ShittyLittleBoots

OH HELL YEAH. This had me marking out all over the place - a goddamn WAR between two grumpy veterans in Akiyama & Suwama. Had a super wild feel to it w/ the chaotic brawling & the super nasty strikes - BRUTAL stuff. And while it was wild & chaotic, it wasn't completely just that, as both guys had gameplans too; destroy the neck of your opponent. My goodness. What a damned match; a wild ass war w/ some real strategy in it. ****1/2

Loved this. It did get a bit too generic w/ the 50/50 stuff towards the end, but everything before that was pretty damn great. Suwama's targeting of Zeus' knee was fantastic & Zeus' selling was absolutely awesome. They told the story of Suwama weakening that knee of Zeus to the point where after he had been working it for a while, he was "free" to just lariat the crap out of him & throw him around. Really good stuff. ***3/4

Other than Kento's shitty selling of the leg, this was very fun. Shingo was absolutely awesome on the offense & that leg targeting of his was great. The no selling by Kento did hurt the match a bit though - if he had sold it, this easily could've reached the great ****+ levels. Still a good one though. ***1/4

Holy shiiiiit this was amazing. Drew Gulak is absolutely fantastic. Breaking down the segments, Mustafa Ali vs. TJP I thought TJP was absolutely awesome in this. Just super compelling with his work over Ali w/ those great looking submissions. Everything he did was super focused & all around just a lovely on-the-offense, surgeon like, laser focused performance by the man. That leg targeting in the last third or so of the match set up the next one very well, too. Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak Gulak coming out with a big smile on his face, asking Ali “YOU OK?”, “ARE YOU HURTING?” = amazing stuff. The leg targeting by TJP set this one up perfectly; Gulak knows Ali got a weak spot now & my goodness, is he gonna attack it or what. Fantastic, brutal work by Gulak & Ali’s selling was pretty damn good as well. Gulak’s facial expressions & trash talk were awesome too - “YOU LIKE HIGHFLYING, HUH?” followed by him putting Ali on the top rope, followed by a slap & then going back to twisting the leg on the ropes. Great, great stuff. Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese Nese beats the SHIT out of Gulak for all of it, but in the end he gets caught in the Dragon Sleeper, because he was taking too much time thinking about his revenge. Gulak sure took a goddamn beating & it was incredibly awesome. Drew Gulak vs. Kalisto The weakest of the 4 matches/segments within the whole thing, but still really good. Gulak was amazing with the offense he got - those strikes he delivered to Kalisto while he was on the back mount were superb. Incredibly compelling 40 minutes of wrestling. Flew by as if it was 15 minutes. All segments delivered big time. Gulak's the man! ****1/2

Watched this 2 times back-to-back, and MY GOD. First of all, both guys looked pretty banged up & tired from the weekend at this point. It didn't affect their performances whatsoever, but I think it actually added to the match. The match starts with a little feeling out process, where WALTER establishes that he is the stronger of the 2 (as usual). He overpowers Zack in every position they're in, but eventually Zack bridges up while WALTER is on top of him. That gives Zack some confidence, he is like "YEAH, AREN'T I THE SHIT, MOTHERFUCKER?" & as they get up, he SLAPS WALTER. A friendly competition gone wrong; WALTER then is like "why you did that, man?" & starts chopping the crap out of Zack. Zack always bumps for WALTER's chops like they are shotgun blasts & it's a joy to watch. I freaking LOVED him being all dizzy & stunned by WALTER's chop on the outside, but still taunting & slapping WALTER, asking the "big boy" to give him more of those. After a while of Zack pissing WALTER off more & more w/ giving him the finger & slapping him in the face + receiving those chops in the process, he manages to catch WALTER's hand on one of the chop attempts, which leads to ZSJ attacking that arm, the way ZSJ usually attacks the arm. And it's fantastic. There is a moment in the ring where WALTER chops Zack w/ the arm Zack had been working on - Zack sells it fantastically, but he also has this cheeky smile on his face, knowing that WALTER must be hurting like hell from that. Another fantastic moment was ZSJ once again pissing WALTER off & firing him up by slapping him in the face a couple of times, which lead to WALTER chopping the crap out of him again & throwing him out of the ring; as WALTER was coming outside the ring to continue the beatdown, Zack sneaks back into the ring, gives him the finger, paces around him while going "come on big boy" with a complete dickhead smile on his face. Unbelievably great. After that the match essentially kicks into it's finishing gear w/ some superb counters, Zack still going after that arm by kicking it a few times & busting out the Octopus + another FANTASTIC moment when Zack goes for the cocky pin w/ one foot on WALTER's chest. MY GOD! WALTER's again like "you goddamn kidding me?" w/ his facial reaction to it. He gives Zack an absolute deathstare all the while Zack is once again smiling like the biggest dickhead in the world. WHY IS THIS MATCH SO GOOD. After that it's them slugging it out w/ WALTER on top - he mouths something to Zack, almost like giving him a chance to still be respectful about the warfare they're currently in, and Zack's answer to that? He shoulder/chest bumps WALTER w/ a cocky look on his face & then SLAPS him once again. That of course leads to WALTER killing him with chops, but Zack still gets one last SLAP + a nice European Clutch nearfall in before WALTER chokes him out. PHENOMENAL psychology. Amazing match. ****1/2

