soup23

One of the better 6 mans of the year so far. This is the first time JInsei has been in FMW in over a year and they play off that history with him and Busa doing a really great sequence at first with some mat work that was friendly but aggressive. Things open up from there when Gannosuke comes in and cribs the Busa/Jinsei spots including the pose. The meat of the match revolves around the beating Oya takes. He has his ribs taped up and the heels do a great job hounding on him. Gannosuke is one of my personal favorite guys in wrestling just from the way he runs the ropes so violently like the ultimate loyal henchman. The finale is long and intricate but I didn't think it was too ridiculous from a kickout standpoint besides Hayabusa taking three powerbombs from all three opponents and then kicking out. This was after Gannosuke realized he was outgunned and he had to survive the onslaught from Tanaka and Oya. In the waning moments, we get a sudden turn as Jinsei turns on his team and Gannosuke in particular for the insulting nature of the early portion of the match. It didn't make the most sense logically but it got a huge pop so I will give it a pass. Him and Busa run through some of their double team moves and Busa picks up the win with a 450. **** (8.2)

This was a good match but Jado and Gedo so far are probably the singular duo where I can’t say I dislike what they are doing but they have been unable to really draw me into their matches much at all. Inoue and even Kanemaru here were more engaging and I liked Inoue being the bruiser that was able to get the upper hand when needed. The sprinkles of hardcore stuff mixed in were fine but I didn’t care for the kendo stick shots from Gedo/Jado second. The finish was good with Inoue getting the win off of a big throw and again we have a kickout right at three ala Goldberg vs Booker from Nitro. ***1/4 (6.3)

Angle has grown as a worker just in the past six months. This took the same match formula we saw at the beginning of the year but both Angle and Rock are crisper and more explosive and can add more complicated spots. I thought Benoit was done with Rock but here he is all integrated into the match along with Shane. Rock has shown a lot of aggression and it is a good compliment to the one liners we have seen from him. Rock loses his cool and gets DQ’d blasting Angle with a chair. As he spinebusters Benoit on the ramp, Angle grabs the belt and celebrates like he has won the championship. **3/4

The 10 gallon hats that E&C are wearing are a nice gag for Texas. The match itself was fine and condensed but featured some stuff like Kane hitting a tilt a whirl and Edge doing a good job avoiding the table to put it over at first. The finish kind of just happens as Edge gets a 3D through a table for the loss. It is interesting that Edge is taking a lot of losses for his team when they lose. In fact, Christian was able to escape the table here after the bell. Kane teases a chokeslam to Big Show but Shane breaks it up. Kane then teases chokeslamming Shane but Show recovers and then he chokeslams Kane through the table as the segment ends. *1/4

It seems like the honeymoon is over as HHH and Steph are bickering. We go into their dressing room and we have more flowers. In a nice swerve, they are from HHH which gets boos. HHH learns he is in a mixed tag with Trish as his partner and HHH has some huge sexist comments saying women know nothing about wrestling. Next we get the famous spot where HHH shows Trish some moves when Steph comes in. The payoff for the segment is great but I didn’t like HHH explaining things so rudimentary to Trish. She has been a manager for a tag team for almost six months after all. Steph’s freak out is great when she comes in. The match itself is turned into Benoit/Trish as HHH leaves. The match itself is only 3 minutes long but I am again appreciative of how serious they do treat the women and Lita gets all of her highspots off. Jericho gets the clean win on Benoit but then gloats about it and takes a big beatdown backstage including a chair right to the face. That is how they got Benoit off of the main event feud and into the feud with Jericho. *

A fine deathmatch but a pretty low key one. They kept the action going and had a few brutal looking spots mainly involving Mitch Page flying his body around. Bull Pain runs in and kills Corporal with a chair shot eliminating him. That will be a feud for the future. After Mitch and Cash have a couple of minutes of action, Mitch takes the win with a big splash onto a handful of thumbtacks. Good IWA show overall. **1/2

