Superstar Sleeze

Nobuhiko Takada vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - UWF 2/27/90 Their last meeting was in October of 1989 were Takada won by TKO. The following month, the UWF ran a $3 million show at the Tokyo Dome drawing 50k. Not too shabby. Fujiwara defeated Dick Vrij on the show and Takada defeated Duane Koslowski. The UWF returned to action in the new year with Takada defeating the Ace Superstar, Akira Maeda and Fujiwara defeating Nakano. On the last show before this, Maeda defeated Fujiwara and Takada defeated Yamazaki. Takada is on a four match win streak with wins over the three biggest names in 80s shoot style while Fujiwara comes into the match 2-2, but those two losses are to his main event peers. First Half of the Match: You would never know that Takada was the one on the hot streak at the outset of this match. Lots of struggles and flesh on flesh as they feel each other out locking up. Fujiwara is wrestling with confidence. Takada has his head down. He seems tentative. Takada takes Fujiwara down three times and all three times loses control on the mat to Fujiwara, which is pretty unacceptable. He needs a rope break to break a toehold. He has to scurry out of a potential wristlock. You see Takada throw "check" kicks but nothing like the violent kicks he is known for. On the leg scissors takedown, he loses control again, but regains it with good figure-4 technique that safeguards his feet from being toeholded. Fujiwara does a great job verbally selling. Now Takada's demeanor changes. His chin is up and he is throwing hard kicks. Fujiwara is backpedalling and is favoring his bad leg. Takada goes for the home run two wild kicks to the head. Both miss. They are not as pretty as Super Tiger's but Takada is a lot bigger so they look they would hurt. Fujiwara catches a kick and takes him down. He holds on and looks to turn it into a single leg crab. Great verbal selling with the grunting and the crowd is reacting. Takada makes a ropes and for some reason this awards a point to Fujiwara. I don't get that. Overall, lots of struggle and I like how their demeanors are reflecting the action. Second Half of the Match: Takada utilizes the kicks more frequently as his main offensive tool. This has proven successful for Super Tiger in the past and it was clear from the first half of the match, that he would be outclassed on the mat. Takada's downfall was that he kept trying to the finish the match on the mat. At one point, he goes for a cross-armbreaker and falls prey to a toehold. It is incredible that Takada is so bad at defense. Fujiwara is wrestling the ultimate defensive wrestling match. At one point, it looks like Fujiwara gets knocked loopy and then he has this incredible second wind. The crowd loves it. This is where Fujiwara's charisma really shines. He KNOCKS TAKADA OUT with a wicked headbutt, but Takada is up at 8. Fujiwara hurls him with a German. Takada returns the favor with his own German and this time forces Fujiwara to the ropes. Takada really had a winning strategy with the kicks. He was making significant in-roads. Again he drops down to the mat with a legbar. Again it is reversed into a wicked Fujiwara toehold and this time Takada has no choice but to tap out. First off congratulations to Fujiwara for wrestling a smart, patient match. Very rarely is defense an important aspect of pro wrestling, but this was an excellent example of defensive pro wrestling. Takada should be ashamed of himself. He can contest Fujiwara in a stand up contest, but had no prayer on the mat. I get trying and seeing if you have "it" tonight, but it was clear he didn't. Time and time again, Fujiwara reversed it into his favor. So it serves Takada right that when he had the match won that he drops down into a legbar only to have it reversed and lose. Better yet, I hate his fucking legbar. I like Takada, but his legbar sucks. There is no wrenching. It looks like he is hugging a man's leg. So I am happy after the fifth boring ass legbar by him in this match he lost on that! So yes, the drawback on this match is there are a lot of heatless Takada legbars. I thought Takada rocked in the stand-up. As far as individual performances go, Fujiwara ruled, great defensive wrestling on the mat, greta verbal selling, great stand up (body shots and headbutts) and great charisma. ****1/4

Woah, I don't think I have ever disagreed more with Loss. Absolutely love those style uppercuts. Dustin Rhodes and Roman both throw a great punch. Roman is a fantastic puncher. European Uppercuts rule the school whether it is Dory Funk Junior or Cesaro I love them. Yes more elbows too! How can you not love AJ Styles or Chris Hero's elbows?

