ShittyLittleBoots

Their 3rd meeting was their best match yet. WALTER & Riddle just beat the absolute shit out of each other while telling a great David vs. Goliath story at the same time. Fantastic stuff. ****1/2

This was fantastic. Thatcher was brilliant chopping down Dijak w/ his focused attack on his arm - Dijak sold that super well & his comeback flurries were really great. ****

These two have an excellent chemistry with each other. Their first match was an awesome, dramatic title match - this one, the re-match, was much different from that one. Right from the get go it was established that this one was all business right from the get go as Roddy shoved Roode down when he was talking that trash. This really felt like a sprint because of how focused both guys were when they targeted the backs of each other & because of the pace; they wrestled it with such intensity, energy & focus that the 15+ minutes just flew by. No dull moments or wasted motions whatsoever. Both guys also did some real good selling. Really cool callback to their title match w/ Roddy breaking the nearfall by getting his foot on the rope. The finish with Roddy blowing a little farewell kiss to Roode before sending him to main roster w/ the End of Heartache was a very nice touch as well. Great match. ****1/4

Zack's work over Lethal is brutal all the way through the match. In the early stages Lethal tries to match his mat game, but then he realizes that you shouldn't try that with ZSJ, so he is in big trouble until he starts busting out those high impact comeback flurries of his. ZSJ was great as always with his work on top & Lethal was great fighting from underneath. Great stuff. ****

Well this was absolutely outstanding. Really good FIP segment w/ Xavier getting the heat worked on him by The Usos, great hot tag by Big E & then the match is just full of drama, twists, big moves & counters. Great, great stuff. Would've been the 2nd best match on the main card. ****1/4

****3/4

Oh man it feels so good to see Ambrose & Rollins tag again. They are so much better together than as singles guys. This started off pretty slow, but once Cesaro went & got + destroyed that beach ball from the crowd, things got heated & very interesting. From that point on, the match was pretty damn amazing w/ The Bar doing great work over Rollins & Ambrose being a fantastic hot tag. The finishing stretch was also really damn good. Great match. ****

I thought this told a great story of the pure power of McIntyre going against the in ring smart tactics of Roode. Roode worked that neck throughout the whole thing & McIntyre just overpowered him with his high impact moves. Great match. ****

This was absolutely phenomenal. Both women killed it - Asuka showed great cocky character work & Ember showed great fire & intensity. Asuka's arm work to that previously injured arm of Ember's was amazing, absolutely brutal & focused. Ember's selling was great & her comebacks were super great - those 2 big nearfalls w/ the Eclipse & the Superkick were outstanding. The finish was perfect w/ Asuka getting frustrated & desperate as Ember was overwhelming her & her cheating attempts didn't go through - but then Ember makes one mistake & she gets to lock that Asuka Lock. Fantastic stuff. ****1/2

First of all I will admit that I was super disappointed when this match was announced because I really wanted them to do Ohno vs. Itami on a big stage like this. I am very happy of how this match turned out to be though, as it was absolutely amazing. Loved just everything about it - Hideo showcased great character work right from the get go as he got into Aleister's face when he was still making his entrance. That continued from there till finish; Hideo's performance was really damn great. Loved the start of the match with them going right at it, exchanging those hard hitting strikes - that eventually lead to a pretty lengthy heat segment w/ Hideo working over Aleister & I absolutely loved that as well. Hideo was so, so great during this. Aleister also did a great job selling - the blood added to it & his facial expressions were really good. The finish was also really awesome w/ Aleister only surviving because he hit that Black Mass kick - he got his ass kicked by Hideo, but he had enough power to hit that ultimate death finisher. Really well structured w/ fantastic performances by both men, especially Hideo who continues to be one of my favorite wrestlers to watch in 2017. ****1/2

Very good match & a perfect way to kick off this show. Crisp back & forth w/ Almas doing very nice work over Gargano & Gargano playing a good babyface. ***1/2

Wow, this absolutely ruled! Very hard hitting w/ Wolfe & EY playing wonderful babyfaces against the dominating heel monster work of Akam & Rezar. I thought Wolfe & EY did an absolutely fantastic job playing their part - they sold their asses off & all of their offensive work was great. ***3/4

Thought that this started off well & only got better & better as it went on. The last 10 minutes or so were absolutely amazing with the emotion & drama being through the roof. Excellent match. ****1/4

BIG MATCH TREV does it again. Not a surprise. This was just an excellent match that had some really great storytelling - at first Trevor wasn't really taking Andrews seriously, just toying with him & talking smack, but then Andrews starts targeting Trevor's leg like a man possessed & suddenly Trevor is the underdog now. He sells Andrews' onslaught excellently & makes some tremendous comebacks. Brilliant stuff. ****1/2

