Superstar Sleeze

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries vs Jeff Hardy - TNA Bound For Glory 2012 The crowd dynamics are all fucked up for the match. It is clear TNA wanted Jeff Hardy to be the big babyface on his road to redemption since that famous incident with Sting. The crowd was 90% behind Aries especially early just overwhelming the Hardy support. There was one time during the shine, Tenay exclaims "Here is the Creatures making their voices heard" and it was just Aries fans chanting Aries. Taz was like what the fuck did you just say? I thought Jeff was more aggressive than normal which I liked. Aries was the consummate heel. He was feeding and left himself get showed up at every turn early. When he did get an offensive move, he over-celebrated and taunted unfortunately to overwhelming adulation of his fans. Hardy hit Poetry In Motion using the ring steps which was the climax to an ok shine. He missed Whisper In the Wind. Aries took over. Aries chose to pummel Hardy and really grind it out. Aries is a great offensive machine. He is not a great grinder ala Bret. I think you can be a great heel and still keep it uptempo in heat segment but you do that by giving Hardy a lot of hope spots and you just cut off. Anyways, Hardy was just playing ragdoll which did not help matters. Hardy hits a Front Suplex out of nowhere and then caught him in an atomic drop and did legdrop on the balls. Whisper In The Wind connects. I like Hardy's look and vibe a lot but the more I watch him wrestle and really analyze it, he is a lackluster wrestler. I just want so much more out of him. He just hits his highspots and takes his opponents. Where's the struggle? Where are the wrinkles? The match picks up when Hardy misses a plancha. Aries his trademark Explosive Suicide Dive and hits a second one for good measure. Best Suicide Dive I have ever seen. He goes all out and that first one was like he was fired out of a cannon. He hit the railing so hard he busted himself up. Last Chancery was set up or teased well. Didnt have any heat or oomph. He slams Hardy's head on the ramp that was good. Missile dropkick usually the prelude to that massive corner dropkick which is in turn a prelude to the BrainBuster. Hardy gets his feet up. Crowd is booing every Hardy punch vociferously. Twist of a Fate. Aries meets him up on top on the Swanton Attempt. STANDING TOP ROPE FRANKENSTEINER! Ballsy. CORNER DROPKICK! Lets Go Aries! BRAINBUSTER! Put this punk away! 1-2-NO! He's fucked. I didnt know the finish but I know I am certain. They futz around a bit and Twist of A Fate and Swanton finishes it. Crowd does NOT shit on the finish as bad as I expect. Hardy was on cruise control this whole match. He hit his highspots and sold that was it. He was not going to go above and beyond. Aries fed well at the beginning and did the heel work. Then he went balls to the wall at the end. I like his effort. I wish when he goes full workrate he doesnt forget his heeling and his character but it is hard to focus on two things at once. Ultimately match falls flat in my eyes due to Hardy's lukewarm performance, BUT Aries brings enough goodness to mean this was still entertaining enough. ***1/4

TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle - TNA Impact 1/4/10 I was a pretty big TNA fan from 2005-2010 I would say and a large part of that was AJ Styles being my favorite wrestler in the world. Nobody combined big bumping, crisp execution, smart psychology better than AJ Styles. I remember watching this live and at the time I had never ordered a TNA PPV so I had never seen AJ vs Angle live. I was really into TNA at this point because AJ Styles had been champion and it looked like he was getting a strong push and was not just going to be a lameduck champion. Hogan & Bischoff were coming in. The internet was ablaze with mostly negative comments but it was exciting nonethless. I remember watching this match already back at school in Michigan and my mind being blown. At the time, I had never seen a Springboard 450 Splash and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. They lived up to the Total Nonstop Action claim. Best part was AJ Styles won clean in the middle of the ring. The crowd was molten for this match. By the Fall of 2010, I was done with TNA talk about falling off precipice to go from one of their most ardent supporters to never following them again. 2010 was such a bad year for booking for TNA. Just three years later, I watched & reviewed a ton of AJ Styles matches and found Kurt Angle to be his worst opponent. So what happened? I became hungry for something more out of my pro wrestling. That hunger was for psychology underpinning the action in the ring. If you liked Cena vs Owens, this is your match, you would love it. I would say this is match is a bit better because they at least miss some moves on the transitions. You can predict who hits the next move based on who hit the last move. This is very "My Turn, Your Turn". They do a brief excellent shine from AJ Styles. Angle scouts the dropkick, hesitates then charges and then AJ nails it. Nice swan dive over the top to the floor. Some masked dude that I have no recollection of attacks AJ. Angle beats him back, it is about PURE COMPETITION BABY! They come back from commercial and it is 11 minute finish stretch. This is the 21st Century US version of the All Japan all finish stretch match. They pop off all their highspots in one glorious highspot fireworks display. I liked the Pele into the Anklelock admittedly and AJ rolling through and then hitting it. It is Angle there are a ton of Olympic Slam attempts and HITS and Anklelocks. AJ has such beautiful spots. There is zero downtime. Workrate freaks like Meltzer must have loved this. This is precursor to all those WWE spotfests. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe this is debut of the Springboard 450 Splash, I should check my notes from 2009 AJ Styles matches. It takes two but he does win with it. It is such a spectacular move. It is harmless, Summer Action Blockbuster fun. It is the perfect TV main event to catch people's eyes and pop them. Honestly, you are going to need psychology to make them stay but I can this getting their foot in the door. It is very entertaining and enjoyable, probably their best match together, but "my turn, your turn" knocks it down a peg. ***3/4

