ShittyLittleBoots

Bad News Barrett defends the Intercontinental Championship in a seven man ladder match This is one of the best multi-man ladder/TLC/MITB you name it gimmick matches WWE has ever produced. It's 7 men smacking the crap out of each other w/ no downtime whatsoever. There's a real wild & chaotic feel to it that usually is missing from this kind of matches too. Not to mention it's length, which is perfect & doesn't let the thing drag at all, which is very unusual for matches like this. ****1/4

Regal goes after Ambrose's left arm right away, playing up to their first meeting & he is of course great at it. Love the "YOU BETTER TAKE IT HOME WITH YA! " yell by Ambrose as Regal gives him a real cocky nod & smile after doing some brief work over that arm. Then as they go to the outside, Ambrose irish whips Regal into the post, and they sell that big time as Regal being out of it. He does the glassy-eyed "he doesn't know where is" -selling & Ambrose continues to beat him up. It's a solid angle to end the match with - Regal sells it masterfully & Ambrose showcases good urgency + character work of vengeance & low-key desperation. Regal exploding from the trainers arms to forearm Ambrose one last time before the ref ends the match in a stoppage no-contest was awesome. It didn't reach the incredible heights of their first meeting, because of the whole stoppage angle being half the match, but it was still great nonetheless. Great continuity of the arm psychology from their first match, both guys brought the goods on the offense & Regal's selling was really great. ****

Terrific storytelling/psychology w/ Daniel Bryan being the better & smarter 'wrestler' of the two with his strategies throughout & Reigns answering with his brute strength & pure passion. Always been kind of an underappreciated classic, and I still stand by that. ****1/2

These two going for 35 minutes doesn't sound very appealing on paper, but it really is a tremendous match. Rollins gets a very good shine to start things off, but he is stopped by Ambrose giving him the first fall via DQ, as he low blows him. Classic Iron Man heel strategies there, and I always love that kind of stuff. From then on, it's mostly Ambrose on top w/ some real good work with his holds & punches, being a very good cocky slimy heel. Once Rollins rolls him up to make it 2-2, that's when the intensity gets upped & the last 10 minutes are just some really good, finishing stretch wrestling w/ a really great sense of urgency to it. Great nearfalls & the overtime is an awesome, dramatic climax to the thing. ****

Gran Metalik & Humberto Carrillo had a very good little movez match a few months back in 205.

I actually had to watch this two times back to back right away, because of how great it was. It's no secret that Daniel Bryan is my favorite wrestler & I truly think that he is the greatest to ever do it - I sure have seen A LOT of his matches, and I feel pretty confident in saying that this easily was one of his greatest performances, maybe even THE greatest. Man, I have loved the whole story they have been telling with Bryan's heel run & Kofi catching that lightning in bottle w/ his crowd reactions - I loved that "...and you should be (scared), because you know what comes next!" line from their contract signing, and the hype video played that line up perfectly. Another thing that stuck to me as the bell rang was the look on Bryan's face - he had a smug, cocky smile on his face, as the whole crowd chants for Kofi. It's the exact same situation that was going in the beginning of Bryan vs. HHH from WM30, but now with Bryan as the bad guy. Just a cool little touch I thought. The match starts & Kofi gets a very good shine to start it off - Bryan does some nice work on the mat & tries to punish him, but Kofi has all the momentum in the world so he is on fire. THEN he hits the announce table, ribs first as he tries to do a diving attack to Bryan on the outside. That's when Bryan's punishment segment starts, and it's just oh so wonderful; he is LASER FOCUSED on attacking that mid-section that Kofi just hurt w/ the dive - he goes to it with kicks, knees, holds, you name it. The whole Bryan control segment is just unbelievably amazing, and the little teases of a Kofi rally are awesome - loved the elbows he delivered w/ the crowd chanting YES with each one of them. Bryan cutting off those comeback attempts is of course awesome as well, and one of the highlights of the entire match was him countering Kofi's double stomp attempt into a Boston Crab. He put that hold in DEEP & Kofi sold his ass off in it. Continuing the fantastic mid-section psychology, I really loved that during the yay-boo striking exchange, Bryan won it by going after the stomach w/ a flurry of punches. A yet ANOTHER amazing mid-section psychology moment was him delivering some elbows to Kofi's ribs to keep the LeBell Lock locked in. So simple, but so terrific! Another thing that was outstanding about Bryan's performance was his facial expressions & playing of the crowd - that sarcastic YES chant as he was getting ready to hit the knee was amazing, and his facial expressions during the final LeBell Lock were astonishingly good; first he is cocky as shit, with a real bastard smile on his face, but then as Kofi refuses to die, it goes to desperation real quickly. It could've been really cheesy done by some other top wrestlers of top promotions (shout out to Gargano & Omega ), but Bryan is a master of facial selling, he knows exactly how much he should emote to sell the thing & he never goes too far with it to make it embarrassing - in my eyes anyways. Overall, what can I even say? This was a masterful display of professional wrestling by the greatest who has ever done it. I don't want to say it was a carryjob, as Kofi definitely brought the goods & his whole story + connection with the fans added a TON, but this really was Daniel Bryan's masterpiece through & through. Everything from his facial expressions, selling, perfect timing of the cutoffs, to his vicious attack on the mid-section -- EVERYTHING he did was just about perfect. One of the greatest single match performances ever anywhere by anyone. It's gonna be real hard to top it as the MOTY, but I don't want to say it's impossible, because you never know what the goddamn GOAT has planned in his back pocket. *****