Good call by Shitty Little Boots to pimp this match. It is way better than I remembered. CM Punk vs Randy Ortron - WrestleMania XXVII It is interesting how in this day and age matches like this can overlooked. I don't know if there is too much wrestling or too much good wrestling or maybe the feuds lack stickiness or maybe WWE does not do a good job canonizing matches anymore. Whatever the case maybe there is no excuse for a WrestleMania match this good to be overlooked and underdiscussed. Orton had been put in a position to get over the new heels in 2010 working main event WWE Championship feuds on RAW with Sheamus, Wade Barrett & The Miz. CM Punk had been floundering since the Straight Edge Society had been dissolved. With Cena literally burying Wade Barrett at TLC, CM Punk was given a new cult, New Nexus. He targeted Orton for punting him in the skull back in 2008. Better late than never. Orton proceeded to punt every single member of New Nexus back to FCW. Punk turned the tables and injured Orton's leg so that he could not punt him. Honestly in terms of storyline progression week-to-week this actually sounds like one of the best feuds in WWE in the past ten years. Great match. Loved how aggressive Orton was in this. The opening Euro Uppercut and clothesline were massive. You could feel his anger. I love the cheap way Punk attacks the injured leg. He kicks the steel steps into Orton when Orton was stalking him. What a cowardly and dick move. Punk mocks his injury now he is full command. Great leg work by Punk. I liked Orton's hope spot of RKO and Punk hitting a roundhouse head kick to stymie that. Superplex was another good Orton hope spot. Punk is relentless on the leg. Figure-4 around the ringpost is always a goodie. Strong Orton comeback! Orton looked great both selling and offense. His character is terribly boring and his promos are dreadful, but the dude can wrestle. His leg gives out on the Punk. Punk's master strategy pays off. Punk looks to collect his victim for the G2S but the coiled viper explodes for an RKO, but Punk retreats in a nick of time. Great spot. Punk goes for his Springboard Clothesline to further weaken Orton, but this allows Orton to hit an RKO out of the air. Excellent compact match with great performances by both wrestlers. ****

ECW Champion Christian vs William Regal - WWECW 1/19/10 Always a joy to watch these two together, but they have shifted the focus off Regal and put it on his charge, Ezekiel Jackson (remember him?). WWECW was coming to end within a month and they decided to use this as a chance to push Jackson putting him over Christian and making him the last ECW Champion. It is too bad. Christian was the Ace of ECW in 2009 and would have been nice for him to go out as champion. Christian and Regal dominated ECW in late 2009, but this match is more ho hum. Typical great Regal matwork early. Typical great Christian shine with the baseball slide, reverse crossbody and clapping. Regal roughly shoves Christian into the ropes and locks in a full nelson when Christian goes for a backslide. Regal kicks the calf and obliterates him in the back of the head with a stiff elbow. Oh yeah, BYRON SAXTON is on commentary. Damn he has been around for awhile. Definitely unpolished and even worse than now. Regal had a good heat segment mixing holds and big shots. Christian had a his good comeback Tornado DDT, missile dropkick, misses the second. Regal misses the knee. Christian goes for the Unprettier and Jackson interferes triggering the DQ. Heel beatdown to get some heat on Jackson. Not as great as their other matches, but still good. ***

ECW Champion Christian vs William Regal - Breaking Point 2009 Awesome WWE midcard match! This is during a time period where the midcard was pretty dire and matches this good were a rare treat. Hard-hitting & claustrophobic. You except big shots out of Regal, but Christian gave as good as he got with some big open hand slaps to the face and body that Regal sold like million bucks. I love how much body contact there was in this match. It was not a track meet. They were engaging each other and staying engaged. Look how solid that collar-and-elbow tieup. Or how Christian hangs onto the wrists to create hold. They are almost always in contact with each other going from spot to spot by working through holds. That's wrestling. Regal looked ferocious in this. Just amazing strikes, snug holds and great throws. That cradle suplex was INSANE! That should be stolen and be made into a finisher pronto. I have never seen anything like that before and I loved it. It was a great highspot to be a nearfall for Regal. I thought they could have come up with a better transition to Christian's comeback. They timed it right as that is exactly when Christian was supposed to start, but he just started off right hands and dropkicks, but I think Regal should have made a mistake first to set it up. Good finish with each countering the other's finish Killswitch vs Running with Christian flipping The Switch first, yep pun fully intended. Great old school pro wrestling, lots of body on body on contact, flesh smacking flesh and builds to a fever pitch! ****

Christian vs Alberto Del Rio - Extreme Rules 2011 Vacant World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match Wow! What a snoozefest! Edge had to retire and instead of putting the strap on Del Rio, they let Edge retire with it. They were always wicked nice to Edge. Christian is doing it for his best friend and in addition Del Rio is the one who put him on the shelf for six months so there is history there. Del Rio is definitely someone they were always high on. He was pushed three years straight. He had a great gimmick, Mexican Million Dollar Man meets Randy Orton's multi-generational destiny gimmick. I remember him being pretty hit and miss in the ring. When he was a miss, boy was he dreadfully dull. Del Rio just has no oomph. No energy. There was nothing. Like everything was stomp and no anything. Then he would do stuff like fishhook Christian in an armbar and I would be like that's badass. We need more of that. It was all execution no charisma. Christian clearly was trying and you could tell he was the creative force behind the match. He came up with some neat spots going under the ring to set up his baseball slide into the ladder or jumping off the buckles onto a ladder onto a crossbody. Even Christian was not as engaging as usual. It was just a really boring ladder match where not much happened. There was some decent arm psychology and playing off Christian's injury at the hands of Del Rio. Of course they set up the ladder across the apron to the announce table. Del Rio takes a very tentative bump onto it. You know he had no desire to take that bump. Brodus Clay comes out pre-Funkasaurus. He does look like a Human Egg and his face looks like one of the Dinosaurs from the TV Show, Dinosaurs. He stops Christian from getting the belt. Clay takes a bump then Christian. Then Edge distracts Del Rio and Christian wins. What the fuck ever...watching grass grow is more eventful than this. Skip.

