He's a great athlete with massive power, and he's trying to leverage that to KO his opponent. Most fighters don't even have the power to consistently finish opponents off based upon one big shot, but having that power is only a portion of the battle. Jiri has based his entire style upon addressing that issue. He believes that his opponent exchanges with him, he's going to defend his head well enough that they won't knock him out, and he's going to hurt them enough with his first big shot to be able to swarm them for a flurry. 

Holding his hands low is key to Jiri's strategy in a couple of ways. First, he wants the opponent to swing at his head because that's the shot he has the best chance to avoid. On the inside, it's probably the only shot he can avoid, while on the outside, he can potentially pull the opponent into his big right hand. Jiri thrives when he can get his opponent to reach, lunge, or overswing in some fashion because that's when he can really nail them with a counter they aren't prepared quickly enough to defend. Disguise is another key to his style. By coming at his opponent from odd angles and different stances, and bringing his hands up from his waist to throw the power punch to the head, it can take the opponent that extra bit of time to recognize what he's throwing, and that can be the difference in avoiding the punch and eating it. Jiri is not only generating a lot of his power from his hips, but with his dips and ducks, he's swinging from more of a diagonal, hips to chin, that's initially hidden by his movement, rather than the traditional straight line of shoulders to chin.

Jiri goes first when he walks the opponent down. The problem with his style was that he wasn't exactly a pressure fighter. His style wasn't based upon coming in and closing the distance. Instead, he was usually staying on the outside and going second, waiting for the opponent to miss so he could stun them with his counter and then get inside quickly while they were hurt and start smashing them with his hands, forcing them to surrender space, and immediately sucking it up as he continues to hurt them. This allows him to largely avoid the mid range where he is most prone because he's potentially walking into the opponent's strike trying to apply pressure. It's a style that's reliant on when and how his opponent attacks him though, so it can stall out if the opponent is passive, tries for takedowns, or attacks his body and legs. Against a disciplined opponent, Jiri had to take things into his own hands, be more aggressive stepping into mid range and present a more tantalizing target.

he's an opportunistic fighter who is all about creating that opportunity

Here is crouched with his head exposed to try to draw a head strike from the opponent that he can avoid and counter
When Yuri isn't touching first his offense can stagnate
His issue was simply Landing the first shot. He's so powerful that once he lands solidly, he's all over the opponent with swarming forward pressure taking their space and mixing quadrants to keep them in retreat, and his offense just snowballs. He's a different sort of pressure fighter where he doesn't rely upon volume, he relies upon his ability to follow up a power shot. His real issue is not setting it up himself the traditional manner with a jab, and that's why he's putting his head out, and doing a lot of things to beat the opponent to swing so we can counter and get started. If he becomes less Reliant upon what the opponent is trying to do to him, he can have better defense by. He's largely just relying on his speed and reflexes to counter and his power to then stun the opponent. His offense is ducking or dipping off to the side and coming right back with a counter punch from an odd angle 
The low hands and the squatting are two of the things that allow him to strike from odd angles that are really awkward and hard to deal with
Alex hurt Jiri's leg with low kicks in the 1st 90 seconds. It was already swollen and wobbly. 
Alex is willing to give space when he's defending, and Yuri had a little luck connecting with the lead Power Punch. It didn't help that he was slower from Alex destroying his lead leg. You're a chases, but he doesn't really cut Alex off, and Alex doesn't let him get too close the most part
Alex maintains the distance, and waits for his opening to land to the body or the leg
When Yuri was able to hurt Alex Midway through the second he was able to blurry and pile on the damage. The problem is he wasn’t to land all that much in the round and half before that. 
Alex wasn't really fooled by the stand switch stripes, sometimes you wasn't able to back out quick enough just because Yuri is so ridiculously long and fast though

Rakic fights a smart fight against Jiri, kicking the leg at distance, kicking the leg when he distance, kicking the leg when he drops down. He sneaks a head punch in now and then, but they are as primary weapon by any means. Jiri is forced into making something happen because there's only so much life left in that left calf.  Yuri is so much more powerful that even though he's taking a lot more shots, when he finally lands at the end of the round, Rakic is immediately hurt enough that Yuri can follow up, whereas Rakic always tended to land a single shot, and Yuri just kept coming

Erie's problem is that is offense is based on countering head punches, so when his opponent is smart enough to said through the stuff he's not defending, he has a hard time getting his offense started. His answer is to just wait until danger, and apply so much pressure getting in the opponent's face that they have to swing at him to try to keep him off. This of course is a dangerous game because there's not a lot of time to avoid when there's so little space between them. 

Alex is incredibly accurate. He doesn't really have tells he doesn't really wind up he never overcommits. He has great balance and he takes the shots that are there.
When Yuri tried to lead with the jab in the second fight Alex with the left hook right at the end of round one. And this is Yuri coming in responsibly, alex is too precise and too powerful to just wait in on like erie get away with against anyone else basically. Erie was still out of it when the second round started, and just got dropped with a high kick, everyone but Herb Dean knowing he was out of it and not able to defend himself. In the second fight, Jiri employed some more Advanced Techniques and better fakes, but Pereira bought it none of it, defended to take down this time, and really took no damage. It was Alex making all the adjustments to shut down what had worked for Yuri the first time, and then some



1/18/25 UFC: Jiri Prochazka vs. Jamahal Hill R3 3:01 
Well rounded fighters are obviously good thing, but most longtime MMA fans miss the days when fighters had their own distinguishable style. While most MMA fighters are at one camp training the exact same things they are training at every other camp, Jiri Prochazka is presumably off in the woods meditating and training with his samurai sword. Even with his famous samurai bun shaved, Jiri Prochazka is one of the only MMA fighters who would be instantly recognizable from his silhouette. There's no one else who moves like he does, confuses like he does, finishes like he does. Prochazka is a whirlwind who creates chaos and weaponizes wildness. If you've become disencall MMA fights supposedly "looking the same", and have begun to have a hard to remembering one current fighter from another because there's nothing original to differentiate them, Prochazka should be one of your saviors. He's a can't miss fighter, someone who keeps MMA exciting by delivering fights that look different than the rest of the card. 

Prochazka's one of the most fluid fighters, with some of the most effective level changes. The number of looks he throws at the opponent is crazy to the point of sometimes almost seeming comical, like he's just lifting a leg or a knee for the hell of it even though it's really to, at minimum, bring the opponents hands down. His opponents will certainly attest to the fact that he's not just out there breakdancing. He's trying to create information overload, to overwhelm the opponent with the sheer number of movements, angles, and looks he's throwing at them. He's not the best defensive fighter, but he's very offensive oriented, and ready to defend himself with more of that motion. Whether it be ducking, slipping, or especially pulling because when he can get the opponent to reach or lunge, it's easier to catch them with a counter they can't defend because they are off balance. He's setting the trap, and because of that he's ready to avoid and swing back with lethal force. 

