ShittyLittleBoots

Filler destruction of the leg since it, of course, got no sold, and then just generic New Japan main event style big move counter wrestling. Nawt good. *1/4

Ishii vs. Sabre Jr. is one of the best pairings in all of pro-wrestling, and here they delivered yet another outstanding match. Zack's control over Ishii was brutal as usual; he focused on the arm(s), and Ishii's selling was simply fantastic. LOVED Ishii's countering of the things by going after the leg of Zack, too - such an unique twist, and something I certainly wasn't expecting out of the Stone Pitbull. The way Rocky Romero & Kevin Kelly built up the "Ishii might pass out, but he will NEVER tap out!" -issue was terrific as well, and really added to the finish when ZSJ locked in one of his most brutal looking submissions ever. ****1/4

My goodness this RULED. Fale's arm work was awesome, EVIL's overall babyface work was TREMENDOUS & the whole big LIJ vs. OGBC run-in deal was executed perfectly. MOTN. ***3/4

They brought a good amount of hate to this one, haven't seen Hernandez in action in ages, but he looked absolutely fantastic w/ his power moves & brawling, Homicide of course always rules in a setting like this & the new LAX really impressed me; they were great dishing out a beating on the OG's & they were maybe even better at taking a beating from them. Very good stuff. ***3/4

A great, violent spectacle between two wrestlers who excel at having those. Great intensity & sense of hatred, especially by Callihan, and the image of him kicking out of the Package Piledriver with a bloodied face, spit dripping down, was just amazing. ****

A pretty damn unique main event world championship match; very rarely you see such a match in that spot w/ this kind of a sprint pace & energy from start to finish. Aries was excellent with his overall performance from his bumping, to his hard hitting chops, to his sneaky veteran tactics & Moose was, well, Moose. Solid with his power game - he played his part well, but this truly was the Austin Aries show all the way through. ****1/4

A pretty damn great performance by SANADA, and a very enjoyable match overall. Some unfortunate no-selling of the leg work by Ibushi, but that wasn't the focal point of the match for very long, so it didn't take away too much from it. Good, competitive back & forth stuff. ***1/4

Such a lovely time, this match was. One of my favorite things about it was seeing how much of a blast everyone involved was having - Ibushi seemed the most excited he's been in a while about a match, the crowd was loving every moment & even the cameramen were smiling from ear to ear. Fantastic mix of genuinely amusing comedy & serious storytelling w/ Yano giving Ibushi real trouble w/ his new found motivation in displaying his amateur wrestling skills + his classic shenanigans. ****

Super smooth & exciting back and forth technical wrestling all the way through. I prefer their New Japan Cup match just a bit more, but this was an absolutely awesome sequel. SANADA & Zack Sabre Jr. have a great chemistry with each other, and their matches feel pretty unique in today's New Japan. ****

3 new 5-star matches by Big Dave in the latest Observer: Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito (G1 Climax) Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto (G1 Climax) and.... Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong vs. Trent Seven & Tyler Bate from NXT. That's pretty cool, certainly didn't imagine that would be the kind of match that Dave goes super high on.

Absolutely fantastic. Most of the match is ZSJ just torturing Yano, but Yano keeps on escaping, and gets a few absolutely TREMENDOUS, best of the year -level, nearfalls in. Couldn't have asked for a better match between the 2. ****1/4

Movez & nearfalls. *1/4

This was outstanding. Simple psychology with Rusev targeting AJ's mid-section to try wear him down & soften him up for the Accolade. AJ answers by going after the leg of Rusev. The selling by both men is simply fantastic, in particular Rusev put on an absolute clinic in that regard. Absolutely LOVED the moment where he had to keep his leg down while having AJ in the Accolade. One of the best WWE matches of the year. ****1/4

Bludgeon Brothers are so goddamn boring on control. Here's to hoping that this doesn't lead to a Kane vs. Bryan singles feud, because that finish sure seemed like it set it up..

Definitely feels like The Miz will be Bryan's partner, if they do the Kane injury angle.

