Superstar Sleeze

Fuck. I didnt finish AJPW '90-92 yet. Shit. This is a massive blow to our community. I know others probably all this archived and on various drives, BUT The Ditch made it so readily accessible. End of an Era, if this persists. It was an amazing run.

Impact Knockouts Champion Su Yung vs Madison Rayne - Slammiversary 2018 Madison Rayne will go down as the great forgotten pre-Women's Revolution worker. She could go! I watched her comeback match against Tessa and was very pleasantly surprised how athletic she is. Great execution and crispness to what she does. Su Yung is MY JAM! What an amazing gimmick! I love that unlike other wrestling monsters her diminutive stature gives the gimmick a lot more versatility. Madison's shine is completely plausible given that Su Yung is if anything a little smaller than her. I have been a big proponent of bringing the Shine back and its importance to wrestling. It did my heart good to see a legitimately great shine. Madison meets the Undead Bride on the ramps as the Undead Bridesmaids look on. Nice fistfight, but the more powerful Rayne wins the advantage. Great top rope crossbody for an early nearfall. The objective is to win the championship, baby. Loved the Northern Lights Suplex. Great use of the Undead Bridesmaids to distract Rayne, but she disposes of them and it is a red herring, the fast break of Rayne goes on unabated. It is only when Rayne takes her off her opponent that Su Yung throws a kick and combines that with a neckbreaker. The Su Yung is part theatrics and part very high pain threshold and this confluence creates compelling viewing. Like I said, Maidson's offense is plausible against this monster because Su Yung is not a size-based monster. Su Yung is still treated as having supernatural pain tolerance and it creates that "Rising From The Black Lagoon" effect that fills the viewer and babyface with dread. Again, I liked the use of Undead Bridesmaid as a plot device where Su Yung blood mists her and this creates an opening for Rayne. AWESOME CHOPS AND ELBOWS! Rayne is great! Great run through of Rayne's big match offense as she avoids the Blood-Soaked Mandible Claw of Su Yung. Rayne uses a Rainmaker Ace Crusher (if she could somehow flip into it that would be the most 21st Century move ever) and then her old TNA finish but nothing will put the Undead Bride down. From a very unique angle, Su Yung applies the Mandible Claw, great facial expression from Rayne as the eyes roll back in her head and as she passes out. The Undead Bride puts the Veteran to rest in her casket. Perfect win for the new big heel. Great use of veteran babyface challenger to put over the monster. Loved the efficiency of the match...great shine and comeback. You dont need a lot of heat in this match because the heat is already baked in to the match because Su Yung is a major threat inherently. Terrific stuff. ***3/4

Tessa Blanchard vs Allie - Slammiversary 7/22/18 After this performance, I am completely flummoxed how Allie is not a permanent wrestling fixture on Dynamite. It is 2018 so I do not agree with every choice that was made in this match, BUT in terms of execution, staying true to the character/gimmick and the intensity/passion, this was a home run. Stiff strikes, great use of armdrags early, urgency on the charges, Allie came to play. You got to get up for Tessa Blanchard, who is definitely one of the most intense wrestlers of this era. Everything she does looks great and her mean muggin' is awesome. The contemptuous pieface followed by Allie's right was a great way to start this match and really stayed true to the simple, elegant story: Tessa is the baddest woman and has no time of Allie's rainbow & unicorn outlook on life and Allie says you dont have to be mean & angry to be accomplished. The hotshot on the railing was a great transition to heat. Didnt love the choice of a suplex into the buckles as a hope spot. I thought they went back to often to Allie in terms of hope spots. The work out of the Indian Deathlock was great. Allie was really connecting on those strikes to the midsection. Every wrestler needs to learn from Tessa how to throw a punch from a full mount position, those were things of beauty. Death Valley Driver by Allie on the floor was a great high puroresu-esque highspot to the level the playing field. I dont love the "charge hit a clothesline and fall to your knees, repeat" comeback, but Allie showed great determination at least and was not going through the motions. Shoutout to commentary to keep the viewer keyed in on what to look for. This is only my second Allie match and maybe fifth Tessa match. So knowing to look for the Codebreaker, Superkick and Hammerlock DDT was great. I liked the moves down the stretch were usually set up by missed moves or smart evasion. Tessa Top Rope Frankensteiner looked great. The Codebreaker and Tessa powder was straight out of the AJPW playbook. Allie's Superkick is called the Best Superkick Ever, but I dont think Chris Adams has anything worry about, BUT it is better than Dolph Ziggler's. That's her nearfall. Allie gets her up for the nearfall and BONUS POINTS for how Tessa reverses. This is not some terrible bullshit like Allie gave up on the move or the better albeit passe elbows to the head, Tessa shifts her weight and pulls on Allie's tights to YANK her down and then WRANGLE her into the Hammerlock DDT. Loved that struggle and the efficiency of the match. This is one of those matches that actually got better as I wrote about because it made me think of all the things they got right. I think some move trading early on undermined the gravity the match, but the last two minutes were killer. Better than any Dynamite Women's Match Ever. Tessa vs Charlotte is a dream match that needs to happen. ***3/4 P.S. Does knowing that Magnum married Tully's Ex-Wife make the I Quit Cage match more insane? Took his pride and his wife. Goddamn Magnum!