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode vs Austin Aries - TNA Destination X 2012 Even though I think this is overrated, I am really excited this has a such a great rep and it is generally considered one of the top ten or twenty best TNA match ever because this is a classic championship formula match. The Classic Championship Formula usually does not play well the critics of today so it is refreshing to see this praised so much. I have always liked Austin Aries but sitting down watching three of his matches in a row from his landmark 2012 campaign has made me a huge fan. I think his execution is always crisp and everything he does has zip, but most importantly he is always moving forward and he is always fighting back. I know this shouldnt be a compliment but at the end of the day Benoit was a great wrestler and I see a lot of Benoit in Aries. The story of this match is Roode is the traditional heavyweight champion and does not think he smaller X-Division champion is even in his league. How do I know this you may ask? Well Roode says "Youre not in my league" about a bajillion times so thats how I know! Solid shine from Aries that is great character work. Roode slaps his head playfully on an exchange so Aries tools on him and slaps him around. Good shit. Aries fires off a couple quick, impactful moves to pop the crowd. Aries misses two of his signature moves. First is the missile dropkick, this leads to a short heat segment where Roode suffocates him but doesnt have a plan. Roode misses the kneedrop and looks like Aries is poised to run away with this but Aries EXPLODES out of the ring as he normally does but only to eat the railing. OW! This leads to the heat segment proper and it is a damn good one. Roode spears Aries and then the Gourdbuster shows that he believes Aries injured his ribs/abdomen on that dive. Bodyscissors and bearhugs are holds of choice as Roode peppers in shots to this injured area. Commentary totally drops the ball on this, but I picked it up. Aries is so good at peppering in the hope spots and Roode is great at cutting off. The big problem is that Roode is very similar to HHH. He gives very soulless, mechanical performances. The heat segment is executed correctly but whereas the panache and the flair. What makes this uniquely Bobby Roode? Or what is he doing to get heat on top of just working Aries over? After some basic trash talking, Aries starts to hulk up. Roode tries to pieface him and Aries responds with an overhand chop that would make Ronnie Garvin proud! He CRACKED him! SUICIDE DIVE! WIPES OUT ROODE! MISSILE DROPKICK! I like how he is hitting the moves he missed earlier. He goes for the big dropkick in the corner to set up the Brainbuster BUT Roode catches him and slams him to the mat. Great cutoff. Excellent layout and Aries is wrestling for two with all his energy & character work. Roode goes for the spear again but Aries lays out and pancakes him into a Last Chancery. Cool spot. They do some submission trading which is a lot less cool. Roode rakes the eyes on the second Last Chancery, he should have just down that in the first place. Spinebuster, always a great heel transition. They do a Crossface for no apparent reason. Even though Roode is clearly in command, he wants the title belt. Stupid. Ref takes title away, ballshot. Still cant win. Roode is arguing with ref. CORNER DROPKICK! Prelude to the Brainbuster?!? Roode escapes and shoves into ref. Belt shot! 1-2-NO! Aries kicks Roode in the face...BRAINBUSTER! 1-2-3! Love the efficiency. Here's the thing the story of the match that they clearly wanted was Aries overcomes cheating heel champion to win so why did they wait to have Roode cheat. Roode should have cheated to transition to the heat segment and at least 1-2 times more. It feel like only the last 2-3 minutes of this match matter because that where the hook and the actual story is. The 18 or so minutes prior were pointless in the grand scheme of the story. I still enjoyed the traditional Championship Match Formula with a great heat segment with purpose set up by a hellacious Suicide Dive to the railing. Aries was so good selling and peppering in the those hope spots. I really liked the finish run a lot but the match was disjointed. AJ Styles' still has Booby Roode's best match by a country mile, but this is a solid outing. ***3/4

TNA X-Division Champion Austin Aries vs Samoa Joe - TNA Slammiversary 2012 HOLY SHIT! What a banger! This is like the most athletically perfect David vs Goliath match ever! Joe looked like a beast and Aries was just relentless. Everything was crisp and organic. I cant praise this match enough. High octane and furious. It is a sub-15 minute sprint and they just go balls to the wall! They do such a great job establishing Aries underneath and forcing him to get creative and use his speed to even have a chance against the furious power of Joe. Joe blasts him with a kick on a Suicide Dive. Aries needs to hurl his whole body at Joe to even have a chance, but that is very risky. Joe just owns him in the corner with those facewashes. Every time Aries gets a hope spot, Joe squashes him like a bug with a powerslam or Island Driver. Joe goes for a dive but Aries uses his quickness to evade and get back into the ring. ARIES SHOOTS OUT LIKE A FUCKING BULLET AND WIPES OUT JOE! Holy shit! Missile dropkick. Aries charges and thats when Joe hits the Island Driver. You get that taste of hope and then it is just extinguished like that. Love it! Joe runs through his awesome combinations. Fuck TNA! Joe should have been the biggest star ever. Dude is a badass! I love this sequence in particular because it is so organic. Joe goes for the musclebuster, but Aries fights back so Joe beat him back but goes to middle rope so he switches to a superplex. Aries headbutts back and boxes the ear. Joe bumps off the middle and Aries IMMEDIATELY hits the 450 Splash. I loved the urgency. Great nearfall. Again, Joe is the one back up but he is rocked and catches Aries in the Koquina Clutch but Aries rolls back and almost pins Joe. This is killer. HUGE URNAGE IN THE CORNER BY JOE! Joe is feeling it! SUPACHARGE ME WITH THAT TESTOSTERONE! HELL YEAH! Musclebuster??? Aries elbows out, Crucifix Bomb, dont love that move. Great sell by Joe, ROARING ELBOW, DROPKICK CLOBBERS JOE IN THE HEAD, WICKED BRAINBUSTER 1-2-3! Everybody needs to watch that dropkick that was fucking wicked! I didnt love how easy it was for Aries to escape the Musclebuster nor did I like the CrucifixBomb as the set up for the finish. The finish itself was raucous, three hellacious moves by Aries all targeting the head. The body of the match was perfect! They told a great version of David vs Goliath with the athleticism turned to 11! Not quite as good as Final Battle 2004 but this is wicked awesome! ****1/4

