ShittyLittleBoots

A very enjoyable sub-10 minute strikefest with good psychology around Aleister's kicks & his attack on Cesaro's leg. The finishing sequence was pretty amazing. ***1/4

Daniel Bryan & Rowan defend the WWE SmackDown Tag Team titles in a triple threat match What a terrific way to end the short, yet awesome tag title reign of Bryan & Rowan. The Bryan vs. Xavier battle in the beginning rules so much - Xavier becomes the FIP & it's great. Rowan just manhandles him in compelling fashion & Bryan is of course great; loved him yelling "OH THATS RIGHT, NO DQS!" when he was cranking Xavier's nose, which lead to him doing it even more viciously, and then also raking his eyes. What an absolute BASTARD. I love it. Otis was a really good hot tag too, doing his wacky shtick while running through Bryan w/ his power moves. Then the highlight of the whole thing was the entire ending stretch with Bryan going against Big E; E getting fired up by Bryan's lethal kicks & that slap was AWESOME, and that lariat was a great follow-up, because nobody bumps for those lariats like D-Bry. The finish was so, so, SO fantastic too with Big E catching Bryan straight to the Midnight Hour position as Bryan went for his backflip. Great, great tag team wrestling bell-to-bell. Easy MOTN. Bryan is the clear wrestler of the year 2019 at this point in my eyes, with so many great matches & performances. That's not to say that it's impossible to overtake him, but it's not gonna be easy. Best in the world baby. ****

"The Takeover, the breaks over"... ♫ This was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be. KENTA as the brutal asshole invader taking on the home-promotion legend ace is such a compelling dynamic, and in many ways, it's puro at its purest & best. The staredown during the entrances is intense, and then as the bell rings, things get more intense after every moment. The stiff SLAP from KENTA during the clean break spot, Tana giving a receipt, Tana's aggressive & proud air guitar playing stopped by KENTA's lil kick to the back of his head.. My GOODNESS. Things are escalating at an incredible rate. Then as they take their fight to the outside, KENTA cements control by absolutely brutalizing Tana with kicks & a DDT on the floor. There's this great shot of KENTA's face in there where he has a complete mean-bastard-killer look. The show is his after that outside destruction - he continues beating the shit out of Tanahashi in an absolutely brutal fashion, and it's amazing. Him doing the classic kneepad pull-down spot to him was something that was expected, but oh man, the whole vibe & the setting of him vs. NJPW's golden boy added so much to that spot. Also him corner dropkicking the soul out of Tana's body with Shibata smiling is something I won't forget anytime soon. Other very memorable sequence was the slap one where Tana delivers two dramatic slaps in classic Tana fashion, but KENTA counters the third one with one of his own, followed by his vintage spinning lariat. And the whole PK sequence. Chills when he went for that, and then we he actually hit it - holy shit. This was so great. Like I said; exactly what I wanted it to be. Both guys delivered big with Tana being the fantastic ace babyface that he is with his emotional selling & dramatic comebacks, and that boy KENTA? He sure showed that he indeed is FUCKING KENTA! One of the best matches of the year thus far, and gonna be an easy highlight to remember come end of the year. ****1/2

This was the clear MOTN in my eyes. Dustin is a legendary FIP, and while he sure was what I enjoyed the most about it, The Bucks sure can work a compelling heat segment too. Them being total douchebags to the Rhodes Bros, mocking their big DoN moment + constantly taunting them & even spitting at Cody was a lot of fun. Cody himself is a very good hot tag, and the Brotherhood gaining control & working the crap out of Matt's shoulder was really great, I thought. Nice stomps, kicks & holds to it, and I especially loved the hard irish whip by Dustin as he threw Matt into the corner shoulder-first. Matt sells pretty excellently throughout as well. Now after Nick's hot tag (which was good btw), the match kicks into its more 50/50 finishing gear, and that is where the length of it is starts to feel, as it does drag. It's still good action, but it's pretty much what makes this match very good, borderline great, rather than just straight up great. ***3/4

Pure physicality & viciousness right from Taichi's awesome pre-match attack, till the very end. Had a very genuine & authentic feel to it - it's hard to truly explain what I mean by that, but that's probably the best I can put it. Extremely enjoyable stuff. ***3/4

