ShittyLittleBoots

I think Bucks had at least 10 times better year than The Usos did, at least in ring quality wise. Always been a fan of The Usos & they delivered some bangers last year (that SummerSlam tag vs. New Day was so great), but for every great match that The Usos had, The Bucks had 10 more. Can't deny the promo work by The Usos though, they were KILLING it. Thatcher & WALTER were the best tag team of 2017 anyways

Cesaro is probably gonna win Most Underrated again, which I think is pretty ridiculous given that he was on TV & had lengthy matches pretty much every week from his return in April till the end of the Observer year.

Young Momo Watanabe delivers a breakout performance in her first real big singles main event match while Io Shirai delivers a super selfless, amazing ace performance. Loved Momo starting the match w/ that fire, going right away at Io - that stunned her for a bit, but pretty shortly she got the control with a very violent, lovely looking dropkick. Io's control segment in general was very violent & I loved it - she sure brought IT to her stablemate. After a while Momo gains the control, and from that moment on, she pretty much dominates Io - she busts out bomb after bomb after bomb, Io's selling is outstanding & her comeback in the end is really great. Great match. ****1/4

Kalisto does his lucha things while Roddy goes after his back in violent fashion. Wonderful stuff. ****

This was garbage. A long, long, looooooong piece of garbage. Out of the 40 minutes it went, only about 30 secs or so were any interesting - those being when Cena entered full of charisma & swagger, being cocky as shit & getting right to Rollins' face. But yeah, overall a contender for the worst Elimination Chamber match of all-time & so far the worst match I've seen in 2018.

After 3 awful matches in a row (Starr/Yehi, Janela/Webster, Guevara/Fenix), this sure was needed. Keith Lee & ZSJ had 2 absolutely great matches last year in EVOLVE, so I knew they would deliver here as well. And they sure did - they delivered a great match that's on par w/ the 2 EVOLVE matches I mentioned. The storytelling was very strong in this one - Zack kept baiting Keith into exchanges, Keith always answered to those & because of that Zack got some openings he took advantage of right away. Loved his targeting of Keith's leg, Keith's selling was very good & I loved how as Zack was beating the crap out of that leg, he completely dropped the usually-very-much-in-a-good-mood shtick of his. Great David vs. Goliath wrestling. Keith Lee vs. Zack Sabre Jr. is a great pairing. ****

Quite possibly the best performance in Nia's young career so far - she delivered a great monster-on-top performance while Asuka was a terrific underdog with lethal offense of her own. Probably my MOTN. It's very close between it & the women's chamber match. ***3/4

Awesome match. Really liked Absolution's double team stuff against Bayley; especially Sonya Deville looked very good w/ her offense. She threw some very nice looking knees & kicks. Sasha came in w/ a house of fire - she looked very good as usual & I thought they told a good story of her keeping Mandy & Sonya as far as from each other as she could, so she could get one of them out of the match completely. Once Bayley has got some power back, she does exactly that; they did a very good job w/ Mandy's elimination, pushing it to be because of her lack of experience. Mickie looked really good for the short time she was in the match - everything she did looked very good & came in with a nice energetic vibe to them. Sasha turning on Bayley in the final 3 stages of the match was superb & their interactions against each other were FANTASTIC. Quite the chemistry between the 2, eh. The final 2 battle between Sasha & Alexa was great too, nice, but not overdone drama in it - it was kept just in the perfect length. Much like at the Rumble, the women delivered in their first-ever gimmick showing. Really good stuff all around! ***3/4

A super simply, but very well structured tag bout. The story was all about The Bar working like such a solid unit, keeping Apollo from tagging to Titus for most of it. Cesaro & Sheamus did a good job working over the man & Apollo's selling was good. Titus' hot tag was very good - the Clash of the Titus nearfall was awesome. They even got the crowd into the match when they hit that finishing stretch, which was great to hear because they weren't making any noise for the 4 men involved in the early stages. Very good match. ***1/2

