shoe Posted April 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 reDragon vs The Addiction The live date on this is 4/4/15. I saw this live and thought it was tremendous. I waited till the tv aired and it's still great. We start with a little back and forth. reDragon strikes 1st and really works over Kazarian's arm. This was well done. Finally he gets the tag to Daniels and he's on fire. The Addiction begin working over Fish's neck. The work here was well done as well. So the body of the match is well laid out with good focus on body parts which I love to see. . The finishing run is simply amazing and kicks it into high gear. So much stuff going on. Both teams take the fan on a ride. We also get a payoff to the KRD angle which adds another element to the match. They really walked the line between story telling, hot moves, creative spots, awesome high spots, great build and a big payoff to a big angle. They show about 21minutes of a 25 minute bout. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted April 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Fred Yehi vs Slim J Hardcore Hell 2015 This has been pimped by Dylan and as has the series of matches. Holy smokes was this this all kinds of awesome. It's 2 out of 3 falls. It's basically some really great stiff looking mat work, sprinkled in with some elbows and other strikes that really escalated in the match. The 2nd fall finish was awesome and Yehi selling of the arm the rest of the way. Actually I Loved all 3 finishes. I loved the 1st fall was because Slim J got anxious and it cost him. In the 2nd fall I loved Yehi tapping quickly realizing this is just a battle not the war. I love that the 3rd fall was a flash pin. I haven't watched a Slim J match since 10 years ago and he was an insane bump taker. It's really great to see what he developed into. Both guys were awesome here. 4 1/2* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted April 28, 2015 Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Yep, it's a great match. On top of everything you said I also thought there were a lot of little things in the match that were really good, like the angles both guys were using to apply and break holds, Yehi stretching his toes desperately to get to the ropes at one point while trapped in a relatively mild looking hold, the way Yehi fled to get away from the big moonsault early only to get hit with a move off the top anyhow, the chops and fighting on the floor being cut really short since that had costs Yehi in the previous match, Slim J not allowing any time to breathe in between the 2nd and 3rd fall and immediately trying to go straight for the win, et. I also loved the fact that there was real build to the big spots in each fall and over the course of the match. The moonsault to the floor was a nice spot, but not particularly impressive by modern standards, and yet it came across as a huge deal because of the previous teasing of it, how the match was paced, et. I knew the match was good because I was hearing from people after it happened that it was the best GA indie match in ten years. To me it lived up to that hype and I watch a ton of Georgia indie wrestling. This is in the mix for my MOTY at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted April 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Drew Galloway vs Ricochet 1/10/15 Evolve 37 This feels like a low level MOTYC to me. My major complaint is the finish. I liked it on one hand, but felt it made no sense on another. Especially since the way Galloway was booked going forward. I enjoyed the early wow spots. It was fun table setting stuff. The main course was Ricochet's cocky work. His work on Galloway's bad finger was excellent and had a real nasty feel. Galloway's hope spots were well timed and were high impact. The finish which looked like an accidental eye poke Galloway was like it's an accident. Then follows up with a couple of killer moves that looked they killed Ricochet. In the moment the finish made sense for me. In the booking of Galloways as a face going forward no. Still I think the finish might bug people a lot more than me because it wasn't consistent with the match and the booking going forward. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2015 Hero vs Gulak 2/27/15 PWG I don't care about Hero putting on the pounds. It's his choice. Though it feels like we have a modern day Buddy Rose in that he can still have a great match and tear it up. Some fun mat work to start. It builds to some high impact stuff. Hero delivered a low level stiff dropkick. It looks like Gulak is targeting the leg of Hero. Fuck yeah some limb work. Dragon screw in the ropes by Gulak. Hero is real good selling the leg work. Big forearm by Hero to give him some seperation. All of Hero's strikes look nasty. Moonsault into an ankle lock by Gulak which was a great moment. The finishing run is so great. Gulak using a variety of submissions to no avail. We go to strikes and Hero finishes him off with 2 pile drivers. This was a great match that told a tight story. Hero was a beast with his offense and great selling. Gulak looked great and continues his great year. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2015 Ricochet vs Sydal 2/27/15 PWG This should be interesting. This is balls to the wall. They're incorporating Lucha spots, strong style, and some U.S psychology. Sydal tries to ground Ricochet. Ricochet hitting Sydal from all angles. We're getting a back and forth. Sydal delivers a Moonsault into a Tornado DDT. Sydal's knee strike was KO nasty. Their are so many hot moves on display here. Sydal is pretty good here being the glue. What a match. It was a high spot oriented match. That spinning tombstone at the finish was all shades of amazing. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 AJ Styles vs Will Osprey 2/15/15 This is in REV Pro overseas. Styles is the big star and Osprey is the local baby face. They work a dandy of a match. Styles gives Osprey a nice shine. Style stakes over and does some nice leg work and then some great back work. Osprey gets some real nice athletic hope spots. Styles back on him. Osprey does a huge dive which hurt the match a bit because he seemed to shrug off the back work. They build to a hot finish and presto a must see match.The crowd gave it a special feel to boot. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meltzing Pot Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Agreed on that Hero vs Gulak match. I generally liked the rest of the show, but that specifically stood out to me. Hero's strikes were just ridiculous, and Gulak did a nice job selling them. I thought the finish was really satisfying, in that it came at the right time, and really, the two moves that did it really should be enough to keep someone down. I haven't watched the Evolve shows from Mania weekend yet, but this definitely made me excited to see more of both guy's current work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Haven't seen too much this year, but from various outlets: WWE/NXT: RR 3-way, Owens/Zayn, Reigns/Lesnar NJPW: Okada/Fale, Nak/Ibushi, Ibushi/Styles, Ishii/Honma ROH: Bullet Club 6-man (2/14), Styles/ACH (13th Anniversary), Styles/M. Briscoe, maybe El Patron/Daniels. Indies: Thatcher/Hero, Thatcher/End, Thatcher/Cobb vs. Reno Scum (APW - March) Gun to my head, spectacles are my bag, so Reigns/Lesnar is tops, but being live at Thatcher/Hero is going to challenge it. Need to watch the PWG shows and a couple matches that are being highly pimped, but this has been a pretty good first four months so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Thatcher/Cobb vs. Reno Scum (APW - March) Were you live for this or has it made its way online somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 I was there live for it. It was basically 15 minutes of them beating the shit out of each other and has one of the nastiest finishes I've ever seen, and I won't spoil it unless it does show up somewhere. There were cameras there taping it but APW is notoriously bad about releasing footage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 I was there live for it. It was basically 15 minutes of them beating the shit out of each other and has one of the nastiest finishes I've ever seen, and I won't spoil it unless it does show up somewhere. There were cameras there taping it but APW is notoriously bad about releasing footage. Tell me about it, they also have what has been reported as an excellent Masters/Thatcher rematch that has yet to see the light of day. It has to have been because of some organizational change, because they used to be so freaking great about releasing all of their footage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 reDragon vs The Addiction The live date on this is 4/4/15. I saw this live and thought it was tremendous. I waited till the tv aired and it's still great. We start with a little back and forth. reDragon strikes 1st and really works over Kazarian's arm. This was well done. Finally he gets the tag to Daniels and he's on fire. The Addiction begin working over Fish's neck. The work here was well done as well. So the body of the match is well laid out with good focus on body parts which I love to see. . The finishing run is simply amazing and kicks it into high gear. So much stuff going on. Both teams take the fan on a ride. We also get a payoff to the KRD angle which adds another element to the match. They really walked the line between story telling, hot moves, creative spots, awesome high spots, great build and a big payoff to a big angle. They show about 21minutes of a 25 minute bout. 4 1/4* I think the problem I had with this match was that it really didn't get into anything that enjoyable until the stretch run. I did like the finish with the KRD payoff and I thought even with Fish's knee issue they did a good job working around it, but I'm not sure it's a top-flight tag match. I considered it, but I think ROH has had a surprisingly good amount of stuff this year and this is in the tier below their best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 That's cool. I enjoyed the limb work done on Kazarian a lot, along with the work done on Fish's neck as a base for the match. So I thought the build was good to the hot run and the KRD payoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 AJ Styles vs Will Osprey 2/15/15 The match I watched earlier was the handheld version. The commercial video was even better and this match is now my favorite of the year so far. The Commercial version has a lot of things going for it. First off the crowd is jacked for this. Second the announcers do a great job in getting the story of Osprey's wrestling Idol was Styles and this adds a lot to the match. Finally we get a better view of the match. I'm not going to discuss it again but I'm going to hit on some stuff. One cool spot was Styles takes an Irish Whip and slides under the guardrail. That was cool. Styles does a really great job destroying Osprey's back. They do a great job sprinkling Osprey's comebacks, and hope spots in. Styles throws one of the best punches in his life. In the handheld version I gave Osprey shit for shit canning the back work. In reality it wasn't bad, but he could have sold the back better down the stretch. The drama of Osprey in the Calf Slicer was so great. The finishing run was amazing capped off by a 2nd rope inverted Styles Clash. 