SmartMark15

Loved this. Tenryu just don't give a fuck. KENTA puts in a boss-level selling performance here. KENTA bumps like nuts and his comebacks are engaging. But Tenryu DON'T GIVE A FUCK. Great stuff. ****1/4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U_pURDjQOE PWR Champion Ralph Imabayashi vs. Peter Versoza - PWR Quezon Province Invasion 2/5/16 A nothing much that isn't helped by a provincial crowd who most like don't have a strong reference point when it comes to pro wrestling. The weak strikes don't help keep the crowd engaged and some things come off sloppy too. Bonus points for kayfabe-breaking portions by the cameramen. Basically a nothing-house-show match. I'm wondering if the crowd would have had a stronger response to more theatrical crowd work spots. *1/2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuG4UHkooUQ Peter Versoza vs. Ralph Imabayashi - PWR Live 8/16/15 Best of the three matches I've seen so far. I enjoyed Imabayashi much more in this match. His facials improved and while his kicks still felt a bit soft, his other strikes looked decent enough. His selling improved too. Put a little more charisma into it and there was a clearer progression of pain and wear and tear. And yes, I did start popping a bit for his "slap me I dare you" Shibata-lite segment. He's no Shibata, but even Shibata-lite works for me. At times Versoza looked a bit lost. Like when waiting for the first big transition where Imabayashi kicks and knees his way to the advantage, he just kind of stood there to absorb the offense. His bumps were kind of sloppy as well at points. But yeah, I thought it flowed much better than most of the others. The bigger transitions came off better as well. I actually thought the finish was kind of clever actually. You never really see a resthold get transitioned into a finisher like that and it made for a nice surprise. ***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SzSeqS4QhI John Sebastian vs. Ralph Imabayashi - PWR Vendetta 2/21/15 It might have been the worse angle or the poorer lighting, but the offense looked better in this one. Strikes seemed more snug, and Sebastian's bigger offense looked crisp enough to feel impactful. Imabayashi seemed to only know play-dead selling however and there wasn't much fighting from underneath from him. Also, despite having the gimmick of the half-Japanese puro-influenced guy, his strikes aren't nearly as convincing as Sebastian's. Sebastian, however, just totally drops almost all or most of the selling. Especially coming out of Imabayashi's Calf Crusher, Sebastian didn't show any signs of it. The finish was contrived but I at least like that it was foreshadowed early on in the match. Decent, fun match. **1/2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1DJMmVjYFE PWR Champion "Classical" Bryan Leo vs. "The Senyorito" Jake de Leon - PWR Live 8/16/15 A little context: Leo seems to be the newly crowned champion after cashing in a Money in the Bank type deal against his opponent here tonight, Jake de Leon, at PWR Wrevolution X (the company's biggest show every year). JdL is here to try and get his title back and exact some revenge on Bryan Leo who is flanked by his stablemates in The Royal Flush. First observation right off the bat is that this was filmed when PWR still hadn't installed a proper ring. They're using a repurposed boxing ring with ropes that don't have the same torque and tension as wrestling ring. This does affect the match at times as they're unable to utilize Irish whips and rope rebounds are awkward looking at best and just bad at worst. Leo is the heel come in and I enjoyed his classic heel stoogey expressions and tactics even though it couldn't really be backed by much of his offense. The match has an awkward structure. JdL gets the early shine to get the crowd riled up but the transitions feel sudden and unearned. The two basically trade off heat segments until they approach the finishing stretch of the match. This brightest point of the match came when Leo misses a double knee strike in the corner, crashing his knees into the turnbuckle. JdL then hits a Senyorito Kick (superkick) right to the knee and that actually got a pop out of me. This led into a Figure Four on Leo whose double finges to JdL were fun at first but got increasingly cutesy the more he did it. I wish JdL had put a little more work into the hold. As it was, he just kind of sat there in position while Leo flailed around trying to get it over. I do give JdL credit for applying it on the correct leg though--one of my greatest pet peeves in pro wrestling. Leo actually did a decent job selling the knee down the final stretch of the match but that quickly devolved into a strike exchange that just came off as awkward. Whether it was the sound system or the wrestlers themselves (my money's on the latter), the strikes (throughout the whole match really) were just incredibly soft and didn't carry much impact behind them. Not even some good mat stomping to help add to the illusion. Really detracted from the match. Classic distraction finish leads to Leo winning by making JdL pass out to a Cobra Clutch. if you ask me, the low blow felt a bit insignificant given what the finish was but that's just me. One thing worthy of note though is the hot crowd. Philippine audiences are pretty starved when it comes to live wrestling (WWE visits once every 4 or 5 years), so these guys are hot for EVERYTHING. Not the ideal set up for a match, and execution tended to be sloppy. Here's hoping things get better when a proper ring is installed. **3/4

