Angle vs Samoa Joe
04/13/2008 - Total Non-Stop Action
Well this certainly has been a hot topic at the moment. In light of all the recent debate, I thought I'd lift my TNA embargo and have quick look at this match. Kurt looks like an MMA fighter, decked out in shorts and taped ankles. Joe just looks like Joe. Karen Angle gets thrown out before the match. THERE WILL BE NO SHENANIGANS. They start off trading strikes and then take it to the ground and grapple. Very MMA based as you would expect. Actually this is exactly what I wanted, a physical yet believable bout. My mind wandered and I got to thinking that a promotion that did this style in one form or another in every match and did it correctly, could be so fucking hot. Seriously I reckon like 1999 WWF levels. You'd need guys like Kurt and Lesnar who could adapt to this method, and it'd have to be done right with minimum bullshit, but it could be a US version of UWFi. One can dream. Anyway Angle pounds on Joe and it is grand. As Joe gets more into the match it definitely becomes more of a traditional pro wrestling match and less of a MMA battle, which is fine as Joe is a great wrestler, but I wanted them to go whole hog here. Anyway they go back to submission work, but with pro wrestling holds like STFs and Liontamers. Finally Joe wins with a Muscle Buster. Not as great as the first 5 minutes led me to believe it would be, but still entertaining nonetheless. Recommended viewing for an insight into how pro wrestling could be done in a new millennium.
Kojima vs Kawada
04/05/2008 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
It's time again for the motherfucking CHAMPION'S CARNIVAL! A time for celebration I'm sure you'll agree. Well Kawada does, and he chooses to celebrate the start of the tournament by kicking Kojima around the ring for the opening 5 minutes, which is good stuff. I love Kawada with all my heart, but he does seems to lack a certain conviction these days. In the old days you just know he's trying to kill fools with his feet, but now he seems to be going through the motions. Still complacent Kawada is better than no Kawada. There is an Japanese lady on commentary who is apparently rooting for Kawada; booing when he gets chopped and cheering when he delivers a palmful of hatred to Kojima's chest. Anyway she is rather annoying. They fight on the apron over a suplex, until Kojima gets bored and hits a DDT instead. Ouch. The girl on commentary seems to be half-arsing it a bit now, leading me to think she's not the die-hard Kawada fan I once believed her to be. The match builds very nicely until Koji tries to uses a chair to take the advantage. However Kawada will be fucked before he allows these sort of shenanigans to take place. A lariat and brainbuster adquetely convey how he feels about the situation. Koji's back up and blocks a jumping kick with a lariat. Awesome. Then Kojima's stablemate TARU gets involved and whacks Kawada on the back with a chair. The referee investigates this apparent infringement and Kojima takes advantage by hitting a Koji Cutter and planting Kawada on the chair with a brainbuster. However Kawada will not be beaten by such despicable methods. So Kojima lariats him out of his boots, picks up the win and Baba cries tears from heaven. A good match that started out slow, but really built well to the finish, even if Kawada did get fucked over.
Wednesday 23 April 2008
Thursday 13 March 2008
ROH Rising Above PPV
Delirious vs Albright
Delirious comes out in red and black instead of his usual green and black. He clearly means business. This was only a short match, but it was fun. Delirious is a great ragdoll for Albright to throw around. Albright is a guy that hits a lot of cool moves. Whether that's your thing or not it's undeniable his moves are really cool, such as his backbreaker to dragon suplex combo or his belly to belly suplex into the turnbuckle. To his credit Delirious bumps his ass off to make young Brent look good. Albright's streak of hitting cool looking moves comes to an abrupt end when he hits the worst diving headbutt I've ever seen. I can understand being wary about doing the headbutt after all the information about it fucking up Benoit and Dynamite came out, but if it concerns you so much you're scared of the moves you are doing, don't fucking do it. Hit a splash of something. Or, and it's a radical idea I know, save the top rope moves for the smaller guys to do. Your the biggest worker in the company, why do you have to go up to the top rope in the first place? Delirious wins with a roll up out of nowhere. Short and fun.
Tag Team Scramble
Right, so after the last match Age of the Fall come out for some promo time, then Steen and Generico, then the Vulture Squad. I think. I don't really know. However, I do know that Smokes says they should have a scramble match, and it immediately commences. So, there are at least 12 guys down at ringside and this match has 8 men in it. I have no idea who is wrestling. This match defines the term clusterfuck. Men are literally flying everywhere, hitting all sorts of MOVES. I can see that Jack Evan's offense has improved greatly. I suppose working with the DG boys will do that. Let's hope PAC can learn some of that stuff too. Back to the match and Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer seem to be dominating. Of all the fucking people in this match, they have to be the focal point? To his credit Pearce does a mightily amusing Flair Flop. Then again, I can't imagine someone doing a Flair Flop and it not be amusing. El Generico teases a top rope BRAINBUSTAH!, but it doesn't pull it off. However Generico and Steen get the win after a package pildedriver to normal brainbuster combo. If you love moves this is the match for you. Actually so far this is the PPV for you.
The Briscoes cut a promo and are quite obviously trying to hold back on the swears. Therefore it is a failure.
Haze vs Del Ray vs Lacey
This match commenced immediately. It is quite apparent that the mindset for this show is ALL ACTION, ALL THE TIME. And that's sure as hell what we are getting. Haze's gear hurts my eyes. Ow. I can never really get into womens wrestling, but this fine. Sunny is at ringside and she is still a slamming hottie. Del Ray kills poor Lacey with a big boot to the chest. That one move has completely sold me on the greatness of Sarah Del Ray. Anyway Haze pins Lacey after a Mindtrip (kind of like a Snapmare Driver). This match won't sell any SHIMMER DVDs, but it was fine.
Stevens vs Richards
They show clips of the No Remorse Corps attacking Stevens on a previous show, and then it's straight into the action! Everything Erick Stevens does looks brutal. I don't mean that in a bad way either. Really his gimmick is that he hits dudes really hard and kills men with his MOVES. Which is a fin gimmick all things considered. If you read my Man Up show review you will know that I love Davey Richards. Actually looking back I didn't profess my love for him nearly enough. He has a great spot where he hangs Stevens in a tree of woe, looks like he's going to run into him and knee him in the face, but instead stops short and cockslaps him. Genius. What a heel this man is. Basically my notes for this match consist of me stating how good Richards is over and over. Anyway the announcers keep mentioning that someone is in the audience distracting the fans. Well as it turns out it's MMA Superstar Daniel Puder. Oh yes. Anyway the cameras cut to young Puder sitting next a smoking hot girl, who looks like she'd rather be anywhere else than there. All this commotion causes Stevens to get distracted and Davey dropkicks him in the back and slaps on the Kimura for the win. Go Davey. Stevens is pissed that Puder distracted him. Puder lacks HONOR! Larry Sweeney than makes an appearance, which brings out Claudio. He chases Sweeney and Sweet and Sour International come out to save their boss which segues directly into...