Prochazka's mindset and approach differ from most fighters. He doesn't think in terms of setting up his combinations. His goal is to confuse and pressure the opponent until he frazzles them enough that they'll react to his current attack or movement in a manner that allows him to lay them out with his next movement. He is out to finish rather than to simply land, He's trying to prompt a movement from the opponent, with the understanding of how to react to that in the most devastating fashion. Many of his shots are really just feints.  Sure, by throwing the full blow, they could actually land, but he doesn't care whether they do or don't. His goal is always to make the opponent react in a manner where he can use that movement against them, landing a powerful follow up that they hopefully can't avoid, and will probably do more damage because they are moving into it. This striking style of Prochazka isn't merely limited to what he throws, it's an all encompassing style that's based at least as much on his movement. 

Prochazka's primary stance is a high and wide karate stance that allows him to generate a lot of power closing distance aggressively, or create distance exiting swiftly. His jab and front kick are very quick, and he closes the distance with remarkable speed. His front kicks and sometimes his jumping knees also come from this upright posture. While many MMA fighters from Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida to Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson have relied upon karate, most were defensive oriented fighters who did a lot of circling and only a little darting in. Jiri is just the opposite. His goal is to constantly move forward. His wide stance also allows him to circle laterally, or out and away when he needs to, making it difficult for his opponent to ever trap him against the cage or take him down, but this is never what he's looking to do. He's one of the most high energetic fighters around, relentlessly pressuring his opponent, and spending as much of the fight at close range with his hands down as he can get away with despite being a tall, long fighter who often has the reach advantage. 

We didn't see that much of it in this January 18th, 2024 fight against Jamahal Hill, but Prochazka also uses a low stance where he's heavy on his lead leg. This allows him to more easily attack all quadrants, generating more power from his hips even when he's going to the head with a hook or an uppercut. His low stance is mostly where he takes hip rotation out of the equation though, dropping his hips to add weight to the blow as he utilizes thrusting karate style punches through the target. One of the benefits of the squatting and dipping is this operates as another one of his feints. The opponent starts to think the thrusting punch is coming, and Prochazka can instead surprise them with a different attack such as a dipping uppercut or a flying knee. Jiri was seemingly more defense conscious in this fight, which may have been why we saw less of the dropped down stance since it's more difficult for him to defend himself given his head is forward and he neither has the time nor the lightness of foot to move away.

Jiri is all explosive movements and fast twitch muscle reactions. Especially on the inside, it's very fatiguing for both fighters because Jiri is utilizing so much head movement, so many stance switches, so much body shifting. Jiri is likely moving a lot more than his opponent, but it's his style and he's the one initiating it, so he's presumably prepared to do it while his opponent is likely used to something much slower and more conventional. 

Jiri is active, but his style is not about volume. His style is about drawing a reaction that allows him to land the follow up. Ultimately, there's not a lot of difference between him fainting and him throwing stuff he doesn't care whether lands because success comes from drawing a beneficial reaction from the opponent. He's also about constant pressure creating a mistake, whether it be the wrong movement, or simply exhaustion eventually breaking down the opponents ability to defend themselves. He certainly didn't win the title from Glover Teixeira because he's the better grappler, but he was able to rock him with some ground strikes and tap the champ with a rear-naked choke largely because Glover was so exhausted he could no longer even grapple.

Most fighters try to finish with the high kick, Jiri even turned this into a form of feint. He was leading with a high kick, but didn't care if it landed. The goal was simply to feed Hill into his spinning backfist follow up. While this wasn't one of Prochazka's more effective techniques against Hill, it's a safe one in that the high kick demands a defense, so Hill wasn't able to counter.

One of his other Prochazka's other feints is a dip hop that's designed to get the opponent to back into the fence as fast as they can to avoid the theoretic flying knee. Since Jiri doesn't do the full knee, he lands quicker and is able to close the distance fast. Now that his opponent no longer has space to back away from his actual attack, there's a much greater chance that he'll not only be able to land, but connect harder because his opponent is stationary rather than fading away. 


People tend to comprehend what isn't there instead of what's truly in front of them. They notice that Jiri's hands are rarely up, but the illusion of poor defense is part of the spell he's weaving. of course, he can't avoid everything, he's prone to the legs and the body, but in tantalizing the opponent by showing them the open head, he hopes they'll take his bait, and they often do. He's much more prone to being hit in the torso and the legs. Especially when he's fighting on the inside, he's probably not going to evade anything with his feet, but he has amazing quickness and agility that allows him to dip, duck, and fade the opponents head shots, and fire back with a big punch of his own. Another advantage of Jiri's hands down stance is that he's able to disguise what he is throwing a little better because it's coming from an odd low angle that's a little slower for the opponent to pick up. He'll also do things like start to raise his hand and his leg at the same time to delays the opponent's read on what he's throwing, or if it's simply yet another stance switch.

Obviously it's very difficult to knock an opponent out with a shot they see coming. The strength of Jiri is his unpredictability. Prochazka's style is about creating chaos and distractions to try to open up the knockout. He's very difficult to read since he's coming at you fast, from odd angles. Even though he uses a lot of the same movements and setups from fight to fight, they are different then what his opponent's are training against every day. If the opponent is balanced, throwing safe shots, that's probably not going to happen. His critics try to find endless excuses as to why he should conform to the generic globalized modern MMA style, rather than do a style tailored to accentuate his own attributes of speed, fluidity, athleticism, and energy that's incredibly difficult for his opponents to prepare for because no training partner can replicate him. He's 31-5 winning championships everywhere he's fought, but he makes people nervous by keeping his hands low, so let's focus on that rather than the fact that building his style around his physical gifts has allowed him to finish 30 fights. What other MMA champion has a 97% finishing rate? Alex Pereira's finishing percentage is 86%, Fedor's was 78%, Anderson Silva's was 76%. Amanda Nunes 74%, Frank Shamrock 70%, Israel Adesanya 67%, Khabib Nurmagomedov 66%, Jon Jones is at 60%, Jose Aldo 56%, GSP 54%, and Demetrious Johnson 52%. None of these all-time greats are even within 10% of Jiri's finishing rate. Prochazka may not be the best fighter of all time, but he's been a champion everywhere he went, and none of these other all-time greats have been as successful at getting themselves back to the safety of the locker room.

At the end of the day, it's an MMA fight, everyone is going to get hit no matter how technical and defensive they are, but it's almost always better to be proactive, fight on your front foot, moving forward, and force the opponent to have the answer while they are on their back foot, moving backwards. If they have it, sometimes you all you can do is tip your hat. Given he's fighting at the top level, I'd suggest he's much more likely to get injured going the full 5 rounds againt the best in the world than by finishing them, and occassionally getting finished. It's not like Prochazka fighting safely would be grinding the opponent out with some good old GSP lay and pray. 5 rounds of hopefully striking is punishing for both fighters, regardless. Even when one fighter dominantes, there's a good chance they'll break a hand, foot, or toe on the opponent, as we've seen from Pereira. Jiri's style is so high energy that there's no way to avoid slowing himself down, which is another reason he'd rather not being going 5 rounds. 

