Edwin

That exploding barbed wire bat was great.

That was great. Wish they'd use it as a tribute finish.

Same. I'll also say Bryce dressing in the hazmat suit like a 90's FMW ref. is a neat touch. Anyway, I loved it when Onita and Goto did it back in the early 90s, but this isn't working for me. Also the 30 minute explosive announcement is a spoiler. Those explosives on the outside were bad, but a wild nasty bump at least to make up for it.

I thought this was very good. I've seen one of their previous matches from a smaller indy show in Europe and thought that was underwhelming so I didn't expect this to deliver and I was wrong. KLR is built as the longest reigning NXT UK women's champion and Meiko is built as the final boss (despite this being only her second match in the brand) built off her past in Japan, so the 50/50 work in it makes sense to a degree. Loved the drama built around the STF and Koji Clutch (despite obviously not being the finish, you can still buy into it, so kudos to the commentators). The lack of edited in crowd noises also allows for the thuds on some of the strikes to be heard. KLR going for broke with the swanton and the desperation almost costing her was a neat touch near the end. The finishing sequence was good as it didn't feel excessive. Kind of baffling to see Meiko get a title match this soon and lose it already. Anyway, I feel this would have been a notch above had it occurred in front of a live crowd as you know they would have been going bonkers for this.

I've really dug their series of matches and thought this was the lesser of them. I thought the whips into the cage were weak (not advocating for folks to bash their brains in against a cage, but this looked really loose and as them just pushing their hands into the cage) and the multiple cage escape attempt teases weren't particularly believable (the entire escape the cage stipulation is lame as it defeats the purpose of a cage match and is only reasonable when you have a weak heel who needs to find quick alternatives he can weasel a win with when paired with a much stronger face). The Samoan drop off the top and the butterfly suplexes were neat, but aside from that I checked out on this.

Unfortunately Gulak has been relegated to being a jobber on Main Event losing under 6 minute matches. Luckily his matches are still being recorded and we get quality TV level matches. We get some big Gulak German suplexes here and a beautiful enzuigiri counter into an STF. Mansoor's not as flashy offensively as Ricochet or Humberto Carrillo (which is a benefit to Mansoor when it comes to comparisons with Carrillo as Mansoor is much crisper than him) but he pulls out a neat slingshot neckbreaker for the finish. To me this is a notch below the Ricochet match from earlier this year, but it's still worth a watch as Gulak has mastered the art of the 6 minute TV match. With Daniel Bryan back on SmackDown and him working a bit with the writing staff, we can only hope we get a continuation from their teacher and student story from last year.

This was so much better than I expected it to be. To me, Roddy was always the best member of TUE and before the pandemic he was killing it at NXT live events with quality matches against diverse opponents. Finn has also had a really good year so far putting on a MOTYC against KOr and the TakeOver title match with Dunne which I know some folks dug, however this to me was a notch above the Dunne title defense and a notch below the KOr rematch. Strong's back work is usually on point and here it was no different. There was a cool choke Finn pulled out here mid match that I'd never seen before and would make for a really cool finisher if he decided to change it up (although his double stomp is pretty great, as is his 1916). Finn's countering the gut buster with a double stomp was insane. Dug the finish with Finn hitting two big moves and it ending instead of the 2.99 big move exchanges. Really good TV main event.

This is definitely a breath of fresh air as it's a really good heavyweight TV match. Sheamus was working really snug early on and hitting Drew with some brutal strikes which you could hear the thuds of them clearly connecting as some potatoes were definitely thrown in there. Drew gets a receipt by tossing Sheamus back first on the edge of the commentators table which is one of the nastiest WWE table bumps ever. He then dumps him with a nasty suplex on the table that doesn't give either. Both guys are dead by the end of this as you can clearly see the wear on their bodies. Unique finish with Drew cleverly countering the Brogue Kick with a Claymore. My type of match and I maybe overrate this, but I have this as my new MOTY pick over Finn/Dunne II from TakeOver Vengeance.

Another quality TV main event between these two with Jey targeting the injured knee Bryan brought in from the Elimination Chamber and with the stipulation that if Bryan won, he would get a title rematch against Roman at Fastlane. These two had some quality TV matches late last year and they followed up with this one. The knee work by Jey is excellent as he just obliderates Bryan with a nasty knee first drop on the commentators table and he would use it to cut Bryan's comebacks short by targeting it. Jey's dropkick/double stomp to the knee is one of the nastiest spots around as you can see there's very little room for error and it can legit tear your knee out easily. Finish wasn't clean, but it's obviously leading to build to a rematch possibly next week.

Yes, I'm not arguing that as it's exactly what I said twice and then I elaborated on what Bad Bunny brings to the table. As I mentioned, most of my post was a copy/paste from DVDVR where there were folks calling casual racism which I of course mentioned I couldn't agree on before moving on as that was an obvious stretch.

Yes and that is 100% spot on. No, that is not what he said in the clip that's been posted everywhere and his blind defenders are just as bad as his blind detractors. And yeah, no point in following up with this "he said," "he didn't say," argument as it will fall down the Jackson Martinez Arsenal Twitter meme, so I'm done with it. Edit: And my post maybe OOC a bit as it was meant as a reply to folks on DVDVR, not on here, but most of it still applies here.