Castagnoli vs Hero
Surprisingly enough we jump head first into the action. These two cannot fail to have a good match, so I have no complaints about their work here. The problem is that this didn't feel like a huge blow off to a year long feud. It felt like another match tucked away on the undercard. I think part of the problem is that both these guys wrestled a comic style. They should have been trying to kill each not make each other laugh. I don't mean it should be like the blowoff to the Homicide/Cabana feud with all sorts of weapons and blood and whatnot, but Hero and Sweeney tried to take out Claudio's eye for fuck sake. Show a little hate! Another reason is that this match just flowed from the last match. It was just like, 'Oh here's another match,' when it should have been a big marquee event. Now I don't want to be like every other fan and fantasy book the promotion, but I was just a little let down. Unsurprisingly they put on the best match of the show so far. Claudio got the win when he hit a deadlift Ricola Bomb for the pin. A good match, but in the grand scheme of things a little underwhelming.
West Virginia style, son!
Morishima vs Danielson
Big fat Morishima attacks Dragon in the aisle way as he is coming to the ring. No robe for Danielson, which upsets me greatly. They brawl around the ring and Danielson hits his head on a table and blades. At first I thought it was just a little nick on his forehead, but no he bled a fucking gusher here. Forget a crimson mask, Danielson had a crimson vest, and he looked seriously fucked up. Morishima pounded on him for a while then Danielson made his come back, until he got destroyed with lariats and backdrop drivers. Dragon somehow survives and they brawl some more until Morshima decides its time to start stomping balls. He throws down the ref and gets DQ'd and then goes crazy attacking folk. Bryce Remsburg runs down, eats a backdrop driver and dies. Danielson attacks Morshima with the ring bell hammer and screams, 'I'm gonna blind this son of a bitch!' Awesome. As long as ROH still has Danielson, I'll keep watching.
ROH Tag Team Titles 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match: The Briscoes (c) vs Strong/Romero
I'm suffering from Briscoes burnout right now. Seriously they're everywhere. Well NOAH and ROH, but still I'm sick of them. They have a typical Briscoes match. Now don't get me wrong it's fine and perfectly watchable, but I feel like I've been watching the same shit all year. Anyway NRC get the first fall, which the crowd was not happy with. They did a cool variation on the Doomsday Device with Rocky hitting a knee strike to knock a Briscoe off of Strong's shoulder, and Roddy followed up with a Tiger Driver. I'm disappointed that Romero seems to have toned down his kicks. He no longer looks like he could kick his way through a bank vault door. Oh well. I will say that Mark's redneck-fu schtick with never get old. I need Mark in singles match. I think the 2nd fall finished pretty anticlimactically with a roll up, and Jay hits a spike Jay Driller for the 3rd. Briscoes retain and everyone is happy.
ROH Title Match: McGuinness (c) vs Aries
We get proper intros and everything for this match. Not that it really matters much, but it's a nice change from jumping straight into the action. So about 3 minutes in Nigel is chatting to some fans outside the ring and has his back turned. Aries proceeds to deliver the now infamous TOPE FROM BEHIND and Nigel's head cracks into the metal guardrail, busting him open, breaking his nose and scrambling his brains. Now don't get me wrong this was a stupid spot, but all the fucking fuss about missing shows and getting concussions is ridiculous. Sometimes moves go wrong, and that's what happened here. End of. Nigel looks a bit rubber-legged for a while, but he recovers pretty quickly, and they had a fine little match. There was a nice theme of variations on these guys' normal spots which added a bit of unpredictability. For example, Nigel's Tower of London and Top Rope Lariat to the floor, and also Aries' Brainbuster on the guardrail. The finishing run was built around Aries trying to avoid the Jawbreaker Lariat by finding different ways to counter it. He nearly hit his 450º Splash, but Nigel got his knees up. Finally Nigel hit his lariat of doom, which Aries took a sick bump off and that was that. This was a good match, but nothing bordering on fantastic or anything. The crowd was hot, the finish was cool, and it wasn't devoid of psychology. Match of the Show, but overall I doubt it will stick with you.
As for the show as a whole, I've heard people say it was aimed at hardcore ROH fans, because of the way it was paced and the little explanation that was offered, but I'm a big ROH and it was hard even for me to watch. I mean I normally take a break during long wrestling shows, because I have a short attention span, but this was only 2 hours and yet it felt like 4. Succinctly, I'll sum it by saying it was very good, but there was just too much stuff. They need to calm things down and build a show around 5 or 6 good matches and some nice expansive promos. Flowing from match to angle to match to angle sound good on paper, but in practice it just wears out your audience. I definitely need an ROH break after this show and Final Battle 2007 (which was much better and comes highly recommended). Next ROH I'll write about will probably be the next PPV or the 6th Anniversary show, whichever comes first. I can't believe I wrote this much shit about a two hour show.
Delirious comes out in red and black instead of his usual green and black. He clearly means business. This was only a short match, but it was fun. Delirious is a great ragdoll for Albright to throw around. Albright is a guy that hits a lot of cool moves. Whether that's your thing or not it's undeniable his moves are really cool, such as his backbreaker to dragon suplex combo or his belly to belly suplex into the turnbuckle. To his credit Delirious bumps his ass off to make young Brent look good. Albright's streak of hitting cool looking moves comes to an abrupt end when he hits the worst diving headbutt I've ever seen. I can understand being wary about doing the headbutt after all the information about it fucking up Benoit and Dynamite came out, but if it concerns you so much you're scared of the moves you are doing, don't fucking do it. Hit a splash of something. Or, and it's a radical idea I know, save the top rope moves for the smaller guys to do. Your the biggest worker in the company, why do you have to go up to the top rope in the first place? Delirious wins with a roll up out of nowhere. Short and fun.
