it) always cracks me up, but then it gets sick when Kimberly comes out distraught and spraypainted. Savage attacks DDP. Great fucking angle. The Wrestlemania XIX match has already fallen a bit flat for me. I need to watch it again. Love, love, love the HBK/Y2J 2008 matches. Never saw the first Money in the Bank. I do want to watch that one. I really liked seeing two of them live in Boston least year. I love this Austin/Steamboat Bash at the Beach match and it is my personal pick for the best of their series. Austin's heel work is awesome and a really classic heel performance. Steve, youre not my boy, anymore. You all are crazy! This match rocks! Why is Rock/Taker/Angle on the list?!?!?!?!?!? Pedestrian. Midnight Express 1990 Farewell Tour is incredible! I go with the RNRs match for the match of that tour, but the Southern Boys is right there with it. Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid is killer. Definitely a contender for best RAW match ever. Bret Hart in the babyface vs babyface matches is when he is at his best. Hart just rocks those like no one else. I need to rewatch Flair/Dusty matches. They seemed pretty mediocre when I was a teen, but maybe if I rewatch it. I love Flair/Dusty story going into Starrcade 1985. Wouldn't Flair/Dusty from GAB '86 when he won the title the match to show because at least Dusty wins? I fall in the camp that this is just an Ultimo Dragon's offensive exhibition and really lacked struggle. I prefer Misterio/Malenko especially at GAB '96. Piper/Valentine is bloody awesome. People don't like this match?!?!?!? EAR PSYCHOLOGY BABY! My favorite Piper match by far and I liked the Buddy Rose stuff a lot. I am a huge fan of The Hammer. Valentine definitely needed to be represented. Everyone should be aware how badass he is. I am going to refrain from any Austin/HHH comments until I rewatch. I was at Punk/Taker live at Wrestlemania and top 3 crowd reaction for me personally to attend. Really cool match to see live. For those curious, it would be attending the last RAW before Money in the Bank 2011 (that's the ice cream bar promo), Punk/Taker match and Royal Rumble 2015. The Canadian Stampede match is so much fun and a great character-driven match. Type of match sorely lacking nowadays. Money in the Bank 2011 was one of the loudest crowds I have heard. Bryan/Zigs is from the era where I was watching RAW every week, but was totally checked out and never even looked up the hot PPV matches. Charles has a good point about getting Zigs on the list. This was pretty heralded at the time and considered WWE MOTYC 2010. I have never seen it. Sting/Cactus is one of my favorite non-Vader Sting matches and I really, really liked it when I first saw it, but it has lessen over the years. I love the length of time of this match. They were working at a pace that kills and matches like that should not last long. Punk/Cena RAW '13 was one of my favorite matches of 2013 and my favorite of the new Cena layout where Cena has to earn each of his moves almost like levels you unlock. The story of Cena having trouble beating Punk and then vanquishing him on the head to facing The Rock was awesome. This could be the best RAW match ever. WOW! ALL THREE OF YOU! Thank you Steven!!! I loved Cesaro/Zayn two out of three falls. I disagree totally about being around the spots. The match was totally rooted in a fundamental story of the underdog trying to earn the respect of the big dog. The first fall plays off the fact that Zayn had beat Cesaro won on a flash pin. So the two out of three falls was to have Zayn prove he can definitively beat Cesaro twice. Cesaro is a power-spot guy and I have been all over for Cesaro adding more heelishness to his work since he tends to work very neutral. I thought these two matches against Zayn were his best work as a bully. Cena/Cesaro was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more of a spotfest!!! Zayn is suffocating Cesaro after winning the first fall because he knows he can't fall behind. When he does, it is a battle of Cesaro's strength against Zayn's elsuiveness and it rages to a great climax. Don't see how this was indyriffic? This is a truly incredible match that embodies everything that makes wrestling great: Bully vs underdog, Strength vs. speed, struggle, playing off early matches, great build, bitchin' spots, awesome layout and a tremendous finish. You all are crazy!

