Makai Club #1

I thought this was pretty excellent. Loved the striking in the first half of the match, looked stiff enough and it was pretty entertaining to watch. That and some lovely mat work with some nice counters and tight looking holds. Then they kicked it up a notch and had a mad finishing stretch w/ tons of nifty sequences and big moves thrown together. The nearfalls were well done and I thought they both worked well and had a great showing. ****1/2

Fujiwara bum rushing Chohu then pounding on him for the entire match whilst the fans are cheering for him was a wild ride. I'm not say they were anti-Choshu but they weren't cheering him either. Fujiwara was fantastic, his punches looked stiff and nasty as hell. His headbutts were rough. His facial expressions were excellent, and his selling of the headbutts that HE did himself was awesome; really putting them over as damaging. Choshu didn't do much but sell but when he went on offence, he was good too. The speed of Choshu's lariats was crazy. Excellent match. ****1/2

The grappling at the start of the match wasn't the most exciting, sure but I think it did its job of establishing that Takada needs to take to the feet and go for the striking in order to beat Maeda. Maeda may be a prolific striker, but it's all Takada has. And that he does. When they go to feet, this match takes off in an upward trajectory. Some of the strike combinations were cheer out loud great. Nasty stuff strikes mixed w/ desperation and urgency by Takada. Great dominant performance by Maeda controlling most of the match but selling excellently for Takada. I think their 1989 Jan match was better but this was still a classic. ****1/2

Excellent match. The grappling was great to see, so snug even for 80's NJ. Then the striking was good. Everything felt like a battle and struggle. ****1/4 Edit: Much better second time around. Loved the grappling throughout the match. I thought I'd be more into the striking aspects of the match, given that's what I like about wrestling the most, but they sucked me into the back and forth struggle for holds that the stiff as hell strikes were actually a low point in the match, and I still loved those parts all the same. And what about the ending, Fujiawara with a heel hold, Maeda with a rear naked choke. First one to fall loses. Great match. The restarts didn't bother me a ton but they did disrupt the flow the match had a bit. ****3/4

If given perhaps a few more minutes (maybe a 12 minute run time in total) this could've been a MOTYC but alas, this was still pretty goddamn good. Some excellent grappling, the striking was great and it felt like a competitive battle. It just needed a bit more time to settle. ***1/2

When Strong BJ vs Violent Giants was announced for this show, I was like gaaaah, and I thought this was very good match. Loved the little start by Sekimoto and Suwama, exchanging some grappling, trying to feel each other out, countering each other then standing off. That was good. Then the finishing stretch was pretty awesome. Sekimoto was fantastic here with his energetic, fiery offence whilst also selling all the damage of the match too. Ishikawa's knees were brutal as hell and he hit some big moves that got me off my seat. Him and Ishikawa going off was my favourite parts of the match; some great exchanges between the two. Hoping for a one on one match between them soon. Now for the disappointing parts. The middle section was kinda just there, some nice back and forth exchanges but it all seemed really basic and it didn't reach the level I wanted from it. Overall this felt like a very good battle between four big men, it just didn't reach that level of being a great match for me. ***1/2

Great match. Excellent character work by the Rougeaus at the beginning. Everything Marty Jannetty did was so great. Everything looked so graceful and his hot tag at the end was awesome. Michaels was a really good FIP and Rougeaus did a great job of cutting him off, getting heat on themselves and getting the crowd behind Michaels. Wrestling clinic, this. ****1/2

Fantastic match. Easily one of the best NXT title defenses of all time. Roode's performance was great, his selling was top notch and his counters were really well timed. Itami shined with his excellent striking and his constant flurries off offence. Both showed great character work with their arrogant, cocky demeanors at the start of the match. Loved the way they excellent the false finishes, Roode being unable to get the pin due to his arm (that was injured early on in the match) and Itami knocking Roode out of the win with the GTS, then being unable to get him back in the ring in time to get a 3 count. Shorter than the recent "classics" on the Takeover shows but that's all it needed to be. Glorious match (ha) ****3/4

One of my favourite matches of the style. The grappling in this match was amazing. Everything looked tight and out right gnarly at times. One thing I loved in this match was everything lead into each other. For example, Maeda's suplexes almost always lead to a submission attempt on the arm. But the focus of the match was Maeda constantly going for the legs. As great as Maeda was, Takada was the star with his all time great underdog performance. His selling of the leg was fantastic and his defence of the grappling from Maeda was great. He got in some great strikes to gain the advantage in parts of the match. Great battle, filled with struggle and top notch grappling. ****3/4

