Superstar Sleeze

The match everyone has been talking about: IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki - G-1 Climax Day 7 Minoru Suzuki is pissed. He is pissed that some arrogant, punk outsider just waltzed in here and is now the champion. This is not time to stick out tongue and play mind games. That shit is reserved for those who earned it. He is here to teach a lesson in respect. Minoru Suzuki walking tall is the best thing ever! I would say this is probably the greatest heel vs heel match ever, but I would hear the argument that Suzuki is just a babyface using violent heel tactics to kick some ass. AJ Styles proves he is here to stay. He can take a lickin' and keep in tickin'. He is going to earn his stripes. Even if that means losing the use of his right arm, he is going to earn the respect of Suzuki and the New Japan crowd. It is amazing that the two biggest heels in New Japan basically play babyfaces in this match because they believe in what they are doing. Minoru Suzuki is going to send this Johnny Come Lately a message and AJ Styles is here to make a statement he won't back down. It just depends on your own sensibilities who your root for and on this night the crowd was 100% behind Minoru Suzuki. Minoru Suzuki slaps the taste out of AJ's mouth early, but AJ scores a dropkick to retaliate. AJ uses his jump over the railing offensively by hitting a springboard forearm from the railing. I love Suzuki's angry selling. He is pissed that he is getting his ass kicked by Styles right now and there is nothing he can do. There is just a real sense of struggle to everything. Suzuki sees his opening and pounces. He trips up AJ on a springboard move and applies a hanging armbar and then kicks ever loving shit out of that arm. Suzuki is out to rip that arm off and beat him with it. I love him whipping AJ into the railing and then trying to pry the arm off while this Japanese girl just screams the entire in the background. AJ's verbal selling was so good in this. His yelps of agony really took this to another visceral level. AJ is able to roll through a couple arm drags to snap off a suplex into the turnbuckles to stop the bleeding. At this point one of Suzuki-Gun jumps AJ and here comes the Bullet Club. I like the heel gang vs heel gang warfare in the middle. AJ is so committed to selling his right arm, he hits all his strikes with his left hand and they look damn good! I love how quick and explosive this strike exchange was. There was no waiting out, goading people to hit each other. They just both desperately wanted to knock the other out and they ended up knocking each other out. Then the match goes from excellent to instant classic in one simple moment. AJ does the Bullet Club Gun signal and puts it to Minoru Suzuki's head. Suzuki did not like that. Not one bit and AJ you aren't going to like Minoru Suzuki when he is angry. Minoru Suzuki grabs that finger and tries to wrench it off of AJ's hand, who is screaming in pain. The ref is even trying to tell Suzuki to watch the fingers. Styles tries to come back with springboard forearm, but that is caught into an armbar and Suzuki is going to snap that finger off. AJ is trying to everything and Suzuki just has an answer for everything. It feels almost hopeless for AJ. Suzuki goes for the piledriver, but AJ blocks. AJ knows it is Styles Clash or bust. Suzuki counters into a heel hook and Suzuki sniffs out AJ's second counter and grabs a cross armbreaker. AJ is dead to rights. Oh shit! Oh Shit! OH SHIT! STYLES CLASH OUT OF THE CROSS-ARMBREAKER!!! The kid may just got it. Suzuki spits at him. You feel like they are about to enter into Mortal Kombat. AJ is totally relying on left handed slaps as his right arm is fucked. Suzuki punches him in the face and thinks he has him. PELE~! Suzuki is knocked loopy. Go AJ GO! AJ wastes no time, he fights through the pain, hoists Suzuki up and STYLES CLASH! AJ wins! AJ did not just win a G1 Climax match. He won the respect of the New Japan fans worldwide with that performance. Both wrestlers were wrestling on a out of this world level. Styles felt overwhelmed. His arm was toast and he could not get anything going. Suzuki was just ripshit the entire match and had every intention of beating AJ into submission. Then just like that a desperation Styles Clash while in a cross-armbreaker and AJ salvages his match. The selling from AJ was off the charts. His desperation in trying to survive was something most of wrestlers could never convey. The true anger of Minoru Suzuki is something you also do not see. This was not hatred. It was anger. It was amazing. Every move felt huge, consequential and urgent. It is a coin flip between Shield/Wyatts Elimination Chamber in this. It does not really matter because at the end of the day, wrestling fans win! ****3/4

Shibata was someone who I thought in the right setting could be a really big star after watching his matches against Kawada (2004) & Akiyama (2005), but never seemed to materialize for him in the 2000s. He throws a wicked kick and knows how to spark that type of chaos that can make pro wrestling so gripping. It seems he is finally coming into his own in modern New Japan. I am going to start in 2014 and work my way backwards. Katsuyori Shibata vs Tomoaki Honma - G-1 Climax 2014 Day 8 As a straight up fighting spirit match, this is a ton of mindless, slobber knocking fun. But, unlike most fighting spirit matches, this has the cool hook that lovable loser, Honma is looking for his first victory in the G-1 Climax and the crowd is 100% behind him. I like the whole match is just built on Honma's straight ahead approach. There was no heat segment. Honma was going to live and die by his offense. For the most part, he actually overwhelmed the hard hitting Shibata. Shibata could rely on kicks and elbows to always quell any sustained offense, but he was no match for Honma's fast break offense. They built to Honma's falling Harley Race heabutt perfectly as he missed the first two and then when he hit on third try, crowd popped huge! The crowd went nuts for his leaping Zidane headbutt to Shibata's chest. I heard about Honma, but I had no attachment to him going into this. I am on Team Honma for sure now. Dude is pure relentless, positive energy! Shibata chops him in the fucking face at one point. Shibata goes for the penalty kick and Honma catches. Shibata slaps a bunch of times in the face hard. So Honma fucking slaps him into the next week. HOLY SHIT! Nothing stops Honma ok, maybe two boots to the head as he comes off the top rope for a headbutt. NOPE LARIAT~! Fuck, Shibata just hit a damn brick wall. Spinning back hand chop to the face and Shibata finally catches his breath. Sets him up for a G2S, but Honma struggles so Shibata backfists him in the face and then hits the G2S! Honma-Seeking Penalty Kick! Our underdog comes up short again. Awesome, hard-hitting sprint made way better by the great, energetic underdog, Honma who looked poise to score the upset. ****1/2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Katsuyori Shibata - G-1 Climax Day 4 Pride can be the downfall of even the greatest champions. I have argued before that beauty of Tanahashi is not his magnificent mane, it is his offensive strategy. Tanahashi's game plan is to attack the knee, destroy his opponent's base and set himself up for a victory either via submission (Texas Cloverleaf) or suplexes/High Fly Flow. Tanahashi can not beat Shibata in straight up strike battle. What makes Tanahashi a champion is recognizing that, swallowing his pride and getting to work on his strategy. He is NOT Bob Backlund, who is going to beat his opponent at his own game. He is NOT John Cena that is going to bury his head down, circle the wagons and fight through his opponent. He is Tanahashi, he is going to avoid his opponent's best shot and set himself up for victory. I have never seen Shibata in this long of a match before especially one where he had to sell so much. He did an admirable job for someone who is better suited to shoot-style mayhem. Tanahashi put over Shibata as a killer early by avoiding the penalty kick and hurrying to the outside to regroup. He lures Shibata to the outside and hits a plancha to set himself up for some knee work. Tanahashi goes to work like usual except he decides to go for a running splash and crashes into the turnbuckle. Shibata is able to smoke Tanahashi with a kick to the head up against the railing. Shibata favors the leg, which is awfully nice of him because Tanahashi really had not gotten down to work on it yet. I have seen people no sell a lot worse and I would have not begrudged him not to sell it. Shibata seems more reserved than usual. He is hitting Tanahashi hard, but it is not as urgent or energetic as I would like it to be. Tanahashi is playing to the crowd way too much when he his flurries of offense and it is costing him. Tanahashi catches the Penalty Kick and Dragon Leg Screw! That's Tanahashi I know! Texas Cloverleaf, but can't secure the submission. I love when Tanahashi flips his opponent over before hitting High Fly Flow to avoid the knees. On his second High Fly Flow (I also like that he does High Fly Flow in pairs), Shibata gets his knees up. Then Tanahashi does something uncharacteristic he gets sucked into an elbow exchange. Shibata is able to obliterate his back with a spinning back chop. Tanahashi's sell is so awesome. Shibata has a bit of trouble with Go 2 Sleep, but is able to wrangle Tanahashi to hit it and the Penalty Kick for the win. Kayfabe, Tanahashi's head did not seem to be in the game. Playing to the crowd, not exploiting his knee work and then getting sucked into a strike exchange. Non-kayfabe, Tanahashi was crushing it selling for Shibata. Shibata came off as a total badass when Tanahashi was selling his ribs and then selling that last spinning back chop. In a lot of ways this was the story of Tanahashi dropping the ball and Shibata staying steady with game plan of strikes. It felt a bit cold and dry at times. I wanted more out of Shibata, who I know can get feisty, Maybe the story is that he is more concentrated because he respects Tanahashi's status and wanted to focus on winning. Either way it did not grip me even if it was an effective story. ***3/4

I will be shocked if someone headlines over Savage. So no need for Sting, Taker, and The Rock. The only reason not to headline with Savage is that he is dead. To me it is Hogan, Austin, Rock then Savage & Andre in terms of non-wrestling fans notoriety. Sting, Taker, or Rock overshadowing Savage just seems wrong.

