stomperspc

Ibushi/Shibata was a lot of good stuff surrounding what was one of the more ridiculous no selling/pop up/one count sequences I can remember seeing recently. Not selling a limb injury all the way through a match doesn't bother me that much. This kind of bad selling/lack of selling kills me. They were working really stiff and the offense was generally good. Why would you kill each other only to suggest at several points that the offense can be shaken off or has no impact at all? It's totally counterproductive. There was one really bad segment but there were three fighting spirit parts in total, only one of which I thought was "okay" (even then it wasn't ideal). They did enough good stuff to offset some or all of the bad but that only serves to demonstrate that they didn't need to go there to have a good match.

I think he is pretty good right now when placed in the right environment. I agree with the quality of his strikes (his uppercuts are terrible). In NOAH and a lot of times when working European promotions , he seems compelled to strike for some reason. He would be much better off trying to be the “British style guy” (even if his style is a facsimile of WOS style) then a hybrid Japanese style junior. Having said that, when he sticks to the to the British-influenced chain wrestling stuff, works submissions, and largely stays on the mat he is good. I have liked him in EVOLVE this year as much as anyone other than T.J. Perkins. He was not very good or memorable in NOAH for a long time (I’m not sure he is even now) and will be way out of my top 100, but I think he’s a pretty good wrestler right now when he sticks to the things he is best at.

Reckless Youth as “Technical” Tom Carter in 2003 ROH. ROH acknowledged that Carter was Reckless Youth but the story was that he was going by his given name in an attempt to show off a serious side and redefine himself as a mat wrestler. He wasn’t given much of a shot (three bookings over a four month period) but there was nothing about his run there that distinguished him from guys like Chad Collyer, Matt Stryker, John Walters, ect. that were doing similar mid-card gimmicks. It still might not have worked out, but I always thought a better idea would have him work as Reckless Youth, position him as one of the forefathers of that current indie wrestling scene (regardless if that is entirely accurate), and have him out to prove that he can hang with anyone in ROH. They would have gotten to the same end point (Reckless Youth showing he can wrestle a “technical” style) without all the silliness of the name change. TAKA’s brief 1999 ECW run. He was loaned out by WWE for a few months that spring and wrestled 10 or so matches for them including a PPV match versus Super Crazy. Actually, TAKA’s first half of 1999 would probably all fit in this category as a forgotten period of his career. When he did work for WWF during the first half of 1999 it was almost exclusively on Super Astros or the joint shows with IWA in Puerto Rico. It wasn’t until late in the year that he and Funaki were used more regularly on WWF TV. Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old “Mike Jones” in WCW during Kevin Sullivan’s run as booker in between Russo’s first and second stints. During Russo’s first stint, he worked as “Shane” (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick.

I'm with Grimmas on the Nakamura/Nagata being one of the better matches of the tournament thus far. The slower, mat based start stoof out. I really liked the way Nagata sold the rib injury.