Matt D stole mine...Short Arm Scissors. Not trying to be a dick, but the one old school move I hate is the swinging neckbreaker. It looks so lame to me. I hate neckbreakers in general. I think the rolling cradle would pop the crowd no doubt. Stun Gun/Hot Shot is a great transition move definitely should be utilized more!

WWE Champion The Miz vs Jerry Lawler - WWE Elimination Chamber 2011 I really try not to let booking influence how I feel about a match, but when a 63 year old man is basically squashing the WWE Champion that will be headlining WrestleMania the next month, it does leave me scratching my head. Lawler actually looked really good here better than that RAW match. He was throwing decent dropkicks and was moving better. Hell, he hit a friggin Superplex, took it on his knees (smart). He took like 75% of the match. The only Miz heat segment was set up by Riley distraction. This was all Lawler all the time. I hate the people that bitch & moan about the old timers kicking ass because I think there is a time and place. I would love a great Lawler shine and a good, fired-up Lawler comeback, but I thought this was excessive. He whupped The Miz. The only thing I would have loved to have him Piledrive Alex Riley for old time's sake. Lawler's punches looked awesome. He threw Miz into Cole which was great. I thought for sure Cole was going to factor into the finish to set up Mania, but Miz countered the Piledriver, kicked him in the head and hit the Skull Crushing Finale. It was a good match in a vacuum, but in the context of the Miz main eventing WrestleMania next month I don't know how productive it was. ***

WWE Champion The Miz vs John Morrison - RAW 1/3/11 Falls Count Anywhere WWE kicks off 2011 with an early WWE Match of the Year Contender, John Morrison continues to impress. The more I watch, the more I think WWE really dropped the ball with this kid. I know his promos tended to suck but there had to be a way around that because he is damn good in the ring. This is one of the better brawls in the modern era. Tons of great punches and kicks. I love how Morrison is stepping through his punches and kicks. I love that punches are the bulk of his offense! Great shine where Morrison looks like a world-beater kicking two guys' asses at the same time. Alex Riley kept coming and Morrison kept dishing it out. The dive off the WWE Logo was a great highspot in the shine. The Shining Wizard was a great climax to the shine with Riley pulling Morrison out. Morrison proceeded to beat the Holy Hell out of Riley. Hitting a Shining Wizard on the barricade to send him packing. Insanely great shine! Morrison was damn good. We come back from commercial and Miz back drops Morrison on a railing. Great transition spot. Miz does a great job working heat on Morrison. Vicious kneelift to the head and ramming Morrison in the head with hard objects. Strong Morrison comeback. Just great energy from this dude. Good finisher teases late here. The finish was insane. Morrison puts himself through a table on the outside using Starship Pain. PAIN! Seriously it looked amazing. I wish it was the finish, but Morrison kicked out and then Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. Awesome, awesome brawl. Great pace. Morrison looked amazing as a brawler. Who the hell knew that? Miz was no slouch either. He made Morrison look like a million bucks early and late. Cant say enough about this. Check it out! ****1/4

WWE Champion The Miz vs Jerry Lawler - RAW 11/29/2010 TLC Match One week after Miz cashed in Money In The Bank on Randy Orton after a Nexus beatdown. MIZ GIRL~! I forgot about her. I wonder if she is in college now and uses the fact she is Miz Girl as an ice breaker. Between Miz winning the title and Cena literally burying Barrett at TLC, Nexus was dead. Miz does insecure so well because he is very insecure about his wrestling ability. He has been ranting and raving for 10 years about he gets no respect and has no credibility. It is Jerry Lawler's birthday and he challenges Miz to a WWE Championship stating he has never had one. The Anonymous RAW GM, oh man I forgot about that too, and makes this a TLC match. Shit I totally forgot CM Punk was a commentator at this point. Surprisingly, he is a shitty commentator. This is a fun match. We get some good Lawler punches. Miz beatdowns Lawler pretty good with the chair. He futzes around too much. Lawler hits him with the chair. Back drop onto the ladder. Lawler pulverizes Alex Riley through a table. He sends Miz through a table. Michael Cole completes his heel turn helping the Miz by stopping Lawler from ascending the ladder. Lawler punches Cole in classic Lawler fashion. They tussle on top of the ladder with Miz hitting him with the belt to win the match. I really like Lawler, I do. I also know there are Lawler super fans out there that make it seem like he never lost a step. He could still have great matches in his sixties. I also know this is used to take a shot at Ric Flair. I think this whole thing is a bit overblown. Yes Lawler could still punch really well, but he was moving at half speed. This was just fun. He looked old and that's the point. It was good nostalgia and a good angle to set up Lawler vs Cole. Nothing more, nothing less.

