superkix

Great chemistry leads to a great match, as these two play a back-and-forth game of checkers, between their counters, holds, thwarted escape attempts, and blocked strikes. Loved Yamazaki's Exploder suplex counter to Anjoh's knee attempt. Yamazaki keeps stopping Anjoh's knees and Anjoh's able to avoid the German suplex, taking Yamazaki to the ropes with a Fujiwara armbar off the double wristlock. Yamazaki's really selling the arm at this point and then proceeds to annihilate Anjoh with kicks -- that leg catch kick to the face was real nasty. Yamazaki wins by KO.

This is Takada's first title defense and it isn't too hot. Salman looked alright here, a little clunky and slow. He gets a nice arm whip takeover to open and tries to beat Takada at his own game with the armbar, which doesn't work, and then Takada proceeds to kick Salman until Salman takes a seat. Salman fires off a dope suplex but that's about it for him and it's business as usual for Takada. He kicks Salman in the face in the corner, judo throws him down and taps him with the classic armbar.

Silver doesn't stand a chance but gives zero fucks and starts smacking Gary and Gary slams him down hard. When Silver gets a foot on the ropes during a dragon suplex attempt, Albright's pissed and KOs him after back-to-back German suplexes. Like possibly legit KO'd him. Albright is a wrecking ball.

A weird match and again, not as good as their first encounter. Nakano dominates most of this match, controlling Tamura early on - he gets a nice front neck chancery takedown, counters with his best snap suplex, and keeps sending Tamura to the ropes. When Tamura finally gets a front mount, his nose is mysteriously busted open. Nakano comes at him with some big open hands and knees but Tamura powers him up and over with a waterwheel slam, but Nakano keeps coming with the strikes. The finish was funny, as Tamura grabs a leglock, Nakano can't escape it and starts tapping...and keeps tapping...slowly...and the ref is confused but eventually calls it. Some cool moments but not a great match.

This was actually a lot of fun. Steve Day's not bad but he has the worst look. Unlike Dan Severn, Day can't rock the mustache. He hits a pretty sweet leg transfer German suplex. and he and Kaki slapping it out was a blast. Of course, Kaki is slappy and kicky, the Americans throw suplexes and try armbars, and Sano is a pro and very giving with the white boys, although at times, some of the exchanges are clunky or slow motion. Kaki takes out Day with a big spin kick and destroys him with strikes, and although Day looks pissed, Kaki still contineus to kick his ass. And then Koslowski comes in and hits the fucking Dennis Koslowski special -- a belly-to-belly suplex, a front necklock suplex, and a gutwrench suplex. Kaki can't answer and the stars and stripes win it.

Hey, baby Glacier is BACK...and he still sucks. Shitty knees, a real bad suplex that probably injured Miyato's shoulder, and no clue. At least Miyato looked strong here, with his big chinlock and solebutt, picking up the win with the armbar. Not good.

Not as good as their last match, which isn't saying much, but Allen gets his usual takedowns, throws some decent elbows, but there's like zero effort on his part -- I guess he does punch Takayaka in the EYEBROW, so that ruled, but he picks up the win with the armbar as always. Meh.

Boring groundwork aside, this is actually a pretty fun draw when it's Kanehara kicking and slapping, and Lydick suplexing. Lydick keeps throwing suplexes, looking for the German, but Kanehara is able to block it, and in the final few moments of the match, they let loose on each other but Lydick can't get off anymore suplexes before the time expires. Lydick continues to improve and Kanehara's spirit brought out more of a fight in him.

I can't really get into Kento Miyahara matches anymore so this felt extra long...but, that being said, Zeus ruled in this match. The best part was him just chopping the shit out of the back of Miyahara's neck, which, you know, Miyahara immediately blows off but he's gotta get at least ten of those thighslapping knee strikes in. Some of Zeus' lariats looked gnarly, especially the one to set up the jackhammer, and credit where it's due, Miyahara's bumping only made Zeus look more beast-like. I still like the Zeus/Doering match the best out of what little AJPW I've seen this year but I thought Zeus looked better here.

