Superstar Sleeze

La Parka was definitely over, but I don't know if he could have been a main eventer. He definitely could have been a top upper midcard babyface act or top level tag team. Souled Out 1998 he gets a huge pop. Psicosis seemed to adapt to the American style better than anyone besides Rey. Ultimo Dragon's way of adapting seemed to be by packing in more offense than ever before and neglecting selling whereever possible.

Yuji Nagata vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 01/04/04 Up until the finish, I thought this was a classic, bloody, Dome brawl. I was perplexed why no one talked about this match until that finish, which takes it down quite a bit. Sasaki returns, but not to a hero's welcome. No, he must have been portrayed as a turncoat for leaving Inoki's New Japan to join a short-lived Choshu's promotion that would focus more on pro wrestling. Sasaki fit the 90s New Japan Strong Style well, but Sasaki stuck out like a sore thumb in Inoki's MMA-influenced New Japan of the early 2000s, but he comes back here to challenge Inoki's boy, Yuji Nagata at the Dome. Without the title on the line and New Japan in its nadir in terms of critical quality, I can see why this is overlooked, but I thought this was awesome. They are chippy before the match starts and have to be held back during introductions. It feels like Sasaki is a Choshu-like invader taking on the Hero of New Japan. They just stand up and duke it the fuck out. Sasaki rocks him with a slap to the ear. Nagata tries to fight back and Sasaki hits him a lariat. Sasaki goes for the cross-armbreaker to win the match, but Nagata retreats to the outside. Sasaki whips him into the railing and goes for the chair. Nagata in desperation smokes the chair back into Sasaki's face with a wicked kick. Sasaki does a nice blade job. Sasaki gets a lariat to back of Nagata's head and sends him head-first into the post. Nagata does a nasty, gory blade job. We get the double juice and Nagata & Sasaki stand up in the ring and just throw haymakers, headbutts and strikes. It was fucking awesome. Nagata is left in the middle ring laying and you can see the pool of blood forming around the back of the head. Sasaki just goes vampire crazy gnawing on Nagata and then headbutting him. Sasaki gloats and the New Japan crowd boos loudly. Damn! Northern Lights Bomb! He chooses to go for the ten count. He goes for it again, but Nagata gets a wild kick to the head that rocks Sasaki. Nagata follows it up and you really feel like it going to build to this awesome finish and be a slam dunk 2004 match of the year contender, but then Nagata just puts Sasaki in the Rings of Saturn for like 60-90 seconds until Sasaki passes out. It was very anticlimatic. Up until the finish, a damn exciting brawl. I loved the visual of the double juice with them standing up and just trading strikes in the middle of the ring. Sasaki was actually playing a good heel. Definitely worth a look and see. ****1/4

