Boss Rock

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.

As someone who's still getting his feet wet with classic lucha libre, Satanico is a guy who really stands out to me. Fantastic brawler when the match called for it, probably one of the best ever. The aspuestas match with Dandy in particular stands out when it comes to Satanico as a brawler and is one of the best matches I've ever seen. That's not to say he was a slouch in any other department, though. I prefer him as a brawler but he was a very good mat worker as well. Heck, I found a match between him and Dandy from 2014 that featured great mat work and submissions.

He's already in my top 20 (19 to be exact), but I still have a ton of other stuff to watch so that might change.

One of my favorites from either man. Like Loss said, tremendous offensive heavyweight match, possibly the best ever. And while Misawa hitting that last forearm after Kobashi spent most of the match brutalizing it seems weird, it actually works. Despite how much punishment Misawa was put through, he still had JUST enough power to make it lethal. Like Hansen hitting a lariat with an already-damaged arm. A wounded animal is still dangerous. It's been a few months since I've seen this one but I was absolutely blown away. Perfect example of why these are two of the GOAT's. *****

I love these intense brawls where the fists just fly with abandon. Also loved the little things, like DiBiase pulling Duggan's jacket and shirt over his head to prevent him from seeing and punching.

Great story here. Sabre foolishly tries to step up to Ishii and fails with hilarious results. Eventually turns the tide with his subs and does some vicious work to the arms, which Ishii sells beautifully. And the spot where he's grabbing hold of both of Ishii's arms and one of his legs to prevent him from getting to the ropes is one of the most dramatic moments I've seen this year. But like the wonderfully badass babyface he is, Ishii finds a way to overcome and win. Fantastic match and a hell of a spring. ****1/2.

Very good match and a good sign of New Japan's future. Here, you had Okada as the recently-crowned, young hot-shot champion and Naito as the plucky underdog. Naito gets him early with flashy moves and Okada absolutely cuts him off by planting him with a tombstone-all within a few minutes into the match. Okada then works over Naito's neck to logically set up another tombstone and Rainmaker, but Naito fights back by going after Okada's leg (take away the dropkick). Great back-and-forth battle with Naito showing some good fire and Okada cutting him off every time. ****1/4.

One of the things I loved about this match is that there were 3 stages: 1. Ishii blitzes Okada and nearly finishes him early. 2. Okada weathers the storm and gets back into his groove. 3. Battle to see who can hit their finisher first but constant countering because they know each other so well. Ishii avoided the tombstone like the plague because he knew that sets up the Rainmaker. Okada in turn did everything in his power to avoid the brainbuster. In the end, Ishii is just to powerful and overcomes. Terrific performance by both men and a reminder that Ishii may be the best worker in all of NJPW. ****1/2.

Very good match and like the first Tanahashi and Naito matches, a bit of foreshadowing of what Okada was capable of. You could see the wheels spinning a bit too much in Okada's head when he did the guardrail spot, went back in the ring, and THEN hit the apron drape DDT, but other than that he didn't telegraph anything else. Anderson arguably put on a career performance here and was fantastic in the finishing stretch. They went the normal story route that they do with a lot of Okada matches where he's in trouble, but all he needs is one good dropkick and BAM! Tide immediately changes and it's a tombstone and Rainmaker for the win. These guys always had great chemistry and this was no different. A bit slow in the beginning, but the last 15 minutes or so were very good. ****

I really liked the Dome match and feel it often gets overlooked, but I think this slightly outdid their previous encounter. Tanahashi going after him early was great and really liked how he kept the aggression going throughout the match (looked like he was damn near throat-punching him from the mount position). As a whole I felt there was a lot more desperation and urgency to this bout and it fit perfectly considering the story. Naito was great as always and judging by Tana's performances in Long Beach, carried him to something very good. ****1/4.

I loved this match. Thought it got off the ground a lot quicker than the WK match and was much more of a collaborative effort rather than the Kenny Omega show. Also loved the role reversal callbacks from the prior match. Thought the first half went by pretty quickly and then we were off to the races following the Cody spot (really the only thing I disliked). Would have made more sense for Omega to try and make the cover on Okada as time expired but considering he couldn't get the job done in 60 minutes leaves Kenny well-protected. That being said, it wasn't perfect. The Cody spot was annoying and the leg work on Okada being dropped after the 15 minute mark or so was odd, but I can't really complain because I felt everything else delivered in spades. Unbelievable action, felt shorter than its actual run time, and had great storytelling. I couldn't have asked for much better. *****

Wasn't crazy about this match, but it was markedly better than the Backlash bout (not a hard goal to surpass quite honestly). The limb work was simple but made sense, especially when it was instrumental to the ending (Jinder kicking Randy's leg to set up the Khallas). I really appreciate that kind of storytelling. Still, it was a bit longer than it needed to be and while the Singh Bros. going after Cowboy Bob was a logical incentive for Randy to lose control, it was still essentially the exact same thing we saw at Backlash. Average match, but nothing spectacular. **1/2.

Loved this match. The kind of violence you would expect in a LMS match yet Asuka and Nikki's violent tendencies amplified it a bit more than recent LMS matches. Thought it was a little weird that Asuka took as many heavy shots as she did and STILL made it up at 9 following the superplex (unbelievable spot by the way), but it will make her eventual defeat all the more impactful. ****1/4.

One of my favorite matches this year and the perfect way to cap off the feud (although Hiromu being a break-out star for NJPW could have used the rub). That being said, KUSHIDA was every bit as aggressive as he was at Sakura Genesis but a little wiser this time around. I was surprised he won with the Hoverboard Lock as opposed to Back to the Future considering that was being presented as his unbeatable move (similar to Kobashi and the necessity of the Burning Hammer), but like soup23 mentioned, this might have been a more fitting end. KUSHIDA was finally able to put Hiromu away with the move he never could before. Great spots, tons of aggression, and excellent storytelling? ****3/4.

My favorite lucha match of all time, and maybe even my favorite brawl. The October match between the two was indeed great, but this was an absolute classic. Dandy showed that he could get gritty, but Satanico really stands out to me the most. When discussing the best brawlers of all time, I think you have to include Satanico. He was absolutely sublime. And the finish was great.