I never in a million years would've thought that I'd end up LOVING a match between these two, but here we are. This kicked so much ass. The beginning perfectly sets up the pace for what's about to come, as they collide in explosive fashion right from the get go. From that moment on, it's just borderline balls-to-the-walls bombfest action with the two, especially Big Mike, brutalizing one another in very compelling fashion. The length was just about perfect for the way they went with it, too. An absolutely awesome match with a big A. ***3/4

Aye, they pretty much played the hits here, and it resulted in their best G1 meeting probably since the original one from 2013. Very nice urgency right from the start, and it never really lets up. Some VERY brief legwork by Tana, which doesn't get sold, but I can forgive that since Tana wasn't very focused on the attack, thankfully. Very good bombfest fun. With it being in the US, it had a nice different vibe to it too. ***1/2

Anyone expecting a crazy fast paced sprint hasn't been watching KENTA in the past 10 years. To quote one of my favorite songs from 2018 - "it ain't 2009 no more". Overall KENTA didn't look much different at all than as Hideo Itami, but what I thought made a huge difference was how brutal his kicks were. I remember watching his match vs. Mustafa Ali & thinking how ridiculous Ali's HBK at SummerSlam 05 bumping & selling looked when all of Hideo's offense looked light as a feather. Here I definitely didn't have to worry about that though. KENTA kicked the shit out of Ibushi with disgustingly brutal sounding & looking kicks. Ibushi sure got the shit beaten out of him overall in the match, and he was extremely compelling taking that beating; selling & bumping fantastically all the way through. He made all of KENTA's strikes look like true shotgun shots. Oh & I definitely loved the vintage KENTA troll spot where he pulls down his knee pad, only for him to kick Ibushi in the side of his head. Always a joy to see that. They even made the generic puro forearm trading pretty amazing, with their facial expressions (especially Ibushi's) adding a ton. Great match! Terrific showcase for KENTA's style of wrestling in his G1 debut. ****

Darby Allin, one of the very best wrestlers in the world, getting this big match & spotlight is absolutely WONDERFUL. The match was good too, and he in particular, unsurprisingly, absolutely killed it. Cody certainly isn't the most compelling dude when working a long-ass beatdown segment, but Darby's unbelievably amazing bumping & selling make it work. The energy picks up everytime he mounts comebacks too. Had Cody been more interesting on top, this more than likely would've been great. It was still good though & an awesome showcase for Darby. ***1/4

Match of the Year: Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE 04/07) Runner up: Cain Justice vs. Trevor Lee (CWF Mid-Atlantic 02/16) Best Major Wrestling Show: AEW Double or Nothing Runner up: GCW Josh Barnett's Bloodsport Best Promotion: Best on Interviews: Daniel Bryan Feud of the Year: Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston Most Improved: Jay White Wrestler of the Year: Daniel Bryan Runner up(s): Timothy Thatcher & Eddie Kingston Couldn't think of anything for best promotion. There has not been any standout promotions for the year, except maybe for AEW, but they've had only 2 shows so far, so it feels like cheating to put them there.

The big story of the match begins almost immediately with Otani going for a leg submission - there's this awesome bit in the beginning with him trying to fully lock in his sub, but Daisuke keeps on fighting, just trying to boot Otani away, but Otani ain't giving up his hold very easily, as he himself answers to Daisuke's frantic fighting w/ a couple of slaps to the stomach. Fantastic, simple struggle that really put over Otani's leg submissions as something to be scared of. Otani sure continues to go for those leg holds, and everytime he gets one in, Daisuke's selling is just amazing. His visceral roars & facial expressions are SUPERB. I thought that overall his selling was pretty outstanding all the way through. Like I mentioned, he sold the submissions fantastically, and everytime he got the control, he moved way slower than usual. A perfect example of that would be the moment where he is delivering some stomps to Otani in the corner. He is selling the fatigue & the damage Otani had done to his leg brilliantly. And talking bout brilliant stuff, the moment that actually followed was absolutely awesome - Daisuke had FINALLY got the match under control, and as he is looking to do something to a grounded Otani, the crowd starts cheering & chanting very loudly for Otani, which Daisuke also sells in terrific fashion w/ a real look of confused disgust & anger, and then he also yells something to the crowd. Not only is the old fucker doing a real number on him, but the crowd is also not giving him any sympathy. More great moments from a match that was full of them was Otani's own comeback; he worked that crowd magic to perfection by milking them to the maximum, asking for their energy before washing Daisuke's face in. Him stopping Daisuke's running lariat attempt with a goddamn SLAP to the face was absolutely wonderful as well. Then there's small moments like him trying to lock in a full nelson, which Daisuke answers to quickly by not letting that happen as he rams Otani into the corner, but Otani refuses to have that be the end of his plan, as he wants that damn full nelson in, so he goes to do it again, which Daisuke answers again by ramming him into the corner. They repeat that a few times in a row & it just low-key blew my mind in its simplicity. That's also when it hit me that the whole match was pretty much an incredible, almost constant struggle for Daisuke, and he TRULY shined in that role. Now going back to the selling - I've read that some people thought that Daisuke's selling of the leg wasn't good, but really the only few moments that somewhat annoyed me were the bridging pin & then the top rope splash, but those didn't annoy me enough for this match to be anything other than absolute class in my eyes. ****1/2