Fuck, I have already fallen behind again. Here are two new blog entries: The first looks back at the four most prominent matches involving the Shield from 2014. I have updated my rating to Shield vs Wyatt Elimination Chamber because I think it is a great storyline-driven match that also has hard-hitting action with a sense of struggle to it. It is my current match of the year for the WWE. Having seen Styles vs Suzuki, as much of a Styles as I am, I think it does not have a hook quite as good as this match. Plenty of matches left to watch, but I think Shield/Wyatts passed its biggest test: Match Listing: The Shield vs Wyatt Family - WWE Elimination Chamber 2014 ****1/2 Front-runner for MOTY. Wyatts exploit chaos and numbers to fight with fire The Shield vs Wyatt Family - WWE RAW 3/3/14 ****1/4 Urgency and hatred. Feels like a nasty All-Japan six-man from the 90s The Shield vs Evolution - WWE Extreme Rules 2014 **** Ambrose Swarms, Rollins Dives, and Superman Punches Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins - WWE RAW 8/18/14 Falls Count Anywhere ****1/4 Disappointing feud delivers one great, heated brawl between WWE's top young talent http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2015/01/do-you-believe-in-life-after-shield.html So I wrote all those reviews for Ditch's project 00s Japan project, but I never complied them into my blog. So this look at the junior heavyweight matches from 2005-2006 with a special spotlight on KENTA from a positive perspective sinces these were the years he had really great matches with SUWA and Danielson. Match Listing: Gedo & Jado vs Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue - NJPW 3/4/05 Bloodbath. The beating on Wataru is the hook, but goes too long and hot tag is not satisfying. NOAH (Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki) vs. Z-1 (Shinjiro Otani & Tatushito Takaiwa) Honestly don't remember one memorable spot. Boring. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion KENTA vs SUWA - Budokan 09/18/05 ****1/2 Classic, classic babyface versus heel match. Master class in heel heat and babyface comeback. #16 out of 100 - Must Watch AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion Shuji Kondo vs AKIRA - AJPW 1/8/06 Fun American-style bullshit with interference and cool spots. Kondo is a great powerhouse AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion Shuji Kondo vs. Kaz Hayashi - Sumo Hall 8/27/06 ***3/4 Flawless, marvelous offensive execution. Weak on selling, transitions and story. KENTA vs Bryan Danielson - NOAH 12/02/06 ****1/2 Home Run Blows against slow & steady offense, makes for a cool clash of strategies. #24 of 100 -Must Watch http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/08/kenta-speeds-at-night-kenta-suwa-daniel.html

Anybody going to the XWA show in West Warwick, RI on January 17th? AJ Styles & Biff Busick are on the card. I'm pumped!

Look I know the booking is fucking awful and I acknowledge the main event shit the bed last week. But really guys did you miss that Bray Wyatt/Dean Ambrose Ambulance Match! I have been ice cold on both guys since this feud has started and they fucking rocked it. THERE WAS AN ACTUAL BABYFACE SHINE! The heel did not take over in 30 seconds. AMBROSE KICKED HIS ASS! Bray had to slam the door of the ambulance on Dean's leg. DEAN SOLD IT THE ENTIRE MATCH! When was the last time this happened! There were awesome hope spots with vicious cutoffs. Ambrose hit the Tenryu punch/chop combo. Did I mention Ambrose sold the leg the entire match. The ambulance dive was awesome because of the selling. So the wrong guy won, but who cares. There was a fucking badass match! Match of the year contender. Easy ****1/2! Lets turns those frowns upside down!

