soup23

Want to put over the latest podcast, Brock is someone I have been reading and listening to for about a year now but I got a lot more insight into his thought process on wrestling and what works/doesn't on this show. Quentin was passable (ha ha).

Good to hear about the cosmetic changes. I really liked most of the action he did in this match except his strikes at the end, so I could see myself being a fan of him overall as his fundamentals and limb work was really solid.

I feel bad seeing this as a final but I don't have too much to say here. Of course, the match is really emphasizing the Hector Garza vs. Octagon feud at the end. The action wasn't awful but it certainly wasn't that inspiring. Such is life in AAA. **

No idea how to judge it but just the arena is ridiculous. Kendo Azteca lives up to his name coming out with a kendo stick and that is his main mode of offense. This goes about for a while until Tobita flips out and throws the boards that double as the mat at him and hits a back drop suplex to pick up the win. The fans that are there to witness this spectacle are delighted. **

This match looks like it is taking place in the old Memphis studio from the 70’s. I still want to know what precinct policeman works at. Much like the minis match from AAA, this was a showcase for these guys. Some of the strikes look looser than normal and the blatant use of the briefcase from Policeman is grating. Other stuff looked good including a Delphin powerbomb. Tsubusa gets a flash pin off of a German. **1/4

The match starts off really rad with Kanemoto kicking the shit out of AKIRA and ripping his jacket off of him. AKIRA comes back with some good offense and a beautiful dive through the ropes. The end result of that leads to duel leg work. Both parts were done well and it paid dividends with AKIRA getting the surprise victory. A fun, hate filled ten minutes. ***1/2

I can always take another dose of these guys dishing out punishment to each other. I did think while watching this that if I see this match iteration around 7-8 times a month like the ECW fancam stuff, it would seem grating. Jumping in around 2-3 times a month is much more agreeable to my palate. I compare these matches to the Seikmoto/Okabayashi tags we see in modern times. Beefy and not enriched with psychology but it can be there at certain points if you go searching for it. I think Tanaka again looks much better and spirited here than in BattlARTS. Kashin kind of brings this match down a bit with some weird low blow spots that seem out of place. Kashin ends up tapping out Otani which is odd and feels underserved too. Overall, some good stuff still but this one had more flaws than their other matches this year up to this point. **3/4

HDA returns to the drawing board. This was a perfectly fine match but it suffered from me watching the tag title match first. This didn't seem to have the urgency or the stiffness and even things I typically enjoy like Smith's nip up didn't come off as well here. Taue wins which was surprising to me as Hansen and Kawada brawled on the outside. **3/4

I am loving this pairing right now and this match didn't disappoint for me. I think in watching all of the 2000 stuff all together they have been able to connect with me on a stiffness level while also integrating some layered storytelling that is the net result of these guys facing each other many times before. Williams and Akiyama is the most unfamiliar pairing and they start the match off well with some neat mat work with Akiyama's arm getting targeted. The match also had some extended work on Vader's leg which I thought he sold like a champ. The finishing run was dramatic as it looked like Williams was about to get Lariat'd by Kobashi and defeated when Vader on the outside holds Kenta's feet long enough for Doc to reverse the charge into a spinebuster. This sets up the finishing run culminating in Doc getting a feel good tag title run as Vader chokeslams Kobashi into oblivion for the win. Doc being seen as having to get bailed out by Vader really hit home for me in how well Vader is being presented in AJPW right now. ****

MCW feels like a player having Lawler and Dundee in the mix. I do like the KAW contingent still being mentioned. This had shit like the previous OVW match but I found it more appealing based on the character work and Bull and Lawler being more polished at making it work. Also, Lance works as an announcer calling that style over Cornette. Lawler drops the strap and whips ass until we get interference from Morton and a big brawl to end everything. Fun. **1/2

Rico looks like the love child of Tom Zenk and Ultimate Warrior. I hadn’t really thought about Cornette OVW commentary but Loss talking about how over the top it is can now not stop me from thinking that every time. Rob Conway adds commentary and isn’t very good. Can we have one OVW match not be a complete bullshit finish? The action was fine here but my patience of this era of OVW is honestly running pretty thin. I don’t really connect to many of the characters and the matches are such bullshit without any of the hokey appeal that Memphis can pull off. *3/4

Cool looking venue for ECW here. An all action match with no wasted motion. This differs from the night before in having Sal involvement. Tajiri pins Guido first in this one and I’m interested if there is something to the fact that Guido seems to win a lot of these 3 ways on the strict fan cams but loses the matches shot for tv. Crazy mooonsaults to the outside and hits a great superkick from Tajiri. Crazy actually gets a low blow that may or may not have been on purpose and wins with a lionsault. ***1/4

