7/26/24 ROH World Title: Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong 19:35

7/26/24 ROH: The Beast Mortos vs. Komander 13:31. Good energetic opener designed to finally put some heat on Mortos. With the million hours of bad TV Tony Khan has at his disposal, we should be able to get a real Lucha Libre match like this more often. This was a proper match designed to get Mortos over as the imposing destructive force he was before Tony turned him into a jobber, with a proper opponent who knows how to get tossed around and take huge bumps to make him seem that much more impressive. At 5' 10", Mortos is an example of why you want to sign larger guys that are talented, rather than just sign every guy that's 6'5". He's only big for a luchador, so if you put him in with one of those useless giants who should never have been signed like Satnam Singh, Big Bill, Wardlow, Lance Archer, or Keith Lee, he's not going to look like anything physically, and you won't be able to present him properly, but when the matchmaking keeps him within his element, he can deliver a really impressive power vs. speed match. Normally he will fly enough to satisfy fans of the athletic style, this wasn't quite as consistently spectacular as their usual stuff, with Mortos focusing on getting over as a monster to the point he didn't do his usual flying moves. Mortos was just mauling Komander, and even Komander toned his high risk stuff down a bit trying to be less slow with his setups and sloppy with his execution. Mortos started with a high speed mauling with fast clubbing shots, and the fans were already cheering his name despite him losing all 3 matches he had on Collision this year. Komander was all high risk, but he countered into enough of it that it wasn't just Mortos standing or laying around waiting forever to be jumped at. Komander tried an early no touch tope con giro, but Mortos caught him out of the air and powerbombed him into Alex Abrahantes. They established early with things like Komander countering the choke slam into a flash pin that he had to be reactive here, and even if he was on his counter game, perhaps still be kind of lucky if wanted to win this match. Mortos injured Komander's ribs press slamming him into the turnbuckle, and Komander was selling it the rest of the match. Mortos wasn't in the mood to wait on Komander, so Komander had to get his offense in quicker, and not dilly dally with so much of the tight rope act. Komander had a nice satellite DDT through the bottom rope, and the Frankensteiner off the apron. Komander had his chance with counters into a crucifix driver and Canadian destroyer, but got pressed slammed off the top trying to set up an avalanche Frankensteiner. Komander missed his ropewalker moonsault by a mile, which led to his demise. ***1/4

7/20/24 AEW: Darby Allin vs. The Beast Mortos 10:39
As has become the norm with AEW, the guy making the match good, in this case Mortos, is the clear TV jobber, setting his opponent up for a meaningless title match with a middling performer nobody cares about either, in this case Jungle Jackass. Mortos is an imposing luchador, a special talent with arguably the best combination of power and agility Mexico has produced. It's hard for him to operate effectively here though given there's no reason to fear him because he never wins. Thus, all he can hope is to get as many cool things in as he can. Darby is an even easier opponent to toss around like a ragdoll than most of the luchadors. Mortos caught Darby out of the air and slammed his head into the ring steps, pressed him into the air into a Samoan drop, and hit a monster avalanche press slam. Mortos was definitely getting over with his impressive offense, and Darby was making some hot comebacks. Darby looked to be healthy, moving and balancing well, and doing some nice rope work. The finish saw Mortos go for the avalanche Samoan drop, but Darby turned it into a crucifix bomb, and hit the coffin drop for the win. The finish was rather abrupt, but given the time they had, Darby did as much as he could to put Mortos over in defeat. ***

7/20/24 TNA X-Division Title: Mustafa Ali vs. Mike Bailey 20:30
ML: There was arguably an excellent junior style match here that got drowned in a sea of totally unnecessary overbooking. It's unfortunate that one of Bailey's most spectacular matches, and arguably biggest wins given he took the title, couldn't have been done in a manner that actually just showcased what was by far the best wrestling on this PPV. Ali was an interesting opponent for Bailey when Ali was allowed to do his thing, but all that comes with Ali doesn't allow that to happen often enough, though this was a lot worse than usual in that regard, as all the smoke and mirrors just took me out of the match with the silliness and endless setup time. Bailey was incredibly over in his hometown, and they spent so much time early on the showing us that Ali could only do something to him when his henchman diverted Bailey's attention that Ali wound up coming off weak. You kind of wondered why they put so much effort into supposedly protecting Ali at the end when if he could have actually just done some things on his own, he surely would have come off quite well. There were some nice examples of that in the middle, but they had already established Ali as incapable of holding up his end by that point. The early portion established that Bailey's striking was too good for Ali, but then Campaign Singh distracted him to gain Ali the advantage. Bailey did a tijeras through the ropes and followed with a springboard moonsault then took time out to kiss his wife, Veda Scott, and superkick a secret service man, which allowed Ali to come back with a tornado DDT. There was a fun portion where Bailey avoided a 450 Splash and countered an Oscutter with a superkick then hit a falcon arrow and a shooting star press for a near fall. Bailey took out Ali's detail with a Spanish fly to the floor. Bailey avoided Ali's baseball slide by going right into a top rope quebrada then tried for his Ultima weapon, but Ali kicked him out of the air. Bailey hit an avalanche poisonrana then seemingly hit the Ultima weapon for the win, but after Frank Gastineau counted three and Bailey's music just started to play, Gastineau called it off because Bailey's cover accidentally draped Ali's foot over the bottom rope. If the match had actually ended there, I would have given it at least three and a half stars. Unfortunately, nothing that happened after this restart really helped the match. Bailey accidentally took Gastineau out with a superkick when Ali used Gastineau as a shield. The secret servicemen then had free reign to run amok, but Bailey took all four of them out in a scene that would have been more at home in the Cannon video archive. Singh was able to take Bailey out with the title belt when he turned around though. Then they did a scene that was more at home in the bondage video archive where two of the servicemen held Bailey down while Ali hit two 450 splashes in a row. A minute and a half had passed since Gastineau was taken out, and when they put him into position, he was barely able to count, but a security guard who revealed himself as Bailey's tag partner Trent Seven pulled Gastineau out of the ring and now he got to take out all the servicemen until Ali caught him with the tope. Ali used a chair on Trent's left knee, the same knee he injured on this week's TV show, and Seven was never heard from again. 3 minutes had passed since the superkick, and Gastineau was just laying on his stomach on the outside from when Trent pulled him out, also never to be heard from again. Ali took Bailey out with a single chair shot, and called out 75-year-old retired referee Earl Hebner out from the back, who literally took 50 seconds to hobble to the ring. Oddly, 7/21/92 is the 32nd anniversary of the infamous Bret Hart Ladder Match Intercontinental Title defense against Shawn Michaels at a house show in Portland. Bret had been petitioning Vince McMahon to let him do a ladder match since he joined the WWF in 1984, as they used to have ladder matches in Stampede Wrestling. Bret knew he was dropping the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam 92, but the opponent depended upon the location, if it was in Wembley Stadium he was losing to hometown hero Davey Boy Smith, and if it was in the Cap Centre in Maryland he was losing to Shawn Michaels in what he hoped could be a ladder match. After 8 years of sporadically trying, he finally got Vince to allow him and Shawn to do a demonstration of it with Shawn at a TV taping in Portland. Both had done their TV jobber match, and this first ever WWF ladder match wasn't supposed to be a dry run or anything, just a humble demonstration from Bret get Vince to understand why the concept was worth allowing Bret to do for real. Vince had promised Bret he'd be the one to get to do it, if anyone ever did. SummerSlam wound up in Wembley, and Bret never got another chance to do the ladder match. Michaels never came to Bret about the potential of Shawn doing the ladder match against Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X on 3/20/94, even as a common courtesy, it was already advertised before Bret knew about it. Bret would rather have had his program against Owen have built to the ladder match if Vince was finally going to do one, rather than the cage matches they got stuck doing. WrestleMania X was stolen by the undercard match between Bret and Owen Hart, arguably the best match in WWE history, but there was also the thing that Bret & Lex Luger had "tied", both winning the Royal Rumble on 1/22/94 to earn the WrestleMania title shot at the WWF Heavyweight Title against Yokozuna. This resulted with a scenerio where Bret vs. Owen was the curtain jerker, before the AEW days when the show opener was an important featured match, Yokozuna retained against Lex in the middle, Shawn then made the ladder match famous in his usual unrealistic overdone style, jumping when Razor punched him, and Bret got to close out the winning the title in a terrible standard main event that had no hope of following the novelty of the ladder match where he won the Heavyweight Title for the second time via the dreaded banana peel finish against a worn down version of the dreadful blob Yokozuna. The novelty of the ladder combined with the stench of big Bret match that night made some people find Michaels match more memorable, with Bret just thinking it was the idea that was great, and it was "his idea" that Shawn "stole". A lot of the heat between Bret and Shawn stems from this theft, and then Shawn generally being a prick and a diva as his star grew because he knew he could get away with it, and Bret taking himself and everything related to the fictitious seat he was given atop the WWE perch way too seriously resulted in a continual escalation, culminating at Survivor Series on 11/9/97. Hebner was in TNA tonight e to repeat the so-called Montreal screwjob, which was actually a double cross, but this time he double crossed Ali by refusing to do the so-called screw job when Ali put Bailey in the sharpshooter. After Ali got done threatening Hebner, he tried to use the chair on Bailey again, but Bailey kicked it out of his hand with a rolling solebutt, with the chair accidentally taking out Hebner, who then had to manage to get back up to call the match when Ali submitted to an improperly applied sharpshooter because Bailey didn't have Bret there to correct the setup for the guy who was winning with it despite not even knowing how to do it. All of this took five and a half minutes to wind up with the same result, except instead of having Bailey win with an awesome move that he is famous for, he instead won with a lame move he obviously never doesn't even know how to use. ***1/4