Johnny Impact (Morrison) vs Fenix vs Petey Williams vs Taiji Ishimorii - Impact Slammiversary 2018 I really love the name Johnny Impact. When I did my rewatch of WWE 21st Century, I came away a huge Morrison mark, he is snug, his shit makes sense/looks good, he can make 21st Century Workrate sound. So I dig. Fenix is breath-taking to watch even if like his brother he is has Cero Psicologia! Ishimorii I have seen in one match with KENTAFuji & Ibushi and he is a great spot monkey. Man Johnny Ace and Petey Williams being the two most influential wrestlers on the 21st Century Workrate blows my mind. The match starts with three out of four getting their time to shine. Morrison looked as crisp as ever. Fenix is sublime. You dont necessarily need psychology when you that damn good at highspots. What he does with the ropes and his balance is insane. Petey Williams is like Chris Sabin or Sonjay Dutt, just solid. Ishimorii didnt get a chance to show off, which was weird. They do an M-Pro Dive Train. Petey starts to tease the Canadian Destroyer which is pretty over because they are in Toronto so his highspots (Oh Canada Stomp on Balls in Corner and Sharpshooter) are over like rover. Fenix definitely feels like the star of the match. Ishimorii hits the 450 Splash, Canadian Destroyer, and then Fenix double stomp! Morrison breaks it up Starship Pain. They tucked the Canadian Destroyer in there and I think people really wanted to pop for it but they didnt let it stand alone so it kinda got missed, which is too bad. Morrison was the right guy to go over. It was a perfectly acceptable spotfest, we have all seen better, but this was still pretty good. ***

Impact Knockouts Champion Allie vs Su Yung - Impact 5/31/18 Casket I want to give this match a shoutout even though I won't be doing a formal review. I was really tired when I watched this match but I was really intrigued by it. I had heard of the Su Yung character and seen bits & pieces here & there, while also seeing her in action at a Shimmer event during Mania Weekend with PWO's own Jimmy Redman! I love, love the gimmick! The big difference between her & The Fiend/Bray Wyatt. Bray/Fiend is so pretentious and it is trying so hard to be psychologically deep and intellectual that fails under its own grotesque weight. Su Yung is awesome in her simplicity. She is an Undead Zombie Bride and just kicks ass. The presentation is spot on and the aura is magnificent. This is a Casket Match because Su Yung killed Allie's best friend Rosemary. So Allie has snapped and become a Demon Bunny. I thought they kicked ass. There were some stilted moments here & there but for the most part Allie was a great avenging babyface and Su Yung played the Horror Movie Villain that kept rising from the Black Lagoon again & again perfectly. I dont think I have said it publicly but I sure thought it on multiple occasions last year is that AEW should have tried to buy Impact for their women's division. WWE does not have the market completely cornered. Impact has a killer women's division (Allie, Taya, Su Yung, Rosemary, Tessa, Jordynne Grace, Madison Rayne, Gail Kim, and Scarlett among others) and they rock both at wrestling and in their gimmicks. AEW's women's division remains paper thin and I would like to Impact for talent. A couple things I wanna say about Allie and her booking in AEW. After Kylie Rae left, Allie was the no brainer person to push. I really didn't like Riho. I thought she was not an effective undersized underdog at all. Britt Baker did nothing for me in the ring. She has blossomed into a great heel character, but her work wasn't there yet. Allie had long term success on top at Impact as a likeable babyface and in this match she showed me she could work and work with intensity not just workrate bullshit. I am pretty surprised given how thin the division remains that Allie has yet to get a push. On top of that, I want to complain about AEW's booking of her. AEW has 800,000 fans, I assume Impact has about half that. So you would think they would do a better job explaining the Bunny/Blade connection. I was tooling around the Impact Plus and watching random clips and found out Blade was in Impact. Lo & behold, he was paired with Allie and they were doing a jealous/toxic lover story. I hit up Wikipedia, Oh they're married! I am not saying they have to be married in AEW universe because that limits your booking options, but they should have explained the connection in their own kayfabe way. You have these two mercenaries and all of sudden a random blonde bombshell is in some sort of S&M Bunny gimmick is paired with them, as a fan, they should really flesh this out. Like why is she with them? I know the really hardcore fans probably got because they watch both shows, but I didnt. Since nothing was explained, I didnt care and not surprisingly it fizzled out. Take home is this was a really fun casket match but more importantly these were two awesome characters having an entertaining match that suited their gimmicks and storyline. ***1/2

Pentagon Jr vs Sami Callihan - Impact 8/23/18 Street Fight This was billed as a Mexican Death Match but it was not wrestled as such. A Mexican Death Match is a Last Man Standing Match with pinfalls before the ten count. This was just a street fight with pinfalls. This was even lamer than their Slammiversary Match. Very little intensity or urgency. Callihan just lets himself get staple gunned. Callihan is really good at playing a coward. I like that about him. None of the "highspots" stick. Very cooperative. After the staple gun, they run a standard lungblower highspot sequence. I cant even remember the second weapon that's how unmemorable it was. There is the bat but it just hits Pentagon a couple times while there is a trash can on Pentagon's head but Pentagn has to keep the trash can on his head otherwise it would fall off. Pathetic. Pentagon beats him with the can and Death Valley Driver through the table. They bust out Legos for the last weapon. Oh sorry, I should have explained the weapons are housed in Pinatas. I guess thats what makes this Mexican. There is not that many Legos and it doesnt look that cool. They trade Piledrivers on it. Yawn. Where's the hate? Where's the struggle? Callihan gets the Old School Terry Funk Piledriver from the top rope to the table for the win. Lame.