I was at the show and enjoyed it. Watanabe/Dijack was the dark match. Probably just coincidence but it was sort of amusing to me that Watanabe's match got announced a day after the WON reported that New Japan wasn't happy with how infrequently ROH had been booking him. Watanabe looked good. I still don't have a good hold on how he is going to look size wise as a New Japan heavyweight, but I think he'll fit into that particular style just fine. Ferrera/Silas Young was a fine opener. Silas didn't wrestle as flashy as he usually does. That was an improvement. Ferrera is a decent underdog wrestler and was good in this role. Moose was generally over as a face but there were some jeers as well. I thought Moose had another fine showing. When Alexander went for a springboard and slipped, Moose covered it up rather flawlessly. He immediately landed a solid knee strike than a big lariat which Cedric did a spin bump for. For a guy at his experience level, it was a remarkably smooth cover up. The match was decent/good but maybe went a couple minutes long. I enjoyed Romero/Barretta vs. The Briscoes with the same caveat above that it felt a few minutes too long. Lots of quick tags and good-looking double teams. Briscoes were over big which wasn't a surprise. I'm a big Rocky Romero fan. He's had a very underrated career in terms of exposure/pushes. Cole/Castle was another good/not great match. Castle's entire act was over with the crowd. Cole looks like he is inching closer to 100% health wise with every match he has. Castle's German Suplex is great. The Tate Twins are very good in their roles. I thought Page/ACH was bad but maybe I was starting to get burnt out. The weapon shots and bumps looked painful but everything else about the match didn't do it for me. It was one of those matches where it was clear they had the big spots planned out and everything surrounding the big spots was filler. Colby Corino took another suplex outside the ring which seems to be all that he really does. With how long this Whitmer/Corino build as been, I hope we get a major bloodbath out of the payoff. Four way was fine but unremarkable. reDRagon was the most over of the four teams. Addiction were over as heels, too. Fine for what it was. I wasn't a big fan of the main event. I don't think it was a bad match (more in the "above average/good" realm) and I totally understand the logic behind going 60-minutes. Pete's comment about Lethal and Strong substituting athleticism for a smarter/slower build was right on. That was the biggest problem I had. Besides for Strong slowing things down a couple of times within the first 15 minutes (which made think they were going to go longer than usual), they wrestled at their normal pace. That made the second half or even final 2/3's a little tedious, at least live. I was not a big fan of the "these guys are exhausted but keep going" story they were selling. I much prefer a 60-minute draw that has a slow build and had a hot finish. The way they worked the match, you knew they were going 60 about halfway in when they got past the first set of attempted near falls. So the rest of the way I felt like I was just watching them do stuff to fill the time while we counted down to the draw. What they did with that time was moderately entertaining but not enough to cover the inherent issue. This is the 3rd ROH 60-minute draw I've seen live (Daniels & Punk in Philly in 2005 during Punk's title reign and Joe vs. Danielson in Edison in 2006 during Danielson's title reign). I would put this one in the middle. Joe vs. Danielson was a major misfire. They telegraphed they were going 60 early, lost the crowd midway through, and didn't even muster a hot finish. Daniels & Punk also telegraphed it to an extent. I remember either Tom K. or Phil Schneider saying out loud about 15 minutes in that the match was probably going the distance so at least someone noticed it. That match got 15 or 20 minutes in and they hadn't done a lot, so that tipped you off that a long match was coming as opposed to Lethal/Strong where the giveaway was they got through the first set of legit 2-counts without the match ending and then did a reset. The Punk/Daniels match had much better pacing and a hotter ending then the other two matches as a result of that slower built. From a booking standpoint I think it was the right call. Strong has too much momentum and has been built up too much to kill off his title chase right now. Lethal couldn't lose in his first defense. As Pete said, going 60 in such an athletically impressive way definitely differentiates ROH from NXT for the time being and that's a good thing. I get why they did it and get why they wrestled the match the way they did, but it wasn't what I really want from a 60-minute match.

Gallows vs. Ibushi (7/24) was fun. They lost a little steam down the stretch but I liked the layout centered on Ibushi having his rib area worked over. A nasty bump from Ibushi and nice body punches from Gallows.

This tournament could use more matches like Ishii/Kojima. Chad & Pete covered everything but it was the sort of easy to watch, mildly entertaining match that they could use more of the #1 - #3 tournament match slots each night. The first night had none of those. To me, having a watchable/good match or two in those slots are more important than the big one or two matches each night hitting it out of the park.

I am not sure the volume of cheap finishes in WWE is the problem so much as the type of cheap finishes are the problem. WWE is a big fan of “wrestler comes out mid-match, one wrestler in the ring gets distracted and is rolled up” finish. That is a cheap finish but it is a terrible one. Nobody looks good coming out of that. The guy who won only won because his opponent made a dumb mistake. The loser looks stupid for being so easily distracted. Even the wrestler providing the distraction doesn’t look all that smart (“play my music and I’ll walk to the ring” is not exactly a genius plan). If a heel cheats to win to build heat on him leading to a the face winning the payoff match, I would say that is generally a good cheap finish. I know you were in favor of Rollins cheating to beat Brock. If the follow up was handled correctly, I think that would be a good cheap finish. The finish we got was a bad cheap finish. Rollins simply benefited from the circumstances and the match did nothing to make him look good. If he cheats and gets away with it, at least he looks smart and as if he had a plan. It is also probably a bad idea to do a cheap finish on a PPV unless the feud is clearly still on the rise and would benefit from building to a re-match. So I wouldn’t say they need to do more cheap finishes as much as they need to be smarter in how and when they do them.