WWA 4/1/94 Tijuana Auditorio Municipal, WWA World Lightweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr. 19:52
DC: Juventud Guerrera was the son of famous luchador Fuerza Guerrera, who was one of the better luchadores of the 1980s and early 1990s. Rey Misterio Jr. was the nephew of Rey Misterio, a reasonably well-known luchador who wasn't an elite worker. It appears this was the first singles meeting between the two up-and-coming talents that were about to wow the wrestling world. They were still only 19 years old at this time, and this is arguably their least known match together. The work was lustful and free, as these two were scratching their way to the top of the wrestling world. The last three minutes of the match were particularly spectacular and dramatic. While the work was of high quality overall, the work wasn’t quite as crisp as it would become in their later meetings. However, what they displayed here was certainly impressive, and a sign of even more impressive matches to come. Excellent match. ****

AAA 11/30/94 Matamoros, WWA World Lightweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr.  21:32
DC: What made this match so amazing is that these two young luchadores took several elements of the lucha libre that preceded their era, and they then added their own unique flavor. These two were highly athletic and highly enthusiastic talents, and they hadn’t even quite reached their peak yet at this time. Those who had been watching AAA TV in 1993 and 1994 were already familiar with them, but it was around late ‘94 that more people started hearing about the sensational high flyer Rey Misterio Jr. One of the reasons for this was the AAA When Worlds Collide PPV from 11/6/94 that served as an entry point into lucha libre Mexicana for many wrestling fans at the time. By the way, it should be noted that, during the mid 1990s period before they went to WCW, Juventud Guerrera was oftentimes almost as good of a worker, if not just as good, as Misterio. This match had a very experimental feel to it, as it kinda came across like the first album of a band that was still young and energetic and trying to figure out what they were doing while certainly displaying talent and passion. These two really understood how to build up a match while attempting to keep things interesting as much as possible throughout the duration of the match. In the third fall, they also were able to make things more dramatic and more climactic. The finish was a bit screwy, but it got a lot of heat, as Fuerza and Rey Sr. got involved. A clean finish obviously would have been nicer, but this finish wasn’t too annoying, as it did add further fuel to the fire of the feud between the Guerreras and Misterios. Excellent match. ****¼

6/22/24 STARDOM Starlight Kid vs. Mei Seira 13:23

2/4/24 STARDOM Wonder Of Stardom Title: Saori Ano vs. Starlight Kid 17:42
ML: This was their first singles match together despite both debuting in 2015. Ano is 11 years older, and the one who spent several years away from STARDOM, but part of the problem with the match is they've made her into a star, giving her their #2 title, while Starlight is still toiling on the undercard. These two worked well together, but the structuring of the match, combined with Starlight being the obvious loser, undermined it. They built the match around exchanging suplexes and strikes, battles that neither really won, but ultimately this parity stuff was just Ano staying in the match. Starlight hurt Ano's right lower leg early, slamming it on the table, and had the advantage thoughout because she could always keep coming back to the knee. This all could have worked pretty well, but the match never got out of 2nd gear, and didn't have a final act. Ano predictably focused on selling everything, so she didn't really ever pick up the pace or show any fire. More or less everything Ano does offensively looks good, but she never made me care about her comebacks, and it was just the same thing over and over. Ano would manage to get a suplex in, but responded slow enough that Starlight maintained control. Starlight carried the match pretty well with her interesting offense, but it never felt that dynamic. They spammed near falls, but Ano was always fighting from behind, too injured to make a real comeback, much less take Starlight out, but never injured enough that you believed Starlight might win either. Rather than adding drama, Ano's selling just kept the match from every game in momentum. It was always repeating the same idea at the same pace. Then at some point, for no real reason beyond that the match had to have an ending, Ano came back again with a couple suplexes, and this time Starlight was apparently out of gas or whatever from beating Ano up too much, who knows? Ano won with her Japanese ocean suplex, but it was a flat finish. ***

11/26/23 STARDOM: AZM vs. Mei Seira 9:10 of 10:00
ML: There was a STARDOM cameraman filming at ringside, but as far as I know, this is only available in a slightly edited phonecam version. This was from a 3-day swing in Singapore, very small shows, so you generally got the house show effort, minus the these people aren't as desensitized as our normal audience, so we don't need to do as much to make them pop effort. That being said, even the C version of AZM vs. Mei was way better than almost anything else you'll see in STARDOM these days. As usual with these high speed matches, the opening and closing were the stronger, far more developed portions. The middle normally tends to meander, but this was actually mostly effective, with AZM getting heat working Mei over, avoiding the submission work that wasn't going to do either any favors, until Mei came back with a leg trip into a flash pin attempt. This never dragged, and Mei was spirited in her comebacks. This matchup felt a lot more like they were desperate to win then most of their bigger matches, just desperately going back and forth trying to pin one another in the final minute. ***

2/4/24 STARDOM High Speed Title: Mei Seira vs. Hazuki 15:00
ML: This was the only match in Seira's title reign that went over 8:05. That should have helped because she has more material than she normally shows, but it actually hurt because Hazuki insisted on cosplaying in grappling poses the rest of the time. When this match was actually a high-speed match, it was mostly quite impressive, though not as urgent as Mei's best stuff. Their strong material doesn't function as well when they're switching from frantic to soporific though. The standup had lengthy sequences where they answered each other back and forth, but as soon as it hit the mat, whoever was put the submission was basically helpless, and might as well have been taking a nap. I could live with them mixing the slow paced stuff in if they were going to actually put effort into it, but these submissions were so loose you sometimes wondered if they were touching the opponent at all. All they did was scream and grasp at the phony drama of slowly crawling towards the ropes. Mei's best standup stuff shows her urgency to get off first and win, but on the mat, she oddly made no effort to escape. I think Kazuki thought the submission stuff was good, but even the "action" during RAW commercial breaks is probably less lazy than their submission inactivity. ***

