stomperspc

Agreed. Also wondering what is taking them so long to go on their excursions. Both seem more than ready, but maybe they don't want too many guys out there at the same time and are waiting for Kamaitachi and/or Watanabe to return.

I thought Jay White came off relatively polished. I liked the headlock stuff because I am sucker for openings that ease you into the match. Sort of interesting to compare the way Komatsu and Tanaka have been handled to the way White and Cody Hall have been handled. Granted, Hall and White had prior experience before entering the New Japan dojo but they are seemingly placed even or ahead of where Tanaka and Komatsu are now. Just comparing the first two matches on this card, White got just as much (if not a tad more) in his match than Komatsu did in his. Hall meanwhile has been presented so far more like a junior member of the Bullet Club than a trainee. Doesn't bother me or anything, just think its interesting. Komatsu looked good again. I love his flying forearm and as soup said, his timing (particularly on the few near falls he got) was spot on. Also agree that the first half was stronger than the second. The Bucks match wasn't as grand as they tend to be though a scaled back Bucks match is still a lot to take. Dorada looked good which isn't much of a surprise. I hope at some point during the year, he gets an honest push in the junior division. He's certainly over and talented enough.

I have certainly seen bigger and better US tags than this, but if I was going to show someone what I think great team team wrestling looks like, I might start with this match. Morton was awesome. The 3-4 move sequence he uses at the beginning of the match to take on both Dirty White Boys by himself was classic and perfectly executed. Morton got worked over must of the match and was his usual great self in that role. The Dirty White Boys cheated in just the right ways at just the right times. Big time heat whenever one of them entered the ring illegally. They made quick tags and although their offense while working over Morton was nothing special overall, the body of the match just flew by. Gibson was great on the apron. At the one point in the match where the crowd wasn't insanely loud, Gibson climbed to the top rope, encouraged the cheers, and got the crowd more behind Morton than ever. Great hot tag and I didn't even mind the non-finish that much. It came off natural. The crowd is also insane for this match. It is just a high school gym in a small Oklahoma city but they are so loud the entire time that they lifted the match to the next level. Just that great constant screaming type of heat that is sadly gone forever. It is interesting that you can hear some boos for Rock 'n Roll at various times. During a "Rock-and-Roll!" chant, you can actually hear faint "Sucks!" chants in between. Some times things change, some times they don't. The three girls on the camera side of the ring (front row) scream their heads off the entire match, have to be calmed down by security at the beginning, and attempt to grab Morton's ring jacket when the ring announcers passes by them while holding it. Very fun match.

Wonder if they are building to a Sakuraba vs. Naito match or if they were simply paired together twice because they have nothing else going and that's how things shook out? I have no idea how good a single match would be with those two, but it seems like a potentially fun feud. Both guys are juniors at heart . . .

It will be interesting to see what they do with Bryan going forward. If they are going with Reigns as the top guy starting at WrestleMania, can they really afford to keep Bryan around as a pushed but below main event level babyface? I think that is where they would like to have him. However, even if they put him in the Sheamus level area, if they don’t put him there in a way that completely destroys his heat and character he will continue to be just as over as he is now. Exiling him to the part of the card that Sheamus resides alone won’t kill his heat. Having him team with Ziggler or wrestle Cesaro and Harper (both of which are probably slightly lower positions than a feud with Sheamus in terms of visibility) won’t hurt his heat. As long as the fans are still nuts for him, the more difficult it will be for Reigns to succeed. At the same time, if they do go the route of killing him Bryan off completely they better do it in the right way. If it is obvious they are trying to kill his heat and the fans don’t buy it, then he is only going to get more over. They really are stuck in between a rock and a hard place. The answer would be to pull back on the Reigns push and go with the hot hand in Bryan for a while. Let Reigns attempt to get over the way he initially got over. He got over by not being overexposed, not talking, and just destroying guys with his few quality signature moves. Ride Bryan on top for as long as it lasts and/or until (if) Reigns gets over as a main event level face. If that happens, then problem solved. Bryan can be in that pushed, but not top guy spot without being a threat to Reigns. If Reigns doesn’t work out, then they go with Bryan as long as possible. Doesn’t look like they are going to do that.

I don't get the sense of urgency in pushing Reigns. Barring something unforeseen, Cena will be around for a little while longer. Bryan can easily function as at least a short term solution as the top babyface. Ambrose is reasonably over and could have a minor run on top. Reigns is 29 years old, so it is not like it is now or never for him. Had they hit the brakes on his push and gave him more time to get over naturally he might have had a shot. In the meantime, they could more than make do with those other guys. This was a prime opportunity to bring Reigns along slowly while other non-long term solutions (in WWE's eyes) bridge the gap. Instead they've sort of killed everyone in the process. They will survive of course, but man do they make it hard on themselves . . .

