Kadaveri

The Summerslam match is easily the weakest of the Cena/Styles feud and I don't see anyone pushing for that one. Money in the Bank + Royal Rumble are the ones I have as classics. MITB in particular is worked totally different to the 'PWG Cena' stuff, Cena barely strings more than two moves together in the whole thing. I'd also point about the numerous great matches AJ Styles had with Dean Ambrose. Backlash, TLC and the Smackdown after Royal Rumble are all fantastic and I don't think Ambrose has had close to as good a match as any of them since. Even more impressive maybe is in the middle of that feud AJ had a very good ladder match with James Ellsworth. Had the best match Shane McMahon's ever had too. He also had an incredible performance in the Elimination Chamber match, for me only beaten by Rey Mysterio's in 2009. Seemed like he was on a personal mission to take whatever bumps necessary to get all five other guys over. Nah AJ's first year in WWE was amazing. Bit of a dud by his standards since WM33 though.

Kevin Owens is talented and is really good sometimes, but he has some horrible bad habits and can really drag segments/matches on his bad days. His misses would be tolerable as a mid-carder but when he's been a main-event player most of the last two years it's not surprising he gets hated on. He had a twelve month period from September 2016-17 where he somehow managed to have multiple bad matches with AJ Styles, Roman Reigns AND Seth Rollins. I can't think of anyone else on the roster who's managed that. He was good last night though.

This match is being hyped as Viper has long named Aja as a personal inspiration and one of the wrestlers she most wants to beat. And it's 2018 so Aja Kong is wrestling in London. We start with some shoulder charges where neither woman is able to really budge the other. Both are used to wrestling much smaller opponents but now they've got a real physical test. Viper stands in the middle of the ring and invites Aja to charge at her. Aja succeeds in knocking Viper back a bit, and says it's your turn. Viper runs to the rope but Aja runs right behind her and cheap shots her and takes her down! Oh Viper. Surely you should know Aja Kong aint gonna play fair. Crowd was chanting for Aja but now they're pissed at her. She doesn't care. They fight on the outside and Aja throws Viper into the guardrail in front of like an 8 year old curled up in her chair looked scared. Aja takes a few seconds to shout trash at some guys in the crowd heckling her in between throwing Viper into the ring post and raking her eyes. Viper attempts a comeback throwing some strikes but Aja knocks her straight down with a right hand to the face. Aja then performs this funny dance and flexes her muscles to wind up the crowd even more. Her mannerism are so entertaining. Viper starts a comeback and they just start lariating the hell out of each other. They double lariat each other and bounce apart but Viper's quick enough to hit a huge dropkick and knocks Aja off her feet for the first time! Crowd really reacts like this is a big moment. Viper hits her with a big crossbody and senton, 1, 2, KICKOUT. Aja gets to the corner. Viper charges at her but Aja clocks her on the head with her trusty garbage can! The referee snatches it off her and has it removed meanwhile Aja shrugs and is sincerely baffled that he thinks that wasn't legal. Aja then hits Viper with an absolutely sick brainbuster. My Lord that looked devastating. 1, 2 KICKOUT! Aja rolls up her gloves signalling she's about to finish this and slowly drags a groggy Viper to her feet, she goes for the spinning backfist but Viper ducks, headbutts Aja into the corner and hits a big cannonball. 1, 2, KICKOUT! Viper goes to the top rope to hit the Vader bomb but Aja gets her knees up and blocks it with an evil smirk on her face. She hits Viper with a couple of strikes and a spinning back fist! Viper's knocked out. Aja goes to the second rope and leaps off for a big elbow drop. Didn't know Aja still did that move! 1, 2, THREE! In the post match Aja extends to a hand to Viper sitting on the floor against the turnbuckle to help her up. Viper reaches out and... Aja pulls her hand back haha, mocks her, slaps her ass and leaves the ring laughing at the crowd who're booing her some more. She will never change. Loved this match. Two big women with big personalities clashing with a solid face/heel dynamic and working the crowd throughout. ***3/4

