klhare

If this was one a ppv, or even a Raw, it would go down as a complete classic. Unfortunately, it was on 205 Live, where crowds rarely care and people rarely watch. But man, they did a lot of very crazy stuff. The stepup dive off the chairs, the superplex, and the Spanish Fly off the barricade all really stand out. The stipulation never got in the way or felt shoehorned in. It all felt like a very natural story of oneupmanship between two guys that just needed to beat the other. Great stuff. ****1/2

The Tetsujin show from earlier this year is similar to Ambition. The David Starr vs. ZSJ match is really great.

Not to be a downer, but Nomura didn’t sell out Korakuen, the main event did.

Was it even filmed for release?

This was a good match. The student/teacher relationship worked here, and, finally, someone was able to crack Suzuzi a bit and make him reel. Nomura looked really fantastic here and looked very believable even though he's a lot smaller. His strikes looked brutal, I think he really walloped Suzuki once or twice. The finish really worked for me, too, with Suzuki getting the advantage with a brutal kick, realizing that was his way of finishing the match, and laying in two more. Very good stuff. ****

Masashi Takeda defends the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Title Masashi Takeda is on an all-time deathmatch run right now. While I completely understand that this style is not for everyone, I think that he isn't getting nearly enough credit outside of the deathmatch bubble right now. His work and character transcend the genre. He's one of the most charismatic wrestlers going and brings a completely unique atmosphere to all of his matches. While other deathmatch wrestlers SOLELY rely on sick bumps and violence, Takeda is able to mix some traditional wrestling, his charisma, great match layouts, and brutality all together to create matches that all feel gigantic and different. Takeda has established himself as the dominant Deathmatch Champion this year, and he has done it by outlasting his opponents and willfully showing that he has absolutely no fear of pain. He'll smash tubes over his own head and take bumps into tubes just to break them into sharp weapons. Here, finally, he's met a man with the same fearlessness. As soon as the bell rings, both men smash tubes over their heads and charge full-speed at the other. Then, after some basic exchanges, they take turns taking their own bumps through tubes, which quickly turns into trading headshots. Kodaka has been here before and won't back down, finally sending Takeda into tubes in the corner, with Takeda taking a very cool looking flip-bump into them. Kodada then proceeds to break the already broken tubes down to dust in order to get the max punishment out of rubbing Takeda's head into the mat. There is a slight miscommunication on the transition to Takeda taking control, but it didn't hurt too much. He escalates the violence, introducing scirros into the fray while delivering some nice clotheslines with them in hand. Once again, they each show their toughness by breaking tubes over their own heads, but Kodaka is finally looking a little worse for wear, while Takeda is only getting more energy. This is followed by an interesting armbar exchange, with each guy countering their opponent's armbar with one of their own. Of course, the scissors are involced, making the exchange even more interesting. The weapons keep escalating, with Kodaka bringing his trademark gigantic ladder into the ring and hitting a picture-perfect crossbody off of the top. A few minutes later, Kodaka is having trouble unfolding a chair so he just chucks it at Takeda's head without missing a beat. He pays a few minutes later, though, when Takeda counters a super huricanrana attempt with a superbomb off his own off of the turnbuckle through a sheet of glass. A strength of this match is the weapons escalation. They didn't really bring out too many other weapons in the beginning, allowing the reveal and introduction of each new weapon to be important and surprising. And what was next was a board with bird befender wires on them, which Takeda brings out from under the ring but also, to his dismay, takes a bump chestfirst into them on a bulldog. Isami fires up again by breaking more tubes over this head, showing that he is back in the fight. While it may come across as absurd to some, I think that the way they use the self-infliction of tube shows to guide the story and show the different stages each wrestler is at at whatever point in the match is kind of brilliant. Now they begin to take the match into overdrive. Another thing I like is that, at one point, they actually descalated the violence and were duing some nearfalls and exchanges based around straight wrestling moves with no weapons involved. But that quickly transitions to possibly the most insane sequence in the match. Kodaka hits his gigantic kneedrop off the ladder right across Takeda's chest, only for Takeda to kick out at two. Takeda quickly gets up and hits his own huge german suplex, followed buy an exploder by Takeada, and then knees and clotheslines off the ropes from each. While some may say that the no-selling here of completely absurd big moves is ridiculous, I think that it actually fits brilliantly with the story of two fierce warriors that they've been telling the entire match. Someone compared this to the Ishii vs. Shibata series in deathmatch form, and I agree with that. It just works here. Kodaka again climbs the ladder for the third time, but this time Takeda climbs himself to cut Kodaka off, eventually landing a gigantic superplex onto the glass covered match. Again, it still isn't enough. Finally, we hit the finishing stretch, with big kickouts and moves until, finally, Takeada secures the victory. Afterwards, both men show tons of mutual respect. This is an incredible match. It's very brutal, but the story works perfectly here, the crowd is nuclear, and both guys are perfect in their roles and attempts to one-up the other. It's paced perfectly and the escalation all works. This Takeda run really is something special right now. Again, I know it is a divisive style, but if you can stomach it, this is absolutely worthwhile. ****3/4

Are people really calling this one of the best lucha matches ever?? That seems... crazy. BUT, this match was really great. This was all action. There were tons of crazy things here, like the splash to the outside, which maybe somehow looked even crazier than normal (and was during the FIRST FALL), the stomp off the stage, the Cavernario dive where he jumped through the ropes and turned his body compleyly around, and the HUGE Fenix springboard.. I could keeo going. Cavernario showed a bit of an edge, too. Fenix has shined since he's debuted and looked like a superstar here. A different match than the Rush vs. Park match from the week before, but right up there with it for best lucha match so far this year. ****1/2

What we saw here is great, but like everyone else said, the clipping is a major disappointment. I do love that every single CMLL feud right now feels like a blood feud. It's a little overkill but at the same time, it makes the entire promotion have a dangerous feeling.