Not that exactly, what he *did* say was that Bad Bunny isn't beloved by every Latino which is obviously an unnecessary thing to say as no one person is beloved everyone. I'll just copy/paste my post from DVDVR on the topic: I won't call Seltzer a racist like other folks have over the Bad Bunny clip solely, but I find it funny he says he's not loved by everyone in the Latin community. I don't think there's a single person in any community that's beloved by everyone, so that's a meaningless thing to say. But yes, Bad Bunny is a household name in North America, South America and in several countries of Europe (namely Spain and Italy). Back to Bad Bunny, WWE is smart for bringing him in. He's a massive star and is actually a wrestling fan (as is DJ Luian who used to work with him and who's done appearances on local indy shows in Puerto Rico and was at Ric Flair's wedding, but obviously not as popular as Bad Bunny). Regardless of the show he's on, he's going to bring in a lot of viewers from the Hispanic community which maybe won't be reflected in TV ratings as the younger folks spend more time streaming stuff and on social media as proven by him breaking merch sale numbers and social media interaction. The clip he posted of him slapping the Miz got something like 26 million views or something in 1 minute. Just ridiculous. The other positive thing is he's clearly being used to elevate Damian Priest's popularity. Given there's not much touring Bad Bunny can do now due to the pandemic, I can see him sticking around after Mania. As I said, the dude grew up a WWE fan, so he obviously loves what he's doing and is making a ton of money, so he definitely wouldn't mind sticking around.

Interpromotional matches in Japanese pro-wrestling are the best. This part of the New Japan vs. UWF feud and Takada is here to kick butt and to me he is clearly the star of this match. He puts an absolute beating on Yamada just blasting him with slaps, kicks and hitting him with one of the nastiest tombstone piledrivers I’ve ever seen in my life. Takada is not afraid of throwing hands with Inoki either, however the main focus of this is the Yamada beatdown. Kido is perfectly fine in his invading role as well, but he more so just along for the ride.

These two have had several matches, mostly ones that many folks have not seen as they happened on 205 Live and more recently on Main Event earlier this year. Their most recent match on ME was more worked more evenly than this as this is mostly a Gulak torture show with him constantly grounding and out grappling Carrillo while also telling him how stupid some of his counter attempts are. Worth noting Gulak may have the best headlock takeover in wrestling as he puts force behind and does not solely just flip his opponent over. Finish was abrupt as Carrillo’s comeback is a big face kick and a moonsault. I would say this is more of a fun than good, but well worth a watch.

This is different from their previous match this year as this is more of an intense 5-minute sprint with them going balls to the wall and pulling out some wild stuff. Cesaro gets his head busted hardway here again catching an elbow to the side of the head off a top rope dive to the outside. Bryan’s counters in this were great as he countered an elevated European uppercut into a backslide and a European uppercut into a flying armbar and then transitioned in the the LeBell Lock. Bryan also brought the throwback armbar grab face stomps which looked great. Cesaro’s Atlantida into an elevated backbreaker leading to an extensive giant swing and a sharpshooter was a great finish. I thought this was really good, but I preferred their previous match to this one.

For those wondering, blue hat means lie.

I’ve been big on Goldberg’s returns and brief runs as his matches usually tend to be short and feature some wild big man spots. While this wasn’t on par with the Brock WM or Taker KSA matches and this was much shorter than those matches, I still think this served it’s purpose and was good. That headbutt McIntyre threw to kick this off may have been the best one he’s thrown. That Jackhammer Goldberg threw looked bad, but the fill in spears were great. Unfortunately this didn’t have a live crowd as they would’ve been going nuts and it would have elevated this. I would have also liked this more if it had gone a little longer and we would have gotten a few more big moments. I still think this was perfectly fine and these short matches are the best way to book Goldberg. I wouldn’t mind a rematch at WM that goes a little longer and in front of fans.

As per usual, multiman interpromotional matches at Korakuen Hall are usually really good and this is no exception. We get a hot crowd, some OK crowd brawling and another solid Kanemoto ZERO1 invasion match, however there's a pretty long portion with the ZERO1 guys putting an extensive beatdown on Taguchi. The more I watch of Kanemoto in this rivalry, the more I've come to appreciate his timing. He just does a beautiful job of putting over the lesser ranked ZERO1 wrestlers hope spots and actually gets the fans the believe an upset is incoming before he just cuts them off and finishes them off.

Not on par with the previous Kanemoto ZERO1 match with Yoshihito Sasaki, but it's still a good interpromotional match. To me the highlight of this is the Kanemoto and Takanishi exchanges. Kanemoto is great as working as a bully invading heel as proven in the Yoshihito match and Takanishi is a local ZERO1 young lion underdog. Kanemoto's beatdowns on Takanishi are great as he just bullies him around by slapping him around and playing to the crowd. Taguchi and Takaiwa are perfectly fine here as they are mostly just background noise, although we get some brief Kanemoto and Takaiwa exchanges. The finish of this is great as Takanishi gets some hope spots in and the crowd is red hot for it. Kanemoto of course demolishes him and he teases a ankle hold before starring at the fans and lifting Takanishi up by the hair and hitting him with a brutal Tiger suplex and then locking him in a leg capture ankle hold. Good match.