TNA X-Division Champion Austin Aries vs Alex Shelley - TNA Against All Odds 2012 A shockingly basic match between the two former Generation Next. Basic means I liked this match! Nothing is overwrought. They focus on babyface/heel dynamics ok really Aries is just a great heel and Shelley is a long for the ride. I have always liked Shelley since the Paparazzi Productions with Nash but he has never done much for me in the ring and nothing has changed here. Aries seems like the brains behind this operation creating payoff spots and places for Shelley to excel. Shelley's shine is very boring compared to Aries establishing he is a dick early. I like how Aries misses the Pendulum Elbow after too much taunting. Again Shelley's comeback is pretty lackluster except they do a good payback spot. Earlier Aries had outsmarted Shelley by hiding under the ring and popping up the other side this what set up the first heat segment. This time Shelly got wise to his tricks, backdropped him and hit his own suicide dive. Again Shelley does not add much from character or heat perspective. Aries drills him with a Death Valley Driver on the apron this being TNA in 2012 I know he is coming back. Yes Shelley evades the 450 Splash and hits a Sliced Bread No. 2. Ugh. That's Shelley's big nearfall, crowd bit hard as Aries barely gets his hand on the ropes. Aries goes INSANE on Shelley. Total tenacious pitbull with knees to the head, just gobbling him up, nasty Brainbuster for two! Oh cmon that should have been it. Shelley gets some roll ups but Aries eats him alive against Brainbuster into Last Chancery for the win. This was a total carryjob by Aries who apparently had a stellar 2012. Aries is offensive dynamo, everything has snap and zip behind combine that with great character work and he is a joy to watch. ***1/4

Daisuke Ikeda & Takahiro Oba vs Makoto Hashi & Kengo Mashimo - FUTEN 10/24/10 FUTEN 2010 was supposed to be the promotion that salvages a very mediocre year of puroresu similar to how 2008 BattlArts salvaged the year 2008 for puroresu. For me, at least that has not been the case as FUTEN 2010 has not been as good as BattlArts in 2008. First Half: Oh boy, Oba is in this, I didnt really care for him in the May tag but he is more subdued in this. Donnybrook to start. Ikeda taunts and then Oba goes over the top. Draws a Yellow Card. There is a cool dynamic of Ikeda as the Ace and Oba as the comedy goofball against two asskickers. So on two different occasions Ikeda has to save Oba in holds, but Oba holds his own especially in his second stint applying some gnarly holds on Hashi. The value of this match is when Ikeda is in there. He is a totally bully to both Hashi and Mashimo. When he finally relents to a clean break to Hashi, Hashi cracks. Mashimo is the first to get a knock down scoring against Ikeda. Ikeda is such a wonderful offensive worker. On his second stint, he goes full battering ram and they unleash sick shoot headbutt on one another and that bust each other open hardway. I am not a big headbutt fan. They dont look as cool as punches or kicks. Yet they are super painful. It is kinda how look like shoot punches sometimes look worse than worked punches because they are too fast. Worked punch have that beautiful wind up and rear back nature to them. There are some headbutt marks out there that probably love this match but I didnt care for it. Hashi gets a knockdown in the corner on these nasty headbutts. Ikeda is selling really well and hits two beautiful kicks that wrap around Hashi's head for a knockdown. That I like it. They do the JYD/Terry Funk headbutt exchange in the dog position which yeah does nothing for me and it is just ridiculously painful for no reason. Ikeda looks fucked and Oba is having trouble holding his own, will Hashi/Mashimo cruise for the win or will Ikeda/Oba rally? Second Half: If memory serves me correctly, Ikeda gets the better of the dog headbutt contest and this forces Hashi to tag out, Ikeda also takes advantage to tag out. Oba decides his best recourse is windmill punches and an airplane spin. No matter what year or what culture, the airplane spin is in any comedy wrestler's arsenal. There was a one legitimately funny spot when Oba goes to tag out but tries to tag Hashi because he is so disoriented. I am sucker for that. Oba lasted long enough to give Ikeda a breather and after a couple elbows tags out to the Ace. There is a funny moment where Ikeda takes one wicked headbutt and goes to tag out and Oba SMACKS him, ostensibly to fire him up, but more likely because he wanted to no part of Hashi. They just destroy each other with headbutt. I can see why this got a rep because I feel like a lot of the DVDVR gang love headbutt. This was headbutt-palooza. They tease Ikeda losing by knockout but he gradually makes in-roads. The finish stretch is pretty dramatic. Even within a minute of the end of the match, Ikeda is being counted down after a wicked headbutt. He roars backs with an onslaught of kicks and Hashi cant make it up. The match did not do much for me, but for stiffness marks and headbutt marks this must be downright pornographic. I enjoyed enough of it, but I dont see a classic here just sado-masochistic theatre of pain. ***1/2

I’ll be voting. Just two more matches I need to watch then I’ll be ready to go!

ROH World Tag Team Champions Briscoe Brothers vs Second City Saints - ROH 4/24/04 No commentary! Hell Yeah! I dont know the backstory or if there is one. Punk & Cabana are over huge as this takes places in Chicago and they work as "big babyfaces" as CM Punk so eloquently puts it at one point. I am not sure if they were babyfaces all over or just here in Chicago. In the post-match promo, CM Punk lays into Ricky Steamboat so that seems to say to me at least they may be heels outside of Chicago. To me this felt like the high stakes 21st Century version of the Rockers vs Rougeaus. Punk & Cabana just bust out the funnest shine in this match. Cabana does a great job. I loved his go run the ropes to shoulder tackle me, but trips the Briscoe bit. There was a good table top spot. They did a great rocking horse double team. They Atomic Drop one Briscoe on the other in such a way that the foot lands on the other's balls. I have to admit this cracked me up. They tied up each Briscoe with the other and then put them in a double camel clutch. I bang the drum loudly for the shine. It is very underappreciated and this was a great shine. I'll be honest the Briscoes were just there for me. I still havent seen much of them, but i cannot think of any one thing that stood out to me. The heat segment was a solid 80s style heat segment. Lots of trapping in the corner and good hope spots by Punk. After the hot tag, it was breaking loose in Chi-Town as they go full spotfest. There were some fun spots. I think the best spot by far was Cabana was going for Doomsday Device but the one Briscoe laid back. Punk went to dropkick his head, but the Briscoe sat up (tremendous core strength) but slid through the legs and hit the other Briscoe with a baseball slide. The Briscoe on Cabana's shoulders ended up hitting a Dragonrana! Pretty wicked! The rest of the finish run was fun sptuff but nothing sticky just a lot of spots. Jay Briscoe hit the Jay Driller on Cabana's but couldnt pin him that would serve as their big nearfall. They were going to do a double team off the top but Cabana crotched one and Punk threw the other off the top. PEPSI PLUNGE~! I have never seen the Pepsi Plunge before! I always pictured it would be done the other way with the Punk facing his back to the ring and kicking backwards. It is a very unrealistic move but it looked cool. Fun little match, Punk looks like a star, he is definitely hit the gym and he looked the best in the ring. Punk & Cabana definitely stood out a lot more than Briscoes with a lot of fun spots and just really big personalities. The Briscoes felt like a couple generic wrestlers there for the ride. Feel-good match for the hometown crowd. ***1/4

