Luna_Bourke

I thought this episode of Dynamite was a good one, no real low points. The matches were good, the Mox vs Ishii wasn't as good as their G1 match, but I liked it well enough, it is harder to get into it, since I am less invested in Mox, but he looked good in the match. The six man street fight was uninteresting, they did nothing special, and this should have ended at the previous PPV, and allow The Demand to feud with another trios team, like Skyflight, a Don Callis Family Trio, or which ever one Adam Priest is in now (thought he was with the Work Horsemen, but now he is teaming with Dynamite Kid and maybe also Jay Lethal), until Joe loses to Hangman, and they can defend the Trios Titles, which have been weak for a while. The title matches were good, the TNT was solid, nice to see Kyle O'Reilly get this match, the eventual Briscoe match should be great. The TBS Title match was the better of the two title matches, Lacey Lane had had a good debut, she didn't have the issue that some NXT women have where they work in slow motion to do the high spots, at least wasn't too bad for it, she worked well, shame the crowd was dead at the start, it basically got their in the end, don't know why they didn't give them the time of day initially. This did have the issue of a mega obvious result, but it would be obvious no matter the opponent since she has to be the record. The Don Callis Family vs. Brodido was the match of the night for me, it had one of Okada's best performances in AEW where he was a wanker, but was doing it a more entertaining way, like when he wrenched the arm of Bandido, and he was a good base for him as well, I still thought Takeshita has been the better man in this match (it has really been Takeshita's year to be fair), he had some great moments, and sold the rivalry well. Brody King was a great babyface, really taking it to the Don Callis Family, and, Bandido worked great, integrating his injured arm so well, One of the biggest issues of the match though was the poor referring when it came to the pins especially. One embarrassing mistake was counting a pin on an illegal man, and one of the worst examples I have ever seen for refereeing, Bandido has a sit down pin on I think Okada, ref did not immediately go down, makes sense since the shoulders are not down at all, then it looks like Bandido shouts at him to count an acquiesces, an terrible sight. Still great match tho. PAC vs. OC was pretty good, I like the new look for PAC, reminds me of one of Dynamite Kid's old outfits, except all black, a good return for PAC. The angles were good, the Joe vs Hangman one was the best, still hard to get super invested in Joe, one of the weakest AEW Champs besides Punk, despite that, the promos were good, and Hangman comes across great, and I can root against Joe more than being apathetic now.

