ShittyLittleBoots

I feel like I saw this exact same match at least 3 or more times in this damn tournament & I didn't even watch like half of the matches. It's the same old generic, dull & overly long bombfest stuff. I usually don't find it interesting in the slightest, and that certainly did not change here. I came away from it with absolutely nothing. *

A BIT better than the 2/3 match, but still awful. The positives are that I liked some of the knee & arm targeting by both guys; the kneework by Cole actually made the set-up for the Panama Sunrise logical & good for once during the finishing stretch, as Gargano sold it dramatically there. Also dug Cole's facecrusher to the knee from the Burning Hammer position. Now what I DIDN'T like was the fact that they had to have around 400 nearfalls once again, the shitty superkicks, the generic indy strike sequencez, especially that one with Cole spamming shitty bicycle kicks, no selling of shitty strikes, finisher stealing because STORYTELLINGZ~! - this kind of stuff just isn't for me. I wasn't expecting anything else from the two, but I watched it with an open mind regardless. *1/4

Such good shit, pal. Everybody went crazy & took hellacious beatings - especially O'Reilly who just got DESTROYED throughout. Thought the Ryker segment was really awesome too, with them milking it to the max, which made the eventual teaming up of Burch & Lorcan, Street Profits and The Undisputed Era feel very fulfilling. ***1/2

Their Stardom 2017 match is what made me a believer in both of them, so I was very much looking forward to this, and while it didn't quite reach the great heights of that Stardom bout, it was still a very good one. Shayna is awesome w/ her work over the arm, Io sells well & is great w/ her comebacks. Felt like the crowd & the match got hotter & hotter as it went on too - it helped the choke in the end feel sooo dramatic, in a very good way. ***1/2

A good & charming match-up. The Dream & Breeze had a fun chemistry; all the sequences flowed nicely with a neat feel of competition & swagger to 'em. ***

This was a BANGER, and how it could've not been that? Riddle & Strong compliment each other pretty perfectly with their in-ring styles meshing up wonderfully. Brutal, hard hitting, back breakin', explosive action from bell to bell w/ no dull moments whatsoever. Helluva way to open the show, and actually ended up being my favorite match of the night. ***3/4

The middle-section of the match drags quite a bit, but by the end, they had me 110% into it. They told a pretty damn great underdog tale of the veteran in Rocky Romero looking to get a big win in his first Korakuen singles main event, and El Phantasmo was a great dance partner, as he played the role of the overly arrogant asshole looking to spoil the party excellently. It's good stuff the whole way through, but things kick up to another level or two when the Red Shoes bumps happen - after that's it's pure Korakuen underdog magic & it just rules. The best match of the tournament up to this point. ***3/4

I feel like I've seen this match a thousand times before, so I wasn't very interested by it, and then I read that they went 25 minutes & that sure made me even more skeptical of the thing, BUT they had an absolutely awesome spotfest, for 25-damn-minutes indeed. Crazy scenes! Pure madness from start to finish with no downtime whatsoever. LOVED the nods to Steenerico & MCMG by the Bucks. Quality stuff & the fact that they had THIS kind of a match and made it compelling for nearly a half hour is a HUGE testament to their abilities. ***1/2

Almost on the level of their Tokyo Dome meeting. This was a fantastic all around performance by Omega; dude was sellin' n' bumpin' his ass off for Jericho, making all of Jericho's very forgettable offense look amazing in the process. That all wrapped up very nicely as he made Jericho's new finisher look like an absolute killshot. Of course Kenny himself is great on the offense, and I loved the table-stuff - some good callbacks to that Dome meeting of theirs, and overall it was a pretty creative use of the prop, I thought. Really good match & GREAT post-match. ***1/2

