soup23

Before the lame DQ, this was possibly my favorite OVW match I have seen. The DQ didn't make any sense as they are able to thwart it off with the Brain Damage. Henry looks for the first time in the decade like a monster and he is a welcome addition to the OVW proceedings. Damaja and Dinsmore have good double team moves and I would like to see them featured as a team. Cornette is yelling too much of course but the frantic pace of the action at least matched the tone this one time. **1/4

My goodness Jeff G Bailey gives a scathing promo that has to be bleeped. Ill say this for Lazz in Wildside. The commentators handle Lazz much better than other acts like the Christopher Street Connection in ROH. Lazz looks to be a pretty damn good wrestler as he hits a huge springboard swantom as they go to break. Mark E Mark. gets into the action too as he hits a swantom and is good enough on top for the match. Lazz fires back and wins with his finisher the Britney Spear which is excellent. I enjoyed this as Lazz is now looking to take on Onyx. **

Some of the stuff with KAW characters like Alkie Hal is brutal but MCW is starting to pull away from Power Pro based on the talent they have in the building. This is the third decent to good tv match we have seen so far today. Krush gets made mid match and tells someone to shut their ass up. Krush is more active here than in the Lawler matches and the pace is better. We get interference again which is frustrating but it is Memphis after all. Viscera interferes here and does the big splash and leg drop to Smothers. *3/4

What a delight watching Regal work. He has a gritty and competitive five minute match here and looks to be rounding back into form. Shooter much like the Danielson match is someone that can be led along the way and do fine for himself. Finish comes with a ref bump and Pete Gas coming in to help Regal. Regal wins with the Regal Stretch. **1/4

They were giving seven minutes to work with and had a fine match. Youth is able to get big heat from the crowd and that rallies everyone behind Cade. There was a stupid moment in the middle with the referee almost rolling Youth up for the pin but after that the match kicks into another gear for the final stretch. Reckless hits the turnaround splash and bulldog to regain control. The referee gets bumped and as expected, Youth goes for the foreing object. Ronnie James on commentary grabs it out of his hand and hits Youth with it allowing Cade to roll him up for the win. **

Alkie sucks on commentary. Spanky and Dragon team up before Dragon dropkicks Spanky out. This was a two minute match and features a German suplex and weapon shot with the sign. I guess MCW is no DQ as the referee just stars at him. LIttle Hollywood comes down and beats up Rocker hitting the frog splash for the pin. Maybe the worst match Danielson was ever in. 1/4*

Seven says he doesn't need that midget Brandon Baxter to win his matches. Seven looks good with some of his power moves and pretty bad with others leaving Corey to have to cover for him by saying he looks slow and methodical but powerful. The Alabama Slam in particular looked brutal and gets a close nearfall. King feeds himself into Seven and performs his role really well. Seven ends up winning with the redemption. Again Corey buries Seven by saying he doesn't have too many moves and it doesn't look pretty, but he gets it done. *

Tenzan was lively here having come in as one of the top leaders of his block. Nishimura provides the perfect underdog for this type of storytelling with his constant motion and danger with the submissions. The Octopus hold was well executed in that Tenzan didn’t escape as more as he collapsed forcing a break. The counter of the back suplex when Nishimura goes for the hold again was also expertly done. Nishimura kicking out the moonsault is a big moment for him and really brings Sumo Hall alive. Nishimura keeps the action going and gets Tenzan locked in a capture cradle for the pin. We see Nakanishi on the outside looking on and that sets the table for tomorrows shows. This was a pretty damn good match based on what we saw. NR.

