AstroBoy

Hugo was a ton of fun here. After listening to him for much of the set it only added to his charm as he charges Profe from the opening bell, defending his honor. Also touching is Bobby Jaggers sort of sticking up for and rooting for Hugo as they look back on the match together. I really loved Profe's senton and the use of a low blow while he was being pinned. That's a clever tactic that some modern heel should really dust off. They build to a nice finish with Hugo getting the big win to a great pop and then an extended painting of Profe. Fun stuff.

This one seems more abrupt than the first one and I was shocked they went through with a heel victory. It's just bizarre to see the heels going to town on the good guys in front of a dejected crowd. The teams are almost identical to the previous incarnation and the eliminations aren't really much different either. This was another fun multi-man brawl but didn't have that wide open visceral satisfaction and hoopla of the first match.

Pretty hard to accurately assess everything going on in a match like this. As a spectacle it's pretty great and satisfying. I loved Chicky Starr's performance in this -- just begging off and fighting desperately and standing out on his team. Colon and Invader's babyface performances are very good and there is plenty of good brawling here and a super hot crowd. Again, hard to kind of judge it in some ways, but tons of fun and a really satisfying ending scene with the babyfaces teeing off on their rival army.

This is a good barbed wire match hurt slightly by how awesome their Texas Death Match that preceded this was. They do a good job playing up the danger of the wire and the story of the hulking Ayala who is afraid of the ropes and doesn't know how to cope with it vs. Colon who is a veteran in this setting. Helps even the playing field and they do a good job progressively integrating the wire as this descends into a back and forth battle. There's a moment where Ayala breaks out of the figure four and stands up only to fall down in a hilariously goofy sell of the leg. A few moments later Colon does the same concept only a million times better. The finish with Ayala trapped in the ropes is cool and a satisfying revenge finish for Colon. Postmatch wrestlers are helping a child into the ring, trying to wedge him in through the barbed wire ropes. I found that funny.

This didn't really do a lot for me. Terry Funk was fun here stooging and milking everything he could out of certain moments but nobody else offered much of anything. The match itself never really formed into much either, though it was something else to see Hawk just wasting Dory with the chair outside the ring. More of a fun side spectacle than a satisfying match.

Yeah I thought this was good but something seemed almost lethargic about it when I watched it. Maybe it was my mentality or maybe something else but Chicky in particular came across as almost bored for sections of it. Of course he had his moments of brilliance too but this felt like a heated moment that didn't quite break out of second gear if that makes sense. I think that knowing the exact backstory helps a bit here but it came across well enough without Boricua's awesome write-up. I loved Chicky playing to beat the clock and not Invader, that's a very sensible and scumbag move for this stipulation. Invader pulling out several quick pin attempts were all timed perfectly and very heated. The finish with the loaded mask was incredibly satisfying. I would say that I liked this but wouldn't place it in my personal top tier on this set.

This was an awesome, harrowing brawl. Right from the get-go Colon's selling is off the charts and it's all little things that set his performance apart. He finds that sweet spot after being choked to death by a table, firing off one small punch to the gut, but not able to muster more. Later he starts kicking out Ayala's legs and then just falls down in exhaustion from the beating he's taken. Chicky Starr is pretty fantastic here just standing around in his neckbrace and instigating the fans, helping out Ayala, of course giving him the brass knucks. Hugo and Jaggers are absolutely killing me here with Jaggers constantly calling for the headbutt to be outlawed and insisting that Ayala hit a flying crossbody to take over. The beating that Colon takes as he slowly just succumbs to blood loss and damage is completely harrowing and uncomfortable. It did have that feel of starting to drag until it became clear that the sustained nature of the beatdown became the reason to end the match. Really violent image of Colon just motionless finally being stomped over and over as the doctor calls off the match. An all-timer of a performance by Colon. Ayala didn't have to do much else other than beat down Colon and he did that just fine. Ayala not selling the leg so much after the big figure four section irked me just slightly but this was a pretty memorable brawl.

Fuyuki showed some nice fire here and Rebelde seemed perfectly serviceable. Agree with the notion that it was weird for them to build to the second half of the match only to slow it down with the nerve hold. Fuyuki did a fine job selling and this was entertaining enough overall. I liked the spin kick that ended it. Perfectly fine match.

If there is anyone here who's signed up for the yearly FloSlam deal: do they charge you the lump sum $150 up front or is it a $12.50 charge taken out monthly?

I went to the AIW Double Dare tournament in Cleveland this past weekend and had a great time. Cryme Tyme and the FBI were fun attraction teams and some smaller local teams got a good chance to shine. Also the Headhunters were an unbelievable spectacle on both nights and Shayna Baszler is someone to really watch in the near future. She has an MMA background and already carries herself very well in the ring. Had a great time. I'm considering going with my girlfriend to ROH in Columbus when it comes in February but unsure. I'd like to hit up more local stuff and may check out IWA-MS on some random weekend. It all comes down to finances.

Smackdown is becoming something I avoid reading about until I can watch it live for myself because it's just such a fun show. Everything has room to breathe on the show instead of feeling tossed into a three hour mess. I agree that I would sacrifice killer matches every week to just watch a logical, well-built episodic show. Especially one that is maximizing their talent like they are doing right now.

All Star Extravaganza is well worth checking out for anyone who hasn't. Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee continued their rivalry with a show-stealing match early in the card. Crazy brutal spots and hopefully these guys can be a focal point in ROH going forward. Ladder War was an amazing spectacle with some legitimately scary and brutal spots. It felt dangerous and important and was a breathtaking close to the show. Kyle O'Reilly and Hangman Page had a very solid little match. The six-man tag and four way tag matches were fun and showcased everyone involved. I would've preferred Dijak to beat Fish for the TV title but still a good showing for both guys in a good opener. Lethal going over Naito so strongly says good things about the relationship with NJPW and it was absolutely the right circumstance for Lethal to gain that kind of big win. This was a really good show and although the company has its share of faults, this show delivered in a big way.