Homicide vs Steve Corino - ROH 8/16/03 The infamous "Slap" match where according to wrestling lore Homicide slapped Corino so hard that Corino lost hearing in his ear. I have heard many times this was a shoot. But I have my doubts. I respect people on here so if someone wants to say this is 100% shoot I'll believe them. One reason I thought it was a work is that the announcer conveniently jump to the right conclusion. I have seen 8 bajillion slaps in wrestling. Not once did I ever jump to the conclusion, oh shit he knocked his equilibrium off or he cupped his ear so bad, that dude may have shoot lost hearing. The match actually starts more traditionally then I expected. I liked Homicide quashing the drop toehold into the his own leg lace. There seems to be a weird miscommunication but then Corino taunts Homicide he slaps him. Then Corino gets up and Homicide really CRACKS him and this is "The Slap". Homicide maims Corino with barbed wire ripping at the flesh on his arm. The transitions in this match were pretty shitty, but they made up for it with great violence. Corino smashes Homicide head into the guardrails and he gigs himself real good. Taps a gusher, he is bleeding like a faucet. There is a pool of blood around his head at one point, nasty. Loved the piledriver on the timekeeper's table by Corino and Corino returns the favor using the barbed wire. 'Cide is bleeding buckets. Homicide hits a ballshot! Finally a good transition. Unfortunately, they decide to go Kings Road for the finish. They were having a pretty good bloody brawl. The finish run was very 2000s Indy at the time and enjoyed it but felt wrong for what they were going for. The announcers were talking about the resiliency and fighting spirit of Corino, which does not make sense in this context, but the match was wrestled that way. I liked the Super Ace Crusher from Homicide. Lots of Stan Hansen Lariat tribute stuff. Homicide applies the Regal Stretch (maybe a slight modification) and a Corino flunky throws in the towel. I really enjoyed the slap through the ballshot portion. Lots of good old school brawl, blood & guts violence. I think they could have picked up the urgency a little, but still I dug it. The King's Road finish stretch felt tacked and just like it is 2003 in Ring Of Honor and this is just how we finish matches. I still enjoyed the match, but it is not the all-timer that I wanted it to be. ***3/4

ROH World Champion Samoa Joe vs Homicide - ROH 5/22/04 There's only 30 minutes left in my night shift and I blowed up folks. This is probably gonna be short & sweet. Much better match than their previous outing. Based on the announcers (who was the deadpan guy he was fucking atrocious), I guess Homicide was a happy-go-lucky babyface and the previous match I watched was his heel turn. I guess I should have cut him some slack. The shine is great. Homicide flips off the crowd but then Smokes decks him by accident and Joe takes off Smokes' head with an Ole Kick! Tremendous work all around! Apparently, Homicide injured Joe's neck at previous show and he is targetting it sort of, he does so more later. Joe is a great asskicker and this is awesome when he is on offense. Things pick up when Joe being such an asskick basically piledrives himself into the barricade on a spear. I forgot to mention not to be outdone but before Homicide did a somersault suicide dive where he shot out like a canon and obliterated a table. That was sick! Basically only Joe can hurt Joe because Joe is such a badass. Homicide busts out the infamous Ghetto Fork, damn I used to read all about the Ghetto Fork. I dont know what makes it ghetto (the announcer said he was sharpening it on some brick and it is now extra sharp) but it is gnarly. He is really plunging it into the cut. That alone raises this match in my eyes. The nearfalls for Homicide have more heat. He hits a surprisingly heavy fucking Lariat and then a Piledriver on the injured neck that was great. I also loved him using the Fork when he was trying to get him in the Crossface. That was fucked up. He was really shoot jabbing it in there. Nasty! Joe was just his usual asskicking self. Great Urnage was a good hope spot. I loved how they started trading 90s All Japan spots. Even Homicide was using a Saito Suplex. Joe is such an All Japan mark I love it! Taking spots from all Four Corners. Joe slaps the shit out of Homicide, ISLAND DRIVER! 1-2-NO! This is so All Japan needing that one extra bomb. Complicated All Japan style sequence which finished with an ok Joe lariat, surprisingly Homicide had a better lariat. Brainbuster does him in...would have liked to seen the Musclebuster but a strong finish. I preferred the brawling/forking to the All Japan cosplay but this was a definite step up and entertaining. ***3/4

Wow thats a pair of monster ratings! I will add it to the list.