It's your usual Shayna dynamic of her being the bully on top, while her babyface opponent makes awesome comebacks. Shayna is of course really good at delivering a beatdown, and I actually thought that she changed her "usual" a little bit here, by not being so totally focused on one limb, but instead just kicking overall ass a lot. Io sells great - she made everything look very deadly, and I especially loved how vicious those throws into the cage looked due to her incredibly awesome sellin' n' bumpin'. Her comebacks rule in their fiery explosiveness too, and the two big spots (German Suplex, Moonsault) are great. All the Horsewomen & Candice stuff added to the thing too, and greatly raised the drama for the bout without coming off as too overbooked or/and clusterfuck-ish. Also loved the finishing stretch - it first looked & sounded that the heat for the match was dying as Shayna locked in her choke, but as Io showed that she is still in the thing, they got the crowd back big time, and then the whole door-slam thing happened, and I thought it was totally great. Amazing finish. Pretty great stuff all around! Really good, borderline great match, and then there's also a fantastic post-match angle, which makes the whole thing even more memorable. ***3/4

EASILY the best match of the night. Two great personalities clashing in a match that fits those personalities pretty much perfectly. Full of creatively fun violence w/ them constantly looking to one-up the previous big spot. ***3/4

This was just so much fun. Bryan was unsurprisingly excellent, Rowan was good & the Heavy Machinery fellas impressed as well - especially given the starting setting of the match w/ the Washington crowd being 110% behind Bryan. Really liked Tucker's FIP seg with Bryan working over his leg a bit, and I LOVED how Bryan went right back to that briefly worked over leg as they were in the ring together once again towards the end. When he has a target, he doesn't goddamn forget it. The exchanges between Bryan & Otis were pretty fantastic, and I also enjoyed the HOSS showdown between Otis & Rowan. Heavy Machinery, overall, looked really damn good w/ their explosive power moves & Otis' wacky gimmick shtick was pretty fun. The sequence where he gets FIRED UP as Bryan is kicking him RULED. So much to love here, and of course one of the best things about it was the finish. I'll never not love Bryan continuing being Mr. Small Package. Absolutely awesome match. ***3/4

Nobody brutalizes a limb more compellingly than Danielson & that truly shows here as he destroys Doi's arm in the most vicious & enjoyable fashion. That of course came as an answer to Doi's brief attack on Danielson's knee - Doi doesn't work over it a ton, but he does some stuff over it in the beginning, and it shows till the end as Danielson does some awesome subtle selling with it. Good examples of that would be him falling down, holding the knee after delivering a big move to Doi, and then a while later after he had delivered a yet another big move, he couldn't capitalize & cover because the knee was hurting, as he had to rest for a few seconds on the corner. He doesn't exactly sell it dramatically, and those two moments sound more dramatic when I write them than they actually were. I'd say it's really good selling, because like I mentioned, Doi's attack on the knee was pretty short lived, and he never really came back to it as the match went on. I also really loved the slugging-it-out portions of the thing, which were mostly all about Doi's quick slaps vs. Danielson's lethal kicks. Really good & hard hitting stuff w/ both guys bringing their own flair to the bits, making them standout from your usual generic indy/puro strike standoffs. Danielson was fantastic all the way through, but Doi was really good as well. He didn't do much with the arm that Dragon destroyed, and he was pretty great on the offense himself. There's definitely lots to love here as I've highlighted, and I also gotta mention the finishing stretch, which was absolutely awesome. The two nearfalls Danielson gets before Doi puts him away with the Muscular Bomb rule big time. Great match. ****

