Boss Rock

A lot of the criticisms I've come across regarding Cena's selling (I've even had a few myself) is that he pops up or manages some kind of reversal 30-60 seconds after taking a big move, which to be fair isn't all that out of place in a NJPW match (and this is coming from a huge NJPW fan). But I think there are a lot instances where Cena's selling made his opponent seem like a huge threat (the Khali and Brock matches come to mind).

Thought I wasn't a wrestling fan at the time, after revisiting 90's WWF this is definitely one of my favorite feuds. Much more violence between these two than you would see anywhere else in the fed. I not only enjoyed the amount of violence in this match, but how it was structured and filmed. Taker slowly searching the boiler room in complete silence only for Mankind to emerge from the shadows and attack from behind made this feel like a horror movie in the best possible way. Have never seen anything done like that before nor since. Mankind absolutely brutalizes Taker for the majority of this match while the Deadman makes the occasional comeback. They're literally throwing everything not nailed down at each other, and the coffee maker was a brutally nice touch. And while tag teams and managers seemingly break up every year, can only imagine how huge it must have been at the time for Bearer to turn on Taker after 6 years. While the Buried Alive match is the one I usually revisit the most between these two, I would definitely say this is the best.

Thought I'd give this a go. This isn't necessarily a list of my highest ranked matches (otherwise I'd have a lot more from the last two years), but rather, a list of my favorite and essential matches. Also note that these are ordered chronologically rather than by best (although if forced to choose right now, I'd probably go Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi vs. Jumbo's Army '90, Kobashi-Misawa '97 or the Queendom tag). Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (March 23, 1981) Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (Empty Arena, April 6, 1981) Stan Hansen vs. Andre the Giant (NJPW, September 23, 1981) Stan Hansen vs. Terry Funk (AJPW, September 11, 1982) El Satanico vs. Atlantis (EMLL, 1984) Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan (MSW, March 22, 1985) Stan Hansen vs. Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW, July 27, 1988) Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada (Real World Tag League Day 22, 1988) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (Chi-Town Rumble 1989) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash of the Champions VI) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (WrestleWar 1989) Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (Great American Bash 1989) Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (Clash of the Champions IX) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Stan Hansen (AJPW, July 27, 1990) Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue, and Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW, October 19, 1990) El Satanico vs. El Dandy (EMLL, October 26, 1990) El Dandy vs. El Satanico (EMLL, December 14, 1990) Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue, and Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW, April 20, 1991) Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW Summer Action Series II, September 4, 1991) Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta and Akira Taue (AJPW Summer Action Series II, September 4, 1991) Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (NJPW, March 30, 1992) Negro Casas vs. El Dandy (CMLL, July 3, 1992) Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, February 28, 1993) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Stan Hansen (AJPW April 21, 1993) Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, July 29, 1993) Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams (AJPW, August 31, 1993) El Satanico vs. Pirata Morgan (AAA, November 11, 1993) Akira Hokuto and Shinobu Kandori vs. Aja Kong and Bull Nakano (Queendom II, March 27, 1994) Jushin Liger vs. The Great Sasuke (Super J Cup, April 16, 1994) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, June 3, 1994) Cactus Jack vs. Vader (Halloween Havoc 1994) Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota (AJW, November 20, 1994) Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, June 9, 1995) Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota (AJW, September 2, 1995) Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud (Big Ass Extreme Bash 1996) Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama vs. Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, May 23, 1996) Undertaker vs. Mankind (Summerslam 1996) Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen (AJPW, September 5, 1996) Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind (In Your House: Mind Games) Undertaker vs. Mankind (In Your House: Buried Alive) Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Bret Hart (Survivor Series 1996) Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama vs. Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, December 6, 1996) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, January 20, 1997) Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart (WrestleMania 13) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, June 6, 1997) Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (Badd Blood 1997) Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, July 24, 1998) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Vader (AJPW, May 2, 1999) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, February 27, 2000) Kenta Kobashi vs. Vader (AJPW, February 27, 2000) Atlantis vs. Villano 3 (CMLL, March 17, 2000) The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz (WrestleMania 2000) The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz (WrestleMania X-Seven) Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker (No Mercy, 2002) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, March 1, 2003) Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, July 10, 2004) Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, September 10, 2004) America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X (Turning Point 2004) A.J. Styles vs. Abyss (Lockdown, 2005) A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe (Turning Point 2005) Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA (NOAH, December 2, 2006) Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinnes (ROH Unified 2006) John Cena vs. Umaga (Royal Rumble 2007) Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH Sixth Anniversary Show) Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (WrestleMania 25) Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (The Bash 2009) Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (WrestleMania 26) CM Punk vs. John Cena (Money in the Bank 2011) El Mesias vs. L.A. Park (Triplemania 19) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012) Minoru Suzuki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (King of Pro Wrestling 2012) Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Invastion Attack 2013) Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Climax 23, August 4, 2013) Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (G1 Climax 23, August 4, 2013) Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (Summerslam 2013) Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena (Summerslam 2013) Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (King of Pro Wrestling 2013) Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 30) Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton (WrestleMania 30) The Shield vs. Evolution (Payback 2014) A.J. Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (G1 Climax 24, August 1, 2014) Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (G1 Climax 24, August 10, 2014) Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Wrestle Kingdom 9) Seth Rollins vs. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar (Royal Rumble 2015) Fenix vs. Mil Muertes (Lucha Underground, March 18, 2015) Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (WrestleMania 31) Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (G1 Climax 25, August 15, 2015) Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura (Year-End Climax, December 23, 2015) Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Wrestle Kingdom 10) Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee (Fantastica Mania 2016) Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee (CMLL, March 4, 2016) Aztec Warfare 2 (Lucha Underground, March 23, 2016) A.J. Styles vs. Roman Reigns (Extreme Rules 2016) Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega (G1 Climax 26, August 13, 2016) A.J. Styles vs. John Cena (Royal Rumble 2017) Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (Dominion 6.11 2017) Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Special in USA, July 2, 2017) Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (G1 Climax, August 12, 2017) Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega (G1 Climax, August 13, 2017) Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns (Summerslam 2017)