Go Shiozaki vs Suwama - AJPW 9/15/14 Royal Road Tournament I really enjoyed Suwama in the two matches I watched for the Best of Japan in the 2000s and the trend continued here. Suwama understood Shiozaki's greatest asset to be his energy. He continually sapped that by effectively using the sleeper. This did not achieve the level of the famous sleepers match between Pegasus Kid and Black Tiger in 1996, but it was a perfect use of the sleeper. The sleeper/chinlock is best used to drain the energy of an explosive babyface and let a heel regain his wind. Too often it is misused and thus triggers people's attention to drift. Shiozaki is all about those chops, but Suwama is going to make sure there is nothing behind those chops after the sleeper. You see how Suwama modulates his selling. Suwama sells the chops at the beginning of the match, but after the sleeper he stands tall. Shiozaki did a great job selling the first sleeper as really knocking him out. He is great at peppering in the hope spots, but his selling leaves a lot to be desired. He just does not have enough emotion. As good as Shiozaki's chops look, Suwama's double chop is so sick and maybe my favorite move in wrestling now. Suwama was wrestling perfectly. He took his time and was cocky when it was time, but anytime Shizaki started to fire off, he would immediately snuff the fire out with a double chop or a powerslam. Go finally mounts a bit of a comeback and is looking for a macho pissing contest so Suwama says fuck that and grabs him by the hair and applies a sleeper. Suwama is my hero. Suwama obliterates Shiozaki with a lariat and then a belly to belly suplex. With the match firmly back in his hand, Suwama looks to polish him off with his powerbomb. Shiozaki escaps and looks for refuge on the apron. Suwama comes flying across the ring with a HUGE dropkick and follows up with a suicide dive. Suwama returns to the sleeper to set up the powerbomb, but Misawa-rana. Man copying Misawa AND Kobashi, now that is just not fair! Suwama immediately clamps on a sleeper. I love Suwama's urgency. Suwama tries to gain the pin three times. Go busts out the classic collapse on a rope run and he really exaggerates his chops not having much. This is some really good shit here. Suwama is all over him, but looks to get a running start and Go roars out of the corner with a lariat. Ruh roh! Shiozaki hits a big lariat to send Suwama tumbling out and HUGE plancha by Go! Shiozaki goes all in on the lariat. Suwama is not going down without a fight, but he is on jelly legs. Suwama is selling like a boss. The double chop crushing a roaring burning lariat attempt was awesome! Eventually, Go hits a big time lariat to set up the Go Flasher & Limit Break for the win. Suwama totally outclassed Shiozaki here carrying him to a great match and the second best AJPW match of the year. Suwama was wrestling at such a high level. He was using the sleeper to debilitate his opponent and set himself up for the powerbomb. He was cocky when it was time and snuffed out Go when appropriate. Go Shiozaki needs more emotion and his selling for the majority of the match left a lot to be desired. The finish run was typical late 2000s puroresu and was fine for what it was. Suwama is underrated and this is a great showcase for him. ****1/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Joe Doering vs Go Shiozaki - AJPW 01/03/15 Hey if you are going to imitate, then imitate the best and there ain't much better than Hansen/Kobashi. Shiozaki is not nearly as histrionic as Kobashi and Doering is not as wild as Hansen, but together they still put together a great match. Unusual for a puroresu match, the eventual winner actually takes most of the offense in this one, but it still feels like Doering was a big mountain to climb. Early on, Go just could not get anything going with his vicious chops. Doering would just steamroll him with shoulder tackles and overwhelm him with power. Go got pissed off after one too many shoulder tackle and took it to Doering with some rapid fire chops. A thrust kick to the head finally stuns the big man. The one thing Doering really captured from Stan was always moving forward. Even when wounded, he was still coming at Shiozaki and you always felt like Go was in trouble. Three DDTs were not enough to keep the champion down because he just kept coming. Finally, Shiozaki threw a lariat so fierce that Doering just collapsed. It was one of the best sell jobs of the short year of 2015 so far with him just hanging out on the middle rope only to topple over. Doering tries to regroup with tag partner, Suwama, but is obviously discombobulated. Shiozaki lets him back in the ring, what a gentleman, only to dump him back over with a lariat and hitting a monster plancha over the top rope. I don't like the Frankensteiner at all during a comeback sequence. As a transition fine, but in the middle of the sequence, it just does not make sense. First Go Flasher only gets two and when he goes for Limit Break (put away Suwama back in September), Doering pushes off and hits a spinebuster to level the playing field. Doering gives Bray Wyatt a run for his money in the best cross body department. He hit two vicious ones. Shiozaki teases the Burning Hammer, which gets the announcers, the crowd and me excited, but he just hits a normal slam. Lame. Doering collapses on his own powerbomb and things do not look good for the champion. Go Shiozaki pays tribute to Kobashi with spinning back chops and a Burning Lariat to win the match and his first Triple Crown Championship. There were way too many strike exchanges in this one for me. I thought Doering outworked Shiozaki, but Shiozaki had looked like the lesser of the workers in all his matches of the past year. Doering sold the wounded animal lashing out really well and you really believed that one of his big bombs could take out Go. Go was able to persevere, keep him at bay, until he could crush him with a Burning Lariat. Go is just bereft of emotion and the needless strike exchanges keep this from being a true classic, but Doering is awesome and this is a great match. ****

I am going to stick with AJPW, but I'll be on the lookout for any matches you pimp. I think NJPW has a full roster but they need at least one more main event piece if not two. Especially an ass kicker baby face or heel. I am not sure if Morishima is the guy, but he has shown flashes of greatness as a monster. Have not seen any post-2008 work so don't know what he is like now. I think it is worth a shot to push him to the top. I think all the possible main event matches with him would intriguing. Tanahashi/Morishima at Fukokua Dome in early May would be one of the few dream matches left from 00s Puroresu.