I was really looking forward to this after last night’s matches. The camera work is pretty bad which holds this back but from what we do see, this looks like another strong Barry performance. He works over the leg this time and again finds a variety of ways to fill the time. The match goes to the outside right as Marty makes his comeback and the camera work gets essentially unwatchable. I suppose a double countout happened. Marty sells the leg work like a champ and limps to the back before getting attacked by Barry again. ***

Black Nature Boy is one of my favorite 2000 indyish guys. No particular reason really, he just felt like a personification of the type of indy guys you saw as a baseline in the 2000’s. Peterson is someone I am only familiar with from the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup in the wake of his death. He has an All American gimmick. Him and Jet start off and have a good, junior style sequence that didn’t end in them staring at each other which is always a plus. Collyer isn’t as thick as he would become in a few years going for the Pure Title in ROH. A strongly structured tag match results. Andrews hits a really good dropkick and floatover suplex as Peterson is the FIP. This makes a lot of sense from a psychology standpoint as Peterson is the smallest guy in the match. Jet Jaguar also impressed me for someone that I have no recollection of and don’t really know what happened to him after this match. Scoot destroys Peterson with a pump handle driver that gets a two count. Collyer is able to get the hot tag and does an impressive job running through his offense and playing to the crowd. He doesn’t seem as devoid of charisma as I seem to recall. The crowd unfortunately doesn’t seem to be as into this match as the previous two matches. Match breaks down into dive sequences on the outside. Referee was out of position on a pin attempts of Scott that was a repeat spot of the finish of Sullivan and Marty. Interference backfires right in the referees face and Peterson hits a big splash for the win. The match sputtered during the finishing run but everything leading up to it was solid. ***

I don’t think I have ever seen Sullivan before. Marty gets a hero welcome. Sullivan jumps him from the bell and then Marty and him brawl to the outside of which we can’t see anything of. Back in the ring a spot I don’t understand at all happens where Marty hits himself with something on the outside and takes a bump off of it. I appreciated the camera work in Don vs. Barry but it is distracting here as we keep missing moves that have a lot of motion to them due to the camera being zoomed in. Marty’s comeback was fine and he still has a lot of speed. He even jumps to the structure above the ring and hits a crossbody that Sullivan is able to reverse for the pinfall. Marty looked good and Sullivan looked capable but the match never really came together. **

Charles knows my opinion of Don Montoya and apologized to me ahead of time that this was coming up. There is a healthy crowd for this show. Horowitz is playing heel here shaking off the handshake from Don. I appreciated the way this one took its time to develop. Horowitz gets showed up on the early arm work and the crowd harasses him for it. Don even cuts a promo on him halfway through to rile up the crowd more. Barry gains the advantage and I was extremely impressed with his work on top. I am so conditioned to Barry either being a JTTS or working 4-5 WWF tv matches that it was really excellent seeing him fill out the time here in a compelling manner. He has double stomps, gut wrench suplexes, some hand focused work and a cobra clutch again putting pressure on the hand. Don for his part does a mostly good job selling the damage even though he does get too cartoony at points for me such as when he is in the cobra clutch. Don’s comeback doesn’t look that great with a weak spinning kick and a flipping legdrop for a nearfall. Barry goes into the tights but is unable to hit the knucks shot. Headbutt from Montoya right to the dick which should be DQ but isn’t. Barry then puts the knuckles into his kneepad and is able to hit a big knee knocking Don out and stealing the win. Another great piece of character work as he quickly puts those back into his tights as he gloats walking away. A great Horowitz performance and Don was fine here. A big surprise at how much I liked this. ***1/4

Rocky Marvin being the name for Ricky Marvin’s mini likeness is hilarious to me. First fall is all action and about two minutes with Parkarita winning on a powerbomb. Second fall is more of the same but with the rudos winning to tie things up. This match is a good test basis for the proponents saying the first two falls are forgettable as we have about three minutes of action combined. I liked the finish with Octogoncito being crotched on the top rope and then succumbing to a submission from Psychosis. Sagrada is able to roll off a beautiful rana to the outside in the third fall. The rudos don’t seem to be getting along at the end of things here. This was essentially just a showcase to fill out the card. It was nice to see these guys but I am hoping for more from them in the future. **

This starts out with Corino vs. Dreamer in a singles. I did appreciate Corino setting up the chair to do the spot where he locks on a front face lock and sits down in the chair. Jack Victory comes in and interferes at will as Corino grabs the cowbell. Steve gets cut open with the cowbell and then Dreamer brings out a ladder and delivers some shots to it. Francine ends up interfering taking out Victory and giving him the Bronco Buster. Corino decks her to a lot of heat and asshole chants. All of a sudden Sandman emerges from the top of the entranceway as Enter Sandman fires up. At least during this five minute entrance, Corino and Victory continue to put the boots to Dreamer because why not. This doesn’t make Sandman look like the best friend with how long it takes him to get his ass to the ring including chugging beer. The section with Sandman that is a tag match was pretty generic. Some crowd brawling happened, Sandman hits his somersault from the ladder to Victory on a table that doesn’t break to get the win. The faces celebrate afterwards with beers all around. Again, seeing this travelling circus of ECW with the fancams, this stuff gets a little long in the tooth as we have Corino being jobbed out again and another generic feeling brawl. **1/2

