Richeyedwards

They seemed very content to take it easy and just be happy with the crowd reaction at the start meaning that they didn't have to bother trying. PAC looked okay but Starr who I have never seen before was bad his strikes were terrible and his moves had no flow to them (that was a problem shared not just down to him) it was just a midcard match on wwe Main Event really nothing. The commentators talking about some classic which I know they have to put it over but it was not anything special and it was silly them talking about a great match. Just generic indie sequences randomly strung together before the black arrow finish. *3/4

Omori worked like a man possessed in this. Normally When you watch Omori today you see a man who looks tired and in serious pain from from very bad looking knees. However, here he did not look like a broken down old man, he looked determined to win the all asia titles (again) and did not look in pain he put in an excellent performance as did Nomura. The finish stretch was outstanding with Omori really looking like he would be able to beat Nomura. ***3/4 better than the good match these two teams had in October.

One year after their previous world title match in Kaito's first match back from excursion he faces Kenoh again in a big first test of the 22 year olds title reign. This was a great match. I really liked the match in which Kaito won the belt but this was a step up from that. Here they worked the whole match from go around trying to win, there was not that much of any wasted time as they worked a very back and forth match where they were going for big stuff from the off. Crucially however, they did not hit said big moves and would have to go back to them later, Kaito went for the Tiger suplex around just over ten minutes in, he kept going for it but only managed to hit it at the very end. I also liked how conclusive the finish was. Kaito survived what was thrown at him and managed to win by stringing together offence not just one big move, he did not take any of Kenoh's finishers because he simply avoided them, he did not allow himself to be in the position to be hit by them. There was no doubt that on this night that kaito was the better wrestler, there was no fluke about this victory just like how at this show last year their was no doubt that Kenoh won as he had knocked Kaito out. Kenoh was, as always brutal. His kicks and in particular one set of slaps elicited gasps from me. He attacked the neck and head of Kaito whenever he got on offence. The selling of both men was good throughout with the one exception of the apron dragon suplex being forgotten about just afterwards with Kaito shortly back on offence which I was not a fan of. This was a great match and the best one of 2019 so far must watch ****1/4

Daisuke Sekimoto defends the Zero1 Heavyweight Title. Sato is a disgusting wrestler, he looks horrible, is stiff as fuck and the noises he makes when he hits or gets hit are nauseating. This makes him captivating to watch you cannot look away. This match was what you would want from these two it was stiff nasty and all sold very well. There was no kickouts just some stuff back and forth with an escalation and struggle as the match went on. The only negative would be that they did start very slow and didn't do much for me, beyond that it was a really good match and a great encapsulation of zero 1 and it makes me sad that they barely ever make tape. **** Another great match from the first week of January in Japan.

Started 14th july last year, the first japan date they announced was 13th july 7 days after the us date, not implausible that they do the opening night there, WO has it down as being the opening night too I think it would be much better to make the tourney go a month just for the sake of the wrestlers health.

This is just a theory that I did not come up with so am not 100% on the specifics so take this with a grain of salt. American airlines center while owned by the city of Dallas, is ran by Center Operating Company which is owned by the dallas mavericks who are in turn owned by Mark Cuban who also owns AXS tv which is what NJPW runs on in the states so the theory is that they have got a deal through their association with AXS to run the arena. In terms of filling it? I think they are banking on it being G1 show (an actual one this time not just in name only like g1 special) and a lot of fly-ins to make a crowd.

Only watched the jr title match as it was the only match on the card that interested me, it was meh nothing more it seemed very sterile and that they didn't work great together, a few spots were messed up and mistimed but they also had a few good things. It felt like an afterthought and that kushida is saving himself to work Shane throne on the next Florida loop.

Last taker match I saw was the Shane match, so I don't know after that but I am pretty sure he did the hell's gate in that because I was laughing at how horrible all the grappling was. He did the last ride in most of his big matches as a near fall but not a finisher Vs the likes of micheals, hhh, punk etc

The diamond head: done once, botched, nearly killed kanemaru, never done again.