Impact World Heavyweight Champion Pentagon Jr vs Austin Aries - Impact 5/31/18 It has been an exhausting week between Eddie Van Halen's passing and work kicking my ass. I dont have much in the tank. I just wanted to watch some wrestling before bed and I enjoyed this a good bit. Aries is also the Grand Champion which some secondary title that has weird Round-System rules that maybe could work, I dont know. Anyways, Aries ends up unifying the titles. It is a Pentagon match so there's not exactly much in the way of deep psychology. I thought there were a lot of missed opportunities in the match between the chop to the steel post and Aries tying the mask to the ropes among others. I thought the Superkick transitions were ham-fisted more often than not. There was not much in the ways of meaningful momentum transfers, I put that mostly at the feet of Pentagon who is atrocious at match layout/narrative. I think the gimmick, costume, catchphrase and moves as cool as fuck, but someone needs to teach this dude psychology. Aries reigned Pentagon in better than most. Aries is one of the better 21st Century wrestlers in escalating his offense and rising to a crescendo. I LOVE his Suicide Dive, in a world of Candy Ass Suicide Dives I am looking at you, Jon Moxley, he fucking explodes like a torpedo into his version. That started the match off with a bang. There was a little he could when Pentagon would pepper in way too many hope spots while I thought he ramped up his offense well. The finish stretch was really well done. Each man seizes the advantage on the outside only for the match to end in a Double Countout and the first time Aries asks for a restart after the Last Chancery on the outside triggered the DCO. Then Pentagon hit a WICKED Package Piledriver on the apron and asked for a restart after that DCO. To that Aries tells the ref to ring the bell and as he looks the other way HE PUNTS HIM IN HE CAJONES AND BRAINBUSTERRRRRRR! FUCKING AWESOME FINISH! I thought the match was alright, but that FINISH WAS FUCKIN BITCHIN'! I am giving it a little extra love for that! ***3/4

Impact World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries vs Pentagon Jr vs Fenix - Impact Redemption 2018 CERO MIEDO! Pentagon not as over as in The Temple, but still pretty over with the Impact Zone. The story going into this is would the Brothers work together to take out the Champion. Impact was smart to partner with Lucha Underground. Their 2017 looked pretty pathetic just reviewing the cards so Aries and the Luchadors were a big shot in the arm! I am not too fond of triple threats. My opinion is you just gotta go balls out, but they didnt quite go high-octane. This is one of those good, not great matches. I thought Aries was tremendous in this. He is a tenacious pitbull, always moving forward everything is high impact and crisp. I love his chops and strikes. That running dropkick in the corner always looks good. He deliver on highspots like going over the top landing on Pentagon's shoulders and delivering a rana all in one fell swoop. He has the submission game but the Last Chancery was neutralized by Fenix always breaking it up. He has the big bombs down the stretch with the 450, Pentagon has big balls taking it the way he did. Aries 450 both brothers and basically whoever was on the inside was going to take a knee to the gut and Pentagon did the honors. The Brainbuster teases were great. Pentagon was pretty absent from the match until the end when he hit the double superkick on Aries even though he was the most over. He double crossed his brother and smoked him with a superkick. The Package Pilederiver/Gory Special combo was the great. He breaks the arm of Aries before hitting the Piledriver for the win. Awesome, efficient, decisive finish. The match I knew was going to live and die by Fenix because he is such a breath-taking, sublime high-flier. He botched his big spot. I had never seen him botch his stuff. He was trying all this rope jumping and that didnt work. Then he went for the tight rope walk and fell. I felt bad. He busted out a wicked Triple Toe Loop from the top rope and that wiped everyone out. I enjoyed the match and thought the finish came off well...hopefully Aries sold the arm in the rematch...I thought this could be a lot more.

Sami Callihan vs Pentagon Jr - Impact Slammiversary 2018 Mask vs Hair I am kinda surprised this has the rep it has. I thought this was not that much different you typical WWE Weapons match with the only difference being that used legitimately dangerous and real-sounding railroad spikes. It felt more like a Death Match in the sense that the violence was there for violence's sake not because these two truly hate each other. They always politely waited their turn pretty much at every spot. Even Josh Matthews pointed out, it is Pentagon's turn but Callihan is taking advantage. Ooooo that dastardly Callihan swinging his steel chair twice without Pentagon getting one shot in! Oh the humanity! But once Pentagon was ready, Callihan was sure to feed. The whole sitting in chairs and taking shots at each other. Pentagon repeatedly chopping that vest was so dumb. I am sorry I just did not feel the hate at all in this. Did Callihan tap a gusher? Yes! Were more violent weapons used than normal? Yes. That does not mean I felt the hate. The hate comes from the gut. It is shown through their urgency, always moving forward and swarming your opponent. The match was not all bad. There were some good parts. I liked early on when Callihan did challenge to slap his bare chest and Callihan got more than he bargained for. The way he fell to his knees and really sold it! I loved it! That's heel selling. It looked like a loser and you wanted him to be pummeled more. That was right out the Rick Rude playbook. Bravo! I wish the thumb gouge to the eyes were sold more. That could have made the match feel more hate-filled but Pentagon Jr is not good at that. My favorite part of the match by far was Pentagon get powdered in the eyes and then breaking the ref's arm while blind. Best use of the "You Fucked Up" Chant ever! That popped me good! I liked the finish stretch a good deal. I thought they built to it very well. Callihan's piledriver on the Chair was a great nearfall for him. Pentagon broke Callihan's arm and then Callihan never sold it at all during the post-match shaving, which was a massive bummer. Then the Package Piledriver for the win. Didnt feel the hate and disappointed Callihan didnt sell the arm post-match, but the powder in the eyes leading to the ref arm break was awesome! ***1/4

The problem is she did NOT go over the top! I love over the top acting. I love trashy TV. Lana would not draw shit on Bachelor in Paradise and everyone in Daytime could act circles around her. She was so wooden. Playing a Bridezilla should literally be the easiest thing in the world and she couldn’t even do that. She came off as apathetic and listless. She screamed without emotion HOW DO YOU DO THAT? The BOAT shit is bad right now with Nattie BUT if you give that Santino or someone like that he could have gotten it over. Lana has really lame delivery is the issue.