Tag Team Scramble
Right, so after the last match Age of the Fall come out for some promo time, then Steen and Generico, then the Vulture Squad. I think. I don't really know. However, I do know that Smokes says they should have a scramble match, and it immediately commences. So, there are at least 12 guys down at ringside and this match has 8 men in it. I have no idea who is wrestling. This match defines the term clusterfuck. Men are literally flying everywhere, hitting all sorts of MOVES. I can see that Jack Evan's offense has improved greatly. I suppose working with the DG boys will do that. Let's hope PAC can learn some of that stuff too. Back to the match and Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer seem to be dominating. Of all the fucking people in this match, they have to be the focal point? To his credit Pearce does a mightily amusing Flair Flop. Then again, I can't imagine someone doing a Flair Flop and it not be amusing. El Generico teases a top rope BRAINBUSTAH!, but it doesn't pull it off. However Generico and Steen get the win after a package pildedriver to normal brainbuster combo. If you love moves this is the match for you. Actually so far this is the PPV for you.
The Briscoes cut a promo and are quite obviously trying to hold back on the swears. Therefore it is a failure.
Haze vs Del Ray vs Lacey
This match commenced immediately. It is quite apparent that the mindset for this show is ALL ACTION, ALL THE TIME. And that's sure as hell what we are getting. Haze's gear hurts my eyes. Ow. I can never really get into womens wrestling, but this fine. Sunny is at ringside and she is still a slamming hottie. Del Ray kills poor Lacey with a big boot to the chest. That one move has completely sold me on the greatness of Sarah Del Ray. Anyway Haze pins Lacey after a Mindtrip (kind of like a Snapmare Driver). This match won't sell any SHIMMER DVDs, but it was fine.
Stevens vs Richards
They show clips of the No Remorse Corps attacking Stevens on a previous show, and then it's straight into the action! Everything Erick Stevens does looks brutal. I don't mean that in a bad way either. Really his gimmick is that he hits dudes really hard and kills men with his MOVES. Which is a fin gimmick all things considered. If you read my Man Up show review you will know that I love Davey Richards. Actually looking back I didn't profess my love for him nearly enough. He has a great spot where he hangs Stevens in a tree of woe, looks like he's going to run into him and knee him in the face, but instead stops short and cockslaps him. Genius. What a heel this man is. Basically my notes for this match consist of me stating how good Richards is over and over. Anyway the announcers keep mentioning that someone is in the audience distracting the fans. Well as it turns out it's MMA Superstar Daniel Puder. Oh yes. Anyway the cameras cut to young Puder sitting next a smoking hot girl, who looks like she'd rather be anywhere else than there. All this commotion causes Stevens to get distracted and Davey dropkicks him in the back and slaps on the Kimura for the win. Go Davey. Stevens is pissed that Puder distracted him. Puder lacks HONOR! Larry Sweeney than makes an appearance, which brings out Claudio. He chases Sweeney and Sweet and Sour International come out to save their boss which segues directly into...
Castagnoli vs Hero
Surprisingly enough we jump head first into the action. These two cannot fail to have a good match, so I have no complaints about their work here. The problem is that this didn't feel like a huge blow off to a year long feud. It felt like another match tucked away on the undercard. I think part of the problem is that both these guys wrestled a comic style. They should have been trying to kill each not make each other laugh. I don't mean it should be like the blowoff to the Homicide/Cabana feud with all sorts of weapons and blood and whatnot, but Hero and Sweeney tried to take out Claudio's eye for fuck sake. Show a little hate! Another reason is that this match just flowed from the last match. It was just like, 'Oh here's another match,' when it should have been a big marquee event. Now I don't want to be like every other fan and fantasy book the promotion, but I was just a little let down. Unsurprisingly they put on the best match of the show so far. Claudio got the win when he hit a deadlift Ricola Bomb for the pin. A good match, but in the grand scheme of things a little underwhelming.
West Virginia style, son!
Morishima vs Danielson
Big fat Morishima attacks Dragon in the aisle way as he is coming to the ring. No robe for Danielson, which upsets me greatly. They brawl around the ring and Danielson hits his head on a table and blades. At first I thought it was just a little nick on his forehead, but no he bled a fucking gusher here. Forget a crimson mask, Danielson had a crimson vest, and he looked seriously fucked up. Morishima pounded on him for a while then Danielson made his come back, until he got destroyed with lariats and backdrop drivers. Dragon somehow survives and they brawl some more until Morshima decides its time to start stomping balls. He throws down the ref and gets DQ'd and then goes crazy attacking folk. Bryce Remsburg runs down, eats a backdrop driver and dies. Danielson attacks Morshima with the ring bell hammer and screams, 'I'm gonna blind this son of a bitch!' Awesome. As long as ROH still has Danielson, I'll keep watching.
ROH Tag Team Titles 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match: The Briscoes (c) vs Strong/Romero
I'm suffering from Briscoes burnout right now. Seriously they're everywhere. Well NOAH and ROH, but still I'm sick of them. They have a typical Briscoes match. Now don't get me wrong it's fine and perfectly watchable, but I feel like I've been watching the same shit all year. Anyway NRC get the first fall, which the crowd was not happy with. They did a cool variation on the Doomsday Device with Rocky hitting a knee strike to knock a Briscoe off of Strong's shoulder, and Roddy followed up with a Tiger Driver. I'm disappointed that Romero seems to have toned down his kicks. He no longer looks like he could kick his way through a bank vault door. Oh well. I will say that Mark's redneck-fu schtick with never get old. I need Mark in singles match. I think the 2nd fall finished pretty anticlimactically with a roll up, and Jay hits a spike Jay Driller for the 3rd. Briscoes retain and everyone is happy.
ROH Title Match: McGuinness (c) vs Aries
We get proper intros and everything for this match. Not that it really matters much, but it's a nice change from jumping straight into the action. So about 3 minutes in Nigel is chatting to some fans outside the ring and has his back turned. Aries proceeds to deliver the now infamous TOPE FROM BEHIND and Nigel's head cracks into the metal guardrail, busting him open, breaking his nose and scrambling his brains. Now don't get me wrong this was a stupid spot, but all the fucking fuss about missing shows and getting concussions is ridiculous. Sometimes moves go wrong, and that's what happened here. End of. Nigel looks a bit rubber-legged for a while, but he recovers pretty quickly, and they had a fine little match. There was a nice theme of variations on these guys' normal spots which added a bit of unpredictability. For example, Nigel's Tower of London and Top Rope Lariat to the floor, and also Aries' Brainbuster on the guardrail. The finishing run was built around Aries trying to avoid the Jawbreaker Lariat by finding different ways to counter it. He nearly hit his 450º Splash, but Nigel got his knees up. Finally Nigel hit his lariat of doom, which Aries took a sick bump off and that was that. This was a good match, but nothing bordering on fantastic or anything. The crowd was hot, the finish was cool, and it wasn't devoid of psychology. Match of the Show, but overall I doubt it will stick with you.
