SmartMark15

Absolutely excellent show with some strong angles with The Briscoes and Sasha-Bayley. Excited to see it progress.

Gotta say all these matches are really, really long and I don't think they all need to be. Otherwise, it's a good card, the match times just stuck out.

It seems NXT call ups are the new 2000s divas when it comes to their names.

A crazy sprint that got hella time on Smackdown. Rey looks as good as ever athletically, pulling out moves, dives, and bumps like it's 1997. But that's not all he has, as he proved in the opening minutes, his star power is so bright that he could a headlock sequence over as babyface. Fantastic. Andrade for his part also went the extra mile, taking some crazy bumps like the headscissors off the apron and bringing the aggression. An excellent TV match, one to be looked back on fondly in the SD! archives. ****1/4

Best Yokozuna match of 2019. Not much to add as it's been covered pretty well. I loved how frantic and urgent things actually felt towards the finishing stretch and everything Hama did carried a sense of danger with it. Sekimoto was a perfect babyface struggling against an unstoppable force. Great stuff. ****

Excellent sequel to their title match from last year with Castle coming in as the aggressor before being cut down by his own injury. Loved how Castle sold his ribs in little ways like having trouble jumping over the ropes or being unable to hit the Bangarang. Can we also show some love to the punches and strikes these guys hit? Everything felt like there was a good amount of force behind it. Another surprising plus is how decent Aldis sounded on commentary. With a little more practice and energy, he could have a valuable spot to fall back on in the future. Great match, excellently paced and structured. ****1/4

I also thought this was one of the better matches of the night. ZSJ and Ishii both work so well in a compressed amount of time because offense is their strong suit. Thus everything looks great, everything feels urgent, and it's a sprint all the way to the finish. Great match. ****

Thought this was the best Dome main event since WK 10. I will agree that I thought Omega was very consistent with his leg selling. He goes back to it a lot while you're watching and there's a reason Tanahashi returns to it so often in the match. After that, there's the meta story of neither guy being able to match the other's style. Tana can't be an indy wrestler so he crashes through the table, Omega doesn't have the old school training so can't keep Tana down for the High Fly Flow. This plays into little things in the open too such as Tana going for roll ups and countering the OWA into a simple Abdominal Stretch. Thought Omega put in one of his best performances with an increased intensity and the best his offense has ever looked. He laid in with those chops and there was an extra aggression to him through the night too. Those 3 powerbombs in a row? Brutal. Loved this match. I was shocked they announced it was the longest Dome main event because it sure didn't feel that way. The last two or three all felt much longer. This felt packed and maximized the time given. Awesome stuff. ****3/4

Thought the opener and the last three matches delivered in a big way with that being probably my favorite WK main event of this era (just sneaking past Tana-Okada). I did watch at a public viewing though so that naturally skews things to the positive. Still, was biting on everything Tana and Omega did in that main event.

Tursas from the BDK in CHIKARA in 2009-2011 or so looked like an actual mythic beast and it definitely helped how he was presented as an unstoppable force. The BDK in general is a great shout because I loved that they went the all-white route as their uniform color. But Tursas definitely made the most of it with his size and that awesome bearded and horned mask.

Here's the top 20 I came up with: 20. Aleister Black vs. Tomasso Ciampa (WWE NXT 7/25) 19. Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Depserado (NJPW 5/22) 18. Austin Aries vs. Moose (Impact Wrestling 7/22) 17. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto (NJPW 7/21) 16. 7-Man Raw Gauntlet Match (WWE 2/19) 15. WALTER vs. Jordan Devilin (OTT 8/13) 14. Seth Rollins vs. The Miz (WWE 5/6) 13. Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles (WWE 12/16) 12. WALTER vs. Will Ospreay (OTT 10/13) 11. WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher (PROGRESS 1/28) 10. Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho (NJPW 1/4) 9. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi (NJPW 9/23) 8. WALTER vs. Darby Allin (EVOLVE 6/23) 7. Moustache Mountain vs. The Undisputed Era (WWE NXT 7/11) 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW 9/23) 5. Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE 11/18) 4. Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa (WWE NXT 6/16) 3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (NJPW 6/9) 2. Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade Almas (WWE NXT 1/27) 1. Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa (WWE NXT 4/7)

Rollins tries getting the Rain Trigger/Revolution Knee over as a finisher but it just didn't look good so the Stomp came back to replace it. He still keeps the knee around though.

So I went with Kobashi just because the amount of classics he's had plus the decent variety he got during that GHC Title reign really props him up over Dangerous K. Couldn't quite pick between Tanahashi and Styles because I haven't seen much of Tana from the 2000s but I must say that of late, I'd much rather watch a Tanahashi match than a Styles match. I appear to be the only one who picked Kenny Omega over Kazuchika Okada so here's my pitch. I think that Omega is just more consistently entertaining than Okada. Okada has those long stretches of uninteresting mat work where Omega will at least toss some power moves and strikes in. I also think that of the main eventers at the top of NJPW, Okada has the worst chemistry with his compatriots, only really excelling against Tanahashi and Omega. Omega meanwhile seems to really gel with all of the main event guys and gets some really great stuff out of them on a more reliable basis. As fantastic as Jun Akiyama is, Bryan Danielson is the best wrestler in the world and has been for about two decades now. A lot of people have has better individual years but no one quite matches Danielson's consistency and versatility. Danielson's work in 2018 is as good or better than his work in 2006. Haven't watched Nagata, I love Taue, so I left it undecided.

The best part about this whole gimmick is that none of it feels too distant from what the man himself might think or say. It adds a layer of legitimacy to Bryan that is truly what many, many people are lacking in this day and age. Miles away from Bob Roo screaming GLORIOUS all the time, for example.