Dustin having a big singles match was easily my most awaited thing on the whole show, and he sure worked his magic here, to say the least. You just can't fake this kind of magic & emotion - everything felt organic & real. I already got a bit emotional when the brothers were staring each other down & the crowd was chanting their fathers name very loudly, but in the end, with the "I need my older brother" line, I MIGHT'VE shed a tear or two. Those bastards. Was certainly worth the wait to see them FINALLY get the big singles match between 'em - I remember back in like 2011 posting on other wrestling boards about wanting to see the match at Mania, and that continued for years, every Mania-season. Now it finally happened & it sure was something special. Everything from the atmosphere, to Dustin's all-time great babyface work, to Cody being an asshole, to the bladejob - which is one of the most disgustingly effective & awesome ones I've EVER seen, to the CODE RED, to the post-match. Pure magic. Pure damn magic. Rhodes Forever! ****1/2

They had the usual Seth Rollins workrate match w/ bombs, counters & nearfalls galore, but I'll give credit where it's due, as they made it look a lot more interesting than oh so many others. Rollins actually surprised me with how impactful & vicious he made his usually-shitty offense look - he definitely matched AJ in that department here, and that is something I wasn't expecting. I even really liked that inverted superplex -> falcon arrow spot that I always dislike when he does it normally. AJ of course brought it on the offense too & made all of Rollins' stuff look extra good w/ his legendary bumping & selling. So yeah, technically this match was pretty great indeed, but I just didn't care about its layout at all. Like I said, it was your usual Rollins workrate match, and matches of that & this kind just don't do it for me, unless I am truly invested in the participants or something, I guess. That is why I can't give it much love, but I acknowledge & appreciate the fact (in my eyes anyway) that they took a very dull match layout & made it look more interesting than it would've been in most other cases. **1/4

5-star photoshoot

Kofi Kingston defends the WWE Championship in a Wrestlemania rematch THE GOAT IS BACK. This was excellent. Not Mania level, but not many matches are. Kofi got a proper shine to start things off & it was very good. Eventually Bryan gets the control as Kofi crashes to the outside, and so starts the clinic of working the arm by the man; every kick he lashes out is targeted to that left arm, and I also loved how he threw Kofi arm first into the barricade. The way he countered Kofi's springboard attack attempt into the Danielson Special might've been the highlight of the match, too. Kofi sells the armwork very well throughout - loved him selling the damage during the "New Day Rocks" clapping-bit. The cherry on top of the cake is that the finishing stretch ruled as well; they kept it short, but also kept the sense of danger in the thing w/ both guys barely escaping their killshots in Busaiku & Trouble in Paradise, only for Kofi to bust it out again to get the win. Great stuff. ****

Explosive bombs & slugs being traded all the way through. It's good fun w/ great energy to it + an awesome atmosphere to boot. ***1/4

This was so goddamn great. Absolutely badass underdog story with Suwama completely dominating for the most part with his awesomely grumpy brutal veteran work. Nomura doesn't go down without a fight though, to say the least, and that sure annoyes ol' Suwama, who shows that brilliantly by slamming the mat angrily after Nomura has the NERVE to suplex him, and then later on when he gets a big nearfall. Those were some little touches that I LOOOOVED big time & added LOTS to the already-totally-great -match. I still haven't watched the finals, but I will be surprised if it tops this as the match of the tournament. ****

30 minutes of pure BEEF. Just two big boys busting out chops, lariats & other big, hard hitting bombs against one another. Really like how it slowed down in the last 10 minutes too - good selling of the fatigue from the past 20 mins. Good match. ***

There's some truly great stuff in this: the armwork by Gresham was very vicious & compelling, and Makabe's selling of it was very consistent & good. The way how they changed the control from Gresham to Makabe was uniquely outstanding w/ Makabe pointing out that Gresham had one of his shoes untied, looking to give him space to tie it back on, but then delivering a dropkick to his face. Great heel-move & as I said, an unique way to switch the control to him. Absolutely loved it. That's when the back of Gresham became the main target of Makabe's onslaught; it was gonna be armwork vs. backwork, and I loved the striking exchanges where that came into play, with instead of smashing each other in the face, Gresham goes for the arm & Makabe goes for the back. That's lots of greatness there, but there was one thing that bothered me more than it probably should've: Gresham's (lack of) selling. There's a point in the match where Makabe delivers a brutal Double Underhook Backbreaker to him, and then looks on to lock in the Cattle Mutilation, but Gresham gets out before it's fully locked in & busts out a big offense-flurry. He basically no sold the big backbreaker completely to get his shit in, and let me tell ya, that annoyed me to no end. It instantly reminded me of all the slack that ZSJ gets from people for his "bad selling", but here Gresham did exactly what ZSJ is often given shit for. It makes it all the more annoying that before in the match he was selling the back by not being able to lift Makabe for a German Suplex, but here he was doing flips, running full speed & no selling backbreakers full stop. That's why this match ended up falling short of it's full potential, which is disappointing & annoying because of how great the great stuff in it was. ***1/4