As for the show as a whole, I've heard people say it was aimed at hardcore ROH fans, because of the way it was paced and the little explanation that was offered, but I'm a big ROH and it was hard even for me to watch. I mean I normally take a break during long wrestling shows, because I have a short attention span, but this was only 2 hours and yet it felt like 4. Succinctly, I'll sum it by saying it was very good, but there was just too much stuff. They need to calm things down and build a show around 5 or 6 good matches and some nice expansive promos. Flowing from match to angle to match to angle sound good on paper, but in practice it just wears out your audience. I definitely need an ROH break after this show and Final Battle 2007 (which was much better and comes highly recommended). Next ROH I'll write about will probably be the next PPV or the 6th Anniversary show, whichever comes first. I can't believe I wrote this much shit about a two hour show.
Sunday 9 March 2008
The Goodness of 2008 #1
Yeah, so I've been a tad lazy of late with doing anything really, but Christmas came around and then I tried to get a real job (and failed epically) and you know how it goes. Maybe this time will be different. Anyway I'm kicking off with some early in the year stuff from ZERO-1 MAX. ROH and DG show reviews to follow. Also if you've any feedback at all please leave a comment or shoot me an email at wheatbox@gmail.com.
Shelley/Sabin vs Togo/Hidaka
1/1/2008 - ZERO-1 MAX
Since I don’t really ever watch TNA I don’t have enough Machine Guns in my life. Whenever I see them I always think, ‘Wow, I should check out more of these guys’, and then inevitably fail to do so. In fact I think the last match that watched which featured them was their one off appearance in ROH last year against the Briscoes. I’ve seen people criticise this match for being too spotty and whatnot, and whilst it’s not a tag classic it’s still quick, slick and entertaining. There weren’t any sustained periods of either team getting the heat, instead there were just a lot of cool double teams, but coming out of the gate you should probably know to expect that. Shelley really shone here, but he took a ridiculous flip bump from a low dropkick to the knee. I mean it looked cool and all, but it struck me as overkill. And that was the story of this match. Sure everyone’s double teams look great, but there was nothing beyond that. I can’t justify saying this was bad match or there was much wrong with it. Togo ruled it as did Shelley, and Sabin and Hidaka didn’t slouch off by any means. However, as slick and modern as this match was, I got left with the feeling that it simply lacked any substance. Some guys did some moves and the Machine Guns won. This wasn’t a heated title bout, nor was it a Match of the Year candidate. It was simply easy to watch pro-wrestling, but no one will be considering it come the end of the year.
Tanaka vs Sekimoto
1/1/2008 - ZERO-1 MAX
I didn’t make any notes on this match; I just sat back and enjoyed it. And it was pretty fucking great. I harbour some huge manlove for Sekimoto. This guy is just so strong and so awesome. Tanaka looks very skinny these days, but I suppose next to Sekimoto anyone would look stick-like. They went through all your typical test of strength spots early on, which was fine because Tanaka really look like he was struggling to rein young Daisuke in and broke into a mighty sweat. They wrestled this match like a standard heavyweight affair, with a few cool junior spots thrown in. Half way through I was thinking that it was a fine match, but nothing special. It felt a whole lot more natural than the tag match however, because their was some actual downtime and not just a constant stream of moves (although I suppose it’s important to bear in mind that the tag match was clipped some). Then Sekimoto just started throwing Tanaka around with these deadlift German suplexes. This man is freaky strong. He hit about four or five and none of them could put Masato away. It was so awesome, because you could tell Sekimoto didn’t really have anything left in his arsenal to throw, so just kept repeating what he’d already done, but to no avail. Tanaka then proceeded to hit a bunch of Sliding D’s, which are basically roaring elbows to a seated opponent, and finally after the third or fourth attempt Sekimoto was vanquished. There’s a lot you could be critical of here, overkill of moves, plenty of no selling, lack of variation; but really the intensity, crowd heat, and Sekimoto’s crazy strength left me loving this match. Not a Match of the Year contender, but one of those matches that reaffirms my love for Japanese wrestling. A simply story well told.
Shelley/Sabin vs Togo/Hidaka
1/1/2008 - ZERO-1 MAX
Since I don’t really ever watch TNA I don’t have enough Machine Guns in my life. Whenever I see them I always think, ‘Wow, I should check out more of these guys’, and then inevitably fail to do so. In fact I think the last match that watched which featured them was their one off appearance in ROH last year against the Briscoes. I’ve seen people criticise this match for being too spotty and whatnot, and whilst it’s not a tag classic it’s still quick, slick and entertaining. There weren’t any sustained periods of either team getting the heat, instead there were just a lot of cool double teams, but coming out of the gate you should probably know to expect that. Shelley really shone here, but he took a ridiculous flip bump from a low dropkick to the knee. I mean it looked cool and all, but it struck me as overkill. And that was the story of this match. Sure everyone’s double teams look great, but there was nothing beyond that. I can’t justify saying this was bad match or there was much wrong with it. Togo ruled it as did Shelley, and Sabin and Hidaka didn’t slouch off by any means. However, as slick and modern as this match was, I got left with the feeling that it simply lacked any substance. Some guys did some moves and the Machine Guns won. This wasn’t a heated title bout, nor was it a Match of the Year candidate. It was simply easy to watch pro-wrestling, but no one will be considering it come the end of the year.
Tanaka vs Sekimoto
1/1/2008 - ZERO-1 MAX
I didn’t make any notes on this match; I just sat back and enjoyed it. And it was pretty fucking great. I harbour some huge manlove for Sekimoto. This guy is just so strong and so awesome. Tanaka looks very skinny these days, but I suppose next to Sekimoto anyone would look stick-like. They went through all your typical test of strength spots early on, which was fine because Tanaka really look like he was struggling to rein young Daisuke in and broke into a mighty sweat. They wrestled this match like a standard heavyweight affair, with a few cool junior spots thrown in. Half way through I was thinking that it was a fine match, but nothing special. It felt a whole lot more natural than the tag match however, because their was some actual downtime and not just a constant stream of moves (although I suppose it’s important to bear in mind that the tag match was clipped some). Then Sekimoto just started throwing Tanaka around with these deadlift German suplexes. This man is freaky strong. He hit about four or five and none of them could put Masato away. It was so awesome, because you could tell Sekimoto didn’t really have anything left in his arsenal to throw, so just kept repeating what he’d already done, but to no avail. Tanaka then proceeded to hit a bunch of Sliding D’s, which are basically roaring elbows to a seated opponent, and finally after the third or fourth attempt Sekimoto was vanquished. There’s a lot you could be critical of here, overkill of moves, plenty of no selling, lack of variation; but really the intensity, crowd heat, and Sekimoto’s crazy strength left me loving this match. Not a Match of the Year contender, but one of those matches that reaffirms my love for Japanese wrestling. A simply story well told.