Kay Lee Ray recently defeated Dash Chisako at a Sendai Girls event, now Meiko Satomura has come all the way to London to avenge her protege's loss. Some really good facial expressions at the start selling that this isn't quite a grudge match, but a lot of professional pride is on the line here. The opening of the match is mainly technical wrestling which Meiko mostly wins out on. Meiko gets a bit too over-confident going for a top rope move when KLR's not been that beaten down yet. Kay Lee pulls her off the top and goes for a Gory Bomb which Meiko escapes from, but KLR trips her and then drags her to the outside. The commentary reminds us that Kay Lee Ray is the hardcore daredevil and outside the ring is her favoured battleground. Before you know it she's slammed Mieko straight into the ring apron! Kay Lee's on top now and starts to drag Meiko back into the ring and attempts a Gory Bomb on the apron but Meiko blocks it on the ropes and counters her into a Death Valley Driver on the apron. Meiko's winning all the striking exchanges as they're both back in the ring. Meiko's looking so intense with her fiery face throwing forearms and kicks. KLR manages to block the odd one but she's not really getting any meaningful offense. That is until she catches one of Meiko's kicks, spins her round and hits her with the Gory Bomb, the move which beat Dash Chisako, and attempts the flash win. 1, 2 Kickout! Kay Lee's goes to finish off Meiko from the top rope probably going for her swanton, but Meiko charges up at her before she can do anything, hoists her up and hits the Death Valley Bomb. Another kick out at two that really shocks the crowd. Meiko's just fired up even more and hoists KLR up to hit another one, only to be countered into roll up. 1, 2, THREE! Kay Lee Ray gets a slightly flukey win and gives Meiko her first ever loss in Pro-Wrestling Eve. This was mostly a great match but it lost me a bit with that finishing stretch getting a bit excessive with the finisher trading, crowd didn't seem to care the slightest though. ***1/2

Loss did a great Introduction to Joshi thread here. The YouTube links aren't working anymore but just google the match with the date and you'll find them on the internet somewhere.

Bobby Lashley's sisters should be the top heel stable in the WWE.

Cena tapped out Triple H at Wrestlemania 22, who was the closest thing to "previous Ace" at the time.

This was pretty good. Yes it was obvious at times that Bryan was literally guiding Cass by the hand but that doesn't really effect my enjoyment for what was never gonna be classic match anyway. I thought him grabbing Cass' hand to act like he was fighting back a block attempt was a relatively subtle way to do it. Bryan was captivating in most of what he was doing working his role and it told the story of Cass being too worked up about fighting his own insecurities to deal with Bryan properly and losing the match because of that. ***1/4

Awesome opener. I've seen some of their other matches and I'm astounded at how much better Kurt Angle is against Rey Mysterio than almost anyone else from that era. He just abandons all his bad psychology habits and actually wrestles to his character. Really strong mat wrestling and throws like you'd expect from an Olympian wrestler. Great stuff. ****1/4

I don't think he "not welcome". Heyman didn't go with Brock when he wrestled on that Japan show either.

This doesn't necessarily correlate into Mania ticket sales, but Bryan was pulling some monster quarter ratings for his segments in the build to Wrestlemania in 2014 and the post-Mania feud with Kane. He was certainly a draw for a significant part of the audience. That being said I still voted Jeff. He was a relatively smaller star in wrestling, but at a time where wrestling was far more popular.

What Meltzer said about Moolah in his 2007 bio: "You never know truth from fiction in the story of Moolah, who, in person, was a charming Southern woman who may not have been well liked by most of the women wrestlers of the era, but garnered tremendous respect from the men in power, which was very difficult for a woman in this business to have. She was reliable to do business with. When she said you'd have four women in your territory of a certain date, they would be there, no matter what the weather conditions were. And the women were taught not to complain or cause trouble even though the hard life traveling with a troupe of wrestlers for a few weeks is going to have its inherent issues. The reputation is they would be professionals when they arrived, and the ones who weren't didn't last long. Of course, different promoters had very difficult ideas of what being a professional meant."

On the 2008 PPV numbers being down, you have to factor in that the United States was in a major recession from December 2007 to June 2009. That's gonna hurt business more than anything.

Must be coz it says "his career was essentially over at the age of 34" he turned 34 in 2001.

I wonder how well-regarded Kurt was rated as a wrestler by his peers in WWF, coz I remember a few being disgruntled with his antics. The story of him complaining to management about Eddie Guerrero selling instead of getting into position for the next spot comes to mind. I'd be interested to know which wrestlers exactly have a ballot in the Hall of Fame.

This is a really fun sprint and the best of those "Divas Revolution" tags I've seen thus far (most weren't good though). It's funny because this exact same match happened on Main Event the previous week and thought that one was pretty poor, but the lay out is vastly improved here. Match opens with a Brie Bella vs. Sasha Banks stand off. Brie gives Sasha a hard smack across the face, quick brawl and Sasha delivers a REALLY HARD SMACK across the face to Brie who looks totally shook. Nikki and Tamina get into a hoss battle charging into each other which Nikki gets the better of eventually with her forearm strike. She hits a few of them in the match, one to Naomi as she's attempting a move off the top rope and another to Sasha in the finishing stretch. That forearm always looks good. The Sasha vs. Nikki bits are the best part of the match, Sasha takes advantage of Nikki dealing with Naomi coming from the outside to hit the Bank Statement and get the win. ***1/4 worth a watch.