Jiri's style is actually safer than it appears. He isn't getting hit like a car crash by doing a minimal movement Muay Thai style. He's moving away from the contact, and barely rooted to the ground, so when the opponent hits him, they kind of just move him a little as opposed to him being a resistant target that the opponent's hand or leg is really digging into. Jiri is always dipping his head as soon as the opponent throws, so if he does get hit, it's not square unless the opponent is somehow guessing where he's moving to rather than throwing at where he currently is. Prochazka parries surprisingly well for a fighter with his hands low, and this hand activity is yet another of his distractions. He actually uses his hands a lot at distance. He's always been good at hand trapping and deflecting the opponents shots, but he's getting better at attacking off the parry.
his shots are better disguised by throwing low to high

Prochazka's biggest problem is he's in a division with Alex Pereira, who unlike the past light heavyweight champions, is a great kickboxer. Jiri isn't able to befuddle him with his movement or intercept his shots the way he can against less skilled and experienced strikers. Most of Jiri's opponents are smart enough to kick his calf to try to limit his movement, especially since he largely refuses to defend low kicks even though he's capable of doing more than eating them. Pereira has such technical footwork, great balance, excellent timing, and overall precision in his game. He can counter Jiri's pressure style, and has so much power that it only takes one small mistake against him. It's not about Jiri holding his hands high, it's just a bad stylistic matchup where he has to fight a largely perfect fight if he wants to beat the champion. I personally think he'd be better off dropping to 185 assuming Pereira is going to beat Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, but I appreciate his determination to overcome this great obstacle. While Pereira isn't showing many holes in his game, and has only been defeated by another world class kickboxing champion in Israel Adesanya, he is 5 years older than Prochazka, and at 37 he may be getting close to the point where he decides to extend his career by moving up to to the skillless heavyweight division, where he could surely destroy those out of shape lumbering cans well into his mid 40s.

He's always been great at slipping punches. What got him into trouble in the past is he would either exit after avoiding to simply reset or wait to see what the opponent did next, either way often forcing himself to have to defend multiple shots without making the opponent pay for throwing them. With the Jamahal Hill fight, he's immediately countering, which gives him a much better chance to not only land, but land big because the opponent may be off balance or in the process of resetting their defenses. With his crazy pace, he's wearing the opponent down mentally and physically because they have to worry about what his reaction is going to be to each attack. 

he's difficult to hit because he's got great speed and great footwork, ducking and stance switching or angling so he can fire back the counter

kinetic style
Jiri has so much movement that it's difficult for Hill not to Lunge and reach in order to hit him, and this is what opens up Jiri's counters. 

touch and counter
when he stops coming forward he's looking to bait the opponent into his counter
switching stances on both his entries and his exits. His movement is designed to keep his opponent off balance while they are trying to find him, which makes it more likely that they'll run into his counter 
he leans in trying to spring into his attack, but Alex just blasts his calf
He's worried about getting off first to draw the response he wants so he can put the opponents lights out. Both fighters will take some shots in the process. If his lead does what it's supposed to, Hill land the best shot of the series and/or outland the opponent in the exchange. If something goes wrong to his head, it's more likely that he spent too much time in the pocket just moving his upper body so his opponent was able to get a line on him
moving with more purpose
uniqueness and originality are more important than keeping your hands up
He makes the 1st move to draw the reaction, but he's often doing it with a strike he doesn't care whether lands because he's trying to funnel the opponent into the defense that will allow him to knock you out. Even though his lead high kick wasn't very effective, he's not taking damage off it because the opponents response is never going to be eating it and landing a better counter. If they duck it's just energy, if they block they take a little damage, if they move or dip in the opposite direction, they hopefully crash into his spinning elbow. And some of his success is just from speed and creativity obviously, dominic Reyes knockout, reyes thought he was safe and just left his chin out because he avoided the right elbow to the head, not expecting Jiri was going to fall through with the spinning left elbow.
on the inside, he's using his athleticism to avoid and counter with a strike from an odd angle they can't see coming. I think he's able to move better and generate more power from his lower body by not worrying about absorbing a little of the damage from a shot he failed to avoid with his hands. Since he's on  the inside, chances are the opponents hook is going around where his block would be anyways. 
Erie's faints are often touching the opponent before he either throws first to break the Rhythm or is hopefully ready to counter the opponents lead
When Jiri has a split low stance, his head is most exposed, but since he's dropping down, the opponent tends to get suckered into throwing a hook to pull him in to their theoretic area of control, and he just beats them to the shot with a straight or maybe even an uppercut. If they throw the straight, he at least has to slip and counter






every judge gave Hill round 2

the motor and brutality

Hill winning round 2 was largely due to hurting Jiri with a late body shot, which got him to focus on landing more to the body