Ringkampf had a great weekend w/ great matches against the legendary teams of The Briscoes & Rottweilers - and it all culminated here. Going against Jurn Simmons & David Starr, a man who WALTER had been developing quite the rivalry against. This was just a big time tournament finals epic w/ a bunch of big moves, great team work by both teams & just like you would expect a big tournament final to have, this did have quite a few of those sweet nearfalls, but I think they earned all of them by how great the meat of the match was & how the suspense & drama built & built. Reminded me of a classic 90's All Japan tag in that regard. It's comfortably, imo, the 2nd best tag match of 2017 behind LDRS vs. Best Friends from PWG. ****3/4

This has always been one of my favorite EVOLVE matches. It's just Danielson & Sawa smacking the crap out of each other with some fantastic grappling in there as well - and it all comes with a beautiful sense of urgency & struggle. ****1/2

Daichi did absolutely nothing for me when he was on the offense, but Hideki's performance was absolutely masterful & carried the match to greatness. His selling of Daichi's offense was fabulous & the way he targeted Daichi's neck was so awesome - laser focused & super compelling to watch. ****

Love all the guys you mentioned. Also really been digging Jonathan Gresham's stuff lately - he had a couple of matches vs. Jay Lethal in ROH recently that were very, very good. He also has a match vs. Timothy Thatcher from 2015 that's absolutely amazing.

Flash Morgan Webster with that amazing babyface performance! Travis Banks looking & feeling very fresh w/ that heel turn! I love it. The beginning set the pace of the match - I love me a good Superman Punch spot, and the one Travis delivered to Webster after they shook hands was GREAT. After that it's mostly Travis on top while Flash makes some awesome, fiery comebacks; one fella said that Webster's performance was very Daniel Bryan -like, and I can agree with that. He was absolutely rocking my world with those brief comebacks he got - LOVED those suicide dives he hit. Travis was really damn good working on top too, with that smug look on his face the whole time. Excellent match w/ an excellent dynamic. ****

Well this was quite something. Let's get to the negatives first - most of the offense that Da Mack & Dieter Jr. hit doesn't look very good & the match drags a bit by the end. The positives though, are far bigger than the negatives; the emotion in the match is perfect & Jr. rocks the color in amazing fashion as he bleeds A LOT throughout the thing. Walter & Dreissker are absolutely amazing in it too, just bulldozing through Hot & Spicy w/ their monstrous offense - ADJ's FIP segment was unbelievably great. Like I mentioned, he rocks the color fantastically & he takes such a terrific beating from the big lads. Amazing stuff. ****1/4

WALTER has said that he feels like his chemistry with ZSJ works so well because all of their matches feel like FIGHTS. I think none of their matches against each other showcase that better than this one, right here. It's a classic David vs. Goliath FIGHT w/ ZSJ being absolutely excellent as the scrappy underdog, fighting with his heart to try & beat the Goliath - and WALTER is of course absolutely tremendous in his role, just bullying ZSJ around, striking him down & throwing him around. It's a wXw classic. ****1/2