Thursday 13 December 2007
The Goodness of 2007 #3
Tanahashi vs Goto
11/11/2007 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
This, ashamedly, is the first Hirooki Goto match I’ve seen since his return. He’s bulked up and grown out so much, I think he’s actually a different person. It wouldn’t surprise me if the real, skinny Goto is stuck in Tijuana doing indy shows or something. Tanahashi’s hair is ridiculous. Seriously he looks like a gay Japanese version of Noel Fielding. They went balls to the wall all out here. Thirty minutes and no slow down or lack of intensity anywhere in the match. Loads of people ragged on Goto’s lack of selling on the knee when Tanahashi worked it over, but it didn’t bother me at all. Tana compensates for it anyway by constantly working it over and reminding Goto. It’s a testament to how good Tanahashi is right now that he could lead this match and rein in young Hirooki here. That’s not a knock on Goto though as his work was great here too. His new offence is great and he’s adapted well to a heavyweight style of wrestling. He does however mix it up with some junior stuff as well, demonstrated by his second rope springboard flip on to Tanahasi on the outside. Tanahashi is great as always heeling it up really well. I would love to see him as an all out dick, in the vein of Ric Flair, but maybe that will come. They did an awesome job of getting Goto over huge here and there were some spots where the crowd really bought into Goto getting the win. His sunset flip bomb from the turnbuckle at the end had the crowd completely sucked in. It’s a great testament to New Japan that Goto, who’s only been back for a few months from a year excursion that saw him leave as junior, is already being taken seriously as a heavyweight title threat. The finished came when Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow onto Goto’s knees and followed it up with a Texas cloverleaf. Great match filling with intensity and a real belief that Goto could come away as champion. Maybe not my Match of the Year, but it comes in near the top and is further proof that New Japan is probably the most exciting promotion in world right now.
11/11/2007 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
This, ashamedly, is the first Hirooki Goto match I’ve seen since his return. He’s bulked up and grown out so much, I think he’s actually a different person. It wouldn’t surprise me if the real, skinny Goto is stuck in Tijuana doing indy shows or something. Tanahashi’s hair is ridiculous. Seriously he looks like a gay Japanese version of Noel Fielding. They went balls to the wall all out here. Thirty minutes and no slow down or lack of intensity anywhere in the match. Loads of people ragged on Goto’s lack of selling on the knee when Tanahashi worked it over, but it didn’t bother me at all. Tana compensates for it anyway by constantly working it over and reminding Goto. It’s a testament to how good Tanahashi is right now that he could lead this match and rein in young Hirooki here. That’s not a knock on Goto though as his work was great here too. His new offence is great and he’s adapted well to a heavyweight style of wrestling. He does however mix it up with some junior stuff as well, demonstrated by his second rope springboard flip on to Tanahasi on the outside. Tanahashi is great as always heeling it up really well. I would love to see him as an all out dick, in the vein of Ric Flair, but maybe that will come. They did an awesome job of getting Goto over huge here and there were some spots where the crowd really bought into Goto getting the win. His sunset flip bomb from the turnbuckle at the end had the crowd completely sucked in. It’s a great testament to New Japan that Goto, who’s only been back for a few months from a year excursion that saw him leave as junior, is already being taken seriously as a heavyweight title threat. The finished came when Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow onto Goto’s knees and followed it up with a Texas cloverleaf. Great match filling with intensity and a real belief that Goto could come away as champion. Maybe not my Match of the Year, but it comes in near the top and is further proof that New Japan is probably the most exciting promotion in world right now.
ROH Man Up PPV
Hero vs Castagnoli vs Marufuji vs McGuiness
Larry Sweeney is a great, great man. Seriously of everything ROH has booked this year from the culmination of the Jacobs/Whitmer feud, Morishima’s title reign, the Briscoes/Steenerico feud and everything else, Sweet and Sour Incorporated has consistently the best thing in the entire promotion, and a large amount of the credit must go to Mr. Sweeney. His charisma is amazing and he turns every segment he’s involved in into five star entertainment. This was one such segment. He came down to the ring shouting about how he sold Matt Sydal to his buddy Vince. That was funny. There was a lot of whackiness to start out with. Hero’s gimmick is that he’s an awesome athlete and of course all awesome athletes do shit loads of flips for no reason. Therefore Chris Hero must do shit loads of flips for no reason. Hero is also a great man. There was a great spot early on that involved Marufuji hitting Claudio with a springboard head claw! A lot happened, too much to recap. In the end Claudio hit his Ricola Bomb on Marufuji and looked certain to get the pin but Hero jumped on top of the referee. He claimed he tripped on the rope and couldn’t help it. Nigel then hit his jawbreaker lariat on Castagnoli for the win. This was much fun to watch and nicely set up Nigel’s next title shot.
NRC vs The Resilience: Best of Three Singles Series
Cross vs Romero
This was the best four minute match I ever saw. Cross gets a lot of stick, but I really like him. His moves are always so crisp and they always look great. He’s got this great, gymnastic-esque offence, which in this match included him doing a Flag on the ringpost (basically holding onto the post and lifting yourself so you are at a 90º angle, like a flag) and dropping down onto Romero, who was on the floor outside. Romero looked like a killer in this match. His kicks look stiff as hell and he hoisted Cross up for a german and planted him on his head. He followed this up with an execution kick for the pin. It’s not like Cross was squashed and came out looking bad either. He got a lot of offence in, but in the end Romero is just a bad ass that kicks people really hard.
Aries vs Richards
I can’t understand the dislike of Davey at all. He’s not spectacularly good, but given a few more years there’s a good chance he will be. He simply does all of his stuff well and draws a ton of heel heat. What’s to dislike? He worked really well with Aries in this match, and there was a lot of good stuff here and a great finishing run. Aries finishes Davey off with a head kick, brainbuster and 450º-splash combo. Fun match.
Stevens vs Strong
I believe these two have feuded in FIP for a long time, so they should know each other well. Strong had such great beat downs it’s unbelievable. I remember a time, just after Strong had all those awesome matches with Danielson, when I was convinced Strong would be the next champion. The thing is now I still think he’s not quite there, but his ringwork was excellent here, he just needs a charisma injection. Stevens made his big comeback and really got the crowd behind, especially when he ‘fighting spirit no sold’ a superplex. Eventually though Strong hit a splash mountain for the pin. Stevens got over huge here and I’m pretty sure he’ll have a great 2008 in ROH. It’s a shame that in the end The Resilience came across as inferior opponents to the NRC because both Cross and Stevens have great potential, but they when they lost Aries it all fell apart and even his return wasn’t enough to save them.