It's amazing how many guys are in just black trunks at this time in NJPW. Both of these guys along with Nishimura and Nakanishi. I figured that Sasaki would make pretty short work of Kido here and that is what we got. Kido had a few moments working the armbar but Sasaki dismisses that and locks on an arm submission to obtain the victory. This was all about Sasaki looking strong going into the final day. NR

The winner goes into the decision match the next night to face Nagata. Pretty unclear based on the clips here whether this match was any good or not as we get a lot of leg submission work. The selling is well done but I don’t know how well the table setting played into the match overall. The finish felt abrupt for me with Ilzuka locking on the choke and getting the submission to enter into the final day decision matches. NR

Tanahashi is teaming with Kanemoto today. What a turncoat. Makabe has beef with Koji and they start the match out. That doesn’t last long before Tana tags in and again we have a spirited exchange between him and Shinya. I will continue to be amazed at how much sharper Makabe’s striking is now than in current day. Otani and Tanahashi also fire off against each other. From there the match is the typical Otani/Kanemoto hate fest with stiff strikes and taunting along the way. I appreciate this development for the juniors and think that in current day, they spend too much time paired up with each other or clear past their prime veterans. I also appreciate how strong Otani and Kanemoto go after each other in these mostly meaningless tags. The finale of this match had Makabe being the main whipping boy and Otani hitting a missile dropkick to help Makabe out. Makabe then hits two Germans and we have a huge upset with Otani celebrating with him. Damn good match and showing from the young lions. ***1/4 (6.5)

Another Murahama singles match. Give it to me. I continue to appreciate how the technical notion is on display with these matches as well as the strategies each man is developing to try to garner the victory. Yakushuji is able to work well on the mat here until he gets caught with a high kick from Takehiro. He knows he will need to avoid that in the future so the match develops with a lot of distance and it all being based on whether Murahama can cork off that knockout blow or submission. He hits it later on in the match but Yakushuji is able to reach down deep and break the armlock submission. Yaku then absolutely annihilates Murahama on a German. Murahama hits one more kick and tries to shake out the cobwebs looking for another submission. They show he hasn’t recovered all the way with Yakushuji elbowing out. Spinning kick for Murahama and he is really running around with his jumping high kicks nearly gaining the win. When it looks like Murahama finally has the match at hand, Yakushuji is able to do a spear/rollup mixture to win the match. I consider this a pretty big upset but it made sense based off of the match layout. ***3/4 (7.6)

Credible just sucks. Kash comes out hot and doing exactly what a lower level big underdog should do in a title match. Credible then takes over on offense and the match just dies. He just can’t string along anything cohesive or interesting as a heel on top and retrieves back to dire tropes and the kendo stick shots. Francine does a littler interfereing and it looks like she is going to be pedigreed when Rhino makes the run in. Shockingly, we see some of Francine’s ass and this is just as tired looking as the WCW stuff. On commentary, they mention Corino splintering from the Network so that is something at least new. RVD chases off Rhino and the show ends on a dud with Kash/RVD being presented as an exciting new tag team. *1/4

Fun six minute match. EZ Money is spotty but does some good counters to some signature Tajiri moves like the Tarantula with the Money in the Bank. He also shows some personality and feels like a good addition to again improve the impressive youngster roster going on in ECW at this point. Match ends with all sorts of run ins but the visual of Whipwreck coming in with the flaming board and hitting Guido with it was well done and helped established Whipwreck/Tajiri as a competent tag team heading into the tournament. **1/4

What a sick tease as this match looks just excellent on paper. Villano III gets in there with both Wagner and Panther and I want him to wrestle in 30 minute single matches in perpetuity with both of them. Black Warrior is maybe the least person in the whole six man but makes sure to die for our pleasure on a wild tope in the third fall. All in all, this only goes 12 minutes as an entire clip but was entertainment. Wagner gives one of the best fouls of the year to secure the win and then Villano IIIcomes right back and fakes a foul in the 3rd fall while delivering one of his own to pick up the overall win. That has been the result of the finish for the last three lucha matches I have seen and this was easily the most successful capped off by Villano III's glorious laugh when Wagner gets DQ'd. *** (6)

Kojima continues to be a slog for me to get invested in with his matches. This had a lot of back and forth but the moments between the big spots didn’t have much time to breathe. We get a lot of quick kickouts. We actually had about 7.5 minutes which is as much of any G1 match as we have gotten so far and the final lariat by Sasaki was brutal and felt like a knockout blow. Overall if this match was in full, I could see a lot of people loving the hoss fight feel of it and me being lower than the consensus. NR

