AstroBoy

Just the image of a bemused Page smiling and wandering around the ring after the match. Unbelievable. David Arquette smartly mastered the open-palm back strike for this match as him and Bischoff brawling up the ramp is like watching two men at a bingo social tear into each other. These are the moments where you laugh that such a beautiful art can insult its fans so much.

I found the grappling and submission stuff in the middle of the match to drag just a tad too much. It was still a really interesting match and the build particularly to the missed corner charge by Frye was fantastic. I just would have appreciated a slightly more compelling body stretch there to keep things going. ***1/2

What a beautiful combo. He should revive the gimmick.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: Pete Dunne and Doink the Clown Last fun match you saw: Kobashi vs. Omori from the 2000 Champions Carnival Wrestler you want to see more of: Darby Allin Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): AIW Double Dare Match you're most looking forward to watching: Intrigued by Brock/Joe. I am interested to see how Keith Lee and Matt Riddle work together. Last fun interview/promo you saw: Mostly recent Joey Janela stuff. He puts personal detail and care into his overall presentation and I respect that. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: 2000s review stuff from everyone. Stuff from Wrestling with Words. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: TWIW Indy and International. Wrestling with the Past GWE podcasts I never listened to when they came out. Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: NXT Chicago was a really fun show from start to finish. Favorite recent post on this board: I enjoy the NWA On Demand reviews that shoe and Matt D put up. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): There is just a lot of stuff to do at your own pace. The indy scene is overwhelming lately so I've been taking my time with older era stuff and Portland/Puerto Rico discs. But there's always something to watch or buy if I want to check it out.

I think CIMA, like in the Sano match, makes a fine fiery babyface here. I loved his stubborn palm-strike led offensive attack and his overexuberance to try to put Liger away with the big splash. From there it was pretty academic and it felt sort of inevitable that there was nothing CIMA could do to avoid the loss but it was still a fun ride. Fun final match and CIMA does comes out of it looking like only bright things are in store for him. ***1/2

Similar first half to this match as Teioh vs. Liger. Hamada stays ahead of him, keeps on top of him, and Liger gives him a ton in the opening portion of this. Liger takes over but this time Hamada kicks out of the Liger Bomb and surprisingly a top rope brainbuster before they go on another finishing run. Digging deeper to finish him, Liger has to unload more finishers and finally put away the vet with a palm strike. Getting the story of the dominant figure who seems unbeatable but also has to keep pushing himself to win. Sort of getting this vibe of "NBA team coasting until challenged in the 4th quarter" vibe from Liger at different moments. ***

It's funny. I always think of CIMA as kind of a smug, arrogant, flashy wrestling character but he was able to channel that into a fiery performance that helped turn this into a really strong match. Things are humming along and the work is good and then you get the gutbuster, the big double stomp, and suddenly the crowd is dying to turn things around for CIMA. And his performance in these moments is awesome. Gutty babyface expressions, wild fighting comeback to recover from the powerbomb and to fight off the Tiger Suplex. He even sells the leg as well as the fatigue and disorientation. We get a run to the finish that is built around his struggle to hit the Iconoclasm and it's fantastic. This fell short of greatness but is firmly very good. ****

Teioh keeps cutting off Liger with the abdominal stretch, with pinning combos, with the headlock. When Liger finally swings the momentum in his favor Teioh is optimistic to use a top rope atomic drop. He tries to chip away at Liger with elbows but Liger shrugs it off and pins him after a brainbuster. Almost a story of Liger meeting some fairly choppy waters, navigating calmly but surely through them, and then finishing his opponent off once he's sure he won't be swept away. Solid little story and match. ***

I thought the work was technically good and just did not reach a very gripping level. I do appreciate Sano cutting off Sasuke and keeping things from escalating, and that being a strategy that pays dividends for him here. I also really liked the finish and think it served both guys well at this stage in the tournament. Pretty forgettable but serviceable match. ***

Well it was an interesting visual I guess. I never watched this stuff unfold in real time when it was going on so it's mostly shocking to see matches that are legitimately not even matches at all. This is just a support to hang a dumb angle on. It just makes you wonder what exactly the end goals of these angles are. Match itself was nothing.

Hey look at that. A fun sprint between Kidman and Horace. Horace worked here as a ball of energy and fight and Kidman bumped around to make him look competent in this setting. I will say that Kidman just isn't convincing during the pre-match interview but I've liked the way his character has physically come off during this time period. This was a nice little segment altogether.

Just out of curiosity -- is there any non-Facebook location that is hosting this?

I thought this was fairly brilliant. The sparse matwork at the beginning is milked for all it's worth and sets a super competitive tone. We get escalation with Tiger Mask going on his spurts of offense including baiting Liger in to the corner with a missed koppo kick. Liger fires back with a shotei and Liger Bomb and from there the crowd goes nuts for two extremely well-timed Tiger Mask fighting spirit kickouts. The shotei is blocked from the left but hit from the right and Liger gets the win. I just thought they really drew so much out of the stature of their characters and squeezed everything out of doing so little. There was no excess, it was not a moves heavy match, yet everything had tremendous weight to it that resonated big time. ****

This was strong with Hayashi grounding Sasuke, staying ahead of him, and avoiding getting into a highspot match for the majority. Hayashi did look good, though not incredibly dynamic or anything. Like he was missing the slightest bit of confidence or some such. He heels it up a little here and does a good job cutting Sasuke off before he can get going. Ending had slightly too much Sasuke just popping up to make his comeback and the ending is a bit abrupt but this was another good outing in this tournament. ***1/4