My procrastination pays off. I'll be getting it this weekend and plan to follow NJPW in real-time this year. I'm excited.

Condescending, prick shoot style heel that liberally cheats is one of my favorite puroresu gimmicks. I have no faith in WWE to do it right but it would be fun to see Sonnen as a chickenshit heel that gets violent once he gets the upper handed. The money is not Sonnen vs Silva. It is Sonnen or Silva versus the current roster.

I respect you too, Mod Man! Joe, brutha, you should have walked over to have your brush with greatness.

Oh yes and thanks to Grimmas for backing out so that I could take my rightful place in the Sun as the premiere wrestling nerd.

Oh yeah, I had a blast and thank you Johnny for having me on the show.

Dont sing it, just bring it. When you are from Titletown, USA, home of the 8-Time World Champion Boston Red Sox, the 4-time World Champion New England Patriots, the 17-Time World Champion Boston Celtics, 6-Time World Champion Boston Bruins and of course, the 15-time World Champion John Cena, all you do is win! I am issuing an open challenge to anybody to come on and defeat the first-ever undisputed BRAINBUSTER Champion. SpoIler alert: I am going to win again, again and again.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 10/13/14 The championship rematch did not disappoint as they did an excellent job blending a normal championship build with some extra booking pyrotechnics at the end of the match. AJ Styles gave one of the best classic heel performances of the modern era in this match with his showboating, cowering and cut offs. Normally, I like Tanahashi in that subtle heel role, but I thought this was most effective pure babyface performance. He was fighting from underneath and was using any burst of energy he had to try to win the match. The match starts out with strong Tanahashi side headlock work peppering in a highspot or two to keep it interesting, but as expected Tanahashi controlled the beginning. However, on a test of strength Tanahashi ended up underneath the middle rope and Styles seeing an opening exploited it by yanking Tanahashi head first into the middle rope. Here comes the gloating and flexing from AJ. On the outside, AJ does his usual hop over the railing, but this time he is ready for Tanahashi with an elbow. In turn, Tanahashi is ready for Styles and catches him into a Northern Lights Suplex. Can Tanahashi capitalize? He is pretty hurt. Styles begs off in the ring and baits him with a powder only to drive him into the apron. Styles is giving a great NWA champion like performance. Styles continually has an answer for Tanahashi in the form of chops or flying forearms. Styles goes to the flying forearm well once too many and Tanahashi breaks it up and hits a High Fly Flow to the outside. The big bomb may have bought some time for Tanahashi, but it also took something out of him. At the same time, this is a wake-up call that he needs to end this match and begins looking for the Styles Clash. Tanahashi wriggles out twice and turns AJ's punch combination into a Human Capture Suplex. Styles is the best at selling the Human Capture Suplex. It gets a little suplex-tradey at this point, but Tanahashi finally strings enough offense together Dragon Suplex and two High Fly Flows that it looks like he will win until Jarrett pulls the ref out. Here comes the booking pyrotechnics. Styles takes advantage of the distraction with the Pele and Elevated DDT, which is usually the callsign for Styles Clash. Tanahashi breaks out of the Clash so Styles throws him into the ref. JJ looks to attack, but it is Yoshi-Tastu? Color me unimpressed. That felt really TNA. Styles hits him with a ballshot to end the fighting spirit exchange. As a fighting spirit strike exchange hater that was the perfect ending. Styles gets tried of his constant movement in and out of the Styles Clash so he drops on his head with Hollow Point. He attempts the Springboard 450 for the first time in NJPW (to my knowledge), but he eats knees. If Tanahashi just won with High Fly Flow right there that would have been perfect, but it goes on like two spots extra before that result. The first New Japan match that I thought went too long for its own good. When you compare that to multitude of NOAH and modern WWE matches with that problem, one NJPW match going long is not that bad. I don't mind "overbooking" as much as most, but you got to have a better payoff than Yoshi-fucking-Tatsu! I thought the match up until the finish stretch was a really strong championship match with Styles looking overwhelmed early, finding his opening, then vacillating between confident and desperate perfectly. Tanahashi was great at fighting underneath and never letting the match get too far away from him so that the finish stretch was credible. I liked Styles busting out the Springboard 450 as a little something extra for the big moment. I think him going for that big bomb and immediately losing would have made for an excellent story, but unfortunately they went two spots too many. Still, overall a really strong championship match level effort from both men, definitely check it out. ****1/4