King Sheamus vs John Morrison - TLC 2010 Ladder Match First and foremost, this match ruled! You will note neither man is champion so what is hanging above the ring. A clipboard! Yes, a clipboard to be No. 1 Contender, not exactly the coolest thing ever. Sheamus is coming off a 10 month main event run against Cena, Orton & HHH. At this point, WWE was moving onto Wade Barrett & The Miz. They did not shunt Sheamus into midcard hell and instead they kept him warm by having him win a King of the Ring Tournament, which allowed him to wear a cool crown to the ring and let people know he is still important. The way the IC & US titles were being booked this was the better option. They feuded him with Morrison as a means to elevate both guys. Morrison was in an interesting position. WWE lost a lot of maine event talent in 2010 (Batista, Shawn Michaels, HHH, Jericho) and the remaining main event talent was all babyfaces (Cena, Orton, Edge, Rey & Taker). So WWE needed heels, which is why Sheamus, Swagger, Kane, Barrett & Miz were all being pushed. Morrison as an up coming babyface was actually in a less fortunate spot being behind five heavy hitters. But enough about booking, lets talk about how great this match is. John Morrison is way better than I remembered. I always thought he was a nancy boy like Kofi Kingston, but this dude hits hard and his spots actually look like they hurt because he is hurling his entire body at Sheamus. I thought the shine was really good. Lots of Morrison flying into your screen from crazy angles and just wiping Sheamus out. I really liked the test of strength over the ladder and how Morrison won and hit a crazy flip dive on Sheamus. Sheamus was great establishing that he is a bully but one that is being thwarted by speed. Then the heat segment happened and I remembered why I love pro wrestling. Morrison set up the ladder in a stupid spot and this was the only notable issue with the match is they kept setting the ladder up in stupid places. The spots for the most part were great just wish the set up was better. Ok enough complaining. So they do the spot where Morrison's knee is caught in the ladder. Sheamus then TIPS THE LADDER OVER!!! OH MY GOD! Sheamus then absolutely destroys the knee for like the next five minute. Great violence. Morrison is so great being this tenacious competitor coming back grabbing the ankle or the ladder. I liked the one time he kicked the ladder away from Sheamus just a little bit. Sheamus just started beating the piss out of him. I think my favorite spot was when Sheamus used the ladder was a lever to extend the pressure of a single leg crab and then slam the ladder on the back of Morrison's leg. I thought the Morrison comeback was really well done. It was all about headshots to Sheamus. Tripping Sheamus into the ladder, a kick to the head. Ringing Sheamus' bell while also selling the leg. The dueling ladders is when they really got the crowd into it. Morrison really ROARED with a comeback here winning the battle and hitting a big clothesline to send Sheamus out of the ring. I loved Sheamus coming back in with a Brogue Kick to the bad leg sending Morrison flying off the ladder. There were some great "nearfalls" for both Sheamus and Morrison. I liked how Morrison would actually grab the contract and have Sheamus knock him off. Made it seem so close. Since the beginning of the match they set up a ladder across the apron of the ring and the announce table. Terrible setup and execution of the spot. Definitely a low-point. I thought the actual finish was great. They used the Parkoor background of Morrison to ricochet off the rope while on the ladder into a wicked kick before grabbing the contract. With the Miz as champion and their history as a tag team this made perfect booking sense. To me this was a modernized version of the Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon II classic. Just excellent knee psychology from the vicious Sheamus attack, the great selling of Morrison throughout and a smart, well-designed comeback. Where this gets hurts just a tad is how the spots were set up and that lame spot at the end where Sheamus goes through a ladder. Small complaints watch this match as it is just killer pro wrestling. 2010 is an incredibly weak year for pro wrestling globally this has a pretty damn good chance to be Match of the Year for 2010. ****1/2

