Dylan Reviews Full Shows In This Thread

[Dylan Waco]

I could absolutely see how someone would hate Drake/Sami. The live crowd went batshit for it, but it is clearly a match that that isn't for everyone. I go to PWponderings semi-regularly and often disagree with them, but never more than that Eddie/Lethal review. If that dude thought the hammerlock bit was high end wrestling, I'm terrified to think about what he would consider bad.

[Hollinger.]

I dug the hell out of the show. The only match I couldn't get into was Future Shock/Machines. I don't think Lethal/Edwards was a good match, but I think you had me expecting the absolute worst, and I spend most of my weekends at shows with far worse than that. And as corny as the irish whip spot was, it got a chuckle out of me as a response to Eddie's spot earlier in the match. I thought the DGUSA tag was fantastic. What they do isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think those four are just about the best at that style. Other random thoughts: Paul London really isn't made for that type of match. I love Chuck Taylor unconditionally. Fuck Roderick Strong. I am very happy that Drake is done with that kind of stuff. The salt spot was horrifying. I thought he was dead off of that Awesome Bomb.

[Dylan Waco]

I think the lesson here is that if you like PWG, "go, go, go, go" style you will like the show, if you are indifferent or don't care about it you won't. I still contend Edwards v. Lethal is the run away "worst match of the year"

[Dylan Waco]

Because of strange circumstances when watching it I won't do a full review, but I did watch PWG's DDT tourney over the last couple of days and liked it a lot better than the other show. Wasn't really any match I loved, but nothing as awful as the other show either and I did like the evolving Steen/Generico storyline over the course of the show (although the finish of the finale was complete trash). Also Mark Briscoe marking out for Generico's post-finale antics was highly amusing.

[Mando]

Any chance you're going to watch/review last week's TNA One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2 show? It's got a small hint of ECW flavor but it really just a hodgepodge of different gimmick matches with no rhyme or reason.

[Dylan Waco]

Any chance you're going to watch/review last week's TNA One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2 show? It's got a small hint of ECW flavor but it really just a hodgepodge of different gimmick matches with no rhyme or reason.

For better or worse I am going to honor this quasi-request. I got my hands on this and was on the fence, but Scorpio, Guido, Bob Holly and Spike Dudley were on the show which makes it the sort of perfectly random thing I don't feel I can avoid.

[shoe]

I love the fact your New Years Resolution was to watch more wrestling.

[tim]

Downloaded the PWG show out of curiosity and watched a bit of it. Thought the Young Bucks match had a couple spots that were legitimately cool out of context but as a whole the match was a mess. I can get down with somewhat ridiculous workrate spotty tag matches in the context of a whole show but the choreographed stuff in this was just over the top. It's also actually the first Chuck Taylor match I've ever seen and shit is that guy annoying.

 

Tried to watch Eddie/Lethal but I couldn't get through the stretch of boring nothingless indie matches have to work through before lazily tacking on a run of nearfalls. Will probably try to watch the whole show later and sit through it. The hammerlock spot was as shitty as purported.

 

So Drake/Sammi. Shit, I'm just gonna come out and say I thought it was a very good match. "Deathmatch" stuff really isn't my thing; I could have gone without the staple gun to the cheeks and the salt; no reason anyone needs to take an awesome bomb through steel chairs onto concrete. But if you think of the weapon shots, the nasty spots, the thumbtack bumbs, etc as "wrestling moves" constituent of the match then this was a legitimately well worked wrestling match. Big spots were built up to and stuff was actually used in creative and interesting ways: Sammi throwing the tacks into Drake's eyes as Drake was about to run him into the tacks, Drake then throwing the tacks he could grab in Sammi's eyes when he had him in the Stretch Muffler, the stapler gun sunset flip spot, several more. I can totally understand how that stuff could make someone uncomfortable and I could have done without plenty of the nastier stuff, but there were a lot of legitimately creative and interesting spots in here which were used to built a good, dramatic match.

[Mando]

For better or worse I am going to honor this quasi-request. I got my hands on this and was on the fence, but Scorpio, Guido, Bob Holly and Spike Dudley were on the show which makes it the sort of perfectly random thing I don't feel I can avoid.

I wrote up my thoughts on it a few min. ago here. Pretty tame show with a lot of filler like recaps to stretch the run-time. Aces and 8's had one of the better matches of the show so that's a good barometer of quality (or in this case lack thereof).

[Phil Schneider]

I am requesting this show

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLHq7tRPlI

 

It has 2013 Nunzio, Monsta Mack and Eric Corvis, I want you to watch it to see if I have to.

[Matt D]

Dylan's crazy quest has made him the pageboy to the stars. It's like the Labors of Hercules.

[Smack2k]

Dylan,

 

I finally got to read this whole thread over the last week and wanted to thank you for a couple things:

 

1. The NWA Gathering of Champions Link - I am a big NWA fan and wanted to see the Walker - Wayne Cage match as well as the NWA Title match..

 

2. The New Japan IPPV info - Again, big NWA fan, and cool to see the NWA Title once again defended...

 

I really got back into the NWA with Pearce's run since about 2010, and not much else, but have stuck around since they left as some of their main guys I really enjoy..