This was beautifully structured & built; started off w/ the Lucha lads attacking Tozawa & Hideo right away, stunning them. They run wild on them for a while, until Tozawa & Hideo get back into things and isolate Dorado completely from Metalik. Dorado's FIP segment is wonderful; the work by Hideo & Tozawa over him was fantastic - this was my first time watching the Tozawa & Hideo tag, and I loved the contrast between them; Hideo is still the nasty heel, demanding respect & ripping Dorado's mask, while Tozawa is Tozawa. It's pretty great. Metalik coming in with that big dive OUT OF NOWHERE was awesome & the whole finishing stretch with them going balls to the walls was terrific as well. Fantastic stuff. ****

First of all, I know Rusev's been getting a lot of love in recent months w/ the whole Rusev Day shtick, but goddamn this was the first time I realized just how over he/it is. Dueling chants vs. AJ STYLES & the "Rusev Day!" -chants might've even won that exchange. The match itself is a very traditional & basic in it's structure - shine for the babyfaces to start it off, Bryan looked great in it; loved those jabs he unleashed on English in the corner. After a while of AJ getting to run through the heels, we go to the commercials & as we return it's a FIP segment w/ him. AJ's of course a wonderful FIP; great selling from the man, and I loved how he did those hot tag teases before he was cut off. Really good stuff. Also not surprised to say that Bryan's hot tag was really great. As I mentioned it's really basic TV tag match in it's structure, but it's a really good one. ***1/2

A very good match up between 3 all-time greats. They all showed fatigue from wrestling their way to the tournament finals - I am not sure if it was planned or not, but I thought AJ's struggle to hit the Styles Clash on Joe in the closing stretch was really great. Great strikes, submissions, dives & overall just all 3 shine when it's their turn to get their shit in. ***1/2

The match follows the classic structure of heel working on top & the babyface making comebacks, and ultimately getting the win of course. The disappointing part is that Ted Jr. wasn't very compelling at all working the heat; his control periods were just extremely basic stuff, and he showed no charisma or swagger in any of his "stuff". Bryan was wonderful as always, bringing the energy up big time every time he chained them comeback bursts together, making this a good, easy-to-watch match overall for sure. It's not like DiBiase was straight-up BAD, but he just offered nothing of note to the table. Easily the weakest PPV singles match that Bryan had in his 2010 WWE run. ***

Well, the ones that I like the least are (with my personal starz in there as well): Okada/Omega II (**1/2) Kobashi/Williams 08/31/93 (**1/2) Toyota/Hokuto 09/02/95 (*1/2) Toyota/Yamada 08/15/92 (*) Kong/Toyota 06/27/95 (*) Gargano/Ciampa (*) Elgin/Naito (*) Davey/Elgin (DUD)

Watched this for the first time in a while to get myself even more hyped for the upcoming, inevitable Bryan vs. Miz feud. And it still bangs big time - it's one of the absolute best matches of 2010 & easily THE BEST match of Miz's career. It's beautifully structured & they told the story of their feud, the 2 characters of Daniel Bryan & The Miz perfectly in it. It starts off w/ Bryan getting time to shine; The Miz is overwhelmed by this & it takes a while for him to get anything going - once he gets something going, via a little help from going to the ropes, he starts targeting Bryan's arm in vicious fashion. Miz's arm work is super focused; almost everything he did was to damage that arm. I think it's arguably the best in-ring performance of his career. To go alongside Miz's great work on the arm, Bryan's selling is pretty much flawless & his comebacks rule - absolutely loved the ending struggle in the LeBell Lock. Also that Nigel McGuinness lariat spot! Hell yeah! Amazing match - will be very interesting to see if they can equal/top it in the future. ****1/2