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Kazuchika Okada - G-1 Climax Day 1 2014 I was super pumped to get started on some AJ Styles in New Japan and what better place to start then where he really opened people's eyes in the G-1 Climax. Coming into this match. AJ Styles was riding a two match win streak over Okada having defeated him for the title in early May. I have seen about three Okada matches in my life, two were back in 2012 when he broke out and then one a couple months ago when he was a young boy. I don't have a real feel for him. This match while great did not really lend me anymore insight than I had previously. He seems like he is an all-around capable wrestler who knows how to carry himself, which is critical. Okada's entrance is really cool with the robes and chains. American wrestling needs a colorful figure like that. He is definitely someone I will be exploring in the near future as I plan to catch up on New Japan. For someone (*cough*Meltzer*cough*) to say this is Styles' best match or best performance is pretty disrespectful to AJ, in my opinion. I have seen a lot of AJ and he has had plenty of matches that are a total level above this match. I am not trying to slight the match. The match was a great match, but it was opening day of the tournament match. It is going to whet your appetite not satisfy it. Plus with AJ's title not on the line and AJ being up 2-0 in his personal series against, Okada you knew it was time for Okada to get his win back so the same level of drama was not there. To make a comparison to American wrestling, I would say this would be a candidate for the Best RAW match of the year, that's level it was at, AJ yapping it up during the match was awesome. It is a new part of his arsenal (unless something changed late in his TNA run) and I loved it. He was trash talking Okada asking him if that's all he got when he was in a straitjacket surfboard or after he took control, mocking the Okada chants. The verbal beatdown added a lot to the heel heat section. The opening part of the match was well-worked armwrenches before they tease hitting their finishers. From there, Okada takes over with a big back body drop on Styles. Styles lunges at Okada with two fists to the throat. I love that as a heel transition. Like I said Styles heat segment was definitely taken up a notch by his trash talk. Styles brings back the jump over the railing on an Irish Whip. Okada follows up with a cross body. They tease the double countdown. Not much has changed since 2009, I see. Okada puts AJ in a wicked STF (Take notes, Cena) and Styles is very vocal about how much it hurts. AJ uses the suplex into the turnbuckles as a desperation transition as we have seen before. I like that spot utilized for that purpose. He follows up with a torture rack into a powerbomb, damn that was nice. AJ is thinking it is time to end this. First he crashes and burns on the springboard 450. Then he goes for the Styles Clash, but nothing doing. The ref gets bumped (oooooooo that's different from the 2000s). Okada hits a sweet top rope elbow drop, but there's no ref! Here comes Yuijro of the Bullet Club, but he gets taken out with a dropkick to the head. Okada goes for the Rainmaker, but reversed into a German and Pele. The Pele kick is the usual set up for the Styles Clash, but Okada reverses the Clash into a TOMBSTONE! RAINMAKER~! After succumbing to the Styles Clash twice, Okada had a counter this time with the Tombstone leading to his Rainmaker finish. The early part of the match was carried by AJ with his trash talk. The last part was very solid escalation. AJ took over with the suplex into the corner and began working towards putting Okada away. At each turn, he was just too premature and could not make the most of Yujiro's help. Okada had an answer for pretty much anything Styles threw at him and conquered him with the Rainmaker. It never reached that next level, but it built to a very satisfying conclusion. Can my boy, AJ, pick up the pieces and gain some momentum in night 2 against the up and coming Naito? **** IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Tetsuya Naito - G-1 Climax 2014 Day 2 The champion comes in with a loss and looks to get things back on track against Naito, who seemed poised on the cusp of breaking out earlier in the night. In fact at the 2014 Dome Show, he was the challenger for Okada's IWGP Championship, but the fans selected the Tanahashi/Nakamura I-C match as the main event, which showed that in the fans' eyes Naito just was not quite there yet. From what I read, his career was on the verge of collapse until a series with the hard-hitting Ishii over the NEVER title resuscitated his career. I have seen about one or two Naito matches, but don't remember much. I will definitely remember this match as Styles and Naito put on a very dramatic, intense match on the second day of the 2014 G-1 Climax. AJ continues the chattiness of the Okada match and I am already hooked. Tie up in the ropes "Get him off me! Do your job!" You tell em, AJ! They go tit for tat early trading headlocks and Naito even hitting a Styles-like dropkick. AJ will not be shown up and unleashes a Jim Brunzell-beastly dropkick that reopens Naito's wound on the top of his head. AJ is just all over that wound. He pretty much does everything you want him to do short of gnawing on it. He elbows, knees, and claws at it. This is AJ at his most violent. I always thought he was good at taking the lickin' and keep on tickin' in the violent matches, but I loved seeing him dish it out here! Naito looks to create some offense, but on the apron AJ trips him and takes a header right onto the apron. Damn! Great cutoff! DId not milk it. Rather they milked a double clothesline for a teased double countout. That would not have been my choice. Just when you think Naito was going to take over with a superplex AJ drops through his legs and hotshots him head first into the turnbuckle. If they just had a little more time and had Naito really sell these cutoffs, this would be a strong MOTYC. AJ runs through his usual high impact spots: pele, brainbuster to set up the Styles Clash. Naito fights out of the Styles Clash and looks for a Super Frankensteiner. BLOCK! He has him in the Styles Clash, but he fights out. Naito dropkicks him as he comes off the top. German suplex by Naito and he fights through AJ's strike combination. Star Dust Press wins it! Can't believe I am going to say this, but I wanted this match to be longer. I know, I know I kept bitching and moaning about loooooooooooooooong NOAH matches, but if they had more time to flesh this out. This would have been awesome. Styles was violent and Naito was a great scrappy underdog. Let some of those cutoffs breathe and let Naito build towards a satisfying finish (a bit out of nowhere). This is match of the year. As it stands, it is very damn great ****1/4 IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - G-1 Climax 2014 Consolation Prize The biggest star of the company facing the champion for the very first time in the 3rd place match of the G-1 Climax may seem like bad booking, but I think it is really, really good. AJ showed up and won the IWGP Champion and I believe some of that credit is shared among the Bullet Club. Thus AJ has never faced most of these guys. Sure, he is the champion and an experienced vet, but he is inexperienced against this competition. So it only makes sense he slipped up early against Naito. As we know from real sports, it is hard to beat the same twice or three times in the same season so it was bound that Okada would get his win back. He tied with Okada in the block, but Okada had the head to head tiebreaker. It also shows the clear divide between the top four stars (Tanahashi, Okada, Nakamura, and Styles) and everyone else. There is a parity among those four, but they are in a level unto themselves. Now onto the match, which I think was laid out very well for what it was. People have said it was a bit off, clunky, awkward. I disagree with those negative words. Instead, I think they were showing this was their first match against each other and thus they were feeling each other out throughout the match. Their basic strategies were similar put myself in a position to hit my finish. It was a great first match in the series because they never give away too much, but they are both looking to win. The start was very even, which really helps Styles' credibility, who looks like a real New Japan star after the G-1 Climax. One weird element was that Tanahashi did a spot that is usually done to heels. The one where you lay out on the top turnbuckle get kicked and then land crotch-first onto the top rope and the babyface shakes it. It was just weird to see the reverse happen. Knowing 2007 Tanahashi as well I do, he must have been drooling to reverse a quebrada into a dragon sleeper and lo and behold he did! Tanahashi cuts off an AJ springboard by tripping him up and that was a nasty fall. My favorite AJ spot ensues, he jumps over the railing, thinks he is so smart and then eats a cross body. Never gets old! In the long standing debate of does Tanahashi's offense looks like it hurts? I think his elbows do, but yes his body punches are Kofi Kingston-light in this match. Styles obliterates Tanahashi with a spinwheel kick, but Tanahashi grabs a Sling Blade. When Tanahashi pulls down on the head like here, it is a great looking move. The struggle over the Dragon Suplex into a Human Capture Suplex was the best part of this match. AJ really put over how much he does NOT want to go over in this suplex, but his damn arms are trapped, which makes lifting his shoulder very difficult. Tanahashi hitting a Dragon Suplex out of Styles' strike combination was so awesome! AJ has cut off the High Fly Flow twice and the Styles Clash has been cut off once. Tanahashi struggles again on the Styles Clash so AJ hits a GANSO BOMB~! A word on that later. Styles goes for his own High Fly Flow, but eats knees and then Tanahashi hurries to hit his own, but the same fate awaits him. Styles goes for the Styles Clash for a third tim, but Tanahashi is able to get a reverse victory roll to win the match. Bullet Club attacks, Double J feigns the save and smashes a guitar over Tanahashi's head to join the Bullet Club. As a first match this is perfectly fine. They both had each other well-scouted and Tanahashi was finally able to turn a counter into victory, but it was not definitive. It earns him a title shot, no doubt, but it leaves intrigue open for the winner. Overall, it was just a lot of each wrestler's highspots used against each other without much creativity, It lends itself to that storyline that they were both tentative and working with what brought them to the dance rather than responding organically. Lastly, I wish the Ganso Bomb (it is a safer version than Kawada used as opponent's head does not hit the match) was used more like the Burning Hammer or Emerald Flowsion as AJ Styles' super duper finisher rather than the move that Tanahashi gets up and runs around from 30 seconds later. It is a cool match up and entertaining throughout. I think they set the championship rematch up well. ***1/2

I am also curious as I am planning on going over either this year (if I can catch up in time and have the resources) or next year for the G-1 Climax. Let me know if there are any other tips. Thanks!