Pro Wrestling Love Vol. 66: Best of Lucha Underground Lucha Underground was a TV show featuring a hybrid of American Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre that aired on the El Rey Network from 2014-2018 in four seasons. Unlike most pro wrestling promotions, there was no touring or live events, it was 100% a television show. It featured luchadors from AAA, among others, the most prominent being brothers Fenix and Pentagon Jr alongside AAA mainstay the Puerto Rican brawler, Mil Muertes, known in AAA as El Mesias. Lucha Underground launches Fenix and Pentagon into the American consciousness and they now work for All Elite Wrestling. In addition, Lucha Underground exposed the world to the breath-taking aerial abilities of Prince Puma better known as Prince Puma and the original babyface hero of the show. You even have Rey Mysterio the first ever Lucha Libre megastar to crossover into American mainstream making a pit stop in Lucha Underground for some fun. Following the AAA brand of Lucha Libre, the television focused on blood-soaked brawls that incorporated 21 century Death Match tropes such as fluorscent light bulbs and panes of glass. Lucha Underground is not for the squeamish that is for sure. Featuring colorful characters, outlandish storylines and buckets of blood, Lucha Underground feels like the true heir to Extreme Championship Wrestling. Pro Wrestling Love Vol. 66 features the five best matches to ever take place in Lucha Underground! https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/10/pro-wrestling-love-vol-66-best-of-lucha.html

Prince Puma vs Rey Mysterio - Lucha Underground 7/20/16 The Dream Match of Lucha Underground. They did a great job building Prince Puma as their Ace Babyface and with Rey Mysterio leaving WWE to work Lucha shows this was a huge score for Lucha Underground. What's funny is this match feels a lot bigger here than lets say Rey vs Ricochet going 20 on a random RAW. Really shows how much promotion, build and context matter in pro wrestling. I thought they did a fabulous job working this Lucha Dream Match. Lots of great symmetry (the opening classic Lucha Libre sequence was just awesome!) that one would expect given this is babyface vs babyface but they added a lot of scouting wrinkles. They brought up that Puma was a big fan of Rey growing up and that's plausible, give that Ricochet is only 6 months older than me so he could have been watching Rey since he was 7 years old. With Rey being his idol, Puma knows his offense and has seen zillion hours of tape. We see that a lot with how Ricochet counters the around the world hurricanarana, the bodyscissors bulldog and the 619. All staples of the Mysterio repertoire that were converted into high impact offense for Puma. Rey is one of the best counter-wrestlers of all time himself and was no slouch in this match. I loved the Hurricanarana over the top rope, managed to hold position on the floor and then hit the rana proper into the apron. Sick move. Anyone familiar with Rey knows his classic belly slide into a belly flop bump onto the floor. I love he turned that stock bump into a offense in his later years. We see Rey slide on his belly and hit a splash on Ricochet. I feel like Rey dropped a lot of muscle mass when he left WWE and he looked leaner and quicker than ever now. There was a great Tornado DDT counter by Rey. They teased the Splash Mountain/Rana Reverse that was a staple of 90s Rey but ended up with a Dragonrana. Weird that Ricochet landed on his feet but still sold the move. It took a little starch out of the nearfall. I thought the 619 into a Springboard 450 was a terrific nearfall for Ricochet. Ricochet following up with a missed 630 and he CRASHED AND BURNED! He ate it fully on that miss. It was cringing to hear Matt Striker call Ricochet's pause the "Im sorry, I love you" moment. I get the need for the pause because he did need to miss that move but alluding to Shawn/Flair I didnt like. I LOVE that Rey brought the Spike Hurricanarana back. WCW fans will remember that's how he won most of his matches. I love the snap and how compact the the final pin is. They did a great job building to the eventual winning 619. Puma catches the second attempt and Tries for a Tombstone but Rey hits another Spike Hurricanarana! Ricochet was BUILT for these bumps. He doing a great job making these Ranas and that one DDT look gnarly! Hats off! 619, Spike Rana into that tight package pin! 1-2-3! Excellent. This is a dream match that delivers in spades! ****1/4

I didnt watch wrestling until 1997, so no nostalgia for me for the 80s or early 90s which I still love for their angles, characters and promos. 100% agree with you on the second paragraph. How many times did Flair or Dusty go over 5 minutes in the 80s? Never. People are going WAAAAAAAAYYYY too long. 5 minutes tops. Get in, get out. Face to face promos should be used sparingly. 2-5 minutes with an interview even to open the show should be the standard. Pro wrestlers arent trained actors. There are naturals like Rock and Dusty that are just so awesomely charismatic they cannot be denied. Other than that, stick to what people know which is their own personalities. I would interview each wrestler find out their life experiences, find out their personality and craft a character around that. Put these people in a position to succeed rather than them trying to pretend to be someone they are not.

We hate it actually because of Kurt not Shawn. On a more serious note, I remember Shawn being great in the first half of the match, really intense & gritty, but then it devolved into terrible Anglelock bullshit that I loathe. The drama should be in applying the hold NOT in escaping the hold. Escapes should be way more rare. Imagine if everyone freaked out every time (not just the first time) the Anglelock was attempted. It would be the finish over huge. Instead we get these interminable stretches of will he or wont he tap, roll through, ugh. Honestly if there is a pro wrestling Hell, it is watching Anglelock reversals for eternity with no payoff! This episode sounds really interesting and with Austin's podcast on hiatus since the Pandemic started. I am really jonesing for some Austin's interviews so I will check these out! Glad I checked this page.