Prochazka always has entertaining fights because his style is all about creating chaos to meet to make the opponent react in a manner that leaves them open for him to finish with one big strike. Prochazka isn't so much about feints and fakes, but rather he's using the first strike to position the opponent for the second so to speak. So while he'd obviously prefer to land, he doesn't necessarily care all the time because his primary goal is to pounce if the opponent moves or defends in a manner that leaves them prone for his big follow-up. Jiri does try to use his movement to open his striking up, but it's more striking on the stance switch. Prochazka has a huge speed advantage, and is a lot more creative and dynamic. Against pereira, Jiri's defensive liabilities, keeping his hands down all the time and whatnot him to prone for carreras precision. Hill isn't nearly that precise or powerful, and knows he has to focus on being as solid and technical as possible here, taking what is there without overexposing himself. So the excitement and kinetic style of Jiri is somewhat negated by the conservativeness of Hill, but this is still a banger where both guys are consistently throwing big shots. Hill is just focusing a lot more on balance and staying within himself rather than getting over aggressive and trying to pounce. Jiri once Hill to reach on his punches so he can pull him into the counter.  This was almost an uneventful short fight because Jiri beat Hill the punch 3 minutes in, dropping him with a short left straight inside Hill's right hook. He'll recovered incredibly quickly, and what initially looked like Jiri perhaps finishing with a punch or two on the ground turned out to be Hill using his legs to push off, standing and  landing a good right. Jiri has so much movement that it's difficult for Hill not to Lunge and reach in order to hit him, and this is what opens up Jiri's counters. Hill was still hitting Jiri, but Jiri is often moving backwards to avoid taking the full brunt of the shot, while he is stepping forward when he throws to garner more power. It's not the hill isn't trying to step into his punches, but hill is so much slower and more predictable that when Hill steps forward, Jiri sees it coming and just backs out of range. Hell was getting gas from Jiri's whirlwind pace in unconventional attacks, and even when he was on the offensive, hill was having to be more proactive than he probably would have wanted in order to keep Jiri from just outmoving him. Basically  Hill could slow the pace down a little only through his own pressure, but he had to pressure enough that Jiri preferred to try to counter than to step in and make it a firefight. Jiri's head movement was good enough here that he was making Hill miss a lot, and not getting hit cleanly as much as usual. Hill would have been much better serve to focus on attacking the body because it was much less of a moving target. One prohaska enters the void, there's so much head movement and stand switches and body shifting that it's very fatiguing for both fighters, and even though it's more tiring for Jiri, he's the one that's used to this style and is initiating it, so he's prepared to do it Hill is used to something much slower and more conventional. Jiri is all explosive movements, all fast which muscle. Towards the end of the second, he'll finally caught one of Jiri's front kicks and pay with a hook to the body, which prompted Hills corner to call for more body shots. Hill started the Third looking committed to the body attack, but Jiri heard him with the left hook early and kept a ton of pressure on, chasing him down and throwing punches and clench knees. He'll recovered quickly again though, and it was clear that erie wasn't going to be able to put them away simply through Relentless pressure. Jiri is always dipping his head as soon as the opponent throws, so if he does get hit, it's not Square unless the opponent is guessing where he's moving to rather than throwing at where he currently is. Hill came back with a big need of the midsection, but overextended on a right hook, and got caught with Jiri's left straight counter, then dropped with the right hook. Hill was again able to weather it, and get off his back, but this time Jiri landed a clinch uppercut then use the hand that was on the back of hill's neck to throw him down. He'll get right to his knee, but cover it up, and mike Beltran quickly jumped in because hill was no longer actively defending himself from the ground and pound. 
Jiri's quick reactions are his defense, and his low hands are a trick to sucker the opponent into throwing at his head when he is right in front of them, which he can avoid, rather than to the body, which at close range he can't really defend. Jiri was dodging the shots to the Head this time, rather than simply moving his head as another one of his decoys to distract the opponent and play sucker them into making a mistake. His defense still mostly relies on his reflexes, but putting more effort into actually avoiding rather than trying to land back better
Intercepting shots doesn't really work against Pereira
Hill has never had very efficient footwork. He can never really slow Jiri down here because  he's not cutting him off, and can't really pressure him and a high percentage because he's not closing the distance
He's trying to set up the pull counter
I'm not sure if it's the Achilles and knee injuries slow and Hill down, or a cardio deficiency that had him trying to conserve energy here against the hyperactive opponent, but Hill seemed to just want to punch here, rather than to get his feet to the spot where his offense would have the best chance of being effective. His lazy reaching is exactly what a fighter like Jiri is hoping for it to be able to counter
Jiri's wide karate stance leaves him prone to the body strikes despite endless amounts of head movement because the torso isn't coming with you when your stance is that open, and that's what Pereira was doing against him to set up the high kick knockout.
hill was pretty slow and telegraphed with his stuff so jiri was just able to use his insane speed to dodge or parry or counter most of what hill threw but with alex that left hook and calf kick come out of nowhere and makes speed irrelevant
wildly fit and can use the energy
Jiri isn't a kickboxer, and pereira's kickboxing technique combined with his amazing power it's a terrible matchup for speed and energy. Alex kills people up close. He'll strike the legs in the body, which Jiri he doesn't defend a while, the leg kicks take erie's movement. Hill show no real leg kicking to take away aries movement
ACL tear really stripped Hill of his athleticism, 
hill, he fought hard, and came back from adversity more than once
Here is best chance for a title right now is dropping to middleweight, but Pereira is 37 and potentially might move up to heavyweight
Jiri was really flowing in third. His low hands help him lynn strikes the opponent doesn't see coming, which is his style to begin with more or less. The important thing here is that his footwork seem to actually get better once he realized that Hill wasn't going to suck up the space that he gave him
Hill hurting Jiri with a knee to the body, then missing 5+ shots aimed at the head before he got dropped. Negative fight IQ again from him, coaches must be pissed
Hill isn't attacking the legs, and frankly, he's not doing much to slow Jiri down beyond using his hands on Jiri's head when Jiri is trying to duck his inside punches

Since Yuri is upright more often here he's relying more on the stand switches and shoulder fakes to create openings.

unique MMA samurai KOs former champ
The first samurai stylebender
MMA's most unique striker, The Czech Samurai Jiri Prochazka
greatest finisher
The unique fighting style of MMA's greatest finisher Jiri Prochazka, or how being original is more important than keeping your hands up
Jiri Prochazka I'm coming with my hands down to knock you out
The unique fighting style of MMA's greatest finisher Jiri Prochazka; He's coming with his hands down to knock you out

when you beat every ounce of originality out of them and aren't satisfied until they all do everything by your generic idea of technical precision, what do you expect?

Jiri is one of the only unique fighters still keeping MMA exciting, and like Michael Pereira, all he gets is bs about him not being conventional enough. And then the same people  

it's the fighters who aren't doing the same thing as everyone else that are keeping the sport interesting. like Prochazka that

His flying knee is very inaccurate though

vs. Oezdemir 

Prochazka made his long-awaited UFC debut here. Oezdemir was trying to be patient and technical, while Prochazka was trying to distract him to create an opening. Prochazka won that battle, as the activity was quite high. Oezdemir was able to land down the middle at distance, and counter well with hooks. Jiri's offense came out of unusual setups, and beyond the element of surprise, worked because he's so long and fast. Oezdemir was the far more technical fighter though, and he stunned Prochazka three times in the first. Oezdemir clearly won round 1, but Jiri took him out early in the second by switching to kicking, following a left inside leg kick with a left high kick and finishing him with a one-two on the inside. Good match.

vs Reyes

In the match against Dominic reyes, yuri relies far more on its speed and movement. He isn't touching, hand trapping or jabbing. He is waiting for Reyes to make the first move and then countering or coming in naked or behind a power punch. Yuri's problem is basically Landing the first shot. He's all power striking, so if he can hit the opponent solidly the first time, he can usually put a second shot behind it, or swarm them while they are recovering. Siri is using the stance switch right straight counter, but at this point it's almost completely reactive, as he is always going second. Anytime for Prochazka gains traction, he's trying to to pour it on. He does a good job of changing quadrants, but he's mostly relying on superior speed and athleticism. Reds does a decent job of kicking the legs and attacking the body at distance, but when Yuri is swarming him, he's mostly swinging at the head and missing. 
Jiri had the foot on the gas pedal in this one. He would chase after landing a good shot, and while he certainly ruled the wild, Reyes did a good job of countering amidst the chaos. The challenge for a year he was Landing the first shot. Once he connected, he was able to make it a firefight, and dominate that by being the more physically gifted of the two. 