AJ Styles has gone off baby and I am glad everybody is loving it. AJ is my favorite wrestler of the past 10-15 years and I think a lot of the "TNA sucks" blurred people's perspective on him. I was actually a bit worried that after TNA people would still be underrating him. There would be no excuses. Before I could lay blame at TNA sucking or TNA sucking blinding people, now he was going to be exposed. I am so pumped that everybody has commending him on a badass year. I was a bit disappointed that I missed out on his year because I was watching so much other stuff. I did make the trek down to NYC to see him wrestle Okada and Elgin in a triple threat for ROH, but it was disappointing. Styles tried to keep it together, but Okada seemed disinterested and Elgin was just all over the place. Well I am not missing my opportunity to see him in person again in Rhode Island at XWA on January 17th against Jason Blade. So in preparation, I thought I watched so of his ROH/Indy work from the past year. IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs ROH World Tag Team Champion Kyle O' Reilly w/Bobby Fish - ROH 8/22/14 Everybody talks about the Hero ROH match from earlier in the year, but damn this is not that far behind it. AJ has been on point in ROH in terms of his selling and his timing his timing. Whether it was acting concussed or glassy eye for Hero's headshots or selling his arm so well for O'Reilly that ROH crowd was clamoring for the AJ comeback. I would say the biggest difference between this AJ and the AJ I knew was that he is definitely laying his strikes in a lot harder. I always thought Styles had one of the better working punches in TNA and is generally underrated in his striking. But here against O'Reilly, during the finish stretch, I was surprised how nasty his clolthesline and elbows looked. O'Reilly has a pretty bland look, but is a fun wrestler. When I went to ROH last year, reDragon (Fish & O'Reilly) had a really fun spotfest with the Young Bucks. O'Reilly wrestled this match much more straightfoward highlighting some "MMA" influences (read: he used kicks and a cross-armbreaker). I really liked O'Reilly focus on the arm and thought he came up with some innovative, but logical spots to attack the arm (hammerlock into a legsweep). The announcers let us know before the match begins that AJ is coming in with a weak left arm from the G-1 Climax tournament. O'Reilly read the scouting report and goes after the arm early so AJ dumps him to the outside with a bodyslam. It was a great response by AJ to immediately get O'Reilly off him. Fish becomes a distraction and O'Reilly becomes a pitbull on that arm. The way he was wrenching it, you thought he was going to take it home with him. AJ is so great at slowly escalating his selling. AJ gets a quick counter and wants to get this match over with quick and goes for the Styles Clash, but his arm is messed up. He bursts out of the corner with a double fist to maintain control. Styles is able to continue hit other moves like the Skywalker Knee while his arm heals. Then on the outside, Fish distracts him again and O'Reilly whips him down on the bad arm. That's twice now Fish has been able to set up O'Reilly. Now AJ is really starting to milk his arm for sympathy as O'Reilly unloads on it with kicks and wrenches it with holds. Styles is scrappy, but O'Reilly always goes back to the arm. I love that when O'Reilly goes for any overly complicated suplex, AJ reverses it and suplexes him into the corner. AJ is so great on fighting through the pain on this comeback and displaying how he can't capitalize due to his injured arm. He keeps going for his big bomb, the Styles Clash, but this leaves him open for counters like cross-armbreakers and triangle chokes. The teased Styles Clashes really build to a cool climax. When Styles looks like he is done for in a triangle choke and AJ basically hits a one-armed Styles Clash in a desperation move. It was such a badass spot and they really milk with the ref counting both men down and the fans chanting "AJ Styles". Damn, well done. They go into a strike exchange, which as far as strike exchanges go was not that bad and liked the finish being the Pele kick. Crowd was really behind AJ and the crowd interaction made this more tolerable than most strike exchanges. Styles strikes especially the discus clothesline looked great. O'Reilly with great struggle on Styles Clash so what does Styles do he just drops him on his head GANSO BOMB~! That was sick. It should have been the finish, but Styles drives it home with the Style Clash. It is the Styles Clash against the submissions of O'Reilly. O'Reilly has made it so the Styles Clash is damn near impossible to hit and set himself up for a submission victory. I love AJ's responses. He is injured and needs to get this match over with quickly. At every opportunity, he is going for his big bomb, arm be damned. With each tease of the Styles Clash, the tension mounts. O'Reilly looks like he is prime position when out of desperation hits the Styles Clash out of a triangle choke. O'Reilly was great at struggling through everything and really making AJ earn his comeback. It would have been easy for him to let the veteran, AJ overwhelm, but even after the match started to tip in AJ's favor he was still struggling up until the AJ's ganso bomb. I thought AJ's experience really came through here in how he sold and built his comeback. It went from a split crowd to a crowd that was 100% AJ by the end. Great, great work by AJ. ****1/4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AJ Styles vs Chris Hero - ROH 3/22/14 Hero try as he might just could not kick AJ's head off his shoulders in this indy dream match, which has never happened in ROH during the Indy Golden years. AJ was not yet IWGP Heavyweight champion. They were touting the reason both men were back in ROH to win the one championship that has eluded them, the ROH World Heavyweight Championship. Chris Hero is the hometown hero in Dayton and I really liked the "Chris Is Awesome" chant. Unlike any other Indy match, this really had a big fight feel. When only a handful of WWE matches could even say they generated that same feeling that a feather in the cap of their reputations and on how they worked this match. It really felt like a Clash of the Titans with Hero trying to take AJ's head off and AJ trying to survive long enough to hit one big bomb to escape the jaws of defeat. Coming out the nice chaining sequence, Hero gets his first big boot as he swats AJ out of the sky on a leapfrog attempt. AJ says two can play at the disturbing the typical running the rope sequences and gets up a bit early on his dropdown, which fucks Hero enough to hit a dropkick to send him out. They do a great job teasing dives on each other with Hero paying tribute Misawa's head and shoulder fake. AJ wins with a springboard forearm to the outside. Hero cuts AJ off with another big boot as he comes out of the air. Chris Hero is anti-aircraft artillery. AJ runs into the mother of all big boots to his head and does a great death drop sell. It is at this point, Hero knows exactly what his strategy is. Knock AJ the fuck out with knees, elbows and straight front kicks to the head. It was brutal, gnarly and violent. AJ is sick and tired of these kicks and tries to take out the knee with a dragon leg screw so Hero obliterates him with an elbow. But as Hero pours it on, AJ slowly starts to fade. First, he can get a bit of offense here and there and goes for Styles Clash, but then offensive spells get fewer and further between. AJ was just spot on checking to see if his teeth were there, glassy eyed selling, acting concussed. He starts running wholesale into big boots because he doesn't know what else to do. In a last ditch effort, AJ gets a suplex into the turnbuckles and he unloads his new strike combination, which Hero does well countering the Pele. Now it is Hero that is on jelly legs. Styles may have hit the head shot to get him back in it. Styles wastes no time and goes for the Styles Clash. Hero blocks and hits a wicked Akiyama-like elbow to the back of the head. ROARING BIG BOOT~! HOLY SHIT~! That was a great nearfall for Hero. Hero may have punched himself out and AJ has just enough in the tank to come flying back with lariats at Hero. Then he rolls through for the Calf Killer and Hero has nothing left to do but tap out. AJ survives. It was Hero's anti-aircraft strategy of kicks, elbows and knees to the head against Styles's survival tactics. This felt like an absolute major clash of forces. It was important match for AJ on the indy scene and going forward in New Japan that he could take a licking and keep on ticking. I know he could I watched TNA stuff very closely, but for a lot of people I think they looked at AJ and saw X-Division wrestler, which means pretty flips and choreographed, floor gymnastics bullshit. AJ can take a whupping and deliver one. I don't know how many people thought AJ had this in him before watching this match. I know I did because his matches with Abyss, Bully Ray, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels only showcase this side of AJ Styles. Hero was really good in this and he had a MOTYC last year against Regal. For some reason, I have never sought out more Hero. I enjoy Hero, but he lacks that spark that really gets me interested. Damn, he still impresses. It is not just offense, the key to the match is the pele kick because that is the move that levels the playing field. If he does not sell that well then Styles' victory would ring hollow and he would like a chump for basically choke. Thus it was in his best interest to sell in doing so he got himself, AJ and the match over. This was a standup, knockdown slobberknocker. Definitely in my Top 5 American Matches of the Year so far. ****1/2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AJ Styles vs Kevin Steen - House of Hardcore V August 2014 What a colossal disappointment! If I paid to see this match, I would have been ripshit. The crowd seemed to have fun with it, which is good on them. I was watching this on Bulgarian Youtube so I did find certain things humorous, but fuck I actually would have been kinda pumped to see this as a wrestling match. This is second time within in a year that Steen's sarcastic wrestling style has actively ruined a match. I thought he really killed the Nakamura match at the ROH show I went to. Some of his stuff was pretty funny like patting down the ref and yelling "Leave me alone" in the middle of the match. However, threatening to stay in a chinlock the entire match and jawing with a Cena fan was eyeball-roll inducing. Though AJ was actually pretty funny in his chinlocks with "I am either going to spoon him all night long or pop his head like a pimple". The best part of the match by far the commentators (Matt Striker was one) played this match super straight. So after the battle of allegedly comedic chinlocks they called this "a chess match" and I actually burst out laughing. They went into a finishing stretch where they hit a bunch of moves on each other with Steen aping the Stunner and the F-5. AJ wins with the Styles Clash. Fuck Steen Fuck! Total waste of AJ and if I was a paying customer, I would have felt ripped off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOG Heavyweight Champion Ricochet vs AJ Styles - HOG 12/19/14 Wow, an actually pretty decent indy commentary team! I thought they did a fabulous job putting over Ricochet while still mentioning his weaknesses. They stressed how important the championship is and that the goal of the match is to win, not to entertain. Really I think that is basic stuff, but so many commentators totally whiff on that. What really impressed me was their discussion of the Styles Clash. This was after Styles broke Yoshi Tatsu's neck. The commentators explained how critical the Styles Clash has been to his career and agreed he should use it, but were worried about the danger. It really increased the drama around the match and the Styles Clash. Ricochet had quite the 2014 and seems like he is poised to breakout this year in a big way. He won NJPW Best of the Super Juniors and Battle of Los Angeles tournaments. He was the inaugural Lucha Underground champion, a key mainstay in Dragon Gate (decorated titleholder), and of course House of Glory champion. I was excited to take a look at Ricochet. I came away thinking he felt really Dragon Gate-y. He is good at incorporating extra flips into his offense and likes modified slams. He is not very good at strikes and is sort of all over the place as a wrestler. AJ did not seem to intent on reigning him in until the end of the match. This was a pretty tame spotfest. The first portion of the match was the best with some good mat wrestling until the finish. Ricochet would gain the advantage do some gloating and AJ would retreat to the corner. Ricochet is established as a grandstanding hot dog that may let his attitude get in his way of winning. AJ shows his veteran experience. Ricochet calls his shot, a People's Moonsault and AJ rearranges his face with a kick. The next five minutes were pretty spotty. AJ's offense looked crisp at least. There was an AJ legsweep and Ricochet started to sell the knee. I was hoping they could salvage something then Ricochet did two backflips and a Pele kick. But wait! Ricichet's knee is really starting to bother him and he struggles to hit a Shooting Star Press. and crashes and burns. Styles drags him over and figure-4 around the post. AJ looks to hit the Styles Clash, but Ricochet flips out. AJ wraps up the leg and CALF-KILLER! Ricochet makes the ropes. AJ is tenacious with a spinning toehold into a wicked STF. Bell rings, but it due to the time limit expires. He agree to five more minutes, but then the Bruiser Brody Midget attacked the both of them. The beginning and the ending were pretty entertaining, but the body of the match was them just throwing shit out. AJ's offense especially elbows looked great. I really how he is into Styles Clash teases. They could have salvaged a good match with an appropriate ending to the knee work. It must be tough to book AJ because he is not going to job, but you want your top star to look good. It is kind of like the old NWA travelling champion philosophy. I think tag team main events that set up singles matches would be better. It is fine, but nothing that great.