ROH World Champion Samoa Joe vs Homicide - ROH 4/23/04 Man Samoa Joe was a fuckin boss and Homicide is a just worker. Joe just had Alpha Male down. He was tooling on Homicide. He was one upping him every step of the way. This was Bob Backlund esque anything you can do I can do better. He would absorb the chop and slap the shit out of Homicide. Homicide would headbutt and Joe would not even register and he would knock his ass down with his own. Honestly, I have seen some Homicide when he was in TNA. I love the name and the gimmick in LAX, but here I didnt think he was dangerous enough. Your name is fucking Homicide, he was getting punked out the whole time. Joe was toying with him. Joe is a tremendous offensive wrestler. You get to see that on display here. They submission, the strikes, the throws everything is here. The Facewashes in the corner and on the outside. Homicide also looked lost at some points. Joe had to basically force him in the right position for the Facewash. When he was on offense, it was nothing interesting. I was expecting an all-time great brawler to counteract Joe's traditional pro-style prowess. Homicide got a nearfall off a nice piledriver and then an Ace Crusher out of nowhere. I think his Tope Con Hilo was his best move but I am a sucker for that move in general. It always has such crazy velocity compared to a normal suicide dive. Joe hit his trademark shit but not the Muscle Buster or Island Driver. He was going for the Choke when Homicide reversed into a cradle. The ref counted three but realized Joe kicked out before three. I would like to see this more often maybe 1-2 times a year. A bang-bang play like is he out at home or not type situation. Homicide gets pissed because he feels like he is being screwed and decks the ref. I am always for ref violence by a heel. 1997 Macho Man is my standard for dangerous, unhinged pro wrestlers, this scored like a 4 on that scale. The lights go out so they can get the full effect of the FIREBALL~! Ref violence and a fucking fireball was this booked for me! I love both those gimmicks. Honestly, this is what Homicide needed, some edge, some danger, decking refs and fireballs will do that! Lets see if it translates into the rematch. ***1/4 because Joe was a beast in this match and I love fireballs!

Raven vs CM Punk - ROH Death Before Dishonor Dog Collar Death Before Dishonor is a great name for a Wrestling Supercard. Thankfully they include the pre-match promo and post-match angle on the ROH DVD I bought. I always love when I get a chance to dig into my DVD collection. Early CM Punk is a great promo reminds me a lot of MJF in terms of conviction and cadence (the Better Than You stuff does naturally draw comparisons). As someone who has never drank or did drugs, reading about CM Punk in high school actually did mean a lot to me. It was cool to know there was someone else out there who was proud of being alcohol-free and drug-free. I stopped identifying as Straight Edge even though my lifestyle never changed (I still dont drink or do drugs) but I thought sXe culture is too judgmental. I am not proud to be alcohol-free or drug-free I just happen to be alcohol-free and drug-free. CM Punk mocking Danny Doring who is probably the lowest rent ex-ECW hack you could fine was pretty good and then the post-match angle with Tommy Dreamer saving Raven from getting beer dumped all over him was so awesome! Great moment! In 2003, ECW nostalgia feels fresh. Dreamer wearing a Hooters basbeball jersey is very on brand. CM Punk made a big deal about alcohol never touching his lips so it was obvious that that Raven was going to force feed him beer and so he did! OH HELL YEAH! GOOD SHIT! The match itself was fine. Nowhere near as good as the promos, character work and angles. I think it would have been better if ti was five minutes shorter. The shine felt more like a heel in peril. it was a lot of pummeling. It was not very fun or uptempo. Punk's lowblow was a good first heel move of the match. Liked Raven's Million Dollar Kneelift in response. Good I will not be denied spot. Raven set up the table so he went through it. Now Punk starts to work. Liked the chained wrapped around the knee for the knee drop. Lots of crowd brawling with fan participation. Punk yanks Raven down the steps. Raven does my least favorite comeback a series of Clotheslines where he lands on his knees after doing the clotheslines. Raven uses the Million Dollar Kneelift and Drop Toehold to the Chair. Goes for covers after each which I dont get. This is a blood feud dont you want to hit that Spike DDT and do maximum damage before you win. Ref is bumped and Raven DDT. Gets the visual pin. Cabana low blows and DDT on chair! Doring saves and runs Cabana off. Punk covers and wins. This puts over the DDT huge that after all that time Punk could still win. Punk looks extra scummy because he was about to lose and didnt even hit his own move after to win, which is genius heel booking. Loved the post-match angle like I said which lifts the overall match up but not by much. I am glad I finally watched some early CM Punk. This was my first time ever seeing CM Punk in ROH. ***1/2

Just stumbled across this thread. I will check this out. Did you nominate it for GME?

ROH World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs Jay & Mark Briscoe - ROH 3/16/03 AJ Styles is an underrated major player in the foundation of ROH. Lots of major matches against the likes of Low-Ki (he was who Ki first defended the ROH title against) and American Dragon. He was the first Tag Champion and was in the finals for the first Pure Championship. I enjoy Amazing Red. He is the good kind of spot monkey. His spots are breath-taking and look like they do damage, he has a snap and velocity to everything he does. Admittedly, I have seen very little of the Briscoes. I look forward to watching more. They came across as very solid 21st Century 1st Gen Indy workers, high on workrate, little on psychology. I loved the Shine of this. Red just executes so well. They are moving so fast and fluidly that the armdrag exchanges come off great. So many people speed walk through their stuff nowadays that it is not as fun as this. The real highlight is the AJ/Mark amateur bit that leads to a great German Suplex. Competitive, lots of struggle and then a wicked suplex, HELL YEAH! Loved the Red superkicking Jay over in a nasty German. Then the stereo dives. After that it is like they wanted to work face in peril without doing. I dont know if they just didnt understand psychology or if it was active rebellion against the shine-heat-comeback formula. They were purposefully trying something different. I dont know. They would do cool stuff like a blind tag to Jay who smoked Red out of the air with a missile dropkick but then turnaround and have Red hit a cool highspot named Brain Damage. They did a similar sequence with AJ. They set up the counters well but it was a bit premature. The "Breaking Loose in a High School Gymnasium" was an awesome spotfest. Red was busting out all sort of cool cinematic Kung-Fu kicks. I liked the one off the Briscoe back and kicking the other in the head. AJ is the heir to Bret Hart. He is the 21st Excellence of Execution. Everything is hit with a purpose and a snap. The Code Red off the top was wild. The finish itself I thought could have been hit a littler cleaner BUT the Crowd went fucking APESHIT for it so I cant complain too much. It was AJ springboarding Red into a rana and then Styles Clash. This was a great balls to the wall spotfest with lots of cool moves, but they could have done a better job on layout. ***3/4