There are matches where a limb is worked over to set up a finish and there are matches where a limb is worked over to set up a comeback. Maximo/Casas was the latter. There is a difference between making a comeback after having a body part worked over and ignoring the earlier work. Through the way he moved, his facial expressions, and the way he sold in the third fall, it was clear Maximo had suffered through the first two falls. The idea was that he was able to overcome the body part damage. It was not a matter of him acting like the leg attack never occurred. I think that is pretty standard in wrestling and a lot of really great matches have followed a similar limb work - -> comeback structure. The fact that Maximo used a tope to start the 3rd fall comeback isn't a big deal in a modern CMLL match as ohtani's jacket said. In WWE it might be because dives are used differently and more sparingly than in CMLL. However, a WWE wrestler would likely use his legs late in the match if the idea of the match was that he overcame the body part attack to win. The tope in this match really wasn't any different in that regard. Not for nothing, but Maximo has a really awesome tope and I thought it worked well in the context of being a risk he took in an attempt to come back.

The two promotions are so different that it’s a difficult question to answer. CMLL uses more wrestlers on a regular/semi-regular basis than any other promotion in the world. They run as much (more?) first run weekly television than any promotion in the world. They own the major buildings they run and run the same buildings on a weekly loop. They almost exclusively (currently that is) use domestic wrestlers on their shows. They have 4 or 5 regular big shows annually that they build to but otherwise book big matches when it suits them. When there is no big show in sight, they are either building to a bigger match on a regular show or wondering around aimlessly. New Japan has maybe 40-ish wrestlers under contract – much closer to a “normal” big promotion. They don’t run traditional TV. They don’t run a regular loop, own any buildings, or stop at the same places. They rely substantially – although maybe not heavily – on foreign wrestlers to fill out their shows. They have somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 big shows a year as set times that they build towards, with the rest of the shows all working towards the next big show. Those are pretty substantial differences. CMLL has so many wrestlers and so much TV that inherently they should (and for the most part do) produce a wider variety of interesting matches than New Japan. Since they don’t have a structure where they build to 10-12 big shows a year with a lot of big matches like New Japan does, the higher volume of matches does not necessarily lead to higher overall match quality. If there is a good, pushed wrestler in New Japan, between big shows and the G1 he might get 16 to 20 featured singles matches annually. If there is a good, pushed wrestler in CMLL, at most he is going to get a half-dozen featured singles matches. That’s in a good year. That’s a positive for CMLL in some ways because guys are less overexposed but it also keeps the really talented ones from getting to fully maximize that talent. New Japan’s booking needs to be more focused and straight forward given their model. CMLL can and often does wander around in circles in terms of their booking and presentation. Most don’t blink when CMLL regularly runs in front of half full crowds at Arena Mexico but when New Japan stumbles at the gate it is more visible. I think that it is a difficult question to answer because the goals and set up of each promotion are so widely different. Even with match quality, it’s not easy to answer. Like others have said, CMLL has a ton of stinkers but they churn out so much that they get overlooked. New Japan doesn’t have that advantage. I enjoy CMLL a bit more overall than New Japan but I definitely woudln’t argue that they are the better promotion.

Dustin Rhodes, maybe? Between 1992 and 1995 (give or take) in WCW, he had the look, was over enough, and had the in-ring ability to be WCW Champion or at least be positioned as a top guy and he never really was. I watch that era of WCW now and it is sort of hard to believe that he was stuck in the same mid card role for that entire period. When he went to WWF, he was stuck as a mid-level guy the entire time and given a difficult gimmick to pull off on top of that. He was pushed in the WWF but not at all utilized to his full potential. Post-1999 he was so up and down that he might have ceased being underrated, but he definitely has a strong case for the 1992 – 1999 period.

Just coming here to post this too. Big Mountain Goats fan so this should be good. More on the album here: http://pitchfork.com/news/58158-mountain-goats-announce-pro-wrestling-themed-lp-beat-the-champ-share-the-legend-of-chavo-guerrero/

Agree with shoe on everything. Very fun show with the last two matches really delivering in addition to the Cometa/Cavernario match. The semi-main was what these shows are all about in terms of seeing guys who don't normally work together against one another in a light hearted but very entertaining match. Spot for spot, the main event was as good of a high flying match as I have seen the past couple of years. Some of Dorada's moves in the match had such a ridiculously high level of difficulty and for the most part they pulled it all off. Sombra had some early rope issues and seemed to be favoring his leg late, but they never truly blew anything. Considering the high degree of difficulty on a lot of the moves they did, that's a very impressive feat.