There were a couple of elements holding back the Wyatt match (the PPV one) for me. For one, I didn't think they capitalized on the high pre-match anticipation all that well. The crowd was so jacked for them to go at it and when they finally do, it ended up being relatively normal Shield trios match opening minutes stuff. It felt like that situation called for a more intense, big time opening rather what they went with. Felt likey the left some potential heat on the table with how they handled the opening. While the Shield were defacto faces and Rollins gave an excellent face performance, I preferred the more cut & dry heel/face structure of the Evolution match. I get that the point was to wrestle an even match because you had the two best teams going in the promotion going at it but I preferred the more traditional structure of the Evolution match slightly more. I am also not sure I saw the grittiness element, at least to that extent. It didn't feel substantially different in that regard than any other Shield match. The Evolution match had the better heel/face dynamic. It was structured tighter and as you said, was a really well executed version of your WWE main event tags. The Shield were more established as faces by this point. The opening minutes where the Shield came out strong was a better opening in context than the opening of the Shield match for me. Evolution was good tagging in and out and keeping things moving during their period of control. The initial Shield comeback had as much energy to it as anything in the Wyatt Family match. They worked just as stiff and snug against one another as in the Wyatt Family match (at least Bautista and Triple H. Orton was still Orton). When the match broke down and they started brawling, I thought that was a really well executed WWE out-of-control style brawl that rivaled the best stuff from 1998/1999 when that particular style was at its height (particularly with the Rock/Austin stuff). There was less aimless wandering through the crowd than you usually get in those situations. They had a plan for that segment and executed it well. I liked both matches a lot and this could easily be a case where I watch both back sometime this year and flip opinions, but that was my take. Regardless, both are great matches. Overall, I feel like everything you said about Wyatt's match is what I would say about the Evolution match and vice versa. I agree that when I first watched the Elimination Chamber match that besides the Ambrose match, I thought it started off a bit cold. However, when you really think about it, how many tag team matches in modern WWE actually stress how important cutting the ring off, maneuvering your opponent into the opposing corner and the use of all members of the team. Not many. Just because it is typical Shield. It is still pretty different than the rest of stuff out there. Also it establishes that this is the Shield's game plan: divide and conquer. This is mirrored in the ending when the Wyatts are able to beat the Shield at their own game and seize their torch as the top gang in town. Now onto face & heel dynamics, I think you are selling Ambrose and Reigns short. Ambrose is a great scrappy face in peril and an awesome firebrand (I love the Ambrose Swarm). Reigns is a kick ass hot tag, I agree the match did not have the same cut & dry face & heel dynamics. I thought it was very 90s All Japan nature and I dig that. Luke Harper stepping on people's heads, clawing their eyes out and kicking people's head off is pretty damn gritty. Luke Harper's performance single-handedly crushed anything from Evolution. Then on top of that pretty much everything Dean Ambrose is just gritty. Watch the rematch on RAW to see them ratchet up the urgency and grit, but they lose a lot on story points. I agree the Evolution had better cut and dry face and heel dynamics going into the match, but I fail to see what they did to really establish that Evolution were the heels. If I was not a fan of wrestling for the past 15 years and I watched that match I would have no idea who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. I know from watching a shit ton of wrestling that the people who beat people up for an extended time in the middle of a match are heels, but really what did Evolution do that was heelish. My main complaint was how sterile Evolution's heel work was. Compared against Luke Harper they are saints. They did not cheat. They were not really arrogant. They kinda got nasty, but Shield got nastier. They were lamer than the Shield so I guess that's a good reason to boo them. This is a problem I have in general with WWE. Besides Luke Harper, everybody is too scared to be a real heel. What really made me think it was lame was that there was no Shield full court press/havoc offense. It was not like Evolution had a plan to contain it. Shield just did not do it. The only reason this was not an average tag match was that they went big on the finish stretch and Ambrose crushed the face in peril segment. I am being harsh on the Evolution match and I do think it was great, but to me the Wyatt match was excellent. Loss, to your point about the ringside announce table, I understand it is your own personal hang up so I am not going to try argue against it broadly. But from a microscopic point of view, the ringside announce table spot was a MUST. The Shield debuted putting Ryback through the announce table. The Shield liberally used the announce table to execute their divide and conquer/havoc offensive strategy. The entire story was that the Wyatts had surpassed The Shield at their own game thus it was only fitting that Wyatts utilize the announce table to take out Rollins and effectively isolate Reigns just as the Shield had done so frequently before. When the Wyatts surrounded Reigns just as The Shield would, that's when I knew this would be my front-runner. I am a sucker for a great match story. Hands down that match was the best in-ring storytelling of the year by playing off the historical context of Shield matches, which WWE almost never does. Great, great stuff.

Care it elaborate on why you ranked Shield/Evolution over Shield/Wyatt's? The Evolution match was the best possible version of a WWE tag with a main event finish run. The Wyatt's match you a level of grittiness and urgency rarely seen in WWE with the cool story arc of Wyatt's beating Shield at their own game.

Are you going to XWA, on the 17th, brutha? After listening to Dylan's thoughts on Tanahashi and Michaels on different podcasts, I just got to wonder how he felt about early Motley Crue and early Poison? Did the Look At What The Cat Dragged In Album Cover, really confuse you, my man? :P

Hey Chad, don't you hate when commercials run and run? Forget, Chad, I fucking do! My favorite commercial is the one dude that half-halfheartedly buries podcasts about older wrestling with Animotion's Obsession (badass song). That is too rich, but maybe that's joke. Does anybody the timing of how long the commercials take on these podcasts? I love Place to be Nation and it is a great distribution conduit for podcasts, but I don't think I can take it anymore. I am a positive guy so I'll add that something good came out of the commericlals: I will be heading to West Warwick to see my favorite wrestler of the past decade, AJ Styles and to see what all the hubbub is about Busick so I will check out Boneheads. I didn't watch Wrestle Kingdom, but listening to these guys talk about these guys is always very entertaining. I kept losing it on "Funky Weapon" when ever someone mentioned it. I have seen a Taguchi match where he is wearing the Funky Weapon tights and I never even blinked. Once I heard you guys say it out loud, I could not stop laughing at work. I hope to be caught up with New Japan from 2010-Now by the G-1 Climax this year so I can actually offer real feedback. Great show! I hope there are more throughout the year!

The sad thing was he had the perfect save and didn't use it. "I meant four sides. Sorry English is my FIFTH language."

I think I am in minority, but I love Ryback's delivery. He is just so matter of fact. There is no arguing. It is honest, earnest and powerful. I thought it was a little weird for Ryback to be giving the underdog who sacrificed everything promo, but hey Ryback bleeds too, brutha.

Damnit, I never finished that 1998 WCW main event in review. New Year's Resolution tie up loose strings! Staring the New Year off with a six part series looking back on the WWE 2014. The 25 matches come from me scouring the internet's top ten and top 25 such as Wrestling Culture's 2014 Year in Review (all three seemed to be unanimous that Shield/Wyatts from Elimination Chamber was the top WWE match of the year). I am starting the series off looking at the straw that stirs the drink, John Cena. In my opinion, I thought Cena has a bit of a down year. Only Cena could win the title and arguably have the two biggest matches of the year and have it feel like a down year. Seriously, I think Cena usually has more quality gems throughout his year. This year he had the Lesnar matches and the Cesaro TV match and everything sort of falls off a cliff quality wise. That being said I loved, loved the Brock matches. Here are the short match reviews and for the longer match reviews click the link. Match Listing: John Cena vs Cesaro w/Real Americans - RAW 2/17/14 ****1/4 Cesaro strength showcase, but Cena fights from underneath to give this a sense of struggle. John Cena vs Bray Wyatt - WWE Payback 2014 Last Man Standing ***1/2 Fun summer blockbuster, but not enough hate and transitions too capricious, forgettable WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena vs Brock Lesnar - WWE Summerslam 2014 Lopsided destruction. Amazing Brock heel performance, Cena's selling off the charts good WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar vs John Cena WWE Night of Champions 2014 ****1/2 Cena avoids early F-5 & just keeps coming. His unbreakable will carries him. Brock's reactions are perfect. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2015/01/do-you-see-what-i-see-john-cenas-2014.html