Tokyo Sports reported Hideki Suzuki maybe signing with WWE as they spotted him at the airport and he had a one way ticket. He tweeted the link to the report and replied "I don't remember." He also tweeted he was in Singapore as he was there to meet with Shinya Aoki who fought on the last ONE FC card there. And he's also been tweeting obvious stock photos of the country. Someone asked him if he was signing with WWE and he replied "I don't know." Tokyo Sports also quoted him saying "I don't have anything I want to do in Japan anymore." And they mentioned last year he said he was going on a trip as he wanted to visit the Kennedy Space Center and then Chris Hero tweeted the photo of him, with Hideki, Thatcher and Gulak at the WWE Performance Center. I think and hope he's signed and will be revealed when they announce the class Priscilla Kelly and the other girls are in.

This is a ZERO1-MAX vs. New Japan interpromotional Jr.'s match. Interpromotional matches in Japanese pro-wrestling are the best as they have hot local crowds going crazy for the local wrestler. Kanemoto comes in and attacks Yoshihito before the bell and begins flipping off the fans and slapping and kicking him around and the Korakuen Hall crowd is going nuts. Yoshihito takes a massive bump over the top rope when Kanemoto gives him a nasty suplex from inside the ring. Yoshihito gets a greatly timed hope spot and hits a spear and the crowd is eating it up, but he’s too beat up and Kanemoto catches him in an ankle lock and we get a great bit with Yoshihito relying on having to desperately bite Kanemoto’s toes to be able to break free. There’s a great bit where they engage in a back and forth battle trading slaps and Kanemoto lets Yoshihito get some slaps in before he just gets fed up of playing games and just dropping him with a single right hand punch to the jaw before grinning at the crowd. Kanemoto’s mannerisms here are great as he’s just a smug invading heel facing a local underdog. Great finish with a TKO with Kanemoto just blasting Yoshihito with right hands from the mount. Great match.

Chicky Starr had to undergo surgery a few days ago and there were complications after the surgery and he had to be admitted into intensive care. His wife said it was a scary situation and he almost didn't survive. She mentioned he's doing much better now in recovery.

Lightning unmasked from the tag team Thunder and Lightning from Puerto Rico at the WWE Performance Center today.

They lost a match to Terry Funk and Takeshi Ono at a previous IWA JAPAN show in Korakuen Hall and one of the Headhunters turned on the other. During the betrayal, the Headhunter that betrayed got a bottle at ringside and broke in on the ring post and then used to carve the betrayed Headhunter. That’s why there was glass inside the boxes at ringside. There's some loud blatant spot calling in Spanish in this. There's a spot where one of the Headhunters is carving up the other with a piece of glass and the one getting carved tells the other Headhunter to grab a bigger piece of glass. Also during the barbed wire board moonsault sandwich, one of them yells Victor, take care of me.

Necro Butcher returning to Japan to work dates for Inoki opened up the fantasy booking ideas as he was booked as the Death Match Zombie and it seemed like it would lead to quality matches after his debut against The Predator, unfortunately the follow up was a 3 way match with Rob Van Dam and Kendo Kashin because of course only Inoki could come up with such a match. That unfortunately was followed up with an underwhelming rematch with The Predator and then matches that were easily to tune out against Atsushi Sawada and Taka Kunou as Necro in front of everyone pulled out blades from his wrist tape and bladed them in front of the cameras and everyone. Eventually his IGF run gets back on track with this match. Necro of course comes in with some recognition from the fans as a wild death match foreigner who has already bleed buckets in the company against a local experienced MMA fighter who’s known as a fighter who’s implemented pro-wrestling moves into his fight such as hitting a piledriver on Paulo Filho in DEEP. Early on we get some body shots and some dirty boxing with some nasty shows thrown in the clinch and Necro pulling a Tyson on Holyfield and bitting Minowaman’s ear. Minowaman doesn’t bring the Samoa Joe beating on Necro, but he’s not afraid to hit Necro with some nasty straight body kicks and to slap him in his bloody face. Of course Necro bleeds and he bleeds and he bleeds and he bleeds and he bleeds... Seriously, Necro bleeds so much that Minowaman ends up wiping Necro's blood out of his own eyes. We also get a cool Necro airplane spin in which he ends up dropping Minowaman on his head and then proceeds to perfectly sell the effects of the dizzyness followed up by Minowaman catching him in a neat kneebar off his back. Necro also puts together the Tenryu chop and punch combo which gets a shoutout from the commentators and of course always gets a pop from the local crowd. They do the punch exchange and they make it work as they are actually connecting with force behind their strikes and years before Roman Reigns threw a superman punch Minowaman throws a superman elbow. The finish is unfortunately somewhat anti climatic as Minowaman just catches Necro in a heel hook and he taps out. Finish aside, this is still great.