That Flair-Luger synopsis got me so enraged, I left a comment about how awesome Luger is and that they suck for perpetuating such lies. I really like this podcast a lot so far. My only big disagreement is that I think Goldberg/DDP is a slam dunk pick for this list. DDP was just on fire in 1998. It slips under the radar, but DDP main evented five straight WCW PPVs from Bash at the Beach through WWIII '98. I have become a HUGE retroactive DDP fan. I remember liking him alright as a kid, but I really, really like him now. Also, I don't think this is totally in order per se. I think this 100 matches you should see before you die. I could be wrong. The Spring Stampede tag team match is considered more famous in the WWE canon. It gets mentioned more than the Slamboree match and made the original Foley DVD set. I think Foley likes the Spring Stampede match more and that's all it comes down to. It would be an interesting question to pose to Cactus. I will defend Yellow Dog until my dying breath. Yes, the Pillman start is the best start to any Wargames. He is madder than a hornet.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs John Cena vs Daniel Bryan vs Cesaro vs Sheamus vs Christian - WWE Elimination Chamber 2014 The Royal Rumble, Money In The Bank and Elimination Chamber are matches I enjoy to watch live, but if I don't catch them that way, I almost never go back and watch them. I was curious about this one because it got some buzz, but then lost lost steam come end of year awards time. I really enjoyed this and this was far more character-driven than I expected. I thought Christian was the MVP with his desperate violence. If they booked all opportunist characters like this then they be far more interesting. Right from the outset, he taunts Sheamus while he is in the pod, which allows Cesaro to get one up on Sheamus. Then when he enters fourth, he shoves Sheamus off the top rope to the steel and then is laser focused on Bryan's arm. It made total sense, Christian is locking in on the weakest link and is looking to exploit it. The only problem is Sheamus hates him and Cesaro is a fucking rogue powerhouse. Cesaro had the second best character as the hot dog, arrogant show off. He was not wrestling with a High Wrestling IQ. He was constantly breaking up other people's chances to eliminate people. He would engage Sheamus in gnarly macho pissing contests. Why? Because he was out to prove he was The Man and that his raw power and sheer might would overcome even a shitty strategy. The first time we see that is Bryan has Sheamus in the Indian Deathlock and Cesaro comes at him which allows Bryan to hit the Northern Lights Suplex while in the Deathlock. This would be a constant thread throughout the match with Cesaro. Cesaro on at least two occasions stopped Cena from hitting FUs. Cena comes in and the secondary finishers go flying. Orton walks in too a mass of humanity laid out. Orton gloats as the crowd boos. He goes for the punt on Bryan, but whiffs. He is cornered so he retreats to the pod and the crowd chants "Pussy!". Holy shit, three heels acting like heels, I LOVE IT, MICHAEL~! Sheamus blasts the pod down with a Brogue Kick because he is all man. Cesaro attacks Shemaus even though he has the upper hand. Then Cena hits the 5 Knuckle Shuffle on Orton, but Cesaro attacks again. Giant Swing on Orton for about 30 revolutions. THAT HOT DOG! Bryan hits Chaos Theory on Cesaro. It would have been great if he got eliminated there with his hubris getting the best of him. Sheamus Brogue Kick Cena. Christian ROLLS UP Sheamus! NO! Christian DIVES ON Cena! No! Christian being the best American Yoshinari Ogawa is awesome! Sheamus gets up and sees red and wants to kill Christian. Christian retreats to the top of the pod. Sheamus gives chase and Orton superplexes Sheamus. Christian SPLASH OFF THE POD! Complete with Here Comes The Pain sell into the cover! He eliminates Sheamus! YES! YES! YES! Bryan hits his exploding knee and eliminates Christian. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! NO! NO! NO! Daniel Bryan sucks! Cena/Bryan showdown is fucking electric. I loved their strike exchange. They need to go back to that well for this year's Summerslam. Cena hoists Bryan up for the FU, but Cesaro Germans the both of them. Cena makes Cesaro pay with an FU on the plexiglass and then tap to the most vicious STFU ever. I would have liked Cesaro's arrogance really be exploited in his elimination, but this was good enough. The match really goes downhill at this point. The Wyatts appear to start the Cena program and attack Cena. Orton eliminated Cena after Sister Abigail. Kane is out to restore order and Bryan dives onto him. Bryan hits his exploding knee, but Kane pulls out the ref. RKO -> 1-2->NO! Bryan is alive, but Kane uppercut and Orton RKO takes care of that. No reason to have Bryan win, but still it is a pretty lame ending. Better to just have Orton get the best of Bryan's shoulder in my opinion. Cena/Wyatts was lame. The three midcarders were awesome in this. Cesaro and Christian added a ton of interesting spots that made sense in the context of their characters. Sheamus is just fucking awesome and his exchanges with Cesaro ruled! ****

Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt - RAW 01/05 Ambulance Match I lost interest in Ambrose after the botched Rollins feud and I never had interest in Wyatt. This match was hooked me right back on board with both characters (Ambrose moreso). Since this was on a shitty episode of RAW I think it has been totally overlooked. This was their best match together by far and showed how well both can be in their respective roles as upper midcard faces and heels. They finally gave a match a proper babyface shine where Ambrose kicked his ass all the way to the ambulance before the first Wyatt cutoff being when he was almost hoisted into ambulance. That is how you build crowd support behind a babyface and make a heel seem desperate. If you go right to the heat segment, there is no desperation on the part of the heel to cheat or use underhanded tactics. Then the match goes from good to great when, Ambrose was the man selling that knee. From great to excellent, the way he was struggling from underneath to just keep that damn Wyatt from his leg was awesome. When Ambrose is able to pull together a flurry of offense, Wyatt always has an explosive cutoff. I love how Ambrose has one last big shot in him when he just dives off the ambulance onto Wyatt through the table. The finish was bit too forced but given who they wanted to win was necessary. I thought crowd heat was hurt a lot because they wrestled the majority of the match around the ambulance so most of the audience had a hard time seeing, but logically if you are going to have an ambulance match the match should surround the ambulance. It is not their fault, but an inherent flaw of the gimmick. Since, I watched it on TV, I had no problem with it, but wanted to point out the crowd dynamics issue. Overall, an awesome brawl that told a great Die Hard story for Ambrose and Wyatt looks the best he has looked since the Shield/Wyatt feud. Easy RAW MOTYC and a projected, fringe MOTYC ****1/2