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff - MLG 4/21/85 The Maple Leaf Gardens is rocking for the Hulkster baby! Running wild and unbridled! Orndorff is overwhelmed early by the Hulkster. I love the force of things like Hogan's shoulderblock. Hogan is just so good at entertaining with his mannerisms while the heel cowers in the corner or takes a breather on the outside. That seemed to be Wonderful's strategy early to powder and break the Hulkster's rhythm. Orndorff took over with some knee lifts and repeated elbows to back of teh head. He throws into the guardrail, but overall this is a pretty pedesterian beatdown with the knee drops being the climax. Hogan wakes everyone up by repeatedly ramming Orndorff's head into the turnbuckle. Hogan is irresistible, but wait Orndorff cuts off the Hulk Up. He heads up top and cross-body, which Hogan rolls through and scores the pin. Wow! Not the most decisive Hulk Hogan finish and at first I smelt a rematch, but I was unsure because I thought Mr. Wonderful turned babyface around this time. There it was he extends the olive branch and Hogan shakes his hand. Now that Orndorff is going to be a good guy he gets a closer finish to put him over as someone more special, which is smart booking. Nothing special, one of the more ho-hum Hogan matches for the time period, only interesting thing was seeing Hogan and his massive frame roll through a cross-body into an ugly, ugly pin that had both Gorrilla and Jesse wondering if he truly got the pin.

Harper is a sadistic monster that is willing to hurl himself at Ziggler to inflict more pain. I did not notice that Ziggler had the ladder up and that is an excellent point and it is too bad. I thought the middle rope slingshot was totally in line with Harper's behavior up until that point. I liked how the match built from Ziggler having no shot to having some glimmers of hope before breaking out into the big finish. I thought it built really well and was best Ziggler gets his ass kicked match. The victory feels like a big deal and when the last time an IC title victory felt like a big deal?

Wild Burning (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) vs. Xceed (Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara) - AJPW 12/6/14 There have been strecthes in all these 2014 AJPW matches where they are wrestling at a ***** level and it feels like you are watching 90s AJPW again. The action is explosive, urgent, but also with a sense of purpose directed towards winning the match. The best example of this high-caliber of work is towards the beginning. Miyahara has out worked the bigger, older Omori exposing a midsection weakness. This was not enough for Miyahara who was became obsessed with getting his shots in on Akiyama on the apron. Of course, he paid for his negliglence in the form of a wicked big boot by Omori. Akiyama without missing a beat, seized Miyahara and flung him outside to whip him in the railing. He explosively DDTs him all over the floor. It was like nothing else you would see in modern wrestling landscape. Maybe Brock is that explosive, but that is the only thing that comes close. The problem is unlike 90s AJPW they can not maintain the caliber of wrestling throughout a match rather these are fleeting moments of excellence. These stretches elevate the matches from the usual late 00s NOAH fare. I would say the matches are more similart to early NOAH than anything else. Back to the match, I am 100% sure now that Akiyama was the best offensive wrestler in the world last year. It is scary how deep his arsenal is, but without Misawa, Kobashi, and Taue it is going to waste. Akiyama blasts Miyahara with knees and hits a piledriver in short order. When he does not get the pin, he tags out with authority. I am sure Akiyama has a chip on his shoulder regarding Miyahara. Omori bouncing Miyahara head off the top of the steel post for the super back suplex was the best thing Omori has ever done. Miyahara is such a great young talent. I love how when he gets piledriven he is searching for the bottom rope because he knows he does not have the power to kick out. That is a wrestling acumen very few ever reach. As always, since 2000, a suplex struggle signals Miyahara hitting a hard-fought suplex to tag Shiozaki. I will give Akiyama-Miyahara their suple struggles look hard-fought and having seen a lot of perfunctory suplex struggles I am appreciative of it. Miyahara does the smart thing and tags in Shiozaki. I like Shiozaki's hot tag. It is simple but effective. His chop is the great equalizer. It is the only thing Akiyama has consistently sold all year so it feels like a real weapon. He actually blasts through both Akiyama and Omori. I like Akiyama's desperation to stop the bleeding with one of his bombs but Shiozaki has too much spunk to go for that. Shiozaki is looking lariat but eats a knee and Akiyama clamps on a choke. That is good shit. Shiozaki looks to put his team firmly in position to win, but gets caught quickly. Shiozaki powers out. I like how they are putting over Go. Omori comes in and hits his generic offense and the heat dissapates quickly. Shiozaki chops Omori's lariat arm and tags out to Miyahara. After the tag to Miyahara he trades some moves with Omori. One second Miyahara eats a superplex and the next he is kicking off someone's head with a scissors kick. Once Akiyama is in, he is looking for the win and the match kicks into the big finish stretch. I like Akiyama looking for the Exploder seeing Go coming so he lets go to cut him off, but it is too late and eats the lariat. Miyahara gets a flash triangle and his scissor kick/deadlift German combo as nearfalls. He goes for his kill finish the Butterfly Piledriver, but nothing doing and Omori BLASTS him with a wicked lariat. Omori is good for something. I liked the Boma Ye knee/Lariat combo to a sitting up opponent. Go saves. Akiyama runs through his usual offense of knees to the head and an Exploder head drop to polish off the young hotshot. Easily my favorite of the touted 2014 All Japan match as this one combined a ton of action with the great Akiyama/Miyahara story. Omori dragged shit down a bit. I thought Go wrestled well in the beginning and was a decent hot tag. I liked how they treated his chop and his interactions with Akiyama were good. Still, Akiyama/Miyahara made this match special. If they could just replace Omori with the recently retired Sasaki or someone like that, this match would have a real shot at match of the year. As is, it stands as the one All Japan match that can hang with the best of New Japan. ****1/2