This is Eddie doing his Kings Road tribute shtick, and it's fucking awesome. His opponent captivates too in my first time watching him; Thomas Shire is a tall, lanky dude, who is apparently trained by Dory Funk Jr. He does a lot of sweet suplexes + uppercuts, sells well & overall puts on a pretty great fighting from underneath performance, as Eddie just keeps on brutalizing him in an EXTREMELY compelling fashion. Badass match. ****

This is a really great 2/3 falls match that builds fantastically. The meat of the match is PACO's attack on Eddie's leg, and Eddie's selling is absolutely terrific all the way through. ****

The match I am most excited for is KENTA vs. Okada. I have been thinking about it even before KENTA left the WWE - I think the first time it crossed my mind was when that tremendous G1 match between Okada & Marufuji happened. If this match follows somewhat of a similar dynamic, it could be absolutely fantastic. Really hoping that KENTA shows up, too. I loved his NXT heel run (tremendous matches vs. Aleister, Roddy, Roode, Oney, Ohno...), but his whole stint in 205 Live was super meh at best. There's LOTS of very intriguing looking matches. First time I've been legit excited about New Japan in quite a while.

Go is coming into the thing w/ a heavily taped up shoulder, so naturally Maru goes to town on it w/ some pretty vicious work, and he is acting cocky as hell all the way through, which made his onslaught even more compelling. Stuff like those little arrogant kicks to Go's head + pouring some drink at him was AWESOME. Maru is great at being a smug veteran systematically breaking down his opponent with a focused strategy. Go's selling was VERY surprising too - I certainly wasn't expecting to see one of the finest limb-selling performances of the year come from NOAH, but goddamn his selling was outstanding all the way through. The moment of him getting up on the corner w/ the help of the ropes, only for him to stop assisting himself with the other rope because it's killing his shoulder that Maru had been destroying, was so good. Might just be one of my favorite single match moments of the year. They kept the expected-in-NOAH soulless bomb throwing to the minimum, which I very much appreciated & was somewhat surprised at, but there still was a bit too many equally or maybe even more soulless strike no-sell exchanges that didn't interest me in the slightest. I guess that's what I'd say prevents this match from being GREAT rather than "just" a very, very good one. It's still indeed one hell of a match though - I don't watch much NOAH, but from the little amount of stuff that I've watched, this is my favorite match I've seen from them since Marufuji vs. Kiyomiya from January 2017. ***3/4

The beginning scene of Hansen rushing to brawl with Misawa during the introductions while the streamers are still flowing to the ring is pretty epic. Everything that follows is absolutely great, too - Hansen is looking to gain control right from the get go indeed, but Misawa finds ways to escape & lash out hard hitting and vicious offense of his own, which then forces Hansen to go & figure out a new strategy, and that he sure does by attacking Misawa's elbow arm. Hansen's work over the arm is brutal; he puts it in holds, he stands over it, he sends it to the post - all very compelling & violent Hansen-like stuff. Misawa has a real mountain to climb now, and I love how the first few comeback attempts he gets in, Hansen is there quickly to shut them off - it makes Misawa's eventual BIG comeback that much more amazing. That finishing elbow was absolutely sick, too. Great match. ****

I absolutely loved this & that is something I wasn't expecting to type out. Everything just clicked for me - loved how it was a bit different from your usual Okada big match formula w/ there not being a crazy finishing stretch or anything. Jericho dominated most of the thing, and I actually found pretty much all of his work on top very good & compelling; his beatdown of Okada was gritty, and he fantastically came off as the bitter, egoistic, cocky veteran that he is, punishing the young poster boy of the company. I also interpreted the STORY™ of the whole bout as Jericho slowly gassing out as he pulled out all the brakes to try and beat Okada, while Okada barely even left his first gear. That might be the case of me completely making shit up, but that's how I interpreted it anyway, and they told that story pretty fantastically throughout, all climaxing in the finish w/ Okada completely catching Jericho off-guard in vintage Bret Hart fashion. I personally LOVED it because I feel like the Rainmaker, as a finishing move, has been let kicked out of & been spammed a bit too much in the last 2-3 years. Also I am gonna forever defend that first Codebreaker by Jericho on the outside - it wasn't pretty, but my goodness it was the most vicious that move has ever looked performed by him. THIS WAS GREAT. ****

