SmartMark15

Yeah I really loved this. Thought the offense looked great on both sides but the real highlight for me was Charlotte's bumping. That lady came to work and to make Becky look like a star. From all the bumps through the tables, the chairs, and that wild finish. Becky is everyone's favorite for good reason but Charlotte really came out of this looking great for me personally. I loved the brutality of her chops when Becky tried to run. I love that she refused to let the table get the better of her and did a freaking Swanton just to get it right. Yes the refereeing was annoying and it did take away from the match. But otherwise, I thought this was really great and easily MOTN. ****1/4

I imagine Shield might win the Tag Titles tonight to end the show on a high note.

Horrible news to wake up to. Legitimately affecting. I can only wish for the speediest recovery and will revel in the massive pop Roman gets upon his return.

Thought this was a legitimately great title match. Opens up with some decent exchanges. Then we get into an Imabayashi heat segment trying to take out Quatro's leg. I don't know what it is about Ralph but he moves kind of slowly in the ring and that sort of kills the energy of his heat segments. Luckily he doesn't give in to the temptation to just do rest hold after rest hold and instead does some pretty decent looking offense on Quatro's leg even though it doesn't quite catch the momentum of the crowd. Quatro does a decent selling job of the leg for a lot of the match but it more or less disappears once we hit the finishing stretch. There are some legitimately great false finishes down the stretch. When Quatro hits the sitout Last Ride, it was so visually stunning that the crowd were convinced that was it. It made for a great false finish and added a lot of tension for all the nearfalls that came after. Quatro looked like a world killer taking out Ralph's goons especially when he no sold the tray shot. The crowd just got hotter and hotter seeing him away away all of Ralph's usual tricks and they went absolutely mental for the Dusty false finish. I'm glad they didn't prolong the match too much after the Dusty false finish as I think the heat had certainly peaked. The finish was anti-climactic but it did make sense with the story they were telling as Ralph tied up the legs to get the leverage advantage. Thought this was a little tough to get into at first as we have the typically jokey Filipino crowd mixed with some slightly lethargic ring work to open but that finishing stretch is worth seeing for just how perfectly it came off to make Quatro seem like a main event babyface. It was really nice to see both this match and the JDL-Tengu match come out on YT after the show. There was a lot of good action they released online worth seeing. ****

PWR's YouTube page have recently released two great title matches from their most recent show last month. Already reviewed the JDL-Tengu match on this forum and will write up Imabayashi-Quatro soon. Check them out. https://www.youtube.com/user/PhilWrestlingRevo

This is for Jake de Leon's PHX Championship with Tengu flying in from London to challenge for the title. You can see some of the British influences on Tengu in the opening exchanges where they mix the hold trading with some comedy spots. Thought they played off well and got the crowd invested early on. The fact that they added in some character moments and taunts helped to start things off hot as well. From there, it transitions into a pretty straightforward arm vs. leg match. JDL targets Tengu's left arm to soften him up for the Inasal Lock and Tengu goes after the leg to try and weaken JDL's base. Thought Tengu's bumping looked a little weird in some spots, taking it more on the knees and on his sides than traditional flat bumps. Made things like his Brainbuster and his second rope splash look a little off. The more footage I see and the more live events I attend, the more convinced I am that Jake de Leon is probably the best worker in the Philippines today. Guy has a strong connection with the crowd and has the best looking offense from what I've seen as well. He works well as an ace figure for PWR and his matches are always something to look forward to. I think this is a strong showcase for him.

The Ladykiller is coming in from Singapore as a foreign invader going up against local boy Chris Panzer. Perfectly serviceable match here with a decent opening shine only marred by a mistimed handspring off the ropes. The Ladykiller's heat segment is far too long, taking up what feels like a good eight or ten minutes before we get a quick Panzer comeback at the end. I enjoyed Ladykiller's heel mannerisms but his heat segment really did just go on and on and while Panzer's comeback was fun, it just didn't seem proportional to the amount of time he spent on the defense. Gotta love Panzer's Tanahashi-esque splash though. Looked pretty good and was a nice finish. ***1/2