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Sheamus - Hell In A Cell 2010 Hell In A Cell Orton vs Sheamus, First Ever "Steel" Stairs In A Ring Match!!!!! It is funny in the PG Era of Hell In A Cell matches they have relied a lot on weapons to fill the violence left by blood, punches and stunts. There is no "weapon" on the rise more in the 2010s than the ring stairs. It has become a prevalent part of WWE to the point where there was a "Stairs" match between Big Show vs Rowan. They are more frequently used than tables at this point and I am surprised the WWE fans don't chant "We Want Stairs". The reason I bring this up is the last ten minutes or so centered completely around working spots on the stairs in the middle of the ring. They even worked an Irish Curse Backbreaker on the stairs, which Matt Striker tried to rationalize, bless his heart. You knew ultimately that an RKO on those stairs would be the finish and it was. It is just interesting that a "Hell In A Cell" really became a "Steel Stairs In A Ring" match. On top of that, this match really forces the question is a reverse bearhug ok in a Hell In A Cell match? In the PG era, do we have to accept that these are no longer Hell In A Cell matches, but rather matches that simply take place in Hell In A Cell? Honestly, I don't think that is necessary. I think a fast & furious 10-12 minute brawl without blood can still live up to the Hell In A Cell name. It is just these 22 minute matches pretty much necessitate a typical championship match structure. That being said I don't get hung up on the fact that this was not a brawl but rather a traditional championship match. So after all that, I do think this was a great match and the first great Sheamus match on the main roster. He spent 2010 wrestling the big dogs, Cena, HHH and Orton. He is a tremendous offensive wrestler with a wide arsenal and a great punch. Sheamus may have the best body shots in the pro wrestling history. The early Sheamus I have watched has not clicked until this match for me. I really thought he put it together in this match and Orton's selling of the ribs was great. I thought these two are well-matched because they both hit hard and they both like to throw hands. Sheamus targeted the ribs after knocking Orton off the apron into the Cell and then hitting a front suplex on the vaunted stairs. Orton did a great job verbally selling his agony and later on the match using it as a reason for him not to immediately capitalize. I thought the finish stretch was an excellent melding of the two's typical spots and use of the stairs. The powerslam on the stairs was nasty! That looked like it hurt Sheamus a lot. I liked the symmetry of Sheamus hitting two Brogue Kicks and Orton two RKOs. It really showed that they both needed extra oomph to take down the other. Sheamus' second Brogue came when Orton went for the Punt (his super special finish). Orton's second RKO came when Sheamus went for the Celtic Cross (his super special finisher). Orton double legged Sheamus on the stairs when he went for the Cross which was a good transition to rattle the Irishman. Orton then hit his second RKO on the stairs for the win. If you just accept that this is a WWE Weapons (read: Stairs) Match That Happens To Happen In Hell In A Cell, this is a great match with great body psychology and great escalation in the finish. Orton was hitting hard and selling well. He was mixing his moves in well. Sheamus was an offensive dynamo and showed great poise controlling the majority of the match. Great WWE main event match. ****

CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - Extreme Rules 2010 CM Punk's Hair Only I hate one-sided American wager matches. Why isn't this Mask vs Hair? At Mania, if Rey lost he would have to join SES. At Over The Limit (Under Arrest), it was SES vs Hair, which is better but come on we want a Mask vs Hair Match. I enjoyed the Mania match and naturally with more time this is better, but they didn't exactly knock it out of the park either. I was a little bummed they went straight to the heat segment with Punk just beating down Mysterio. You get some hope spots here and there like Rey Rey rolling through his bellyflop bump to the floor. Punk stymies this with a big powerslam in the ring and then Rey takes his bellyflop bump. Typical grinding heat segment focused on the ribs. Punk does the Eddie senton splash and a Gory Special, which I dug. Punk goes for G2S and it is finish run time. Rey blows an armdrag to send Punk into the ropes. Serena grabs Rey's foot. The ref tosses the SES. This is textbook Pro Wrestling 101, just nothing mind-blowing here. I thought this next part was the best part of the match. Riding the wave of momentum following the SES being kicked out, Rey hits a wicked baseball slide to the back of Punk's neck and then a Asai Moonsault. That's what I am talking about! Shine on you, crazy diamond! Drops the Dime for a two count, good nearfall. Punk hits an anti-airRey dropkick to the bad ribs. G2S vs 619 counters. 619 is the one that connects first. A Masked Man distracts the ref with a chair and while the ref is tending to the chair, the Masked Man (later revealed to be a shaven Joey Mercury) hits a reverse powerbomb on Rey. Punk collects Rey and hits the Go 2 Sleep to win the match and save his hair. Perfectly serviceable match with a great finish to set up the grand finale at the next PPV. To me, it just never got to that next level. Lets see what they have in store for the blowoff. ***1/2

CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - WrestleMania XXVI "With integrity & sobriety for all." - CM Punk, I remember this match being way too short, but hot damn if they don't pack a lot of goodness in this match. They do a great job establishing the numbers game early with the Straight Edge Society around the ring, but Mysterio always being one step ahead of Punk. Punk slams him into the steps for a good transition. Great Punk counters into nearfalls such as the Rey armdrag that is turned into a powerslam. Great dueling finisher run up with the 619 vs G2S. Rey sends Punk into Gallows and frees him up for the 619 and Drop A Dime. Hyper-compressed, but there is definitely chemistry and with more time to flesh out the match a great match is in them. ***