Texano is always a guy I "wanted" to like because he has the look of a brawling cowboy. Instead, he's so slow and clunky. And Crane has indeed been very good this season.

Easily the greatest fatal four-way I've ever see and one of the best matches in Summerslam history. They did a tremendous job of making sure everyone got their time to shine while continuing to make an absolute star out of Braun Strowman. Seriously, it can't be said enough how ridiculous his improvement has been this last year. He's literally one of the best they have now. Brock also did a tremendous job selling the beating he sustained during the match while continuing to look like a dominant force of nature. I cannot wait for the match at No Mercy. ****3/4.

Really dug this match a lot. Great story of the former brothers turned enemies turned allies coming together to defeat the more well-oiled machine in the Bar. Sheamus and Cesaro did a great job cutting off the ring and isolating Dean, who in turn showed a ton of resiliency in the submissions and big double-team moves. Cesaro's dumbfounded expression and "What the hell?" was a great moment. And while Rollins is often dull and moves for the sake of moves, he absolutely made his big flips and stuff count when evening the odds. Considering how disappointing and lackluster Ambrose and Rollins have been as singles performers, this match was proof that a tag team is the best call for them. I really look forward to seeing where they go from here. ****1/4.

Nominating: Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns Holy hell was this good. This was a literal clash of the titans. I think the best way to describe this match would be if you were to combine the Braun-Roman matches, the Brock-Joe match, and the Royal Rumble 2015 triple-threat match. The first 10 minutes of this were some of the most insane I've seen in recent memory, with Reigns spearing Lesnar through the barricade and Braun just absolutely laying waste to everyone. And although the match never quite reaches the heights of the first 10 minutes, the action never relents for a second. Braun was the star of this match but the other three had their times to shine. Brock in particular continued to prove he's one of the best sellers in the business when it came to Braun manhandling him. Speaking of Brock and Braun, they did a great job building towards a singles match for these two. The tiniest of quibbles I have of this match is your standard "two guys sell like death while two other guys work a spot" with Brock and Braun. Although considering Joe and Reigns had just been beaned with an office chair, it kinda makes sense. I don't think it's hyperbole to say this could be the greatest main event in Summerslam history, even if Bryan-Cena is a high hurdle to climb. ****3/4.

Just finished the first season. Thought it was really good and quite relevant to the state of pro wrestling today.