Badass underdog story which came in the form of a hard hitting, brutal war of a brawl. Muertes was absolutely awesome just destroying Crane & Crane was tremendous as the underdog doing everything he can to put Muertes down. ****1/4

This was just incredible. An absolute spectacle - what prevents it from being a stone cold 5* classic is that the first third or so were really super dull, didn't do anything to me, but once Naito had Kenny on the corner, only for Kenny to drop him face first into the turnbuckle - that's when things got AMAZING. Terrific, brutal work over the neck by both guys, super dramatic counters & real big match atmosphere. An epic. ****3/4

This was just as much fun as it looked on paper. Really great action from start to finish - great stuff like Hot Sauce sneaking in at times to try & get that victory, Riddle going toe-to-toe with the big lads & of course the exchanges between Lee & WALTER. Those chops were SICK. ****1/2

It is true it went 7 minutes. It didn't need to be any longer.

FINALLY. As expected, the G1 30-min time limit rule brought out the best in these two. Right from the get go this had a different vibe than their previous 2 matches - they started it by trading slugs right away, you could see right from the start that Kenny's main target was that banged up neck of Okada, and oh boy, it sure was. Omega's work over that neck was incredibly focused & on point, basically every time he did something it was to do more damage to that neck. Okada sold it wonderfully - the moment where he fails to do his signature kip up because of the damage he had taken to his neck was brilliant. His overall body language was really terrific throughout the whole thing. His comebacks also really ruled - Kenny bumped for his signature moves so beautifully. In the end, that neck work which was the main focus of the match from start to finish ended the match as Kenny got him up for that One Winged Angel & hit it. Beautiful. I thought the Dome match was a really good spectacle w/ some absolutely breathtaking big time moves, but the dull first half is what kept it from being more than very good. Then the Dominion match. In that one it felt like nothing mattered except for the last 15 mins or so & those sure were extremely dramatic & good, but overall I didn't really like the match. Here they went only about 25 minutes & it felt like the match had a tight story right from the start with banged up Okada going against Omega who worked the crap out of that neck from start to finish. One of the greatest matches of all-time w/ flawless storytelling & performances from both men. *****

This was absolutely fantastic. Started off with MiSu kicking the crap out of Yano & that continued until Yano made his comeback, but even after that Suzuki really continued to dominate. It was only after Rocky Romero interfered that Yano got to execute his masterplan & my goodness, what a hoot that plan was. The Sublime Master Thief steals one to cap off his G1. Perfectly executed. So much fun. ****1/4

The weakest match of their 2017 trilogy, but still a goddamn classic. In many ways this reminded me of a match Hiroshi Tanahashi had vs. AJ Styles 2 years ago in the same building - just like in that match, the crowd was RED HOT, and rightfully so because Tana & Naito delivered an absolutely epic big time dramatic main event match. Definitely one of the finest of this G1. ****1/2

These two have an absolutely incredible chemistry with each other. I thought their match from the G1 Special in USA was the best match from those shows & here they had an even better one. This followed the same story as that one - Ishii's superior striking & toughness vs. Zack's brutal submission game & limb targeting. Terrific storytelling with both guys playing their roles to perfection - Zack was on point with everything he did, I thought he did a great job selling Ishii's strikes & the desperation with his facial expressions. Oh & Ishii, my goodness - the Stone Pitbull once again proved why he is one of the, if not THE best seller in wrestling today. He sold everything ZSJ did perfectly - the drama every time when Zack locked in some submission was amazing. All of that combined with the fantastic Ryogoku atmosphere = GOLD. Fantastic match. ****3/4

This was a long, grueling warfare that was paced & structured masterfully. Great dueling neck targeting throughout - both guys, especially MiSu, were on point with their brutal onslaughts on each other's necks. Loved the Inoki tribute by MiSu - that was such a great moment. It fit right into the atmosphere w/ his hometown crowd being mostly behind him. Those slap exchanges were absolutely amazing - MiSu putting his hands behind his back & asking Okada to slap the shit out of him was so great, as was the brilliant character moment of Okada when MiSu was slapping the soul out of him, he falls down, BARELY gets up & puts that forced cocky smile on. Outstanding character work. Loved every second of this. ****3/4

Heartbreaking Wish all the best for that big bad mothafucka. Love me some Takayama.

This was really good. Liked how both guys tried to match each other's usual strategies - Tana tried to slug it out w/ Ishii & Ishii tried to work that leg of Tana. By the end it was just a complete war with big bombs being thrown. ***3/4