I really, really want to like All Japan, but I think it is a stretch to put their best stuff up against New Japan. I think Akiyama is probably better than everyone in New Japan except maybe Styles at this point, which is scary. From the three matches, I watched he is by far the best offensive wrestler on the planet. Since he is the last of the Five Pillars, it stands out how deep his offensive arsenal is especially in this day and age of shrunken movesets. I think every single of his pimped 2014 matches had glimmers of excellent, excellent work, but they could not sustain. Omori is just one of the blandest, generic, create a puroresu star. His comeback in the Akiyama match is so flat. The Miyahara match is all over the place in part because Akiyama just has too much shit and because they work in too many momentum shifts. That finish though is HOLY SHIT AWESOME! Then Real World Tag League final match is again a ton of great action and there are moments where it looks like All Japan could be the best promotion on Earth shit like Akiyama pouncing on a Miyahara mistake and EXPLOSIVELY DDTing him all over the place. The problem is the same as late 2000s NOAH, too much offense and finish stretches that drag. I was hoping when all this love for All Japan that it was a return to the 90s, but it seems to just be a continuance of the NOAH of Akiyama, Misawa and Kobashi etc... I still have Go/Suwama and Go/Doering to watch so maybe that will change my mind, but if Akiyama couldn't it seems bleak. These All Japan matches are great matches, but New Japan has put out enough excellent matches that the gulf is still there. I know Sasaki retired, but they could really use Sasaki to replace Omori. Or and I can't believe I am going to say this fucking Kojima. Omori is just a waste of space.

Jun Akiyama vs Kento Miyahara - AJPW 9/15/14 In 2014, Akiyama was the God King of Offense. Usually, offense is one of the first things to go for the greats, but I would argue he actually almost has too much good offense that it has been working to the detriment of these matches until the unbelievably awesome finish. The problem with Akiyama dissecting opponents like Omori or Miyahara is that they don't have the cache of a Misawa or Kobashi that I believe in that comeback as much. Miyahara was way better at showing fire than Omori, which helped greatly. I loved the beginning the sense of urgency of both to pounce on each other's mistakes. Then it devolves into who will back down first in an elbow where neither gives an inch. Akiyama wins the battle and then slams Miyahara onto the parquet floor. I love Akiyama jawing with the ref while wrenching Miyahara's head around the railing. Akiyama has so many ways to hurt you and they were all on display as he kicked some Miyahara ass. Miyahara wins a suplex struggle and begins a comeback, but just does not have much in the tank. I have to say Akiyama seems to lost his ability to sell well. This is the guy who made Tenzan tolerable by selling, I would have liked to seen more of that selling here. Stuff like Akiyama walking over to hit a superplex just killed the spot for me. I don't mind more explosive type cutoffs like his Exploder off the apron. Then were selling issues with Miyahara who takes a huge knee to the chin and then armdrags out of an Exploder to hit a nice scissors kick, but before you know it Akiyama is back on offense. It is not like these cutoffs felt like they were fighting through something rather they were just false momentum shifts and they were used a couple times too many. I have decided against giving away the finish because the finish is what takes the match to the next level. What I will say it is the perfect credible ending to to how match had been built at that point. Akiyama rocked on offense per usual. Miyahara gave a pretty good young lion performance, he definitely has a lot of potential. I think what was missing was a more rousing comeback for Miyahara, who I think has it in him. There were too many momentum shifts for their own good. Still that finish takes this from a very good match to a great match. ****