The June 2015 Cross Arm Breaker Match Guide is out today. In addition to the usual full length and “quick” reviews of matches from the past month, this month we also break down which wrestlers are having the best year by region (US/Canada, Mexico, Japan, Europe). 85 wrestlers in all are discussed/evaluated individually. In terms of variety and overall content, this is one of my favorite issues we have done far. Download the June issue for free here: http://www.crossarmbreaker.com/2015-match-guides/june-2015-match-guide/ In addition, to make it a little bit easier for anyone wishing to catch up you can download the first six issues for free in either PDF or e-reader formats at one time in a bundle here: http://www.crossarmbreaker.com/2015-match-guides/2015-match-guide-mid-year-bundles/

That's what I am thinking. There doesn't appear to be any logical scenario where Okada loses the title before the Dome show. They aren't likely to payoff his chase and then immediately beat him again. Nakamura has two straight losses to Goto. That screams of "beating a guy who is about to get a big push" booking. He appears to be set up for a G-1 run and victory. In terms of the other alternatives, Styles/Okada has been done a bunch and has not been treated like a Dome level main event. Ibushi is a possibility but a long shot since there has been no indication they are about to give him a huge push. A Tanahashi match would in some ways payoff the story of Okada being crushed by last year's main event loss but would they really go to the well again with that one? Nakamura/Okada really seems like the safe bet. Also agree that it wouldn't be surprising to see Goto drop the IC title after the G-1 to Ibushi, Styles, or Tanahashi to set up a Dome semi-main involving one or two of those three guys.

Ha! Let’s assume for a minute that either before or during the match, Ishii and Makabe decided they were going to make it appear the match was falling apart as a way of getting over that Ishii was injured. How is that a good thing? That’s the funniest part of it to me. The idea that they were having a sloppy match on purpose is wacky enough, but the idea that doing so was this great “next level” way of selling a shoulder is bonkers. If Makabe whiffing on forearm strikes by six inches is some newfangled way to get over Ishii’s shoulder injury, than wrestling has passed me by. Thankfully its almost certainly just a nutty Meltzer theory.

Tanahashi vs. Styles and Okada vs. Nakamura are the two big matches on the final round robin nights so it is probably safe to assume the blocks come down to those four. If I were booking, I would stay away from running fresh matches like Nakamura vs. Styles with no build up but New Japan seems less concerned about that. They didn't shy away from running Okada vs. Nakamura for the first time in two years (and since Okada became a top guy) with no notice at Osaka Dome last year. They are running the first Tanahashi/Ibushi singles match on the first night of a tournament in a 6,000-ish person building while I would have held off on that for a different show. So I think there is a distinct possibility they'll do Nakamura vs. Styles in the finals even though it would be giving away a first time match on no build. Nakamura-Okada could be positioned as a rubber match at the Dome if Nakamura beats Okada during the G-1 since they'll each have one singles win over the other in the past three years. That would leave Ibushi/Styles or Ibushi/Tanahashi as the second match from the top at the Dome. FWIW, Meltzer wrote this a few weeks ago in the Observer: If true, selling out Sumo Hall on the final night is not a concern. I think even if were, Styles/Nakamura would have been big enough to get it done. As far as the five tournament matches per night, that does not bother me as long as they group them all after intermission every night. Depending on the start times, that is a good thing because I can sleep in a little later. If I watch a show later in the day, it is easier to get through five matches (and the non-tournament matches only if I have time) rather than eight tournament matches per day.