At the point with these ECW matchups that I feel like I am really saying the same thing over and over. This had a couple of new highlights including Tajiri hitting more knee strikes than usual. Why does Guido always trust Tajiri? Tajiri is again the first guy out to a lot of boos from the crowd. Guido has been able to get a lot of pins on him in these multi-mans. It seems like Crazy is tapping out to an arm submission but the ref says no. Guido slams Crazy through a table which kind of made me roll my eyes. The other action between Crazy and Guido had some nice technique around it and Guido is really proficient at making all of his moves and his bumps look really strong. Crazy picks up the win tonight with a disgusting brainbuster. ***

These fucking guys again? It kind of felt like a little crowd sweetning was going on but I am not positive. As a match overall, this was not their best effort. I liked the beginning as a more wild, intense brawl with strikes but then Tanaka completely no sells a chair shot and here goes Awesome setting up the furniture because he of course has to. Tanaka hits a DDT from the apron through the table and the crowd gives a big holy shit chant. Awesome does hit a really great looking big splash which honestly had more impact and looked more dangerous to me than the table spots because I am so immune to them. When Tanaka kicks out, he grabs a table of course. Back and forth on the top and Awesome hits a powerbomb through the table to win. Yawn. **1/2

Aja refuses a handshake and we go right into the match. AKINO and Yoshida start out with some beautiful chain wrestling. The match never really lets up from there. There is a couple of brief clips but it doesn’t look like we miss much at all. Aja’s arm even gets worked over which I have to think is a nod to what happened in the KAORU match just a few days earlier. Hamada’s athleticism is on deep display here with her jumping from the mat to the ropes and then doing a full moonsault onto her feet. Her speed dynamic works wonderfully against the size and brute of Kong. Yoshida continues to be a wizard mixing together wrestling, submissions and strikes into a beautifully harmony. Watch her flip out of a powerbomb and straight into a rear naked choke in one wonderful fluid motion vs. Hamada. Hamada is even able to roll out a neat submission which gets reversed into a modified figure four by Yoshida. Things spill to the outside allowing Hamada and AKINO to both hit dives onto both. Match comes full circle with AKINO and Yoshida exchanging mat work and submissions again with a ton of anxious motion and desperation. Kong DESTROYS AKINO with a slap but she gets a 2.999 flash pin on Yoshida and then rolls that into an ankle lock. Hamada has Kong at bay on the outside too. The spider has an ace up her sleeve though as she complete twists AKINO into a pretzel submission and Kong is able to hang onto Hamada forcing AKINO out. Time of match is 24:40 so we only lost about 3-4 minutes with the clipping. AKINO wakes up and doesn’t realize what has happened. Great stuff. ****1/4

I liked this but it is a tough match to judge. First it is really long if you include the pre match and post match stuff. I do think there is some good moments like Ian getting upset at the ring announcer for what he has to say about Corporal but it may not have justified the length of pre match festivities. Once the match starts proper, the weapons and glass are used in excess. A lot of punches and cutting with the glass. The thing that I liked best about this match was the build to the big spots in the ring into the big puddle of glass in the middle of the ring. Each move was built up so that it gained a strong reaction from the crowd whether it was a powerbomb or the final DDT Corp gave to Ian onto the glass. The finish was neat too as Ian locks on a Fujiwara armbar that they teased in the pre match promo and Corp has to tap. They set up a match for the next month and I am looking forward to it. This is still fat Ian so his mobility isn’t there or mixing in any chain wrestling, but this match did do an effective enough job in showing a variety to the Tanaka vs. Awesome and crowd brawling matches happening in ECW at this point. ***

For me this may honestly be someone like Hero once we finish the 2000's because just in 2016 alone, I had 22 matches for him at **** or above. Zack Sabre Jr. isn't for everyone certainly but he may have had more **** matches than that. The ability of every weekend that some of these indy workers can produce 2-3 great matches that make tape shows how far we have come in a distribution era.

This match was interesting for me. The early portion was pretty slow and methodical for me but the finish stretch became really dramatic and I was excited to see Chihiro utilize her strength to perform the big throws on Aja. I was a little perplexed at the finish but it did seem to set up a big rematch in the future. ***1/2

I rewatched this again before me and Loss recorded the podcast and it was raised in my eyes. I still am weary of how Misawa is still able to use his elbow even though it was mauled throughout the match but using the logic that Misawa's elbows have really been prevented as the ultimate mythological weapon in AJPW, it does make sense. ***1/2