Jun Akiyama vs Takao Omori - AJPW 6/15/2014 Vacant Triple Crown Championship Wow, this is like an exact copy of Kawada vs Kojima 2005 for the Triple Crown. You have the super worker kick the dogshit out of the generic create a puroresu wrestler in really entertaining fashion only to choke in ridiculous fashion to a barrage of lariats. The only difference was that Kojima was actually over. In defense of this match, I think if you plug in a wrestler with more charisma than Omori this match would be a lot better. Omori is about the most bland wrestler I think I have ever seen. He does the bare minimum in almost every regard, but never really excels at any one thing and especially anything involving emotion. Nothing he did felt earned or like he was overcoming anything because he just started hitting moves. To give Kojima some credit, he does have charisma and there is an energy when he starts to make his comeback. Omori is just so flat. On the other hand, I thought Akiyama's asskicking of Omori was more entertaining than Kawada's asskicking. Akiyama just absolutely destroyed the arm. I love he would just take Omori down at will by the arm whenever he tried to fire up. Akiyama has so many weapons at his disposal strikes, submissions and my favorite throwing Omori's arm into steel objects. At one point, Akiyama hits a crazy cool combination of piledriver into a Boma Ye Knee so sick. Akiyama is grooving into his usual finish stretch (Boma Ye Knee, Guillotine Choke, Exploders) and I am just like this is way too easy and alarm bells start going off. Akiyama is going to choke. Choke big time. Omori hits some weird lariats, which I am going to chock up to selling. Akiyama bursts out with an Exploder, a quick Boma Ye Knee and then another Exploder. Omori kicks out? Bullshit! Omori wins with a barrage of lariats, wow, that was lame. I have said this before matches like don't make Omori look resilient, it makes Akiyama looks like a choke for not being able to polish him off with all his big moves. Omori was perfectly fine at selling, but his comeback was pathetic. Akiyama crushed it offensively. This was probably the best offensive performance of the year in terms of limb psychology and the two EXPLOSIVE big move combinations. Did I watch the wrong match? It is a good match and worth to match Akiyama be a boss, but this seems far away from match of the year to me. I am disappointed because I really want All Japan and Akiyama to be awesome. Here's hoping the rest is great. ***1/2

How surreal was it for everybody else when Austin discussed the star rating with Keller for the Rumble Triple Threat match. The fact STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN The Toughest SOB in the WWF said he deducted a 1/4* for what amounted to finisher spamming was the nerdiest thing ever! My mind was blown. I think there are really only two wrestling dreams I have left: go to Tokyo Dome 01/04 or G1 Climax and watch an hour of pro wrestling with Steve Austin, the coolest wrestling fan who ever lived.

Not to get in rating semantics argument, but I would imagine how high you rate it has a lot to do with how much stock you put into feel-good stories and characters. I maybe in the minority, but I more invested in Daniel Bryan the character than I am Daniel Bryan as a wrestler. I thought this was one of the better character-driven matches in WWE history. I can see the ****1/2 rating if the feel good ending does not tip the scales for you. As for the matches listed, I have never seen the Jericho Last Man Standing and I really ought to. The Ladder match is great, but I think it is below the Street Fight. Yeah, Taker WM 27 does not do it for me. What about The Rock Iron Man match? Another match I have never seen, but need to.