5/4/23 STARDOM High Speed Title: AZM vs. Mei Seira 10:46
ML: This is my idea of an exciting wrestling match. 10 minutes of largely non-stop action isn't unusual for the high-speed division, but the intensity and the heart displayed here were something else. Everything was done with an urgency and a desperation to try to win. It was fast, but not purely for show, rather because they had to get their move in before the opponent did. This obviously wasn't realistic in the sense of a shoot, but Mei brings that scrambling nature where the fighters have to keep moving as fast as they can like it actually matters because the opponent isn't just there to help her out. The sequences felt so much different than usual, not only because there was the mad dash to get off first, but also because Mei would change the rhythm when she could get an advantage out of that. Her goal was to win the exchange, rather than just show a pretty sequence, and she faked AZM out by stopping then kicking AZM's leg out or sliding then picking AZM's leg. Mei is a great babyface because she brings a ton of passion and desire as well as urgency. While AZM vs. SLK from 3/4/23 left me cold, it was really easy to watch and root for Mei here. It really feels like victory matters to her, and that just has such a positive effect on the whole tenor of the match. This was actually Mei's first singles match since quitting Marvelous in 2021, and she really freshened up the high speed scene. Azumi was much more convincing with her arm attack today, but for the most part she did the things she always does well. The difference here was that Mei brought the passion and tenacity, and got AZM to do her thing in a meaningful way, rather than in an exhibition way. The opening was the best part. It was a mad dash from before the bell, with Mei sneak attacking with a dropkick, and already trying for the flash pin. The sequences in this match were a joy to watch, as they felt so much more earned than what we usually see. The match slowed down more than I would have liked after AZM's plancha, but they were trying to give the dives and AZM's arm attack some weight rather than just blowing through their moves. It picked up again with a series of flash pins, as they raced towards the finish. There were a couple of hesitations from Mei, but overall they were working at an exceptional level, especially given they've only ever faced each other in the couple of lead-in tags. Some of the counters into flash pins and submissions didn't look smooth, and while one or two probably didn't go exactly as they would have liked, there was a greater feeling of struggle and resistance here that made it come off more believable. The match started awesome, and finished well. It was arguably too short to be great, and your opinion on selling will determine your thoughts on the middle, but they definitely left you wanting more. So far, this is my favorite women's match of 2023. ****

3/4/23 STARDOM High Speed Title: AZM vs. Starlight Kid 17:05
ML: A fun junior heavyweight style forms exhibition that was a very impressive display of all the neat things they are capable of doing. These two very energetic, extremely athletic women blew through every spot in their arsenal in a cooperative, choreographed manner for 17 minutes. The spots and sequences were all impressive if you discount that the opponent was noticably helping to pull them off rather than portraying the illusion of resistance while sneakily faciliting things. They have great chemistry through years of working together, and countered each other often, but it never felt like they were crafting an actual match. I never bought into anything as a finisher, and there wasn't any sense that it was going anywhere or adding up to anything. There was the idea of AZM attacking the right arm when they remembered which one she was attacking, and SLK was attacking the knee, but even though AZM won with a venus de milo, it still just left me cold. This was certainly longer than most high speed matches, but they were able to maintain the pace, and didn't run out of things to do. AZM set the record for High Speed defenses at 10, and would get 2 more before dropping the title to Saki Kashima on 5/27/23. ***1/2

10/1/22 STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2022 Block A: Mayu Iwatani [15] vs. Starlight Kid [14] 13:09
ML: Kid was up to the task of pushing Mayu as hard as she could. She decided to stay with Oedo Tai for a reason, you don't surpass your idol by carrying their bags all your life. Kid was determined to show improvement over last year, and not end her tournament with another miserable 6 minute loss to Mayu. This match had a ton of potential, and mostly lived up to it despite being rushed. They started off with a great lucha sequence, and Mayu started to lay down the law with some punishing blows, acting dismissive of her former protege. This was probably the way the match should have gone, Starlight as the underdog showing heart, but Mayu always wants to be the one to overcome, even when she's clearly the favorite. Starlight fired up winning the striking exchange, chopping Mayu into the ground. With Starlight's first numero dos, they somewhat settled in to the typical Mayu zombie formula. Kid hit all her favorite moves, and Mayu would sporadically come back with one big move, but fail to regain the offensive. There was enough urgency from Starlight to finally overtake Mayu that it was mostly working. Starlight showed a lot of improvement, pushed Mayu hard, but the formula didn't allow them to craft many of the intricate sequences they are capable of. I wanted them to develop the actual action more than they did, but at some point Starlight just had to get her stuff in so Mayu could absorb it as always and finally fire back with her beautiful and brutal big offense for the win. All of this was just too compressed, and while there were some good story ideas, it wound up just being the expected well worked bombfest where Mayu was pushed before restoring order. ***3/4

GLEAT 2/23/24 Osaka EDION Arena #2 UWF Rules: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takafumi Ito 9:28.
DC: This was not only more realistic than most matches today, it's also more exciting due to them being able to combine high workrate with a style that can help us remember that pro wrestling isn't supposed to resemble a clown's act. What's also remarkable about this match is that it features two men over the age of 50, which is something you wouldn't guess if you saw what great shape they were in, and how well they moved here. Minoru Tanaka has not only aged well physically, but it's nice to see that he is still a relevant performer in 2024 in spite of having been a pro wrestler since the year 1994. Minoru was behind on points pretty quickly against the longtime Pancrase standby, and as the bout progressed, it looked like he was going to suffer a rather swift defeat. However, he did the best thing he could do, and showed more focus and aggression. The final minutes showed some desperate counter wrestling and exciting dramatic teases of a potential finish. In the end, Takafumi Ito went down like a sack of potatoes, and the referee determined he was not able to continue. An impressive victory for Minoru, and an impressive performance by both men. Both did what was needed to make this work and to make this fun to watch. I applaud these men for having a high-quality shoot-style wrestling match in the year 2024. It's a shame it seems not many people are talking about this match. Let's spread the word, and let's start recommending this match right now. Excellent match. ****

STARDOM 6/22/24 Tokyo Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2: Starlight Kid vs. Mei Seira 13:23.
DC: This was a strong effort by both, adding flashy sequences onto a solid foundation. We didn't get to see the melodrama we usually see from STARDOM despite them actually telling a story with Seira's knee injury. Instead, we got to see two talented performers given a chance to shine for nearly 15 minutes. They tried to put over the idea they were fighting hard to beat each other. Sometimes, it felt a bit chaotic, but this was a deceiving feeling because we are so used to seeing the template of the BS Road Style Epics displayed that when we see something this refreshing, it almost feels like there's something wrong. Instead of giving into this misleading feeling, let's appreciate this high-effort and high-workrate greatness. This is the best match of 2024 so far. Mei Seira used to be known as Mei Hoshizuki during her earlier years in Marvelous, but it has been under the Mei Seira moniker that she has truly been reaching new heights as an overall in-ring performer. Starlight Kid has always been very talented, but she hasn't always been consistent in her approach and output. However, this performance by SLK was truly a remarkable one, as it showed her work like a true ring general. Great match. ****½

2/20/24 Sendai Girls Tag Title: Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu vs. DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto 14:44
ML: Hashimoto and Matsumoto got off to a great start, setting the tone for an energetic sprint. Their stuff here was really good, with Matsumoto giving one of her best performances in recent times. Unfortunately, Yuu is Yuu, and she doesn't even try to fit in. She just slows it to a crawl, and tries to stay on the offensive the whole time. Yuu will sell a move if you catch her off guard, but even against Godzilla Matsumoto, she was just coming right back. This might be justifiable if she were Bull, Aja, or Kandori, the featured wrestler of the entire promotion, rather than the dimmest star of the bunch. DASH was mostly wasted putting Yuu over, but at least she got the pin on Yuu with a huracarrana. As always, DASH's stuff with Hashimoto was really good, we just didn't see nearly enough of it. This was probably better than their usual high level when Yuu wasn't in, but the difference when she was in was even more jarring than usual. ***