This was really good. Might even be the best Shane McMahon singles match ever. Shane's heat segment that started off the match was awesome - loved the cat & mouse game that he played, which lead into that said heat segment, and as he keeps on punching Miz with those ridiculous strikes of his, he comes off as such a massive dickhead. The showdown between him & Miz's dad was a perfect segue into Miz's comeback; Miz came back into the thing with a house of fire, and the match quickly spills outside, playing awesomely into the Falls Count Anywhere gimmick. Loved the whole finishing stretch which was just Miz kicking Shane's ass all over the place, until they found their way into that structure where Miz suplex'd Shane from. Loved the finish as well - thought it was pretty much perfect given the character Shane portrayed in the match & in the lead up. AWESOME match. As I said, probably the best Shane 1-on-1 contest ever. ***1/2

The Usos (Jimmy & Jey) defend the WWE Smackdown Tag Team titles in a Fatal Four Way This was very fun! They got about 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes they had a very good get-your-shit-in bout w/ everybody getting time to shine. The highlight was the Cesaro vs. Ricochet exchanges; Cesaro is such an incredible base for Ricochet's incredible athletic flippy stuff. ***1/2

Nese is so dull.

A super generic 50/50 indy workrate tag match. Not interesting in the slightest, and went on for way too long too. *

This was very frustrating. There obviously were plenty of solid bits with them brutalizing each other, but overall I wasn't a fan of how it went; I really don't want to see WALTER wrestle these 50/50 overly long generic NXT "epics". I kind of understand it, as Dunne is a big star & has been a very dominant champion for a looong time, so they didn't want his reign end "unceremoniously", but something like WALTER vs. Devlin part 1 would've been much preferred. This was just bleh. **

A very forgettable multi-person match - some solid stuff with Kairi & Io teaming + briefly going against one another, but overall there just wasn't much to the thing. Io & Kairi playing BASEBALL was fun & the double Psycho Driver by Belair was awesome though. **

BY FAR the best thing on the show. Two awesome wrestlers & personalities clashing - loved the storytelling with Riddle straight up destroying Dream for majority of the match, but Dream used his small openings to the maximum & in the end caught Riddle by a surprise, as he countered Bromission into a pin. Terrific performances by both; Riddle with his killer work on the offense & Dream with his strong selling & really good hope spots. Loved pretty much everything bell-to-bell, but the moment that made me pop the biggest was Riddle no-selling Dream's German Suplex hope spot. Dream should've been watching his indy tapes, because if he did, he would've known that them Germans don't work on Riddle, BRO. ****

The first fall was literally... nothing? Like absolutely nothing of note happened there, and honestly, the same could be said about the 2nd fall. Then in the final fall they go all out & have an epic w/ million nearfalls & Gargano looking like a superman, surviving everything Cole had to offer & more w/ Kyle, Fish & Roddy interfering. It was pretty ridiculous how many nearfalls they did w/ Gargano kicking out of literally everything Cole had in store. The Fairytale Ending on the announcer table by Cole to Gargano was a perfect example of the forced storytelling I've come to expect from big Gargano matches these days, too. OH WELL. At least the post-match w/ Gargano celebrating with his family, Candice, the crowd & Ciampa was legitimately pretty touching, but this wasn't a good match at all. One of the most hollow feeling TakeOver matches I can recall. *

There were some points of the match where I lost interest for a while, but the highs of it were so high it couldn't be anything less than great overall. The smacktalking between them, Suzuki's slowly-turns-his-head-to-the-camera-side-to-reveal-his-sadistic-smile -moment & the last 10 minutes or so were absolutely amazing. ****

A legit dream match that delivered. Great back & forth grappling throughout, with lots of little things to love, as I've come to expect by both guys. The slugfest portions of the thing rule big time too, and I especially loved Hideki's disrespectful little stomps & kicks. ****

MOTHERFUCKER WAS THIS GOOD. Excellent matwork, and then as Takeda gets cut open, the thing explodes & it's like a beast woke up after some light sparring. What a goddamn finishing sequence. ****