Yeah to be honest I almost deleted that paragraph. I really should start my own thread about it. It has been something I have been kicking in my head a lot lately is how much I have grown as a wrestling fan once I started thinking for myself when I joined this forum. I used to be anti-resthold, but now I don't see the world in black and white. A chinlock or an armbar or what have you is NOT always a resthold. Yes sometimes it is a negative and grinds the match to a halt. Other times it can be effective, perhaps a means for a heel to stop a fast break that the babyface has been on and a means to catch his breath. That's just an example. Another thing was overbooking and run-ins, that's something about wrestling I have always liked. I was torn because so many are against run-ins/overbooking in the finish that's what makes wrestling wrestling in my eyes. Are there times when it is a crutch, or does not make sense of course! I think it can be really fun and exciting to see a ref bump and then have shit hit the fan. The third thing is I love the soap opera aspect of pro wrestling, always have and always will. I watched Soaps with my grandma before I started watching wrestling and still do to this day. I want to see more angles and more craziness. I feel like the community at large sticks their nose up at that. I admit my posting habits on here are strange. I usually stick to my match reviews and anyone who has read them knows they are looooooonnnng. That's my problem. I have a lot of thoughts and nuances. I have a lot of trouble distilling it down into digestible chunks. It also takes a lot of effort for me to do just that, organize them into a coherent, cogent fashion. That paragraph above is not even half-baked more like quarter-baked. I should not have tacked it on but rather stuck to praising Alexa. Maybe, I will get around to writing the thread maybe I wont to be honest. It is a lot of time and effort and I dont know if I have it. I didn't just want to leave it hanging.

This is a very odd take. Different strokes and all that, I think Alexa is by far and away the best actor, male or female, they have by a country mile. I cant help but think about how horrid Lana is as an actress. I did not know emotionless screaming was a thing until Lana tried screaming in the Lashley angle. Talk about wooden, Lana has to be the worst ever. Alexa was awesome before The Fiend angle and I think she does a great job flipping between Alexa and entranced Alexa. We will see where it goes. This is the WWE which decided to drop the gold mine that was Otis/Mandy because they laid off the writer for it and had no idea what to do after it. I could easily see this going nowhere. I feel like in the 2000s wrestling fans started becoming allergic to whenever wrestling deviated from workrate, which is a shame. Pro wrestling can be and should be so much more than that. There's plenty of shit like Fiend/Rollins and Lana/Lashley that could have been great but are some of the worst shit I have ever seen, BUT at least they tried. They didn't just do a random run-in week followed by one zillion 20 minute promos & 20 minute rematches for the sake of workrate with inter-match storytelling. I always appreciate the attempts at trying to spice things up. I think the family drama for Samoan has been great, I am optimistic about Alexa/Fiend, but could lead to a whole lot of nothing too. Like I said I will always appreciate effort.

Fuckkkkkkk there’s a draft coming up?!? All year Smackdown has been a million times better than RAW. It is as good or better than Dynamite every week. AJ Styles ever since Daniel Bryan Match went on an absolute tear against Gulak, Riddle and Hardy. Zayn is one of their best heels in a decade. I’m super excited for the Big E push and against my boy Sheamus! Sign me up, brutha! It has been great so far and hopefully the Street Fight is killer. Smackdown’s Women’s Division is thin but Sasha/Bayley carried it well. I thought they pulled the trigger too soon BUT when they did it, Bayley went full tilt and it was glorious. Bayley kicked her ass and Sasha threw herself into every bump. Great heel turn angle. Nikki Cross is a tremendous character actor wrestler. A great ball of energy so charismatic and likeable! My moms favorite wrestler! Alexa Bliss is the best actor they have pretty much the only person that can take WWE drivel and make it sound natural. The Alexa/Fiend story is at least interesting because they don’t do many male/female storylines so I’m not sure which way they will go. Speaking of male/female angles, I’m so bummed they dropped Otis/Mandy. So disappointing that story had legs for days. We need more Soap Opera not less in WWE. The more connections a wrestler makes the more options you have for future storytelling. It is Soap Opera 101. Miz sending Mandy to RAW should have been put over huge. WWE sucks. I do like the lawyer angle with Otis I think that’s an interesting angle. Braun vs Bray was the worst thing about WWE for a while but it has been replaced by the best pro wrestling storyline in WWE or AEW Roman Reigns vs Jey USO! Hell Yeah Brutha! Everything about the story up until Clash was perfect. Uso’s Being hyped for the opportunity against his cuz. Roman big timing him but still showing the family love so still playing in that gray zone. I loved the ballshot. I love how uncomfortable it was to watch Roman bark that Jey submit to his superiority and recognize him as his Chief. I wished the violence was a little more, if there was ever an angle that needed blood it was this one! Loved the towel throw in by Jimmy such a smart finish. We need more family angles in pro wrestling and more people should be kayfabe related to give the angles more oomph. Happy they aren’t going one and done with this angle. Once Roman goes full tilt heel it is gonna be BITCHIN, brutha. Point is I love Smackdown and there are some holes. They could use some more female talent. Aleister Black and Angel Garza would be great pick ups. If they could unload Corbin and Braun that be great. Hopefully Smackdown is not ravaged and pillaged.