Triple H vs Sheamus - WrestleMania XXVI I don't know why I have always been intrigued by this match. It was a very ho hum match with a shitty finish. Sheamus had just dropped the championship after that out of nowhere win in December of 2009. This program signaled that he would be staying in the main event. Lots of rookie vs veteran and career-making victory vs career-destroying loss on commentary. The match itself was nothing great. A little disrespect early turned into a pretty respectable match. HHH went for Pedigree early and a Figure-4 to pop the crowd. Sheamus threw into the steps. Grinds on HHH. HHH hits his usual comeback moves: High Knee, Facebuster, Spinebuster. Sheamus mixes in his big spots. Brogue Kick->kick out got a decent HHH chant going. Sheamus hits another Brogue, but HHH no sells it and hits a Pedigree. HHH sucks. Skip this match.

Takahiro Oba & Takeshi Ono vs Kengo Mashimo & Manabu Suraga - FUTEN 5/30/10 This won Japanese Match of the Year according to polling from Ditch. I am not super familiar with any of these guys. Mashimo has a very distinctive look so I know I have seen him in the past. I have seen Ono in at least one match against Ikeda. First Half: Definitely more comedy than in BattlArts here. Oba brings the laughs. Ono has the MMA gimmick but plays along with Oba's antics. Everybody looked very solid. This is shot similarly to BatBat so very tight. I thought Oba's toehold on Suraga was good when he tried for a chokehold. Ono/Oba busted out a Spike Piledriver on Mashimo. Love the Spike Piledriver. They do a fun spot where Oba & Ono are both trapped in armbars, but Oba scoots over and kicks Sugara in the head to the break the hold. I like Mashimo throwing Oba into Ono when head him in a chokehold. I am liking individual spots, but do not feel a sense of an overarching narrative. Second Half: I should have guessed Oba would use an Airplane Spin it fits his character very well. I cant take Oba seriously. I think that is the point because the crowd is always giggling when he is doing shit, but I thought it was to the detriment of the match. Ono gets a hot tag but is immediately eating German Suplexes, one nasty one into the buckles. Suruga gets a Scorpion Deathlock but Oba saves in "hilarious" fashion. Mashimo keeps Oba at bay while the shooters shoot. It was great last 3-4 minutes of stand up where they did a great job incorporating exhaustion in their selling and offense. I just couldn't bring myself to get super invested because I didnt know who they were and they did not establishing why I should care about them in the beginning of the match. I loved all the BattlArts from 2008 and there has been some great FUTEN from 2010, but I think this is a bit overrated. Oba's comedy hurt the match more than it helped it. It is a great collection of spots and a good finish run, but not a great complete match. ***1/2

Fujita Jr Hayato vs Kenny Omega - NJPW BOSJ 2010 Not even Omega's stupid antics could ruin the glory of Fujita Jr Hayato. I will admit that I did flip off Kenny Omega on the computer screen when he kicked out at one from Fujita's classic uppercut knee. What an ass! This is shot like it is straight out of FUTEN, which badly exposes Omega, but makes Fujita look like a pro. Fujita was absolutely drilling Omega with strikes and those throws hot damn. I will say Omega wrestled 50% of the match pretty straight throwing back some hard strikes. But then other 50% was his classic gymnastics bullshit. Hayato actually accommodated him instead of saying Fuck You and kicking him in the head. There was a glorious Scissors Kick from Fujita that totally blew Omega away. Hayato was just hurling his body at Omega. I am so glad he won by Uppercut Knee and showed up Kenny Omega. Great Hayato performance. ***1/2

I was live at last night's show in Worcester, MA. Great match like you all said. How was the crowd? I was in a heavily pro-Jeff Hardy section. People actually booed Bryan, kids were chanting No! and one girl said she did not like Bryan. There were a lot of Jeff Hardy chants throughout the arena. The YES! did not feel as explosive as it did in Providence last month (Styles/Bryan vs Rusev Day). Chinks in the armor? I popped huge for the finish because the prospect of Joe vs Bryan is so mouth-watering.