 

So a great fuckin thanks!

[Dylan Waco]

I am requesting this show

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLHq7tRPlI

 

It has 2013 Nunzio, Monsta Mack and Eric Corvis, I want you to watch it to see if I have to.

 

I tried to watch Hardcore Justice 2 and couldn't make it through it. The show was that bad.

 

This I will try as well, mainly because it means I can put off New Japan

[Dylan Waco]

UWA Elite: Crossroads 2013

 

The X-Klan v. The Phat Boyz v. King Tek/Zane Williams v. Archadia/Joey Adams

 

This is pretty much exactly how you would imagine an opening indie match involving teams with these names wrestling in New Jersey to go. You could pretty much call what was going to happen, from the stalling/coward spots of the scrub heels, the Phat Boyz dancing and working jive spots, to the small athletic guys doing dives and big spots I wouldn't recommend it or anything, but I've seen far worse matches than this and for what it's worth the finish so the fat guys almost kill themselves and their opponents on a cross ring assisted splash attempt.

 

Dr. John Bowes v. Brandon The Bull v. TKO

 

This is pretty much exactly how you would imagine a second on the card match involving three guys with these names working in a New Jersey indie to go. Pretty much spot running, though slightly more structured than your absolute over the top indie spotfest. None of the guys really impressed me, but this was the second match in a row where someone was nearly killed on a dangerous spot off the top and I admit that is perversely entertaining. And for guys like this working a horribly flawed style it wasn't awful.

 

Hedges v. TJ Blade v. Drake Chambers

 

This was actually as well laid out as an indie three way is going to get. Opening segment was all about Chambers working flashy spots. His execution was comically bad at points, but that almost works in an environment like this, even if there is no way you can call it good. Then he gets cut down by the other two guys working together and takes a big post bump. The two remain guys stiff each other some and it leads to Chambers in peril one on one with Blade. Chambers working comebacks around these guys taking shots at him made for an easy to follow story even if it wasn't one I gave a shit about. I'm not going to bog this down with a detailed review of low end Jersey indie talent, but the point is this was at least organized on some level which made it more watchable than you might think.

 

Chris Powers v. Cypress v. RJ Gerhart

 

At this point I want to give a big fuck you to Phil, because if I had any clue the first half of this show was going to be random NJ indie guys working four way and three way matches I would have just skipped to Nunzio and Mack. But now I'm almost an hour in, so fuck it I'll go with it. Anyhow, this was easily the worst match so far. Lots of shitty "should I work a double team with this guy or not?" schtick, a guy who looks like Jeremiah Plunkett but isn't a tenth as good and some really stupid multi-man spots. Don't get me wrong - this wasn't ROH level bad, but none of these guys were engaging, interesting or good on any level.

 

Dynamike Davis v. Michael Massacre v. Sean McNelis

 

Fuck me another god damned three way. I like Guido as much as the next guy, but if I saw this lineup before the show they'd have to pay me fifty bucks to come out as this is pretty much my idea of how not to book a wrestling show. Also look at the names for these motherfuckers in this match. Note that Sean McNelis nickname is "damage." Jesus fucking Christ the match feels like an elaborate troll of me before it even starts. Then Massacre takes the least convincing bump I've ever seen, albeit for the least convincing offensive move I've ever seen. I literally have no clue what was even going on but it was some sort of full nelson bomb thing and it was just awful. After that I mentally checked out of this. I mean it was still on but I couldn't tell you what happened. Fuck this.

 

Swag Mean v. The Heavy Hitters - No DQ

 

Well this is the one of the reasons I'm watching this. Hitters are the challengers and the champions come out first and they honestly look like the sort of thinly closeted freshman year frat boys, who end up turning tricks on backpage.com for blow money by the end of their second semester. One of them even comes out with a Caution Wet Floor bathroom sign, which I initially thought was a clever homage to Larry Craig's propensity for twinkish airport sex workers, but maybe not. Anyhow they are the perfect others for the Heavy Hitters and while this was pretty flawed, it was also pretty fun. Yeah there are some moments where you can't really buy the pretty boys offensive spots, but almost every time they get over on the big boys in this it's due to some shot with a weapon. Mack is fun as fuck in this as he takes a big double superplex, murders one kid with a lariat and does the wall toss onto another only the kid doesn't make it and ends up splatting into a bunch of chairs and a morbidly obese audience member. Ramos takes a bunch of shots to the head with plunder, bleeds and eats a huge twisting bump through a couple of chairs. Finish sees one of the backpagers eat a DVD through a board and then Mack crushing him with a huge splash off the top. This wasn't outstanding, but certainly worth watching.

