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ShittyLittleBoots

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  1. ShittyLittleBoots
    These two got me sucked into their story leading up to January 4th, 2019, so I've been itching to go back to this match, their first meeting, and well, let's bring on the new year w/ it. I actually didn't like this match AT ALL when it happened, but I hadn't re-watched it since, so I was pretty curious to see how I feel about it now, almost 3 years later. And my opinion on it couldn't be more different than it was then - right now I think this is one of the best NJPW main events of this current era. It starts pretty slow, and the highlight of the beginning stuff was Kenny telling Cody Hall & Yujiro to go away because the smart marks aren't fans of interruptions in their New Japan main events. I thought that was legitimately pretty funny - these days Kenny's star rating obsessed gimmick shtick is just tired & annoying, but it fit his goofy villain character here so well. Shortly after that, the match REALLY gets going; Tana goes for a couple of Nakamura signature moves on the corner, but Kenny counters that by going after Tana's right arm. Now, Kenny Omega doesn't come off as a natural "limb-working wrestler", but he actually is really goddamn great at it here; loved the Danielson elbows to the shoulder & I actually don't know what is it's official name, but the bending-your-back-on-top-of-your-opponents-arm -thing that Nigel McGuinness used to do, was so awesome. Kenny playing air guitar w/ the Naito entrance mask on was another awesome thing during his control segment. Of course Tana eventually rallies a comeback in by going after Omega's leg, to counter the arm work. Kenny sells the big Dragon Screw brilliantly, and that brilliant leg selling of his continued throughout the rest of the match. FANTASTIC moment when after Tana did the HFF on him on the outside, Kenny tries to enter the ring, but then Tana gets a hold of his leg, Kenny starts fighting immediately, trying to get out of it by repeatedly striking Tana; DA ACE masterfully milks that to the maximum, and then delivers that signature roar of his & busts out another big, fantastic Dragon Screw. And talking about great moments, Omega busting out the Styles Clash was yet another one - not only was he mocking AJ Styles, the man he betrayed a month earlier, but also Tana, who also uses Styles Clash as a signature move. Two birds, one stone. The last third is straight outta attitude era w/ all the run-in's; I wasn't too into the Bullet Club ones, but overall it fit the character/gimmick so it's OK. Didn't take too much away from the bout. Big Mike coming in & just carrying both Jacksons out was badass though. Overall this was an excellent, classic match - Omega truly delivered a match & performance to remember in his first major one as a New Japan heavyweight & Tana added yet another great big match performance to his resume w/ his terrific work fighting from underneath. Here's to hoping they come out w/ another banger at the Dome! ****1/2
  2. ShittyLittleBoots
    It's like their 04/10 match, but this time there's no interference endings & they get to tell their story fully. It's two masters of the graps doing the dueling limb work thang w/ excellent selling & excellent work on the offense by both. Exactly my kind of rasslin. Tells something about them when the whole crowd is going nuts from start to finish, and there's ZERO finisher nearfalls. ****1/2
  3. ShittyLittleBoots
    What puts this over the top as a classic is the whole Jordan Devlin character arc that the company had built. The Irish Ace hadn't been pinned for 22 months till he met WALTER in a tag match, and here w/ the whole crowd by his side, he was looking to avenge the only true pinfall defeat of his current run. It's too bad that the man he was facing was & is the ultimate monster boss of indy wrestling, and he sure delivers a beating to Devlin, all the while all of the crowd is booing the crap out of him. It's a terrific dynamic & WALTER's work on top is of course tremendous, and they timed all of Devlin's comebacks perfectly, not giving him too much, but also not making him look like a complete loser. He just ran into a man who is on that other level. The finish was absolutely perfect too - there's no fancy, shitty, generic finishing run w/ 10000 counters & dramatic nearfalls, it's just WALTER first choking Devlin out & then dumping him on his head, 123, new champ. Perfect ending for the story they told. ****1/2
  4. ShittyLittleBoots
    There are a couple of issues I have with this match; I think they went quite overboard w/ the nearfalls by the end & the whole restart deal was very silly, BUT that just says how great the thing was otherwise since I still loved the crap out of it overall. Ospreay bumps like a madman & delivers hard hitting & highflying comebacks as WALTER gives him a classic WALTER-style mauling with some really awesome heelish touches added to it, given his relationship w/ the OTT crowd. ****1/4
  5. ShittyLittleBoots
    ^ This ended up being my top-20 after re-watching a shitload of stuff in the past few weeks.
