superkix

Shuji Ishikawa vs Hideki Suzuki (BJW 4/9) - YES

The build-up to the backdrop was really great, with Maruyama clinging on for dear life and finding ways to counter out, at one point, BITING him in the forehead. Maruyama is good in the cockroach role. The way he sells and scrambles, the stumble into the sleeper hold, his test of strength fake out. When Kamitani's finally had enough, he lariats the hell out of him before hitting an awesome backdrop for the satisfying win.

Yeah, this was like a well-played chess match. I thought the seated chair strikes played into the match perfectly, as Ishikawa realized he had to go to his strengths instead of trying to outwrestle Suzuki. Suzuki is definitely one of my favorites in Japan right now. I loved his sleeper hold counter to the Rainmaker headbutt and then when Ishikawa gets a little too close to the ropes, he turns it into a dragon suplex. I still think the Fire Thunder Driver counter looks silly but the flash finish was fun. One of the better matches of the tournament.

Virus vs. Hechicero (Lucha Memes 5/15) - YES This is kind of what I wanted out of the Gulak/Williams match. Silky smooth.

Nothing super high-end but a solid, entertaining match smartly worked by Sasaki and one of the better KO-D Openweight title matches of the year. Sasaki is one of the better indie guys out there, and he's good at stringing together his offense in a realistic way. Like if one thing doesn't work, he quickly transitions into the next as to not give Yukio time to breath. Sakaguchi was a good first defense opponent and it made Sasaki wrestle as if in real constant danger of losing his title. Loved Yukio's snap kick and knee rush to Sasaki's defensive stance. Yukio's strikes looked really sound, especially his kicks and knees, and Sasaki did a great job of selling them. I'm also a big fan of arm-traps during submissions to prevent escape. There's a few hiccups -- mainly a couple of nonsensical set-ups and stalling. The finish wasn't great but it played up Sasaki's desperation. I'm excited for Sasaki/Konosuke. His 4:17 match with Ishikawa from the same show is worth checking out.

I'm getting pretty tired of the double footstomps. Rarely do they look good (I think Low-Ki's is one of the better looking ones) but they just keep popping up like the Backstabber, especially in Japan.

The Canadian Destroyer.

Really entertaining main event-style tag match. Ohtani was great here, bringing the nostalgia in a more digestible way, while also embodying the 'never say die' dog-eared veteran with the crowd at his back. He counters Sato's rear chinlock by biting and gnawing on the thumb, and then he and Tanaka both do it from the corner. Some great strikes and collisions throughout, with Ohtani showing his old man spirit against Sato, taking kick after kick, and trying to fight the numbers game until he’s overwhelmed. The tired old facewash spot was pretty fun here as Sekimoto tries to escape and Ohtani keeps pulling him back in, slapping him a couple of times before doing it all over again. The Sekimoto/Tanaka exchanges were solid and there were lots of great suplexes toward during the final stretch, especially when Sekimoto picks Ohtani up from the pin attempt and German suplexes him. Great selling from Ohtani in the end, as he survives a barrage of offense from Sato but still he won’t die, flipping out and holding his fists up to continue his fight, until Sato finishes him off. Exactly the kind of match I wanted to see from these four guys.

Going to the NXT show tonight in Portland. We'll probably get another Balor/Joe match, although last night they ran Joe/Aries.

Similar to the 4/29 BJW tag, Akiyama's involvement was the best thing going in this match. His elbows and knees, especially those repeat knees in the final stretch, looked merciless and Lil Hash was great in his feisty underdog role. I love Hash's corner high knee. The Bodyguard is the same uninteresting Double Dragon stooge but at least Zeus is a little more interesting with his scowling facials and sweet bearhug suplex. Sekimoto was hardly in this thing and Okabayashi delivers a really nice vertical suplex on Zeus. A decent six-man but you're really just in it for the Akiyama/Lil Hash exchanges. Can't wait for the singles match (and hopefully vs. Okabayashi on BJW turf).

Hase isn't as smooth as Fujiwara on the mat but I thought he looked good here. I liked the opening exchange for wrist control, and Fujiwara's early frustration. Hase borrowing a page from Fujiwara's playbook as he grinds the forearm and elbow into his face. Fujiwara hamming it up is so awesome. The strikes were fun and Fujiwara's counter work was top notch. I loved how he kept going back to the armbar in the end, with the transition out of the German and then countering the uranage with the armbar takedown. This was a blast to watch, with a little bit of everything.

This felt like an American indy homage to BattlARTS, with some whacky lucha-esque submissions from Dragon. This was Danielson at his best, fully aware and in his primal element. His ground game is so organic and fluid, in the sort of spontaneous, uber-aggressive way in which he can counter/reverse into something painful-looking. Low-Ki can't quite hang in this department but in a frustrated way, he acknowledges his shortcomings and has to rely more and more on his striking ability. But Danielson can hang with Low-Ki with the striking department. Some of his crossface strikes looked especially vicious. The match could've done away with the out-of-ring action and the finish was on the weaker end, as there's a disconnect from what was built before. Still one of the better U.S. matches in the early 2000s. A meaningful grapplefuck and a great showcase of Danielson's aggressive submission style.