THE LOVERS ARE BACK, BABY. This was just pure fireworks from START to FINISH; one of those matches where when it ended I went "man, pro wrestling's the goddamn best". Korakuen was ROCKING, Omega & Ibushi are absolutely wonderful together, the character work by all involved was great (especially by Cody who was on FIRE) & the all around storytelling combined with the atmosphere was just amazing. Lovely, lovely, lovely stuff. ****1/2

WALTER has his new t-shirt on that says "WALTER KILLS". Very fitting, because that was the story of the match. WALTER chops the soul out of Davis who tries his hardest to survive & throws some really good hope spots. A fantastic underdog tale with a hellacious monster performance by WALTER & a really good underdog fighting from underneath performance by Davis. ****1/4

Bate tried to match ZSJ's ground game & for a while he did get some good stuff going there, but eventually it became clear that he was getting outclassed by the best technical wrestler in the world; Zack had a counter for EVERYTHING Bate tried to do. After that it's "the usual" ZSJ torture show & as always, it's a joy to watch. Bate did a great job being the FIP; his facial expressions & selling were very good. Bate starts to wrestle with more urgency as he abandons the initial ground plan he had going, he starts to go with his high impact power moves & those sure are a lot more successful against Zack than the ground game he tried to get going. Very good storytelling. Great match. ****

A very good FIP segment w/ Thatcher to start things off; Thatcher sells it tremendously (no surprise there) & the work by Bros was good - especially by Riddle who's offense came off as super violent. Loved it. WALTER's hot tag was great, he came in & chopped the crap out of Cobb & Riddle. Now that lead to a FIP segment w/ Cobb & that was outstanding! Cobb sold his ass off & Ringkampf's work over him was terrific - they brutalized Cobb in such compelling fashion. Once Cobb finally got to make the hot tag to Riddle, Riddle came in with a house of fire~! & beat the crap out of Thatcher & WALTER for a while - that was until Ringkampf cut off his hot tag in amazing, strategic fashion. The finishing stretch sees them dominate Riddle for a while until Cobb sneaks back in after he had been resting for a while - The Chosen Bros deliver a couple of amazingly brutal looking double team moves to finish off an outstanding tag match. The selling of Cobb, the brutal offense of WALTER, Thatcher & Riddle, the fire of Riddle & the teamwork of Ringkampf make for an amazing package of tag team wrestling. ****1/4

This was a fantastic, intense battle between these two. They beat the crap out of each other w/ some truly great looking offense by both (especially Riddle) while telling a really good story of Riddle having the advantage for most of it & Starr getting more & more back into things as it went on. Between this & their CZW match from last year, I think it's safe to say that David Starr & Matt Riddle have quite great chemistry with each other. ****

Loved the first match of the thing - Rollins & Reigns delivered what I think is their best singles meeting yet. Very good back & forth that lead to Reigns working on top & Rollins fighting from underneath. Then it's time for Cena vs. Rollins, and oh man was that amazing. I did not like any of their 2015 matches, but goddamn they killed it here. Reminded me of Cena's Rumble '17 match vs. Styles a bit - loved his little trashtalk throughout the match to Rollins, who was fighting from underneath in brilliant fashion; LOVED his selling. He showed good fire & that finishing stretch was superb. ... Aaand then Elias comes out & the match dies. Super meh segment w/ him & Rollins, which then leads to the most boring segment of the match between Elias & Bálor. It's shit & so is the rest of the match. Really no idea how I'd rate it overall, but if these were stand alone singles matches, Rollins vs. Reigns would be ***3/4 & Rollins vs. Cena would be ****1/4.

So many good looking matches... Man I love the WM Weekend! Thatcher's wrestling Munenori Sawa, Daisuke Sekimoto, Nick Gage & Toni Storm. What a wacky, awesome line up!