There is a good logical progression in the Hansen/Colon matches from Hansen jumping Colon at the bell in the first encounter to Colon throwing everything at Hansen from the start in later matches to try to overwhelm him. And here Colon's strategy and tenacity pays off -- mostly -- until Hansen begins to overwhelm him and take over. There is a sense that unless Colon can keep him down and put him away that Hansen, like a force of nature, will just eventually wear him out. Hansen starts using high impact moves, a piledriver and back suplex to try to keep Colon down and that segues into the next wrinkle, which is Colon slowly chipping away at Hansen's knee. The build here is gradual, from a few quick shots to an all-out destruction of the knee and feels like a full-fledged organic new chapter in the match. Hansen's wounded bull selling is fantastic, conveying a guy who is on his last legs but also at his most dangerous, fighting back and throwing chairs and desperation elbows. I think I didn't like the final figure four sequence for going on a little too long but it's to set up a cool finish with Hansen getting the crutch and a wild post-match fight. Without rewatching their previous matches, this feels like the most "full" and rich, and probably my favorite. A great match.

Really excited to see this. I don't think I'm struggling much to get into this set but I am curious to know what's going over my head or what else I could be picking up on, so thanks for taking the effort to help us all out.

I could understand TJP not jumping off the page for some but I give him a ton of credit. He was put in the unenviable position of beating some beloved names and/or charismatic underdogs in consecutive rounds. He was booked to knock everyone's favorite out. Clearly he could have tried to wrestle more flashy and pull out more high spots to win over the crowd but he was the glue helping keep things together for much of his tournament run. Instead of going crazy spot for crazy spot he kept things sensible and got over the kneebar as a deadly finish. It's a big feather in his cap the matches he had with Swann and Ibushi. He really came across as a guy slightly outmatched in the semis who comes out with a very good gameplan and then just needs to survive through attrition. And he felt like the guy keeping things together in the finals. I'm starting to think he's one of the more underappreciated wrestlers in the world this year.

I think contextually the leg work at the end is enriched if you look at two things. 1. The Revival used the same type of attack to put out American Alpha months prior. 2. DIY is still lower on the totem pole than Revival at this stage. Taking hierarchy into account, it worked for me to have the dominant tag champs put away the plucky challengers with a short and decisive but desperate finish. I loved the match.

Sounds like kind of an off note show from EVOLVE based on reactions although I haven't seen it yet. Riddle not winning might be the right move but I was kind of hoping they'd go in that direction. I'm going to predict that Thatcher actually completes his redemption and beats Gulak today. The one thing I hope they don't do is put Riddle with Galloway's group. Interested to see what directions the story will go after today's show. Hopefully Gabe has something good up his sleeve.

Lio Rush has had really fun matches against Jay White and Donovan Dijak in the last few weeks on ROH TV. Feels like they should really be building around guys like him, ACH, Castle, Dijak, etc. . . I'll probably get around to checking out Death Before Dishonor and I think the wrestling on it should be good but from a booking standpoint it doesn't look super inspiring to me. I think Cole vs. Lethal should in theory feel like a bigger deal to me but it just doesn't.

Any word on how good current IWA Mid-South and AIW out of Cleveland are? I'm kind of considering going to either the TPI or the Double Dare tag tournament for AIW - both taking place the same weekend in early November. Any good recommendations on recent stuff that would catch me up to speed with these promotions?

I'm watching more wrestling than ever this year and it hasn't quite overwhelmed me yet, probably due to a few factors. I'm still riding high from diving deep into the GWE project and trying to still fill gaps, check out different styles and eras, etc. The release of the Puerto Rico and Portland sets landed at a perfect time to give me a longer form project to invest in while keeping current with modern stuff. I have also lucked out in that my girlfriend really took an interest when she found out I liked wrestling and has been watching a ton with me. Add that to us going to our first live shows together over the summer and it's been nice to have wrestling time overlap with personal time with no real detriment. Basically I keep up with EVOLVE, random indies, WWE and NXT stuff, the CWC as it's happening now, pimped lucha and puro stuff. And when I want to sink in deeper, I just watch the 80's sets. So yeah, lucky to have some free time and not much fatigue right now. Though I will say watching more wrestling than ever has led me to neglect other hobbies so I'm sure that will straighten out over time. More than anything though I just feel lucky to have all this footage so readily available. It's fun to seek out as much as possible.

I never would have expected Omega vs. Naito to be that spectacular. All things considered, Omega sold the knee extraordinarily well. The two personalities played off each other so well. The huge spots down the stretch felt earned, the work involving the One Winged Angel was fantastic. Such a great match and definitely my favorite of the tourney. I did enjoy Okada vs. Ishii a good bit as well. Honestly I hope they just pull the trigger on Omega and give him a run with the IWGP belt. We shall see.

Late to the party here but I like Kenny Omega.

Scenic City Invitational was completely awesome. As a two-day event it might be my show of the year. At least five matches were at the very good to great level with a couple others slightly behind. And outside of one misfire, there was nothing less than solid the whole weekend. Everybody should check it out when it's available. And apparently the Jimmy Rave vs. John Skyler first round match is going up for free tomorrow as a teaser.

I loved this so much and had it up around 4 3/4*. Loved the control segments from both Colon and specifically from Flair. Toward the end it just built and built and sprinkled in enough surprises and nearfalls to really enrich the stretch run.