 

Eric Corvis v. Eddie Thomas - I Quit Match

 

I haven't seen Corvis in a while and can't remember if he always had the look of a steampunk aviator, but it got a chuckle out of me. Anyhow I was hoping this would be good and then about a minute in Corvis murdered Thomas with a knee and then ran around chopping the fuck out of him and on this show that was more than enough to win me over. Then Corvis took a god damned DDT on the floor. Now normally this would really piss me off as that feels like the sort of thing that should be an absolute finish, but the thud was so sick that I honestly didn't give a fuck. Maybe on another show it would have pissed me off but not here. Corvis briefly came back after catching him with a German (literally catching him), but took a nice bump in the corner and Thomas went to work on the arm. I would have liked the armwork to mean more in the course of the match, but I really dug the hope spots that Corvis worked around Thomas offense here. Figure four spot and subsequent escape from Corvis was pretty cool too. Thomas ends up beating Corvis with a belt and tries to get fancy by working a spot with it around the post, but Corvis ties him up around the post. I thought this was setting us up for a really awesome finish, but then they go the coward route and Thomas quit's before getting hit with a belt shot. Shame really because the idea of Corvis turning the tide due to superior expertise with knots was actually really compelling, but it felt flat. Still this was a good Corvis showcase up to that point and a good match.

 

Nunzio v. Myke Quest

 

Man Nunzio is still in good shape and can still work a really fun "feeling each other out" opening mat exchange. I've already seen him a few times this year and he's always looked decent, but he's been saddled with some really shitty opponents in matches that were intended to be card fillers so it is cool to see him work in a title match. Still this didn't get a ton of time and the real takeaway from it was that Nunzio is still in good shape, can still hit all his signature spots and will still bump. This is more than you can say for a lot of guys his age, but this really wasn't much as a match.

 

John Bowes v. Hedges v. Cypress v. Dynamike Davis

 

God damnit another one of these. This thing where indies do one night tourneys filled with multi-man matches is just about the worst trend in all of indie wrestling and that's saying a lot. This was a elimination rules which actually ended up making for a better match. Hedges was the best guy in this by a safe margin. The guy worked hard, took some big bumps and had the least offensive offense of all parties. I really liked the first elimination and the second wasn't bad either. This was building into a surprisingly solid match and then there was a shitty screwjob finish. Still this was better than I expected on paper.

 

Kyle Winant v. Brian Bass

 

If you ever wanted to see a cosplay Sami Callihan v. Kevin Steen match this is it. Yep.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

The Corvis and Heavy Hitters match are good and worth watching. The rest of this ranged from okay to trash. Now I kinda wish I'd watched New Japan

[Matt D]

Apparently the Augean stables are in New Jersey.

[Smack2k]

Dylan / All,

 

Since reading this thread again, I have become interested in watching NEW wrestling... I Dont wanna watch WWE or TNA as I dont like the product...what promotions or wrestlers / matches woudl recommend I start watching regularly to get my interests in new wrestling going again?

 

I am a fan more of the "old school" type wrestling (Bockwinkel vs. Hennig 60-min is my GOAT for example), and love feuds that move along and progress into a good climax, with some good stips and some violence where warranted, if the feud really called for it, but not violence for violence, just to do it...I love blood when its needed during a feud to really build heat, and think it 100% enhances a match and takes it to that next level...

 

Not a huge fan of spotfests with the smaller guys bouncing all around...no disrespect to them, just not my thing as I dont find it believable at all...a big spot here and there (diving off something) is fine, but not the whole match based around one upping the other with no real back story being told...

 

So help me out...what would you recommend?

[Matt D]

A Time Machine

[Dylan Waco]

I like Empire Wrestling from Chattanooga a lot as an indie that actually builds angles, builds to title shots, has good build within the matches, has a nice clearly tiered roster, et. The problem is that they never put up whole shows and their main events almost never see the light of day. Also in order to follow the angles you have to follow them on facebook.

 

NWA Anarchy and Rampage Pro have web shows and to some degree fit the bill, but the production on both isn't great and I think the roster of both companies is extremely weak when it comes to depth, especially if you are averse to the modern indie style. TCW markets themselves as old school, but I really don't see it in the big picture sense. I enjoy Metro Pro, but I think it would be a real stretch to say it fits the bill.

 

I hate to agree with Matt, but in many ways I don't think his time machine comment is that far off

[Smack2k]

Thought I'd give it a shot....oh well...thanks for the help...I will continue to thoroughly enjoy the old school and some of the newer NWA matches...

[Tim Evans]

You should try WWC. It's main evented by 2 60 year olds and Invader does some of the best promos in the world these days. Only problem is most of the matches are JIP but it has blood in a lot of feuds and is very old school.

[rovert]

My 2nd favourite show of the year. G1 Day 4:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGwpDkxS-4

 

Everyone needs to seen Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata at the 1:06:40 mark some are calling it ***** some people are saying it isn't even a Pro Wrestling match.

[Phil Schneider]

My 2nd favourite show of the year. G1 Day 4:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGwpDkxS-4

 

Everyone needs to seen Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata at the 1:06:40 mark some are calling it ***** some people are saying it isn't even a Pro Wrestling match.

Both things are truly bonkers. Nothing about that match makes it stand out from any mid 90s WAR match. I love mid 90's WAR so I liked it fine but it is smoked by something like Ashura Hara v. Takashi Ishikawa.

[Dylan Waco]

G1 Tournament August 4th (Day Four I think)

 

Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi

 

A pretty good indication that I don't give a fuck about a match is when the one thing that stands out as memorable or interesting is a slingshot spot. Generally I'm not even a fan of sling shot spots but that is the on thing I really remember here. All the stuff around weapon shots and fooling the ref just came across as really stupid to me. I get Yano's schitck, but I don't think it's terribly good or interesting. I didn't hate this, but by no means was it any good.