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Hardy - TNA Victory Road 2012 For the record, Angle is a heel because his son is a big Jeff Hardy fan & Kurt doesn't approve of his lifestyle. This is Jeff Harry's redemption tour after the previous years debacle against Sting. Pretty basic match. Angle is a heel and gets outwrestled. I get the psychology but don't agree with it. Angle uses a hard elbow & eyerake to control. Hardy keeps him off balance with head scissors and baseball slide. Transition suck as expected. Only good one is Hardy going into railing hard leads to a short,tepid heat segment. The finish run is just them blending their spots together. Each one hits a spot, misses their follow up spot and the opponent takes over. I do appreciate that they had decency to at least put a missed spot in the middle to break up the My turn, your turn. I thought they did a great job to make Jeff earn the Swanson Bomb. It took him three tries to hit it and that's where the drama was. I appreciate that over 8 million Anklelocks. Hardy nails the 3rd one and I mean nails it. Finish is lame Angle gets an Oklahoma Roll and grabs ropes. The Swanson Bomb was built to be a game ended but Angle still had the wherewithal to get a pin out of it. Really undercuts the previous work. Super basic match. It is Angle & Hardy doing their spots. It was decent.

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Hardy vs TNA No Surrender 2010 I was intrigued by this match because it is a 30 minute draw. I have no idea what these two could do to possibly fill 30 minutes. Conventional thought is to go long with either an extended shine or extended felling out process and a long heat segment, but with these who knows. Neither is a ring general or regarded as a PHD wrestling psychologist. A little context going into the match both wrestlers are babyfaces. This is the semi-finals of the TNA World Championship Tournament. Abyss beat the living shit out of RVD as part of the Immortal storyline to force the vacancy. This also being face vs face added to the intrigue. First 20 minutes of the match: I was not let down. Totally divergent structure. They were hitting finishers SEVEN minutes into a THIRTY minute match. God bless them! Transitions in this match were of course piss poor, but there were some great spots. I love when wrestlers that normally don't powerbomb, powerbomb. Don't ask me why but I mark out for that. Angle hits a WICKED POWERBOMB on Hardy about 2-3 minutes into the match to take command. Like I said they were switching off at will. They were throwing out their set up spots. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate, missed the Swanton and Angle hit an Olympic Slam. SEVEN MINUTES INTO THE MATCH! WOW! Hardy hit a tremendous Swanton to the outside. Great spot. They do a good job milking it, but bothers me that Angle hits the next move. Angle misses the Moonsault. At least they are missing moves. That helps. Hardy hits a Swanton 1-2-NO! SECOND SWANTON! 1-2-NO! These are massive bombs. THIRD SWANTON EATS KNEES! Angle gets an Olympic Slam for two. Goes the Anklelock. There is apparently 15 minutes left, but feels like I am one minute away from a finish. I am so curious what will happen in the next 15 minutes. Ahhhhhh I see what they did. It is a twenty minute time limit. The last 5 minutes is just Ankleock reversals and long Anklelock followed by the draw. They did a great job not telegraphing the draw. It is NOT smart wrestling by any means, but it was an entertaining bomb-throwing match. Here comes the Bisch. Five More Minutes: Bisch says Five More Minutes. Angle is relentless on the Ankle and actuals works it over. Hardy pushes him off. Good Hardy selling here. They have actually managed to manufacture some drama with Hardy's ankle being fucked but Angle cant put him away. Hardy goes up top but is too slow. Angle hits a super duper Olympic Slam. Cant capitalize. Angle takes a crazy flip bump over the top rope to the floor. They are milking this all the way. Double clothesline knocks both out. Time expires. Bisch says we must have a winner. Well then why did you put a fucking time limit on it then shithead. Stupid booking aside, I am getting into this. Last Five Minutes: Strong finish here. Angle is relentless, lots of heavy blows. Misses a charge in the corner. Hardy slams his head into the steps a bunch and draws blood. They do the Boston Crab spot so Angle can be Austin with the blood squirting out of his head. Angle grabs the Anglelock and time expires again. In a smart move, Bischoff does NOT declare this a draw. Instead due to the cut, he is ruling it a No Contest, which saves the illogic of it being a time limit draw after two restarts. Impressive. I thought this was very similar to Okada/Omega I match. Lots of bombs, no transitions and lots of milking the clock by laying around. This actually sucked me in more because of Hardy's injured ankle and the interesting ways they kept him in the match and the bloody Angle was good too. I would say this is a hair better. ***1/2

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Full Metal Mayhem (TLC) Taz's concern over these guys being able to balance on the "tippy top" of the ladder was the best part of this match. This did not do much for me. I liked their previous two PPV outings. I hate to poo poo a match where so much stuff looks painful, but I thought this was boring with long stretches of nothing happening. I thought the spots were pretty ok. Nothing really grabbed me. Shit like Sabin holding Matt Jackson in a wheelbarrow position, Shelley throwing a chair, Matt catching it and Matt holding it for Shelley to do a backstabber but to his front is such a huge turn off. It was just a lot of spots like that. Honestly, the most interesting spot was the dragon leg screw on Matt Jackson inside the ladder. That actually looked violent. The rest was very meh. Thumbs down!