This was good stuff. I loved the mat exchange to open and the arm control up front from Sano, working to his veteran strengths with the slick youngun Tamura trying to show him up. Sano will fire off a great suplex, Tamura will try to grab an arm upon impact and Sano finagle his way back to the armbar. A bit clunky here and there, and there's point where the match really seems to fizzle out, but then they'll start trading slaps and wake everyone back up. Great finish. Tamura mostly stays on the leg but when he can't get Sano over in the single leg, he goes to the surprise armbar and taps him after hitting a waterwheel drop. It ran a little long but there was still a lot of really neat moments in between, and Sano in UWFi has been great.

Regrettably, Severn is out of the black trunks and rocking the USA singlet, which means serious business -- I mean, he elects not to shake Takada's hands. This was a pretty formulaic Takada match. Takada plays good defense early on, using leg kicks, knee strikes, blocking Severn’s takedown attempts. Takada tries to block the belly-to-belly but can't and Severn follows that up with a neat front suplex before the match stalls on the ground and turns into Takada's finishing stretch of leg kicks and an armbar. Severn not being in a dominant role hurt this match (and the obvious lack of black trunks).

It's another killer Albright squash but it's also Dennis Koslowski's best performance in UWFi thus far. Thankfully, he's back in the singlet, coming out to "Born to Run". Albright says fuck your Steve Rogers-ass handshake but Koslowski shows dominance early on, putting him in a single leg and dragging him back to the middle to make him fight for the ropes. Then Albright hits a backdrop suplex and a deadlfit German but Koslowski comes back, arm whip throwing him down and putting him a pretty dope neck crank. When Albright tries to suplex again, Koslowski counters with a great judo throw. They fight for the belly-to-belly (Albright wins) and then Dennis is KO'd with the dragon suplex. This was fun.

This was an odd match-up. A little disjointed, maybe. I don't know if I would call it good match but it had some good moments. They both had some nice takedowns, especially Yamazaki's leg catch. Miyato slapping and kicking his way out of a hold, followed by a brief moment of heat. Yamazaki starts in with the kicks, hits the German, they fight over holds until Yamazaki gets pissy and tries choking him out of the guillotine. Big moment when Miyato gets to the ropes but then Yamazaki hits another German and taps him with the Fujiwara armbar. A decent match,

Easily big Gene's best showing since his debut. Heated opening between he and Kakihara to open, with plenty of suplexes thrown and holds fought over. Lydick's trying a little bit of everything, which is a lot of fun to watch. Burton and Anjoh have decent exchanges as well, with Anjoh obviously having fun at Burton's expense. Burton sucks but he's a perfect guy to get his ass kicked in there. His fakeout slaps to Anjoh were great. Also, Lydick chasing Anjoh almost out of the ring was awesome, Anjoh pretending like he's going to fight Lydick, then immediately tagging out to Kakihara. Finish was fucked as Anjoh breaks one of Burton's fingers with a kick and they call the match. But it was actually a pretty spirited underdog tag.

Takayama gives zero shits about BN Allen. He knees him in the corner, German suplexes him, kicks him while's down. Allen does his usual thing -- a couple takedowns, a couple holds -- but Takayama is a lot more resilient than previous opponents. Still, not a very good match and Allen wins with the JUJI~GATAME!

Takada's best match in UWFi thus far but not necessarily Tamura's. Still, a pretty damn good game of chess between the boss and the future. Tamura sells really well for Takada, giving some life to his otherwise lifeless matwork, and there are plenty of neat transitions and reversals from both guys throughout. When Tamura's got the legs, Takada slaps his face to get him off but instead, Tamura turns him over into the single leg and Takada picks the ankle in a great counter. The fans lose it when Tamura grabs the double wristlock but then Takada shuts him down with kicks, knocking him down with highs and cutting out the leg with lows, finally winning by TKO. Good stuff.