I am not fundamentally opposed to the kind of interference the Bullet Club did in the main event. It got heat. They didn’t get in the ring or anything in some way that would have really disrupted the flow of the match. Both beat downs were relatively quick and I didn’t feel like the match was thrown out of rhythm by the Bullet Club getting involved (though it did take the ref a little long to eject them after catching them in the act). My issue with it in that match is that they have done almost the same exact spot a half dozen times (give or take) over the past 15 months. After the Bullet Club successfully interfered in the first two Okada/Styles matches, they have done the “interfere early, interfere again, get caught, get thrown out” sequence so much that it does nothing for me now. It has become a “let’s get all of our stuff” in sort of spot. It is no longer fresh in any sense. It is just a spot you know you are going to have to get through in big Styles title defenses when the entire group seconds him. Spots that you know are going to happen and as a viewer you are just waiting to get through obviously aren’t good. As said, the interference got good heat and the ejection got some level of reaction so maybe it isn’t a completely dead spot to their target audience but I am over it. No problem with interference, but at least switch up how you go about it every once in a while.

Low Ki is as or more responsible than any other wrestling for establishing a stiff, mat based style as a viable style during the early 2000's indies explosion. He might not always get enough credit for being so versatile. He fairly easily could have made a career working a pure Japanese junior/WCW cruiserweight style with a focus on flying but branched out. He was a great, realistic mat worker and submission specialist during a time where very people were focusing on that style. The series with American Dragon from 2001 - 2002 was as good of a young guy vs. young series as I can recall (2/24/01 ECWA Super 8; 7/21/01 ECWA; 10/27/01 King of Indies final; 3/03/02 ROH; 6/7/02 JAPW tap out match). He sort of peaked early as you can argue he was never as good as he was circa-2002, but he had a long career has an above average wrestler in TNA, ROH and Japan. He's still above average and can be really good when he wants to be. The Galloway pole match was way better than it had any right to be and I was a big fan of the Ricochet match from 2014. You could make an argument for him being the top junior heavyweight of the past 15 years. He'll be towards the back end of my list, but he'll definitely be on it.

A good shoot style wrestler but not the best. He came off as super athletic in the Reborn UWF and PWFG matches of his I've seen. He had this realistic intensity and a lot of neat tricks to fill down time. Unlike some other guys, I am not sure I have seen Funaki totally slow down or stop working in a shoot style match. Very fluid in the ring. The problem was he was really just passing through in pro wrestling the first time through so there's just not a ton there. Had he somehow ended up in RINGS instead of Pancrase maybe he would have enough quality shoot style matches to make a case but the volume just isn't there. I haven't thought much of anything I have seen him in since his return to pro wrestling in 2009 and that certainly doesn't help his case. He was still on the right side of 40 then and the fact that he has done so little of note over the past six years isn't good. His shoot style stuff that I've seen I have found to be really strong, but its hard to make a case for him based on about three years and maybe a dozen or so matches.

The show was fine and it kept me engaged more than the February, April and May major shows did. A lot of that was due to Shibata/Sakuraba being far better than the normal third match on a major New Japan show. So even though Ishii/Makabe, the tag title match, and Tanahashi/Yano ranged from bad to "eh" a very good match early on (and no intermission) kept me into things more than other early-morning major shows from this year. I through Sakauraba/Shibata was great, Omega/KUSHIDA was about as good as an Omega match is going to be, semi-main was good, and main event was very good/great. I'l take that each and every time, even with the bad 3 match stretch.

I finally watched this last night and well...I don't think it was even close to a MOTY and I am probably one of the bigger fans of focused limbwork you will find on this board. Don't get me wrong. It was a fine match all things considered. The guys had to deal with a ring busting early and I thought they did an admirable job saving a match that by all rights should have run off of the rails. That said I think saying the execution of this was on point is a bit much. There were several times during this where things didn't seem to come off right and/or both guys appeared to be standing around almost lost about what to do. I honestly didn't fault them much for this given the condition of the ring, as at least a few times I suspect that was the reason for hesitation, but it was still really obvious. The story of Akito going after the body part of the bigger, tougher guy did work, and was an effective way to build the match, but I wanted more drama surrounding the bum wheel then I got. I did like the falls themselves, and the stretch was well built to and largely delivered. That said I left the match fairly amazed that people were rating it so highly. I would recommend people watch it, as it was a smart match, and a match where two guys who I am sort of iffy on showed that they could adapt well to a less than ideal environment, but three have been a lot of DDT matches alone this year that I thought were clearly better. Out of curiosity, what were those points? I've watched it twice and the only part of the match where I thought they significantly lost momentum was the one prolonged strike exchange they had. I don't recall any standing around and figuring out what to do next, which is something that usually bothers me. For example, I think A.J. Styles matches (particularly in New Japan) tend to suffer from "do something, pause, do something else unrelated, pause, do something else, ect." but didn't get that vibe at all here. I thought the transitions were largely very good and that the breaks in action were generally meaningful (ie. allowing time for a move to sink in or for a guy to sell). I am not a huge sticker when it comes to how clean moves are hit so maybe I am overlooking some stuff that bothered other people but there was no offensive execution that stuck out to me poor. Also curious what were the better DDT matches this year? In terms of offensive execution, the second HARASHIMA/Ibushi match had a lot more issues than this one. The first had the total momentum killing stage segment. The Kudo/Harashima match had too much strike exchange stuff for my liking and wasn't totally crisp either.