This was fucking awesome. None of that useless meandering to open, just a huge slap and then we're off to the races. Shibata is so fantastic at creating a sense of danger and even in loss, he always seems unbeatable. It's the stiff strikes, the measured selling, those gruesome headbutts (hard to watch in retrospect). Tanahashi gives him all the selling he needs and is even able to stand up to the strikes on occasion with some sick palm strikes of his own. The finish is just absolutely pitch perfect brilliance to make both guys look amazing. Love this, more of this stuff in New Japan now will be a much needed shot in the arm. ****1/2

Shibata kicks Tanahashi's ass and go back and forth for a really fun and compact match. The crowd were not buying into this so much even with Shibata's incredibly stiff strikes. They wake up for Tanahashi's transitions though. Nice that we get a Shibata victory in the Dome though. Really fun. ***3/4

From lame indie geek being edgy to my favorite act on the show. Jay White, ladies and gentlemen. He was already showing his mettle as an old school style heel during his US Title match with Juice and his G1 run but now with Gedo as an old school heel manager? Money. It just feels so different from everything else going on in the show that I can't help but be drawn in. The cheating makes for some great false finishes and spots too. Probably my favorite being that I was certain Tanahashi was going to get the finish with the High Fly Flow onto Jay on the chair. When Jay rolled out of the way, I actually thought White might win. Awesome stuff, can't wait to see what's next for White in 2019. ****1/4

Interesting to see a three-way in the Tokyo setting and it's a mixed bag for this booking experiment. Definite pro is cutting out those typically uneventful opening mat exchanges we usually get and this allows the action to get off to a much hotter start. Being able to swap one guy out for another means there were very few dead spots and the action kept on moving. The melodrama stuff among the three is what it is. Didn't hate it but it does disrupt the momentum of the match occasionally but I'm willing to forgive it. One thing that's noticeable is that either the crowd was not invested too much or they were unsure how to react to the three-way structure. From what I understand, Japanese crowds are far more conditioned to respond to traditional heat segments and transitions. I liked that they went out of their way to have all three guys in the ring for multiple long segments in the match but the best stuff here were the Omega-Ibushi interactions for sure. The crowd really woke up and they were hot for the match up. Another interesting thing of note is that the New Japan prod team has a different approach to covering a three-way match. Where WWE would focus on two of the participants to make the third's return a surprise, New Japan try to get maximum coverage and let us know where every wrestler is at any one time. Kind of kills some of the shock for viewers at home. ****1/4

I'm typically one of the more optimistic viewers on this forum. I've had very little to say that's upset me about WWE programming this year. That main event however was crushing. It really, truly upset me to watch.

Been absolutely loving these lists. Great insights and a great reference to discover fantastic matches. Keep up the good work.

Really shocked that they're going for a triple threat at KOPW. Omega still likely to enter the Dome with the title but using a triple threat as his obstacle to get there actually opens up some interesting possibilities. This continues to be the most unpredictable road to the Dome that Gedo's booked in a while. As for the match itself, the addition of Cody dilutes my excitement but having the first triple threat for the IWGP title in over a decade could be interesting.

Basically the same as the Destruction tag with Ospreay swapped out for Okada. Liked how they built up to the Okada-Omega interactions but also good to see how hot the crowd were for Ishii-Ibushi interactions as well. Just twenty minutes of great action here, none of the time for any of the plodding opening segments that we get in their singles main events. Just take all the good stuff--hard strikes, tense finisher counters, and great nearfalls--and put them all in one match. Crowd was hot and the match lived up to their hype. ****1/4

Something about Matt and Nick's faces keeps me from sympathizing with them as intently as I'd like. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the effort however. I really liked the story they told with Matt's back after he tweaks it on the back flip. GoD smelling blood in the water and going for that injury only makes it even better. From there, it's a simple tag team storyline of the babyfaces having one man down and the other trying to keep the ship afloat. I really enjoyed the delayed More Bang For Your Buck as a 1) babyface selling moment as well as 2) an excuse to kick out of the move. A well laid out tag team match and very enjoyable. ****

If we truly are seeing Ospreay's farewell to the juniors and him moving up to heavy, this was a nice way to say goodbye to the division. He started hot with huge offense trying to catch Scurll early. That turned into a great back and forth between both guys just dropping absolute bombs until one man could finally be put away. This was some of the best Marty I've seen with none of his overplayed problematic aspects (did he even do the wishbone spot in this match?) and all crisp, exciting action instead. Great match. ****