7/15/23 SGPW Sendai Girls World & Wonder Of Stardom Double Title: Mika Iwata vs. Saori Ano 15:41
ML: This was their third singles match of the year. On 2/20 in SGPW, they had a 20 minute drawn out, and then Iwata unified the titles a few weeks ago on the 6/22/24 STARDOM show in 21:08, so you knew she had no chance here. This was the only good one of the three, as they mostly do the same things, but they had to be a little more dilligent here and actually get moving to fit it into 15 minutes, dropping the joys of the 2 minute figure 4. Iwata does a tough girl gimmick, so she doesn't need to be doing long matches so she can throw another 30 kicks. When wrestlers could wrestle and bookers could book, one of the best tough guys, Shinya Hashimoto, had just 7 of his 26 matches across his 3 IWGP Heavyweight Title reigns surpass the 20 minute mark. This helped him keep his aura, and tried not to expose the self imposed limitations of his style. The 6/22 Ano vs. Iwata match was way better than the 2/20 one because the effort was much higher, but this one made more sense, even if only because Ano was winning, in that Iwata was the one who was controlling most of the match, rather than Ano (at least they concocted a knee injury to party explain Ano's dominance on 6/22). Iwata is the beat down, and she was handling Ano in a fairly believable fashion, even though it never really seemed like she was verging on victory. Ano tries to do a more believable match against Iwata, but her kicks don't really hold up in comparison, and some of her dramatic tendencies don't really lend themselves to what this match should be either. Iwata isn't nearly as badass as Meiko Satomura, but she mostly gets the job done. I'm not thrilled with Ano's tendency to start so slow and go for overdramatization, but she has fire on her comebacks, and her athletic offense is entertaining enough. She had a nice a fisherman suplex on the apron, which was something different from their other matches. Although they covered a lot of the same territory, they did a better job of creating some anticipation in the slow early stages this time, and there were more times when they'd let loose or pick it up. The first really good action came when Ano really unleashed with a series of mount elbows when she had the chance. It was mostly Iwata dominating with her kicks and armbars once she got going, with Ano making some hot comebacks. Ano was overselling, but Iwata was also waiting around too long, so I can't fully blame Ano because she had to do something to fill the time. When they were fiery and explosive, this was quite good, but a lot of it was still Iwata being methodical and Ano doing the epic overacting. Ano appeared to score a flash pin with a backslide plus a bridge, but the match continued. Ano showed a bunch of nice bridges, except on the Japanese ocean suplex she won with. I'm not really sure what the point of unifying these titles rather than just having Ano win her title back was because you can bet that in a few months Ano will wind up dropping just one of the titles, but I guess this looks better on her resume. ***

7/15/23 SGPW: Jordynne Grace vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 13:19
ML: This was definitely an improvement over their match from 5 years ago, but mostly because they are both individually better now. The match still suffered from the same basic problems, as they two still don't have much chemistry together, and Grace's power moves were taking too long to set up. Hashimoto was now able to put her offense together, doing a good job chaining two or three moves together in rapid success, but then it would go back to being plodding and deliberate. There weren't really sequences when Grace was on offense. When Grace was lifting Hashimoto, it felt like she was preparing for her big lift of the day, and had to get everything right and ready to maintain perfect form and complete the lift. Then when she finally got around to elevating Hashimoto, her power move still wasn't nearly as impressive as usual because Hashimoto is just hard to heave around. As a whole, the match was a lot more explosive now, and there was more speed when they were plowing into each other or ducking lariats. They weren't really stalling, but it still felt like the match wasn't really flowing when Grace was on offense. We were just kind of waiting for her to do her thing, and that's not her normal style. Grace mostly spent too much time spent positioning Hashimoto, moving one leg and then moving the other. The set ups for the reverse Gori special bombs were particularly clunky. Grace hit the second one, then won with the Grace driver. This was a better finish than their previous match, but again felt abrupt. I thought the length was fine, but they just need to be more consistent when Grace is on offense because this wasn't supposed to be slow stuff where Grace is getting heat setting up hot Hashimoto comebacks, but in its own way, that's kind of how it came off, minus the actual heat. ***

5/13/92 JWP: Dynamite Kansai vs. Mayumi Ozaki 17:54
PA: Their first match against each other, which was set up from the debut JWP show. Ozaki tried to take Kansai head on at the start, which only resulted in her eye getting swollen up when Kansai unleashed her kicks on her, and followed her outside to throw her into the guardrail. She was able to take Kansai down in the ring and grind her down a little, and get some revenge on the outside. Ozaki stayed in control until she gave Kansai enough room in the corner to land a kick, and then Kansai was back to kicking Ozaki around. Ozaki desperately went for a takedown, but Kansai shrugged her off and put her in a sharpshooter. Ozaki broke out of the Romero Special and turned it into a pin, which you don't see often, and fought back again, stomping at Kansai's head until she had to bail outside. Ozaki hit some nasty jumping kicks when Kansai returned. These were vicious, and there were a few potatoes thrown in. Ozaki had control, but only briefly. Kansai delivered a brutal short arm lariat, and then pulled up the mats outside to give Ozaki a piledriver on the exposed floor. Kansai tried her Splash Mountain and Ozaki armdragged her way out of it, only to get hit with another lariat. Kansai tombstoned her and missed a flying headbutt. Ozaki looked out of it, but struggled her way up, and hit her twisting dive for a near fall. Kansai looked for more kicks, but Ozaki avoided them, hit a missile dropkick and a Tequila Sunrise for a near fall. Ozaki kept trying, but go caught charging in, put on the top turnbuckle and superplexed down. Kansai backdrop suplexed Ozaki, and then appeared to whip her, but pulled her back in to deliver the Splash Mountain to put her away. These two would have better matches, but this was a good, stiff way to start. Ozaki fought hard, and had Kansai in trouble a few times. She wasn't afraid, but Kansai was a wrecking ball and overmatched her. ***1/2

5/24/92 AJW: Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida 16:00
PA: Despite what people may think today, Kyoko was the most popular wrestler in the company at this point, and Yoshida was just about the second most popular. Kyoko insisted on Toyota starting with her, and they picked up where they left off from the previous month. Sakie and Yoshida slowed it down a little, with Sakie going for Yoshida's bandaged arm in a really good segment. Toyota tagged in and couldn't have cared less about any of that. She came and went off at a million miles an hour hitting her dropkicks. Kyoko and Yoshida were on the same page tying up Sakie in their holds. Toyota tagged in again, and was back to a million miles an hour, but now everyone conformed to her match. Toyota got stuck on the top rope and dumped out, and Yoshida hit a plancha. The remainder of the match was an all action classic spotfest to the end. Yoshida got double teamed, and Sakie and Toyota did stereo dives on her, then Sakie slaughtered Yoshida with a ton of rolling savate kicks. Yoshida managed to get out of there and Kyoko did the giant swing. Yoshida and Kyoko got their double teaming started on Toyota, but Kyoko got dumped outside, Yoshida kicked Toyota off the apron and went for a tope. Toyota moved, and her and Sakie did planchas. Toyota did her rolling cradle and a moonsault to Kyoko. Sakie hit Yoshida with a rolling savate kick from the second rope. Sakie wasn't whiffing her kicks here, which was a positive, though Yoshida probably wasn't feeling great from the potatoes. Yoshida tried to come back with her monkey flip, but got powerbombed, though she managed to get the best of Toyota. Sakie got lost on where they were in the match, and ended up standing in the corner waiting for Kyoko to do the Niagara Driver to Toyota, and when she tried to break it up with a lariat, Kyoko ducked it. Toyota Manami Rolled her way out of it. Sakie and Toyota tried double teaming, but Kyoko thwarted them. Yoshida gave the assist, and Kyoko pinned Sakie with a Niagara Driver. This was easily the best of the spotty Toyota tags up to this point in 1992. They were generally executing well, and it didn't overstay its welcome. ****1/4