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. "The Machine Gun" Karl Anderson

 

Man this was way better than I would have thought. Tenzan looked lazy as fuck/uninspired in an earlier match from the tourney I saw v. Suzuki and since I hate Anderson, I figured this could be a contender for worst match of the night. This wasn't incredible or anything, but Tenzan really worked really hard, and Anderson's selling was a ton better than I would have thought. There was a actually a real heat section in this, and while some of Tenzan's offense didn't really hit square, I admired that he brought out the whole arsenal. Really felt like an old guy trying to win the tourney, instead of an old guy showing up to get a paycheck. Also as stupid as I think Anderson's finish looks, it did lead to a couple of cool tease spots for Tenzan and when he hit it it was the finish which felt like the right way to wrap this up. Good under card match, especially considering who was involved.

 

Yuji Nagata vs. Shelton "X" Benjamin

 

Shelton is an example of a guy I don't loathe who I don't ever really want to see wrestle again. He's pretty much exhausted anything interesting he could have possibly done in his career, so at this point if I get anything even decent out of him I'm happy. Nagata is one of the more overrated wrestlers of the last fifteen years and there are few things I find more phony than his facial expressions and "intense" demeanor. But I was still not prepared for how bad some of this was. I kind of like the ambush opening, but once this "settled" in it got really shitty really quick. Goofy Nagata facial expressions, ankle lock spots out the ass, really bad looking transitions, Shelton throwing sub-Tanahashi elbows, an awful kick from Shelton that made me more embarrassed to be a fan than Katie Vick and then it was over. Man everything after the ambush opening was just god awful. Terrible match. Amazingly this was worse than I expected, though it's relative brevity was a nice surprise.

 

Satoshi Kojima vs. Davey Boy Smith, Jr.

 

I like Smith but he has underwhelmed me this year after a 2012 where it looked like he might be on the verge of a breakout. This match wasn't great, but I thought it was pretty decent in large part because Smith worked as a cocky powerhouse heel which I think is one of the better roles for him. Not a lot of moments grabbed me in this but it was well segmented, well developed wrestling. I didn't care for his post nearfall hysterics, but the way Smith sunk in the tiger suplex was pretty cool and I thought this stayed away from the over kill that plagues even the better NJPW matches. I also thought the finish was well done and very convincing. Pretty good match all things considered, though I wouldn't push it as something people should go out of their way to see.

 

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata

 

So I had thought I was a pretty big Ishii mark, but what I am learning through the course of this tourney is that I'm a mere pretender to the throne of others who seem to be arguing that damn near everything Ishii has done over the last month or so is MOTY level or close to it. I enjoyed the Tanahashi match, though I thought the hype for it was way out of proportion, so I was a bit scared coming into this which if anything has gotten even more hype. Phil compared this to your WARish heavyweight battles, where two surly, mid-card, fucks just beat the piss out of each other and I think that is a pretty good way to look at this. I will never get over how much I hate the no sell pop up of head drop suplexes, but at least they sold on the back end of that here, and aside from that I thought this was a really good match. Where the level of level for the Tanahashi match kind of confuses me, this I get. This is the Shibata I have wanted to see for the last year and was easily his best match in NJPW that I've seen. And Ishii is kind of the perfect opponent for him as he doesn't mind getting decked, stretched, punted or dropped on his head. I really thought all of the double knockdown spots in this worked and were really compelling and I also dug the theme of Ishii getting trapped in holds and having to struggle out, while spewing spit all over the place. This was pretty much the perfect length for a match like this, as if it goes to long it gets really absurd and exposes the weaknesses of the style. I also really liked the fact that the brainbuster just barely put Shibata away. I'm not positive I like this as much as Nakamura v. Sakuraba or Akiyama v. Kai but it does stand out in the same way by the standards of 2013 Japanese wrestling.

 

Hirooki Goto vs. Lance Archer

 

These are two guys I would fully expect to bring out the worst in each other. I have seen both guys in matches I really love, but I don't think either guy has particularly good instincts on his own and coming into this had zero confidence in either guy when it came to leading a compelling match. Anyway this ended up being about what I expected in the sense that it was the sort of back and fourth, bomb trading match, that certainly appeals to a lot of NJPW fans, but that I am largely indifferent too. I didn't hate this, as it lacked any annoying moments, or weak looking shots, but I don't know if this was even a top five Lance Archer/Hoyt singles match from this year and he's not a guy I think is a particularly good wrestler.

 

Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki

 

If we are rating Naito on the Suzuki carry job scale, he falls slightly behind Okada, but way behind Tanahashi. Kind of funny because I'd rather watch Naito a little bit more than Okada and way more than Tanahashi. Of course the comparisons aren't entirely fair because those were matches with entirely different goals and weren't part of tourneys. So if we adjust for that I'll just say this was a pretty good Suzuki carry job and the things about Naito that don't work for me weren't on display as much here as they have been in other matches in the tourney. I still think Naito's lack of an intermediary speed is distracting and hurts his comebacks some, but I thought the burst here was a bit more excusable because at least he was still hobbled and it led directly to the finish. I also thought Suzuki really played this pretty well as it had the sense of a match where he targeted a body part effectively, went for his killer choke and his killer finish and neither really panned out so by that point he was totally out of gas and easy prey to death by flurry. One way or the other the match was constructed much better than that last sentence and I liked it a good bit more than any Suzuki match in the tourney before it, and the more I think quite possibly as much or more than the Okada match from earlier in the year.