Lucha Underground Champion Prince Puma vs Pentagon Dark - Lucha Underground 10/18/17 CERO MIEDO! I have a soft spot for Pentagon even though his match are totally bereft of psychology, he has a cool look and even cooler catchphrase! CERO MIEDO! I thought this was good but never really hooked me. They start off with a couple dives and then Pentagon breaks Puma's arm, which is his main gimmick. They do a good job selling this, milking it, Puma wraps some tape around it. He does try to incorporate the selling as best he can. Again, there is no strong sense of momentum. It is just trading highspots, nice highspots, but no connective tissue. Pentagon goes for a Canadian Destroyer, but Puma hits his own. Then he hits what I think is the recoil kick. It is that stupid move where he rests the opponent on his feet from a Fireman's Carry to kick him in the head. Eye-Roll. He goes for the 630, predictably Vampiro turns on him, he pulls Pentagon out of the way of the 630. Pentagon hits what I think is Schwing! Then the Package Piledriver for the win. The stuff between the arm break and the finish run was not very memorable. Honestly, they best part was the nuclear crowd heat. Pentagon is fucking over! I saw some of his 2018 Lucha Underground, the dude was over as anyone has been since 2001. He is scary over. There is something about watching Pentagon in The Temple doing his thing thats always fun even if the match could be better. ***

Lucha Underground Champion Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma - Lucha Underground 10/18/17 A lot of wrestling fans bitch & moan about overbooking, but I enjoy the hell of it for the most part, it is part of pro wrestling's charm after all. I thought the best part of this match was easily the middle section with the run-ins. Angelico felt like the next big thing taking out Morrison's goons (Justin Gabriel & Jack Evans) and just rocking it. I think AEW should give him a shot if he is still on the roster. Good charisma and energy to him. The ref doing an ugly ass somersault plancha was a great fist-pumping moment. I felt bad the dude's tailbone as he did not get much launch and just slammed his ass on the apron. Morrison hitting his wife by accident with a chair was another fun moment. The Springboard 450 by Puma for the win after all this was a such a great nearfall. Definitely the best part of the match. The beginning of the match was a clusterfuck. They did not let anything breathe. They were just throwing shit out there. Morrison is a great heel! It was so frustrating watching him taking so many great shortcuts and Puma not selling shit. I like the babyface overcoming early cheating like the eyepoke or a cheapshot punch, but the shine was not shiny enough for me. The only really cool highspot was the jump from the Balcony, Double Springboard Jump Shoot Star Press to the outside. THAT WAS EYE-POPPING AMAZING! Ricochet is the man! Morrison was wrestling like the consummate heel using strikes and cheapshots, but there was no sense of real momentum. Puma would just keep coming back, but without much fire. I thought the ending after the middle was much better than the beginning. They did a good slugfest. Puma kicked out of two major Morrison moves (Top Rope Moonlight Drive) and Starship Pain. Second Starship Pain ate knees. I loved Morrison's selling over Puma THREE major blows to the head. He did not take a bump. He jelly-legged sell it and fed for more. So when Ricochet hit that BLOWAWAY DROPKICK it felt HUGE and like such a victory. 630! NAILED IT! I liked that Stand Up and Pride look Ricochet like he just went Dumb after hitting a major money three-ball. Very cool moment. 1-2-3! Puma successfully avoids having to leave The Temple and becomes the first ever Two-Time, Two-Time Lucha Underground Champion! BUT WAIT! Dario Cueto says THERES MORE! ***3/4

Mil Muertes vs Brian Cage vs Jeremiah Crane - Lucha Underground 10/18/17 Jeremiah Crane is Sami Callihan for those keeping score at home. This is for the Gauntlet of the Gods think Thanos' Gauntlet from Infinity Wars. It is unclear what powers it imbues its holder with, but these three damn sure want it. They have each stolen it from the other. I think Cage is the rightfully owner. This is fine highspot wrestling. It does not go to the gross out extreme of Killshot and Dante Fox except one moment where Callihan JAMS a fistful of skewers into the head of Cage. He did look like a Porcupine like Striker said but it undermine the moment a bit. I mean they were JAMMED in there. Then he DDT's on his head with them in there. One stuck and Jesus. Watching the blood pour from the top of Cage's head was sick. Lets see what else was memorable. Callihan loves slapping on his kicks. He had a good run. I really popped for Mil just Chokeslamming the shit out of him. Callihan is very readily loathsome and odious so always nice to see him get smoked. Vamp says Callihan should try to win when he has a chance, but he dawdles. He eats a couple dives to the outside. A couple minutes later, he is scoring an 11 on the Muta Scale. Well alright then! Mil goes through a pane of glass. Well because. His arm is all cut up. I did like Cage hitting his cool suplex on Callihan through Mil on a table on the floor. Cage hit his finish and eliminates Callihan. Yay! Cage and Mil have a more down to earth pro wrestling match very short. Callihan hits the ring and chairshots Cage, who shrugs it off and Cage FUCKING SMOKES HIM WITH A DISCUS PUNCH! WOW! That was awesome! Cage goes for that against Mil, but Mil sends him STRAIGHT TO HELL ON A CHAIR! 1-2-3! He wins the Gauntlet. Catrina, with bitchin' wavy, big hair, gets the Gauntlet and gives to Mil. King Cuerno returns after a Season off to avenge his loss from last season and steals the Gauntlet and it begins anew. This was alright. Kinda boring honestly besides the highspots, but they were cheap heat highspots, I will say the Skewer was creative but very sickening. ***1/4