This was very fun. Yano being more serious & not cheating brought a good dynamic to the match; he was busting out arm drags like his last name was Steamboat or something. The finish was absolutely awesome w/ YTR actually giving Ishii real trouble during their strike exchange, which lead to Ishii having to basically "Toru Yano" Toru Yano himself. Good stuff. ***

The beginning stages of the match with them trying to outswagger each other by cockily doing each other's taunts was glorious. Soon after Kenny starts targeting Naito's back; it doesn't continue for too long, but I enjoyed it a lot. Actually after he was done targeting Naito's back, the match kinda "lost" me, and it took me a while to REALLY get into it again, but I sure did eventually. Very exciting & brutal finishing gear. ***3/4

Very uninteresting match layout - just a bunch of counters, and back & forth control swifts. It can work, but I didn't find this one compelling at all. One cool sequence towards the end w/ SANADA locking in the Skull End for a brief moment, but other than that, yeah, not interesting whatsoever. *1/4

Their best match against each other yet. I thought Zack's control work on the ground was incredibly compelling, and once it came down to exchange some strikes, they sure smacked the crap out of each other with those slaps & kicks. ****

Started off very nice w/ Elgin overwhelming EVIL, good shine for the man. Eventually EVIL got the control by going after Elgin's arm; I really liked EVIL's control segment after that. As soon as it was time for Elgin to make a comeback, he didn't sell the arm at all. Was hitting lariats & all just fine. Thankfully when EVIL got the control back to his name, he still went after the arm - his work over it was pretty brutal & a true joy to watch. Helluva performance from him, and Elgin was very good too outside of the no-selling. Good match, but had potential to be even better. ***1/4

This had a couple of cool singular moments, such as Okada's SCOOBY DOOBY DOO -dive, his 90's HBK headlock break -spot, White almost suffocating Okada with the ring skirt, White's slaps to Okada's head before locking in the Muta Lock, but overall this was very bland. Most of it is White on top, and while he just recently had a tremendous performance doing that vs. Juice - here he was very, very dull. There really isn't anything to complain about; the selling was fine, the dynamic they went with was fine on paper, but the way it came off just wasn't very interesting. **

One slight complaint I have about this is that I thought Tana went a little too no-selly w/ his comeback that lead to his victory, but his run on the offense wasn't very long, so it didn't take too much away from the match. Overall I liked this even more than their excellent Sapporo title match from January; major key in that was the length - with this only going about 14 minutes, there wasn't any filler. It's that G1 magic, baby. Suzuki was absolutely amazing w/ his work over the knee of Tana, which continued the story of that previous match of theirs perfectly into this one. His strikes were also lovely, that slap exchange where Tana slapped MiSu a couple of times, and MiSu slapped Tana about 320 times was just so great. Tana's big comeback that I already talked about a bit was really good too - that Dragon Screw was BRUTAL. And MiSu sure sold it like DEATH. Great match. ****1/4

Just before the finish, Bate went in & broke Roddy's knee submission, which lead to the ref telling him to not do that very aggressively. I thought the finish seemed very silly on paper, but I also thought it worked in the context. EDIT: didn't notice Mike pointing out the exact same thing above me, shouldn't scroll rasslin forums when tired as hell

Right from the get go the dueling roars of "MOUSTACHE MOUNTAIN!" & "UNDISPUTED!" were really cool, really fit into the beginning of the match with them going at it right away, brawling all over the place. Then the big moment of the match happens; Roddy drops Seven knee first onto the steel steps. Kyle & Roddy torture the crap out of him, working over that knee in BRUTAL fashion; in particular Kyle was absolutely amazing during the heat segment. The heat segment overall is up there with the absolute greatest of 'em; incredibly compelling stuff. Tyler's eventual hot tag was goddamn superb, too - they milked it just enough & once he got the tag, and started busting out his signature big moves, I was marking out big time. He ran wild on Roddy & Kyle for a while - loved Roddy's brief cut-off's during that, especially that backbreaker one. Trent's one final stand was brilliant, with him swinging lariats & chops, as well as he could with a destroyed knee, but the Undisputed lads got the control by going after that knee once again, very quickly. Tyler coming in one last time to break Roddy's murderous looking knee submission, only for the ref to tell him to stop doing that or he's gonna get his team DQ'd was excellently executed, I thought. After that's it's all bum-knee-getting-destroyed-to-shits -drama, and incredibly compelling at that w/ Kyle torturing Trent with that Heel Hook. Brilliant drama, brilliant psychology, brilliant structure & brilliant performances from all involved. A tag team classic. As of now it's my pick for the tag team & WWE MOTY. ****3/4

Damn this match has a cool atmosphere w/ it happening outdoors & the rain pouring down relentlessly. Most of the match goes to Suzuki, who is pretty much always a joy to watch work on top, and this time he didn't work the leg of Okada for him to no sell it, so Okada's selling was just fine throughout. As were his comebacks. It's certainly not the epic they had at G1 27, but it's a really good match w/ a very unique setting, to say the least. ***3/4