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt

 

Hey look, here's a match I don't want to see. Devitt's character gets rave reviews with the NJPW loyalists and I'm glad they are into it, but I just don't give a fuck. I don't hate him as much as most of my WKO comrades, but I am completely indifferent to the guy and he really didn't do anything to win me over in this match. I will say that the guy has a nice double stomp, but outside of that all I saw was a bit of mediocre, some gratuitous outside interference and use of seconds as transitions (actually this may have been a net plus given who was in the match), and a couple of those truly awful Tanahashi clotheline things. Christ almighty I will never understand how some of the same guys who trash the offense of Cena can exalt Tanahashi as the best guy on Earth. Anyhow in a sense this was not as awful as I feared, largely because of the interference and the fact that it served as a way to temper the wild run of "stuff" this looks to be on paper. I still thought this was pretty trashy, which I'm sure will mark me as a supreme hater in the eyes of some, but hey - at least it wasn't Nagata v. Shelton.

 

Togi Makabe vs. Kazuchika Okada

 

I'm not sure what's up with Okada targeting the kidneys of Makabe in this match, but that was legitimately surprising to me. I assume I missed something from earlier in the tourney involving an injury, and I'm guessing that they are really running with Okada as a heelish pretty boy type, willing to hurt someone badly to win. Okada's method of attack wasn't particularly interesting, but I still thought that was the best part of the match because it was focused and felt like it was building toward something interesting and somewhat outside of the norm for New Japan. Instead this sort of devolved into Makabe proofing how tough he was, with limited-to-no selling of his worked over and taped injury and the bombs falling fast and furious. Sure some of the spots looked cool and the upset finish was neat,but what was the point of the first five minutes of this match, if they were just going to piss it away? I had low expectations for this, but it was still pretty disappointing.

 

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi

 

Wow, this was pretty great. Nakamura is like a .235 power hitter - you know he's going to strike out a ton, but when he hits one deep it's going clear out of the fucking park. This wasn't the spectacle that Shibata v. Ishii was, but it was every bit as good a match, probably better. It's kind of weird for me to look at Nakamura as a defender of the heavyweight honor against some flippy little shit who's come out of the woodwork to take him down a peg or two and yet that's basically what this match is. I am not an Ibushi fan at all, but he really brought it here. All of his big spots looked believable/good and provided a sharp contrast to what Nakamura was doing which is really important if a match like this is going to work. Nak's knee based assaults are a mixed bag - at times they don't look all that great, at other times they are out of this world brutal. Here they were out of this world brutal and then some. I don't want to oversell anything, but some of his shots here looked like they were at or beyond the level of Shibata/Ishii which is saying something. This was well laid out, with Ibushi having to survive the initial onslaught, come back from the dead with his flashy spots (including a great chaotic dive), then Nak basically in survival mode and fighting back with his own bombs, only for Ibushi to have one last huge "fuck you" flurry as a response before going down hard. Loved the anger on Nak's face as he cornered Ibushi, before Ibushi's last big fiery babyface onslaught. Pretty much everything from Ibushi's Flairesque apron splat forward was at least good and big chunks of this were really excellent. I actually want to watch this again already which is really saying something. This is one of the better singles matches I've seen this year.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

Even with some really bad lows, this was still the best NJPW show I've seen this year, or during this "resurgence" at all by a safe margin. Two matches I liked a whole lot, another good Suzuki v. new wave carry job and a couple of pretty good undercard matches that on paper didn't seem like much. Half of the card still ranged from boring/ok-to-terrible, but there were only two matches I really disliked and at least some of the matches I didn't like or was indifferent to had upset finishes. Good show.

[Dylan Waco]

G1 Climax Tournament Day 8

 

Captain New Japan/KUSHIDA v. Takashi Iizuka/YOSHI-HASHI

 

I am too lazy to look back and see if I have had this revelation before, but about five seconds into the actual match that started after a few minutes of brawling, it hit me that Captain New Japan is about as pre-BWO Super Nova as a wrestler can possibly be in look. He even sells with the same body language. Maybe it was just more noticeable here because this was sort of worked like an ECW mid-card tag match from a random fancam (a style of match I've seen more of than any person on earth aside from maybe Gabe Sapolsky) but I was actually kind of enjoying the Nova flashback in this setting. This was kept pretty short and had it's fair share of weak looking offense, but it had the right kind of energy you want for an ultimately worthless opener that is nothing more than a placeholder. I have seen far worse matches than this involving far better wrestlers this year, so while I wouldn't endorse it as worth watching, it was perfectly passable stuff. Also, this kind of made me want to see Captain New Japan team with daisy duke wearing Hama (god help me) against P.Y. Chu Hi and Tajiri managed by "Tojo" Tommy Rich.