5/24/92 AJW CMLL World Women's Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Toshiyo Yamada 15:26
PA: This was the match Bull needed after the Aja match the month prior. A match where she could be the monster, against a lesser name who could give her enough of a fight. Bull methodically dominated Yamada for much of the match, bullying her on the mat, clubbing away, mauling her outside, standard Bull with a few spots thrown in. Yamada got some shots in early with her stiff kicks, but from there mostly just made minor comebacks. Yamada fired up after the outside mauling, and made a hot comeback on Bull, mainly utilizing her kicks. She used her stretch muffler and an octopus hold, but Bull just shrugged off the latter. Bull used the nunchakus when she made the comeback, but Yamada regained control and went back for a kicks. Bull levelled her with two lariats and a guillotine legdrop. She went up for another guillotine, but Yamada kicked her off. Yamada kept trying with her top rope kicks in the ring, but again got levelled with a lariat to the back of the head. She made Bull dig deep enough into her arsenal to pull out the tope, and then she finished her in the ring with a powerbomb and a second guillotine legdrop. Bull did her thing here, and did a solid job, but Yamada really made the match with an excellent underdog performance. ***1/2

5/24/92 AJW AKIRA & MITA vs. Aja Kong & Bison Kimura 19:30
PA: AKIRA & MITA returned from Mexico with new gear, tans, warpaint, and makeup, apparently at the cost of half of their names. Though the AKIRA & MITA part wouldn't make it past this first match, the Las Cachorras Orientales name would. Aja wasn't much impressed by these two idiots, and didn't care what they did in Mexico. They announced themselves by dragging Jungle Jack outside and assaulting them with chairs, but the first control segment was Jungle Jack working over Mita. Not much beyond the usual Jungle Jack beating, Aja seemed to be taunting Hokuto with her heeling, and Mita added in some nice touches like screaming just before Aja would drop an elbow on her. Hokuto tagged in and started tearing up Bison with piledrivers until Aja saved her. Hokuto did the LCO pose with Mita and clawed at Aja's face, and Aja responded to that with a usual heel beating. The best part of the match was a little while after this when Bison had worked over Mita for a while. Mita avoided a Bison chop and knocked Aja off the apron, with Hokuto taking her out with a springboard dive. Mita was able to wear down Bison with some big moves for Hokuto to take over and put here away, but Aja was back by then, despite Hokuto hitting a great hammerlock backdrop suplex. Mita dragged Aja outside, and gave her a piledriver on the outside to neutralize her again. Bison fought back on Mita with a Bison chop, but there was no Aja to tag. Mita got a great near fall with a Fisherman's suplex, which everyone was buying, and for Mita to get any convincing near fall in this match was a great effort. Hokuto followed up with a savage missile dropkick, but Aja was back again to break up her pin. Mita kept Aja under control, and it looked like Hokuto was going to hit her Northern Light's Bomb, but Bison was able to slip around to her back and hit a German Suplex. Aja wasn't held back for long, tagged in and that put an end to Hokuto and Mita's chances. The finish was okay, but nothing special and pretty sloppy. Aja ran through Hokuto when she came in. Hokuto tried to rana out of the big powerbomb from the second rope, but it was mistimed. Aja did enough to force the tag and pummelled Mita, then legitimately knocked her silly with a uraken. Hokuto tried to dive in, but got swatted away. Aja tried the waterwheel drop, but it took two tries to do it, which didn't result in the most climactic of victories. It's a shame the finishing was such a mess, but it was quite the ride to get there, and fun to see LCO in their first match back in Japan. ***1/2

2/23/24 GLEAT UWF Rules: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takafumi Ito 9:28
ML: This was largely pro wrestling as MMA sparring, which is the evolution I'd like to see. Ito has 88 MMA fights over a 30 year career, and Minoru goes back to Fujiwara Gumi. Even though both wrestlers are in their fifties, these guys moved really well, with the speed of guys half their age. More importantly, this was some of the bounciest footwork you'll ever see in a pro wrestling ring from guys of any age. They really put the effort in here to enter, exit, and generally move like it was MMA, and this was a fight that actually mattered. The attention to detail was really good in general, not the lazy stuff we always get in pro wrestling even from guys who know better. The majority of this action actually made sense. They did something that looked like a real takedown when Minoru timed Ito's kick, rather than something that looked like a spear, or someone just flopping to the mat. The matwork was in the old submission before position style, but it wasn't silly either. They would scramble and scamper, moving fast as though there was actual danger. There could have been more impact on their strikes, and Minoru was a bit overdramatic with his selling given it's supposed to be a shoot, but there were way more good realistic details here than bad ones. This actually felt like something that was moving the style forward in a more believable yet still highly entertaining manner because these guys have better real life backgrounds than the old UWF guys. This was shorter than I would have liked, but they did a lot of little things right that are normally completely ignored in pro wrestling. They moved with a lot of explosion, and countered each other well. The pace was good throughout, and they increased the speed and urgency for the finishing sequence. The end did vear a bit toward pro wrestling, as these Lidet UWF matches tend to. In this case, we saw a little of Minoru's junior style background with a dragon screw then an enzuigiri for the win. ***3/4

7/1/24 GLEAT LIDET UWF Title Decision: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Takanori Ito 11:06
DC: What I like about UWF Rules matches is that, while these GLEAT matches are nothing like the great RINGS and UWF-I matches from the heyday of shoot-style wrestling, at least these Lidet UWF matches can serve as a reminder that pro wrestling should resemble a fight. Instead, we tend to forget all of that, and give 5 star ratings to a seemingly helpless Hechicero doing his best impression of a first-aid instructor's doll against Zack Sabre Jr., showing barely any resistance at all. What Ito and Nakajima did here could have been done better, but it was really good overall. When Ito got too tame, Nakajima untamed him with some vicious slaps that resulted in Ito showing so much intensity that Nakajima probably felt he bit off more than he could chew in that moment. When Nakajima got a bit too silly, posing for the camera while having Ito stuck in the ropes, at least he got a yellow card from Kyohei Wada, who yelled at Ito that this match is a UWF Rules match. The final minutes were quite dramatic and exciting. In the end, Nakajima, who couldn't really take his time here as much as NOAH likes him to in their endless matches, was behind on points and quickly went for a submission once the opportunity was there. Very good match. ***¾

ML: In his 1st match since he lost the Triple Crown, Nakajima claimed a new title. This was essentially the same style Nakajima was trying to work in his Triple Crown matches, at least when he wasn't bogged down by the endless posing and stalling of Hulk Miyahara, who tried to do the exact same formulaic epic parody he always does. Ito was a more willing and able opponent then what Nakajima was facing in All Japan, in the sense that he's actually always there to do this style also. The problem is that even though Nakajima hasn't exactly done UWF Style before, he's already 50 times more impressive at everything they do here than Ito is. Ito is fine, but he's not particularly dynamic, or any sort of great athlete or technician. The excitement of Ito is basically just that he's virtually the only option for people who still like shoot style in 2024. This was mostly a kickboxing match that they spiced up with a little pro wrestling at the end. Nakajima was the one who took it to the mat, which further puts Ito at a disadvantage, given Nakajima was clearly the better striker. They did a better job with the ground strikes than I expected. Nakajima played subtle heel with mount palms that were more like slaps to the face, which awoke Ito, reversing then making the fiery come back on his feet. Nakajima continued to play heel, getting a warning and a yellow card for hanging in the ropes choking Ito with his feet. Nakajima bloodied Ito's nose with a palm, and tried to drop into a guillotine, then it turned into a pro wrestling match with Ito suplexing his way out, then an exchange of backdrops and a double knockdown off simultaneous high kicks. It kind of feels like the style is failing when they have to more or less leave it for the highlight of the match, but at the same time, at least when they loosened the parameters, they did something more memorable. The intensity picked up for the finish, with Nakajima then Ito getting knockdowns with high kicks. It momentarily felt like Ito actually had a chance, but Nakajima ducked a high kick and finished him with his Northern Lights bomb into an armbar. ***1/4