Oh man! These two put on a wrestling clinic. A match filled with great back and forth wrestling. Tons of fight and fire between the two. Both constantly struggling to gain control, putting everything they had on the line. Tremendous fiery performances by both. U-T's long ankle spot on Ishida was so well done; one of the few dramatic moments in this match. Ishida's striking was fantastic, especially his kicks and he his selling of the leg towards the end, and the post match, was really good. The closing stretch was all kinds of good too. The kids of Dragon Gate putting on a show. ****1/4

Really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. So smartly worked with Hama using his size and weight to keep on top, Sekimoto playing the old school face, constantly trying to slam and over power Hama but failing. Great storytelling that ended with a logical finish that made sense. Sekimoto's facials and selling was top notch too. Sekimoto's title reign off to a good start. ***3/4

Good match. Some nice tag wrestling, simple heel/face dynamics. Seven was pretty awesome selling all the way through with Gibson and Drake cutting him off and beating him down - doing a real great job with it too. Bate showed some impressive strength. The crowd went NUTS for this match which was awesome to see. They hated Gibson who milked it in at the start - great stuff from him. Bate’s comebacks at the end were pretty sick, made him look like a star even if the aeroplane spot was a bit silly. I liked this. ***1/2

Jesus christ what a pile of crap this was. I don’t really use this word to describe wrestling but this was so mastabatoury. They dragged everything out to try and force an epic, even having the "crowd claps for us" spots. I don’t know how long they went, but it felt like forever. The match dragged every second of the way. Dull, dull grappling at the beginning, none of it was gripping to me, nor was it exciting to watch. Then they soon transitioned into hitting moves with no flow, kicking out of them for no reason and they completely botched that ending run. I mean three bitter end kickouts? Ridiculous. Now to give them their due, there was some nicely put together sequences but they were few and far between all the rubbish this match bad. They tried to have an epic, it didn’t work. *

This really encapsulated the progress not only Kaito has made over the past year, but Kenoh too. Kiyomiya's offence in the early parts of the match looked so fluid and you could see the confidence Kaito now possesses. He is playing to the crowd, not thinking twice about doing something. He feels and looks like a champion now. Kenoh turned from a very good wrestler to a great one over the year, his chemistry with Kiyomiya has grew and so did his wrestling. The early parts of the match Kenoh began working on the ribs of Kiyomiya. Hitting nasty kicks to the ribs, jumping knees towards the region but Kiyomiya began getting to the match more and the two started to have more than a back and forth battle. They picked their spots to hit the big moves well, in my opinion. They didn't waste one big move after the other. There was tension, a struggle in everything they did. They built towards the big moments like the nasty dragon suplex on the apron and Kiyomiya doing the Emerald Flowsion and made them count. They matched each other and had a compelling match w/ striking, reversals and suplexes. Excellent contest. ****1/4

Underdog Sekimoto is the best. So much raw energy in his body, his facial expressions, his screams. He was fantastic. Sato's forearms in this match were pure filth. So stiff, so much power and meanness behind them. His kicks too. Great match. Both stiff each other with striking with Sato just being that much better in that regard but Sekimoto didn't let that stop him find a way to get the win. A simple struggle to get the win, great match. ****

Very good match. Kento was pretty good and Kai was awesome Kai can usually be a total bore in singles but he was very compelling to watch here, really stepped up his game, bump his arse off and showed some fire throughout the match. Surprisingly Kento was the weaker of the two with spotty selling of the leg and generally keeping it basic which in turn allowed Kai to shine. Felt a bit long too if I'm honest, and the match didn't reach the level of the point of where I could consider this to be great. ***1/2

It was a good match, I think. The early parts where Omega feigned being a sportsman, sending BC away only to cheat his way throughout the match was really good and very clever. The constant switch in momentum between the two was well done also. Gave this match a very competitive feel to it. I want to praise their work on the limbs too even if the selling wasn't up to that standard. Both of them sold the initial pain of the work but they didn't sell it afterwards and they blew it off to hit moves like the v-triggers and dragon suplexes. Disappointing from both from that standpoint. The interference wasn't preferable but it made sense with Omega's cheating. The pacing is good too. The match never dragged for me at all. ***

The match was clipped so I didn't get everything but I got 20 minutes of fantastic wrestling and that's all I need to an enjoy a match with these two. Great heat and emotion from this. Some fantastic selling by both and some slick wrestling where they combined loads of different styles into one. It was great. ****1/2

I’ve heard stories, seen pictures and gifs but I never expected this. THIS. This is a classic. A bloody fight with fantastic brawling, great storytelling by JBL, fiery, passionate comebacks from Eddie. That chair shot by JBL was sickening. I’m not sure if Eddie’s selling was just that damn good or his concussion face was legit. Either way, it added so much. The match was a great brawl that felt like a damn fight. A true WWE CLASSIC. *****.