 

Davey Boy Smith Jr. v. Prince Devitt

 

Someone explain to me what the hell is supposed to be interesting or intriguing about Devitt's newish gimmick? I admit that I have very much enjoyed people falling over themselves to praise a guy who is basically booked and working his matches like 1999 Shane McMahon, but I am actually being completely non-trollish in asking what the deal is with this "character?" I like Harry Smith, but he was put in a tough position here as he is generally better as a bruising heel and this match was all about continuing along with Attitude Era-style match. I did enjoy the way the first half of this was put together, but it quickly devolved into uninteresting interference spots, and your turn, my turn trash. This was too short to be offensive, but it wasn't any good.

 

Karl Anderson v. Yujiri Takahashi

 

I had no expectations at all for this coming in, so it had a very low hurdle to leap over. It still didn't totally clear it because the back end of this was loaded up with really choreographed looking shit and this was a rare case of a NJPW match that would have benefited from completely doing away with any pretense of build and just going straight out nuts with the spots considering the fact they were only getting seven minutes. On the other hand there were a couple of decent looking spots and yet again this was short which kept it from getting silly. Eh match at best.

 

Lance Archer v. Satoshi Kojima

 

This was okay, definitely the best match of the show up to this point, but that's not really saying much. Both of these guys can be decent against the right guy, but I don't really want to see them work each other, so I guess to this end this was as good a match as they were going to have. I actually liked a lot of the Archer control segment on Kojima and I give them credit for working a real heat section, with some comebacks, even though it ended up going right into the standard NJPW back and fourth fest. I get why people enjoy that stuff, but I really have no use for it unless the selling between spot trading is pretty damn good. Here the selling at least existed, though it wasn't anything special. Still the only really embarrassing thing in the match was Archer's selling of Kojima's corner chops and I did really like the finality and impact of Archer's finish, so I'll give these guys some credit.

 

Toru Yano v. Shelton Benjamin

 

This had two big flaws. The first was Shelton Benjamin. He's just awful. All of his offense looks terrible, his bumps don't look impactful or hurty, his body language sucks, he's constantly out of position, he's just complete garbage. Easily one of the worst guys on earth right now. The second flaw was that Yano didn't win. Even with Shelton being Shelton, Yano's schitck was actually really entertaining in this and it seemed like they were building to him being able to steal one. I get that the finish was him trying to go dirty and it working against him, but that seems far less interesting to me than letting him get the duke via bullshit. Oh well, he tried, Shelton is Shelton.

 

Togi Makabe v. Tomohiro Ishii

 

If you love bomb throwing matches, where guys stiff the shit out of each other and almost kill each other with accidental ganso bombs then it's hard not to like this on some level. Yes this lacked the psych I want out of a truly great match, especially because they had the shot at early with Makabe's taped ribs and then later after Ishii got spiked. On the other hand I actually thought this had a more organic feel to it than a lot of these slugfests. In some ways this was my favorite Ishii performance of the year as he not only brought the shoot headbutts, meaty lariats, and fun power spots, but he also was very effective working underneath. There were a few of the no selling staples you expect in these sort of matches, but I didn't find them to be egregious and in fact that were usually just teases before one guy ate another bigger kill shot. I actually ended up really liking a lot of the stretch run, as this was an almost unheard of case of the one counts being believable and adding intrigue because Ishii was still selling on the back end and even when he went for a flurry it ended up with him getting dropped and finished. This is a heavily, heavily flawed style, but I can certainly enjoy matches like this and this was a match I enjoyed more and more as it went along. Good stuff.

 

Minoru Suzuki v. Kota Ibushi

 

This would have been a good match if Ibushi had even thought for a second about selling his leg. It's a shame really because I was impressed with the work he put in against Nakamura and was thinking maybe I should start giving more of his current work a chance and then this just kicked that thought right in the nuts. When Suzuki was on offense this was really good. It really didn't even matter what he was doing on offense either as he looked good making funny faces, working the arm, throwing gut punches, slapping Ibushi in the face, leveling him with a dropkick or working the leg in a senseless attempt to convince Ibushi to sell. I can't call this a bad match because there was a lot I liked and the closing explosion from Suzuki was great, but god did it feel like a real wasted opportunity.

 

Tetsuya Naito v. Shinsuke Nakamura

 

I swear I don't remember Naito looking this bad before the injury, but he really has not impressed in this tournament and this match was no exception. I really loved the Nakamura knee counter to the shoulder tackle attempt but after that this was all downhill. I can get into the idea of cocky Nak working from the top with contempt but he was working that act way to early on and it almost felt like he was out of ideas. Naito has his shit he's going to get to every match and it really feels like he lacks any interest in variation or mixing things up as I think I've watched the same routine a half dozen times in this tourney. This whole thing was really flat and didn't work for me at all.