Hey all! Being from the Philippines (to my knowledge, the only Filipino member of the board), I feel the urge to take it upon myself to discuss and review local independent wrestling. It's an incredibly young scene, pretty much in the most infant of stages. The largest promotion in the country is Philippine Wrestling Revolution (PWR) and it opened in 2013. Just this past month, a second promotion called Manila Wrestling Federation (MWF) opened as well. I'll be reviewing matches here more or less at random and it'll mostly be limited to what I can find online. Here's hoping this project turns out well and hopefully you guys pick some stuff up from this newly developed sector of pro wrestling.

Just saw this today, and I got to say that I fall on the side of people who feel the overbooking did take away from it a little. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fantastic match. The opening stuff is pretty much perfect. Watching stuff like that, it continues to baffle me the hate that Roman Reigns gets online. He is clearly without a doubt, just a top of the line worker with uncanny in-ring charisma. The forearm table spot was INSANE and I honestly did not see it coming. I did love that the interference in the finishing stretch was able to incorporate the cronies in really great ways. I loved how Reigns just tossed Styles right into the crowd and the dive dodge into barricade leap looked absolutely wonderful. However, I do feel that the count out and the DQ slowed things down unnecessarily. Shane and Steph hogging some spotlight didn't look that hot either. This would have been greatly improved with just having been a No DQ, No Count Outs match to begin with so you could have a more organic flow while still getting the fun shenanigans in down the line. Still, though, a pretty great match. ****1/4

Disclaimer: Heavy fed bias especially for the 2010s. Will definitely update and change as time goes along and I see more footage. 2010 MOTY: Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WWE 3/28) Runner Up: Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (ROH 12/18) 2011 MOTY: CM Punk vs. John Cena (WWE 7/17) Runner Up: William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose (FCW 6/11) 2012 MOTY: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (WWE 4/29) Runner Up: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW 10/8) 2013 MOTY: Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (WWE 8/18) Runner Up: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (NJPW 1/4) 2014 MOTY: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (WWE 8/17) Runner Up: AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW 8/1) 2015 MOTY: Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (WWE 10/7) Runner Up: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns [vs. Seth Rollins] (WWE 3/29) 2016 MOTY: The Revival vs. #DIY (WWE 11/19) Runner Up: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles (NJPW 1/4) 2017 MOTY: Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW 4/9) Runner Up: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (NJPW 8/12) 2018 MOTY: Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa (WWE 4/7) Runner Up: Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade Almas (WWE 1/28) 2019 MOTY: Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE 4/7) Runner Up: Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor (WWE 1/27)

Incredibly fun spotfest spectacle that brought the crowd to their feet and absolutely drove the fans wild. They deserve a lot of credit for that. Everything was spectacular and it just felt like some really good potato chips--not that substantial but you can't quite quit it. I will say though that this match is not nearly as deaf to pacing as some other heralded ROH tag classics (I'm looking at you MCMG-Briscoes) and there is a great sense of escalation that's only added to by the silence on commentary and the sight of the entire crowd just up on their feet. ****1/4

I've written about this at length in the past. So I'll keep it simple here for now: Greatest match of all time. *****

A showcase of what good booking can get you. Played off their past encounters perfectly and made for probably the most tense 4 minutes in recent WrestleMania history. A grand showcase of how less can truly be more. ****1/2

