ShittyLittleBoots

One of my favorite offense wrestlers kicking the ass of one of my favorite FIP's in the biz. Great offense, comebacks, selling. ****1/4

I think it's safe to say that this is a big time contender for the most violent women's match in WWE history. They went all out - amazing action from start to finish w/ no dull moments & dull moments are something that we usually get a ton of in LMS matches. The big spots (trash can, neckbreaker's, the ending..) were all absolutely tremendous & the action in between those was terrific as well w/ some real good selling. ****1/2

Loved how Io dominated the early portions of the match. She showcased that cocky ace character work of hers - it wasn't until they were fighting in the crowd that Mayu made her big comeback. That is when she started to get more into the match & Io was in big trouble - I was getting some Zayn vs. Neville (R Evolution) vibes from the thing w/ the feeling in the air being that the challenger was not gonna be denied this time around, but the champ was gonna do everything she could to keep that title. And she sure did - she threw everything she got at Mayu, but Mayu survived that by finding new ways to cut off Io's offensive flurries. The neck work was finally what was her key to victory - she started targeting Io's taped & banged up neck & that got her the victory. Brilliant stuff. And on top of all that, the post-match stuff is also really awesome & genuinely heartwarming. Gonna rank very high on my MOTY list; an all-time classic. ****1/2

This was a very good, physical match up w/ MiSu killing it. Loved the violence he brought. All the overbooking w/ the Suzuki-gun & CHAOS interferences were done real well, too. ***3/4

This was like their Beyond match that happened a day earlier, but an epic version of that. Dramatic sequences & counters w/ Keith Lee being awesome as always in that monster role just throwing Riddle around & Riddle selling his ass off while chopping him down with his excellent strikes & submissions. Loved it. ****1/2

They got that big WWN Championship match coming up the next day in EVOLVE, so they didn't go all out here - instead of delivering an all-out epic, they delivered a simple David vs. Goliath match up - which I was very happy about. You got Keith Lee doing his awesome monster work on top while Riddle tried to chop him down with his fantastic strikes. Great stuff. ****

ZSJ vs. Tana, Ishii, Ibushi & others! Hell yeah!

If you enjoy watching Thatcher on the offense, you'll love this. It's all about the returning Thatcher taking the youngster, Austin Theory, to school by dominating him w/ his terrific submissions & strikes. Theory also makes some awesome comebacks which Thatcher sells perfectly. Great match. ****

A super fun, great spotfest. All 6-men involved killed it. Trent continues to impress w/ his terrific performances, he's having such a great year. ****1/4

Kento Miyahara pretty much came off as the best wrestler in the world in this. His work over the arm & the taped up hand of Suwama was excellent + the way he portrayed his character was a thing of beauty; even though his historic title reign just recently ended by the hands of Shuji Ishikawa, he still is the most confident dude around, because he is the goddamn young ace of the company. His facial expressions tell the whole story; he acts like he has the match in the bag because he dominates Suwama w/ that arm work of his, but then Suwama ends up fighting through it w/ his high impact comebacks & gets the W. Great stuff, a brilliant Kento Miyahara show. ****

Most recently Matt Riddle vs. Trent Seven from PROGRESS stands out - the way they built it up w/ Trent cutting an absolute 5-star promo & showcasing his brilliant dick heel antics was brilliant.

I LOVED their Backlash match & this was just as good, if not a little better. I gotta say I definitely did not expect Randy Orton & Jinder Mahal to have such great chemistry w/ each other, but goddamn I am glad they do. Loved the beginning with Randy completely overwhelming Jinder, Jinder was in big trouble until he sent Orton flying to the outside, leg first. That lead to Jinder working on top in AWESOME fashion - loved all of his offense & that leg work was really great. Orton sold it really well too. Just a super well put together, laid out match. Can't wait for part III. ****

Danielson is 20 YEARS OLD & Low Ki is 22 YEARS OLD in this one. That's absolutely unbelievable considering how good this match & they were already. There were a couple of moments where I thought some sections of the match dragged a bit, but that's just a minor complaint, and really just something that makes it a 4.75* match rather than the full 5-dog. Some of the best mat work seen in the US in this one with a great touch of grittiness and fantastic intensity to it. Superb psychology throughout, too; Danielson gets the better of Ki on the mat throughout, so Ki gets frustrated & starts doing Low Ki things aka kicking the crap out of his opponent & throwing big bombs. Love how Danielson's match vs. Daniels from earlier in the night comes into play as well w/ his eye & neck injuries - LOVED the moment when Low Ki just said "fuck this shit" & blasted Dragon's eye with those stiff kicks. Absolutely brutal stuff. He also works the neck throughout w/ nasty bombs. It's a classic. ****3/4

Current favorite wrestler to watch: Hideo Itami has been absolutely killing it since his return. Pretty much everything he has done since has been must watch for me. Last fun match you saw: RPG Vice & Chuck Taylor vs. Bullet Club (Young Bucks & Hangman Page) from this week's ROH episode. Just a total blast from start to finish. Wrestler you want to see more of: More Io Shirai the better. Heavily considering that Stardom World sub. Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): Local indy from few months ago. Been attending their shows since 2005 & don't plan on stopping! Match you're most looking forward to watching: Hideo Itami vs. Kassius Ohno, which most likely will take place at Takeover: Brooklyn in August. Last fun interview/promo you saw: The Samoa Joe & Paul Heyman one from last week - made me even more excited than I already was for Brock vs. Joe. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: Talk is Jericho Talk N' Shop Germany edition feat. Jericho, Anderson, Gallows & Primo. Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: Hideo Itami vs. Bobby Roode from Takeover: Chicago. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): Just the fact that there's soooo much great stuff out there.