August 16 episode Puma vs. Fenix: I remember reading a spoiler on this match and how it was supposed to be one of the best matches in LU history. Needless to say I was a tad bit disappointed when they wrestled a very good but not mind-blowing match. There were certainly some impressive spots and fun action (Fenix hitting a Nakamura knee to the back of Puma's head in particular), but it just seemed a bit slow to me. Maybe because I was expecting both guys to be their normally lightning-quick selves, I was a tad surprised that they worked a slightly slower pace. Fenix had the win here before Marty came out to creep on Melissa. Fenix took him out but that gave Puma enough time to recover and get the win. Very good if not great match. ***3/4 Pentagon vs. Mil Muertes: This was actually my favorite match of the night. They did a pre-match segment where Cage attacked Mil from behind with a barbell weight and dropped it on his back. Mil was visibly hurt going into the match and clutching his ribs, so Pentagon smartly worked over his midsection with kicks and punches. Mil regained control and worked him over a bit on the outside before Pentagon turned the tide again. The overall story was Mil making comebacks but not being able to sustain any momentum due to his injury, and Pentagon was eventually able to win with a double footstomp from the top rope. ***3/4. Only thing I hated was when Pentagon kicked Catrina in the face for trying to interfere and Striker said she deserved it for being fair game. I remember when commentary wasn't insufferable and disgusting. Good times those were. I will say that it's unfortunate Pentagon-Mil was only treated as a one-off for their very first singles match considering the story they had last year. Had the makings of a great feud but was only referenced once to sort of tie up loose ends and is now done with. That being said, Cage-Mil is something I've been looking forward to for the longest time.

Agreed. The last two in particular being of particular note. Will co-sign on this as well. Tanahashi-Naito was great but about on the level of their last two. Okada-Omega and Omega-Naito are legitimate MOTYC's though.

What I said about the match in the MOTY nominations thread. It's not always easy to give a match a "big fight feel", but with the entrances, the staredown, and the crowd reaction, you could FEEL the stakes of this match. You could feel that apart from the champion Okada, Kenny and Naito were the top dogs of New Japan and that only one of them would earn the right to challenge Okada's status as ace. And then the match started. This was a NJPW main event doing King's Road to perfection. There was a very clear and logical sense of escalation, with each spot getting bigger and bigger. And instead of relying solely on signature moves and finisher attempts, there were incredibly creative spots such as Kenny DDT'ing Naito onto the ring post from the turnbuckle. Though it seemed certain Naito was going to win, there were legitimately times that it looked like Kenny would pull it off. Creating a sense of doubt even when the conclusion seems forgone seems like a bit of a lost art these days, which is a shame considering it's a quality that always elevates a match to the next level. The main story was Naito targeting Kenny's neck, hitting a particularly nasty piledriver on the announce table in the process. Meanwhile, Kenny took the same deliberate approach he did in the Okada match, most evident when he hit the two standing V-Triggers. There was also a great callback to Okada-Omega at Dominion, with Naito collapsing in exhaustion during a V-Trigger attempt. And while the end may have used a finisher too many, it ultimately furthered that sense of doubt as to who would walk away the winner. I feel like me trying to put this match into words can't do it justice. Just watch it. It's probably my number 1 pick for Match of the Year in a year that's had a boatload of great matches. *****

Yes on Naito-Omega. It's not always easy to give a match a "big fight feel", but with the entrances, the staredown, and the crowd reaction, you could FEEL the stakes of this match. You could feel that apart from the champion Okada, Kenny and Naito were the top dogs of New Japan and that only one of them would earn the right to challenge Okada's status as ace. And then the match started. This was a NJPW main event doing King's Road to perfection. There was a very clear and logical sense of escalation, with each spot getting bigger and bigger. And instead of relying solely on signature moves and finisher attempts, there were incredibly creative spots such as Kenny DDT'ing Naito onto the ring post from the turnbuckle. Though it seemed certain Naito was going to win, there were legitimately times that it looked like Kenny would pull it off. Creating a sense of doubt even when the conclusion seems forgone seems like a bit of a lost art these days, which is a shame considering it's a quality that always elevates a match to the next level. The main story was Naito targeting Kenny's neck, hitting a particularly nasty piledriver on the announce table in the process. Meanwhile, Kenny took the same deliberate approach he did in the Okada match, most evident when he hit the two standing V-Triggers. There was also a great callback to Okada-Omega at Dominion, with Naito collapsing in exhaustion during a V-Trigger attempt. And while the end may have used a finisher too many, it ultimately furthered that sense of doubt as to who would walk away the winner. I feel like me trying to put this match into words can't do it justice. Just watch it. It's probably my number 1 pick for Match of the Year in a year that's had a boatload of great matches. *****