Yea, really fun. The exact right match for those two guys in that spot. All out sprint from the bell. There were a handful of great dives and other big spots. Cometa was awesome, especially considering he is working with one bad knee. Both guys got over to the point where you could see them being booked again sometime this year.

That's really not true. Not sure what/how much Volador you've seen but that's selling him short. Obviously his dives and other big moves are his big selling point, but he's got more going for him than that. He sells fine and has a good sense of timing his comebacks. He generally places his big moves well and builds to them fine. Nobody is selling him as a top guy or anything, but I think you are selling him a bit short. Plus, there is nothing wrong with being the guy that does a lot of cool moves as long as those moves are legitimately high end (which in Volador's case, they are).

Cavernario/Okumura vs. Kushida/Triton was the best match of the first half, I thought. Gran Guerrero did better than expected. His match with Volador was basically the third fall of your modern CMLL title match that is built around big moves and tons of near falls. As far as that style goes, it was middle of the pack. Volador's wings were something.

Yep. Going off of the general definition of what makes a promotion "big or small" (some combination of drawing, exposure, quality of wrestlers, ect.) I agree that's the answer. If I were taking match quality into account than DDT would probably be #2 in my eyes because they aren't all that different than DG from a drawing/exposure standpoint and the match quality is general higher in my opinion. It will be interesting to see how that Saitama Arena show draws in February. The rest all have obvious warts. Its difficult to consider NOAH #2 or #3 when they are being subsidized in some manner by NJPW to keep them afloat. They are also rather thin talent wise and are not better off than either DDT or DG in that regard. AJPW is a rather scaled back promotion at this point so it would be a stretch to put them in the top 3. I know some were high on their match quality last year. I thought Akebono had a good start to the year and Akiyama was good for the rest of the year but not to the extent that gets them in the conversation on match quality alone. I'd probably go something like this taking into account all the different factors (drawing, exposure, wrestler quality, show/match quality, and whatever little we can discern about their finances.) 1. New Japan 2. DDT 3. Dragon Gate 4. AJPW 5. NOAH 6. BJW

Lenny Leonard and whoever his partner is are definitely not good but they don't drive me to the mute button the way some other commentators do. I find Lenny's constant usage of "Jesus Christ" as is "Oh my God!" to be amusing. You don't hear that dropped by any other announcers (for obvious & probably good reason). I kind of wish Gabe still did commentary so we could have got a "Dangerous!!" when Galloway slammed Ricochet into the wall. I do think when they have something that is both specific and logical to get over (ie. the preemptive explanation to why the ref was going to be lenient in throwing out the Galloway/Strong match) they do an play job.

I redesigned my blog (www.crossarmbreaker.com) both in terms of layout and content for the new year. Trying to learn from some the self-induced mistakes made when I attempted a 2014 match blog and have therefore rolled out. The site primarily functions as a daily 2015 match review blog at the moment. In short, the format is a post for each day of the year that will go up on or around that particular date. I am listing the matches from that day that should be available and that I intend to watch. Red are unwatched/un-reviewed matches. Green are matches I’ve watched and review. The blog reviews will be short, off-the-cuff thoughts. You can search in a few ways: browse; use the search bar for key words; use the promotion tags to browse by promotion; and use the monthly index (linked to on the sidebar) that lists all reviewed matches & will be updated periodically. I am planning on doing longer reviews to be put out together in a compilation (“Monthly Match Book”) at month’s end. These reviews will be for any match I have more to say about (ie. which generally, but not always, means my favorites from the month) along with some other stuff. Also will be some video content up from time to time surrounding matches from the current month. Its put fun putting this this together and keeping up on everything far so I hope others will find some value/entertainment out of it. Look for the January Match Book in early February. Any feedback about the site is appreciated! Also, please feel free to comment on any matches either here or on the specific blog post. (Figured this folder was the correct one for this topic but if not, please move).