Good Lord, this match. What a manly modern spectacle. Sloppy at times and a wee bit overkill, it wasn't the illusive "perfect match" but felt perfectly organic and brutal, not to mention one of the best false finishes in recent memory. Sekimoto won't lay down. Great heart and energy, great selling for the most part, especially in his facials, and he wrestles with this real sense of urgency throughout. I loved the the early suicide dive after Ishikawa gets extra saucy with his elbow shots. And Ishikawa is such a great super bully champ in this, constantly cutting Sekimoto off at every opportunity and just laying into him fully with everything in his arsenal. I genuinely felt bad for Sekimoto's head and neck.The final stretch of this thing was pretty epic. They trade suplexes, clash lariats, and then Sekimoto pulls away with his meat cleaver chops, a gamengiri, a lariat, and a big deadlift German suplex hold for the huge nearfall. The crowd is fully invested at this point, Ishikawa's mouth is a bloody mess, Sekimoto can't believe it. We get the dying breath of the great champ here, as Ishikawa pulls out every brain-scrambling move in the book and still can't beat Sekimoto. In a great moment during the final slap off, Ishikawa unleashes a flurry of slaps and the only way Sekimoto can stop him is to just punch him directly in the face. Doesn't get much better than this when it comes to modern strong style.

This is what I wanted out of this match. Kawakami is this hyperviolent ball of spitfire and Sekimoto works in this sort of frustrated energy with his facials, the way he looks at the ref, some of his offense choices, like switching from the crab to the STF and the snake eyes into the German suplex. He also really sells well for Kawakami's offense, which gets epic in his last gasp run. I really like the way they open with the aggressive, almost frantic back-and-forth grappling. Kawasaki more than held his own in the slugfests with Sekimoto. His elbows looked brutal and Sekimoto sold them in a staggering way. They play human bumper cars awhile and Sekimoto unleashes these cleaving chops but when he tries for the gamegiri, Kawakami blocks it and unleashes hell on him with suplexes and a gnarly snap Emerald Fusion. Kawakami doesn't know what else to do and in their final elbow battle, he's able to stun Sekimoto with a shot but Sekimoto hits this massive reaction lariat. Even in his final death throes, Kawasaki shows this sense of desperation as he is so close to the ropes when Sekimoto is deadlifting him...yet, too far. Awesome stuff!

A few indie nominations: Isami Kodaka vs. Konosuke Takeshita (DDT 1/3/16) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/32907-isami-kodaka-vs-konosuke-takeshita-ddt-010316/ Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo vs. Daisuke Sasaki & Shuji Ishikawa (DDT 3/21/16) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34227-konosuke-takeshita-tetsuya-endo-vs-daisuke-sasaki-shuji-ishikawa-ddt-32116/ Hiro Tonai vs. Kyo Mogami (K-DOJO 2/25/16) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34226-hiro-tonai-vs-kyo-mogami-k-dojo-22516/

One of the more entertaining tag matches I've seen this year, with some smart work by Sasaki, and some really good exchanges between Ishikawa and Takeshita, planting the seeds in my mind for a future slobberknocker between the two. Takeshita looked really strong in this, despite giving up the submission in dramatic fashion. Endo is kind of the low-end guy in this, who gets in a couple of glitzy spots, but he made good fodder for Sasaki's early submission work, and I liked Ishikawa's Fire Thunder Driver counter to Endo's pele kick. Nothing super high end but a lot of fun.

Solid submission work throughout, with a great payoff in the end. Tonai is so smooth in his counter work and the way he maintains control of the arm. There's a nice big nearfall after they go back and forth with the submission attempts and Mogami is able to pin Tonai's shoulders to the mat. The crowd was invested, the matwork technically as sound as it gets. Really good match.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles (NJPW 1/4) - YES I thought this was the best match of WK. A great showcase of both of these guys' talents. Masato Tanaka vs Hideki Suzuki (Zero-1 1/1) - YES http://prowrestlingo...ero-one-010116/ Yuji Okabayashi vs Ryota Hama (BJW 1/24) - YES http://prowrestlingo...ma-bjw-1242016/ Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Atsushi Aoki (AJPW 1/3) - NO Entertaining match and I'm amazed how Fujiwara can still go at his age but not a MOTY contender for me by any means.

Fun strong champ vs. fiery veteran match-up. Some cool suplex throws and good matwork by Suzuki. Suzuki never really seemed like he was in danger of losing and the finish was a tad lackluster, but overall, a good title match.