One of the best matches of this stipulation. Call backs to previous matches, some fantastic brawling. Some truly great character work by The Rock and Mankind. The Rock totally playing up being arrogant, cocky but most importantly vicious. He was ruthless the entire match. Mankind's bumping was incredible, so sympathetic throughout the match, being resilient, keep coming back for more and more. The Rock took a few liberties but it added so much to the match. Great ending too. Cole gets criticised around this time but his commentary was excellent here. One of the best matches of the AE. Another Foley classic. ****3/4

Just to set the scene by giving a bit of background to this match. Koji Kanemoto, most famous for his feud with Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, popular Junior Heavyweight in the 90's and 00's and was the third Tiger Mask, is taking part in the G1 Climax 2004 looking to prove himself amongst the Heavyweights of the company after accomplishing everything as a Junior. Even coming second place in that years Best Of The Super Juniors Tournament just falling short to Tiger Mask IV. So far he has earned four points beating the likes of Yoshihiro Takayama (Forfeit) and a young Togi Makabe. Hiroshi Tanahashi whilst not at his once in a century status just yet, seems to be on the cusp of glory and is destined for big things, eventually heading to the finals of this years G1 Climax. Can the veteran, recently junior turned heavyweight use his experience to outsmart and beat the future ace or will Tanahashi continue his good record? We'll see. Grumpy heavyweight Kanemoto is the bloody best, isn’t he? Early Tanahashi was AWESOME too. The start of the match was excellent with the two exchanging some slick grappling and counters, Kanemoto schooling Tanahashi technically but Tanahashi using his power to hold his own. Then they smoothly transitioning into Kanemoto beating the piss out of Tanahashi with wicked slaps w/ a few shoot punches mixed it with the slaps/palm strikes. It was awesome. Tanahashi acting heelish, using Kanemoto’s boot face wash against him but Heavy Koji was having none of that and roughed him up so more, kicking him flush in the face quite a few times. The finishing stretch was like 5 minutes long but kept up the tempo and was highly compelling with each other beginning to get their heavy shots in and Tanahashi making a comeback, hitting his suplexes but Kanemoto refusing to stay down. Kanemoto kicking out of the High Fly Flow and the arm traped suplex AT ONE (!!!) and began kicking the hell out of Tanahashi w/ the crowd totally behind him just begging for a Kanemoto win. It was not to be on this night after Tanahashi finally put Kanemoto away with the dragon suplex after multiple suplexes beforehand but oh my, what at a night it was. Honestly didn’t expect this match to be THIS high level but they pulled it off. Perfect example for why Kanemoto is an all time great. He was able to pull of his usual grumpy, angry demeanor but be charismatic and sympathetic while doing so. It's an art very few can master, and Kanemoto did just that.

For pure consistent quality I'd have to go with either Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima or WALTER. Guys like ZSJ would be in my top 3 if he was way more consistent with his matches. Founds his G1 really disappointing, and some of his indie work hasn't been great outside of the Walter matches.

Good match on paper and that's what we got. This was really good. Gargano had his best match in a good long while. Going all the way back to January in the Almas match. Black's striking was fantastic, Gargano's wrestling as a heel is much improved over him wrestling as a face. Some bits had me worried such as the drama bits, they are bit comical, and the selling was meh (being generous here), but this was a very good match overall. ***1/4

This fucking ruled. Everything from the entrance, Bryan's smug smile, his tremendous body language, his walk (if you can call it that), to the end. So much atmosphere, this was felt like a big match. THE GOAT vs The BEAST~! Now, this could've easily flopped badly but this delivered and then some. Bryan starting off all cockily, baiting Brock, teasing him before Brock clobbered him and unleashed a mauling. Bryan sold everything to perfection. The way he went all deadweight, his bumping, his facial expressions. All fab. Brock was great too, hitting those nasty german suplexes, playing upto the crowd, reviling in the boos and milking it for what it was worth. And when it looked to be a squash, Bryan made one of the greatest comebacks I've seen in a while, zeroing on the leg of Lesnar, still selling btw. Lesnar's bumping and selling were fantastic, he made Bryan look like an absolute killer. Phenomenal match by two of the greatest wrestlers for the past 20 years, maybe longer than that. One of the best match WWE has had in a while, certainly THE WWE MOTY for me. I can talk about this match all day. WHAT A MATCH. *****

Great match. A match that has been building and building for months finally climaxes. Kenoh getting exactly what he wanted, a match with Marufuji but it didn’t go exactly as he thought he would. Nakajima was on top of his game here hitting some of his hardest chops and knee strikes. Being the aggressive and controlling Kenoh, even acting heelish at times, getting the crowd behind Kenoh. Marufuji’s attacks on the neck were superb and Kenoh’s selling was fantastic. Kept on holding the neck, flinching in pain when ever he moved it. Great stuff. His comebacks were tremendous too, sent the crowd into a frenzy. There is one sequence in the match which was tremendous; mind blowing. ****1/4