Goldberg is better than Reigns is now but for me at least, that has more to do with Goldberg being good & underrated than Reigns being terrible. Goldberg was very good as a squash match wrestler in early 1998. It isn't easy to have strong variety to your matches when none are much more than two minutes but he was doing that with regularity in early 1998. Add in the fact that he had been wrestling for a very short period at the time and there is no question that Goldberg was far more naturally gifted as a wrestler than Reigns. His top matches blow Reigns away but to be fair, Reigns hasn't been given all that many chances. I did think Reigns looked good on Smackdown in the tag main event. He has enough good, identifiable offense to work as the hot tag partner in a tag team which is probably where he should be at this stage of his career. If he has that ability though, he also probably has enough going to be able to work quality singles matches if they are booked right. That largely means keeping them short (under 10 minutes at least). I doubt they do that though. He doesn't need to be booked like Goldberg and booked to win 2 minute squashes because frankly, Goldberg didn't need to be booked that way. He just needs to be protect a bit right now which isn't a terrible thing.

At the risk of generalizing, I thought the match was worked in a noticeably different way than most other Thatcher matches. There was more of a give and take, fluid feel to it as opposed to more of a station to station working of holds. I'd definitely have the Sabre Jr. EVOLVE match ahead of this. I would need to watch it again to see if it was better than the Busick EVOLVE match that I thought was Thatcher's second best from 2014. I liked it better than the rest though. I thought the Graves match was more akin to the Oliver John match from Wrestling Cares last year stylistically which is more up my alley. A lot of it has to do with how they filled the space in between the holds/submissions in those matches (as well as the transitions) compared to many of his other matches. Regardless, while it might come off like I am down on Thatcher I'm really not. I seek out his matches and I wouldn't do that if I didn't like him. I just think that more often than not, his matches do not necessarily deliver at the true elite level.

I agree with a lot of what you said about the Wyatt match. Lot of interesting points. I definitely will have to go back after some time as passed and revisit both. In both my viewings this year, the Evolution match just struck me a little more for the reasons listed. Both great matches though and WWE hasn't come close that sort of quality almost since then. On another note, I am not going to redo the above list or anything but two matches I just watched would probably make the list had I waited a few days. Blue Panther & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Black Terry & Solar from 11/15 in Neza would probably slot in towards the end. Probably my favorite of the maestro matches from 2014. Also, people should check out Timothy Thatcher vs. Joe Graves from Premiere this past November (just went up on You Tube). I thought it was by far Thatcher's best performance although admittedly I am not as high on him as others. They go about 15-minutes with only a couple of instances where there is separation for an extended period of time. Good match work and submissions, along with a diverse, fun crowd that added to the action in several ways. Would probably be somewhere in my top 20.

Yea, I am definitely getting the Friday show. I am also intrigued by the Ricochet vs. Thatcher match. Busick vs. Trevor Lee could also be interesting depending on how they work it. Plus, the FIP show before it airs for free and while nothing stands out on that show, it does have several guys I don't get to see a lot of. Undecided on Saturday's shows because there is a West Virginia basketball game on the same time plus the stacked CMLL card from this past Tuesday. That card doesn't look as appealing to me. I thought Ricochet and Galloway's first EVOLVE match was alright but not anything special.

Does GFW actually exist to anyone other than Jeff Jarrett? Vince: "What's GFW, that some kind of hair mousse?" Getting back on topic, Dave gave Nakamura/Ibushi ***** and Okada/Tanahashi ****3/4. Tana and Naka are honestly like Misawa and Kobashi of this generation, it's just amazing how many frequent top quality matches they are having. For fun, Meltzer’s star ratings for the two series of matches (singles matches only): Tanahashi vs. Okada 02.12.12 **** ½ 06.16.12 **** ¾ 01.04.13 **** ¾ 04.07.13 ***** 08.10.13 **** ½ 10.14.13 ***** 01.04.15 **** ¾ Misawa vs. Kawada 10.21.92 **** ½ 03.27.93 **** ½ 07.29.93 **** ¼ 06.03.94 ***** 07.24.95 **** ¾ 03.30.97 **** ¾ 04.19.97 *** ¾ 06.06.97 ***** 03.29.98 **** ¼ 05.01.98 **** ¼ 01.29.99 **** ½ 07.23.99 **** ½ The April 19, 1997 match should probably be excluded or at least heavily caveated given the context of the match. It was the second of three matches in what was a three way round robin for the 1997 Champion Carnival. Misawa had just wrestled a 30-minute draw versus Kobashi and the story was he was worn out from that match, which made him easy prey for Kawada. The match was only 6 ½ minutes long. Taking that out, Misawa/Kawada averaged a tick over **** ½ (4.6) in eleven singles matches from AJPW that Meltzer rated. Okada & Tanahashi have averaged a **** ¾ rating from Meltzer over seven singles matches. There isn’t a lot whole of difference separating the two going by Meltzer’s ratings. We are talking decimal points or about a ½ of a star in either direction. Both had two ***** matches. It should also be noted that six-man and regular tags were a far more featured and important part to mid-90’s AJPW than they are to modern day NJPW. Between 1993 and 1997, Meltzer gave 10 tags or six-man tags with Misawa & Kawada on opposing sides the full *****. Going by Meltzer’s ratings, Tanahashi & Okada haven’t come close to touching Kawada & Misawa’s tag output. Granted, Okada & Tanahashi haven’t had the same opportunities in tags because current NJPW does not feature main event tags and six-mans like AJPW did but it is what it is. Meltzer would be stretching things to claim that Okada & Tanahashi have had a higher quality series of matches than Kawada & Misawa going off of his own ratings. That’s also with Meltzer rating the Tanahashi & Okada matches as highly as anyone. I think if you went by other’s opinions, it wouldn’t be that close of a contest. Edit: Just saw you said Misawa/Kobashi and not Kawada. Meltzer did rate the Kobashi matches higher but I guess I chose to see what I wanted to see!