If it wasn't for Tanahashi & Naito putting on another masterclass of the graps a few matches later, this would've been an EASY MOTN. Amazing psychology with The Bucks taking out Rocky with an apron powerbomb, so that leaves Trent alone for quite a while - Trent has become one of the absolute best FIP's in the business & he was outstanding here. Just selling & bumping his ass off while The Bucks did great work over him. Loved how when Rocky was first starting to get back to the match, Matt goes and powerbombs him on the entrance ramp right away. Once he does make it back to things, RPG Vice get more offense in, but you just know they can't get it done because of the damage both guys had taken - they sold that in superb fashion. Brilliant stuff. ****1/2

That goes into my top-10 for the year so far. Another masterclass by these two - loved the dueling limb work, Naito was so amazing working over the injured arm of Tana while Tana started to get more & more into things with his great leg work. That finish was superb. These 2 are the kings of pro wrestling. ****3/4

Some meh "feeling out process" to start things off. Really nothing happened until Kenny started to attack Okada's knee, he beat the crap out of it, so naturally the champ completely no sells that work done on his knee to run full speed, counter stuff with that "damaged" knee & do his usual signature stuff. Nice. So the knee work was complete filler. Then again we get into a section where it feels like nothing is happening until out comes Bullet Club; they do some dumb drama w/ Cody almost throwing in the towel for Omega. After that the finishing stretch kicks in & it's pretty amazing - they went completely nuts just like in their Dome match. Kenny finally hitting the One Winged Angel only for Okada to get out of it via a rope break was terrific; spot of the match easily. So yep - this is something I would use as an example when bringing up the "going long for the sake of it" argument, because that's what this was; going long for the sake of it. It's frustrating because these 2 have a goddamn classic match in them, but they aren't gonna have it by going this damn long - in my eyes anyway. Great stretch after the Cody/BC drama, but overall a super weak match. **1/2

Perfectly laid out for the match that finally ended the reign of Kento Miyahara as the Triple Crown champ. Ishikawa pretty much dominated things from start to finish - the story of the match was that he got Kento's number in every way possible, sure Kento got some really great comebacks in, but Shuji shut those off pretty quickly. Kento's selling was pretty outstanding. ****1/2

Hideki Suzuki & Yuji Okabayashi crafted the most compelling story told via pro wrestling match of 2017 here. Just a masterful performance from Hideki who was brilliant starting the match fighting from underneath; Okabayashi was overwhelming him with his power, so he had to come up with something - and he damn right did. He started to work over Okabayashi's arm in every opening he got - absolutely brilliant stuff, a complete masterful performance by Hideki. Okabayashi's selling was really good, he did his comebacks while showcasing the big pain he was in because of Hideki's brilliant work on his arm. Quite possibly the best match of 2017; it's super close between it, Okada/Shibata & a few others though. *****

Absolutely loved this. Hard hitting, stiff match which showcased Hideo's new character. He dominated most of the match & he was great at it, Oney's big comeback with him grabbing Hideo by the goddamn mouth & slapping the shit out of him was fantastic - and just when it was looking like Oney was getting back into things, Hideo fakes an injury. Brilliant. So he comes back & destroys Oney w/ his strikes and those 3 GTS's. Great, great stuff. ****1/4

The weakest BOSJ finals match in years - this just did not come anywhere close to the greatness of KUSHIDA/Ricochet, KUSHIDA/O'Reilly & Ospreay/Taguchi. It was still really good though - thought that KUSHIDA was really brilliant in the match - what prevents the match from being in that classic status though is Will Ospreay. His selling disappointed me greatly. He pretty much no sold KUSHIDA's leg & arm work - that basically made the whole first half of the match pointless. Thankfully in the 2nd half they went into the bomb mode as they started to bust out all the big moves you would expect from them - my favorite of them being KUSHIDA stomping Ospreay's head in. Wonderful stuff. With a better 1st half, this could've been a legit MOTYC, but with it being what it was, it was "just" very good. I definitely ain't complaining about that, but it had potential to be much more. It had all the potential in the world to be even greater than those other recent year BOSJ finals that I mentioned, but it is what it is. ***1/2

Started off with your usual O'Reilly vs. Riddle back & forth action w/ that shoot style inspiration, battling over control w/ a terrific sense of urgency as they traded holds & tried to get that advantage over one another. O'Reilly's eventual control segment was absolutely excellent w/ him working over Riddle's arm & Riddle, in general, in brutal fashion. Riddle is great working from underneath and he was that here too w/ some great selling & that great fire of his. Great stuff. His big comeback when he got all fired up & knocked Kyle the F out w/ that big kick as Kyle was kicking him to the chest was tremendous. The finishing stretch is them looking for that one submission, one strike that would end the battle & it's just superb - much like the whole match, it was wrestled with that terrific sense of urgency. Could literally watch these 2 battle each other forever. What an amazing chemistry they have. ****1/2

They went for an epic to finish the tournament & sure delivered one. The interferences by BSS & CCK were done really well. Lots of big moves, awesome atmosphere, fantastic drama & great fire from Travis Banks. ****

I thought that their Chapter 48 match was great & this was on the same level as that one. Loved Tyler starting the match off super cocky by taking off his boots to make fun of Riddle's MMA look - he tried to hang w/ Riddle on the mat & well, that sure didn't go his way. Riddle dominated the whole first half of the match, which he was terrific at & Bate eventually got the control very naturally. He did a great job in his control segment too. The finishing stretch w/ the big moves & counters was terrific as well. ****1/4

These 2 have had strong matches against each other everywhere they've faced & here they had their best one yet. Just a super intense, total slug/bomb -fest between two great offensive wrestlers. Great stuff. ****1/4