The Shield vs Wyatt Family - WWE Elimination Chamber 2014 I watched this match and RAW rematch back to back and came away so thrilled about the rematch's chaos that it actually overshadowed this match initially. I went back and rewatched this one and just absolutely loved it even more when paying attention to all the little details. To me, this is the match to beat for WWE match of the year. It is crazy to think that if they pulled the trigger on a Dean Ambrose/Bray Wyatt feud at this point, I would have lapped it up. By November, I was actively rejecting it as one of the worst things on TV. It tells you how cold the product has gotten and cooled off these two molten characters are now. Ambrose was just rocking it as the firebrand that was the trigger for the chaos. I loved when everyone was turning to go to their respective corners, Ambrose just jumped the Wyatts. The tag wrestling in this was better than in the rematch. I loved how strongly they emphasized getting their opponent into their corner. That's the Shield to exploit the numbers game, but they may have met their match in the Wyatts that will throw that strategy right in their face. Rollins opening with speed to get Rowan into the Shield corner was perfect with Rowan bowling him over to escape. It put over how much strategy mattered in this match. Roman Reigns versus Bray Wyatt felt huge during their showdown and I loved how Reigns fought through everything. Nothing was given, he had to go through the Wyatts. The beatdwon of Harper in the corner was just classic Shield. That's tag team wrestling baby! They do a great transition where Ambrose's temper gets the best of him as he takes a swipe at Bray on the apron and eats a Harper dropkick. What follows is just badass. Ambrose bites Rowan, Harper steps on Ambrose head and claws at his face. I love it, Michael! The swinging neckbreaker transition is super weak though. Rollins was a great house of fire with great speed moves and climaxing on an excellent suicide dive that got the crowd rocking. He gets the drive by knee, but whiffs on the Curb Stomp and eats a swinging powerslam. The Bray Wyatt senton on the outside looked nasty. My favorite spot of the match was Harper had Rollins by the hair just playing with his food and Rollins slaps him in defiance and Harper slaps the taste out of his mouth. That was powerful shit. People talk up Ambrose's fighting from underneath prowess, but Rollins should not be underestimated as he fights in the corner with great urgency only for nasty Bray headbutts to keep him at bay. This match utilized Bray better as the game changer for his team. I like the idea of him letting his heavies do the dirty work, but if ever gets out of hand, he is there to keep in check. Ambrose makes the save for Rollins and eats a hellacious big boot from Harper. Rollins hits an enziguiri to get Reigns in the match (I am not digging these transitions). Reigns is so great in these hot tag situations and not just the typical Reigns offense, there is a nasty back elbow to Rowan that keeps you on your feet. In an electric moment, Reigns is thrown outside and just runs around the ring to kick Rowan's head in. AMBROSE SWARM!!! KATIE BAR THE DOOR! There is a pier-six brawl a brewin'! Harper suicide dive and Rollins says two can play at that game. Ambrose and Wyatt tumble into the crowd and Rollins gets double chokeslammed through the table. Hey, come the monitors did not explode when they were ripper out of the announce table. After more than a year of The Shield picking their opponents off one by one, The Wyatts gave them a taste of their own medicine. Now Reigns was left alone surrounded by the Wyatts just as he surrounded so many others. Luke Harper serves a beaten Reigns to his master. I loved how Reigns blocked Sister Abigail and turned it into a test of strength. SUPERMAN PUNCH! Reigns goes for the spear on Bray, but Harper takes the bullet for his leader. In the chaos, Bray hits his wicked cross body and Sister Abigail to win. I loved the finish. The Shield's strategy was predicated on two tenets: create chaos and divide and conquer. The Wyatts took out two members of the Shield leaving Reigns alone and then in the chaos that ensued Bray Wyatt took advantage to win the match. The match weaknesses: the transitions were lame & uncreative and I would have liked more chippiness. They were too willing to just let one guy have his segment and that be that. The rematch thrives on that chaos and full court press by both teams. I think if you could combine the best parts of this match and the rematch, you would have all-time classic that really could rewrite how North American tag team wrestling is executed and presented. As is, it is still an incredible match from both an action and storytelling standpoint as the Shield essentially get beaten at their own game. ****3/4

This made me smile (sorry Bengals fans and I am no Colts fan either): http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24935591/watch-colts-sergio-brown-goes-full-on-ric-flair-after-playoff-win

YES! YES! YES! My favorite podcast of the year because it tells me all the wrestling I needed to watch from the past year. Thanks in advance, guys.

WWE Intercontinental Champion Luke Harper vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE TLC 2014 Ladder Match Luke Harper may look like Bruiser Brody, but he wrestles like Stan Hansen and the world is a better place for it. He had a total disregard for Ziggler and his own welfare. Having watched wrestling for seventeen years now, it takes a lot to make me cringe, but repeatedly I was wincing in pain with each punishing blow. It was so violent and I even questioned if it was all worth it. I hope it will be because I thought this be HBK/Mankind match for Ziggler. Shawn Michaels needed the match with Foley to establish that he dish out the pain as well as he could take it. It is similar to how in the 80s pretty boy tag teams would be positioned in brutal fights with gnarly heels to show they were tougher than they look and earn credibility with the audience. To keep the Shawn Michaels thread going, matches like The Rockers versus Rose & Somers bloodbath in the AWA come to mind. If exploited properly, this can be that very match. It is so difficult in this day and age to be an asskicker and not come across as a cool babyface. Harper was able to tap into such an uncomfortable violence that he was booed heavily. Yes, eventually there was the obligatory "This Is Awesome" chant, but for the vast majority of the match the people cheered Ziggler and booed Harper. It helped a lot they were in Ziggler's hometown of Cleveland, but regardless, to see such an outpouring of emotion to cheer for one wrestler was so refreshing in this day of "appreciating the match" and other such hogwash. On the rewatch, with a closer attention to detail, I realized how much Harper really destroyed Ziggler for the opening half of the match. It is a testament to Ziggler that when I was watching with my family that I really never felt like he was totally out of it and that he was always struggling. Too often he can rely on deadfish/pop-up selling, but here, I thought more often than not he kept it a competitive style of selling. Harper established the perfect pace for this brutal masterpiece. It never plodded, but they never rushed to the next spot. He was going to let that ladder just fall on Ziggler's head and then climb the ladder to retain his title. Those ladder timber spots were vicious especially the one that clipped Ziggler in the head. The most violent spot of the match was without a doubt the Harper suicide dive onto the ladder where he basically piledrove himself into a ladder. How he did not break his arms and/or be concussed was beyond me. I could barely watch. The Ziggler pop up and scramble up the ladder was perfect, because up until that point he had basically no offense and now the monster has basically impaled himself it was time to take advantage. It was great drama as the Creature from the Black Lagoon rose again and stopped him. Not to be topped Ziggler took some hellacious bumps like on a powerbomb onto a Ladder (the ladder did not break) and then being catapulted into the middle rope with the ladder around his head (concussion city and getting busted open). Ziggler breaking free of the doctors to stop Harper from climbing the ladder was an awesome moment. This should not be lost in the shuffle, but the effort they put into this and how much they were willing to risk made the Intercontinental Championship feel like a big deal for the first time in forever. As I survey the damage, Ziggler is bleeding from the face and fingers while Harper is bleeding from all sort of odd places on his body. You really felt like whoever wins this demolition derby deserves it. Ziggler makes his grand comeback, but what's great is that it is not just one move. He has to keep beating Harper back, first it is a facebuster onto the ladder, then it is DDT off the ladder, then dropkicking the ladder into his face and finally the superkick off the ladder that wins ZIggler the match. The fact that it was Ziggler had to earn every single step by constantly hitting Harper with big shots really you made it feel like he could earn it. Ziggler proved he could withstand the punishment doled out by one of WWE's most sadistic monsters. Harper made him earn this every step of the way delivering one of the most malevolent performances of the year. Harper gave as good as he got as proved by that suicide dive. For Ziggler, we see if the WWE exploits this newfound credibility as a tough, die hard son of a bitch. The negatives are slight. but apparent: Ziggler's punches still look like shit and they did lose a bit of steam towards the end as the spots got a bit more contrived. In terms of a violent spectacle, where the pretty boy babyface not just survived the monster, this match deserves to be ranked among the best ladder matches of all time. ****1/2

I agree with the sentiment that his gimmick is basically to entertain the crowd at best and at worst it is to delight the internet fans with workrate. Wrestling should be built around winning and losing. I hate when it devolves into who is more entertaining and who is more must see. Don't tell me you are must see, just be must see. I am a fan of Ziggler's look because its a throwback. I dig long hair (makes selling and bumping better) and bleach blond makes it all the better. He has a sort of a South Beach party vibe with the Don Johnson suits and the LMFAO-style shirts. He has a weird promo delivery, where everything sounds way too melodramatic, but in an insincere way, which hurts as a babyface. He has a pretty funny twitter so he seems like he is a funny guy, but it does not really come across too well. Stuff like the Harper match will help his credibility a lot. He is essentially a blowjob babyface that gets his ass handed to him and has a handful of moves to put together a finish stretch. Putting him against a big monster in a violent ladder match gets him across as a tough guy rather than just a pretty boy. These situations will build him as a full-fledged, three-dimensional character. I agree that while they are fleshing out the in-ring stuff (and he needs more tools and better punches), that more needs to be done outside the ring.