Y'all are crazy this match is badass. If all wrestling was this good in the past 5 years I would never complain. Low-Ki vs AJ Styles - ROH 4/27/02 I wish this was the direction workrate went. I dont know what happened or where it wrong, but boy we take a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Most of this match would not look out of place in PWFG. The grappling was so fucking tight and the struggle was fucking real. Look at the effort exerted by these two. Now it is overly complicated square dancing with comical hammy selling. Watch how they sell, it is fucking register, not a flop around, glassy eyed bullshit that kills the entire match's credibility when you make your comeback 30 seconds later. The efficiency is off the charts. It still keeps the workrate freaks happy because this is perpetual motion. The opening grappling is so damn good. It is not see thru, AJ keeps up with Low-Ki, AJ is probably the second best wrestler in the US in 2002 but 2002 Low-Ki is one of the greatest of all time. Watch those back bridges, amazing. There are very few highspots in this match. It is really lo-fi, competitive pro wrestling, I can dig that. You can sense that "but" and here it comes, I would have liked them to use highspots as transitions. The transitions were a little too "normal" they did not grab you. It was usually a stiff kick and wicked lariat. The strikes were awesome in this match. I have been beating the drum for AJ since 2003 and one thing that has been true since Day One is how underrated he is as a puncher and striker in general. The dude lays shit in and it is crisp, damn good sound, looks great. Watch him whiff on the spin kick and then rebound with the stiff lariat. He didnt go chase Low-Ki down. He kept his feet planted, watched for Ki on the comeback and shifted his whole body weight into the lariat. Great job. Low-Ki was on fire in this match, the Koppou Kick was money and those Kawada Kicks at one point were just sick and brutal. I thought they did a great job escalating from competitive grappling to stiff striking to the finish stretch. Somebody criticized this as "My turn, your turn" and "video game wrestling". On the latter complaint, unless you love shoot-style, I dont see that. They were working their highspots and blending them well. The former point, I thought the transitions were meaningful and the missed moves had consequences. Watch something like Cena/Owens from 2015, every move hits, kick out, opponent does his spot. No missed moves. Here we see Low-Ki and AJ Styles both miss moves from the top rope. This puts over the top rope as very risky and if you miss, your opponent can take advantage. The commentary was dreadful. I mean please give me WWE commentary with Byron Saxton and Corey Graves over this shit dreadful, but they did make one good point. Low-Ki didnt go for the Phoenix Splash until he finally had beaten Styles down. He went through the strikes and finally rocked him enough to try it. So many people just toss these moves out nowadays and the sad part is they land. I agree with the point that transitions could have been a little more impactful. I do think the finish is pretty abrupt, which does fit the style. This was their first match in ROH and they smartly didnt give it all away. Ki-Krusher never hit. They both missed their top rope moves. Styles never tried for the Styles Clash. The Dragon Clutch was used in the ropes. So they give themselves plenty of room to grow in their rematch. Ki had a MASSIVE powerbomb and Tiger Suplex as big nearfalls. Watch his bridges so good. So athletic! AJ was able to get his Quebrada/Slop Drop as his nearfall. It is so annoying that highspots like that got AJ labelled as a highflyer or a spot monkey. He is so much more than that. AJ was falling behind in the match and needed that as a desperation move to try to win. I think especially as American wrestling fans, we are really conditioned to think of wrestling terms of control segments. If we dont see that, there is a knee-jerk reaction to scream "SPOTFEST" or "NO PYSCHOLOGY". I think Ring of Honor was doing something truly innovative in 2002 with the melding of shoot-style and King's Road. This is paced and laid out like a shoot-style. Heavy on register, light on selling and there is no control segments. It is a blur of COMPETITIVE action. I love narrative-based wrestling. If we are going to do this style, I would prefer it look like this instead of an overly choreographed men's floor exercise. I have said all this before in my other 2002 ROH reviews. It is such a cool, interesting style and unfortunately short-lived. I really wish wrestlers would go back and study this era. ****1/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Masakatsu Funaki vs SUWAMA - AJPW 3/17/13 This is the rubber match. SUWAMA won the first and Funaki the second. It has only been 6 months since Funaki successfully defended his Triple Crown. SUWAMA joined forces with the gaijin Joe Doering and Masa Chono in Last Revolution, which seems heelish, but there is no heeling in this match. I definitely want to go shopping for sunglasses with Masa Chono at some point in my life. Unfortunately this is the least of their trilogy, it is still a very good match but there is not as much pep in their step. There is a lot of ragdolling for the other. My favorite moment in the match is towards the beginning. Funaki has SUWAMA in full guard and gains double wrist control. He basically treats SUWAMA with a child. SUWAMA try as he might cant reach Funaki because he controls his wrists. It reminds me of when my Dad would stiff arm me and my arms would just windmill and I couldnt touch. Or whenever my best friend, who was an amateur wrestler in high school would just tool on me with wrist control. Funaki reverses position and then slaps the shit out of SUWAMA. SUWAMA is coming with a bandage on on his upper back and Funaki has his elbow bandaged. Funaki beats on this point and SUWAMA is unable to get his powerbomb. Deep King's Road sit there, but his back is bothering him too much. Funaki dumps him out and knee from apron to bad back. Then this is where the match is just not as exciting as their previous bouts. Funaki just does a lot of triangle choke variations. It is not just in this portion of the match, it is throughout the match. SUWAMA dumps him out and starts working the arm. It ends up going nowhere, but it is good work. When SUWAMA busts out the Short Arm Scissors, the announcer says "KEYLOCK?!?" like he is in shock that big, dumb powerhouse SUWAMA knows that move. SUWAMA does a great job varying his attack on the arm. Here comes the Kurt Angle tribute part of their match. At least Funaki stomps SUWAMA's injured back after he releases the heel hook. They abandon their body part psychology and go back to their old standby of shoot style vs pro style. Funaki focuses more on trying to choke SUWAMA out which is not as entertaining as trying to kick his head off. SUWAMA works his power based game lots of big throws especially some nice German Suplexes . With 5 minutes to go, they finally let it fly with their epic strike exchange and they just start wailing on each other. Funaki kicks the Lariat arm and I love when SUWAMA goozles him that's so heated. Funaki ROCKS him with a kick to the head! They tease the knockout. FUNAKI SMOKES HIM WITH A KICK TO THE HEAD AND THEN ANOTHER WHEN HE WAS ON HIS KNEES! WOW! 1-2-NO! That was wicked! Funaki goes for his big finish the Tombstone which put out SUWAMA and all his other challengers. SUWAMA resists and introduces Funaki to the Family with Sister Sledge! Funaki avoids the Last Ride and Funaki is determined to choke SUWAMA out with a standing choke this time. They do another arm drop spot which is the second of the match. SUWAMA gets a sudden burst of energy and DEMOLISHES HIM WITH A SAITO SUPLEX! LAST RIDE~! 1-2-NO! SUWAMA hits a big Back Drop Driver with a great bridge for the win! They have electric finishes but I thought the body of this match was decidedly more boring and aimless than their previous matches. There were nice flashes of power and strikes. The last ten minutes or so was awesome! Definitely check out their 2010 and 2012 matches! ***3/4