This was already fantastic on the first time watching it, but on the 2nd watch it became a classic. Right from the get go as they lock up, this becomes something special. Their lock up has a real intensity to it that I haven't seen in the WWE in AGES. Real fantastic back & forth after that - after a bit of that, Bryan gets the control by starting to target AJ's arm. His work over the arm of AJ is brutal; now I am a someone who loves ZSJ - I think he's the most consistent wrestler in the world when it comes to putting on ***1/2+ matches, BUT comparing his usual arm work to that of Bryan's here? The difference in brutality is huge. Just something that came to my mind while watching this - the focus & the brutality of Bryan's attack towards the arm is amazing. AJ of course sells it like the champ that he is. A couple of great momentum swifts when AJ gets his brief, but big, comeback in w/ that beautiful, also violent Dropkick, followed by another beautiful & also violent Springboard attack to the outside. Back in the ring Bryan gets the control back to his hands, though. Bryan is now fired up after AJ got to unleash some offense on him - he runs wild on him for a while, but AJ gets that amazing Dragon Screw counter to the YES Kick sequence. After that, Bryan's leg becomes the main target of AJ's attack; it's Bryan softening his arm for the YES Lock & AJ softening his leg for the Calf Killer. Bryan's selling is fantastic. That AJ striking combination rush countered into the Danielson Special = beautiful stuff. Loved Bryan's escape counter to the Calf Killer too, and goddamn it was great seeing him do that classic sell of his, of the Lariat once again. Another great sequence in the finishing stretch w/ the Busaiku Knee attempt -> Styles Clash attempt -> YES Lock. The counters in that sequence weren't "beautiful", but they were goddamn gritty. Just as they should be. Real struggle in a pro wrestling ring, in display there. Such a great, great match. Exactly how I like my rasslin; full of physicality (w/ some great selling), urgency & struggle. It's amazing how big of a difference there is between AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan & the rest of the wrestlers in the world, basically. There's lots of wrestlers that I love like Matt Riddle, Trevor Lee, Zack Sabre Jr, WALTER, Sami Zayn, Roman Reigns etc, but honestly they just aren't on the same league as these 2. Two of the best ever. ****1/2

A thing of beauty. Just a fantastic back & forth contest w/ a real feel of struggle & urgency to it. Bryan's arm targeting was an absolute joy to watch - as was AJ's leg targeting. And the best thing about this match is that it's just a little preview of what these 2, the best in the goddamn world, are capable of together. ****

What a massive disappointment. It started off nice w/ some good, physical back & forth action between the 2, but then it just fell off. The structure wasn't clicking with me at all, the pacing was awful, match dragged like a mofo & there was no heat in it. Nakamura's post-match heel turn was awesome though; loved him talking trash in Japanese, very badass. ** & I feel like I am being generous.

Other than some of the vintage MARTY THE VILLAIN WOOP WOOP SHTICK~!, this was absolutely awesome. Dalton is so good - his selling in this match was fantastic. Marty was, for the most part, very good too; his work on the arm of Castle was very enjoyable - he did bust out some of that annoying shtick of his that I mentioned, which is what keeps this from being a ****+ classic ROH Title Match. Even if it wasn't, I am still absolutely amazed that Dalton Castle & Marty Scurll had a match that went over 30 MINUTES & it was so, so good. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though because Dalton was coming off of that classic match vs. Lethal & Scurll's been having some great performances in the last few ROH PPV's. Really good match. ***3/4

This ruled. The atmosphere was amazing & Cody was on absolute fire - EASILY the better performer in this match. His performance was terrific; great facial expressions, awesome storytelling w/ his overall body language, loved him talking shit to the crowd & spitting beer at them, that Shattered Dreams tease was AWESOME, his work on top in general ruled.. So much good stuff! I thought Kenny's performance fighting from underneath was very dull, but Cody looked like an absolute star. Nothing funnier in wrestling right now than people "mocking" him for being a "3-Star Savior" or whatever, because 3-3.75 matches fucking RULE. This was one like that. Real good stuff, would've been even better had Kenny brought it like Cody did. ***3/4

I actually almost skipped this, because of the participants not being very interesting & it getting some bad reviews, but DAMN I am glad I didn't do that. What a helluva match; very physical as a LMS match should be, Silas' work over Kenny was great & King did some very good selling of the back while putting on an overall damn good babyface performance. Wonderfully positive surprising, awesome match! ***3/4

AJ/Nakamura II from this same card. I got their first match at 4.5 and I gave last night's one 2 stars.