Yes on Okada-Omega G1. Here's what I said in the Match Discussion Archive: I really liked the first two matches (the Dominion one was a MOTYC for me), but this one corrected the issues with the first two: get rid of the fluff, focus on the action. And oh boy did they ever. I knew Omega was winning because the champion going to the finals would render the WK main event pointless, but they really had me believing at times that Okada would pull it off. Microstatistics brings up a good point about Kenny being a bit too quick to recover and counter the two Rainmakers, but I'm nitpicking at this point because I loved everything else. 24 minutes of balls to the wall action with some of the best drama I've seen this year. *****

This might have been the greatest match of Triple H's career. And it's a shame that he's never worked this way before because I feel like this match is proof that he had the potential to be a consistently great wrestler. I mean he for sure had the benefit of working with Bryan here, but by letting his opponent shine with large amounts of offense and only gaining an advantage by focusing on the injured arm, it shows that Trips had the tools to be a much better wrestler than his ego allowed him. Great story of the underdog Bryan proving that he's actually not much of an underdog and his much larger, stronger opponent needing to focus on an injured limb to assert his dominance. Classic heel and babyface work that surprise surprise, translated into a really great match.

I really liked the first two matches (the Dominion one was a MOTYC for me), but this one corrected the issues with the first two: get rid of the fluff, focus on the action. And oh boy did they ever. I knew Omega was winning because the champion going to the finals would render the WK main event pointless, but they really had me believing at times that Okada would pull it off. Microstatistics brings up a good point about Kenny being a bit too quick to recover and counter the two Rainmakers, but I'm nitpicking at this point because I loved everything else. 24 minutes of balls to the wall action with some of the best drama I've seen this year. *****

Work in progress as some of these might change the more matches I watch. 1981: Stan Hansen vs. Andre the Giant (9/23/1981) 1982: Stan Hansen vs. Terry Funk (9/11/1982) 1983: Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper (Starrcade) 1984: El Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka (7/30/1984) 1985: Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase (3/22/1985) 1986: Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu and Riki Choshu (1/28/1986) 1987: Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (1/10/1987) 1988: Terry Gordy and Stan Hansen vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada (12/16/1988) 1989: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (Great American Bash) 1990: Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Masanobu Fuchi, and Akira Taue (10/19/1990) 1991: Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Masanobu Fuchi, and Akira Taue (4/20/1991) 1992: Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas (5/25/1992) 1993: Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (7/29/1993) 1994: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (6/3/1994) 1995: Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue (6/9/1995) 1996: Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue (12/6/1996) 1997: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (1/20/1997) 1998: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/31/1998) 1999: Mistuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (6/11/1999) 2000: Atlantis vs. Villano III (3/17/2000) 2001: El Hijo del Santo vs. LA Park (12/23/2001) 2002: Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki (2/23/2002) 2003: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (3/1/2003) 2004: Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi (7/10/2004) 2005: Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe (6/11/2005) 2006: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness (Unified) 2007: John Cena vs. Umaga (Royal Rumble) 2008: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness (ROH 6th Anniversary) 2009: Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson vs. Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw (9/13/2009) 2010: Daisuke Ikeda and Takahiro Oba vs. Makoto Hashi and Kengo Mashimo (10/24/2010) 2011: Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda (1/30/2011) 2012: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (King of Pro Wrestling) 2013: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Climax) 2014: A.J. Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (G1 Climax) 2015: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi (Wrestle Kingdom 9) 2016: Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega (G1 Climax) 2017: Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (Sakura Genesis) 2018: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (Dominion) 2019 Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (Royal Quest) 2020: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito (Wrestle Kingdom 14, Night 2) 2021: Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Page (12/15/2021)

Really liked this match. I think LU does crowd brawling pretty well, especially when one guy attacks the other right off the bat. Really sells the hatred and animosity between the two. Lots of violence and lots of hardcore spots that were both cool and logical. One of my few complaints would be that there were too many nearfalls when it looked like Crane was basically dead, but this was still great stuff. ****1/4.

Nominating: Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Special in USA) Longer than their previous encounters, but arguably the best and perfect way to cap off their trilogy. Back-and-forth, violent, great escalation, and some fantastic character work from Ishii, who plays a tremendous babyface.

Yes on Braun-Roman 7/9. These two have arguably had the best rivalry of the year and think this was their best outing. Loved the story of Roman going for broke but absolutely nothing he did could stop the monster. And when he finally did get the advantage, he made one mistake and ended up losing because of it. And while I think it made for a good story and was certainly creative, the ending DID feel a tad cheap (although that was rectified by the post-match angle). Still, of all the violent encounters between Braun and Roman, this was the most entertainingly violent.