Fun TV match with all four guys putting in good work and their offense looking great. Ali works the bulk of the match as the face in peril and it works since the typically smaller Almas and Bryan have someone even smaller they can better and toss around for a while. How great is it to see Bryan telling a ref that he HAS TIL FIVE again? Strong finishing stretch with an exciting result. ***1/2

Someone on the TLC thread that this was like watching a 2003 ROH Title match. Yeah, pretty match. This was absolutely amazing with both guys working from a far more mature position than in the early 2000s. So much good in here with all the offense looking amazing, both guys working their characters excellently, and the pacing being fantastic. Styles was able to show off as a fired up babyface with those big punches to Bryan and Bryan returned to some of the classic ferocity that made him a great heel on the indies. Those fishhooks looked gross. I mentioned on Twitter that it's amazing that two guys who are seen as pioneers of the nearfall-reliant indie style that dominates wrestling today worked a MOTYC with no finisher nearfalls. Amazing. In two months' time, Bryan worked the two best main roster matches of the year. ****1/2

This was absolutely awesome. Gresham has done very little for me outside of the ring but when the bell rings, damn is he great. But if you ask me, ZSJ is the one really taking things to the next level here. His bully tactics of shoving and slapping are such excellent spikes in energy to contrast the mat work that it creates a real sense of heat and intensity in a match that had very little personal stakes. All the mat exchanges looked pretty great for the most part, maybe some sloppy moments from Gresham but that plays into ZSJ being just that little bit better than him. Awesome match. ****1/4

An incredibly fun bombfest with the kind of nuclear hot crowd that used to make early 00s ROH so damn special. All out from the jump and they never let up on that pace. Both a strength and a drawback for this match if you ask me. Yes, it was a lot of amazing fun but everything just bled together and there was no real sense of struggle in the transitions. Very PWG-style bombfest. Fun to watch but not likely to leave an impact on me personally. ***3/4

Saw this touted as a MOTYC classic in some places. It was great but not that great. It suffers the usual faults. Far too long with a very safe, tepid opening boosted only by the focused rib work on Ospreay which he sold quite well. Things only started to really heat up at about the 18 minute mark or so and from there it was exactly the kind of white hot bombfest these guys are so good at. Thought that the Ospreay-Ibushi exchanges were far and away the highlight of this match. Dunno if Tanahashi-Omega are saving their stuff for the Dome but aside from some fun exchanges, their pairing didn't do too much for me in this match. Overall a lot of fun and an unexpected gem of a match to end the year. Lots to enjoy even if it is quite bloated. ****

Last night was Manila Wrestling Federation's last show for the year and it featured what might just be the best match in Philippine wrestling history between Mr. Lucha and Jake de Leon. I've been told that footage will be made available soon at which point, I'll make a much more objective review based on the footage. Live though, it was a legitimate MOTYC for the world and not just locally.

WWE Crown Jewel What a rotten display of some of the absolute worst practices of the biggest company in the world. A cash grab of billions for an oppressive prince who cares nothing for the industry and even less for the basic human rights of his people and citizens. It's disgusting that WWE chose to continue this show despite the overwhelming call for them to cut ties with Saudi Arabia and it continues to send the message that dollar rules over all even some basic decency. On the show, you need only read the results to understand how shit it was which is all I did considering what a nightmare everything about this show was. Opening with Racist American Hulk Hogan coming down to tell us that forgetting the past is okay as long as we get a few brother brothers in. Then Shane McMahon makes reality of an internet joke and gets crowned the Best in the World because screw that Phil Brooks guy. Brock Lesnar continues his reign of terror by burying the hottest babyface to challenge for his precious spot and bringing us back to a world where the Universal Champion shows up six times a year. Then finally four men who should have picked up their ball and gone home years ago to let their legacies lie decide that wrestling 30 minutes for a dead crowd is the best idea. And a few minutes in, Triple H tears his boob. Hate everything about this show.

The start of the red hot stretch that was the second half of Survivor Series. Second time in a row that Buddy Murphy has come in to completely steal the show. Ali took insane bumps to wake up this crowd and really what more can you ask from a cruiserweight title match. Murphy on offense just looks amazing and like an absolute beast. What an excellent champion for the division. ****

Rousey rookie of the year vs. the motivated Charlotte Flair makes for some magic. These two go out and earn their lost spot as the WrestleMania main event. Rousey is just so scrappy every time she goes out there. There's struggle behind every movement that even her collar and elbow tie ups look absurdly aggressive. Despite that aggression, she also has some of the best bumping and selling in the game? It's a spectacular combination that creates a match where everything felt earned and there seemed to be a feel that anyone could nab the advantage at any second. Not because of any your turn-my turn booking but because both workers were just so determined to just dog it out. That finishing angle was hot as hell and the path to a Rousey Mania main event seems clear. Return to us oh Becky soon, please. Awesome stuff. ****1/4

Daniel Bryan is the man and a motivated Brock Lesnar is one of the best in the world. Loved the atmosphere these two were able to create especially with Bryan actively taunting Brock to start, something we haven't really seen anyone do to Brock since his return. Then we went into the Suplex City horror show before kicking one of the greatest comebacks in wrestling all year. The low blow created a believably vulnerable Brock and Bryan's added aggression in his kicks made it even more believable that he just might sneak the win out. Bryan crossfacing Brock in the Yes Lock is one of my favorite spots all year. Yes, it more or less follows the same formula as the AJ match last year...but that match was awesome too. Easily my main roster WWE MOTY. ****3/4

This is a correct statement. Obviously my avatar reveals my huge bias but the guy has been (for me at least) the best wrestler of the millennium since the mid 2000s and he's back in a spot to help him highlight that.