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Kazuchika Okada

 

I was not looking forward to this at all as one of the better things about this tourney format is that you don't see a lot of matches really reach the point of pushing far into overkill territory because they are limited on time. Here you have two guys I don't care for going broadway on an already extremely underwhelming show, so this really could have pushed the show over a cliff big time. Instead I think this was about as good a match as these two were probably going to have with each other given the circumstances. Not surprisingly that is not me making an argument about this being five stars, or a MOTY, or a great match. But I did think it was pretty good given the limitations of both guys and given the fact that these guys really don't have thirty minutes worth of "stuff" to fill a match. In a way I thought this was basically three matches - the first third which was not good or bad but was just there. This saw most of the weakest looking Tanahashi offense (the armwork really is not something he should ever be doing) and had a real going through the motions feel. The match picked up with the big Tanahashi bumps which I give him credit for as they looked big time and allowed Okada to work a couple of decent looking holds to reasonable dramatic effect. This also included the clip to Okada's knee and most of the general Tanahashi knee work, which also wasn't all that good, but it wasn't awful did add another layer to the match. The final third was really hit or miss. The best moments, like Okada getting his knees up on the splash and then selling them, the cloverleaf spot (which really wasn't well applied but was helped by Okada's generally solid selling) and even the final gasping attempt at a finish I don't like were very strong dramatic spots. The worst spots were holy shit level bad, especially the tombstone being used as a means for Tanahashi and Okada to bridge into a line dancing sequence that evoked memories of that awful Eddie Edwards/Jay Lethal bit from the PWG show I reviewed earlier in the year. As a whole it's hard to get a good line on my thoughts because all the things I hate about NJPW main events were still present (needlessly long, horribly cooperative sequences, bad no selling spots, really bad offense) and yet the match did exceed my admittedly low expectations pretty easily. I will say I liked it better than their last match for whatever that is worth.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

I wanted to watch this because the two shows from G1 that were most heavily pimped were day four and this. Day four really worked for me, so I thought this had a real shot too. Instead this came across like a "preaching to the choir" type of event, where the day four show whether intentionally or not seems like a show that was a bit farther off the NJPW reservation. If you are a big fan of current NJPW Day Eight probably catered to your tastes very well, but I found it to be incredibly tedious, with only one true standout match

[Dylan Waco]

Combat Zone Wrestling Tangled Web VI 8/11

 

David Starr v. JT Dunn

 

This was presented as a sort of "tryout" match and was pretty short which was a good thing because I imagine Dunn in particular could get pretty intolerable in a ten-minute plus match. But this worked pretty well as an opener. Low on substance, but they sort of worked a variation of move heavy offensive guy v. striker which at least gave the match some structural basis to work with. Nothing special here though I did think Starr sold stuff pretty well and his floorpunching to "tune up the band" before his big forearm finish had me laughing out loud.

 

Joe Gacy/Alex Colon/Biff Busick v. Shane Strickland/Matt Tremont/Greg Excellent

 

Aside from a couple of over the top cutesy spots, including a cringeworthy one involving the ref, this was shockingly good and a great example of how booking and crowd heat can really help a match. I am a fan of the Alex Colon character, though not always a fan of him as a worker. This starts with Alex Colon the character shitting on everything and refusing to wrestle in theory because he's scared of Strickland who beat him at the last CZW show. He wages a sit down strike in the ring. The faces come out to a huge pop and are pretty much the most hilariously indie looking team ever as you have your big beareded guy in a singlet (Excellent), your athletic looking black guy (Strickland) and your white guy in a wifebeater/bandana get up who looks like he just got fired from his construction job for selling dirt weed laced with PCP to Guatemalan immigrants (Tremont). Strickland can't coax Colon out of the chair he's sitting in, so he eventually levels him with a kick and they start off the match as Colon regroups on the floor. I am not going to do a whole play by play but I note all of this because right out of the gate they establish the importance of that feud and the importance of Tremont/Gacy feud is known by pretty much everyone in the building already, so the match has real stakes and great heat throughout. They do a really good job keeping the guys who are feuding apart from each other for most of the match so when the parties engage it feels like a really huge deal. Match is well built as you have a strong heat section of Strickland (though the FIP was admittedly weak) and then a semi-heat section on Tremont. On the front of this you have a crazy segment with Gacy of all people doing a moonsault and a triple dive from the faces. On the back end of the match there are some great spots with Colon including him leaping into a crazy Tremont powerbomb off of the hot tag and a completely insane hilo onto Strickland where he literally lands up in the second row. There were lots of cool touches in this, my favorite of which was Gacy being the guy to cheapshot Tremont down to size after his initial flurry. I also really liked the finish, which saw your egregious Antonio Cesaro rip off (seriously it's actually embarrassing) go for a big suplex, Excellent escapes out of desperation, but then gets locked back in and dropped nastily on his head. This got time, but I really don't feel like it even approached over kill, and aside for a couple of stupid spots, the booking played to everyone's strengths, forwarded the feuds without giving away exchanges better served for bigger singles matches, and really played well to the crowds interests. This is why indie feds should run trios matches more often.

 

Navaeh v. Shanna

 

Boy this wasn't very good. People keep telling me I should pay some attention to some of the women on the indies and with the exception of Athena I sort of blank on who gets suggested. Then I watch a match like this and I think "fuck do I really want to get involved with this shit?" I assume a place like WSU or Shimmer has some pretty good stuff, but this was just a jumbled mess of stuff, made worse by a lengthy DJ Hyde promo to set the match up and terrible announcing. Not the worst match of the year or anything, but not good and a real drop off from that last match.