vs Glover

The thing about the classic striker vs. grappler matches is that one guy has such a decided advantage in their strong area that there's extra drama where the position itself makes you excited or nervous because you figure something great or terrible will happen even before they do anything. This one had a good deal of Jiri's standup and Glover's grappling, with the expected results. The biggest surprise was the amount of damage Glover was able to do on the ground, opting for heavy mount punches and slicing elbows over trying to work for the submission. Glover had two takedowns in the 1st with a single leg plus a trip, and good ground and pound. Jiri did some real damage in what little time he had on top at the end of the round, even though it was less than 15 seconds. Jiri was using his right hand to grab Glover, and then trying to sneak the left in. Jiri is being second way too much, and Glover isn't looking to throw to land so much as to either fake into a single leg or drop down behind his lead, which is making it difficult for Jiri to counter. Jiri was doing a better job of using the jab here. He stunned Glover with a jumping knee and tried to swarm, but Glover failed on the takedown, so Jiri took the top. Jiri was using his jab here, but not as much as he needed to given Teixeira could try for the takedown when he did close the distance. Teixeira would grab on the inside or duck into a takedown. Jiri would start to go to town, but Teixeira would get hold of his leg, and Jiri would try to roll to the ground, but Teixeira would just follow him down. Glover was taking a few to try for the takedown. Glover couldn't really slow this fight down for any length of time. Jiri would swarm him, and and then he would take him down, but Prochazka was usually up quickly. Glover didn't have much luck with submissions on the ground, he was landing punches and slicing elbows until Yuri found a way back to his feet. Jiri did better on the ground than Glover did on the feet. Jiri would slip out and have good flurries of ground in pound. He just couldn't sustain the position.  Glover had a big overhand right early in the 5th, and tried to drop down into a guillotine, but erie's head popped out and he took the top. Jiri had clearly slowed down, and he wasn't able to avoid many of Glover's punches anymore. Oddly Glover was winning the stand up and round 5, with the years chin being the only thing that was keeping him in this, but would fail to get the fight to the ground now that he was in control doing offensive takedowns rather than counter takedowns. Clover finally got the takedown into mount, and you thought this time the fight was finally over because all he had to do was hold on for the last 2 minutes. You refuse the cage to flip himself over and Escape, taking the top with 1:15 left. Gloria gave us back to get to his knee, and suddenly he was too exhausted to defend the choke, and Yuri was able to choke him out pro wrestling Style without even getting the hooks in. An amazing meltdown for a championship fight where Glover was 30 seconds away from probable victory. If Jiri won round 5 it would have been a split draw to to Clemens Werner scoring a crazy 10-8 in round 3, but without the finish the round goes to Teixeira.


Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling

What if there was a sculpture to honor four influential pro wrestling heroes called The Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling? Who would be featured? Let’s talk about four wrestlers who were not only great but also tremendously important...

Dynamite Kid

He was the best wrestler in the world from 1979 through 1983, and he influenced generations of wrestlers through his ability to be creative and innovative. His work in Calgary and in Japan is legendary. His prime was the birth of modern pro wrestling as we know it, as pro wrestling never looked the same again thanks to Dynamite Kid modernizing the sport. Dynamite Kid showed pro wrestlers that the sky's the limit, and that inspired wrestlers to think outside the box. He paved the way for generations to come. The list of wrestlers inspired by Dynamite Kid is endless, as so many were either directly or indirectly influenced by him.

The First Tiger Mask

Satoru Sayama was one of the best pro wrestlers in the world from 1982 through 1985, and he was one of the most spectacular wrestlers of his time. Also, he was a big influence on high-flying pro wrestling and shoot-style pro wrestling (and indirectly also a big influence on MMA), as he influenced the world of combat sports by making people aware of possibilities of expansion. His high-flying ability encouraged junior heavyweight wrestlers to display their athleticism and willingness to take risks more. And Sayama basically had MMA in mind long before the term MMA was coined. He was part of the original U.W.F., which would lead to the formation of successor shoot-style leagues, and eventually the formation of MMA leagues.

Akira Hokuto

She was a tremendous worker during the first four years of the 1990s, with 1993 standing out as her peak year. She not only was a great pure worker, but she also understood and excelled at incorporating a great display of drama in her matches and feuds, especially during the inter-promotional era of the mid ‘90s. She also showed a lot of determination and passion, as she was often willing to keep fighting in spite of injuries. She played a big role in joshi puroresu being seen on the same level as danshi puroresu. You could say that she definitely helped preserve the results achieved by the hard work of Jaguar Yokota and the Crush Gals during the 1980s.

Rey Misterio Jr.

He took the high flying standards set by Dynamite Kid and The First Tiger Mask and set the bar of daredevil high flying even higher by modernizing high flying wrestling. He was only 17 years old when he started participating in recommendable matches in 1992. He is also one of the first wrestlers of Mexican descent to be fully accepted by American audiences and treated like a true superhero during the great era of the WCW cruiserweight division and beyond. Especially during the mid 1990s, he was one of the best wrestlers in the world. His matches with Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera were classics. In other words, Rey Misterio Jr. helped promote the development of wrestling by taking things to the next level.

Without these four wrestlers, Dynamite Kid, The First Tiger Mask, Akira Hokuto and Rey Misterio Jr., wrestling wouldn’t be what it is today. That’s why they belong in pro wrestling’s version of Mount Rushmore and should be honored for ever!

0:00-0:21 Who would be featured on The Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling?
0:22-1:16 Dynamite Kid modernizing the sport and influenced generations of wrestlers
1:17-2:13 Tiger Mask was a big influence on high-flying pro wrestling and shoot-style pro wrestling
2:14-3:10 Akira Hokuto excelled at incorporating drama into her matches
3:11-4:10 Rey Misterio Jr. was one of the first wrestlers of Mexican descent to be accepted by American audiences 
4:11-4:43 Wrestling wouldn’t be what it is today without Dynamite Kid, The First Tiger Mask, Akira Hokuto & Rey Misterio Jr.

Mount Rushmore Of Pro Wrestling Heroes - Wrestling's Most Important & Influential Great Wrestlers Dynamite Kid Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama Akira Hokuto Rey Mysterio Jr

What if there was a Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling to honor the four most influential wrestling heroes who shaped the industry? In this video, we explore the legacies of four wrestling legends who weren't just great in the ring, they were tremendously important in changing the course of professional wrestling forever. From legendary high-flyers to technical innovators, these wrestling icons revolutionized the industry with their skill, charisma, and unmatched influence.

Join us as we explore the legacies of the Dynamite Kid, the pioneer of the hard-hitting, high-impact junior heavyweight style, The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama), whose high-flying techniques changed the landscape of professional wrestling and precision striking and foresight created shoot wrestling and ushered in the MMA era, Akira Hokuto, a dramatic powerhouse of the women’s wrestling scene who left an indelible mark on the sport during the interpromotional era of joshi puroresu, and the phenomenal Rey Mysterio Jr., who brought the high flying Lucha Libre style to the forefront of global wrestling, proving that small wrestlers could be top stars in America.

Topics Covered:

    Dynamite Kid’s influence on modern wrestling styles
    Tiger Mask’s contributions to the evolution of high-flying and shoot style wrestling
    Akira Hokuto’s role in elevating women’s wrestling and joshi puroresu
    How Rey Mysterio Jr. helped bring Lucha Libre and cruiserweight wrestling to a global audience in WCW & WWE
    Why these four legends are forever cemented in the Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling

If you’re a fan of professional wrestling and want to understand the true legends who helped build this incredible sport, this video is a must-watch. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more content on the history of professional wrestling and its greatest stars!