A great hidden gem of a match Kenta Kobashi was amazing in this, nobody was bad but he was really the best person in the match by some distance. From the start they established a strict hierarchy that all great AJPW Tags and six mans from the early 90s followed. The hierarchy here being Kobashi>Hayabusa & Shinzaki>Shiga. Kobashi could shrug off what the two FMW guys could throw at him and would easily take back over if ever found himself on the defense. Shiga on the other hand would never really be able to muster much of any sort of sustained offence against the FMW guys and that which he did would be handed to him after tagging in when Kobashi was in control. It is a logical formula and always led to really good matches here was no exception. Kobashi though his body language as well as his moves showed that he knew he was above these guys but was still really competitive about winning and when Shiga was being beaten down he became more and more animated before they went into a full blown finishing run with some incredible saves of pinfalls that had me bite big into two of them. The tags that Hayabusa would do on the Budokan hall shows in 1997 were a mixed bag often they seemed to be aimless other than purely to have Hayabusa on the card, he would often move from spot to spot and do nothing in between and often be quite bad in them. Here though when following a simple but highly effective story he worked really well and felt for the first time in AJPW that he belonged as part of the roster not just a special attraction that would show up for the big shows. This bodes well going into his involvement in the RWTL in November and December. ****

Kind of odd but you get the music intro but then it goes silent until 1:37 when JT starts talking

Cody vs Aldis was Meh at best, I liked the first fall and the way it was worked with plenty of holds but the second fall was dire. Bad brawling around an arena badly shot without any sort of chaotic feel to it, it felt helpful and cooperative. Once the outside parties were thrown out it improved but this was only the very end of the match. The offence was really not good by either guy outside of the first fall very little of the strikes painful, the only painful looking move was the knees through the table and that was not sold by aldis at all. I thought that the finish was sloppy also and was kind of out of left-field. The commentary really made this match Cornette, Schiavone and this Galli bloke were all good and really elevated the match far above what it was based on in ring work alone. I would say it was worth the watch but it was way too long and all the stuff in the second fall and start of the third with the brawling and interference was really bad.

Probably his performances so far in the RWTL would tip Jun Akiyama into the top spot. Arguably 22 years after he first could have been considered a Wrestler of the Year Contender

I would now add yoshiken Vs Akiyama and Sekimoto from the rwtl into 10th place, knocking la park Vs rush off the list. Akiyama is still really outstanding and has been in quite a few matches this year the match Vs marufuji being the best.

I thought it was 95 that was the more generally hated show.

Starcade 1997 Now as you have covered in the past with rebooking shows it would be possible to 'save' WCW from a booking standpoint after 97. However, I see this as where the rot really sets in and hammers home the bullshit of the nwo main events would never change. That main event is one of the worst matches ever in terms of the match itself and what it showed going forwards. The most blindingly obvious thing in the world, a sting squash over Hogan, was not done and he was just worked over very slooooowwwwlllyy by Hogan and then all that bullshit with the finish. You also on this show fucked up Bret as soon as he comes in. This sets the precident for Bret going forwards not really being used at all outside of one flair match (after which the program was dropped) and the Owen tribute match. Oh and this show has bagwell and lex go 17 minutes, let that sink in. Surely that is enough for it to be thrown into the void forever.

Nakajima and kitamiya Vs Nomura and kamitani from Riki choshu powerhall 10.07.18???

AJPW is the only promotion I watch most of, anything else is cherry picked so my match of the year list is very AJPW heavy. Have watched barely any DG this year compared to last I follow a bunch of promotions and will only watch some of the top matches from the big shows of NOAH, BJW etc. The only wwe I have watched is the stuff around Mania when I had the free month. 1. Kento Miyahara vs Naomichi Marufuji AJPW Champions carnival final 30.04.18 ****3/4 2. Kento Miyahara vs Zeus AJPW 21.10.2018 ****3/4 3. Zeus Bodyguard & Shingo vs Akiyama Hino & Doering AJPW 30.04.18 ****1/2 4. Zeus vs Joe Doering AJPW 2.01.18 ****1/2 5. Go Shiozaki vs Takashi Suigura NOAH Kawazaki Festival 18.08.18 ****1/2 6. Andrade Cien Almas vs Johnny Gargano NXT title Philidelphia 7. Akiyama vs Marufuji AJPW CC 25.04.18 ****1/2 Akiyama had the best performance of any wrestler this year in this match, an all time great performance. 8. Los Mercenarios (el Texano jr, La Mascara & rey Escorpion) vs Joe Lider, Murder Clown & Pagano Street fight AAA Triplemania ****1/4 9. Kento Miyahara vs Dylan James AJPW Dynamite series 12.06.18 ****1/4 10. LA Park vs Rush CMLL 22.06.18 ****1/4