Finally PWO, you get original content by clicking on the Riding Space Mountain Blog. I review XWA's Xtreme Rumble 2015 from January 17, 2015 in West Warwick, RI, which I attended in living color. Inside, you get the scoop that Pro Wrestling is being Saved!!! Callooh! Callay! By JT Dunn??? Who? He uses a Canadian Destroyer. Trying to keep an open mind. Paul London still has it. Damn, I want to see an AJ Styles vs Paul London match sometime this year. Tommaso Ciampa should be on The Bachelor. AJ Styles does not care whether it the Tokyo Dome or the West Warwick Civic Center. He is going to tear the house down! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2015/01/xwa-xtreme-rumble-15-aj-styles-rules.html

I am reviewing the AJ Styles match I saw live against Jason Blade from this past weekend, which had some parallels to an old NWA Title Defense. I know the politics would make this impossible, but how badass would it be if AJ Styles was the NWA World Champion defending on the Indies, ROH and New Japan!

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs Batista vs Daniel Bryan - Wrestlemania XXX It is amazing how much of an emotional impact this match still has. It has not been deadened one iota by the disappointing aftermath. In fact, I think it resonates only more strongly because it reminds that no matter what the future holds, he will always have this. We will always have this to remember the night that an impossible dream came true and to put a smile on our faces. Thank all that is holy, that Batista vs Orton was not the main event of this show. I actually like Orton just find as an in-ring heel. I think his work usually looks good, he knows when to bring a match up and down and everything feels like it has a sense of purpose. I can leave Batista at the door. We saw snippets of the Bastista/Orton singles match it was just so bland. They were just going through the motions. I loved how Daniel Bryan would come flying into our screens from outta nowhere. First, it was the missile dropkick to both of them and then flying headbutt. It was the perfect way to reintroduce Bryan whenever he was off selling his arm injury for extended periods of time. The match really picked up when HHH & Steph brought out Scott Armstrong to put the screws to Bryan. It is funny how all the shitty booking up until this match actually made all these nearfalls credible. It is strange how shitty booking actually enhanced the drama of this match. Would they really be that stupid? The answer is yes they really could be that stupid. I just love how invested this crowd is in the Daniel Bryan story. It is not about MOVEZ~! It is not about Daniel Bryan winning clean. Fuck, we will take a goddamn fluke rollup just give him the damn title. I loved it! Bryan cleaning house on the Authority only to get double teamed by Batista/Orton was a great last ditch attempt to make people believe that Bryan maybe not be winning after he got RKO/Powerbombed through an announce table and was put on a stretcher. Damn, does Orton have the worst luck with gimmicks or what? That looked gnarly as fuck landing on the monitor like that. I really thought Orton was good in this match in being violent. I think they could have milked the Bryan on the stretcher for even longer to really freak people the fuck out. Instead they get everybody pretty good with Batista wiping out Bryan by accident and Orton hitting the RKO on Batista for a close nearfall. I think that was the loudest collective sigh of relief of all time. True to form, Bryan come flying into our camera to hit the Exploding Knee, but Batista looks to steal his glory. Ooooooooo another good one. Orton get taken out by a Batista Bomb and Exploding Knee. to Batista! YESLOCK~! The rest is glorious history! The purely joyous response of the crowd is so overwhelming and still moves me to this day. . Also, I love how it started the tradition of one wacky Attitude Era-overbooked clusterfuck per PPV, which is just good popcorn fun that is easily differential from the normally sterile product. This match is the cure to any malady or bad day ****