I am man enough to admit when I am wrong and boy oh boy was I wrong about this one. Thanks to Nintendo for pushing this through on Greatest Match Ever means I gave it a re-watch. Brutally stiff, electric and urgent. Loved it! This is the best Nagata looked in the 2010s. Awesome exchanges with Shibata that were badass. 2013-2014 was peak Honma and he was great here. Shibata slugs him in the chest and he just crumples. I greatly prefer Shibata to Goto and the match is much better when Shibata is in it. I LOVED the misdirect on the PK into Running Boot to Nagata's face. Honma's Hot Tag is super fun and loved the missed top rope headbutt as the transition to the finish. Goto does drag this down a bit. He is just so bland. Honma is the babyface everyone wants. He gets more over by losing and he was the underdog everyone was pulling for but comes up short again. I agree this is definitely the best New Japan tag team match of 2010-2014, but thats a short list and this was a great sprint. ****1/4

Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Keiji Mutoh & Kensuke Sasaki vs KENTA, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Maybach Taniguchi - NOAH 5/11/13 What an emotionally moving match and tour de force! I have been putting off watching this for years. I never wanted it to end, but that's how life is. There are few things that bring me as much joy than stumbling across a picture of Kobashi with a huge smile on his face on Twitter. So glad he is still on this Earth, happy and making others happy. I was crying on the entrance. So happy at the turnout and the response for The GOAT. In the freelance world of the 21st Century, I am not too surprised at the relationships formed but I never knew Kobashi was close to Mutoh & Chono (who was on commentary). Akiyama and Sasaki make total sense give their past history. Mutoh was actually the second most over person when he came in to his trademark elbow drop that got a huge chop. The first 15 minutes is all shine and feel good stuff. They start off with the marquee match up of KENTA and Kobashi. KENTA show NO MERCY slapping the Living Legend. Kobashi wins an excellent chop battle. I liked how Kobashi and Sasaki re-created their chop battle but instead they just used Taniguchi's body. The highspot of the first 15 minutes was Kobashi/Shiozaki chop battle turning into an abdominal stretch which gets me excited for yes cmon he has to do it...he just has to...ROLLING CRADLE! He goes all out with one of the longest Rolling Cradles! That was awesome. Sasaki and Shiozaki go to Chop City and Sasaki TRUCKS him with a lariat and tags out to Akiyama. Now we get the ten minute Kobashi face in peril, which is nice to see that he was in good enough shape to go 10 minutes no breaks. Shiozaki and Kobashi recreate for real the Kobashi/Sasaki chop battle. Kobashi’s chest looks like raw meat. Shiozaki hits some spinning back chops and GERMAN SUPLEX! WOW! Kanemaru hits the best highspot of the match. Springboard on railing and then Legdrops Kobashi head on railing. General pummeling on Kobashi. Kobashi Chops Taniguchi down but the other three young guns knock off Kobashi’s partner. Taniguchi’s weird U-Shaped Trident thing comes into play. He jabs it at Kobashi and I think Kobashi is going to hulk but instead Taniguchi chokes Kobashi with it and hits a Nodowa! I think they should have done the Hulk Up. KENTA comes in and this is raucous. HALF NELSON SUPLEX! Big Pop! Tag out! KENTA got to run through his big moves on Akiyama before Mutoh came in and did a truncated version of his schtick, dropkick to knee, Dragon leg Screw and Figure-4. They do a fun spot where they all have the youngsters in submissions. Sasaki runs through his stuff against Shiozaki. Bulldozing him in the corner. Sledging him with forearms and then his special overhead armdrag into his submission of choice. I have missed Sasaki, I always had a soft spot for him. Lets take this home boys! Shiozaki vs Sasaki turns into another wicked chop battle. Who did Shiozaki piss off that he had to take on Kobashi and Sasaki chopping his chest in the same match. Sasaki mounts his comeback and here comes Kobashi. They tease Kobashi losing but no one buys it. He eats a missile dropkick, top rope double stomp and a flying bodypress. Shiozaki SMOKING Kobashi with a lariat gets the most heat. Kobashi hits a SUPERPLEX! Mutoh Shining Wizard! Mutoh is the best cheerleader. He was so into this match. BURNING LARIAT~! The youngsters break it up. Mutoh Backbreaker->Moonsault! Here it is and all of sudden it is very dusty in here. One more time! Bodyslam->FIST PUMP->MOONSAULT! A perfect ending. Mutoh was tremendous in this on the apron and directing traffic at the end. He really helped put the spotlight on everything. I missed Sasaki so much, he was great clobbering. Kanemaru was the most energetic of the youngsters. They had to protect KENTA because he was NOAH’s Champion but he looked good. Shiozaki took the brunt of the shit and there was a lot of chopping in this match and he was on the receiving end of it. Kobashi for one night delivered the goods. He got his ass kicked for ten minutes, took some top rope splashes, but we were here for the offense. He gave us the vicious chopping, the sweet Rolling Cradle, one last Fist Pump and Moonsault. Match defies rating really. Kobashi is The GOAT and he went out a Living Legend.