Only doing five stars, since then I don't have to look in every single comment I made for matches I gave 9 on cagematch. 1. 11.12.1975 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Antonio Inoki vs. Bill Robinson 2. 15.07.1989 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi 3. 15.11.1989 - World Championship Wrestling: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk 4. 22.02.1992 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 5. 25.05.1992 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 6. 23.03.1997 - World Wrestling Entertainment: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 7. 09.06.2000 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama 8. 17.07.2002 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima 9. 12.09.2003 - Pro Wrestling NOAH: KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 10. 31.12.2016 - Ice Ribbon: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi 11. 04.01.2017 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 12. 04.01.2017 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito 13. 11.06.2017 - New Japan Pro Wrestling Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 14. 12.08.2017 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 15. 27.01.2018 - World Wrestling Entertainment: Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano 16. 28.01.2018 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Jay White vs. Kenny Omega 17. 04.06.2018 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori 18. 09.06.2018 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 19. 08.10.2018 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White 20. 04.01.2019 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega 21. 06.04.2019 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito 22. 25.05.2019 - All Elite Wrestling: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes 23. 05.06.2019 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay 24. 31.08.2019 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki 25. 31.08.2019 - All Elite Wrestling: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix 26. 02.02.2020 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 27. 29.02.2020 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 28. 29.10.2020: World Wrestling Entertainment - Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER 29. 05.01.2021: New Japan Pro Wrestling - Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi 30. 04.05.2021: New Japan Pro Wrestling - Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay 31. 12.06.2021 - World Wonder Ring Stardom: Syuri vs. Utami Hayashishita 32. 22.08.2021 - World Wrestling Entertainment: Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER 33. 05.09.2021 - All Elite Wrestling: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix 34. 19.09.2021 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Connor Mills & Michael Oku vs. Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis 35. 13.11.2021 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page vs. Kenny Omega 36. 15.12.2021 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson 37. 29.12.2021 - World Wonder Ring Stardom: Syuri vs. Utami Hayashishita 38. 29.01.2022 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Michael Oku vs. Will Ospreay 39. 29.05.2022 - All Elite Wrestling: Angelo Parker, Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, Jake Hager & Matt Menard vs. Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Ortiz & Santana 40. 27.06.2022 - Big Japan Pro-Wrestling: Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura 41. 20.08.2022 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Connor Mills & Michael Oku vs. Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis 42. 04.09.2022 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page, Alex Reynolds & John Silver vs. Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 43. 04.01.2023 - New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay 44. 22.01.2023 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura vs. Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi 45. 26.02.2023 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Luke Jacobs vs. Will Ospreay 46. 05.03.2023 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley 47. 25.06.2023 - All Elite Wrestling: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay 48. 26.08.2023 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Luke Jacobs vs. Tomohiro Ishii 49. 12.10.2023 - Kakuto Tanteidan: Fuminori Abe vs. Takuya Nomura 50. 05.11.2023 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Yuma Aoyagi 51. 18.11.2023 - All Elite Wrestling: Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland 52. 31.12.2023 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara 53. 18.02.2024 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Michael Oku vs. Will Ospreay 54. 20.07.2024 - All Japan Pro Wrestling: Ryuki Honda vs. Yuma Anzai 55. 25.08.2024 - All Elite Wrestling: Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland 56. 09.03.2025 - All Elite Wrestling: Mariah May vs. Toni Storm 57. 12.07.2025 - All Elite Wrestling: Mercedes Mone vs. Toni Storm 58. 23.08.2025 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: 1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire vs. Connor Mills & Jay Joshua 59. 23.08.2025 - Revolution Pro Wrestling: Leon Slater vs. Michael Oku

Might be good to give her a tag partner for the tournament, Diamante might be a good choice for her to go with, Mercedes Martinez would work the best in my eyes, she has the vibes but can take the pin, only issue is that while she is on the roster page, she has not even been in RoH for a year, but if she is still under contract and that is just an oversight, bring her in for that.

https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/28576-genichiro-tenryu/page/8/#findComment-6034520 My review.

In kayfabe I like to think he had enough of Kobashi, and wanted to work over Jumbo.

I'll be honest, I thought it was way better than a 'solid tv main event', it is actually one of my favourite All Japan matches, defo my favourite Hansen match or Jumbo, possibly same for Kobashi but the Can-Am match probs edges it out, certainly up there for Tenryu. I thought this was truly wonderful, making the best use out of the dynamics of the match. Jumbo the veteran, and ace of All Japan, wanting to uplift Kobashi, but willing to let him sink or swim, he wants to win the match, most definately, but also wants to see how Kobashi can do without too much hand holding. This is rather ironic given the near future, and it does make me wonder how All Japan would be without SWS, sure Baba would probs be a bit slower to bring up the four pillars, but it is not like he wasn't thinking about the future like here, and Tenryu and Hansen would be an interesting replacement for a heel Jumbo, especially given this match. Oh well, I suppose it did turn out pretty good anyways. Kobashi is an exciting new prospect, bursting with potential, both in kayfabe and reality, and he performs excellently in both. I tend to prefer Young Kobashi, from about then to 1992, he is more athletic and easy to root for, not to say he isn't excellent in the future, I do like him, even if I am not the highest on his GHC run (good, but a fair amount of ehh matches and opponents, I prefer Kawada's TC reign going on at the same time). But yeah, here he does better than one might expect, he is so sympathetic and is exciting to watch him fight back. Hansen, never been the biggest Hansen fan (watching his awful Misawa matches for a watch project doesn't help), I like him, but he is defo better in tags than singles. But this is a tag match, so yay! This is Hansen at his best, being at his best here, never seen him at this level before, such as a spiteful and cruel presence unlike he has ever been. And the man of the hour (or years long GWE thread), Genichiro Tenryu. I feel like he is the man that holds this match together. Like I feel like he is what brings out this in Hansen the most actually, obviously having a young upstart trying his patience, and his biggest rival on the opposite end of the ring helps bring this out ones who dare to attack them at the start, but it certainly feels like this is mainly brought out this much to not be outdone by Tenryu, he is outdone, because Tenryu is the bad bitch in the world of spite. Him and Hansen are on point together, they have tremendous tag team chemstry, like the irish whip lariat, Tenryu is the one who does the actually lariat, which is odd, but who cares because he does an incredible one. His kicks to the head, his stares are all on point, and he is not afraid to give quite a lot, but his presence makes him feel like a threat, he knows when to turn on being Tenryu. He is a complete and utter bastard to the end. Also the crowd is electric, and are so behind Kobashi, that even Jumbo barely gets a look in, and the other two get booed. This match is a big part about what I love about Tenryu, I get so giddy when I watch a match of his, no one else has that affect and it why he is one of the best wrestlers to ever go, he brings out that feeling like no one else. FIVE STARS *****