I have liked these two working together and this was no exception. Cabana can’t get his name announced correctly by a drunk Rico. He is out with his “friend” Paul E Smooth and he tells Paul to head to the hotel where Paul confirms the room number. The opening matwork was good with some reversals and it led to a predictable but well done heat segment by Cabana when he catches Hero rolling into the ring. Hero is good fighting from underneath and is quickly establishing himself as a big IWA mainstay. The finish comes when Paul E returns although he is ran away by Suicide Kid. Hero has a great powerbomb on Paul and it seems like he has the match in hand but Cabana sneaks in a low blow and rollup to get the cheap win. This was a good way to keep the storyline moving. Ian sets up a tag match afterwards but wants Cabana and Paul to take an AIDs test beforehand. Always classy on the mic. ***1/4 (6.4)

I enjoyed the work of this match. Kickboxer attacks the arm of Hyzaya with some nasty looking stuff. Zaya’s selling isn’t the strongest but he responds with going after the leg and the match progresses from there a while. They even shoe horned a schmozz finish pretty well with Zaya tapping out and the ref calling for the bell but Jim Fannin informing him that someone has to say I Quit. This allows Uncle Honkey to do some damage to Kickboxer’s back. Fannin sees that and kicks Honkey out but the damage has been done and Zaya attacks the back with a variety of submissions before locking in a camel clutch and Kickboxer is forced to say I Quit. *** (6.1)

Booker lets Goldberg know that he doesn’t like him but he does respect him. This again puts Goldberg in a weird position whether its ambiguous to a degree whether he is a heel or a face. Jarrett comes out and continues to get hardly no reaction. He sets up the Bunkhouse match tonight saying there must be a winner. Backstage, we have a pull apart between Book/Jarrett and Cat makes the match official. Jarrett is collecting tools for the Bunkhouse match backstage. The match itself is fine and full of props but at least they are living the gimmick. I thought the brawling around ringside has more juice to it than the Bash at the Beach match. The finish also was nice in the use of Jarrett’s guitar blocking the spin kick of Booker that we saw on Monday be effective in making Goldberg stop in his tracks. Jarrett is able to lock on the figure four and pick up a big victory. Overall this was the strongest and best Jarrett has looked in the Russo regime. **3/4

Tonight, Vito wants payback against Lance Storm. Vito is a face now I suppose. Ok. Not a bad match at all between the two. It didn’t fall into the big two hardcore tropes of goofy weapons as that is probably being saved for the Bunkhouse match later. Vito throws Storm around and has some good throws and fire. Storm comes back and is able to lock in the half crab to get the submission. Vito as a bigger gatekeeper face isn’t an awful role for him judging by this match. *3/4

I have enjoyed what we have seen of Jindrak and O Haire. Neither Vamp or Muto seemed concerned to sell for them in the slightest. The Denom and Kronik comes out after the match and overall this is a big ball of disinteresting people within the promotion that are getting a good amount of pushed. ¾*

Filthy Animals promo was horrendous. I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be that bad or not but it was off putting nonetheless. Tank dancing is amazing and for a 4 minute match, this was pretty great. I wish Juvy and Rey weren’t bogged down with the awful gimmick as its not like they weren’t poised to have a great in ring year if given the opportunities. It was important and nice to see 3 Count mix it up with these lucha stars. *1/2

The promo here was strong with Booker coming out and giving his rah rah promo and then Goldberg demanding a title shot. Cat does his best promo we have seen standing up to Goldberg and then saying the fan vote will determine the match tonight. We cut to the match and Sting has wont he fan vote? Huh. Someone definitely not Sting but dressed as him comes out and gets attacked by Goldberg. “Sting” gets stretchered out and now it is Goldberg vs Booker. Goldberg is vicious here and busts Booker open on the outside. He locks in a cross armbreaker which is an excellent hold for him and Stevie Ray comes down and throws in the towel. In a funny move, Goldberg wipes his sweat off with the towel. Cat says the match is over but Goldberg isn’t the champion because Booker never said I quit. That puts Goldberg in a rage and we see backstage he takes it out on Stevie putting him through a glass windown. What is with Goldberg and glass? Booker demands a rematch and we have it later on in the show. Match doesn’t start up before Jarrett comes out and hits Goldberg with a chair. That deflates the crowd until Goldberg gives Jarrett a thunderous spear. Cat gives Berg the spinning kick but Goldberg disposes of him. Booker is back up though and is able to hit the Book End for the 3 with Berg kicking out right at the finish. After the bell, Goldberg destroys Booker with a spear and jackhammer. Whew, a lot to take in here. Mostly good with a mix of bad. One thing is certain, both Goldberg and Booker are more important feeling than Jeff Jarrett. I will give the whole segment a **3/4 rating.

