Boss Rock

This was a hell of a sprint and further proof that Daniel Bryan is indeed back. How he looks like he's only taken a week off when it's really been three years is something I'll never know, but I'm grateful for it. Loved the urgency between the two and the back-and-forth submission attempts. Bryan selling the knee after doing a backflip off the turnbuckle is the kind of selling a lot of wrestlers overlook for the sake of getting to the next spot, but that's why Bryan is one of the greats. The interference by Nak furthers the feud with A.J and sets up future matches for Bryan against A.J. and Nak down the line. I can't wait. ***3/4.

Originally wrote this for the GME project: THIS is how you end a feud. Was like a Southern territory blow-off meets King's Road with violence, emotional storytelling, and clever callbacks. The former best friends start brawling almost immediately but then begin to work a slower, more deliberate pace to try and brutalize each other. Ciampa was clearly going to take his time and relish the pain he would inflict on Johnny. Johnny mounted his comebacks simply to survive but as the match went on, he became more and more obsessed with punishing Ciampa for his sins. They weaved almost every single part of this feud into the in-ring story: the attacks with the crutches, Johnny's futile crawl to Ciampa, Ciampa's hesitation to put Johnny away in the CWC, and Ciampa lulling Johnny into a false sense of security before striking at Chicago. The climax of this match is what sticks out to me the most. Emotional stuff like this is always hard to pull off as wrestlers aren't always the best actors (especially when it comes to sentimentality). In the hands of a lot of other wrestlers this would have been schmaltzy and melodramatic, but Johnny and Ciampa were as authentic as can be. You went from "Johnny you idiot! This is the guy who betrayed you!" to "Oh my God, Johnny don't do it! He was your best friend!" Ciampa looks resigned to his fate, perhaps regretful as Johnny laments how it could have ever come to this between them. Then when you think all hope is lost, the face is one step ahead and pulls off the victory. Tremendous match and easily the best so far this year.

Updated mine to round out the early 80's.

Such an entertaining asskicking. WALTER basically got to do WALTER things by throwing Tracy around and chopping his chest off. Tracy's comebacks worked in that he was able to get his moments to shine so as to avoid a total squash while at the same time make sure WALTER looked dominant.

Great match. Proof that Ospreay can actually be a really good babyface and not just an exciting spot guy. Riddle was a huge dick throughout and Ospreay's neck selling was consistent and realistic (although a great deal of that was probably real pain) without any of the annoying screams. These two have a ton of chemistry together and would love to see a continued feud down the line.

Riddle for the record has said if he would give up smoking if need be (especially if it came to going to NJPW).

Was this Gordy list for Kobashi done before his GHC title win? Seemed like he was a pretty big draw then.

Pretty much agree with all of this. Love Kento to death but he needs to work on his leg selling. That being said, this was a really fun match.

Have really enjoyed reading this thread in regards to Hart-Austin. I always thought it was interesting that it was a "submission match" when it was almost completely an out-of-control brawl. Ultimately I think I fall on the semantics side where the match was basically a fight to see who would quit first and Austin would understandably want to brawl with Hart instead of taking him to the mat. And I think El-P's point about using the stip to introduce Shamrock is a valid one.

As a match? Yeah this wasn't anything special. As an angle? I loved it. Cena talks shit about the Undertaker for weeks, BEGGING him for a match at Mania. And when he finally gets it, he realizes "Oh shit, I didn't prepare for this at all!" Ultimate example of a dog catching a car. Some of the offense was pretty embarrassing (the aforementioned big boot in particular), but Taker getting his shit in and looking all sorts of dominant was actually kind of cool (then again I've always been a huge fan). In a way, I think Cena deserved better for a Wrestlemania match and this will no doubt lead to a rematch that is long and bad, but I still strangely loved this 2:45 minute "Be careful what you wish for" story.

The first few minutes of this seemed really promising, almost like their Mania 31 match. There was some chaotic stuff like Roman getting launched over the announce table, but then it completely fell apart. Brock gasses himself with some of the worst German suplexes I've ever seen and it basically becomes a showcase of "Look how many F-5's Roman can kick out of!" And who looked at Brock hard way opening Orton at Summerlam and said "Yeah! Let's totally do that again!"? Granted, the image of a blood-soaked Reigns screaming in defiance WAS pretty cool, but it was still a dangerous and stupid spot. And to put the cherry on top, the comeback I was hoping would put an end to this cluster was snuffed out in unbelievably anti-climactic fashion. Mania has had some stinker main events and while I wouldn't say this was the worst, it ranks up there (or down there). ** at best.

Allow me to disagree it is a perfectly acceptable match regardless of how many snowflakes you toss its way.This would be my pick. Also, I dont even think Misawa-Kawada from 6/6/97 is a good match, much less a *****+ match. All of that said, Dave has far less head scratchers than I do in a fraction of the time. Ive had to go back and reconsider my original lunacy more times than I can count. Been there. I really love the Hansen-Misawa matches, probably more than anyone else.

Haven't seen a ton of Gage, but I like how a lot of his stuff is sort of a throwback to old-school brawling. Take the fight outside and use whatever isn't nailed down.

Would have loved Joe, but didn't hate the angle. And I agree Cass was the worst option.

The crowd is pretty intense throughout as I recall.

I personally threw a 5 at Bucks-Lovers, but can definitely see why some folks didn't. It's a long match and gets pretty cheesy with the acting, which Ciampa-Gargano definitely got better.

I believe he's there in an unofficial coaching or mentor capacity.

WWE/NXT/205 had shows on AXXESS using all sorts of indie talent like Keith Lee, WALTER, and other folks from WWN and Progress. Hero challenged Keith Lee for the WWN title on Thursday, and also had a banger with WALTER on Saturday. They did let Hero do an ICW show a few months ago. His run has been so different from anyone else in NXT. They let Danny Burch and Lorcan do some indie stuff as well.

It's an awesome spectacle of a match, but it is a bit silly how many chops they do (and this is coming from someone who loves even NOAH-era Kobashi). You must really hate Kobashi vs. Kensuke... Haha, interestingly enough I really like that one. Like them both really. Just a little too much chopping.

It's an awesome spectacle of a match, but it is a bit silly how many chops they do (and this is coming from someone who loves even NOAH-era Kobashi).

I just figured most folks are familiar with Dave's ratings than anyone else's. However, if there are any other over-hyped matches not rated 5 by Dave we can discuss those too.

I forget which one it was, but I do recall there was an earlier one that was much better.

This was brought up a bit in the Meltzer thread so I thought it might be interesting to talk about. What do you think is the most overrated match that's been given the full 5 stars by Dave? To make this less obvious, none of the 6 or 5.75 matches count. I personally would say either Tiger Mask-Dynamite Kid or Cole/Bucks-Ospreay/Ricochet/Sydal. Tiger-Dynamite was certainly a revolutionary match for its time, but I think it's aged rather poorly. It just doesn't measure up to the later high-flying showcases of guys like Mysterio or Liger. I would think that a match rated 5 stars should be timeless, something you could watch years, even decades later and still enjoy The non-finishes also don't help. The PWG 6-man tag is an entertaining enough spotfest, but nothing you've probably never seen before on a typical PWG card. There's also too much "cuteness" that gets in the way of the more impressive feats of athleticism.

Debuting Ricochet in a multi-man match that he didn't even win is definitely an odd choice, but the logic was probably that it would be a great showcase for his high-flying.

Agreed on Dream. He and Lars were who I was rooting for.