There were a couple of elements holding back the Wyatt match (the PPV one) for me. For one, I didn't think they capitalized on the high pre-match anticipation all that well. The crowd was so jacked for them to go at it and when they finally do, it ended up being relatively normal Shield trios match opening minutes stuff. It felt like that situation called for a more intense, big time opening rather what they went with. Felt likey the left some potential heat on the table with how they handled the opening. While the Shield were defacto faces and Rollins gave an excellent face performance, I preferred the more cut & dry heel/face structure of the Evolution match. I get that the point was to wrestle an even match because you had the two best teams going in the promotion going at it but I preferred the more traditional structure of the Evolution match slightly more. I am also not sure I saw the grittiness element, at least to that extent. It didn't feel substantially different in that regard than any other Shield match. The Evolution match had the better heel/face dynamic. It was structured tighter and as you said, was a really well executed version of your WWE main event tags. The Shield were more established as faces by this point. The opening minutes where the Shield came out strong was a better opening in context than the opening of the Shield match for me. Evolution was good tagging in and out and keeping things moving during their period of control. The initial Shield comeback had as much energy to it as anything in the Wyatt Family match. They worked just as stiff and snug against one another as in the Wyatt Family match (at least Bautista and Triple H. Orton was still Orton). When the match broke down and they started brawling, I thought that was a really well executed WWE out-of-control style brawl that rivaled the best stuff from 1998/1999 when that particular style was at its height (particularly with the Rock/Austin stuff). There was less aimless wandering through the crowd than you usually get in those situations. They had a plan for that segment and executed it well. I liked both matches a lot and this could easily be a case where I watch both back sometime this year and flip opinions, but that was my take. Regardless, both are great matches.

The on-paper cards were destined to be disappointing once the list of wrestlers coming over was released. Polvora, Gran Guerrero, Mr. Niebla and Angel de Oro don't bring much to the table. I like Triton and Stigma but its not like they are anything to get excited over either. When you are adding those guys and subtracting Rush, Fuego, Titan, Maximo, Rey Escorpion & Stuka Jr. from last year's tour, the cards are going to look just "eh". Of course, they didn't do themselves any additional favors by not booking a CMLL/NJPW singles match which is always a neat highlight. All that aside, the Korakuen cards should be good. Dorada/Sombra is a first time match. I am sure they will work it in the same vein as last year's Volador/Dorada match but that's fine with me because I thought that was a very fun spot fest that the crowd totally ate up. UG works reasonably hard in Japan so his match with Atlantis should be decent. Cometa vs. Cavernario will be good and Stuka Jr./Mephisto should be at least alright. The atomicos on the final night also looks like a ton of fun. The first three cards don't do much for me and I am not sure the tag tournament will be any good, but it is different enough that I am excited to watch it.

I did a preliminary (although almost final) top 50 for 2014. Of course after the top few or so a lot of matches become very similar in quality so the individual placements don't mean much. Instead I assigned star ratings to try to provide a sense of degree and context. I didn't think there were any classics this year but there were a whole bunch of matches that were "good" or better and even more that were average or slightly above. Only match I haven't watched that I want to before locking it up is the Panther & UG vs. Black Terry & Solar match from November that I have, but haven't gotten around to watching yet. http://www.crossarmbreaker.com/top-50-matches-of-2014/