This suffers from the same thing that matches like Okada vs. Shibata & Danielson vs. McGuinness do where there's that one spot that's so filthy, disgusting & horrifying that you (or at least I) just feel dirty for praising the thing, but oh well. I thought this was great. Naito's long-lasting, storied relationship w/ the Osaka crowd ended up adding a ton to this, because he decided to act extra nasty & mean throughout due to the partly negative reaction he got. Stuff like him refusing to let go of a submission, him rapidly stomping Ibushi's neck, him spitting on the refs face, the cocky pins & him doing his usual poses w/ extra swagger & arrogance - all just really awesome stuff. Then these two crazy fucks did their "usual" by absolutely destroying each others necks in very brutal & compelling fashion. I couldn't help but love it, even if that apron German spot took me out of it for a minute. Please never do that again. This was scary & great. ****1/4

Didn't care for this one bit. Feel like a broken record in saying this, but it was your usual, dull, generic & soulless Will Ospreay big match bombfest. Of course there had to be a DRAMATICALLY-TURNS-AROUND-TO-SHOW-HE-LANDED-ON-HIS-FEET -spot too. At least the dive by Dragon Lee that took out both Ospreay & poor Milano was pretty awesome, but overall this was just bleh, meh bleh. *

As far as his punches & general offense go, I don't think Moxley looked THAT much better than he did as Dean Ambrose in his last few years in the WWE, but what I do think is that the match was A LOT more creative AND interesting than anything & everything he did there in the past few years. At first his forearms, knees & that suicide dive all looked pretty bad and super weak, but Juice Robinson sold his motherfucking ass off to make all of them look impactful, to say the least. Bless that man. Moxley's stuff thankfully got better looking as the match went on - he started putting more stank to them forearms once they started brawling in the crowd, and Juice continued to sell like a boss for him. I liked the brief legwork too w/ Mox working over it against the ringpost, and then slapping on a half crab & STF for good measure. It came more into play later on in the match when Juice sold the leg once he hit Mox with a gutbuster. Once again, bless that man. What a badass performance all around. Really liked the classic Bret Hart Figure-4 ringpost spot as well - definitely added to the leg psychology of the thing, and it's an awesome spot anyways. Another good leg psychology bit came in the finishing stretch as Juice was all fired up looking to deliver a big left hand to Mox, but Mox stops him by kicking him right into the worked over knee. Good stuff there & talking bout the finishing stretch, I absolutely LOVED the Dirty Deeds kickout. The way it was followed by a sick smile on Mox's face, which was then followed by him essentially '91ing the move was SO GREAT. Absolutely lovely stuff there, and all in all, I thought the match was pretty damn great. Positively unique for a big NJPW match. You couldn't have asked for a better guy to go against Jon Moxley in his first post-WWE match - Juice put on a tremendous performance, bumping & selling his ass off for everything Moxley did, including his shitty looking offense at the beginning + he sure delivered when it came time to kick some ass on the offense himself. Moxley, as mentioned, looked rough in the beginning, but once their fight got to the crowd, everything he did looked great & did so till the end. Definitely a pretty damn fantastic way to start his post-WWE career. ****

Jay White's attack on Tana's elbow & the arm as a whole is quite possibly the best heat segment he has worked in his young career so far. Very compelling & some neat stuff there like him putting the bad arm in a hammerlock before suplexing Tana + the shaking of Tana's hand & arm he did while in full control, mocking the shaking people/wrestlers do when trying to get feeling back into hurt bodyparts. Pretty terrific asshole move there. Things didn't remain as interesting when Tana got back into things, but it was still interesting & good enough to keep me hooked - I did like how some of the brief work on the leg came to play when Tana was trying to do something to White from a waistlock, but wasn't able to until White's briefly worked over knee buckled a bit, which gave Tana the opening to bust out a big straight jacket German Suplex. Definitely their best match against each other yet & a great showing by Switchblade. ***3/4