Boss Rock

I really liked the show overall. Thought all of the singles matches delivered to at least "good" territory and the tags were fine if just sort of there.

Yeah I thought 2018 was pretty terrific too.

Big Match Taguchi does it again! After seeing him mostly dick around the last two tournaments, Taguchi delivering good match after good match was incredibly refreshing. I liked how even though it was 3 years after their last singles match they really drove home the rematch narrative and how both guys knew each other very well. Taguchi countering Ospreay's handspring with a hip attack was really cool and catching the ankle mid-Oscutter is one of my favorite moments this year. While my favorite moments of the match centered around Taguchi, Will to his credit was pretty great as well. He may very well be the best in the world at least as far as 2019 is concerned. ****1/4

It's funny how their first match together centered around limb work and ended up being a colossal failure while their most recent match just 18 months later was a great match centered around limb work. Jay has really managed to put the pieces together over the last year. His work over Tanahashi's arm was great and Tanahashi did a great job selling. The leg-assisted Dragon Screw might be one of my favorite spots this year. And that's to say nothing of the finish, which was surprising while also rather brilliant. More of this please. ****1/4

This match in a lot of ways felt similar to Kenny-Tanahashi from WK 13. Very long but worked a more urgent pace than most NJPW main events. Lots and lots of cool stuff but for the first half of the match it felt more like a "really good" match as opposed to a "Oh my God this is incredible!" match. The finishing stretch however was pretty fantastic. As many bombs as they threw in the first 20 minutes, the last 13 cranked everything up to about 11. The Oscutter on the apron. The 630 to Shingo still standing (incredibly dumb and dangerous but still impressive). Shingo's final comeback. I feel like Ospreay winning this match was a mistake but considering how much Shingo took before the final pin, it was as good as you could get in terms of giving him his first loss. Not perfect, but still an outstanding match that might be the best this year. ****3/4

It's always refreshing to see such a style of match in a promotion not typically known for brawls. Moxley looked the best he has in years and it's pretty safe to say this was his best singles match in quite some time if ever. I was a bit concerned that we were going to see "Dean Ambrose" with the first few strikes at the beginning, but everything after the first 30 seconds or so looked a lot better. Mox looked like he was potatoing Juice pretty hard with some of those punches and the lariats were really good as well. Juice for his part turned in a great babyface performance and after seeing him have to work with Fale, Owens, and Cody this year, it was a nice reminder of how good he really is. I'm not sure the match needed to be as long as it did as I think it could have ended after the first table bump, but what we got afterwards was still really good. Chaotic, hard-hitting, and violent. An absolute must-watch. ****1/2

Really tremendous stretch of three matches. Jay-Tanahashi was great, their best match yet. It's crazy how much Jay has improved since the embarrassment that was WK12. His offense looked really good as always and his work over Tanahashi's arm was great. Loved the leg-assisted Dragon Screw and the finish. Mox-Juice was terrific and while I would agree it wasn't quite a MOTYC, it was still very much a must-see match. To say Moxley has been reinvigorated since leaving WWE would be the biggest understatement of the year. Quite a difference wrestling somewhere you actually want to be makes. And Juice was a great babyface as always. The main event was MOTN and a pretty solid MOTYC. Could have been a tad shorter and they certainly did a LOT of stuff throughout, but it was nice to see the opening 10 minutes worked at a much more urgent pace than you usually see in NJPW main events.

The match to beat as sprint of the year. It doesn't get much better than this when it comes to sub-10 minute matches. As uninteresting asTakeshita can be, he might have the best offense of any wrestler in the world. His athleticism and explosiveness was a great match for Higuchi's power and toughness. I really wish Takeshita would work more matches like these as opposed to 30-minute epics because they're clearly his strong suit. No filler, just action. ****1/2

Really fun spotfest and proof that ladder matches are worked best when they have more than two competitors. There were some ridiculous and downright dangerous bumps with O'Reilly in particular taking a ton of punishment and Montez's tope where he landed right on his back (although Ryker was out of position). Speaking of Ryker, I thought his interference was worked really well and all the teams uniting to take him out was great. The finish was also a brilliant fake-out reminiscent of the Mania 32 ladder match finish. ****1/4

Terrific opener and might be the best NXT/WWE match this year so far. Good, consistent pace with tons of urgency and action while never letting up for a second. Strong did a great job working over the back and Riddle's selling was excellent. Also had a sort of grittiness you don't see too often in NXT/WWE, especially with the former's indie-riffic tendencies. I remember in 2016 being skeptical over the hype of Riddle as this huge star, but he absolutely is. ****1/2

Still haven't seen all of the show, but Riddle-Strong was terrific and the ladder match was every bit the fun spotfest it needed to be. Really worried they were gonna go with Forgotten Sons but they finally did the thing with the Profits. Io-Shayna was really good from what I saw but post-match aside, continuing Shayna's reign as champ is the definition of uninspired. Even if they're building to Shayna-Candice, they're about a year or so too late. Didn't hate the ME but didn't really pay attention to it either. Seemed more excessive than their last match and while that match felt more earned with the kick-outs, this match just felt like they were trying to top themselves for no reason. As much as Cole doesn't "wow" me as a singles wrestler, he does seem to gel with people well and he's a really good heel, so I'm interested in how this reign goes. But the fact that it comes just a month after Johnny seemed to finally put all his past failures behind him seems kinda dumb.