So great to be back on a forum like this as these topics are so much fun! Let's start with some YES votes: Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata - NJPW 4/9 My current MOTY of 2017. I'm not a big Okada fan so my vote here is purely for the Shibata performance. But let's give Okada some credit, takes a lot of guts to take a beating like he did from Shibata. So many moments in this match that just stand out in the memory--the brutal headbutt, the high angle German, the glorious Rainmaker no-sell. This was a spectacle of brutality that'll be tough to top. ***** John Cena vs. AJ Styles - WWE 1/29 Yes, it's the death of the finisher as we know it. Yes, it's exaggerated and a little goofy. Yes, the nearfalls in the middle seem a bit superfluous. But I grew up watching WWE (as most of us did, I assume) so I'm a sucker for the current WWE main event style. John Cena really is the master of working this particular kind of main event in the company and his inevitable big time match vs. Roman Reigns will be a sight to behold. His facial expression before those brutal lariats really sold the seriousness of the match to me. AJ Styles continues to be fantastic at pretty much everything and he even looked great while taking a loss here. An iconic finish as well, one of the more clever variations on the AA I've ever seen. ****3/4 Pete Dunne vs. Mark Andrews - WWE 1/15 Probably the best match of the tournament just in terms of sheer pace and excitement. They kept moving and Dunne was able to keep up while still maintaining his stance as the bruiserweight in the tournament. Just a great exciting showcase for both guys. ***3/4 Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate - WWE 1/15 The culminating match of the tournament and it came together beautifully. Took two guys who I wasn't familiar with at all before and put together a classic simple ruthless heel vs. underdog babyface story. ***3/4 Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega - NJPW 1/4 I resent the six-star label but there's no denying this was a pretty damn enjoyable match. Moves at a brisk pace, has some spectacular spots (that Super Dragon Suplex and the table bump are ridiculous), and I liked how it protected Omega's finish. Also, I'm a sucker for the wrist-clutch spots. Probably my favorite thing that Okada does and I'm not even that big a fan of his. ****1/2 NO votes: Bobby Roode vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - WWE 1/28 Just generally boring. Roode as a worker does absolutely nothing for me. The finishing stretch was without a doubt great. It was nice to see Shinsuke compensating for months of no-selling his knee. But everything under that finish was unmemorable, awkward, and just boring. *** NOMINATING: #DIY vs. The Revival vs. Authors of Pain - WWE 4/1 Absolutely fantastic match that completely surpassed all my expectations for it. I had assumed that having the Authors of Pain (who I generally like more than most people) would significantly slow down the kind of action that #DIY and The Revival were used to delivering but this just came through absolutely fantastically. The necessity of the team up, the shared tag team finishes, even that timber table spot, it all made for what's currently neck-and-neck with Okada-Shibata as my 2017 MOTY. Yes, I liked it that much. ***** Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE 4/2 A showcase of what good booking can get you. Played off their past encounters perfectly and made for probably the most tense 4 minutes in recent WrestleMania history. A grand showcase of how less can truly be more. ****1/2

Probably the best CHIKARA match that I've ever seen. Eddie Kingston was white hot as a babyface going into this match. People loved him for his feud with Claudio, they bought into his fighting the BDK, and the promo that CHIKARA put out on YouTube to hype this match is probably the peak of Kingston's mic work. This match is only helped by the fact that Quack commits to playing the heel against Kingston. He takes shortcuts that no one really expected from him but work well to further the story of Kingston's ascension. Eddie's selling of the knee is wonderful, he really gets it over as a big deal throughout the match. Quack heeling it up makes it even more satisfying when Kingston's able to get some revenge by Backfisting Quack's knees while he's on the top rope. The big match feel comes through when the locker room starts to empty with CHIKARA stars past and present and Kingston's able to string together some suitably brutal offense to finish off Quack. An all-time great CHIKARA match, will be incredibly difficult to surpass. ****3/4

Absolutely fantastic match that completely surpassed all my expectations for it. I had assumed that having the Authors of Pain (who I generally like more than most people) would significantly slow down the kind of action that #DIY and The Revival were used to delivering but this just came through absolutely fantastically. The necessity of the team up, the shared tag team finishes, even that timber table spot, it all made for what's currently neck-and-neck with Okada-Shibata as my 2017 MOTY. Yes, I liked it that much. *****