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Toshiaki Kawada - NJPW G-1 Climax 08/14/05 Kawada is so fucking good against shooter. His way of selling and firing back up is perfect for the environment. I have seen MMA fights, when they are in pain it is for a bit, but they know they got to fire right back up. Kawada knows how to do that jelly leg sell and then just snap out of it to fire a big kick to the head. This is basic Fujita lots of great fucking knee lifts. He seems to have punched himself out and Kawada looks to actually win with a jumping kick to the head and then a guillotine choke. Fujita just has to much for him and a barrage of knees win it. Fujita's knees on the ground need some work. I loved the length of this because they were beating the shit out of each other and shouldn't go long. Was hoping for something as good as Fujita vs Tanahashi, but not quite there. Fujita is definitely no Brock and he is not even an Naoya Ogawa. He just does not have that presence of badass shooter even if he is one. ***1/2

I was just going to say Fujita, but then I remembered they also have NAOYA FUCKIN OGAWA~! I have only watched three of his matches, but he is fucking gold in them. He knows how to translate his badass shooter vibe to pro wrestling. Cro Cop is the current champ, but Inoki just arbitrarily decided to switch the belt to MMA rules late in 2013. They also have Hashimoto's son appearing on their shows. I'd watch Akiyama vs Ogawa for sure and Shiozaki vs Fujita sounds like a fun match. OH! And how could I forget! BOB SAPP~! ICHIBAN~!

I just lost my shit at that line. What a classic!

In response to myself, I want to reinforce that I really enjoy Daniel Bryan as a wrestler and as a character. I have his RAW segments to be the most emotionally moving in a long time. I am pulling for him more now than ever. The past RAW segment was perfect from him declaring he would win the Rumble, to his interactions with Stephanie, and most importantly proving that he still deliver a hellacious ass whupping on Kane. I definitely look forward to his comeback and since I will be attending the Royal Rumble, I thought I take a look back at his best matches from his unfortunately abbreviated 2014. Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt - Royal Rumble 2014 Who is this Bray Wyatt and where the hell has he been? He was the King of the Explosive Cutoff in this match. He reminds me of Dr. Death in his ability to combine size with acceleration. You will see that in snippets in other matches, but it was in full effect here. In a lot of Wyatts matches, he does not have an opponent with as deep an offensive arsenal as Bryan so when he cuts off his opponent it is after each move, which makes it feel like he is trading moves and it becomes an exhibition. Bryan's depth affords the ability to have Bryan have longer spurts before a cutoff and Bryan's natural ability to exhibit a sense of overcoming the odds engages the viewer more. One of the best things about Daniel Bryan is the overwhelming crowd support he gets and that was evident early as the crowd was very hot for this. There were periods where they dipped out, but they were staunchly behind young Daniel Bryan throughout. We get that first taste of how Bray Wyatt will use Bryan's momentum against him with an explosive elbow cutoff, but Bryan keeps coming and takes Harper out with a suicide dive. The ref sends the Wyatt Family packing. Bryan hitting two badass cross bodies was just a great rabble rousing moment. Bryan gets on top and Wyatt chops him off the top rope. Bryan takes a nasty fall. I would have liked that to have been a transition instead Wyatt goes head over heels on the steps. Bryan doing leg work is something I like because it gives his offense direction. I know unless it is a Rusev match that most likely the leg work would not be a factor and that does not annoy me as much as Daniel Bryan no selling head injuries later on. Bray Wyatt gets an snap arm wrench onto the apron and then blasts Bryan's head with elbows as he is up against the post. I like my heels, violent and sadistic. Wyatt's back senton is awesome. I really liked the spot where Wyatt snapped Bryan into the middle rope. I had just seen that for the first time in Styles/Tanahashi and thought it was cool as all hell maybe they got it from here. The Wyatt chinlocks did seem to sap some energy from the crowd, but overall I think his attack on the head of Daniel Bryan was really spot on. I was disappointed a little bit that this did not seem to impact how Daniel Bryan would overcome the odds. I really think Bryan adjusting his game plan for a serious head injury would have made this a bonafide match of the year contender. Don't get me wrong, the finish stretch was very exciting, but felt like a departure from the rest of the match. The match becomes about Bryan gaining more and more offense. First it is some elbows off a missed Wyatt elbow, but that is cutoff by a sweeeeeeet cross body block.Then Bryan fights through nailing a tornado DDT off the apron and a missile dropkick. He is feeling it and goes into frantic running dropkicks, but on the third one Wyatt nearly decapitates him with a lariat. Wyatt is the heir of Stan Hansen. His swinging lariat is a thing of beauty. Wyatt going for Sister Abigail, but Bryan getting a roll-up nearfall is so WWE. Bryan goes for the Yes-Lock, but Wyatts bites him. At this point, I am just going to say it, Wyatt is the better wrestler in this match. He is just on point in every way as a heel, whereas Bryan is being arbitrary and capricious about his move selection. Then in a moment that actually shocked me and blew me away Wyatt caught Bryan on a suicide dive attempt and delivered Sister Abigail. He hit one more time in the ring to win the match. Great definitive finish, but also shows that at the time of the Rumble they really did think of Bryan as a B+ player as he had no protection in that loss. Wyatt looked better here than he has in his whole career. Great heel work mixed with excellent timing made for one helluva performance. Still I thought this lacked an interesting match hook. They could have gone body part with Wyatt's leg, or Bryan's head, but WWE does not care for that. Then it could have been can Bryan overcome the monster, Wyatt, but instead we were getting weak transitions like a roll-up or Bryan just starting up offense. The match was exciting, had some great spots and a great individual Bray Wyatt performance, but it was missing that overarching storyline to make it a match of the year contender. ****