I really liked the first three or four minutes with the slow build. I am not sure it felt old school in nature to me but they definitely took their time to ease into things and build, rather than jumping in head first. Rave looked good. At his best, he's always had a strong sense of timing both on offense and in bumping and he brought both of those elements to this match. I was somewhat surprised to see Styles hit the plancha since he seems to use his non-through the ropes dropkick dives sparingly these days. In terms of what Styles brought, I didn't think this was in the top tier of his recent indie matches but probably the next level down. From an offense standpoint, I agree that the match build on itself really well thanks in large part to how they began. I thought it could have used a little more clearly defined heel/face structure. The match didn't go totally into my move/your move territory near the end but it did venture close to it. The crowd was chanting for Rave at spots but that was more their own choice than anything the match did to place Rave in that role. I thought more clearly defined roles would have helped the ending some. The announcers were great. They added in a ton of background details from Rave's ROH days to Styles' current schedule and did so without it ever coming off like them trying to show how much they know. As far as Rave's facial expressions (or lack thereof) were concerned, I watched the match before reading shoe's review and my takeaway was that Rave was trying really, really hard to emote facially, he just didn't do a very good job. Rave has always had an issue of looking like he is going through the motions from an emotional/facial expression standpoint (even has a heel). That's partially why his pairing with Nana worked so well. You had the eccentric, colorful Nana leading this guy that was a great heel from a wrestling standpoint but somewhat vanilla otherwise. In this match, it seemed noticeable to me that Rave was trying with the facial expressions (particularly when in holds) but they just came off hokey or weak. Good match overall. Rave definitely deserves a higher profile right now and this was another strong A.J. Styles indie match.

Shouldn’t additional credence be given to well-supported opinions held by a majority over dissenting opinions held by few? Everyone is entitled to her own opinion but not all opinions hold the same weight. A weakly supported opinion means less than a very well supported and documented position. It seems arrogant or at best totally aloof to suggest that a dissenting, minority opinion has as much value as an opinion held by an informed majority. I am sure I don’t always succeed in doing this, but I try to use “like” or “dislike” when my opinion differs from the majority on a match. With the Good Charlotte/Beatles example, someone saying that they like Good Charlotte more than the Beatles seems reasonable. Saying that Good Charlotte is a better band than The Beatles in the face of an overwhelmingly majority (and informed) opinion strikes me as aloof or downright arrogant. An opinion might never be able to reach objective truth status but if it is widely held and well supported, I don’t see any issue with using language like “better” or “worse”.