Also been enjoying the heavyweight Ospreay. Liked his strikes here and just how well he paced the match, even having an enjoyable heat sequence near the open. It also made his more athletic bursts and comebacks stand out and pop even more. What is up with Lethal ROH Title matches and abusing Bobby Cruise? Thought the first belt spot with Ospreay catching the title was a little silly but decent enough character building. The second belt spot kinda took me out of the match however. Same with the ladder spot. Totally unnecessary and distracted these two from putting in some work to make a much better match. Aside from that, this was still a lot of fun. Lethal is a great champion character and always seems like a real ace in the ring during these title matches. Looks like Taven vs. Lethal at Final Battle. ****

Not the cleanest performance from these guys with Robynn looking the sloppiest in the ring of the four. Martivo's entrance isn't in the full force that he's mastered this year but his opening shine shows just how over he is with the crowd. The YOLO Twins get over their act as ultra douche heels but the offense here isn't as neat as it could be. Ken Warren interfering was a decent finish to the match to really get over the heel act. **1/2

Was great to see this segment at the MWF 4 show. At MWF 3, Rex Lawin disgraced the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag by wiping it on himself, his manager Coach Gus Queens requires him to take a gender sensitivity seminar. Unbeknownst to them, MWF Commissioner (and transwoman) Mike Shannon, Martivo, and Robynn put Lawin through a gender and sexuality 101 talk. This was wildly over with the crowd when the segment played at MWF 4 and perhaps the most surprising bit of it was Rex Lawin being as open to the teachings as he was. It would have been easy to go down the path of being a full heel and just rejecting what Shannon, Martivo, and Robynn had to say but they actually showed some development here. It wasn't a full on face turn as Rex still wrestled his I Quit match that night as a full blown heel but this was a fascinating and very positive segment on the show.

Tokyo Dome build playing out pretty much as we called it which is definitely not a bad thing if you ask me. It's all been logical and great and also the Tana-Okada match was fantastic.

Another fantastic addition to the Okada-Tanahashi rivalry and also a great way to round out their 2018 trilogy. Loved the early face-heel divide with Okada basically playing a far more ruthless and cocky heel against the inspiring comeback of Tanahashi. We like to complain on this forum about how inconsequential the first halves of NJPW main events are but I thought that was decidedly not the case with this match. Right off the bat, you have Okada foregoing his standard clean break fake out to just straight up whack Tanahashi in the face instead. From there you have Tanahashi hurting his knee off a plancha and that leads into Okada going after Tana's leg and a brilliant selling performance from Tanahashi. Easily his most consistent and exciting leg selling that I've personally ever seen. And from there, we already know what Okada and Tanahashi can do together when stringing together a finishing stretch. Awesome, awesome match followed by a great post-match angle to set up the next briefcase defense. ****3/4

Probably some of the cleanest footage of local wrestling I've seen with commentary as well as instant replays. Also some of the cleanest action I've seen from the local footage of this new era of wrestling as well. JDL's strikes looked pretty damn good and he hit everything pretty strongly and cleanly. Aside from the slight misstep doing the springboard clothesline, his stuff looked great. Imabayashi looked pretty decent here with some good stuff like kicking JDL mid-hand spring. I liked JDL's arm work although Imabayashi's selling of it was in and out. When he did sell it though, it came off really well especially after the hip toss armbreaker. The shenanigans at the end played off well enough and it's a nice way to start off the heel run Imabayashi and Rederick Mahaba have been going on and continue to have to this day. ***3/4

You can always feel free to post in the match discussion threads and wrestling threads as well. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matches that we do already have up on here. I know a bunch of guys looked at a lot of BJW stuff from 2000 recently.

Really great championship match that evoked old school NWA World Title matches that you might have seen on TV. Thought these two really brought it to each other with Jay Lethal just looking like an absolutely imposing ace against Gresham. Loved Jay Lethal's control segment and Gresham firing back with chops and arm work to sneak the first fall late in the match. Lethal sold the arm really well and there were some great spots like Gresham kicking out Lethal's arm as he went for the Lethal Injection. Nice moment too when Lethal agrees to the five minute overtime. If I have a complaint, it's that Gresham just wasn't particularly expressive as a babyface so it was a little hard to get behind him. Otherwise, I thought this was a great and well-paced 30 minutes with a hot finish that made both guys look great. ****1/4