  6. ShittyLittleBoots
    This is just too good. My favorite thing about it was the performance of the one Dynamic T - after the Kawada vs. Misawa exchange that ends with both of them laying on the ground, Kawada making the tag & then Taue coming in & just stepping on Misawa's face has to be the actual GOAT moment, right? His overall role in this, as kind of Kawada's big brother is just phenomenal; Kawada loses most of the exchanges vs. Misawa, but then Taue is always around the corner, ready to help his tag partner get the job done. The ending with him being like "yeah, you go son" & patting Kawada on the back after he pinned Misawa sealed the deal as this being an all-timer performance by the man. *****
  7. ShittyLittleBoots
    Loved the mental games throughout, and the match kicks into a high gear that never goes away once Ibushi counters Nakamura's Boma Ye attempt w/ a high kick. After that it's just fireworks. ****3/4
  8. ShittyLittleBoots
    There are not many, if any, matches where Misawa's elbows have looked as good as they did here. Absolutely tremendous in his comebacks, and Taue's brutal strategy working over his face was terrific. One of my all-time favorite matches. *****
  9. ShittyLittleBoots
    Dangerous K, man. Another legendary performance by him in yet another classic tag bout featuring these four men. Absolutely love how calm, cool & collected he comes off as; such a killer vibe, and fits into the thing perfectly w/ the Misawa Triple Crown match looming on the near horizon. Kobashi as the FIP is of course amazing, and the knee destruction of his by Taue & Kawada is terrific. Kawada's body language cannot be praised enough during that, but little did he know that if he was gonna be a prick, Kobashi was gonna answer right back - the dropkick to Kawada's bum knee was such a terrific moment. Misawa's hot tag was also terrific; ELBOW SUICIDA~! - also loved how Kobashi continued the kneework on Kawada outside the ring during it. Then after a while of Misawa running wild on Kawada, Taue coming in & being a nasty bastard, just throwing Misawa around like nothing was one of my favorite things about the whole match - also that spot was brilliant where he has Misawa set up for the chokeslam, only for Kobashi to come in & break it up, which then lead to Taue making him pay for that by kicking him right on the back of the knee that he & Kawada had been working on all match. So much amazing stuff in this match! Perfectly paced & structured, and superb performances from all 4 involved. *****
  10. ShittyLittleBoots
    This flows beautifully from start to finish, the storytelling is great, Bret's selling is superb & both guys', especially Owen's character work is top notch. ****1/4
  11. ShittyLittleBoots
    Kobashi is a really, really great FIP; love how he got out of the situation too by going after Kawada's bum knee - that first kick to the knee popped me (& the crowd) big time. Misawa coming in & elbowing the crap out of Kawada was awesome & then Taue coming in and just throwing Misawa & Kobashi around was even more awesome, but what truly puts this over the top as a true classic is the story of that damn knee of Kawada's - he sells it perfectly throughout, and it creates for some great, great drama. Basically everyone played their roles to perfection, but Kawada was on that one level above the rest w/ his all-timer performance. Classic tag match. *****
  12. ShittyLittleBoots
    This is probably my favorite of the 6-man tags these fellas had against each other throughout the years. All of the segments in this one rule big time (Misawa FIP, Kawada FIP, Taue getting his ass kicked by the babyfaces, finishing stretch) & the heels vs. babyfaces dynamic is pretty damn amazing. All three heels deliver great performances, but Jumbo in particular is the biggest dick he can in this one - just constantly coming in & breaking holds by the babyfaces, stomping & beating the crap out of them. Might be my favorite performance of his. Kawada was also terrific w/ his usual Kawada-badassery - great selling & work on the offense by the man. Loved the moment when he went to double team Taue on the corner first w/ Kobashi & then w/ Misawa as the ref was arguing with Jumbo & Fuchi; he made the dicks taste their own medicine. ****3/4
  13. ShittyLittleBoots
    One of the best crowds of all-time - seriously that shot of Kikuchi hitting a couple of leg lariats & the crowd jumping up from their seats is legendary. There isn't much to say about this one that hasn't been said yet, but it's indeed one of those matches where everything just CLICKED w/ Kikuchi's amazing underdog performance, the fans being crazy for him, Kobashi's explosive kick-heavy hot tags & the nasty work on top by The Can-Am's. One of the best crowds of all-time, one of the best matches of all-time. *****
  14. ShittyLittleBoots