Haven't finished my UWF-I watch, but he is very much up there as one of my favourites in the promotion. The booking might help, but he does have charisma, he has a presence, even if not the most dynamic talker, no one is there really. He had a great rise to the top, which while inevitable, felt earned. His feud with the Russians was great, the crowd was in to it, and he was insturmental to keeping the Russian team feel like a threat. Having watched show to show, when he was on, he felt like a special wrestler, and one that is always exciting to watch. Also, since it was UWF-I, the floor was typically good, so he was rarely in a poor match.

In retrospect, all these 'I hope he gets more bookings and gets signed' stuff. Yeah, he compeletely lost the plot on social media, and got himself cancelled about two years after these posts. For what it is worth, he did have a great match in a RoH pure rules tag match (the first I think): Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta vs. Rhett Titus & Tracy Williams (****) He did show promise there, but yeah, not near top 100 tho, even if he had a fun RoH run, and some good stuff on other indies.

It is more that he was behind the gimmick, I can't say how he has been in the matches itself, and I haven't watched his recent outside, I assume he is still capable, I remember he that good NOAH run before joining NJPW, but yeah, creating and pushing for one of the worst parts of New Japan for the last five years, making all of its wrestlers who are mostly good, to even great to having nothing but trash for five years is a serious down for him, I suppose creative shouldn't factor in to his placing, but it also should since it does affect his work as a wrestler.

He did have some good tag matches with Hiromu, he did catch fire at the very end of 2020, but he does have some good pre pandemic stuff that is worth having a look at.

I like his straight matches but find his hardcore death matches boring.

I don't get why myself, I am having a NOAH and All Japan watch (started with TC, tho watched a fair bit of the Choshu era). By 2003, where I am at it only feels like now they have a solid junior division, and even reliant on outside talent like Liger. I understand that while they wanted to have a stronger focus on the juniors, the young juniors needed time to develop, but Ikeda should have been the top junior at least until about 2003/4. Like, I guess they made him heavyweight, but he a junior in AJPW, and they needed some good juniors, while Kenta, Kanemaru and Marufuji improved, and it would have given Ikeda something more substancial to do.

Only makes my top 100 worst last names.

Yeah, you are right about the submission thing, am bad about remembering finishers, but she could do with a big submission or two. I do absolutely love a lot of her performances, would need to go back to her older work but she is one of my favourite workers right now, so she deserves a shout.