LU Champion Pentagon Dark vs Cage - Lucha Underground 8/12/18 Last Man Standing No cool Lucha Underground name for this gimmick match they go with the WWE name of Last Man Standing. Pentagon Jr is the biggest miss of AEW so far. Dude may have zero psychology, but he has a cool look, badass moves and a killer catchphrase. CERO MIEDO! I was a part of the Cero Miedo craze during WrestleMania Weekend 2019 and it is infectious. I had no idea what it was. I just showed up to MLW, House of Glory, whenever and you couldnt stop chanting it. Lucha Underground pretty much always has hot crowds, but these 2018 crowds are MOLTEN for Pentagon. They do not relent in chanting Cero Miedo and incorporating it in a Soccer Style Ole Chant. Let Pentagon's Singles Wings fly, this is your next challenger for Mox. Cero Miedo! As for the match, it is big dumb fun, I think five tables get demolished, seven chairs, a broken glass bottle, a cement block and a ripped mask. Cage rips the Mask earlier and carves with the broken glass bottle so the blood is flowing and the Pentagon mask is replaced with the Crimson Mask. Pentagon really likes Death Valley Drivers through tables. Cage hits his big vertical suplex highspot from the ring through two tables on the floor. Cage hits a DrillClaw and a powerbomb to the railing, but I never really felt like Pentagon was in trouble, this was just a fun uptempo match. I think the finish does separate it from the good matches to the very good matches because of how definitive and explosive the finish is. Pentagon hits a Top Rope Canadian Destroyer through a table, ballshots him (I got hit in the balls for the first time in like a decade or so by a tennis ball ricocheted off the fence, anybody who no sells a ballshot is dead to me) and then Package Piledriver through 6 chairs, breaks both arms and Curb Stomps his head through a cinder block. HELL FUCKING YEAH! All the while the crowd is just going bananas for Pentagon. I think we needed to make the crowd and me believe that Pentagon could have actually lost for the drama level to go up, but as a fun lets see our boy Pentagon wreak havoc and destroy The Machine this was awesome! ***1/2

Killshot vs AR Fox - Lucha Underground 9/27/17 Hell of War Hell of War is Lucha Underground's code for Three Stages of Hell those being First Blood, No DQ and Stretcher. The story here is that each man served in the same US Army unit, but AR Fox has accused Killshot of leaving him to die. Now it is time to show each the Hell of War. This match defies a rating and in a lot of ways I feel rating this in a conventional manner is a slap in the face to both these men. I'll be frank I didnt really care for this match. It was all highspots and no real interesting story or transitions. They put their bodies through such hell and their lives in such danger, it would be disrespectful to lambast them for not having a psychologically sound match or a coherent, cogent narrative. They did a bunch of high flying spots at the beginning, moonsault on the ladder, legdrop from bleachers on some chairs on the opponent's head, urnage on the apron, Spanish Fly on the apron. I was like whatever this is nowhere near as good as Pentagon vs Vampiro. Then the violence became so gratuitous and reckless that I dont want to berate them. Its their bodies and if they want to put them through Hell, I'll watch uncomfortably. I dont know what kind of glass they used. All I can say is when Killshot shattered that glass with their body, he came up bloody. When Killshot hit that insane piledriver on Fox on the all those broken shards of glass, his back became bloody as hell. All I could think about was their eyes and accidentally slicing an artery. Was it an interesting carwreck to watch? Yes ,I couldnt look away. This stopped being a pro wrestling match in my opinion. It became a stunt freak show. It is a spectacle and I can get it. I couldnt take my eyes off of it while I was watching, but it stopped being about the story/narrative. It was wholly about what violent spot was next. They did a Spanish Fly on a chair that warped the chair, there was a powerbomb on a barbed wire board, but that glass, that fucking glass that was insane. AR Fox's back after taking that whacked out piledriver. Holy shit. The stretcher portion that was an insane Death Valley Driver to the stretcher from the top rope which should have been a huge highspot but looked tame. Then they were on top of a balcony. Fox choking Killshot with a cord only have a gimmicked glass bottle broken over his head and then when through another pane of glass falling like 20-25 feet. Fucking madness. The way the glass shattered into such tiny pieces. Maybe it was gimmicked in some way, but the way his entire back was ripped to shreds and bleeding, it could not be. Sheer madness. Rating this would be disrespectful to either man. Every pro wrestling match is inherently dangerous, but they willing accepted a higher probability of danger than most. Sheer madness.

Mil Muertes vs Prince Puma - Lucha Underground 11/9/16 Casket Match Towards the end of the match, we find out that Mil Muertes had stuffed Konnan, Prince Puma's manager, in a casket, which is probably what prompted this match. I thought this match was helluva lot better than the title match from the Season Finale of the first Season. Really awesome brawl that never let up and each man just went for broke. Surprisingly there was no blood and no mask ripping, but this was still pretty awesome. Puma started it off red hot attacking Muertes on the steps and they brawl through the crowd. The advantage does not last long, Mil throws him through a door and the rout is on. Most of the match is Mil just beating the ever loving shit out of Puma, which is great, but they also do a great job timing the hope spots. Mil busts Puma into the ring bell, but Puma is able to return the favor. Puma's Achilles Heel was definitely too much furniture re-arrangement. He went to go get the Casket but ends up being powerbombed it! Wicked dent! Great sound! Another moment is Puma has an advantage and goes to set up tables on the outside, but he ends up being the one that goes through him. He should have been pressing his advantage. Mil uses the turnbuckle hook, but unfortunately that does not last long. There is a crazy spear through a table that is so devastating one half of the table falls on Puma's head. I did like Puma's comeback when Mil gets caught doing some furniture rearrangement by being the Casket in the ring. Two swift kicks to the head and then a big time 450 splash on the Casket! That's what I am talking about! Puma tries to put Mil in the Casket and ends up just shutting the Lid on him a bunch of times and hitting him with a chair. This is when he goes to set up the tables. He ends up taking Mil's Spinning Chokeslam into the Casket! Puma fights out of the Casket with a lot of kicks. They do Casket teases a lot better in this match than the typical Undertaker match. Best spot of the match was Puma breaking his fall on Straight To Hell with his hands springing back up and Kicking Mil in the head. Enziguiri! Goes for the Dive but Mil sledges him with an elbow as he is shooting through the ropes. Puma starts attacking with a Steel Chair and Van Daminator! I love all the head-hunting! As I said earlier, Mil Chokeslams Puma through the tables he set up and the end is nigh. Mil drags out a second casket, the casket he put Konnan in and he stuffs Puma in this. They make it seem like this Puma leaving Lucha Underground. I dont know when he signed with WWE, but this seems like a plausible timeline. If this is his last match, then it was a helluva one to go out on. No downtime, just a kickass brawl! They did great respecting Mil's power advantage and Puma was using kicks to the head to set up dives. When he deviated or took too long thats when Mil made him pay with big slams. A simple story, but always effective. ****