ROH Title Match: Morishima (c) vs Danielson
Danielson was sporting an awesome eye patch and wearing his bitching robe to come down to the ring. This man is money. The match was great, because they started out with so much intensity and never let up for the whole length of the match. It was similar in a way to the Tanahashi/Goto match, but at an even faster pace. Danielson hit an awesome dive to the outside onto Morishima and very nearly overshot him and landed on his head. Morishima came off as a monster. Standing next to Danielson he looked bloody huge and Dragon bumped for him like a madman. They also did some cool spots where Danielson tried to roll him up or package him and Morishima just wouldn’t budge. It was some good stuff. Anyway the story here was that Morishima broke Dragon’s orbital bone in their last match and he was out for revenge. Morishima, in the interest of being a good sport, had declared he would not attack his opponent’s eye. So typically Morishima got angry, thought ‘fuck this’, ripped off the eye patch and laid fists and forearms into Danielson’s broken eye socket and the ref called it off. Danielson continues to bring the awesome in 2007.
ROH Tag Team Titles Ladder War: The Briscoes (c) vs Steen/El Generico
Straight off the bat there were chairs flying everywhere. One Briscoe got thrown over the barricade into the big pile of them. It was all rather nasty. They had these cheap as fuck ladders, which looked like they would get decimated. And sure enough they got completely decimated. Generico got hiptossed by both brothers into one in the corner and it might as well have disintegrated. It was carnage. Mark got powerbomb over the ropes onto a ladder on the outside. It looked like it hurt a lot. Seriously this match got to the point where it was ridiculous. Finally after it was decided that the shitty aluminium foil ladders were not going to be sufficient to reach the belts, Jay got a big fuck-off maintenance ladder. This thing was huge, and it wasn’t breaking. They set it up in the ring and two ladder bridges were formed between it and the turnbuckle. Generico took a Jay Driller through one ladder and Mark took a package piledriver through another. That was pretty cool. Jay and Steen climb the big ladder and Steen fell off, leaving Jay to capture the belts. Insane match, but way too over the top. Some people will have loved this, and I can see why, but I though it was overkill towards the end. Nevertheless a good spectacle.
Larry Sweeney is a great, great man. Seriously of everything ROH has booked this year from the culmination of the Jacobs/Whitmer feud, Morishima’s title reign, the Briscoes/Steenerico feud and everything else, Sweet and Sour Incorporated has consistently the best thing in the entire promotion, and a large amount of the credit must go to Mr. Sweeney. His charisma is amazing and he turns every segment he’s involved in into five star entertainment. This was one such segment. He came down to the ring shouting about how he sold Matt Sydal to his buddy Vince. That was funny. There was a lot of whackiness to start out with. Hero’s gimmick is that he’s an awesome athlete and of course all awesome athletes do shit loads of flips for no reason. Therefore Chris Hero must do shit loads of flips for no reason. Hero is also a great man. There was a great spot early on that involved Marufuji hitting Claudio with a springboard head claw! A lot happened, too much to recap. In the end Claudio hit his Ricola Bomb on Marufuji and looked certain to get the pin but Hero jumped on top of the referee. He claimed he tripped on the rope and couldn’t help it. Nigel then hit his jawbreaker lariat on Castagnoli for the win. This was much fun to watch and nicely set up Nigel’s next title shot.
NRC vs The Resilience: Best of Three Singles Series
Cross vs Romero
This was the best four minute match I ever saw. Cross gets a lot of stick, but I really like him. His moves are always so crisp and they always look great. He’s got this great, gymnastic-esque offence, which in this match included him doing a Flag on the ringpost (basically holding onto the post and lifting yourself so you are at a 90º angle, like a flag) and dropping down onto Romero, who was on the floor outside. Romero looked like a killer in this match. His kicks look stiff as hell and he hoisted Cross up for a german and planted him on his head. He followed this up with an execution kick for the pin. It’s not like Cross was squashed and came out looking bad either. He got a lot of offence in, but in the end Romero is just a bad ass that kicks people really hard.
Aries vs Richards
I can’t understand the dislike of Davey at all. He’s not spectacularly good, but given a few more years there’s a good chance he will be. He simply does all of his stuff well and draws a ton of heel heat. What’s to dislike? He worked really well with Aries in this match, and there was a lot of good stuff here and a great finishing run. Aries finishes Davey off with a head kick, brainbuster and 450º-splash combo. Fun match.
Stevens vs Strong
I believe these two have feuded in FIP for a long time, so they should know each other well. Strong had such great beat downs it’s unbelievable. I remember a time, just after Strong had all those awesome matches with Danielson, when I was convinced Strong would be the next champion. The thing is now I still think he’s not quite there, but his ringwork was excellent here, he just needs a charisma injection. Stevens made his big comeback and really got the crowd behind, especially when he ‘fighting spirit no sold’ a superplex. Eventually though Strong hit a splash mountain for the pin. Stevens got over huge here and I’m pretty sure he’ll have a great 2008 in ROH. It’s a shame that in the end The Resilience came across as inferior opponents to the NRC because both Cross and Stevens have great potential, but they when they lost Aries it all fell apart and even his return wasn’t enough to save them.
ROH Title Match: Morishima (c) vs Danielson
Danielson was sporting an awesome eye patch and wearing his bitching robe to come down to the ring. This man is money. The match was great, because they started out with so much intensity and never let up for the whole length of the match. It was similar in a way to the Tanahashi/Goto match, but at an even faster pace. Danielson hit an awesome dive to the outside onto Morishima and very nearly overshot him and landed on his head. Morishima came off as a monster. Standing next to Danielson he looked bloody huge and Dragon bumped for him like a madman. They also did some cool spots where Danielson tried to roll him up or package him and Morishima just wouldn’t budge. It was some good stuff. Anyway the story here was that Morishima broke Dragon’s orbital bone in their last match and he was out for revenge. Morishima, in the interest of being a good sport, had declared he would not attack his opponent’s eye. So typically Morishima got angry, thought ‘fuck this’, ripped off the eye patch and laid fists and forearms into Danielson’s broken eye socket and the ref called it off. Danielson continues to bring the awesome in 2007.