Started off with a really good control segment by Dunne - loved all the arm work he did throughout the match & Roddy's selling of it was good. Once they're on the outside Roddy gets back into things by dumping Dunne back first to the steel steps, and after that, the match essentially becomes a bombfest - a great one at that. ****

This RULED big time. Nese got lots of time to shine w/ his high impact, fast paced offense - he looked very good overall, but goddamn, is Drew Gulak amazing or what?! What a terrific performance from the man! His facial expressions were superb & all of his offense, my goodness. So gritty w/ those strikes & limb targeting. Right from his first offensive move of the match I knew he was gonna own the thing - he really cranked on that Chinlock. It was absolutely lovely. The ending with him completely destroying Nese by throwing him right to the announce table, followed by throwing him back to the ring to finish him off with a nasty looking Lariat, a couple of Powerbombs & that wonderful Dragon Sleeper was WONDERFUL. Great, great stuff! ****

Loved this. Sasha's character work in her matches in the past few weeks has been super enjoyable to watch & it was exactly that here, as well. She was very heelish w/ her cockiness & general attitude towards Bayley. Loved her going after her taped up shoulder too, that added some very nice psychology to the match & I loved Sasha's facial expressions during the attack towards it. Bayley's selling was very good. The crowd response was amazing as well w/ them actually booing Sasha at times, responding to the story they were telling w/ her character! Very good stuff. ***3/4

I LOVE Danielson vs. Fish, but I find it so hilarious that it made reddit's list It's especially amazing when you consider all the more hyped classic Danielson indy matches that didn't make the cut. Good stuff.

A very good, borderline great match. Jonathan Gresham was AWESOME on his attack towards Lethal's arm - he targeted it at every turn he could, including a very simple, yet creative spot where he escaped the usual 2nd rope powerbomb spot by beating the crap out of Lethal's arm. Very neat stuff there. Lethal answered to Gresham's vicious onslaught by going after his knee - and that is where the one negative thing about this came into the play; Gresham's selling of the knee was very spotty. Everything else he did in the match to perfection, but man I wish he had sold the knee more. Lethal sold the arm in superb fashion & if Gresham had done so too, this easily could've reached the ****+ heights. ***3/4

Very good back & forth to start things off - both guys establish their styles from early on. Eventually Makabe hits B-Boy w/ a very nice looking corner dropkick, which hurt B-Boy's hand, which resulted in Makabe attacking that hand & arm in vicious fashion for rest of the match. He busts out some terrific armbars + stretches & stomps the crap out of it. B-Boy sells it wonderfully. Great match. ****

This started off in awesome, big boy explosive fashion. After a couple of minutes though, it all went downhill. The match started to drag & drag & drag - it felt like the definition of a match going too long just because it has the company's main title involved. The 20 minutes felt like 50. No sense of urgency whatsoever. It's a shame too, because Big Joe & Zeus could've had an AWESOME bombfest sprint, I am sure of that. Oh well. *

A brutal masterpiece between the two members of the best tag team in wrestling right now. Great feeling out process to start things off; the mat work & the way they battled over the control felt so natural & looked pretty gritty, which I obviously loved. Quickly after it's the WALTER show; he just mauls the shit out of Thatcher - I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again: Thatcher is quite possibly the best FIP in the biz, so of course it was a joy watching him sell his ass off for the brutal beatdown he received. He eventually gets the control by doing the classic "chopper-chops-the-ringpost" -bit, and after that it's Thatcher on the attack, super focused targeting that chopping hand of WALTER's. WALTER sells great & Thatcher rules on the attack - loved how the dynamic flipped from WALTER being the absolute grizzly bear just MAULING Thatcher to then being hurt & fighting like it shows; the hunter became the hunted, so to say. The last third of the match is more 50/50, with them fighting with a great sense of urgency - the way it escalates to the eventual finish is amazing. Ringkampf lads delivering a true classic against each other. Bless. Die Matte ist Heilig. ****3/4