All Japan Triple Crown Champion Masakatsu Funaki vs SUWAMA - AJPW 9/23/12 These two have great chemistry together. It is the perfect pro style vs shoot style because SUWAMA has a distinct power based style that is credible against Funaki in this context. In a mildly famous match, Funaki defeated Akiyama for the Triple Crown in a 5 minute sprint that is electric. I highly recommend it. This is his first defense. The first half of this is great, so much struggle. Great stand-up Greco-Roman grappling. Funaki is using kicks and holds to control. It is SUWAMA's power game that is the great equalizer. Dumping Funaki out on the triangle choke. After some kicks, just throwing Funaki around at will with devastating suplexes. He grabs Funaki's ankle and wrenches it down. The next five minutes is really strong leg work.Standing on the knee, wrenching it against the apron, heel hook from the top rope, single leg crab. Really strong. I loved the KneeCrusher/Capture Suplex Combination. This was a really great showing from SUWAMA on top. As we get to the 15 minute mark, Funaki is writhing in pain in a SUWAMA ankle lock. I like how Funaki’s comeback is so gradual. The enziguiri and Koppou Kick graze SUWAMA’s head and there is not much on them. It is only a Fujiwara Armbar takedown on a suplex attempt that gets him back in it. They are committed to doing a Kurt Angle style trade of submissions in their matches, they did it in 2010. It is the weakest part of their matches. Funaki wins that exchange and gets a long heel hook. Still it is not enough as Suwama catches a slap and turns into the most badass double underhook suplex. That was tremendous. SUWAMA has had enough of playing around and is ready to throw FUNAKI DOWN with the Last Ride, BUT Funaki pulls a rabbit out of his ass with a Guillotine Choke. This saps SUWAMA of his energy. SUWAMA gets a second wind and HURLS HIM TO THE MAT WITH A POWERBOMB! AWESOME! Great levelling the playing field spot. It is anybody’s ball game. SUWAMA hits a MONSTER Dropkick that would make Davey Boy Smith proud. Watch how he compresses his body and then SPRING OUT at the point of impact for full power. Awesome stuff! Then they just let it fucking fly! It is not quite as good as their 2010 Strike Exchange, but they give each other Holy Hell! They fucking kick each other’s ass. Funaki overwhelms SUWAMA and collapses himself from the asskicking. Funaki innovated a new Tombstone Piledriver as his finish, BUT SUWAMA Converts it OKLAHOMA SLAM! BACK DROP DRIVER! DEMOLITION DERBY! 1-2-NO! WOW! Funaki comes back with strikes! Funaki nails a HEAD KICK! SECOND HEAD KICK! WOW! SUWAMA is on jelly legs…TIMBAHHH! Tombstone it is over. Not quite as good as 2010, few matches are, but this was still badass as hell. I liked SUWAMA’s control segment, just solid pro wrestling. The Guillotine Choke was perfect to get Funaki back in after he was in quite the hole. That last 5 minutes was electric. These two rock against each other. It is 1-1 and the rubber match is in 2013, cant wait! ****1/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyhara vs SUWAMA - AJPW 3/23/20 So this is what passes for epic nowadays. I wanted to watch some SUWAMA on my TV but only have Youtube access so I was stuck with this match, but I was kinda interested in SUWAMA in 2020. I have seen Miyahara before but not since this personality transplant. This feels like a very New Japan-esque match. Miyahara plays a more overtly cocky Okada with a ton of Omega V-Triggers. SUWAMA's age and style means there is not as much overly choreographed floor exercises, but there is not much zing or zip in the match. It is very plodding and methodical. Not much energy or urgency. Miyahara gets the first control segment on the outside nothing of note happens. SUWAMA stars whipping him in railings. Not much going on. DDT wakes up the announcers and me. SUWAMA starts throwing him around a bit. They trade sleepers. The highspot of the match was easily Miyahara's piledriver on the apron. Brutal and it stood out as something different. SUWAMA sold it well. Miyahara gets the best nearfalls off his V-Trigger Knees. SUWAMA goes back to Sleeper and then after a complicated King's Road style sequence SUWAMA levels him with a lariat to level the playing field. Here comes the strike exchange. Miyahara has the V-Trigger Knee and the Capture Suplex. SUWAMA catches him on one of those knees and turns it into a WICKED POWERBOMB! HELL YEAH! SUWAMA SMOKES HIM WITH A LARIAT! I thought that was it. Wada is the last connection to Baba's All Japan, but it is time to retire. That was a slooooooowwww count. Miyahara gets a last gasp. SUWAMA DEMOLISHES HIM WITH BACK DROP DRIVER! It is over and new champion. I know Miyahara was at 500+ days and it was time to freshen things up, but he was very over especially with the female-heavy crowd. I think SUWAMA is still a solid veteran hand, but I question the wisdom of going back to him. Tons of dead space in this match. No energy. No heat. No anger. They tried to use the New Japan style epic lots of epic selling, but it lacks passion and urgency. There were some nice highspots and the finish stretch good enough to call this good but not much more than that. ***1/4

I agree you can organically come back to that spot. In addition that spot was not necessary for the overall match. It was just another spot in a long line of them to establish Luger’s power advantage.

Bemoan RAW Underground all you want for Shane McMahon, production, cinema, fake shoot-style, I am going to be its biggest cheerleader because two words: NO ROPES! NO MORE IRISH WHIPS! NO MORE ROPE RUNNING! Lets be honest, no more rope speed walking! NO MORE GYMNASTICS! I do not think it was a home run at all on its first edition. The big dude hit no highspots which was ridiculous. I thought Erik came off the most badass. Hurt Business looked good and baller in their suits. To me RAW Underground is the most pro wrestling thing they have done in a long time. It feels like a carnival and gimmick-y. It is not a couple people going out their to collect a pay check by sleepwalking through some choreography. I think RAW Underground has potential. It has been one week, they have not achieved it yet, but I am a fan.

Honestly that's why I think the pay wall is smart. It is a good deterrent for creeps and trolls. Yes there are sadly creeps and trolls that will still join, but at least you will exclude the cheap ones. She is providing a service by building a community for these ladies so they can talk. It is not ridiculous to charge. If she really got bullied off Twitter for having the audacity to charge people that's pretty fucking ridiculous.

$50 flat and you're in for life? $50 a year? $50/month?