4/16/19 SGPW: Sareee vs. Meiko Satomura 15:30
ML: This was like every screwed up joshi veteran vs. up and comer match you've seen since the mid 90s, that kept any of the newer generations from succeeding, except much stiffer. If the Satomura who made Kairi Hohum look like an actual wrestler had showed up, this might have been a MOTYC. Instead, it was one of the more annoying good matches I've seen. The skill level was certainly high, and really all Satomura had to do was allow the match to do what it was supposed to do, but her ego predictably got in the way. This is one of the reasons Satomura never ran a successful promotion, every match against someone who wasn't a huge name outsider was about Meiko Satomura getting over that Meiko Satomura is the best and toughest. In this case, Satomura did shockingly lose, but the result wasn't the least bit believable because everything Satomura did during the match was putting over Satomura rather than Sareee. Satomura gave a very Hottaesque performance, and was simply only going to allow this to go so far. She wrestled in low gear, beating the crap out of Sareee in a very brutal manner, and doing little to allow you to believe Sareee had even a remote chance. Sareee got to show a lot of heart and spirit, taking this level of punishment, but anytime Sareee tried to show fire or threatened to gain any momentum, Satomura just cut her right off. This was a somewhat believable match with a decent amount of struggle, except when Sareee was running and jumping, which is where I would have been okay with Satomura just cutting her off. Satomura's execution was stiff and precise, and if you measure the match on how well she laid into her opponent, then sure, she was great. Sareee was trying a lot harder, but it was an uphill battle against a badass legend who didn't want to give her the opportunity to upstage her in any way. This should have been a main event, and showcased Sareee to the point where she was at least competitive. It could have been 60 or 65% Satomura offense because she was losing, but this felt more like 90% Satomura, not because it was actually nearly that onesided, but because everything Satomura did put herself over. For example, when Sareee tried to fire up, Satomura was unphased by her four elbows, and just flattened her with one. That pretty much sums up the match in general. It was good because the workers are excellent when they want to be, but it was frustrating, and hard to get into. Sareee hung in there, but this wasn't a compelling underdog storyline. There weren't hot comebacks. It was difficult to get behind Sareee or have any hope that she could win. They upped the intensity of the striking down the stretch, which mostly meant that Sareee took more massive punishment. Sareee had the ability to stand up to Satomura here. She was bringing her credible offense, and laying it in, but Satomura didn't put it over in any real way. After Satomura spent the entire match making it clear that Sareee couldn't stand up to her, she somehow couldn't pin her right away after landing her Death Valley bomb finisher, and for some reason, Sareee was able to come right back with two exploders for the totally unconvincing upset. Even though Sareee got the win, and beat her clean with her finisher, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that it was a fluke, and Satomura was still the greatest. Honestly, it would have been better if Satomura made Sareee look like she was really on her level, but still won. This result looks good on paper, but Satomura made absolutely sure that it wasn't fooling anyone who actually saw it. ***

4/16/19 SGPW Sendai Girls World Title: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Jordynne Grace 13:41
ML: An intense battle between two of the strongest women. These two are not used to wrestling one another, and are always the heavier, stronger wrestler, so this mirror match was a big adjustment. Grace was the aggressor, but Hashimoto couldn't play off her nearly as well as she plays off the small athletic women. This started somewhat slowly, but got better and better as they increased the stiffness and did more power moves. This match still wasn't super consistent, but it wasn't dull either, as it was built more around a reasonable number of big power moves, and they just filled in some strikes or whatever around these highlights. The best spot saw Grace get Hashimoto in a piggyback, but drop her forward to facebuster her on the apron. Hashimoto had a hard time really getting going here. It wasn't her most fluid match to be certain, and was sometimes awkward and clunky, though more on Grace's part. The finish sucked here too, but at least Grace was credible against Hashimoto to start with, so you believed this could go either way throughout even though Hashimoto basically sold the whole way, then won out of nowhere with a powerbomb and a German suplex. The quality largely rested upon Grace's offense, which was good, but not as impressive as usual because as strong as she is, Hashimoto obviously isn't an opponent she can just toss around like a ragdoll. On purely the quality of the wrestling, the Satomura match was a lot better, it was just so ridiculous with her not even giving Sareee enough for it to come off as a fluke that I can't really rate it any higher. ***

7/13/24 UFC: Jean Silva vs. Drew Dober R3 1:28
ML: Jean Silva just beat Charles Jourdain at 145 two weeks ago at UFC 303. Now he's here destroying hometown hero Dober at 155. Silva had the speed advantage, and given Dober is one of the smallest lightweights at 5'8", managed to only be giving up an inch in height. I don't know about Silva fighting at 155 permanently because this opponent is one of the smaller in the division, but his power more or less held up here, and he was clearly the much smarter and more technically sound fighter. I like Dober, but he fought too much like Diego Sanchez, just plowing straight in and hoping for the best. He really fought like the smaller fighter in that he was all aggression, just trying to get inside. The problem is he was no deception, and Silva was doing a great job of countering him coming in, busting his right eye up quickly, and just hitting it over and over again because Dober had little defense beyond blocking with his face. Dober would just come straight in without any feints, and Silva would see him take the 1st step, and crack him in the right eye with the check left hook. I want to say this was just a tremendous counter striking clinic by Silva, but Dober really didn't make him do much different. There was a period late in the first when Dober began to hesitate, but Silva was fine with pushing forward, and keeping Dober on his back foot. Dober began to mix his attacks up in the second, and even if he wasn't landing with his body straight or spinning kick, he was giving Silva more to think about. Dober was crashing in and getting the clinch, but again Silva nailed him with the left hook on the way out. Still, all of this was predicated on Dober stepping forward, and Silva was ready for that no matter what Dober was planning to attack with. The only big success Dober had was due to Silva being distracted by Dober's corner. This sounds like pro wrestling, but whatever they were yelling drew a response from Silva, and Dober finally got a big left in due to Silva's lack of focus. Since Silva would just land the hook as soon as Dober took his step forward, Dober tried to just fight through it, land his power punches on the inside to make up for the damage he took getting there. I don't want to make it sound like Dober wasn't doing anything, he landed his share of shots, it's just that he was almost always getting hit in order to land, while Silva had much better feints, footwork, and all around deception to be able to land without eating counterfire. Dober wasn't countering when Silva came forward, so Silva wasn't afraid to back him up with a jumping knee, then let Dober charge into the hook again. Silva wobbled Dober with a spinning elbow counter just before the end of the second round. The fight should have been stopped before the 3rd round started, as the cut was already big enough you could have started working on pulling Dober's brain out through his eyebrow. The gash got a lot worse in the 3rd, as it was opening further with each shot, and looking more and more gruesome by the minute. Silva continued to look for the spinning elbow in the third to finish off the eye, which looked similar to when they used the razor to cut Rocky's eyelid so he could see, except Dober's cut was a ridiculously deep gash across his whole eyebrow rather than the eyelid. The 2nd worst in the business, Herb Dean, was a seemingly asleep on the job, as usual. Silva did his best to get Herb to stop the fight after opening the cut up further with another spinning elbow, but apparently Herb was having too good a time enjoying the action. One more good shot and the skin might have been flapping over his eye. This really felt like it was to the point that Silva could have messed up Dober's vision for life, so it was lucky for Dober that Silva just wanted to win the fight rather than take him out. As always, there was no quit in Dober, and the fans were really into supporting him. The guy is all heart, but one of the reasons you need a competent ref is to protect fighters from themselves. In any case, Herb finally asked the doctor to check the cut out, and this time the doctor stopped it. Good match

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero CMLL 6/22/24 & PWG 10/19/18