According to wrestling data they have had 5 matches, 1 of them televised, from march 2017 in a No1 contenders match where Orton won. so it is a match that they have not done yet on a big stage, I am surprised that it has taken this long for them to do it, that is of course if Orton wins.

Loch ness, a name he used in stampede when he was over there for a couple of runs. He was under that name in 96 and was in the alliance to end hulkamania. He died shortly after I think. I don't know if he was gonna have a longer run or not.

Giant haystacks did go by the name haystacks calhoun at points very early in his career but his far more famous runs with and Vs big daddy were as giant haystacks throughout the 70s and 80s.

He was really young when he started, 16-17.

Not as far as I know, he was trained by the All Japan dojo so he never really had a home promotion in the states as all Japan and later Noah was his home promotion. He got in there because he was a relative of Gordy's. All I can find reference of is him doing some one shots for smw and wcw every so often but never a full run by the looks of it.

There were parts of this match when I was thinking that this might knock Kento vs Maru from the cc finals off the top spot of my match of the year list, it fell just short but is still an incredible match. Zeus looked the best I have ever seen him, he controlled most of the match and spent it by brutalizing Kento’s neck. From the point 3 or so minutes in when he refused to do a clean break up until nearly 20 minutes later he was largely on top, working over Kento’s neck with a wide variety of chops and other neck attacks such as forcing him throat first into the guardrail and the same on the turnbuckle. Further on down the stretch it was a bit more back and forth but not your turn my turn with the exception of one short sequence. This part was more of a Kento led section in the stretch as he just desperately went for the shutdown german suplex and knee strikes. He showed some real desperation as he knew that Zeus could beat him as he had done in July. He looked like he knew he was in real peril, something he does not always do in the lesser title defenses, that makes this match seem bigger and really puts Zeus over. When Zeus did finally get caught in the shutdown german he managed to kick out, becoming the first person since 2015 to do and the first since Kento became the ace. Everything done in this match seemed to be aimed towards making both men look as great as possible, particularly Zeus, I am not sure what else they could have done to put Zeus more over in defeat than what they did. He controlled much of the match and managed to kick out of a move that has beaten everyone for 3 years now. Kento sold incredibly well for him and after the match continued selling for a while, not launching into his post-match promo for a good few minutes. This was far superior than the previous match between the two as it played to their strengths far more than that match did. The July Osaka match had Kento largely in control and Zeus fighting from underneath. I understand why they did that, it was in Zeus’s home town and they wanted him to look like he really worked for the win. But it is not really the right dynamic for these two, this match most certainly had that dynamic down correctly. It was very high paced throughout with really high intensity without slowing down or becoming tiring due to the speed. It was paced magnificently and really gave an air of both men going all out to win. On a more critical side, I think there was a little to much spamming of the blackout knee and the problem of it being in Yokohama bunka gym which is a shithole. But I do not blame them for the latter as they managed to get this almost always dead crowd to make a lot of noise which is highly commendable. As for the knee strikes? I am a bit concerned that Kento is becoming over reliant on them but it does not seriously harm the matches quality. ****3/4 goes straight in as no2 on my match of the year list.