Of the four PPV's ROH ran since last June, I thought this was one of the weakest or the weakest (I don't really remember last year's BITW very well). Nothing stood out to me on the undercard although nothing was out right bad. The 3-way was a bit messy as expected and Elgin was Elgin. Loved Moose's dive. Going the predictable route isn't always wrong, but Cedric's heel turn played out in almost the exact same manner that several recent heels turns in ROH have played out. Tag title match was fine as a generic hardcore/No DQ match but that style is played out for me. The Bullet Club trios was just as expected. It seems like Styles enjoys working with the Bucks. Hard to put my finger on it but he seems to have an extra spring in his step when he teams with them. They had a lot of good ideas with the main event. The stalling and slow build (by current ROH standards) definitely made the match feel bigger time than a normal ROH main event. I am not a fan at all of how so many ROH matches head out of the ring early on for some meaningless brawling. I really wish they would have cut that part out or found a more natural/intense way to get there. The body of the match was fine but nothing special. I understand why they went near 30-minutes but if they were going to go that long more stalling/feeling out stuff at the beginning instead of the lengthy middle section of the match might have been a better way to get there. The match was never boring but it did feel like they were killing time in the middle. I didn't have an issue with the finish mainly because they got me to buy into the idea that this was a huge, important match in the promotion's history in addition to being a personal issue. So trading finishers and kicking out didn't bother me in the context and felt appropriate. They went less far to that end than Cena/Owens and in context, this was a much bigger match. Good match with a lot of good ideas, but not great. I'll probably go to the iPPV in July in Baltimore so I was hoping for Strong/Briscoe instead of Strong/Lethal. Hopefully Lethal will be on his A-game. Lethal is almost definitely champion for the long haul (at least Final Battle). Strong isn't under contract so I doubt they would put the title on him. Moose and Adam Cole are probably challengers at some point. I think Moose should win it in his first shot (ROH so rarely does that) but he's still got a little ways to go before they get put the title on him. Cole's been beaten a lot since returning. Its hard to tell exactly where they are going with him although a face turn seems like it could be in the cards based on the post-match reaction to his loss by his teammates.

That's sort of the issue I have with Silas Young. He works a "real man" gimmick and has a look that works with that gimmick. His wrestling style is completely disconnected from that gimmick and look he has going on. When I think "last real man in wrestling", I don't think "handstand split-legged moonsault" but that's what he does. I think he could be a really solid mid-card, TV title level wrestler in ROH if he dropped the cutesy stuff and simplified his offense in a way that better matches his persona. I don't see him as a star even if he does that, but he could be useful. As he is now, I haven't been able to get into him in ROH or AAW.

May issue went up last night! Can be downloaded here: http://www.crossarmbreaker.com/2015-match-guides/may-2015-match-guide/ As always, any feedback is appreciated.

Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe (05/19/01) I thought was a lot better when I watched it a few years ago than it was when I saw it at the time. What once seemed overly excessive doesn't seem so bad by modern indie standards and even though the match isn't great, you can see that Jay & Mark had a lot of potential at such a young age (Mark was about 16). Its a fun match to watch with hindsight. The SAT & Red vs. Chris Divine, Quiet Storm & Brian XL (06/08/01) is maybe my favorite SAT match (not like that is saying a ton). The match is worked more like a lucha trios than the later ROH scramble matches that these six (and others) would help to shape. Like the Briscoes match, they try a lot of stuff and have a lot of ideas; some works, some doesn't but its still a fun match. Mike Quackenbush vs. Claudio Castagnoli (05/14/05) from that year's Best of the Best. Not to sound like a broken record, but more of a fun match than a great match and enjoyable watching them try a bunch of stuff. Claudio is nowhere near as good as he would become and these two would have better matches in Chikara and elsewhere in the coming years, but there's still some good stuff in it. In theory, they match up well with Quack's lucha influenced stuff and Claudio being a great base, but Claudio wasn't quite as skilled in that area as he'd become. I can't get into the Dojo stuff. I have trouble getting into watching guys wrestle in front of a couple of dozen people in what amounts to exhibition matches. I feel like I can see the same level of work in a variety of other places in 2015 where there is at least some level of crowd heat/interaction.

2015 Reigns is a good one. I've got the Brock and Bryan matches comfortably in my top 10 for the year at this point but Reigns is won't be close to my list for various reasons. Guerrero Maya vs. Virus is probably my 2011 MOTY (though Punk/Cena MITB is right there). Virus will be on my list, but Maya won't. Sting probably won't be on my list (but not going to entirely rule it out) despite loving the GAB '92 match and Superbrawl strap match with Vader. JBL/Eddie from Judgement Day 2004 is a top 20 WWE match of all time for me. JBL isn't even close to making my list. Paul London had a handful of matches between November 2002 and July 2003 in ROH that are all among my favorite ROH matches ever but he won't be on the list. Umaga vs. Cena would fit this criteria as well. Those are the first that came to mind but I am sure there are more.

Its coming. Got a bit behind in writing this month for a variety of reasons but look for it next week.