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle - TNA Against All Odds 2011 The promos and video package before this match are excellent. If Kurt Angle wins, he will gain custody of his children from Jeff & Karen Jarrett, but if Jarrett wins Angle has to give away Karen during their wrestling wedding, which I remember being excellent. Angle was great as a stoic badass keeping his poise, but you knew there was a burning rage inside. Jarrett is great as the smarmy prick new husband. Karen seemed pretty worried when Jeff put up her kids like that, but Daddy Jeff has got this. I know these two have an incredible match together (I think that's from their 2009 feud), but this was not it. Incredibly bland. The only time there was heat was when Angle when outside and unloaded on Jarrett with punches, Karen slaps so he punches Jeff harder. I mean that was terrific. There rest was just as basic as you can get. Angle drives his shoulder into the post because Jarrett moves has to be the lamest transition ever. Basic heat segment. Angle run up the ropes suplex. Angle hits suplexes. Jarrett goes for the Stroke. Karen distracts the ref during the Olympic Slam; Jeff low blow. Angle recovers. Ref bump. Karen backrake and Jeff clobbers him. Jeff goes for the chair. Angle recovers and Angle lock and drags Karen in. Karen provides another distraction and Jarrett hits him with a chair for two. It is all very basic without any gusto. The finish is wicked lame. Angle goes for a Anklelock out of a sunset flip and Jarrett just sits down on it. I mean low blow, Super Stroke and a chair shot and that's what gets him the win? Great storyline, but color me unimpressed.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle - TNA Genesis 2011 You knew with Jarrett marrying Angle's ex-wife, Karen in the summer of 2010 that this was just a feud waiting to explode. I loved this feud and was one the last things that kept me watching TNA in 2011. We get a great recap that was the Double J Double M A Exhibition. Jarrett does not know if his submission victory over Samoa Joe was the greatest of his wrestling career, but he knows it was the greatest of his MMA career. LOL! Angle takes up Jarrett's open challenge. Three 2 minute rounds. Perfect stuff. Jarrett is a coward. Angle is just playing with his food, Angle has no reason to be super pissed at Jarrett as the whole Karen thing has not been revealed on TV yet, but it has been alluded to. He wants to humiliate him and show him up. He invite him into guard and gives him his leg to shoot on. Angle takes him down at will and rolls into great submissions. Angle looked so great on the mat you wished this is how he wrestled all the time. I love Jarrett's goons psyching him up in between rounds with "Gold Medals mean nuthin!". Jarrett is saved by the bell both times from submission. He rubs a foreign substance into Kurt's eyes in the third round triggering the DQ and then bloodies him with punches. Great angle! Jarrett declares he is retiring from MMA. Awesome! This was a great way to up the ante. Jarrett was shown up completely and he reacted by bloodying Angle so this becomes a full grudge feud and Angle will out to kick ass and soon Karen Jarrett will be added. Love it! Good shit.

Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Submission Match This is during Jeff Jarrett's glorious MMA gimmick where he was doing the Double J Double M A Exhibitions. Easily the best thing on TNA in this timeframe. Jarrett was actually positioned for a super heel run and you could argue he was the number one heel in TNA through the first half of 2011 not too shabby for 'ol Double J. He was aligned with heel Hogan/Bischoff and would be feuding with Angel soon. I thought this could have been funner at times. More Jarrett cowardice would have been entertaining. He was thoroughly dominated by Joe as should be expected. Joe was attacked before the match by his goons and Tonya Harding'd. I liked that Joe was having trouble with his leg so he just sat down and invited Jarrett to enter his guard. He gobbled Jarrett right up. Jarrett only offense was to pick the leg and wrap it around the post. He got a anklelock, but once Joe broke free it was all Joe. Joe looked good, but part of it was he had to keep selling his leg so it was not a full-speed Joe ass-whuppin. Jarrett tapped twice for Joe both outside the ring to protect Joe. The goons ran interference. Double J got a hold of the leg and Anklelock to send a message to Angle to win the match. Perfectly good wrestling, but it could have been more if Jarrett went full Memphis and just made a total ass out of himself. ***

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me - Bound for Glory 2010 I don't have too much to add to my previous review from their September match. The Bucks turning heel created a better transition into the heat segment when they hit a Super DDT off the top rope. That was a very good turning point and played off their attack. It also helped with the babyface shine as Shelley was using more stinging chops and the Guns were really dominating the Bucks with high octane strikes. Ultimately the match devolved into a spotfest. I liked the previous match better because there was more traditional wrestling and only two minutes of spotfest wrestling. Here it was seven minutes of spotfest. Some really good ones that I enjoyed but it lacked the stickiness of good, solid wrestling. I am always a big fan of 450 splashes and we got beautiful ones from the Bucks. Sabin hit a ridiculous Release German from the top rope that eliminated one of the Bucks and the other Buck ate the finish. Strong opener exactly what you want on your biggest PPV to get the crowd rocking. ****