Yes on Okada-Suzuki 8/8. When first watching it, I thought to myself "This is good, but I think the New Beginning match was better". Looking back, this match was definitely better than New Beginning. While NB had a great heel performance by Suzuki and Okada did a good job playing the resilient babyface, the limb selling on offense was a bit too problematic at times and was at least 10 minutes longer than it needed to be. This one didn't focus on any limbwork to be ignored and was just back-and-forth violence. It's like they took the face slapping sequence from the NB match and expanded upon it. Suzuki challenging the young ace to step up to him and Okada doing his best to go blow-for-blow (and trying to stick it to Suzuki with the Gotch-styled tombstone). And even though it was 30 minutes, it felt about 10 minutes shorter and did not drag at all.

Loved Puma-Mil, have loved everything they've done together. And while I've enjoyed his stuff in NJ, I agree that LU is really where I think he's been best at.

Nice to find a place to talk LU. This last episode (Bloodlines) was decent. Didn't care for the trios match (I feel like there's SOMETHING there with the Rabbit Tribe as a team but still not there yet). Really, really liked the Crane-Mil match. Tons of brawling and hardcore spots that didn't feel contrived at all. Basically Mil pulverizing Crane who would mount the occasional comeback. The Reaper's Trident is one of my favorite moves in all of wrestling. Pentagon Dark-Texano was OK, not really a ton to it but fine enough. Do like how Famous B missed horribly with sliding the horseshoe and Texano was like "Are you serious?". Pentagon breaking B's arm again (Striker actually pointed out that this was indeed the second time) was fine but doing it to Brenda was waaaaaay overkill. And FINALLY we have some development on the whole medallion thing and some further backstory on the gauntlet and Councilman Delgado. Really feel like storytelling has been a major issue this season with plot points either being put on hold for months or being dropped completely. But really liked the revelation here, so I can't complain too much.

Weird if true, considering how many times Kawada would repeat the powerbomb. I actually saw this after seeing the Kawada-Dr. Death Champion Carnival match. Kawada did two or three powerbombs to win and also used the stretch plum (the quote on Twitter goes on to say Baba hated submissions and would always yell at Kawada for doing them). As for the discussion in general, I almost feel like AJPW and later on NOAH reached a point of needing to "top themselves". i.e. more moves plus more kickouts was seen to be the natural progression. And while there was a bit too much "spot, kickout, sell, spot, kickout, sell", I feel that the 4 pillars were just overall better at selling the intensity and accumulated damage of a match than the indy imitators. There was also a much better sense of escalation and building to bigger spots as opposed to Davey-Tyler where they just started throwing bombs out the gate. And while that style DID set the groundwork for bad imitators, I think that more falls on the imitators themselves not understanding proper escalation and storytelling and instead just focusing on putting as many big moves and spots as possible in a match. And speaking of the WWE self-conscious epic, I understand why a lot of folks don't like the Shawn-Taker matches, but I would argue there was a better sense of storytelling and escalation as opposed to the Triple H-Taker matches, which are the epitome of excess. Shawn certainly could be excessive, but "Big Match Triple H" is still the undisputed king in that regard.

Nomination: Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL 8/5/2017 After some "eh" performances in the G1, EVIL really stepped it up against Omega and Okada. Great back-and-forth match with EVIL gaining the advantage on the outside by launching a plastic chair at Okada and hitting Darkness Falls on a pile of chairs. Great escalation and Okada sold the threat of EVIL and the damage to his neck well. And just when it looked like Okada would pull victory out of the jaws of defeat yet again, EVIL counters and becomes the first man to beat the champ in a singles match in 2017. Awesome match and really established EVIL as a legitimate threat and title contender. ****1/4.

As someone who loves his work in Lucha Underground and thought his aspuestas match with Park was an absolute hoot, someone I would love to see more of. His stuff in AAA right now is bad but I put that more on AAA booking all of their matches as garbage brawls.. I would say his stuff as Mil Muertes is a much better indicator of where he is as a wrestler, and that's pretty damn good. And the way he portrays his character while working those matches is fantastic. I recall reading in a best of 2016 list that when you see Banderas in Lucha Underground, you're not seeing a guy playing the character of Mil Muertes. You're watching Mil Muertes, a vengeful, juggernaut of death.