Following the trend of "Gary Albright squashes are a blast", Gary hits a belly-to-belly within the first 20 seconds of the match. Sano's trying though, looking for a choke, looking for an armbar, but Gary just wants to suplex and he kills Sano with a German. Sano's able to get to the ropes before he can hit the dragon suplex and he stuns Albright with a solebutt, looking for a belly-to-belly but Albright counters with two of his own, and then KOs him with the dragon suplex.

Dennis has switched to his skivvies because why not? He throws a belly-to-belly and then Yamazaki starts popping him with kicks, and in a cool moment, he tries to counter with a legscissors takedown when Koslowski catches a foot but Koslowski is able to hold on to the leg, sending Yamazaki to the ropes. But Koslowski doesn't let go, shoves the ref, Yamazaki's pissed, and promptly takes him out with a bunch of kicks for the TKO. Lesson learned.

Yoji Anjoh has to be one of the all-time best shitheads in pro-wrestling. Him holding onto the ropes when Severn tries to suplex him and then when Severn does hit him with the belly-to-belly, he tries to crawl out of the ring. Severn does a lot of choking and slamming and suplexing but Anjoh just wants those ropes. Another pretty fun Severn squash and he ends up submitting Anjoh with a hammerlock? Not quite a double wristlock, DAN.

Lydick is HOT out of the gate with the open and knees in the corner and Miyato's like "hey now". Gene's still all over the place but at least he's got the armbar down. Miyato has his kicks, which he gives plenty to Lydick for several knockdowns before tapping him with a neck crank. Not much of a match.

Okay, I think at this point, I prefer Tom Burton to Mark Fleming. Maybe. I don't know. Fleming with some 101 takedowns and a double arm suplex but the highlight here is Kanehara rocking him with a ton of leg kicks and one to Fleming's face. But of course, Fleming wins with his shitty STF. Swing and a miss.

The last two these two squared off, Kakihara splattered Nakano's nose but this was a lot more one-sided, as Nakano got in most of the offense in the forms of kicks and knees. Poor Kaki gets hit the nuts like two or three times throughout the course of the match. Nakano stays aggressive and while Kaki pops him with a few kicks or slaps here and there, he doesn't really do much else but hang out in the corners. In the moment of the match, he ducks and weaves Nakano's attacks and finally lets loose on him...but it's brief and when he misses the spinning heel kick, Nakano blasts him with a knee to the face and taps him with a leglock. Weird match.

Ready for a 20:00 Tom Burton match? Look, I rag on Burton a lot, understandably, but he is trying and yes, he is improving. He grabs chokes, which works for him, he catches a kick and turns it into his own single leg crab, he DDTs Takayama with a takedown. Takayama does a good job of making Burton look competent and also gets a chance to improve his ground game. Burton heats up the aggression heading into the draw, delivering a German and pelting Takayama with slaps, knees and forearms, battering him into a corner. Takayama fights back for a single leg crab but the time expires. Probably Burton's best singles match?

Not a great match but it had its moments. There are a lot of love tap kicks to open -- you know, to re-familiarize themselves. The matwork is on the slow/bland side but at least Yamazaki has a bit more charisma to make the holds seem interesting. Loved Yamazaki's quick go behind into the German suplex but Takada's able to grab the double wristlock upon impact. Yamazaki mirrors this later in the match, grabbing the neck crank off Takada's backdrop suplex. Good defense from Yamazaki throughout as he's able to block the armbar attempts, rallying the fans around his cause. Takada figures out the armbar isn't gonna work so he first kicks Yamazaki in the chin, then the face, and then taps him with an ankle hold. BOSS!

Gary ain't fucking around and immediately belly-to-belly suplexes Dennis. The ground stuff is whatever but nobody is paying to see Gary Albright work a hold. No, they pay to see him DESTROY Koslowski with a German suplex, Jesus. Koslowski, looking a bit loopy, manages a gutwrench suplex on Albright and sends him to the ropes with an armbar. But after another belly-to-belly, Albright puts on the full nelson and KOs him with the dragon suplex. Gary Albright squashes are something else.