This really is one of the best matches there have ever been. Lesnar, bloody face & all, selling the stun & shock perfectly receiving those Superman Punches by Reigns is one of my favorite things EVER - Brock's selling in it is just otherworldly, and the blood added a lot to it. Everything else in the match is amazing too - Brock's beatdown is terrific, one of his best ones, Reigns sells his ass off & I love the smiles & smacktalking he gives to Lesnar throughout, as he is getting the shit smacked out of him. Lesnar's storytelling with his facial expressions is absolutely tremendous - at first he is liking that Reigns isn't going down easily, but as he kicks out of the 2nd F5? That's when Brock goes "alright, I've had enough of this shit" - then the gloves are off (AWESOME moment) & he smacks Reigns some more, and shortly after gives him a third F5. Reigns kicks out, then Brock takes him outside w/ plans on punishing him more, but Reigns shoves him to the post, which leads to that Superman Punch sequence that I mentioned, and it's just ahhhh so good. In the past viewings of the match, I've always thought that Rollins' cash-in takes something away from it, and who knows, this could've been even better without it, but it definitely is one of the best gimmick endings to a 1-on-1 match ever. Up there w/ the first HIAC. *****

Bryan winning the title is my favorite wrestling moment of all-time, so of course I love this, but the match, even without the moment is really tremendous, too. Bryan is of course amazing with his magical babyface work, but Orton really brings it as well, with a great big match performance. Love the usual viciousness between those two - Batista is clearly the weakest performer, but he doesn't get to do anything boring, because there's always Orton & especially Bryan ruling things. Love the HHH, Steph & that CROOK Armstrong invading bit, only for them to get their asses kicked by Bryan, and I do love the stretcher job as well. Was really well done, and then there's the finish which is just perfect w/ Batista tapping out. ****1/2

The beginning stuff is awesome w/ HBK starting it off with a SLAP, which then angered Angle, so he did some aggressive grappling to show HBK that this ain't where you wanna play at. I also really enjoyed HBK's headlock control, but shortly after that gets done, the match loses me & doesn't get me again until the finishing stretch, with HBK delivering that great Superkick out of nowhere, as Angle was yelling at him. The Ankle Lock drama, for the most part, is really good too, but it definitely did go a bit too long in my eyes. So to sum it up; I think the beginning is great, I think the ending is really good, but the middle (which goes the longest of all the 3 parts) is very shallow & boring, which is what brings this match down a lot. **1/2

The emotion in this is amazing & creates a really great atmosphere to the thing, and the actual match is very good, too. Michaels worked his ass off, took some brutal bumps & made Flair look great with his big time selling for him. Flair got to play most of his greatest hits, and I absolutely loved his killer instinct moment when he went to town on HBK's leg, to soften him up for the Figure-4, just right after he had barely survived one. A beautiful one last WrestleMania ride for one of the greatest to ever do it. ***3/4

LOVED the beginning grappling - there's a real charming, competitive feel to it, which is to be expected from these two. Loved Angle's mid-section targeting too - he's really vicious with it, with plenty of slams, strikes & amazing holds to damage it. Brock's selling is really good throughout as well + all of his comebacks are explosive & awesome. I do think the match drags at some points of the match though, and overall it feels longer than the official 21-min runtime of it, but it is a damn good one overall. ***3/4

Always been one of my favorite matches, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Everything from the legendary pre-match Monster video, to the entrances that show the differences in the two characters perfectly, to the actual match. The atmosphere is magical with the crowd reacting huge to everything Bryan did, thus making all of his comebacks even more amazing than they already are. Bryan's babyface performance is incredible - he took some absolutely BRUTAL bumps, and I loved him busting out some of his old ROH stuff, like that big dive he did to Triple H outside the ring. Might just be the best performance of HHH's career too - his armwork was focused & vicious as hell; the announce table spot was brutal, and the crossfaces + that Tiger Suplex were so awesome. Not only that, but his character work throughout was great too w/ his facial expressions. Gotta mention Steph as well - she was really great talking shit to Bryan the whole way through. Added quite a bit to the bout. It's all about as compelling as wrestling gets for me. Simply put, when I think about my favorite WWE matches of all-time, nothing comes to my mind faster than Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, WrestleMania 30. *****

The 14 year old me watching this live about 4 in the morning thought it was just about the GOAT, but now 7 years later, it's not so good. Or good at all, in fact. Slow brawling with long-ass chair beatdowns + overly dramatic acting by HBK. I am finding it hard to come up with anything I liked about it; I guess at least Taker’s punches looked good, and the post-match with him getting up, and not having to be helped out was a good payoff to WM27, but yeah, this wasn’t my type of wrestling at all. *

I've always love the staredown that starts the match off; it's intense, and you can feel something special is about to go down. It's one helluva brawl & bombfest - Rock was awesome with his heel work bell to bell, and Austin sure went out with a very strong performance. Superb atmosphere & energy too, but that goes without saying as it's Austin vs. Rock. A very fitting finale to their rivalry & the in-ring career of Stone Cold Steve Austin. ****