7/10/24 AEW Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Men's Tournament Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Page 25:46
ML: This was a good, overbooked match that wasn't nearly as good as their previous matches where Page was a normal good wrestler, or last week's semifinal vs PAC. This was, of course, a huge upgrade over Hangman's lousy tournament matches with AA-RP JA-RR-E-TT and Jay Vanilla, but Hangman is so unconvincing in his new heel role. His unhinged facials are about as believable as Ospreay's conflicted facials, and his brawling felt a lot more sloppy and careful than wild and crazy, completely undermining his silly new descent into madness gimmick. Page vs. Danielson matches work better with Danielson as the heel because Danielson never embarrasses himself, puts enough force behind his blows, and actually shows some urgency. Danielson was great here, as usual, but the continuation of him gutting the neck injury out to try to make one last run would have been enough. All the extra stuff was just overbooking that didn't help the match any, and mostly just made the match more predictable and less satisfying. Danielson reinjured his neck early, supposedly hitting it on the barricade landing from tope. Danielson then almost immediately juiced after being posted, which was ill timed at best, unnecessary at worst. Since the opponent was Danielson, who actually knows how to tell and sell the neck story, Page's heat segment was passable enough, just kind of dull. When they were doing their actual wrestling like in all their previous excellent matches before HMP was acting silly, the match was still very good. Danielson had nice bursts and hot comebacks, going the extra mile offensively. Page further injured the neck, but Danielson cut him off on the top and came back with a nice spider German. Danielson cut off the Orihara moonsault, and hit his ROH dive, the swandive tope con giro, which he hasn't used in years. HMP piledrove Danielson on the floor not long after having tombstoned him in the ring, teasing the doctor stop and count out, which would be more than reasonable for a healthy guy when taking 3 big piledrivers in a match. Danielson accidentally took ref Paul Taylor out with the Busaiku knee, leading to special guest enforcer Jarrett, who magically had a ref shirt underneath since Tony keeps repeating the same silliness down the stretch with these ref bumps and flash pins, breaking up Page whipping Danielson with his belt and taking over. Page nearly submitted Danielson with his own LeBell lock, which he was alternating with a crossface. As Danielson reached for the ropes, HMP tried to roll him away, but Danielson rolled through for the flash pin. This was one of the only TV matches Tony has booked in ages where the outcome was in any kind of doubt, but anyone who didn't know Danielson was going over to begin with certainly figured it out the minute Jarrett hit the ring. At least the right guy is getting the title shot at Wembley, and Toni Storm will never have a good match under this Timeless gimmick, so it really doesn't matter that her quality opponents - Serena Deeb, Kris Statlander, Deonna Purrazzo, & Hikaru Shida - were eliminated long ago. ***

4/4/24 GCW Bloodsport: Charlie Dempsey vs. Matt Makowski 6:23
ML: Matt Makowski was 6-2 in MMA, including a win over future GLORY kickboxing champion Joe Schilling in Schilling's MMA debut. His worked strikes could use some work, but he's one of the only guys approaching this supposed shoot wrestling from the intended perspective of it being active grappling rather than "we just use more submissions here". Lord Charlie was a late replacement for Anthony Henry. He didn't really vary much from the somewhat credible old school grappling we saw in his good Triple Crown challenge against Katsuhiko Nakajima in January, but he wants opponents he can chain wrestle with, so it worked well enough. This isn't what one would call realistic, unless you are comparing it to the supposed best match on the show, Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe, which was basically just a very short version of the same sort of strong style match they do in BJW or BASARA. Dempsey vs. Makowski was at least fun active grappling with graceful movement. Even though it wasn't exactly believable, since among other things Dempsey used suplexes and cravates to get it to the ground, there was some nice aggression, and they made the holds seem dangerous by being in a hurry to do their best to escape them. The matwork evolved pretty well through the counters. The transitions were good, and their movement was slick and fluid. Dempsey won with a German suplex into a double wrist lock. ***

7/3/24 AEW Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Men's Tournament Semifinal: Bryan Danielson vs. PAC 16:44
ML: Typical well built and laid out, high quality Danielson match. This was considerably better than his disappointing Forbidden Door match against Shingo, as the match was energetic and escalated a lot better. Everything they were doing felt worthwhile and done with intention. Danielson brought out the best in PAC, leaning into the intense, hard-hitting, physical stuff that PAC does well rather than technical wrestling, though there was a nice use of his 2nd brutalizer during the submission/flash pin finishing sequence. Danielson kept PAC a lot more focused, as they were mirroring and answering each other in the early exchanges. He also kept him to a better pace, as PAC wasn't taking 30 seconds to get around to jumping off the top rope once he took over, and just randomly doing whatever cool thing came to mind. They kept this moving, and PAC had a lot of impressive offense, including an elbow drop off the barricade. Danielson was still telling the injured neck story, but PAC isn't really interested in that kind of thing, except when it gives him an opportunity for an avalanche sheer drop brainbuster. Danielson's flash pin worked here because it was the culmination of a back and forth sequence where they were countering their favorite submissions with pinning predicaments. ***1/2

6/26/24 AEW: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kyle O'Reilly 10:58
ML: This was some excellent technical wrestling as you would expect from these two grappling greats, but the presentation of the match was just terrible. It's difficult to properly appreciate a rare technical match when they're endlessly cutting to Undisputed Kingdom, Orange Cassidy, and commercials including, I kid you not, Oh Oh Oh O'Reilly's Auto Parts. A seemingly sedated Cassidy was giving incredibly slow and useless responses to Taz's questions rather than any of the commentators actually paying attention to the match, telling Taz he could ask his mother why she gave him the name Orange Cassidy. At least Pocket Pinball was honest when he mumbled "these two men are doing moves I don't know how to do." Had this TV match been a quick squash over the repetitive,inept clown, and the PPV match been the 16:22 ZSJ win over Kyle, it surely would have stolen a show that could have used a lot of help. Sabre worked O'Reilly's arm, while O'Reilly worked Sabre's knee, but neither storyline had enough time to really be fleshed out, obviously. The violence escalated considerably down the stretch, and they were doing their best to make it an intense match, even though the production team was undermining them at every turn. The match was getting really good when Zack won with the armbar about 5 minutes prematurely for my taste. ***

6/22/24 UFC: Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez 3R
ML: Both did a good job of fighting behind their jab, but Gastelum had to work harder because he gives up reach. Gastelum did a better job of following his jab up, and also had kicks in his arsenal. Gastelum's stamina was in question because he missed weight again, this time so badly he couldn't even agree to a catch weight of 10 pounds over (180), but he was the one pushing the pace, insisting on coming forward constantly. Bisping called Gastelum on this borderline cheating, theoretically living it up every night on steak and potatoes, though he's still sore at Gastelum for starching him in 2:30 7 years ago. Still, by not informing Rodriguez until Thursday, he got to be the heavier fighter and have better conditioning because he didn't stress his body trying to make weight like Rodriguez did. Rodriguez did a better job with his counter combos in the second to theoretically even the fight. Rodriguez was the one that was looking tired in the third though. The takedown was there for Gastelum because Rodriguez was standing very upright, plus it helps that Gastelum probably walks around at 220 or so when he's reviewing burritos for his Missing Weight podcast. Though Gastelum generally wasn't that interested in shooting, he did have 3 takedowns, which arguably gave him breathers that allowed him to get inside and push so aggressively the rest of the fight. Gastelum did have a 3rd takedown in round 3 to help him win the decision 29-28, 30-27, 30-27. Good match.