The reason I chose not to rewatch the lumberjack match is that I thought the beginning was a bit dry. I am a defender of them breaking through the lumberjacks. It is not like they just let them brawl through the arena. They had to physically work hard to break through, which was cool. It was not enough to sustain it as a great match. I thought it was good, but not great was all. If you are looking for great lumberjack matches, there is a Tito Santana vs Greg Valentine lumberjack match from MSG that is really good.

The Shield vs Evolution - WWE Extreme Rules 2014 I really do miss The Shield. Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns were just so much better as a package deal. All three members of the Shield came out looking like a million bucks in this. Rollins used to have such a great working punch, what the hell happened. I loved the use of a Rollins dive early to perk up the crowd. Ambrose has just been on fire in these matches. He wrestles with such a great urgency that it is irresistible. I know others have talked up his face in peril work, but really shined here. You can feel the anguish, but he was always fighting through it, always looking for that opening. Reigns is just perfect in those short hot tag bursts. Evolution were perfectly capable in their roles and each took turns showing a vicious side, but none of them could sustain high level of urgency like the Wyatts. The match overall resembled more closely a standard WWE tag match than a normal Shield match. It was a little too neat at time. Bless Dean Ambrose, he did his best to keep people on their toes, but overall it felt more normal. It was the best possible normal WWE tag match, but we did not get to see that typical havoc offense that Shield usually employs. The high point before the big finish run was without a doubt the Dean Ambrose segment. From the get go, he burst into the ring and swarmed Orton. He was hitting anything that moves and was going to apply a figure-4. Reigns tried to take advantage of the chaos, but speared the ringsteps. A good example of how this was standard WWE was that Ambrose was forced to sell a weak submission breakup for a considerable length of time so not to upstage Reigns. Typically, Ambrose would keep it moving and wait for the big move to start selling, but because of a misstep in the layout he was forced into WWE box rather than doing the organic thing. Ambrose rocked the face in peril segment. I loved HHH's punch combinations in the corner and how Ambrose was throwing wild swings like Terry Funk. Ambrose staggering into a spinebuster was awesome. Back drop on the Pedigree and a DDT afford Ambrose to tag out. Again, transitions like that just lack creativity and I think Shield is better than that frankly. The finish stretch is very exciting. Reigns rocks the hot tag as he usually does. Once the chaos kicks in, The Shield is really in the element. I am talking Rollins flying into TV screen from out of nowhere only to crash and burn or Ambrose jumping across two announce tables to swarm HHH and Orton. They actually cover pretty well for Batista and Reigns needing to sell for considerable amount of time while they arena brawled. Reigns took an RKO and Pedigree while Batista took the Triple Powerbomb. I am not thrilled about guys lying around and then popping up magically once Rollins hits his big dive. They at least tried to cover for it. Reigns and Batista work a short, fun sequence with a great Superman Punch and then Reigns channels the Ultimate Warrior's Gods to hit his spear. The Spear and Superman Punch should be his big transition moves. The powerbomb should be his finisher. Straight up, I thought Evolution slowed Shield down a touch and limited them. I am not calling for a street fight or anything. Rather a return to that full court press and making everybody earn their offense. Also, I did not sense an overarching story. The transitions to the two face in peril segments did not really weave a story. One started by a HHH clothesline on Rollins and the other because someone broke up an Ambrose figure-4. The Shield really did not make any mistakes. Evolution did not really cheat. It is not like Evolution really leveraged their experience advantage. The Shield won because once the match broke down that where they are dangerous, but that was just the last quarter. Ambrose and Reigns gave stellar performances and Rollins was able to shine in his big spots. I would say Evolution's performance was too safe to take this to the next level. I would say this is the best possible version of WWE's sterile style, but they need to either add more hate or a story to take it to the next level. **** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins - WWE RAW 8/18/14 Falls Count Anywhere From my recollection, this was the best of the disappointing Ambrose vs Rollins feud. It should have been a slam dunk feud, but the WWE got in their own way and cooled this way down before the anticlimatic blowoff. I wanted to include something from the feud, but this is not a sympathy pick. Upon rewatch, I definitely think this holds up as one of the more better and more entertaining matches of 2014. It was not just a match filled with weapons and gimmicks. There was malice behind those shots from Rollins and hatred poured from Ambrose. Rollins turned his back on the Shield and screwed him out of the Money In The Bank contract and he was going to have to exact a modicum of revenge the only way it was afforded to him by beating the holy hell out of Rollins. Rollins' working punch was on fire early and I loved that sense of struggle to begin the match. The Rollins throat thrust to take over was killer. Rollins gets a little too cocky and Ambrose blows him away with a dropkick. Ambrose tags him back with a throat thrust. I love the tit for tat. Ambrose bodyslams Rollins and the chair together and chairdrop from the top rope. Ambrose is kicking ass, but in desperation Rollins sends Ambrose into the chair. We come back from commercial to see Rollins crossfacing Ambrose with a kendo stick, I love it. Rollins playfully taps Ambrose face with the kendo stick and that pelts him with shots. There is a tenedency in these matches to focus on the spots and forget to be a heel. Rollins did not give an all-star heel performance, but there were glimmers. it helps Ambrose was giving a great babyface performance fighting through pain and whipping the crowd into a frenzy with his out of control antics. The kendo stick catch and Ambrose hulk up only for Rollins to duck the lariat and hit a jumping high kick was perfect wrestling. They brought the crowd up and then cut them off. Really good shit. Maybe I have not been paying attention recently, but Rollins ought to bring back the roundhouse kick back. It is a great cutoff and he executes it so well. The double cross body block is killer and they really went all out on that collision. That's how you get a match over. I loved Rollins whacking Ambrose with a kendo stick to no avail to try to avoid being catapulted. They really kick it into high gear with Rollins powerbombing Ambrose through a pile of chairs and Ambrose superplexing Rollins through a table. Ambrose hits a wicked clothesline and Dirty Deeds (I am glad they changed that to a double arm DDT), but Kane interferes. Ambrose hits out of control suicide dive onto Kane and Rollins. He has Vegas rocking, BABY! Ambrose runs across the announce tables to SWARM Rollins and Kane. He is outgunned. Rollins hits a nasty curb stomp on the announce table and then one through the cinder blocks to send Ambrose to Hollywood. I thought the Curb Stomp on the table actually looked better than the gimmicked the cinder blocks. They overthink these things. The big negative is no doubt the selling. Being powerbombed on a pile of chairs and then superplexing someone through a table is a bit much. Ambrose did a relatively good job to fighting through pain unlike Rollins, whose selling was lacking. Also, I would have liked to see Rollins be more heelish. There were times when it was apparent, but that it became more about trading spots. What carries this is that you want to see Ambrose kick Rollins ass, but if Rollins is not reminding us he is a backstabbing chump then it takes a bit of wind out of the sails. The good definitely outweighs the bad. It was never a mindless brawl with you hit a move then I hit a move. Each move had weight and there was a great sense of urgency from both men in their movements. You definitely felt like both men hated each other and there was a reason for why they were inflicting so much pain. Rollins was trying to put Ambrose out so he can cash in Money in the Bank and Ambrose wanted to hurt Rollins for all he did. Both succeeded in beating the hell out of each other, but with a little help from his friend, Rollins got the upperhand. Definitely one of the better brawls of 2014. ****1/4