Other random stuff I've seen. WWE NXT Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sami Zayn (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) YES Fun WWE "strong style" that exceeded my expectations. Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) YES Co-starring blood. Other US Mike Bailey vs Sami Callihan (CZW Seventeen, 2/13) NO Unintentionally funny, but not in a good way. CMLL Maximo vs Kamaitachi (CMLL, 1/1) YES Maximo was so compelling to watch in this. Loved his facials and the touches to the selling. New Japan Will Ospreay vs. Kushida (NJPW Invasion Attack 4/10/2016) YES I'm not Osplay's biggest fan but I love arm killer mode KUSHIDA. UK Indies AJ Styles vs Zack Sabre Jr. (RPW High Stakes, 1/26) YES Fun match with cool counters and quick submissions. I liked how the Calf Killer came into play. The finish was pretty great too.

Not as cringe-inducing as the 1/4 match, which may be a good thing, but still the same high thresholds of pain tolerance and friendly violence. This felt a little more complete to me. The suplex spot is silly but works in this kind of macho showoff match. Another fun 'modern strong style' parody match.

Enjoyed the power vs. technique dynamic between Sekimoto and Suzuki. Kind of felt like an 'epic' style tag match condensed into 12 minutes.

Howdy everyone, I've been a wrestling fan since the early 90s WWF, when Monday nights were a family gathering and my mom's homemade chili was on the menu. As a kid, I loved Tatanka and Ted DiBiase. I grew up a little, lost interest in wrestling as the focus shifted to girls, but then in the late 90's/early 2000's, I discovered Japanese pro wrestling and got hooked. For awhile, I devoured everything I could find. My favorite was/probably still is Stan Hansen (me being a fellow Texan). I never really got back into WWF/WWE, but on occasion, I would watch PPVs with friends or randomly check out an episode of RAW. I've had an 'online presence' for about 15 years now, floating around different message boards like DVDVR and SSS. This is the first year in awhile that I'm actively trying to keep up with what's coming out of Japan, so I'm happy to be a part of the board and I look forward to the discussions.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10 1/4/2016) NO – The finishing run was entertaining but otherwise, the match felt overly bloated. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10 1/4/2016) YES – Not as good as their 2/11 match but still a fun and brainless rush of cringe-inducing spots and machismo attitudes. A solid ‘modern strong style’ parody. Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi (NJPW, 1/24) YES – Stylized spot fest that was a lot of fun to watch play out in a NJPW ring. Dragon Lee is so crisp and while the legwork was largely uninteresting, it still played a decent role in the match and wasn't completely ignored. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega (NJPW New Beginning 2/14/2016) NO – Not an Omega fan. His over-theatrics bleeds into his selling, which he does to death. The way he throws himself into the corner after a whip. Or takes every bump by turning himself inside out. The limb work was okay but the two rounds of interference killed it for me. The first bit worked, as it led to the dramatic comeback for Tanahashi, but just as the match was picking up momentum again, they cut it off again with the stupid trash can spot and Elgin's overly-choreographed save. Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW 3/4/2016) YES - Easily my favorite Nahito match of the year. A condense version of their Dontaku match, smartly worked, with Naito being the great weasel dick heel he is, constantly cutting off Ishii's offense and building up to the big apron lariat spot. It wanders a bit into overkill territory but it never gets tiresome and finishes strong. Kushida vs. Jushin Liger (NJPW 5/3/2016) YES – Great limb work, great selling, and great callbacks to their tag matches. It felt a little disjointed in places, but definitely better than the Osplay match and one of the top juniors matches of the year. Isami Kodaka vs Masa Takanashi (DDT, 1/31) NO - Match felt really clunky and long-winded. The leg vs. neck work was decent for the most part, and Isami was good here. I liked the failed German suplex hold. But the match dragged from a few awkward and slow set-ups with not a lot of payoff. Shuji Ishikawa vs Hideyoshi Kamitani ( BJW 4/10) YES - Kamitani's uphill battle against the wall of pain Ishikawa was compelling and fun to get behind, and there were quite a few surprising moments. Definitely the best match of the Strong Climb tournament. Jun Akiyama & Daichi Hashimoto vs. Yuji Okabayashi & Yoshihisa Uto (BJW 4/29) YES – This was all Akiyama being surly and punishing Uto with knees, which was a lot of fun to watch. I liked the fire between Akiyama and Okabayashi, and especially enjoyed the crab hold spot. Nothing high end but definitely a fun tag match. NOMINATING: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki (NOAH, 2/24/16) Awesome performances from both men. Tons of drama, tons of arm brutality, Minoru being the best heel in the world, and Nakajima fighting and suffering to get the feel good moment of the year. The finish was abrupt but for the methodical pacing of the match, it made sense to me. Easily the best thing out of NOAH this year, which isn't saying much.

Kawada's single leg crab.