Come on, give Liger a win. This was yet another match from clips where he has the crowd behind him and rocking and he is working over Nagata big time. They give Liger a big confidence move kicking out of the first big bomb that Nagata throws at him but he falls short and gets pinned on a back suplex. NR

This was a good looking match based on the clips. Nishimura really worked in his submission holds and Nakanishi played the monster well powering through everything. I especially liked Nakanishi doing his claw as a counter to being in the armbar. The final torture rack was also brutal looking. A workman’s style match and one that showcases Nishimura in being able to get the best out of his opponent. NR

It is bizarre to see Tana and Shibata in young boys gear. They each had a good showing here especially Shibata. The opening matwork between the two was basic but engaging. Things really open up when Shibata does the face wash to Otani and also slaps him really hard. Otani doesn’t take that very well and lays a beating on the rookie culminating in a victory. Otani and Tanahashi had some nifty tags and continunity. Kashin mostly stayed out of this one but I didn’t think he was actively bad again. Good opener to start the show. *** (6.2)

The usual fun popcorn match from the minis. We have seen this a lot in 2000 and while each one is fun, we are starting to get into a law of diminishing returns as the matches come into my mind while watching and leaving at almost the exact moment. My son has started saying “oh boy, here we go again” lately and that was what I thought when the match began. Rocky/Sagrada/Octogan were the highlights and the newcomers that we weren’t as familiar with didn’t make that impressive of a showing. Finish was blah with more referee bullshit and them just making an arbitrary call. **3/4

Just finished Night 1. Overall a good show that felt about equal with Night 1 in 2016. The show is a breezy 1 hour 45 minutes edited and that is both refreshing and a bit of nuisance for me. One on hand, the matches are all paced with a ton of intensity and it is easy for the people in the building to be left wanting more at the end of the night while still being satisfied by the show that was put on. The flip side of that is that I think this type of heavy sprint style does have a ceiling and one of the things I relish most in wrestling is when I find myself in the middle of a great match organically. With these matches being structured to go sub 10 minutes in most cases, we didn't get a chance to have that build. Something like Garrini vs Royal which was one of the shortest matches of the night felt the most substantial to me for the way it interspersed in the ground game and the counters. I actually think Tank vs Riddle with a few more minutes could have been MOTN and that the fans would have been there with Tank based on the emotional connection he had. A minor critique but overall the show was a thumbs up and featured a nice variety with me having Garrini/Royal at ***1/4, Janela/Allin at ***1/2 and a bevy of other matches at the *** range.

Not much more to this match than some very good lucha. I enjoyed the way the first fall took its time and all three pairings had something to offer. Villano IV looked great on the mat with his transitions, Perro was more fiery here than most of what we have seen in CMLL and Villano III and Sagrada was a neat pairing that rolled around well too. The second fall builds off of that and has more rudo domination which is different from the standard template of rudo wins first fall, tecnicos second that we have had for most of the lucha in 2000. Perro and Villano III going after it felt like a big deal and was a nice 1 vs 1 sequence. The final fall was probably my least favorite and I hated the finish. I guess this show was mainly a Perro hype piece as we get about 10 minutes afterwards of him giving thanks and speaking to the crowd. That being said, the “was it a foul or wasn’t” spot has been done too much and I find it asinine that one referee can overrule the other based on what the crowd says. ***1/2 (6.8)

I guess Octagancito and Mascarita are pulling double duty today based on the dates we have. The rudo team is very plump especially Piratita but I liked that as a change of place and creating a clear narrative of the rudos being the brawling bases and the tecnicos being more graceful and high flying. The match builds to a Mascarita vs Espectrio showdown playing off their long standing rivalry. I was happy to see Piratita pick up the win and would like to see more of him in the future splashing minis. *** (6)

Dr. Cerebro is a bad ass. He tears apart Ciclon in this match and Ciclon is busted open within 30 seconds. Overall, this was again very entertaining for underneath IWRG guys for the most part that I am not familiar with. Each fall took the appropriate amount of time, wrestling and brawling were mixed in properly and the finish was the BS finish that helps build a feud overall instead of derailing it. IWRG continues to be a great showcase. ***1/4 (6.7)

Awesome Boricua.