#ProWrestling #WWE #puroresu #DynamiteKid #TigerMask #SatoruSayama #AkiraHokuto #ReyMysterio #MountRushmore #WrestlingLegends #LuchaLibre #HighFlyingWrestling #WrestlingHeroes #WrestlingHistory #WCW #NJPW #AJW #joshipuroresu #luchalibreaaa #WWF #PioneerWrestlers

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Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill

There were two big title fights on UFC 311, but the real excitement was the battle of the two previous Light Heavyweight champions, Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, both of whom vacated due to injury then were defeated by the amazing current champion Alex Pereira. Champion or not, any chance to see the most unique and original fighter the division has produced, Prochazka, try to find a way to up his record 97% finishing rate is always something to look forward to. The only problem with Jiri's near perfect finishing record is that when you only have 1 win by decision out of 30, this latest highlight reel knockout only increased his finishing rate by a fraction of a percentage point. 

Despite this sustained greatness over a 13 year career, many people were actually writing Prochazka off now that he's lost to Alex twice in a row. Granted, Pereira's style appears to be Kryptonite for Jiri's because he's such a great, well balanced technical kickboxer that Jiri hasn't had a lot of luck befuddling him with his movement or intercepting his shots the way he does to less skilled and experienced strikers. Jiri is improving his footwork and his transition game by leaps and bounds though, and he made Hill look stuck in the mud. 

I didn't understand people thinking this January 18th match from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California was going to be a good matchup for Hill. He's never been a great mover, and I'm not sure he's made it back to where he was before rupturing his ACL in fighter basketball cost him his title. The overwhelming pressure and whirlwind movement of Jiri would seemingly force Hill into a ton of mistakes, and expose the fact that he simply doesn't possess the speed, footwork, mobility or conditioning to consistently put himself into the right place at the right time. That was sort of the case here, but Prochazka has improved upon and diversified his methods. Jiri was moving with more purpose today, keeping Hill off balance while simply trying to find him, which made it more likely that Hill would run into his devastating counter.

Hill's strength is supposed to be his fight IQ, but he did very little of what Alex Pereira did to negate Jiri's style. Granted, it's unfair to expect Hill to suddenly become a world-class kickboxer with overwhelming power, but it's long been known that you have to attack Jiri's legs to slow him down in the long run, and freeze him momentarily. Hill was able to win a close round 2 by attacking the torso, which especially on the inside, Jiri has a tough time avoiding. However, during much of round 1 & 3, he was playing right into Jiri's hands by attacking the head because it's supposedly exposed due to his hands being down. 

Prochazka's always been great at slipping punches. What got him into trouble in the past is he would either exit after avoiding to simply reset, or wait to see what the opponent did next. Either way, he was often forcing himself to have to defend multiple shots without making the opponent pay for throwing them. Here, he was immediately countering, which gave him a much better chance to not only land without getting hit at all, but to land big because Hill was off balance, stepping, or in the process of resetting his defenses. 

Jiri was mostly focusing controling the pace and tempo from distance, so he was largely fighting in his upright split karate stance. When he did switch to his shorter dropped down stance that leaves his head exposed with his weight heavy on the lead leg, Hill always made the mistake of attacking the head even though what Prochazka wants to do is dodge and answer with a punch to the head that's difficult for the opponent to see because it's coming from a low angle. Jiri is both faster and quicker to the target, so this always went poorly for Hill. When Hill threw a hook to try to bring Prochazka's head closer so he could potentially clinch, Jiri beat him to the punch with a more direct straight. This resulted in a knockdown in round 1. When Hill instead threw the straight, Jiri pulled him into the right hand counter. 

We didn't see as much of Jiri's crazy pace today, but he still wore Hill down mentally and physically because he had to worry about what Jiri's reaction was going to be to every move he made. Jiri's entire style was based around drawing the movement, slipping if he had to, and landing the big counter. When you're fighting the most athletic guy in the division, a guy whose legs account for much of his ability to attack and defend, you need to do more to try to slow him down than use your hands on his head a few times to either to clinch or simply prevent him from coming back up from the duck down with a big counter punch. Hill did get a few knees in, but moments of good strategy didn't make up for chasing and following most of the fight. 

Since Hill wasn't attacking the legs, Jiri was able to go at his own pace, and beat him on the outside with superior speed and footwork. He set the tempo, touching or throwing an unimportant shot from orthodox, parrying or hand trapping the stepping response with his left hand, then pouncing with the right hand while Hill was still extended. Hill was also losing the distance fight because Jiri's combination of superior speed and better footwork caused Hill to reach, lunge, and overstep to try to find his head, leaving him prone to the fast counter as he tried to reset. 

Jiri showed great footwork here. He was switching stances to enter and exit, to attack and defend, allowing himself to find his target quicker or stay out of harms way while pulling Hill into his counter. The switch was part of a general explosive movement, done with urgency, in order to create or save himself from a big moment. You almost wouldn't even notice that he switched stances because your eyes would follow the punch or kick he was throwing when he switched. On the other hand, Hill, who was very plodding, mostly just switched stances at distance for some variance. He almost never surprised Jiri with his movement, and he was just playing catch up whether he was lunging, reaching, or overthrowing. 

Jiri wasn't blitzing unless he had Hill hurt, and he wasn't trying to back Hill all that much, preferring to let Hill step into his shots. When Jiri did get Hill near the cage, he looked to lead with a high kick because Hill can't counter that and has nowhere to go. Rather than a finishing attempt, these were almost a throwaway, designed to funnel Hill into his spinning backfist or elbow follow up. Hill was always ready for this though. Hill's balance and defense were good when Jiri was trying to throw a combination, the problem is Jiri's style isn't based on him throwing in succession, it's based on countering the opponent's strike or forward movement. 

At distance, Jiri would either keep touching and hand trapping or try to pull Hill into his counter. This was one of the areas where his quick stance switches were very effective because he would suddenly close the distance by switching to orthodox and throwing the right hand while Hill had one foot in the air stepping forward. Hill was defending the hand trap better in the second round, getting wise to Jiri's tactics by avoid the immediate follow up with the other hand. This round was close, but Hill finally started attacking the body in the last minute. Even though nothing major happened, with Jiri there's always a lot of activity, and it's more the dance, the movement, and the danger that make things exciting rather than how many strikes actually land. 

Much of Jiri's distance offense was predicated upon timing Hill's step so he could switch to southpaw at the right time, bringing the right straight or kick in the process. I think Hill was expecting the right hand when Prochazka hurt him the second time. Jiri dropped down, but rather than switching stances, he came up with the left hand while Hill was circling to the right. Jiri just swarmed Hill from there. Hill did recover enough to stay in the fight, but his footwork was gone, and he was putting himself in bad positions by loading up and overswinging rather than getting his feet to a spot where Prochazka was in range. Hill was so overextended when he missed a big right hook that he was no longer even facing Jiri. Prochazka immediately nailed Hill with a left cross Hill has no chance of defending because he was still sideways. Surprisingly, it wasn't nap time for Pajamahal just yet, but again Jiri smelled blood in the water, and was just swarming him in stand up and on the ground until Mike Beltran had to jump in. 