Saw AJ Styles last night at XWA in Rhode Island and he delivered a badass performance. It never once felt like he was going through the motions and the match offered way more twists and turns than expected. Shoutouts also to Paul London for giving a ton of effort and looking great and Biff Busick executing one of the best damn fired up comebacks I have seen live in quite some time. Busick seems like the real deal. I hope to have a full review up on the XWA show soon. Here are two blogs looking back at 2014 aka the Year of AJ: First one focuses on AJ's indy work. Match Listing: AJ Styles vs Chris Hero - ROH 3/22/14 Slobberknocker. Hero's head shots against AJ's survival tactics. Match of the Year Candidate AJ Styles vs Kyle O' Reilly - ROH 8/22/14 O'Reilly tries to bring AJ's arm home with him. AJ builds to Styles Clash perfectly. GREAT finish! AJ Styles vs Kevin Steen - House of Hardcore V August 2014 A Steen comedy match. Avoid. HOG Heavyweight Champion Ricochet vs AJ Styles - HOG 12/19/14 A little all over the place, but really good home stretch until bullshit finish. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2015/01/aj-styles-alive-aj-styles-us-indies-2014.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second one focuses on his Phenomenal G-1 Climax Match Listing: IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Kazuchika Okada - G-1 Climax Day 1 2014 **** AJ as a awesome trash talking heel. Does Okada have a counter for Styles Clash? IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Tetsuya Naito - G-1 Climax 2014 Day 2 ****1/4 AJ as a sadistic heel as Naito bleeds for our enjoyment IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki - G-1 Climax Day 7 ****3/4 Best match of the year? AJ Styles proves himself to New Japan fans and fans worldwide IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi G-1 Climax 2014 Consolation Prize Good first encounter that sets up the big championship bout up really well http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2015/01/year-of-aj-aj-styles-njpw-2014.html

The Thursday commercials are the best thing going on WWE TV right now

Shield vs Ryback/Team Hell No is one of the most chaotic brawls and incredibly engaging pro wrestling matches I have ever seen. It was the full court press brought to the forefront of WWE. It is amazing that 2012 gave us that and the Brock/Cena match, which are just un-WWE matches to happen in the WWE. I think both would make my top ten I think best match in the WWE that is also the best representation of what Vince McMahon thinks wrestling should be is Randy Savage vs Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VII. I don't think I would choose it to be the greatest match in WWE history, but it would definitely make my top ten. Austin/Hart I Quit is definitely a safe pick. HBK/Razor II, HBK/Foley, Bret/Owen, all get close. Then you have all of Backlund's incredible work and I still have not seen it all against the likes of Muraco, Adonis and Rose. The Patera, Slaughter, and Valentine matches are all classics. I do like the pick of Brock/Eddie because it is such an incredible feel good moment. I think that's my favorite wrestling match in WWE history. I think I will go with Austin/Hart I Quit with the iconic finish putting it over the edge. I have to think about it more.

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.