 

Caleb Konley v. Shane Hollister

 

I cannot believe Konley has not been scooped up by ROH yet. He is pretty much the ultimate in indie pretty boys who run through athletically impressive but ultimately meaningless offense. He would probably work for a third of what they are paying Eddie Edwards, and even now with his hair dyed in a slightly trashier way, he is pretty much the perfect pick to appeal to the twink fetishist wing of ROHbotdom. When I saw this match on the lineup I pretty much figured it would go like this - lots of big spots, a brief tease of psychology, followed by some more big spots and then a roll up finish. For matches of this ilk this was relatively unoffensive, in large part because it wasn't thirty minutes long and filled with absurd number of near falls. But it's not my kind of match.

 

Azreal/Bandido Jr. v. Alex Reynolds/John Silver

 

Now this on the other hand was a wonderful example of a match that went way over the edge into overkill. The first half of this was actually pretty good. I was kind of mystified by the fact that Alex Reynolds looks to be a face now, but the front end was well put together, with an amusing face shine and a respectable build to a hot tag. Then Reynolds came in and this just turned into a string of stuff that never seemed to end. I will grant that there were two completely insane spots - a powerbomb/tope combo that saw Silver crack his back on the guardrail, and the finish itself which was a double stomp/DDT combo - but the bulk of the post-hot tag run was not so good looking stuff, that went on forever and was strung together in a haphazard manner.

 

AR Fox v. Andrew Everett

 

Sort of a strange match. I like both guys, though I think it's a real shame that Everett is likely going to be pigeonholed in these spotathon matches, even if he does have some incredible spots. Without the Chiva Kid mask his look screams heel, so I was happy to see him work an early ambush here and I thought this was smart just to be a string of wild spots because that's ultimately what you want out of these two. My beef with this was the pacing which didn't fit the craziness of what was going on. It started out with this crazy burst that saw Everett hit a massive springboard shooting star to the floor where he landed on his feet (which has to be awful for his knees by the way), but then it sort of turned into this match where both guys would tease selling things for a bit or transitioning into someone working a control segment, before going right back to another big spot. It's kind of hard to articulate and I still enjoyed this, but it sort of tried to straddle the fence between a spotfest and a more traditional sort of match and I don't think it succeeded. On the other hand there was tons of crazy shit like the bit building to Fox's moonsault on the floor, or Everett hitting a crazy reverse frankensteiner off the ropes, or Fox missing his imploding splash and basically piledriving himself, or Everett's 630 splash....well you get the point. And this did have a really cool finish with both guys going for a springboard move at the same time and Fox hitting his finish in mid-air. So on scale this was both entertaining and kind of disappointing at the same time.

 

Amasis/Ophidian v. BLKOut

 

Holy shit did this have a horrible finish. Up to this point this show has had two spots where the ref has gotten directly involved in the match, included one spot where a ref got heaved half way across the ring with a hip toss. These teams spend ten minutes powerbombing each other on the floor, flying into the third row, and just generally brawling all around and the match ends when the ref gets kicked in the balls? Fucking awful. Up until then this match was pretty decent if you could ignore guys getting up from crazy shit, but that is about as terrible a finish as I've seen this year.

 

Drew Gulak v. Masada

 

I liked the idea of this match a lot better than the match itself. Gulak is someone who I think has a ton of potential but I don't think CZW is the best place for a guy with his skills. Masada I don't really hate but he's Masada and there is only so much you can expect out of him. This match was built around Masada's leg injury and on paper it was well worked. Gulak had a variety of leg attacks, Masada sold pretty well and it eventually after some hope spots it led to the finish with him tapping after a string of submissions. But a big chunk of this suffered from poor execution and then you had the female seconds involvement which wasn't constant but kept popping up at the worst times. I can't call this a bad match, but this really should have worked out better than it did. If nothing else I hope Gulak ends up with some interesting challengers now that he's got the belt.

 

Rory Mondo/Ron Mathis/Drew Blood v. Lucky 13/Devon Moore/Danny Havoc - Tangled Web Match

 

In no way was this a good match, but it was a violent spectacle and it was a needed pick me up after a title match that felt a bit tedious at times. The ring was completely surrounded with all sorts of stuff draped in barbed wire, including several boards, some crazy looking crate thing and a full side of the ring with a covered in it. There was also some scaffolding and other shit hanging from ceiling. And this was pretty much exactly the car crash sort of match you would expect to come out of that setting. Devon Moore in particular was completely nuts as he did a couple of spots off the scaffold. There were also a few nutso bumps to the floor, including one with two guys damn near dying flying through the crate of death that didn't break their fall at all. I'm not a huge fan of this style of wrestling, but as a single match on a show of this sort it had it's place.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

Pretty average show. I will give them credit for having a fair amount of variation on this card and also for succeeding in making virtually every match seem important which is something that a lot of indie feds really struggle with. I wouldn't recommend the show, but there were parts of it I enjoyed a ton and their are feuds and match ups that even a non-CZW fan like myself can follow and have interest in coming out of the show.