I love this. The match kind of reminded me of the Toryumon/Dragon Gate multi-man style in a way. Super fast paced, each guy coming in and not overstaying his welcome in front of a super hot crowd. It does slow down a bit once the Radicalz gain control towards the end, but that is short lived when Cactus gets the hot tag. It's basically a showcase match for each guy, without that much substance, but sometimes that's exactly what is needed. ****1/4 I will say, the introduction of the Radicalz has been very bizarre. From begging for contracts to losing their first night to immediately being thrown in as the other guys in the Cactus Jack/HHH feud, it is all just strange. Thankfully they turned here, so hopefully it will all turn around and head up for them soon. I was worried the crowd would already be out on them, but thankfully they ate up the opening promo and reacted huge for the turn.

Absolutely could not believe how much blood there was in a match that, going in, I figured would just be another standard CMLL match. Unreal

For years, I considered this one of my favorite WWE/F matches ever. Foley was my favorite as a kid, and this storyline was one of my favorites when I was a kid. However, I watched it somewhat recently and it didn't hold up QUITE as much as I expected. Excited to watch it again and see how I feel this time. I've seen this probably more than almost any other match. I did find the crowd parts in the beginning to drag a bit. Like, I don't think it was pointless, it got some of the hatred of the match across, but it just dragged the crowd down a bit. After that, though, I thought the hatred came through well and the violence escalated nicely. I just all feels long and a little bloated. I still love it, just not quite as much as I used to. Still, both guys play their rolls pretty perfectly, Triple H's bladejob is epic, and there are some truly brutal spots. Best match so far this year. ****1/2

This is one of my favorite debuts ever. The pop when the music hits is etched in my memory. I love it still, and it makes me bummed to think that this was his peak. I thought the match was just ok, though. Not that much too it and the crowd was fairly quiet throughout. Still, Tazz looks like a beast and emerges as a real player.

Man, this was great. First, Super Crazy was great here, he mad Tajiri's stuff looked good, had a great comeback, and delivered in the finish. But DAMN, Tajiri was incredible. He came off as a complete unpredictable lunatic who did not care about anything else but destroying his opponent. The launching of chairs off the table was absolutely bonkers, and I loved when he mocked Super Crazy. Just an incredible brawl that transcends the ECW style. ****1/4

I love that Tarzan Boy is covered in blood before he even got to the ring. This feud has been the highlight of the project so far. So much hatred. Awesome stuff. ****1/4

I haven't revisited most 2000 WCW, which obviously has a reputation, so I was very surprised at the total package here. From the beginning, they did a great job of making this match seem super important, from the introductions to the commentary to the locker room watching. Benoit stalked and picked apart Sid in a really interesting way. No BS or anything, just a really good match. ****

Ronda is incredibly natural. Great facials, great selling, great basically everywhere. I worry that she is wrestling too much like a "pro wrestler" and not to what her skillset should be, but otherwise she has been very impressive.

This was LONG. It just went on forever and ever. I found that the Taichi interference made it meander even more and hurt the direction a bit. I did like it a bit when it got to the finishing stretch, but even that I felt went on too long. Not a bad match, but one that should have been trimmed 10 minutes. ***

I'd bet the house they are in the same block

I really liked this, but it also is kind of hard to judge. I thought that the first match was basically the perfect blowoff to the feud, so adding on another match felt difficult, almost like they were going through the motions to follow up the first. I think they were able to do it very well, with real hatred and more brutal spots at an overall quicker pace. Things did get a little silly towards the end, with Gargano winning basically but no one stopping the match even though all sorts of officials were there, then as soon as Ciampa comes back, TC won, but otherwise I thought that the big bump towards the end looked absolutely brutal and the story of Gargano absolutely wanting to finish off Ciampa made sense. I know I mainly focused on negatives here, but I really did think it was a great match and a great specacle that wasn't as good as their first one but was still close. I just worry that it is going to start to overstay its welcome. I don't really need to see another big match between the two, but it is coming. ****3/4

Yeah, this was great. I loved how the Atlantis beatdown started off very unassuming, as they other guys were all brawling, too, but then suddenly became the number 1 focus. The beatdown was captivating and the image of Atlantis covering his face while getting destroyed was awesome. Great build for what is to come later. ****

Question for you: What about it made it BELOW AVERAGE to you? I understand not liking it, that is fine, but to me the work looked good, they were all proficient, there was an obvious story, and there were parts you even acknowledged as being great. So overall, was it REALLY below average? I'm just curious, I feel like a match like this has to be at least acknowledged to be ***-***1/2, because even if it wasn't for you, they pulled what they were going for fairly effectively. Not trying to come at your or anything, just something I think about whenever I see a rating like this for a bigtime match like this one.

This is exactly what I want from a match like this in ECW. Fast paced, lots of cool spots, etc. Is it perfect? Not at all. It probably overstayed its welcome slightly and had a mess of a finish, but still, fun action.

This was great. I liked seeing Misawa have to navigate around Hase's strategy and not vice versa. The armwork didn't bother me too much. I maybe wanted slightly more emotion from Misawa SHOWING that he was powering through it, but that is minor, as he did a pretty good job of showing that anyway. ****

Yeah the last 5 minutes or so got really great. Good counters and good fire by Omori. Kobashi made Omori totally believable and made him look really good. ****

This started like it was going to be a sprint, but it wasn't really even though it only lasted 10 minutes. They utilized every second. I thought Akiyama came off as very believable in how he struck down Takayama and got the victory. Good stuff here. ***1/2