Jiri was definitely creating chaos in round three because he hurt Hill twice, but in this fight, he largely stayed disciplined otherwise. I think this was Prochazka's best and most mature performance, as he was technical and patient until created an opening he could pounce on. A very good match that should have been Fight of the Night instead of Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov. 


A vastly improved Jiri Prochazka gets yet another finish in this former champion vs. former champion battle against Jamahal Hill at UFC 311 Makhachev vs. Moicano. Match review of Jiri Prochazka vs. Jamahal Hill from 1/18/25 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. #ufc #mma #jiriprochazka

Jiri Prochazka; Jamahal Hill; UFC 311; UFC 311 Makhachev vs. Moicano; Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill; Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill 1/18/25; Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill UFC 311; Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill fight breakdown; Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill match review; Jiri Prochazka improving

0:00-0:33 Jiri Prochazka has a 97% finishing rate
0:34-1:01 Jiri Prochazka is being writing off after losing to Alex Pereira twice
1:02-1:42 Jiri Prochazka is a bad matchup for Jamahal Hill
1:43-2:13 Jamahal Hill did little to slow Jiri Prochazka down
2:14-2:39 Jiri Prochazka used to spend too much time slipping punches
2:40-3:20 Jamahal Hill made the mistake of attacking Jiri Prochazka's head
3:21-3:55 Jiri Prochazka's entire style was based around drawing the movement, slipping if he had to, and landing the big counter.
3:56-4:22 Jiri Prochazka beat Jamahal Hill on the outside with superior speed and footwork
4:23-4:58 Jiri Prochazka showed great footwork
4:59-5:31 Jiri Prochazka tried to use his high kick to set up his spinning elbow
5:32-6:07 Jiri Prochazka used the hand trap to set up a right hand off the stance switch
6:08-6:58 Jiri Prochazka finished in the 3rd
6:59-7:20 This was Jiri Prochazka's best and most mature performance






Io Shirai

Io Shirai was one of the best wrestlers of the decade of the 2010s. She started her career in 2007 and wrestled for several leagues, including Pro Wrestling WAVE, until she ended up wrestling for STARDOM, which was the main league she wrestled for from the summer of eady been one of the 10 best women’s wrestlers of the world for the past year or two. 

The rise of STARDOM and the rise of the career of Io Shirai seemingly went hand in hand, as STARDOM and Io Shirai grew together to reach new heights. STARDOM became the place to be for joshi puroresu workers, and Io Shirai became THE wrestler to keep an eye on.

By 2015, Io Shirai had become arguably the #1 best pro wrestler in the world and STARDOM arguably THE best pro wrestling league in the world. During her peak years, she wrestled in four matches that are arguably among the 100 best pro wrestling matches ever.

Io Shirai remained a top 3 worker until she started setting her sights on the American sports-entertainment promotion WWE. Io Shirai made her NXT debut in the summer of 2018. She was renamed Iyo Sky when she made her main roster WWE debut in the summer of 2022.

What made Io Shirai so great was her tremendous athletic ability, which she was able to combine with a great feel for timing and accuracy. This, along with her stunning appearance, made her one of the most exciting wrestlers to watch in action. Whenever Io Shirai was wrestling, you knew it definitely wouldn’t be boring.

Io Shirai wrestled several high-quality matches over the years, and here is a list of Io Shirai’s 15 best matches:

0:00-0:29 Io Shirai was among the best wrestlers of the 2010s
0:30-0:52 Io Shirai and new Joshi Puroresu promotion STARDOM rose together
0:53-1:13 Io Shirai was the best wrestler of 2015
1:14-1:38 Io Shirai becomes WWE sports entertainer IYO SKY
1:39-2:02 Io Shirai is a great athlete and exciting wrestler
2:03-2:29 Io Shirai’s 15 best matches


Genius Of The Sky; Io Shirai; IYO SKY; IYO SKY Profile; IYO SKY Biography; IYO SKY Hall Of Fame; IYO SKY Hall of Talent; IYO SKY Documentary; IYO SKY Career Retrospective; IYO SKY Wrestler History; STARDOM; WWE; 

The tag team known as Thunder Rock, Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani were friends, very good friends, but they were better enemies. On May 15, 2016, they had a truly great match against each other, one of the best singles matches in STARDOM history, a 4.75-star match. They also had memorable matches against each other on December 22, 2016 and June 21st, 2017. As Mayu would say, "check it out!"

IYO SKY is one of the most exciting active wrestlers. The Genius Of The Sky is a great high flying wrestler who rose to prominence in STARDOM in the 2010's, where she quickly became the promotions ace and had classic matches teaming with Mayu Iwatani as Thunder Rock and against Iwatani for the World of STARDOM Title. She was one of the 3 best female wrestlers of the 2010's along with Kana (Asuka) and Arisa Nakajima, and was particularly great in 2015, where Thunder Rock had one of the joshi puroresu matches of the decade against Jumonji Sisters. #stardom #wwe #iyosky #joshipuroresu #puroresu #womenswrestling

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero

After being endlessly passed over by Gedo during his first 7 years in New Japan, Zack Sabre Jr. has had an amazing 5 months. He became the second foreign wrestler to win the G1 Climax, the first wrestler to successfully cash in that IWGP World Heavyweight Title shot before the Tokyo Dome, the 2nd foreigner to win the Tokyo Sports MVP award, the 1st foreigner to successfully defend the heavyweight title at Wrestle Kingdom, and 1st wrestler to successfully defend the heavyweight title in back-to-back nights at the Tokyo Dome.

Finally headlining the Tokyo Dome, much less doing it back to back nights, put Zack Sabre Jr. at the top of arguably the grandest stage in pro wrestling. Unfortunately, neither match turned out to be one Sabre should be remembered for. The Shota Umino debacle was one of the worst examples of how Gedo's unnecessarily unending matches remove options and undermine the potential for the performers to be entertaining by putting them in a defensive energy conservation mode. The Ricochet match succeeded at being enjoyable by being kept to a reasonable length, but it was just an exhibition for Ricochet's athleticism, with the AEW star avoiding anything that could be described as mat work like the plague. The memorable match from the Tokyo Dome double shot was Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd because Omega got to do what Sabre didn't, deliver one of his own signature matches.

Despite the world stage that Sabre has been on, the matches he should be most remembered for during this recent run are his less publicized encounters with Mexico's grappling wizard Hechicero. As memorable as their August 24th, 2024 RevPro match that not only blew away everything AEW did the following day for All In London at the enormous Wembley Arena, but was also one of the handful of best matches of the year, their 4th encounter at New Japan Battle In The Valley 2025 on January 11th, 2025 in San Jose Civic is their masterpiece. The way pro wrestling works today, a non title semifinal on a show that only drew 1800 fans isn't supposed to exceed the big main event title matches, but perhaps it was because this setting allowed them to deliver the technical wrestling masterclass they are capable of in its purest form that it was so magnificent. One could argue that this should have been the main event rather than the Desperado's Junior Heavyweight Title defense against Taiji Ishimori that was the rematch of their very good Super Junior Final from June 9th, 2024. Perhaps by not having to meet a certain level of expectations for New Japan, rather than something tailored to the actual strengths of the individuals involved, Sabre and Hechicero didn't fall prey to the cookie cutter approach that leads to the typical forms, tropes, and match length of the promotion, and instead delivered the match only they were capable of.