I miss The Shield. There was a time I really liked Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns and it seems so long ago. Let's wax nostalgic. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/04/believe-hype-shield-wwe-2012-2013.html [inception through September 2013. Gave their debut TLC match 5 stars] http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-shield-part-two.html [From September 2013 through December 2013. Battleground tag against Rhodes Brother ****1/2] The Shield vs Wyatt Family - WWE RAW 3/3/14 It was around the Harper double stomp to break up an Ambrose bridging FIgure-4 that I thought to myself if the WWE produced something better in 2014, I must have a really foggy memory. The sense of struggle and urgency in this match from all six combatants was unparalleled in the WWE this past year and was downright All Japan-ish in nature. Harper was the God King Prick of the match. With the chippy big boot to Reigns' face when he was on the apron, clawing Rollins' face and stepping all over Ambrose's face, Harper did everything he could to get under their skin and hurt his opponents. It was not about entertaining the fans, it was about inflicting pain and proving the Wyatts were the top faction in this turf war. His counterpart was the crazy, violent Dean Ambrose. It is amazing that in nine months, I find Ambrose to be this lame, moody, and sulky spaz. This Dean Ambrose in this match. He is the fucking man. The Ambrose Swarm is the greatest thing ever. He is just bowling people over with his boundless rage. Even the little shove he gave Bray had me and my brother marking out on initial watch because it is so atypical in the neat, orderly WWE matches. I want it rough around the edges, I want it RAW, goddamnit. Ambrose gave that performance. From the craziness that was Ambrose, there was the high flying excitement of Seth Rollins. I watched a lot of 2013 Shield matches at the beginning of 2014 and remembering being impressed by Rollins' ring awareness and movements in the tag settings. In this match as a babyface, he was finally set free and opened the match up with gangbusters, but unfortunately a skirmish between Ambrose and Bray caused him to lose his balance on the top rope. Ambrose losing his cool and Reigns being belted cost Rollins the ability to make a tag, but is finally able to tag Ambrose. Ambrose is just a burst of energy onto Rowan and does some quick, but effective leg work on Rowan to set up a figure-4, where he bridges on his head for more pressure!!! HARPER DOUBLE STOMPS AMBROSE!!! I LOVE THIS MATCH! Let's talk Rowan, dude was a beast dismantling Ambrose and keeping him contained. Harper is the firebrand like an Ambrose he is going to get shit started and be a jerk. Rowan is there as a heavy hitter that is going to pummel you. Crowd chants for CM Punk, fuck them! If you want pro wrestling, watch what is going on in front of you, numbskulls. Ambrose hits a JBL-Orgasm-Inducing clothesline, but Harper hangs on to tag in Bray Wyatt. Ambrose with a DDT. Wyatt comes in and wipes Reigns out. Ambrose hits a DDT on Wyatt. Rollins is all pissy and leaves Ambrose hanging because of what happened earlier. Fine be a bitch, I am going to go destroy everything. Roman Reigns is an amazing ring clearing presence. The Superman Punch is just fucking cool. He just goes to town on the Wyatts. Ambrose holding Harper down for the Reigns dropkick was awesome. The Spear onto Rowan was badass and Harper wipes Reigns out with a suicide dive then sends Reigns flying. Somewhere in there, Ambrose was just swarming muthafuckas with punches. Wyatt picks his spot and hits his wicked cross body block on Ambrose and hits Sister Abigail as Rollins watches. Finally, lets talk about Wyatt, who carefully waited in all the chaos with all the bodies piling up to attack Ambrose and swing the match in their favor. At Elimination Chamber, the Wyatts were able to out-Shield the Shield by taking out one at a time. Here, the Shield collapsed on itself and the Wyatts took advantage of the chaos to win the match. Rollins and Reigns were used perfectly to get the crowd hot as hell at the beginning and end. Ambrose anchored the middle and showed why he is an incredible face in peril. He can sell, but he is always fighting. It is always chippy. That's what made this match special was the constant struggle and urgency everyone displayed. This sounds shocking, but I thought this was a bit too short. I think they could have added more to the beginning and more to why Rollins was pissed to really drive home the point. Still if anything can top this I will shocked. Cena/Lesnar had the big match atmosphere and the Bryan Wrestlemania matches will have emotion, but I don't think they can top the chaotic and violent feel of this. ****1/4

WWE Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE RAW 6/23/14 Take a pair of semi-over midcarders and tack on a couple nearfalls and you get "This is Awesome". I remember watching this match and thinking this was one of the most egregious examples of the overexposure of the "This Is Awesome" chant. My beef with "This Is Awesome" chant is that it tends to be the MOVEZ~! that are over rather than the individual wrestlers. If Ziggler was so over. how come Ziggler was not being cheered? A lot of it has to do with how the match was presented and laid out. What did Barrett do that was particularly heelish? Really the only reason Barrett was the heel was because he is the bigger of the two and he would cut off Ziggler. It was a very neutral performance from Barrett and I have noticed over very neutral performances from midcard heels especially Cesaro. It is funny that all these old time great wrestling minds can't put their finger on why these wrestlers can't make it to the next level. I would start right there. Obviously, booking is critical, but if you are talking about things a wrestler can control, it is stronger heel performances. It seems the heels are too concerned with being considered "great" wrestlers, which in the modern context means MOVEZ~! I wanted to review this match because it made one list of top WWE matches of the year I read and I wanted to look at a Ziggler match from before his late year push. I remember ZIggler utilizing the babyface mid-90s Savage formula of taking heat, hitting one counter move and then going home. Of course, Savage would win his match with the big elbow, but most times Ziggler would lose. I think the match would have benefited from that formula. It would afford the opportunity for Barrett to look like a violent bully and for Ziggler to build sympathy for his big dropkick comeback. Instead, it was just I hit a move, you hit a move. There was no sense of struggle or real desire to win. Hell, you can't even claim they had good escalation: The Zig Zag was used as a throwaway transition, which built to a commercial and within one spot, Barrett was up and hitting the Cactus Elbow. Plus Barrett's natural size was totally undermined by the match. Ziggler was countering at will Barrett's offense and it was not like he was using great speed. The selling was generally not good and even when it happened like Ziggler not being able to capitalize the selling felt false (more like frustration) and did not feel warranted based on the limited punishment he took. The finish was pretty awesome with Ziggler going for the Stinger Splash and Barrett hits him with a KO elbow. I think Barrett and Ziggler have great potential, but have their limitations. Barrett really is not a good bumper or seller, which he does not have to be, but it will limit him. Ziggler has the worst punches in the business today and his deadfish/pop-up selling is annoying at best. However, I think even with those limitations, they can construct great matches against other people using Barrett's brute and Ziggler's bumping ability. Tag team wrestling could have taught both these guys a lot. Alas, it is a shame. The match was designed to impress the crowd. You work the audience. Don't let the audience work you. Disposable, mindless match that is fun to watch with your brother on Saturday morning, but not worthwhile on rewatch. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro vs Tyson Kidd - WWE Smackdown! 11/14/14 First thing's first, the new Smackdown ring announcer is realest. I may just start watching Smackdown for her. Hot damn. This match is a great spotfest and besides the Money In The Bank Ladder match, I can't think of a better one this year. Spotfest is a loaded word after all wrestling matches are a collection of spots. It is your fireworks spectacle in lieu of a compelling story. I think there is very much a place for them on pro wrestling cards (no more than one a card). If you are going to have one, then commit to it. The reason I was so down on Barrett and Ziggler is they had a spotfest, but they were just hitting their stock moves on each other. These three came up with creative, fun, and eye-popping spots. Sometimes they got too smart for their own good like trying a more complicated Tower of Doom spot that looked like shit. However, fun stuff like Cesaro covering Ziggler while in the Sharpshooter or Kidd hitting a Blockbuster on Cesaro onto Ziggler's knees. I also have to say after watching all that 00s NOAH that Cesaro hitting a big boot to start a match and then an exploder is the most NOAH beginning to any WWE match ever. In fact, if NOAH ever had a junior heavyweight triple threat match, I would say it would look a lot like this only with more strike exchanges. I liked the opening part with quick pinfalls by each competitor really put over their desire to eliminate a wrestler and setup a one on one match for the title. They also managed not to fall into the triple threat trap of having one wrestler sell for long periods of time on the outside. They all just kept going at each other with vigor. I would say that is what would separate this match from a lot of other typical WWE matches is the urgency of the wrestlers. The finish stretch begins with a Kidd sharpshooter/Cesaro crossface combo on Ziggler. The storyline behind this was that Authority was setting Ziggler (then the only member of Team Cena) to lose his title because of the stacked odds. While Cesaro and Kidd never formally teamed up, these moments drove home that angle. In an idiotic moment, Kidd breaks the hold to attack Cesaro and gets the Giant Swing. Cesaro hotshotting Ziggler into a kick by Kid was sick. Kidd has some really good kicks in this match. Ziggler hits the Zig Zag, but Kidd being the gloryhound he is (remember the storyline with Nattie) he tosses Ziggler out so he can get the pinfall. I like the respect shown for the Zig Zag. Kidd had a really good string of offense on Ziggler and you really felt him press his advantage with nice kicks. He tries for the Sharpshooter, but it is reversed into a cradle and then ZIG ZAG! Ziggler survives with his championship reign intact. There was no great overarching story and the selling was nothing to write home about, but for a spotfest you could not ask for much more. There were a lot of fun spots that escalated to a satisfying conclusion. Plus Kidd got some time to shine, which is nice and showed some promise. Good shit. ****