We get our opening promo. I am still airing on the side of being in favor of these and certainly Foley as a face administrator but this was a 17 minute segment that probably could have been condensed down to 12 with Foley cutting most of the PPV rehash. We get Benoit joining the proceedings with Shane demanding a rematch tonight and claiming he is the rightful champion. Stephanie comes out and says the game proved to Jericho he was the man and proved it to her multiple times last night. Mick admits that for a split second last year, he found Steph attractive but now agrees with Jericho’s assessment of her. Steph slaps Mick and he is all fired up. He makes a tag match for later on involving Steph/Shane. We get clips interspersed throughout the night of Shane/Big Show leaving the building and ending up at our final tag match of Rock/Kane teaming up against Angle/Benoit. Match is fun with Kane getting worked over. I continue to like how Angle works with Kane and tries to chop him down like a big tree focusing on the leg and keeping him grounded. Rock gets the hot tag to a huge pop and locks on the crossface on Benoit. Kane has Angle lifted on the ramp as a powerslam with Shane coming out with Big Show for a big attack. They ram Kane into the Titan Tron in a neat sequence of spots. Shane runs to the ring and gets chased by Rock. Rock makes it to him on the entranceway but Angle has recovered with a chair and him and Benoit lay the boots to Rock. Shane has developed quite a fun faction for himself. *** (5.9)

Angle wants more of Taker which seems ill advised. Taker comes out and beats Angle up some more. Meanwhile, Shane is running from Big Show. Shane is in the ring and Taker seizes him up for a chokeslam. Big Show asks Taker to let him have him and of course Big Show turns and beats up Taker joining Shane’s new mini unit with Benoit and Angle. Nice to see someone get one over on Taker since he has run roughshod since returning. The beatdown backstage doubles down on this with a cinder block onto Taker’s knee. ½*

Foley’s interactions with E&C continue to be a big comedic highlight for the promotion and work to help raise their profile overall. Dudley’s are back in a prominent position within the tag division after a slow month following the DX feud. Quickie match but a good bit of interaction between the three teams to set up the feud that will lead to the big gimmick match at TLC. The Wassup drop is in full effect for the face Dudleys. It looks like the Hardy’s are going to win the belts after a Swantom but Bubba pulls Jeff out the ring. The Dudleys then get the 3D that is broken up by a Matt Hardy legdrop. Christian sends Matt out of the ring and then covers D-Von to escape with the belts. *1/4

This match is up there with my favorite Monterrey stuff of the year not including Panther and Santo. You had a majestic heel beatdown with Dandy being vicious with his little punches and really going after Antifaz. In addition, the comedy that was mixed in here with the referee doing the dive and the other spots were well done and placed. Nearfalls with Antifaz doing his comeback were well timed and the double knockout headbutt was excellent in the finishing stretch leading to Dandy picking up the win while being knocked out. ***3/4 (7.7)

It is always neat to get this wide view of the whole and get a snapshot at some of these underneath lucha workers from the time frame. That being said, this match overall didn’t do a whole lot for me. It was nice seeing Pimpinela and Olimpico mix it up but certain stuff like the ass biting spot in the third fall and the overall disjointed feeling of the match never got it on track. **1/2