    The action is good for the first 15 minutes with them trying to one-up each other, but it certainly isn't great. It isn't until Jumbo goes "well, fuck this shit" & starts delivering a grumpy badass beating to Misawa that the match truly picks up. After that it's 10 minutes of explosive, high energy action w/ a very good sense of urgency. Shame that the build up to Jumbo exploding wasn't as great as I remembered. ***1/2
  15. ShittyLittleBoots
    These boys done did it again, another classic between 'em. Amazing, brutal as hell work over the ribs of AJ by Bryan & AJ's selling is of course terrific. AJ returns the favor by doing brutal work over Bryan's leg & oh my goodness I loved how over the half crab got. Shows what kind of masters these two are when they got that feeling as a legitimate finish in the match. Bryan's selling was superb too, that Calf Crusher looked & felt so vicious, because of that + AJ really cranked it back violently. Also I HAVE TILL 5 & the knees to the head in the cravate before suplexing AJ = GOAT. And I absolutely loved the finish - always great seeing Mr. Small Package pop up once in a while. ****1/2
  16. ShittyLittleBoots
    Mostly dominated by Bryan as Ali fights from underneath. It was the dynamic that was to be expected, and it was a dynamic that worked greatly with the 2. Loved Bryan's work over Ali, in particular the leg destruction towards the end was really awesome & Ali's comebacks were terrific; the first one w/ him delivering 2 superkicks was oh so good - even the superkick back to the head, which usually looks like crap when delivered by most of other wrestlers (hello Marufuji) looked like an absolute shotgun shot or something. Very good stuff even w/ the commercials killing the thing's flow at times a bit. More of these two against each other please. ***1/2
  17. ShittyLittleBoots
    I haven't seen their much hyped Beyond stuff, but this was exactly what it promised to be. A match filled with some very nice, slick mat work w/ sneaky counters, nice intensity & some really good strikes thrown in there as well. ***1/2
  18. ShittyLittleBoots
    Now THIS was the shit. Terrific pace right from the start & they kept it till the end - very good sprint bombfest action w/ a nice little story of power & athleticism going in it. ***3/4
  19. ShittyLittleBoots
    It's rare for a match to make me go "wow, this is actually goddamn BRUTAL", but Taichi's work over Ospreay's injured ribs did exactly that. He was RUTHLESS going after the injury - those shots at the guardrail made me cringe. Vicious stuff. And Ospreay's selling & overall work, fighting from underneath, was him pretty much the best I personally like him. Excellent match. ****
  20. ShittyLittleBoots
    I haven't watched a Matt Riddle match since the OTT one vs. Ospreay - he has picked up some annoying indy tendencies in the last 1.5 years or so & that was a match that highlighted that, but here he was 100% THE Matt Riddle that instantly became one of my favorites in 2016. He's on his way out of the independents, but before that he wanted to make sure that Darby Allin will never forget his name - he gave Darby a vicious beating, that only got more & more brutal as Darby kept on surviving. There's nobody in wrestling who takes a beating like Darby, so Matt Riddle in his most vicious form vs. him is an instant hit. ****
  21. ShittyLittleBoots
    First things first; this did not come close to their NOC '10 classic, and they had a better match few months back at a house show in Newcastle, but it definitely still was one helluva bout. Great storytelling with both guys' characters inside the ring; Miz wanted to prove that he can hang with Bryan's rasslin', and Bryan had an answer & a way out of basically everything the man did, which of course then played into the finish perfectly with Miz having to cheat to get the W. The IT Kick hulk up & the slaps that followed were beautiful. MOTN. ***3/4
  22. ShittyLittleBoots
    A very good match w/ a simple, yet super effective dynamic. Shayna is an awesome bully, twisting Kairi's ankles, toes & everything in brutal fashion, while Kairi brings great emotion & fire with his babyface work. Nowhere near their MYC tournament finals classic, but a very good match nonetheless. ***1/2
  23. ShittyLittleBoots
    The weakest of their trilogy, but still very good. Felt like somewhat of a blend of their previous 2 matches w/ some psychology over the knee of Bate, and then the red hot sequences, with everyone, in particular Bate, going crazy. Somewhat awkward in it's pacing at some moments, but that didn't eat away too much from the quality. Roddy & Kyle as the sleazy, yet vicious heels is just a blessing. MOTN. ***1/2
  24. ShittyLittleBoots
    I really wasn't feeling this one until the sequence where Ibushi went to that murder-death-kill -mode, and Tana showed great fire, while Ibushi was absolutely baffled by it. After that the match was just very good, bombfest-y action. On par with their IC Title match from 2017. ***3/4
  25. ShittyLittleBoots
    Ishii awakened the absolute KILLER that Ibushi can be when he is pushed to that limit. An absolutely ridiculous smackfest, with goddamn PUNCHES TO THE THROAT. ****
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