AJPW ***** The Funks vs. Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (7/15/79) Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (1/28/86) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (6/5/89) Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (2/28/92) Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (7/29/93) Mitsuhary Misawa vs. Akira Taue (4/15/95) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (6/9/95) Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (12/6/96) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (1/20/97) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/31/98) ****3/4 Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (12/16/88) Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (6/8/90) Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue, & Masanobu Fuchi (5/22/92) Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (5/23/96) Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (2/27/00) Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (5/26/00) NWA/JCP/WCW ***** Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard (12/27/86) The Fantastics vs. The Midnight Express (4/26/88) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (4/2/89) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (5/7/89) Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (11/15/89) Sting's Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance (5/17/92) ****3/4 The Fantastics vs. The Midnight Express (3/27/88) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (2/20/89) WWF/E ***** Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (3/23/97) Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (1/23/00) Steve Austin vs. The Rock (4/1/01) Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (10/20/02) Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (7/26/08) Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (3/28/10) John Cena vs. CM Punk (7/17/11) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (4/29/12) Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (8/18/13) John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan (8/18/13) The Shield vs. The Wyatts (2/23/14) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (8/17/14) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (1/25/15) Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (2/11/15) Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins (3/29/15) Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (10/7/15) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn (4/1//16) The Revival vs. #DIY (11/19/16) The Revival vs. #DIY vs. Authors of Pain (4/1/17) Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles (11/19/17) Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano (1/27/18) Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa (4/7/18) ****3/4 Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage (2/15/87) Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage (3/29/87) Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind (9/22/96) Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit (5/31/01) Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane vs. Booker T vs. Rob Van Dam (11/17/02) Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar (2/15/04) Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (3/14/04) Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL (5/16/04) John Cena vs. Umaga (1/28/07) CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan (5/20/12) William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose (7/15/12) The Revival vs. #DIY (8/20/16) Brian Kendrick vs. Kota Ibushi (9/7/16) AJ Styles vs. John Cena (1/29/17) Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate (5/20/17) Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman (8/20/17) ROH ***** Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk (10/16/04) Team ROH vs. Team CZW (7/15/06) Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA (9/16/06) Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima (8/25/07) Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries (12/29/07) Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness (2/23/08) Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/27/08) ****3/4 Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (12/18/10) The All Night Express vs. The Briscoes (4/2/11) NJPW ***** Shinya Hashimoto vs. Victor Zangiev (4/24/89) Jushin Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani (2/9/97) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/9/12) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (1/4/13) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (4/7/13) AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (8/1/14) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles (1/4/16) Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (4/9/17) Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (8/13/17) Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito (8/14/17) Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada (6/9/18) ****3/4 Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (1/4/16) Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi (7/17/17) Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega (1/4/18) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi (8/12) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (9/23) TNA/Impact Wrestling/GFW ***** Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles (12/11/05) ****3/4 AJW ***** Shinobu Kandori vs. Akira Hokuto (4/2/93) Aja Kong vs. Yumiko Hotta (1/24/94) Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (8/30/95) ****3/4 Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiya Yamada (11/26/92) Akira Hokuto & Aja Kong vs. Shinobu Kandori & Eagle Sawai (4/11/93) Dynamite Kansai & Yumiko Hotta vs. Aja Kong & Akira Hokuto (8/24/94) JWP ***** ****3/4 Aja Kong, Sakie Hasegawa, Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs Hikari Fukuoka, Cutie Suzuki, Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai (7/31/93) CHIKARA ***** ****3/4 Eddie Kingston vs. Mike Quackenbush (11/13/11) PWG ***** ****3/4 Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (10/22/11) Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (6/26/15) CWF Mid-Atlantic ***** ****3/4 Trevor Lee vs. Chip Day (3/25/17) CWA ***** ****3/4 Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (12/30/85) CMLL ***** El Dandy vs. El Satanico (12/14/90) Atlantis vs. Villano III (3/17/00) Blue Panther vs. Villano V (9/19/08) ****3/4 El Dandy vs. El Satanico (10/26/90) Atlantis vs. Blue Panther (8/9/91) El Dandy vs. Negro Casas (7/3/92) TXT ***** ****3/4 LA Park vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. (5/11/13) Monterrey ***** ****3/4 El Hijo del Santo vs. LA Park (12/23/01) UWA ***** ****3/4 El Hijo del Santo vs. Brazo de Oro (1/13/91) PROGRESS ***** ****3/4 WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher (1/28/18) All placements subject to change!

Crazy good match. Remember seeing this when it first came out back when wrestling fandom was still quite fresh for me and just absolutely loving it back then. In the Philippines, they used to air the Big 4 PPVs in cinemas so I watched this in a movie theater with a crowd. Enjoyed this match then for the big hardcore spots that made for quite a spectacle that hold up even upon rewatch today. Looking back on it now, this is just an all time great performance from Cena. The consistent selling of the ribs made for drama immediately when Umaga nails him in the gut. The fantastic big transition with Cena tossing the steel steps makes for an absolutely great visual. It's a spot I didn't remember from this match (the announcer's table and finish were more clearly embedded in my mind) and came as an absolute shock upon rewatch. I don't think in today's WWE that they'll ever allow anyone to take the steel steps thrown out from the ring right to the head. Within the context of the match though, it made sense as the only way to knock down an unbeatable monster. Cena's TOUKON~! comeback with the blood coming down is still a great visual and the finish is a sufficiently brutal way to cap off what was a hard hitting contest. Great stuff. ****3/4

Hello PWO! My name is Joseph and I've been lurking for a long while now on this forum and I absolutely love all the content that's on here. Used to be a member of the puroresu.tv forums as The Demented One so I'm glad to be able to join this community and start up discussions on pro wrestling once again. I'm 21 years old from the Philippines and I've been a fan since I was 9 years old. Somewhat embarrassingly, my first real connection to wrestling came from Edge & Lita's live sex celebration on Raw in 2006. Forgive me, I was curious. But since then, I've grown to be a huge fan of pro wrestling. Mostly follow WWE, of course, but I was a fan of ROH for a long time as well. Huge fan of 90s AJPW and recently got into a lot of 80s NWA. I've generally sample most every style of wrestling though to varying degrees of enjoyment. Can't wait to join in on all the discussion and thanks for having me on the forum!