Punk has started his promo shaming of the audience and it works good here where he shows a good bit of poise. Prazak comes out to Sexy Boy which made me laugh. Sherri’s gear is ahem…. Interesting. This has commentary on it unlike the early MAW matches we have seen. The opening moment with Punk and Dino was fun and then Sherri gives Punk a wedgie and is wanting a piece of Prazak. Match breaks down with all competitors brawling around ringside. The crowd heat isn’t as strong here as I would have imagined. I love Sherri but her offense consists of nut shots and eye rakes throughout this match. Prazak scales a ladder with Sherri following but Dave is able to push her off and that is the first fall with Sherri going through the table that didn’t break completely. Match opens up even more in the second fall into a full spotfest. It certainly is a match that looks a little dated but most of the execution is there and for Hardys vs E&C lite affair, this isn’t bad at all. I actually kind of like Dino in this setting better than in a straight match. Dino takes a big powerbomb onto a ladder that looked nasty. Dino gets thrown into the ring posts to the gasps of the crowd. Jason Kronnan has very little on cagematch but he looked good here and maybe he will pop up at some point in the future. I also wonder if this match contributed into getting Punk booked for IWA. Sherri inserts herself back in as the faces make a comeback. Punk is placed on a table on the outside. Prazak is sent head first into a table but they are not counting that as a fall so they send Dave through it again. Immediately afterwards, Dino climbs the top rope and hits a Shooting Star Press through the table and Punk on the outside. Dino had to gather his balance a bit but once he composed himself, the dive looked good and the match ended on a high point. A little rough around the edges but a fun effort overall. *** (6.2)

A lot of talent in the ring but the match never came together for me.I think they were trying for a blowaway type spotfest with all action but things felt really clunky and disjointed. Garza in particular had a pretty dreadful night where he was more concerned with dancing than putting together some chemistry with the rudo side. I thought CIMA looked fun vs Liger and that is odd that coming out of this, that was the match I was most interested in. A disappointing way to end the night. **1/2

This left a great impression on the KOW. They dominated large portions of this match and while they didn't really focus on any one body part, they were clubbing and suffocating in a way that was really engaging to the viewer. Go has really strong chops but everything else he did here looked a little off and light compared to his counterparts. This was especially controlled with his windmill chop arsenal that resulted in some near falls down the stretch that didn't feel well earned. I thought overall Hero was actually the best worker with some brutal strikes and aerial moves from the jump up moonsault to the dive to the floor. This match never reached the next gear to make it great but it was certainly good and the finish of Claudio desperately trying to save Hero is really memorable. ***1/4

This was some Tirantes bullshit away from being a great match. As it is, both of these guys continue to have wonderful chemistry each other with Apache dishing out a beating and Sevilla being the better Tarzan Boy than Tarzan Boy in 2000. Some of the nearfalls Oscar created here was excellent with the highlight being the code red off the middle rope. Tirantes is awful and slow counting but at least in Japan it still seems novel and gets a reaction. Apache ends up winning and in a fun moment, he goads a couple of ladies into kissing him as he heads to the back. ***1/2 (7.2)

The usual good mini action although with a singles there was less hiding here. Most of the spots looked excellent but there was a couple of rough looking ones as well. Overall, this wasn’t much more than a popcorn opener to introduce the Japanese crowd to the lucha flavor and minis action in general. **1/4

I understand the sentiment from other commentators that this is sort of dumb wrestling and the Otani/Kanemoto tags are points are tough to distinguish from one another. However, like Strong BJ in 2017, when they are in a tag match, I am also completely engaged and the stiffness and hatefulness that is conveyed allows me to pay attention. Here, everyone was going after each other and Kashin handles himself well. Liger being mixed in with these guys and not being super junior squashing everyone is a much better and enjoyable role and he has kind of quietly been having a great year even though he has some standout moments for sure. The finish here was great as an upset against the ultimate pricks and Kashin/Liger getting the win. ***3/4 (7.6)

A pretty classic apuestas match with a lot of intrigue and pagentry. For one, it was up in the air who was losing. Secondly, the crowd really bit on every near fall and had a nervous energy that was impressive to watch. As far as the actual work of the men, I didn't think Psycho was up to snuff but Wagner gave a splendid performance. His crowd brawling was excellent and the way he ripped the mask of Psycho and went for the cut was vicious. Psycho did provide some good nearfalls down the stretch and I liked the match ending on his big Code Red finisher. Wagner is a silver fox and looks like a cartel leader so he will be fine without the mask. ****1/2