This just encapsulates the vibe of the whole show. Rushed, uninspired, way overbooked. I like the Big Poppa Pump unhinged character but hate seeing him do things like begging off and trying to call timeout here. The finish with Vampiro pulling Sting under the ring was beyond stupid. *1/2

It feels like this match is carrying more heat in-ring than the crowd is responding to, if that makes sense. As in, the hatred and animosity is there between the workers but the crowd is just not receptive to it in a way that would help push this a little further. Of course it's fun to see the interactions of Douglas and Flair and they have nice exchanges with each other as their story kind of creates the heat of the match. Commentary here is cringeworthy with Russo and also Shiavone yelling "bullshit" is the most unconvincing way. Shock of all shocks, but the finish to the match is totally convoluted and garbage but the match itself was absolutely fine. **1/2

It's a fun Kidman/Vampiro match that is largely a collection of fun moves. Also it is built around like 5 counters to the infamous "powerbomb Kidman" spot. On on them Vampiro just tosses Kidman around the ring. Still, this was entertaining and Kidman really was hitting a stride as the obnoxious but feisty greasy up and comer. Him getting tossed around by Hogan works really well and the crowd ate it up all the way. Also worth noting the incredibly strange spot where Vampiro just gently bangs his knee into the steel steps and Scott Hudson won't shut up about how devastating that injury could be because Vampiro likes to throw kicks. Hilarious. Tony Shiavone is screaming about industrial size cookie sheets having much more torque to them. You know what, I don't mind this silly backstage brawl because Funk and Smiley kind of have the charm and personality to carry it. It is entirely goofy and just futile to build the hardcore division this way but if nothing else it can serve a comedic role among all the other overbooking. Both guys are taking chair and ladder bumps that are way too hurty looking for this shit show. I enjoyed this a pretty good bit when all was said and done. **1/2

From just a fundamental level the booking here is just so stupid. The younger talent being positioned as guys in the pocket of the boss and the supposedly tenured Millionaires' Club having to valiantly fight them off is just such a strange and off dynamic. Flair looks ridiculous wrestling in slacks and a polo but sells well for the young guys wearing him down with punches. Disco is a lot of fun at ringside with his reactions to everything. Also, I'm a big sucker for any hot tag spot that the referee doesn't see so bonus points for them integrating that into this. Johnny the Bull shows off his athleticism but not much else. An unmotivated looking Luger finishes off Johnny with the rack to cap a decent match. **

I am very eager to sift through the J Cup and I'll agree immediately that this was a blast for five minutes. Ricky Marvin feels really fresh at this point and although CIMA is far from my favorite guy, he added a lot here as well. A thoroughly fun sprint but I'm even more excited to see some different J Cup pairings.

It's crazy to think that Test and Albert were getting such a nice rub at this point. Bubba Ray Dudley is just crazy over and it's insane to think that him degrading and powerbombing women through tables was leading to him becoming so insanely popular. The match was solid although the T and A control segment felt like it went on for ages. They work some nice misdirections into the finishing sequence and Test boots Bubba for the win. Strange to see the Dudleys jobbing here but clearly they didn't need it as the crowd explodes for the post-match attack on Trish. In terms of crowd investment, this show as a whole demonstrates how invested fans were in almost every act up and down the card. That is something that is so sorely missed right now.

They weave a nice match here with some crazy highspots thrown in from Essa Rios. Something striking here is how even a mid-card match like this one gets a chance to breathe and be built up with a solid enough story supporting it. Eddy is impressive here in not just going all-out but instead crafting a nice match with some ebb and flow and getting the crowd invested in it by the end. Essa Rios was fun, wish he got more of a chance too.

Big Show hits a ridiculous hard lariat in this towards the end of the match. Angle's expressions and demeanor are priceless as Show comes out. I always found these impersonation gimmicks to be pretty painful and overdone but Show does a legitimate great Hogan. I kind of think they had something here with Show turning the switch from fun to angry mid-match. Angle actually works for me in this role too as he gets to take a bit of a step back from wrestling-heavy stuff to tune up for future main event runs.

The XS stuff comes across pretty hokey and lame here but at least they were trying to do something with Lenny and Lodi. I really liked the one spin kick to the gut from the Villano. For a flashy high energy and edgy babyface tag team, Lodi and Lenny simply aren't dynamic enough with their offense/sympathy and also don't have the type of charisma necessary to overcome that. Can't wait for the rematch to see which one I prefer.

Mike Mayhem impressed the hell out of me in this. It really felt like he was orchestrating things with Ki in order to make him look like a million bucks while also keeping things grounded. Ki has gotten some absolutely insane elevation on his Asai Moonsaults in what I've seen from him during this project. His moonsault to the outside was flat out incredible here. Mayhem carried stretches of this with his savvy and douchy heel charisma and really pulled out some nice touches to help build to the giant Ki Krusher finish. This was a very good match and Ki has the feeling of someone I'm excited to see every time I put on one of his matches. ***1/2

Man the crowd was way into this. Edge and Christian had a very New Day-ish bad guy who get good guy pops feel at this moment and they work a crowd-pleasing opener. Edge's falling headbutt came off a little wonky but they mixed in some fun cross-up spots down the finishing stretch and the closing schmozz was done really well. ***