4 3/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 I simply can't get into Ospreay being more than a meaningless spot machine. Will give this match a watch, and a chance, but it has an uphill battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 I felt Styles did a great job in controlling the match, and made Ospreay's stuff matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stomperspc Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 I simply can't get into Ospreay being more than a meaningless spot machine. Will give this match a watch, and a chance, but it has an uphill battle. Ospreay is good in it. He doesn't come off as a pure spot guy at all in the match. In fact, a lot of his offense has additional significance behind it assuming you buy into the story the announcers are selling. Ospreay's facial expressions and demeanor added a lot as well. Styles was great here but Ospreay added a lot. I didn't love it as much as Pete and I think I had it in the *** 1/2 range in the February Match Guide (which feels a little low to me now looking back) but its definitely a very good match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 Alberto El Patron/ACH/Matt Sydal vs Briscoes/Strong This was a great match. We get a Lucha pairing off where all of them were well done. Patron's and Jay's pairing seemed off a bit. We get some great exchanges with everyone hitting their moves. Strong and Mark were tremendous in carrying their side. We get an awesome sequence that sees Patron nail a tope' . ACH goes for a dive, but Mark cuts him off and ACH is awesome as a FIP. The Briscoe team goes after his back. Strong in particular used some real cool variations of back breakers on ACH. It built and built and then we get the hot tag. Patron in and gets the crowd completely behind him. He gets cut off and plays a little FIP. Hot tag and everyone in. Great run that sets up a killer finish. Man what a great match. this was a ton of fun. Patron and Jay looked a little clunky working with each other. The dynamic wouldn't be the same, but Patron should have paired up with Strong more since they had a real good match a few months prior. 4 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 12, 2015 Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 Alberto El Patron/ACH/Matt Sydal vs Briscoes/Strong This was a great match. We get a Lucha pairing off where all of them were well done. Patron's and Jay's pairing seemed off a bit. We get some great exchanges with everyone hitting their moves. Strong and Mark were tremendous in carrying their side. We get an awesome sequence that sees Patron nail a tope' . ACH goes for a dive, but Mark cuts him off and ACH is awesome as a FIP. The Briscoe team goes after his back. Strong in particular used some real cool variations of back breakers on ACH. It built and built and then we get the hot tag. Patron in and gets the crowd completely behind him. He gets cut off and plays a little FIP. Hot tag and everyone in. Great run that sets up a killer finish. Man what a great match. this was a ton of fun. Patron and Jay looked a little clunky working with each other. The dynamic wouldn't be the same, but Patron should have paired up with Strong more since they had a real good match a few months prior. 4 1/4* Which team was the bad guys eventually, since that's a good guys vs good guys match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 It was a baby face match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 The Bullet Club vs ROH All Stars 5/15/15 Global Wars I loved this match and really saved the show for me. We start off with wild chaotic fight. This was going all over ringside. It settles down a bit and Strong starts as the FIP. While this is going on we have some more fighting between groups on the floor. They work over strong really well and Strong is a bad ass in the FIP role. On top of that he really showed a lot of fire in the roll. The ROH side work over Nick Jackson and this was well done. So far we have a wild fight, We get a great shine sequence, and then a really well done Heat segment. On top of that Hanson gets a 2nd FIP spot and he's terrific in the role. In between all of this we have more fighting and an array of amazing dives and highspots. Everyone gets their moment in the sun. in an homage to the Von Erich triple dropkick the Bullet Club hit a 5 man super kick. Strong superplexing everyone out of their boots. On top of this the crowd is going nuts. I was blown away by this, and had a big time feel to it. 4 3/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Kushida vs Roderick Strong 5/12/15 ROH War of The Worlds This is one of the matches I'm most looking forward to. They didn't disappoint and tore the house down. We start with a battle for control. Kushida gets an early shine sequence. Strong cuts him off a dive by slamming him back 1st on the apron. Here Roddy just destroys his back. He even uses a Tarantula. Kushida is pretty great at selling the back. Kushida builds to his comeback . I love Kushida going after the arm. We see a hover board dive. Kushida is on fire. The guys build to a really hot finish with a lot of great nearfalls. The finish was a great payback to the back work on Kushida. 4 1/2* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Roderick Strong vs Shinsuke Nakamura 5/16/15 ROH Global Wars This is a great freaking match. Strong ends up taking a lot of the match with Nakamura valiantly fighting back. Strong was pulling off some of his crazy backbreaker moves, including one from the top rope and dropping him on the top turnbuckle. Strong got bloody thanks to some of the knees by Nakamura. The finishing stretch got real hot as Strong had a big kickout before finally going down to Nakamura. He came out looking as a star on the same level as Nakamura, which is impressive. 4 1/2* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcMadness Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 I'm going to go ahead and add Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch for consideration. I could see it making my Top 25. Just great all around work and selling like you rarely if ever see on the main roster, especially from the ladies. I almost don't want these two to make up top out of fear it would ruin them. But as far as I'm concerned these two along with Charlotte and Bailey belong on the Big Stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.