This is a really good TV match I have no memory of until just watching it today. I thought the Main Event match with Nikki Bella was Paige's best match but I think this might be slightly better Match opens with some evenly-matches exchanges before a double dropkick. Sasha extends a hand to Paige and says "Shake my hand!" then viciously grabs her when Paige isn't keen. Sasha's heel control segment is really really good. WHO'S HOUSE IS IT NOW as she's beating down Paige in the corner later mocks Paige's YAAAA screams on the apron with an evil smirk. I like how the match mostly revolves around submissions in the second half and both women are selling being tried and are slowing down, but they still have the crowd with them. Paige eventually goes for a slam or something but she's too tired from the match and Sasha's offense on her body to get through the move, Sasha counters and turns it into a bank statement for the win. Really good finish using psychology that didn't require a single high spot to get over. ***1/2

Boycotting a wrestling show currently pushing babyfaces in a gay romance angle to fight right-wingery seems rather self-defeating. If you really want to do something about Sinclair Broadcasting then get involved in campaigns for stronger anti-monopoly legislation. Stuff like that. Not watching Ring of Honor isn't gonna do anything except maybe hurt the wrestlers. If you want to live your life without buying any products/services from oppressive organisations you're gonna have to go live in a cave somewhere. That's how capitalism functions, we all live within it and you can't change it by refusing to engage.

This is Bobby Lashley's best WWE match by a million miles. Logic tells me this is just another 2007 Cena carry job but I don't want to take away any credit from Lashley. His offense actually looks a lot more impact than usual and he manages to show a bit of character and determination. It's only a very short segment of the match early on but his matwork offense was pretty neat and actually got a crowd reaction, weird how he rarely ever used it in WWE considering his amateur credentials. Commentary goes a bit overboard saying Cena has never faced anyone with Lashley's amateur background... did Kurt Angle just no longer exist in WWE canon once he moved to TNA? The match starts with a strong lockup and both guys trying to overpower each other, which Lashley gets the better of. Suits the build of them being 'two young bulls' wanting to be the top star of the company. Lashley is put over as the more powerful of the two but he never really gets Cena in any real danger because Cena always comes up with some counter or unexpected offense to break up Lashley's control segments, like how he spins and hits him with a blockbuster and the commentary puts over Cena's 'experience' giving him that edge. Lashley kicks out of the AA after a delayed pin attempt but Cena puts him away with the Super AA, think that's the earliest I've ever seen Cena pull that out? The Khali match at One Night Stand is usually given as Cena's best performance against a poor worker but I think this match is even more impressive. At least with Khali Cena had so much tape to watch of WWF babyfaces working against giants, and he follows that formula of mostly just bouncing of Khali fighting from underneath. Here I don't know what precedent Cena has to go off. He's wrestling a green as grass guy who's literally never had a good match in his life and it's a babyface vs. babyface PPV main event with no gimmicks or shenanigans at all. Just a straight wrestling match yet somehow it's still very good. ***3/4

I'm starting to get jaded with NJPW's "every main event goes 30+ minutes" trope, it's just the same thing at every show now and it feels so mechanical. Even a junior highspots match is 30 minutes now. Why would anyone want to see Will Ospreay in such a slow-paced match.

This was fantastic. Kota's throwing all the hard strikes while Zack's trying to close the distance and grapple him into submission, you feel the conflict as both are trying to force the other into wrestling their kind of match. Just generally these are two guys who're good at avoiding over-doing spots and they combine excellently to make a thrilling match where even though I'm familiar with both of them I don't know what move/counter they're gonna pull out next. Feels like a really close-fought battle where they both know one genius move/slip up will decide it, it's so tense. This was the best match of the tournament. ****1/2

Really liked this match. Yoshi Hashi showed a lot of heart here I was almost rooting for him to win at a few points even though I'm a vastly bigger Kota fan. The moonsault spot was a bit contrived but in context I don't think that mattered much as he was just waking up the crowd and it certainly worked. ***3/4

Have to side with Edwin on this match. They're throwing big moves all over the place for ages yet it doesn't feel like it's actually going anywhere. I don't know what either guy's strategy to win is supposed to be. Ishii's emotive selling saves the match from being outright bad though. **1/4

I hate the idea of Bryan losing because it'll make the crowd mad for the rest of the show, you know how difficult these crowds can be.

Some of Benoit's offense looked more damaging than Bryan's. His chops and his suplexes were better, that match where he german suplexes Steve Austin 10 times is a fantastic Benoit performance in that regard and I don't recall Bryan ever pulling off something like that so well. But then again I think in the macro Bryan was still better because he's smarter in how he actually uses offense. Benoit tends to get a bit spotty with throwing moves around, not to an extent that it becomes 'bad' but enough to take him down a notch when we're comparing great wrestlers.