Love him, and is always a joy to watch when I do. I don't watch CMLL regularly enough to put him in my top 100, and he seems to be too in the mid card. Seen him live a few times, like in British J Cup 2019 in a killer match against Robbie Eagles, and then one in Sheffield against Zozaya. He feels legit wild in the latter matcg he broke the barricade in a dive ( I was 2nd row just behind him), he even tried to continue fighting when trapped over a fan and under the barricade. If RevPro used him semi-regularly, or if he made a G1, or was a consistant main eventer in CMLL then he could be top 100, possibly top 50, but as of yet not quite.

One match I would recommend for Onita in his 80s AJPW era is Onita and Steamboat vs The High Flyers (8.6.82) Such a great tag match with one crazy spot from Onita.

My recommendations are: Chihiro Hashimoto & VENY vs. Mayu Iwatani & Sareee (2.9.24) Sareee-ism Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu vs. Lena Kross & VENY (9.11.24) Sendai Girls Sareee vs. VENY (17.1.25) SeaDlinnng I don't think she would be top 100 as I haven't watched enough of her work, but she has the best punch in wrestling, great charisma, and so amazing when she cares. She is one of the reasons I wish AEW kept using joshis like they did.

I watched a fair amount of Taue on my AJPW watch (following Triple Crown and watching whatever interests me), and he was great, I prefer Kawada and then Kobashi, but prefer him to Misawa. Am up 2003 on my NOAH/AJPW watch and his NOAH stuff hasn't impressed me at all, unlike the others, bit he was fucked over a bit by the much worse NOAH tag division, and at least intially being paired with Jun Izumida. Like I would say he has a higher peak than Misawa as Taue has a five star match imo (No Fear vs HDM for vacant World Tag Titles 2000), and Misawa's lows were more visible and frequent (Hansen matches, especially that one badddd one).

Great from what I have seen of him, didn't do a deepdive on him exactly, but I watched a fair bit of his stuff, not many US workers pre when I started watching would make my top 100, and I don't think Adonis would, but I do like his non Adorable stuff.

I thought it was a play on Doc Gallows (the Gallows part), so he became the Hangman, thought I heard him say it, but not a 100% All these years later I think he deserves a lot of recongnition, he is one of the best in AEW for in-ring stuff and outside stuff having the great stories and it enhancing the already incredible matches, his NJPW work was fun and I wish he did more tag work.

Not sure I would have him in top 100, but at the time I loved those NXT main events, I was 11/12 in 2017, so my judgement probs wasn't the best, and besides the All In main event I haven't cared for his AEW run, and don't have a ton of interest to go back and watch his NXT stuff, tho I don't go back for a lot of stuff I love as I have too much to watch as it is lol.

As someone who watched a good majority of this era of All Japan, I really liked it. In fact, I prefered it to NOAH (at least from 2000-2002) NOAH also suffered from a weakened roster, of course, not as much as AJPW did, but with all those mid carders foreigners gone, they lost a bit of depth, even if on their own those wrestlers don't generally amount to much, they helped prevent the stars being spread thin. Also, NOAH was pretty poorly booked imo, like the tag division fell apart with Taue's new partner being Jun Izumida, who was fucking awful. No Fear didn't get much of a push as a tag team, and Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama spliting. All Japan's tag division was far from perfect, but I sensed more effort to keep it to a high level. The juniors weren't great for either really, there wasn't much of a junior scene in All Japan, so NOAH's is better, but it takes until the next era for it to be actually be good (excellent) for NOAH, so its not much of a factor. AJPW just feels a lot fresher, as NOAH takes a while to bring in outsiders and foreigners which hurts them, and keeps them from being fresh or having depth.

Its great to see him back in wrestling, and I am very excited to see him with Don Callis. Don was my fave heel commentator in recent years, with his Impact and NJPW runs (plus his AEW guest spots). I have always been a big Mauro Ranallo fan so those two together feels like a bit of a dream team. Very excited overall for MLP.

Super late, but I only just joined. My top 3 matches of 2022 (my only ***** matches of the year) 1. Michael Oku vs. Will Ospreay 2. Aussie Open vs Micheal Oku & Connor Mills (Anniversary Show - Night 1) 3. Astronauts vs Strong Big Japan.