Loved this. Trevor plays through all of his PWG character arc greatest hits with the 1st half of the match feeling like the scrappy underdog that he was in his first few years there, but then he eventually switches back to the heel dickhead Trevor, trying to cheat his way into victory. Loved it all. Cobb delivered some nice, nasty smacks & throws throughout, as well. Also thought that the kickout-at-1 -moment was done very well, with Trevor just having gone to a full on fiery dive rampage before Cobb hit him w/ that Tour of the Islands he kicked out of. The post-match farewell speech was also terrific & emotional. I gotta wonder did Cobb's shoulder get legitimately fucked up in the match, because he sold it BIG throughout, and Trevor's work over it wasn't THAT focused or brutal. If it didn't get legit hurt, then I gotta applause his selling. All in all, an awesome bout & a wonderful PWG sendoff for Trevor Lee. ***3/4

Zack's attack on the neck was pretty solid, and I enjoyed how it came to play in the late stages of the match - in particular I really loved how he countered Ibushi's deadlift suplex attempt into a guillotine. Another standout moment was Ibushi catching Zack's leg, only for Zack to SLAP him, which lead to Ibushi calmly putting down Zack's leg and smacking him down. With that being said, I thought this wasn't nowhere near as good as their previous meetings though - just missing some of the energy & that competitive spark that they usually have. **3/4

This match is rock solid from start to finish, but the crowd being borderline dead didn't help it at all. And of course with it being a NOAH main event, it goes on for waaaaaay too long too & ends up dragging a lot by the end, but there's plenty of Marufuji-punishing-this-young-boy -goodness in it, so I thought it was pretty good overall. Loved how he still treated Kiyomiya as the same young lad he was in 2017, dominating him with his awesome veteran work, with great smug facial expressions to boot. Kiyomiya's selling was pretty good too, but I admittedly didn't care for his comebacks much at all. I came here to watch Marufuji be the cocky veteran, and there was plenty of that indeed, so while the match had it's issues (the crowd, the length), it was pretty enjoyable. **3/4

Barbaro makes quick work of Titan to get the first fall. Then in the 2nd fall, he delivers a vicious beatdown to Titan throughout, but Titan makes a wonderful comeback to even things out. The first two falls were already great, but then in the 3rd one, they go all out; Titan is a house of fire to start it off, and there's plenty of awesomely impactful & vicious looking dives. Barbaro in particular makes everything look nasty from suplexes to dropkicks to those aforementioned DIVES. His cutoffs of Titan's offense bursts were great. So was the match overall. ****

Regret not putting enough effort into taking a part of this. Was planning on making a list, but then I just got lazy with it & never got enough time to make a list I would be happy with. Definitely gonna vote next time though & I am looking forward to seeing how the list turns out to be.

WWE is coming to my country (Finland) for the first time since 2009 in about a month or so, and with this draft, I was extremely scared that Bryan would get drafted to RAW & wouldn't be coming to the show, but looks like I don't have to be scared about that anymore. Pretty gutted about Styles, Rey & Andrade switching brands though, when it comes to that. Would've loved to see them live.

Still holds up as one of the greatest Mania matches ever. It's just about PERFECT for what they went for; a motherfuckin' heavyweight bombfest sprint & a half. Great storytelling throughout too, with callbacks & I LOVE the moment in the beginning when Brock gets some over Goldberg, but gets a bit too excited about it, which then lead to Goldberg busting out SPEARS. 4:45 full of wonderful stuff. Every second of it counts & is amazing, pretty much. ****1/2