I used to be a huge Ambrose fan but slowly lost interest due to a combination of his ring work and the goofiness of his character. It's somewhat relieving to know he thought pretty much every goofy thing he did was dumb and tried push back. I can only hope being this invigorated outside of the WWE will make both his character and in-ring work that much better.

If you've already seen SHO-Shingo, SHO-Dragon Lee, and Taguchi-Douki (I'm pretty sure all three of those were in the first week), these would be my recommendations: Rocky-Phantasmo Ospreay-Phantasmo Ospreay-Eagles Dragon Lee-Shingo Dragon Lee-Titan Ospreay-Bandido Dragon Lee-Gresham Tiger Mask-Gresham Ospreay-YOH Ospreay-Romero SHO-Scurll Bandido-Eagles There have been a whole lot of fun matches, but those are probably the essentials. Can't recommend Romero-Phantasmo enough.

It's a good-looking belt. Someone told me they heard it was inspired by the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship.

Quite possibly the match of the tournament thus far. Proof that NJPW main events need to be kept below 30 minutes unless the wrestlers can get to work right away like they did for this one. From the lock-up onwards they really sold the competitive nature between SHO and Shingo. SHO was obsessed with beating the man he considers his "rival" while Shingo was determined to prove SHO wasn't on his level. Excellent back-and-forth bombs with both guys taking each other's best shots. You knew beforehand that Shingo was most likely going to win, but the question was how tough of a fight SHO could give him. And he gave him one hell of a fight. Serious MOTYC. ****3/4

Not sure if this topped SHO's match with Shingo, but it got damn close. The narrative was similar but instead of SHO stepping up to his perceived rival, he was stepping up to the champion. Really dug the armwork and how that affected both men's stamina and offense the longer the match went on. You really got the impression they were running on fumes as 30 minutes got closer and closer. Lots of hard-hitting offense and worked at a much brisker pace than the typical NJPW main event style. A must-watch. ****3/4

Talk about a surprise! This absolutely knocked my socks off. I think what really made this match was how the drama really drove home the overarching narrative. Rocky is the sentimental favorite getting his first Korakuen singles match main event. Phantasmo is the obnoxious, hotshot asshole who's been cheating to win matches the entire tournament despite being talented enough to not have to resort to such tactics. Knowing that Rocky was behind the 8-ball really made the struggle that much more emotional and made it easier to be invested in the match. The submission teases and Phantasmo's dirty tricks had me on the edge of my seat and pulling for Rocky to humble this douchebag. Incredible match and one of the best in-ring stories this year. ****3/4

I don't think I'm quite as high on this match as most (I thought their WrestleCon match was better), but this was still a really fun match. Lots of high-flying and big move offense, it just didn't really reach that next level for me. It's hard to explain, but it never felt like "Holy shit!" and was more like "Yeah, that was really cool." Really entertaining match worth checking out, but there have been better this tournament. ****

I liked this one a lot but I do think it was too long and the pace never quite kicked into overdrive. However, I'd put it on around equal footing as the WK 12 match. Whereas that one was more of a plunderfest, this was more of a hard-hitting fight. I thought they did a good job building up to the bigger spots and moves, but as I mentioned the pace really could have used a boost in the finishing stretch. And botched counter was indeed bad. Still, I thought the offense was mostly well-worked and the selling (particularly Kenny selling the Judas Effect) was good. Great match but could have been better. ****1/4

Yep, only Brock matches are allowed to have blood and that requires him to throw dangerous, shoot elbows.

Moxley being Juice's opponent was a legitimate surprise, and a pleasant one at that. I just hope he's more motivated than he has been his last few years in WWE. As far as ROH is concerned, NJPW should just try to nab as much talent as they can and cut their losses. After ROH's showing at MSG and hiring Enzo and Cass, they would be wise to distance themselves as much as possible (although they still have the co-promoted Summerslam show coming up).

Battle royals to me are a collection of cool moments surrounded by whatever. So they can range from either being fun to terrible. The Over the Budget battle royal from All In remains my favorite because there was actually more to it than just cool moments and tepid elimination attempts. I do think the Royal Rumble format is much better with the individual entrances but having too many folks in at one time can be a problem.

My 2019 pick as of right now.

I still love to go back and look at these lists. Some really good recommendations.

Count me among those who liked the ME. I thought it was more of a harder-hitting affair than the WK match which, while great, was a bit of a plunderfest. It probably didn't need to go on as long as it needed to but I'm glad Jericho still didn't try to match Kenny move-for-move in a match that had less bells and whistles. Show as a whole was great. Didn't catch all of the pre-show but the main card more than delivered. Best Friends-Angelico/Evans, Cody-Dustin, Lucha Bros.-Bucks, and Kenny-Jericho were my favorite matches but nothing else disappointed. I think Jericho going over was a bit strange but I understand wanting to capitalize on his name and recognition, not to mention Kenny-Moxley is the clear feud for both guys. Really interested to see how well Moxley does and if WWE really was just sapping his motivation.