11/24/87 WWF, WWF Women's Tag Team Title Match: Judy Martin & Leilani Kai vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno 13:59.
PA: The semi-legendary Madison Square Garden match. MSG initially showed lukewarm enthusiasm heading into this match, but it took a mere 30 seconds for Yamazaki to captivate them, resulting in a great atmosphere that persisted throughout the entire bout. Yamazaki was off to a lightning fast start, flipping through Kai, hitting a dropkick, a flying crosschop, and another dropkick. Tateno kept it going with Martin, hitting her knee attacks and a slam. The Glamour Girls were hauling ass too through this part. It was only a minute, but it was a really hot minute, and MSG probably saw more in that minute than they did in any of the other matches. The Glamour Girls tried to slow it down on Tateno, but she did a Jaguar bridge, and Yamazaki followed up with a monkey flip, prompting them to retreat. Glamour Girls were able to slow it down and start the heat section, using all the illegal tactics and stomping. Yamazaki played face in peril, and would get well timed hope spots mainly relying on her sunset flips. An attempted hot tag by Yamazaki went unnoticed by the referee, and the crowd were livid. Kai put a sharpshooter on Yamazaki, and Tateno came in to break that up. The Glamour Girls tried to sandwich Yamazaki, but she moved, and made the hot tag to Tateno. Tateno came in all fired up, bringing a ton of energy into the match, as she delivered a running clothesline and dropkick to Kai. She dragged Judy in, much to the chagrin of commentator Nick Bockwinkel. She executed a flying clothesline on Judy, and then all four were in the ring trying to double teams. The Jumping Bomb Angels had the upper hand, executing a double missile dropkick that seemed destined for victory, but Judy distracted the referee. Yamazaki wasn't happy, and tried to protest, but in doing so distracted him, and Judy powerbombed Tateno with Kai getting the pin. This was an excellent American style tag team match. You could say the heat segment might have dragged a little bit, but it only served the make the crowd hotter when the hot tag finally came. The Jumping Bomb Angels were obviously the highlight, and the Glamour Girls were quick enough to keep up and allow them to really shine here. ****

3/16/93 LLPW: Rumi Kazama & Miki Handa vs. Noriyo Tateno & Utako Hozumi 12:23 of 15:36
PA: This was a good, ill-tempered match that exemplified what LLPW did well. They put emphasis on matwork and double teams. The action was good, with a nice mid-tempo to it, and heated throughout. Tateno led the way with her heeling. She was biting, hair pulling, and mugging people on the outside, often leading to revenge spots later from Kazama. Hozumi and Handa worked faster paced sections. Handa was the best technically. Hozumi was getting quite good around this time. Tateno brought the heat and Kazama brought… a great resting bitchface. Handa ended up pinning Hozumi with a German Suplex hold, but Hozumi kept fighting after the match. ***1/2

5/29/94 LLPW: Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito 18:58
PA: Got off to a good start, and was really good once Eagle and Harley went after Kazama’s leg. Harley gave a reminder of how good she is with her kicks and submissions, and Eagle was on fire as well. Tateno’s hot tag was lame. She ran in house afire for a whole two moves, then failed a Romero Special on Eagle (not for the first time, and why you’d try that move on someone twice the size of you is beyond me), and then she tagged out. They had a really good final portion hitting big moves, and then it turned into chaos. Tateno and Kazama won a brawl on the outside, so Eagle went nuts with a chair. Kazama did a Plancha and Tateno did a tope soon after, then brought a table in the ring, and gave Harley a spike piledriver on it, causing the DQ. ***1/2

8/14/94 LLPW One Night Tournament Final: Harley Saito vs. Noriyo Tateno 14:08 of 18:55
PA: This was the finals of a three match, one night tournament. Tateno started with a good match with Eagle Sawai, which she won with a little help from Yasha Kurenai, who had advanced onto the second round, and thought she’d have better luck with Tateno than Eagle. She didn’t, as Tateno beat her in 5 minutes in a poor match. Harley blew through Mizuki Endo, and won a good sprint with Miki Handa to get to the finals. This was a really good, slow paced, well worked match, one of the best singles matches in LLPW’s history. It was largely contested on the mat, with Tateno going after Harley’s leg. Harley would fight out and get her chances, only for Tateno to counter back. While Tateno was good with the '80s style matwork, her execution at this point in her career of her bigger spots and faster paced bursts wasn’t what it was in her prime. She was good enough though, and nothing she did looked bad, it just lacked the same impact. The finishing run was well worked with really good runs and near falls from each, and you really had no idea which way the match was going to go. ***1/2

2/10/95 LLPW: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno 16:46
PA: As usual, Harley was the best of the bunch here, but everyone gave a proper effort. Kandori had opponents she respected, Tateno tried for a change, and they made it one of the better LLPW matches. They got into a big brawl outside after 12 minutes where Harley was taken out, leaving Tateno to fight alone, which got the crowd chanting for her. She did a really bad la magistral on Kandori, probably the only bad spot they did, but it served a purpose in Kandori getting a hold of the arm, you’d think that would’ve finished, but Harley made it back just in time to make the save, which actually made it seem possible that Tateno might win. It was over soon after though. She got a close near fall from a Harley spin kick, but Kandori grabbed the arm again and submitted her. ***3/4

4/25/95 LLPW Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima 16:44
Miki Handa had recently turned heel and went on the best run of her career before it was sadly cut short by injury later in 1995. This was the best match of the run. The match was supposed to be Tateno & Handa vs. Yasha & Nagashima, but Nagashima wanted the teams changed, so they switched. She made the right call ditching Yasha for Miki. Miki and Nagashima went on a chair shot assault and brawled on the outside, Yasha turned the tide though, and took over in the ring. Miki was there to help out her new partner though. They got heat on Yasha, and ran through all the heel tactics they knew. Tateno got the hot tag, and was looking to hit her bursts, but Miki kept stopping her short, which infuriated Tateno, and she just started slapping Miki until Nagashima took over, then Tateno got in her burst on Miki to a huge pop. This part was great, and it was only the start. Tateno fired up, and her and Miki had some really good, hate filled exchanges. This was really good stuff, but it always seemed to devolve into predictable choking. The second half was mainly just brawling with chairs and the bokken. They wound up bringing a table in, and Nagashima gave Yasha a body press through it. Handa gave Tateno a tombstone on the exposed floor. It was effectively over at that point. Nagashima hit all her big moves on Yasha, but she kept kicking out. Handa took a turn destroying her with moves until there was no more kickouts. Miki and Tateno were excellent in this, and the other two were fine. Yasha was unbearable as a heel, but proved here that she could be a really good babyface. ***3/4

6/30/24 AEW World Title Match: Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay 27:06

6/30/24 AEW Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Men's Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi 20:19. A slow paced, methodical story match when it suited them, which is opposite of what Takagi does well. They tried to make this extra dramatic, but it was hard to take it seriously when Takagi, who supposedly is on this huge quest to win the AEW World Title, would just play to the crowd every time Danielson's neck was about finished, rather than trying to actually advance to face PAC on Wednesday. Danielson led Shingo through this effectively enough, and steered away from the lazy and repetitive fighting spirit b.s. that's been hurting Shingo's New Japan matches for quite a while. Unfortunately, while this wasn't the same old match for either, it still felt like a generic match Danielson could have done with anybody, rather than the Dragon vs. Dragon rematch we've been waiting 14 years for. These two are individually too talented not to have a good match together, but this was just some big spots that were sometimes well themed, without a heck of a lot going on in between. Very little happened in the first 5 minutes, then Danielson botched a tope, and Shingo used an apron hanging neckbreaker to injure his neck. I would have had it start as a Takagi sprint, and have the neck injury happen through him catching Danielson with something he didn't see coming, then if you need to slow it down you can do it through Shingo's heat segment and/or Danielson switching to a mat strategy for his comeback. In any case, Takagi worked the neck, but he doesn't really have any submission holds in general, so he just did generic chinlocks and whatnot until he started using his typical high impact moves, which mostly happen to target the neck. Danielson did a good job of avoiding the sliding D and pumping bomber though. The match picked up with some good counters back and forth. Danielson hurt his own neck with the Avalanche backdrop. This was building up to being a very good match, but there was no big push or finishing sequence. Danielson kind of randomly won with a wakigatame variation, which I was okay with in the sense that that's how you win with submissions, you don't wear a part down, you either trap them or you don't (although you never trap them with a wakigatame, that's why it's never been used in anything more realistic than Fujiwara Gumi). The match never really got out of second gear, and since no one has ever seen Danielson win with this move, it was very surprising in a somewhat unsatisfying manner that it ended here. ***

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