ROH Tag Team Titles Ladder War: The Briscoes (c) vs Steen/El Generico
Straight off the bat there were chairs flying everywhere. One Briscoe got thrown over the barricade into the big pile of them. It was all rather nasty. They had these cheap as fuck ladders, which looked like they would get decimated. And sure enough they got completely decimated. Generico got hiptossed by both brothers into one in the corner and it might as well have disintegrated. It was carnage. Mark got powerbomb over the ropes onto a ladder on the outside. It looked like it hurt a lot. Seriously this match got to the point where it was ridiculous. Finally after it was decided that the shitty aluminium foil ladders were not going to be sufficient to reach the belts, Jay got a big fuck-off maintenance ladder. This thing was huge, and it wasn’t breaking. They set it up in the ring and two ladder bridges were formed between it and the turnbuckle. Generico took a Jay Driller through one ladder and Mark took a package piledriver through another. That was pretty cool. Jay and Steen climb the big ladder and Steen fell off, leaving Jay to capture the belts. Insane match, but way too over the top. Some people will have loved this, and I can see why, but I though it was overkill towards the end. Nevertheless a good spectacle.
Tuesday 23 October 2007
Wrestling Potpourri #2
This is a review a while ago for probably my favourite match of all time. It's not the same style of review I write now, but I thought I would be fun to dig it out. Enjoy.
Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue
6/9/1995 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
Kobashi and Taue start off. Taue gets the early advantage and twists on Kobashi’s arm. Bashi slowly reverses, only for Taue to kick him in his bandaged up leg. RUDO! Kawada is in to receive some delicious Kobashi chops. He resists being whipped across the ring for ages, before running across to kick Misawa right in the face. Haha Kawada is so awesome. This is made even better by Kobashi thinking ‘Oh shit’ and going over to check if Misawa is okay. Misawa wants in now. He and Kawada exchange all sorts of chops, elbows and kicks until Kawada turns around and boots Kobashi right in the face and off the apron. I LOVE KAWADA. Taue tags in and gets worked over by the face team. He escapes to the outside and Misawa fakes a tope, only for Kobashi to hit a lariat from off the apron. Kawada runs in and is introduced to Misawa’s big fucking elbow. Misawa decides he actually will do a tope and flies into Taue. He is brought back into the ring and gets worked over again. Kobashi comes off the second turnbuckle, but Taue rolls away and tags out. Kawada now mercilessly attacks Kobashi’s bad leg and Bashi sells like a champ. Heels viciously work over the leg and it is great. Kobashi’s selling here is fantastic. He escapes the beating and tags Misawa who unleashes on Taue. Misawa ends up putting Taue into a crab, which leads to Kawada casually walking up and kicking him in the face. This is why I love Kawada. He tags in and goes to town on Misawa. Breaks down into a four-way but Bashi can barely walk. Misawa takes on both guys and does well for himself. Then in the greatest move ever, Taue chokeslams Misawa onto Kobashi’s injured leg, which Bashi’s sells by acting like he’s been shot. Kawada then double knee drops it from the second rope. So, so awesome. Heels work over Misawa, then after what seems like fucking ages Kobashi gets back in the ring, but Taue fucks him up by taking him back outside and dropping his leg on the guardrail. He comes back again and looks pissed. Lariat on Taue! Kawada tries to beat him down, but they end up hitting lariats on each other at the same time. This is so great. Kobashi ends up going kick for kick with Kawada and just won’t stay down. KOBASHI RUSH! He goes for a moonsault but gets cut off. Misawa gets the hot tag and hits a tiger driver on Taue for two and our first near fall. Kobashi is tagged back in and hits Taue with a german suplex. Another moonsault attempt is blocked. Kawada tries in vain to backdrop Kobashi and then eats one himself. Really breaks down here. After many failed attempts Kobashi hits a moonsault on Kawada but only gets a two count. Misawa the tags in and kills Kawada with a german. Tiger Suplex is bridged and only gets two, and a Tiger Driver pin is broken up by Taue. Taue then proceeds to place Misawa on the top rope and give him a big fucking chokeslam from it. At this the point the Japanese announcer is losing his voice, which makes this even more awesome. Chokeslam from the apron to the floor, by Taue on Misawa! Ouch. Kobashi now tries to lie on top of Misawa to protect him. Kobashi is so awesome. Bare in mind he is still selling the fuck out of his injured leg. Kawada is determined to get the pin on Misawa, but he keeps slipping away, and Kobashi keeps trying to protect his partner by sacrificing himself for him. The heels pull Kobashi off Misawa and hit a chokeslam/backdrop double team. Kawada hits a sick backdrop driver on Misawa, but he still kicks out. Kawada then hits a powerbomb for the pin at around 42 minutes. That was so, so great. Everyone did there job perfectly and it all came together. Possibly the best tag match I’ve ever seen. Kobashi sold his leg like a motherfucker and Kawada was brilliant in his desperation to get a pinfall over Misawa. Unreal.
Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue
6/9/1995 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
Kobashi and Taue start off. Taue gets the early advantage and twists on Kobashi’s arm. Bashi slowly reverses, only for Taue to kick him in his bandaged up leg. RUDO! Kawada is in to receive some delicious Kobashi chops. He resists being whipped across the ring for ages, before running across to kick Misawa right in the face. Haha Kawada is so awesome. This is made even better by Kobashi thinking ‘Oh shit’ and going over to check if Misawa is okay. Misawa wants in now. He and Kawada exchange all sorts of chops, elbows and kicks until Kawada turns around and boots Kobashi right in the face and off the apron. I LOVE KAWADA. Taue tags in and gets worked over by the face team. He escapes to the outside and Misawa fakes a tope, only for Kobashi to hit a lariat from off the apron. Kawada runs in and is introduced to Misawa’s big fucking elbow. Misawa decides he actually will do a tope and flies into Taue. He is brought back into the ring and gets worked over again. Kobashi comes off the second turnbuckle, but Taue rolls away and tags out. Kawada now mercilessly attacks Kobashi’s bad leg and Bashi sells like a champ. Heels viciously work over the leg and it is great. Kobashi’s selling here is fantastic. He escapes the beating and tags Misawa who unleashes on Taue. Misawa ends up putting Taue into a crab, which leads to Kawada casually walking up and kicking him in the face. This is why I love Kawada. He tags in and goes to town on Misawa. Breaks down into a four-way but Bashi can barely walk. Misawa takes on both guys and does well for himself. Then in the greatest move ever, Taue chokeslams Misawa onto Kobashi’s injured leg, which Bashi’s sells by acting like he’s been shot. Kawada then double knee drops it from the second rope. So, so awesome. Heels work over Misawa, then after what seems like fucking ages Kobashi gets back in the ring, but Taue fucks him up by taking him back outside and dropping his leg on the guardrail. He comes back again and looks pissed. Lariat on Taue! Kawada tries to beat him down, but they end up hitting lariats on each other at the same time. This is so great. Kobashi ends up going kick for kick with Kawada and just won’t stay down. KOBASHI RUSH! He goes for a moonsault but gets cut off. Misawa gets the hot tag and hits a tiger driver on Taue for two and our first near fall. Kobashi is tagged back in and hits Taue with a german suplex. Another moonsault attempt is blocked. Kawada tries in vain to backdrop Kobashi and then eats one himself. Really breaks down here. After many failed attempts Kobashi hits a moonsault on Kawada but only gets a two count. Misawa the tags in and kills Kawada with a german. Tiger Suplex is bridged and only gets two, and a Tiger Driver pin is broken up by Taue. Taue then proceeds to place Misawa on the top rope and give him a big fucking chokeslam from it. At this the point the Japanese announcer is losing his voice, which makes this even more awesome. Chokeslam from the apron to the floor, by Taue on Misawa! Ouch. Kobashi now tries to lie on top of Misawa to protect him. Kobashi is so awesome. Bare in mind he is still selling the fuck out of his injured leg. Kawada is determined to get the pin on Misawa, but he keeps slipping away, and Kobashi keeps trying to protect his partner by sacrificing himself for him. The heels pull Kobashi off Misawa and hit a chokeslam/backdrop double team. Kawada hits a sick backdrop driver on Misawa, but he still kicks out. Kawada then hits a powerbomb for the pin at around 42 minutes. That was so, so great. Everyone did there job perfectly and it all came together. Possibly the best tag match I’ve ever seen. Kobashi sold his leg like a motherfucker and Kawada was brilliant in his desperation to get a pinfall over Misawa. Unreal.
Monday 22 October 2007
The Goodness of 2007 #2
Danielson vs Necro Butcher
7/29/2007 - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
FIGHT~! What a great brawl this was. Danielson comes off looking like a total killer and Necro is just good ol' Necro. They start up with some mat wrestling, but it's the kind of mat wrestling your stupid buddies do after 8 pints and some serious goading and shit stirring. Needless to say, it's awesome. Danielson tears at Necro's forehead, ripping it apart until it's a raw and bloody mess, and the favour is repaid by Necro who sets upon belting Danielson with chairs. I love indy brawls like this. Really I do. In the best spot ever Butcher suffocates Dragon with a plastic bag. Maybe with all that's gone on in 2007 it could be argued that suffocation spots aren't the most tasteful things to do, but fuck it this was greatness. Danielson fights his way back and screams about being the best in the world, which is exactly how the best in the world should behave. Dragon ends it with his deadly elbows, which are very much over by the way, and I rejoice. This was on the short side at around 10 minutes, but they were the among the best 10 minutes of my life. These men must rematch!
Cena vs Michaels
4/23/2007 - WWE
Now I'm not a big mark for either of these guys. Generally you'll find people that worship HBK and hate Cena, and you'll find people that worship Cena and hate HBK. For me, neither of them are great, but neither are particularly objectionable. I came into watching this match with some pretty high expectations after it had been pimped mercilessly by fanboys of both guys. They started off well enough with Cena trying to entrap Michaels in his dreaded STFU. Then Cena locked on some awesome headlocks. I know its sounds really smarkish to gush over how great Cena's headlocks were, but that whole section was great. They built the match really slowly, which I enjoyed, but wasn't really loving it. What I did love was Michaels schtick in the second half of the match; walking around like his body is completely fucked up (which it probably is) and trying to survive against the best guy in the promotion. Cena did a great job too at pulling out everything to put this man down and getting more and more frustrated. The finish run worked really well, with Michaels really milking his crawl to the ropes to break the STFU and trying his fucking hardest to get the cover on Cena after his first superkick. I really enjoyed Michaels being out on his feet, but always having the secret weapon of the superkick to keep him in the game. In the end HBK reverses another FU, hits his Sweet Chin Music and falls right on top of Cena for the pin. This was a fun match, but not one of the very best I've seen this year. It will be interesting to watch it again without the breaks, but I doubt it will greatly improve it. Fun match, but not the epic I was expecting.
7/29/2007 - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
FIGHT~! What a great brawl this was. Danielson comes off looking like a total killer and Necro is just good ol' Necro. They start up with some mat wrestling, but it's the kind of mat wrestling your stupid buddies do after 8 pints and some serious goading and shit stirring. Needless to say, it's awesome. Danielson tears at Necro's forehead, ripping it apart until it's a raw and bloody mess, and the favour is repaid by Necro who sets upon belting Danielson with chairs. I love indy brawls like this. Really I do. In the best spot ever Butcher suffocates Dragon with a plastic bag. Maybe with all that's gone on in 2007 it could be argued that suffocation spots aren't the most tasteful things to do, but fuck it this was greatness. Danielson fights his way back and screams about being the best in the world, which is exactly how the best in the world should behave. Dragon ends it with his deadly elbows, which are very much over by the way, and I rejoice. This was on the short side at around 10 minutes, but they were the among the best 10 minutes of my life. These men must rematch!
Cena vs Michaels
4/23/2007 - WWE
Now I'm not a big mark for either of these guys. Generally you'll find people that worship HBK and hate Cena, and you'll find people that worship Cena and hate HBK. For me, neither of them are great, but neither are particularly objectionable. I came into watching this match with some pretty high expectations after it had been pimped mercilessly by fanboys of both guys. They started off well enough with Cena trying to entrap Michaels in his dreaded STFU. Then Cena locked on some awesome headlocks. I know its sounds really smarkish to gush over how great Cena's headlocks were, but that whole section was great. They built the match really slowly, which I enjoyed, but wasn't really loving it. What I did love was Michaels schtick in the second half of the match; walking around like his body is completely fucked up (which it probably is) and trying to survive against the best guy in the promotion. Cena did a great job too at pulling out everything to put this man down and getting more and more frustrated. The finish run worked really well, with Michaels really milking his crawl to the ropes to break the STFU and trying his fucking hardest to get the cover on Cena after his first superkick. I really enjoyed Michaels being out on his feet, but always having the secret weapon of the superkick to keep him in the game. In the end HBK reverses another FU, hits his Sweet Chin Music and falls right on top of Cena for the pin. This was a fun match, but not one of the very best I've seen this year. It will be interesting to watch it again without the breaks, but I doubt it will greatly improve it. Fun match, but not the epic I was expecting.
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