Daniel Bryan vs Triple H w/Stephanie McMahon - Wrestlemania XXX In light of recent events, this match should only be more cherished as the night everything was right with the world of pro wrestling. The most emotionally impactful of the match of the year contenders of 2014. The Shield versus Wyatts made the best use of past history, AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki told the most interesting intra-match story and Tanahashi/Nakamura rocked the limb psychology like no one else this year. Wrestling should not hit in you the head, it should hit you in the gut. When I watch this match, I was moved moreso now than probably when it happened. Daniel Bryan represents so much more to me than just a great wrestler. He proves if you love it, want it and work hard enough for it that anything is possibly. We all know the obstacles in front of him and he just kept his head down plowed through them and became the World Champion on the Grandest Stage of Them All. Before the fairy tale ending, Bryan had to face the man who was the exact antithesis of Bryan. He was not the populist choice. He was a member of the Kliq, given a forced push to the top, and married the boss' daughter. Triple H is a lightning rod of controversy. Some contend he is a great ring general and master of ring psychology while loathing his backstage politics and knack for burying opponents. Others call his entire reputation a sham manufactured by the WWE to work the fans into believing he was one of the greatest of all-time when he was just a mediocre wrestler that happened to be connected to the correct people. This made him the absolute perfect opponent for Daniel Bryan because no matter your feelings on Triple H, he represented everything corporate and artificial about pro wrestling while Daniel Bryan embodied the passion and humanity of pro wrestling. Triple H offers his hand to begin the match and Bryan kicks it away only to roll him up quickly. Bryan came to play, brutha. Bryan is on him with kicks and HHH bails. Stephanie, who is a total smokeshow tonight with those short shorts, gives The Game exhorts while Bryan now offers his hand. What I love about the early part of the match is that even though Bryan shoulder is taped and HHH targets it, it is not as soon as HHH attacks it that Bryan just writhes in pain. There are levels of pain. Bryan is able to fight through the first couple attacks because of his determination and he can't afford it to be worked on. Yes, it causes a wince, but it is a just brief inconvenience. It is a babyface shine that is truly earned that culminates with Bryan hitting a tornado DDT from the apron and the somersault off the top rope onto The Game. Triple H seems shaken from this onslaught and has underestimated Daniel Bryan. He is able to cause Bryan to lose his balance on the top rope. HHH is not going to fuck around and looks to end this early with a Pedigree on the announce table, but the feisty Bryan fights out so Triple H quickly switches gears and wrenches the bad shoulder right into the edge of the announce table. OUCH! Only now does the heat on Bryan begin with Triple H destroying Bryan's arm and delivering the best limb work of his career. Stephanie laying the badmouth on Bryan, "Mess with the bull, you are going to get the horns" among others was just awesome. She would be such an excellent manager if she ever committed to it full time. Bryan's first hope spot is his signature suicide dive, but Triple H blasts him with a right hand. HHH hits a nasty back suplex with the arm behind the back on the apron. Triple H busting out the Crossface Chickenwing into the Crippler Crossface was wicked cool. Daniel Bryan will not be denied. He makes it to the ropes and begins his signature high-octane comeback. Triple H looks to cut him off with a suplex, but Bryan gets two Germans of his own. Triple H looks to stop the bleeding with a Chickenwing Crossface, but has to settle for the Tiger Suplex. Sick! Triple H showing he is not always a Cerebral Assassin mounts D-Bry on the top rope, which gives him the high ground and the chance to hit a sunset flip powerbomb. Daniel Bryan with a repeated running dropkicks, but on the third Triple H bursts out of the corner with a wicked lariat. I love the struggle of this match. You really feel like two men are fighting strongly for their respective ideologies and pride. Neither one wants to give an inch to the other. Triple H is getting anxious and abandons the arm work for the one surefire way to end this: The Pedigree. Bryan counters into a pinning attempt. Bryan's diving headbutt eats a boot and HHH right back on the arm with a Crippler Crossface, but Bryan reverses into the YESLock. Triple H after all the smack he talks feels desperate to end this. Bryan is a fucking maniac and hits not one full speed suicide dive, but two full-speed suicide dives! Bryan is feeling it, kip up, YES CHANTS! He is looking for that Knee that took down Cena. SPINEBUSTER~! PEDIGREE~! IT IS OVER 1-2-NO! NO! NO! YES! YES! YES! Honest to God, had totally forgotten Triple H hit the Pedigree in this match and Bryan kicked out. I actually saw him hit the Pedigree, my stomach dropped, then I remembered Bryan won and was ecstatic he kicked out. Now if that is not the hallmark of a great fucking match, I don't know what is! Triple H is flabberghasted and tries to beat the shit out of him while Stephanie screams in the background. This is Daniel Bryan's night and Triple H is coming to the realization he cannot overcome the power of Daniel Bryan and the People! Triple H desperately tries to pull the trigger on a second Pedigree, but Bryan wriggles out until finally EXPLODING KNEE~! 1-2-3! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Awesome match that feels like a real war and really mirrors Bryan's rise to the top. Bryan had to earn every single move in this match. His babyface shine was earned working through Triple H's early arm work. Then he fought tooth and nail not submit to HHH's killer arm work. From there, just when you think Bryan has the match won, it turns on a dime and Triple H hits his knockout shot and Bryan kicks out. They don't waste time with 8 million false finishes. Triple H gets his and keeps going for another Pedigree and then Exploding Knee knocks him out. Stephanie has to carry her husband out while they watch Daniel Bryan go to the main event of Wrestlemania. It is such a feel-good story combined with amazing fundamentals. I don't see a flaw. ***** Is there a better Triple H match? My pick for second is the Cactus Jack street fight and I think that is a clear level below this.