@Makai Club #1 said that they could write an essay on why they think this was great, I didn't mean to but ended up writing one on why I thought it was not so great. Takeshi Sugiura c vs Katsuhiko Nakajima GHC Heavyweight title NOAH Jr League Korakuen hall 4/10/18 This was a match that took place on the 4th of October, but I did not see until the morning of the 12th October due to the way in which NOAH airs. I had deliberately muted a bunch of words and even people (Sorry Hisame) on twitter so I would not know the result going into the match. There was a lot of anticipation for me on this match. Sugiura’s run is by far the best in Japan right now and probably the world, his title matches are violent and visceral, if at times a little long (see vs Kitamiya). But it has had some really great matches in this reign chief of which would be the title match vs Go Shiozaki which is my favourite NOAH match in many years and in my top three for the year behind two matches from the AJPW CC finals show. There was a lot of hype on this match going in from me and from plenty of others and a general sense of not knowing who was going to win, it was also taking place in Korakuen maybe my favourite venue along with Budokan due to the incredible crowd noise you often get there. Nakajima has been on fire recently after becoming a total sleaze ball to antagonise his opponents often smiling at his opponents attempts to strike him. So, going into this match really excited and the most anticipated I have been for a match all year, probably more than for Marufuji vs Akiyama. So why was I left with the sense 10 mins in that it was not very good and even quite dull? This match in short was a crushing disappointment. We start with the introductions and everything is fine, both guys get a good reception with plenty of streamers from the crowd of 1314, maybe 100 or so less than I was expecting but it was a workday so that is really quite good for NOAH. Then the bell rings and nothing happens for several straight minutes. Maybe it was my expectations going in that they would do a violent match filled with strikes and that them not doing what I wanted made me disappointed. What they did do was circle each other a bit eventually do a lock up and then an attempted dirty break before resetting. They went outside a bit to do some guardrail and chair spots before coming back in and doing a bit of working each other over. This whole section was dull. The continued going back and forth just doing stuff, feeling like they were killing time without urgency. This went on for 20 minutes. The match in total went 29:37 and for 2/3rds of its run time I was disinterested. The finish stretch however was different, this was exactly what I had come to see, it starts with Nakajima starting to stiff the fuck out of Sugiura with elbows and kicks and for the clear majority of the finish stretch it is all Nakajima which is great. He does several kicks to a seated Sugiura followed by a horrific punt kick which is sold amazingly by Sugiura, his selling throughout this finish is perfect. Nakajima taunts a bit hits a vertical spike that gets an incredibly close nearfall before going for another that Sugiura grasps his way out of before Nakajima goes for another punt kick to finish the match/kill Sugiura. Sugiura grabs it transitions into an ankle hold and Nakajima taps out. These final few minutes were truly outstanding wrestling. The offence was murderous, the wounded lion selling brilliant I loved this whole section that lasted around 5 mins (the match was nearly 30 mins but had around 5 clipped on the version I saw). The problem I Have with this match is as I have made obvious the first 20 or minutes of it, that section of the match is so bad to me because of what it reminded me of straight away. It was an Okada title match. Kazuchika Okada is to me a lazy boring wrestler with a set formula that is dreadful. He starts slow and proceeds to meander around for 20-35 minutes of time wasting, a bit a brawling on the outside here, a bit of limb work to kill time there (that is never sold once it is transitioned out of). All before a long finish stretch of dancing around and not selling any of the previous 25+ minutes of wrestling. It is not clever or telling a great story or being tactical, it is long and boring just for the sake of being long because that makes every match “epic”. The start and main body of this match felt like an Okada world title formula match. Now it was better than the majority of his matches because it had 1. Good offense throughout, something Okada has none of outside of his shotgun dropkick and 2. A great finish stretch. It was a better match than an Okada title match it was also much shorter at only 29:37 (that is ridiculous to write but Okada title matches now must go at least 35). But that does not defeat the point that it felt like one of his matches for a large part of it. An outstanding finish stretch does not forgive a poor start and middle. Maybe if I was not hyped going into this match then I probably would have not been this negative, it was the anticipation for this match that let it down for me. It was still good and there was stuff to like, I know some people will love this but for me it will end up being a very disappointing *** on the strength of the finish alone, but in my mind, I know they have a ****1/2 in them.