superkix

Hot damn, this was Nomura bringing the fire and not backing down a bit, even when he's getting bullied by Strong BJ. His mentor/trainer Suzuki takes a backseat in this, although he and Sekimoto have a fun little exchange and throw some suplexes. Loved Nomura lighting up Yuji with kicks, elbows, headbutts, and taking the boss hoss by surprise. He gets control of the situation and tags out as if he's had enough of Nomura's spunk. For a kid that's been wrestling less than six months, he does a lot of little things right. Like when he's trying to get the armbar locked in on Sekimoto and he's slapping at his hands to release. He's defintely the best/most interesting Big Japan young'un by miles.

I thought about this the other night, if WWE ran two back-to-back shows in Japan for the RAW and Smackdown brands. This would be the current brands with injuries, etc. The angle would start with an "invasion" of Los Ingobernables de Japon into NXT, which would build to a big "Takeover" show. NXT 1. Hideo Itami vs. BUSHI. Hideo Itami wins with the GTS. 2. EVIL vs. Samoa Joe. Hard-hitting as you would expect. Joe wins with the rear naked choke. 3. Tetsuya Naito & X (Andrade Almas) vs. Bobby Roode & Austin Aries. Naito's been teasing a LIDJ mole in NXT from the get go. Roode and Aries reform the Dirty Heels for one night only to take on Japan's dirtiest heels. X turns out to be former member La Sombra aka Almas. Naito pins Aries after hitting the Destino. 4. NXT Title: Shinsuke Nakamura © vs. SANADA. This is an easy win for Nakamura via the Boma Ye but features a match-up that never took place in New Japan. After the event, HHH announces that WWE taking the fight to New Japan's doorstep. Back-to-back RAW and Smackdown! super shows. RAW 1. Hangman Page, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Old Bullet Club meets shitty new Bullet Club. The New Japan dads get to make an appearance and win after Nagata pins Page with the backdrop hold. 2. Rusev vs. Tomohiro Ishii. An opportunity for Rusev to let lose and the perfect guy to test it out on. Rusev doesn't hold back with the kick but Ishii stiffs the fuck out of Rusev and pins him after hitting the brainbuster. 3. Cesaro vs. Katsuyori Shibata. A match everyone can get behind. Cesaro takes the fall from Shibata after a dramatic sleeper hold > PK combo. 4. Kevin Owens & Jushin Liger vs. Sami Zayn & KUSHIDA. The thought of an Owens/Liger team made me smile. Japanese fans get Owens vs. Zayn in some cpaacity. Lots of bullying and lots of great selling from Zayn and KUSHIDA. The underdogs win when KUSHIDA cradles Liger for the win. 5. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Michael Elgin © vs. Sheamus. Sheamus gets to hit really hard and Elgin answers. Lots of impressive power spots. Elgin retains with the Elgin Bomb. 6. Seth Rollins vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. This outshines the main event due to Tanahashi's strong performance. Rollins has something to prove and beats the former ace with the God's Last Gift. 7. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada © vs. Roman Reigns. You have New Japan's current ace vs. the "ace" that nobody wanted. Bitter, bearded aggressive Reigns shows up and the two put on a very pro-Okada, E style match. Big main event feel. Okada wins via the back-to-back Rainmakers. Smackdown. Wow. What a sad roster to choose from. Didn't see Lesnar as being a part of this. 1. The Usos vs. The Guerillas of Destiny. The shittiest match. 2. Dolph Ziggler vs. SANADA. Spotty as hell but mindless fun. SANADA wins via the Cold Skull. Ziggler definitely doesn't need the win here. 3. GBH Open Challenge: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. X & X (John Cena & Randy Orton). Great Bash Heel made an open challenge to WWE and WWE fed them to John Cena and Randy Orton. Cena and Orton get to hit their signature moves for the fans. Orton pins Honma with an RKO counter to the top rope Kokeshi. Surprisingly decent. 4. Bray Wyatt vs. Hirooki Goto. Not great but okay. Wyatt is way over with the Japanese fans and beats Goto with the Sister Abigail. 5. IWGP Tag Team Titles: The Briscoes © vs. American Alpha. In a crazy move, American Alpha beat the Briscoes and announce they'll remain in New Japan as representatives of WWE. 6. Dean Ambrose vs. Tetsuya Naito. The unhinged Ambrose seemed like a good match for the tranquilo Naito. Some comedy at the outset but when things get serious, it picks up. Naito wins via the Destino. 7. WWE Title: AJ Styles © vs. Kenny Omega. Styles outclasses and outshines the uber-hyper Omega but they still put on a MOTYC. The face that runs Smackdown beats the face that runs Bullet Club via the Calf Killer.