The move that brought him to the dance is the Boma Ye Knee. I think when times are tough and you think it is worth it. You double down it. It is not like he was Kaz Hayashi flip, flop and flying and then selling the knee. He was selling before and after the knee strike. You got the sense he was fighting through the pain, he knew it was stupid, but damnit he is up against Tanahashi and he has something to prove. His body language really conveyed that sense of struggle. Also it was only in short bursts. Tanahashi controlled the majority of the match, beautifully I'll add, and always cutoff him off at the knee. It was the cross armbreaker that opened up the knee to head game. Without Tanahashi prone, Nakamura would never have the chance to unleash a barrage of knees to the head. When you are coming from underneath from such a severe beating, you need a quick out. Nakamura had the cross armbreaker and knees to head, a flash submission or a flash KO. Nakamura's late match strategy digging himself out of a ditch was totally logical and the fact he sold that he was fighting through the pain made it all the more perfect. The only thing that bothered me was that it was knee barrage->nearfall->Boma Ye Knee -> win. It was such a needless nearfall. Oh, it finished #23 in VOW, for some reason, I thought it was #30-50 range. I must have recalled incorrectly. While I still think that is a bit low, I feel better now. Chad, Styles/Suzuki and this are right now a toss-up for me for New Japan. I still have Okada/Suzuki and Okada/Nakamura and a shit ton of Ishii to watch.

What really makes sense is Bryan getting a title shot for the belt he never lost...

I have a backlog of reviews to do. Knock out two before I go to bed. Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto vs Yuji Nagata & Tomomaki Honma - 6/21/14 Picked this match to watch for two reasons: I wanted to watch a modern New Japan tag match and I love the "underdog face paired with a vet face against a bruising heel duo" genre. It looks like the only underperforming part of New Japan is the tag division, which produced pretty much no match of the year contenders. This was the only New Japan heavyweight tag match to even make Voices of Wrestling Top 120 of 2014 countdown. Add in the fact this type of tag match is my favorite type of tags this was a slam dunk to watch. Unfortunately, I was bit disappointed. You think beating the piss out of Honma and a hot finish run would be hard to fuck, but I just didn't think the drama was there. I liked Honma jumpstarting the match. You can't help but be infected by his energy. You want that dude to win a match. He takes it to Shibata early and Nagata/Honma overwhelm Shibata. Shibata finally gets his wits about him and levels Honma with a right elbow and wisely tags out. This is what I am waiting for the beatdown on Honma and it did not last long enough. Goto is just as lame as ever. Shibata was a good dick, but he is no Tenryu. I liked him shoving his boot into Honma's face. Only one knock Nagata off the apron spot? Honma is already making his comeback. Nagata, who is GHC Champ at this point, does feel electric as the vet face bursting on the scene. Shibata tags out and he immediately grabs his armbar. Honma wants in and kicks some Goto ass, which gets me and the crowd rocking. Nagata is a great cheerleader for all this. Honma misses diving headbutt and Goto hits his finishes while Shibata detains Nagata to win the match. It felt really abbreviated and WWE-esque. Like this is one of the better WWE tags of 2014, but happened in NJPW. Where was the usual chipiness and constant shots to the apron guy or holding someone back or the constant saves. It was nice little character piece for Honma, Nagata was a good cheerleader, Shibata is a good dick and Goto is whatever. Honma is entertaining, but not at the level of heat I expect from puro tags. *** Katsuyori Shibata vs Shinsuke Nakamura - G-1 Climax 2014 So this weirdo Nakamura that everybody has been raving about well I will take him over Nakamura circa 2008, who was talented, but did not look like he gave one single fuck. Nakamura seems to be playing mind games with the ultra-serious, straitlaced Shibata with his shenanigans: yawning and putting head right on his bellybutton during a rope break. Shibata finally has enough to unleashes a slap. Nakamura is like "You don't have to get hot about it.", but Nakamura misses his running knee. Shibata gets a nice rip over the top rope and then kicks his head off when he is up against the railing. Shibata applies a figure-4, which is inconsequential in the long run. Nakamura hits a monster elbow and Nakamura after failing like two or three times finally gets his knee lift in the corner. I love that Nakamura is still the King of the Knee Lift. They trade moves like knee lifts, Germans and chinlocks. Nakamura comes running in and Shibata dropkicks him in the mush. The one constant thread is that Nakamura should really stop running at Shibata that is his downfall. BOMA YE~! Gets first and only nearfall. Nakamura runs again at Shibata and dropkick. Shibata hits his wicked spinning back chop to face. Go 2 Sleep and Nakamura-Seeking Penalty Kick for the win! Go 2 Sleep/Penalty Kick is my favorite combination finish in the world right now! I love that Shibata constantly countering Nakamura running into him played into the finish. It makes sense not to artificially create separation between you and your opponent. Shibata made him pay. That's neat, sensible storyline that is not exploited enough. Nakamura likes to build momentum for stuff like Boma Ye knee with a running start, but if you telegraph it, you will pay. That's the type of treating wrestling as real that can make matches like this fun. ***3/4