LU Champion Marty Martinez vs Pentagon Dark - Lucha Underground 11/7/18 Street Fight "Cero Miedo" is super fun to chant live and I got to experience that when I saw like three or four Pentagon matches over Mania Weekend 2019, I even got to see him against La Parka! That was an awesome moment! I fast forwarded to Season 4 and it looks like Lucha Underground has lost its luster. The New Temple looks too sanitary and the promotion does not have the zip it used to. Jack Swagger being the last Lucha Underground Champion is comical and somewhat fitting way to end the strangest promotion of the modern era. Money In The Bank is such a terrible concept but now every promotion has it as a gimmick and LU has the Gift of the Gods which is what Marty used to win the title in the first place. Swagger who is called Jake Strong in LU uses the same gimmick to cash in on Pentagon Jr after Vampiro turned on him and joined with an unknown Master, seems like the Master is played by a wrestler named Australian Suicide who dresses like a Pentagon. I watched this match because it got high marks on Cagematch and I wanted to watch another Marty Martinez match. Very happy to see my boy with title and this is a Cero Miedo match which is a Deathmatch-style street fight. So of course Marty bleeds like a stuck pig minutes into the match. I like the more schticky Marty as it is more unique. He was doing more no selling and more typical death match wrestling, which is find but doesnt really stand out. He rips the mask to FORK Pentagon which raised some eyebrows and looked brutal. Pentagon hit a Jumping Candian Destroyer by the time I went to Mania Weekend 2019 every card had like 8 Canadian Destroyers and 12 Ace Crushers on it. Marty tore up a garbage can with a barbed wire bat that seemed pretty brutal and could have sliced up Pentagon pretty good. At one point, he dumped gasoline on Pentagon, but Pentagon kicked the lighter out of him hand. I figured that was going nowhere. I liked the finish run it was short and compact. It was 2 minutes of violence. Marty hit the top rope with barbed wire back and it ricochets back into already bloody face. Pentagon throws Marty through a table! The rout is on! He HURLS Marty through a glass window pane! Great visual! They do some feng shui but the spot is pretty sick when Pentagon Jr Package Piledrives Marty through some chairs! Not much connective tissue or character work, but as far as hardcore spotfests it was fun for 12 minutes. ***

Marty "The Moth" Martinez vs Killshot - Lucha Underground 9/14/16 TLC Match Matt Striker sucks but out of all his insufferable, obnoxious performances this has to be the most insufferable and obnoxious of them all. You see this is a "Weapons of Mass Destruction" match, which is basically a TLC match that you win by pinfall. Oh the references, oh the horrible, horrible references. Killshot is Isiah "Swerve" Scott from NXT and Marty The Moth, I did some research into him doesnt like he has done much else. I will say Marty The Moth is the one who impressed me more. Killshot looked like your generic create-a-X-Division wrestler and wrestled as such. Marty The Moth has a lot of charisma and pure fucking heel. He is a scummy bastard. I can appreciate that. The other shoutout I want to give is I love how Lucha Underground is the blood & guts promotion of the 2010s. It is still not quite as good as 1980s US Territory wrestling because some 21st Century Workrate bullshit does seep in, BUT blood & guts brawling feels like an endangered species and I am happy someone was waving the torch. Killshot apparently in the military, Wikipedia says he served in the US Army Reserve. Marty The Moth stole his dogtags and is wearing US Military Fatigues. It was love at first sight. I like how hammy he is. He is very 80s. Crowd brawling and Scott is pretty decent. Martinez sells well. Martinez starts busting out some good schtick. He grabs the ring announcer lady as a hostage and then grabs a fistful of Killshot's junk. Hell Yeah! Scott takes a wicked head bump on an ladder. Martinez is bleeding and that adds a little sumthin sumthin. Killshot takes a lot of painful bumps on military boxes that look like they hurt. The big combo is Marty takes a Death Valley Driver on a Ladder, but this isnt the WWE it is a legit Ladder that warps a little but must have a hurt like hell. Killshot hits a Double Stomp and a wicked Piledriver thingy that was insane. Out comes the huge ladder and the match grinds a halt. Up until this point the match was pretty entertaining, but this killed their heat. Mariposa ends up going through the table. The Finish as great and salvages their heat loss. Killshot grabbed a handful of Marty's "mothballs", Matt Striker after an epically shitty performance of 22 minutes finally hit on a good one. Killshot rips the dogtags from Marty, I knew that was essential for the finish and then hit a Double Stomp off the Ladder through a table. Pretty wicked. It is not going to change your world and it could have been 5 minutes shorter, it is the first Lucha Undergrund match to overstay its welcome, but Marty's character work and the finish are worth it. ***1/2