Fun little teacher vs. student match-up. Hashimoto doesn't hold back with anything and Nomura is quick to answer him with hard shots of his own. You can see where he gets some of that spunky energy from. Nomura's getting more comfortable on the mat and his control is improving, adding a few new touches here and there. That shotgun-style PK from Hash was pretty great.

This was a lot of fun. Nomura looks a lot more confident against Suzuki than their 6/29 match. I like how he hard slaps his way out of a leglock and slickly gets to the front neck chancery. His counter and matwork continues to improve, and that backslide counter to the European uppercut was great. Can't wait to see these two tag together for the upcoming tournament.

The Strong BJ division is way better now that they have guys like Hideki Suzuki and Shuji Ishikawa to complement Chopmasters, as well as a group of very promising young guys. Definitely agree. Now that Kazuki Hashimoto is returning soon, they have the best Strong BJ roster they've had.

Really fun underpitbull tale with a hot crowd and a super hot Liger on commentary. Ishii's such a maestro in the ring, making the ace champ's offense look like a million bucks. There's something satisfying about watching him bully Okada with chops, boot scrapes, and headbutts. Okada quickly realizes he can't hang with Ishii in the striking department and taps into his resource pool of spots to try and cool him down. Okada was good here but Ishii really elevated this to another level. The little things like the chop during the Rainmaker pose and stomping on Okada's foot to get out of the tombstone attempt. That finishing stretch was something else, too, with Ishii ducking and dodging the Rainmaker attempts before landing the big headbutt. Highly entertaining.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: Tomohiro Ishii Last fun match you saw: Suwama vs. Naoya Nomura (AJPW, 7/30) - A good old-fashioned beat down. Wrestler you want to see more of: Konosuke Takeshita. The young dude gets better and better each time I see him wrestle. Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): NXT (5/14, Portland, OR) Match you're most looking forward to watching: Shuji Ishikawa vs. Konosuke Takeshita (DDT, 8/28) Last fun interview/promo you saw: Can't recall. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Interesting? Not a whole lot. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: Nothing wrestling related. Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: G1 Climax has been fun for the most part. Favorite recent post on this board: I'm enjoying the G1 talk. 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): It's pretty nuts we live in a wrestling world where Kota Ibushi, Akira Tozawa, and Shinsuke Nakamura are wrestling on WWE TV.

Maybe Chad Gable?

90% of spears in wrestling look bad.

Naito was in top “smug weasel” form, taking advantage of Shibata’s injuries and generating a lot of drama around the leg locks, especially toward the end after Naito avoids the PK. Hot opening, Shibata’s got no time for Naito’s shenanigans and takes him on a guardrail tour around the ring. Naito bumps hard off that big boot apron spot before snapping on Shibata and attacking the injured shoulder and knee. Loved Naito’s aggressive back-and-forth limb work and the way he uses his shoulder to crank the reverse armbar. Even when he badgers Shibata to a breaking point, he’s still able to worm his way out and go back to an injured body part. Shibata wins out on the elbow battle and rocks Naito’s world with a sleeper suplex! The final “shhhhh, just sleep” finish after Shibata kills Naito with a well-placed PK was the icing on the cake.

Nominating: Kento Miyahara vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 7/23)

This was easily Miyahara's best title defense, and probably his best match of the year so far. It's still a Kento Miyahara match though. Still the same "ace" tropes, the convenient selling, the no-sold superplex rush, but the dynamic between he and Akiyama made this feel special. The grizzled ace that never was, love tapping Miyahara on the face like "let's do this, kid." And the new cocky ace returning the favor like, "here we go, old man." The danger of the front necklock was built well into the match as Akiyama does a number on Kento's neck in preperation. I love his elbow strikes to the neck. Miyahara's selling was okay at best, but he sold in other ways that helped flesh this thing out. The aftermath of the apron spot and Miyahara just barely making it back into the ring only to be met with a running knee and deep front necklock. Great stuff. Akiyama brings the best out of Miyahara's performance, and he was near perfect in this. The risky headbutt during the elbow exchange, his disbelief in Miyahara surviving the EXPLODER '98! and his sad final stand (not literal), crawling through the knee strikes until Kento finally puts him down like a lame horse with one last shot. Miyahara's hardest fought defense and a damn fine performance from Akiyama.

Nominating: Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 7/24)

There was nothing pretty or flash about this. It was raw and brutal at times, and told a compelling narrative of the baby-faced Kamitani scratching and clawing his way to the title. Big boss Okabayashi was perfect in his role as he tries to break Kamitani’s spirit (and body), derailing any momentum Kamitani starts to build. The early lariat spot was sold like death and even when Kamitani recovers from it, there’s still a long uphill battle ahead. Plenty of stiff shots, like Yuji going ape shit on Kamitani with chops in the corner, and Kamitani’s nasty face slaps. The final stretch was a lot of fun, despite a minor hiccup or two, with Kamitani switching on survival mode, baby-booting his way out of a powerbomb, and finally dethroning Okabayashi after two big backdrops. Really strong performances from both men.

I'm not as high on singles wrestler HARASHIMA as others but in a tag situation, he's pretty great. This was a very fun, smartly worked tag match, building from Irie's silly mistake of going to the wrong corner for the tag out. HARASHIMA and Ishii keep the tags fresh, working together to keep Irie grounded, cutting off his comeback attempts until Irie is finally able to hit the POUUUNCE! and make the tag to Sakaguchi. The double team spots were clever, HARASHIMA makes a great out-of-nowhere save, and the finishing stretch (which included a great pop-up Fire Thunder Driver from irie) had the right amount of flash and drama. DDT's been a blast this year and although it's sad to see Irie go, I'm sure he'll make a big splash in the west.

This was a lot of fun. Top notch selling from Honda and an awesome finish. You can tell Honda is comfortable striking with Sato and so he tries to find an opening to take him down to the mat, but even then, he still gets caught.

Minoru Suzuki is the baddest motherfucker in Japan today and this "match" is a shining example why. This thing starts off innocent enough. They scrapple for a bit and when Kawamura starts pummeling Minoru with shots against the ropes, Suzuki slaps on the rope-hung armbar and he's now officially pissed off. Outside the ring, Suzuki blasts him with chairshot after chairshot, and when the ref tries to restore some order, that just pisses Suzuki off more and he starts attacking everyone around him. He tries to use the time keeper's hammer on Kawamura but the ref takes it away. So what does he do? Bloodies Kawamura with a fucking retractable pen and brags about it. Minoru's slaps and headbutts are uber stiff but unfortunately, Kawamura's brief comebacks don't have the same fire or intensity. Near the end, Kawamura goes for a takedown and Suzuki just knees him in the throat, and it's all downhill from there. A big ole dose of brutal punishment from MiSu.

This was a strange one. I enjoyed it but at times, it was like watching technically-proficient wrestling in slow motion. There wasn't much emotion until the end but this match had a genuine feel to it. Tamura had some hard-hitting strikes and Watanabe some great throws. Match really picks up after Watanabe tweaks his knee and blows the German suplex bridge, as Tamura goes after the leg. The finishing stretch was a lot of fun as Tamura keeps cutting Watanabe's leg out from him and eventually gets the submission.

I like Kamitani but he's an on/off guy. This is one of those instances where he was on. He looked super comfortable in the ring, sold well for Okabayashi's offense (including the dreaded Argentine backbreaker), and really dialed up the intensity, especially with those open hand shots. This was really all about these two going at it on and off for twenty minutes with Hash playing the enforcer roll well. Lots of heat and drama going into both time limit draws, which is rare. Fun stuff.

This was the finals of the K-METAL LEAGUE. Pretty good stuff here with the butterfly vs. chickenwing struggle. Mogami's roll back into the butterfly after a flash pin attempt was great. Yoshida's a much better striker than mat tech, and it plays into the finish as he abandons the submission strategy. He had some stiff open hands and a particularly nice high kick to the head. Nothing flashy but simple and effective.

I wasn't sold on Honda right away but once he honed in on Yoshida's arm, there was some pretty good work. Not a big fan of Honda's spottier stuff, but I thought Yoshida looked good on offense and acknowledged the arm stuff. I liked his dropkick a lot.

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryota Nakatsu - YES

Nominating: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuko Miyamoto (DDT, 7/3)

Easily Takeshita's strongest performance of the year and probably the best KO-D Openweight Title match of 2016. Although you don't have a strong sense Miyamoto is winning this thing, he sure gives Takeshita hell, smartly working the leg in a crisp and effective manner. I loved his elbow drop to the back of the knee. Takeshita did a good job of keeping the submission work relevant. His offense looked really impressive, and I thought the final elbow battle was a lot of fun, where he half mad dogs/half collapses into Miyamoto's strikes before letting loose with a barrage of angry elbows. Good stuff!

i feel dumber having watched this. that being said, the most enjoyable things about this match/angle: - senor benjamin's birthday present - matt hardy mowing the tribal lawn - the dilapidated boat