Every match between Zack Sabre Jr. and Hechicero has been better than the last one, which is an incredibly impressive feat given these guys aren't youngsters who are just improving with experience, and they've now had recommendable matches in 4 different leagues across 3 countries. They seemed much more confident in themselves here, but more importantly, their familiarity has allowed them to push things that much further with one another. This was pretty much a submission jam session. To some extent, their first couple of matches were like two great jazz musicians who hadn't played together before. Now they've really gelled together, understanding how to set each other up and coexist in a manner that not only brings out the best in both, but takes each other to a higher level. This was by far the best they've worked together, and it felt like they fully trusted their style and their capabilities.

Hechicero really stepped up his game here. He finally felt like something of an equal. That was crucial for the higher level of difficulty style they were now able to work, where every motion solicited a countermotion. They were countering back and forth to negate the pressure of the opponent and apply some of their own, rather than just taking turns doing their holds. This was constant motion grappling at its finest, at least outside of what Johnny Saint was doing in World of Sport or Volk Han was doing in RINGS back in the day. They never really stayed in the same position, always trying to move and adjust to shift the leverage and pressure into their favor. Nothing really worked for either, but I mean that in the most complimentary way because both knew what they were doing in every situation, and just naturally had an answer.

This was the first of their four matches where it felt like they truly just did what they wanted to do, which was daring because the crowd didn't have a wrestler to obviously root for this time, and the style was that much further from what they normally see. Their 2024 matches were out of the ordinary overall, but much less so for the crowds they worked for, given they did more of a lucha submission style in CMLL on 6/22 where the crowd rooted for Mexican Hechicero and more of a World of Sport technical style on 8/24 in RevPro, where the crowd rooted for British Zack Sabre Jr. The crowd predictably wasn't nearly as into this as their previous two matches because there wasn't a wrestler from their country to root for, but they got more and more earned applause as the bout progressed. 

This was more of an elaborate, flowing mat style than we'd previously seen from them where the fans were won over by the quality, and given what they'd see in virtually any other modern match, the "originality". The matwork was a fluid, flowing, shifting counter sequence until someone escaped. The match never slowed up or let down when they were locked up. They had resets when someone escaped, but both guys were playing offense and defense the entire time they were in range of one another, and this gave it the air of a serious submission grappling fight even though there could have been more resistance shown.

It's so rare to see a 23 minute match in this day and age that is never remotely stagnant. They were always moving and adjusting, twisting and turning, shifting and contorting. It was never predictable, as it wasn't about any one move, it was about the quest to find the one that the other somehow didn't have the answer for. To an extent, they were just showing us every position they could think of, but that worked because the story of the match was that both always had the solution, and they were able to pull it off so it didn't have that usual pro wrestling feel of one guy just waiting around for the other to do his thing. 

They worked in some moves here and there, but it didn't feel like they were forcing them just to check off the boxes. This match has a ton of style and finesse. I love Zack's matches against Will Ospreay, but they obviously were never going to be Zack's matches the entire way. That isn't a knock on them, or on Ospreay. Even though Will's British wrestling training seemed to focus on Lucha Libre and the more modern hodgepodge of international gymnastics oriented wrestling, he understands Zack's style well enough to make those portions work, and his flying certainly adds to those matches because Zack understands how to incorporate it usefully. It's great to see a match that doesn't have to become something else because the opponent has "stuff to do" though. Sabre & Hechicero were able to move away from the submissions at times in the 2nd half without it feeling jarring. One can argue the merits of total discipline vs. variety, but regardless, it definitely never felt like they were suddenly doing a different match. Hechicero's agility for his size and his charisma worked better here as minor factors to liven things up for fans who aren't used to real graps, while not distracting from the match they were doing by feeling too out of place. 

It's fantastic that Zack got to headline two Tokyo Dome shows, and even got to win there, but Zack has to be portrayed as a unique talent. He's not someone that's going to awe you by looking at him, or by theoretically doing a better version of the same thing everyone else does. You have to see him work his magic. A ridiculously overlong match that both workers have no choice but to slow down considerably for and an opponent who avoided the ground entirely obviously wasn't going to be conducive to satisfying Zack's existing fans, or more importantly, creating new ones. This Hechicero match was a real Zack Sabre match for sure though.

In comparison to their previous matches, this was much more intricate and less cooperative and posed. They just went hold for hold for 23 minutes 43 seconds in a very artistic manner. They were moving while thinking, working hard to outsmart each other with a creative submission or an unforeseen pinfall. The selling didn't make the match too unrealistic because they either did it while continuing to wrestle or saved it for the resets. There were minor diversions here and there, but the match was so refreshing because it wasn't trope laden and overdone. There was no flipping and flopping, writhing and contorting. They didn't looklike they were auditioning for the 3rd grade drama club. They kept it to a reasonable length where they were able to go hard the whole time. All in all, this match was remarkably refreshing, both for New Japan as a promotion, and for these wrestlers who couldn't rely on the newness of the matchup now that we've seen them wrestle 3 times in 7 months.

The flash pin that Zack loves so much to keep these programs against the few tekkers alive may have been a bit anticlimactic. From start to finish, these guys were separated by almost nothing, and the quest to outmaneuver the opponent was the story of the entire match. Even though a submission was obviously the ideal finish for the match itself, Zack seemed to challenge Hechicero to a match for his own title even though he was the one who won, so the fully decisive finish would have worked against our chance to get what will most likely be the true highlight of Zack's title reign. The flash pin was at least a much better finish than what we get in most pro wrestling theme matches where they focus on an appendage, only to win with some kind of random big blow or bomb that had nothing to do with anything else they did. What we got may not have been ideal, but was certainly much better than if Zack randomly won with his Zack driver.  

This is probably the purest grappling match they'll ever have. It felt uncompromised, and like the reason they became pro wrestlers in the first place, even though pro wrestling had shifted very far away from their style of wrestling long before they got involved. Two weeks into 2025, it sounds like hyperbole, but it doesn't feel like any other match you're likely to see from a mainstream wrestling promotion in 2025 will provide better technical grappling, barring a rematch or Bryan Danielson coming back to face one of these guys. While Bryan Danielson's February 11th, 2024 match against Zack was better overall, this Zack vs. Hechicero match was actually a lot more smooth and flowing then what Danielson would do with either should he make his triumphant return.

There are a lot of styles of pro wrestling, but in 2025, they all boil down to being the wrestler's choice of high spots and the dead time in between that preferred brand of spectacle. Too many wrestlers are just trying to be someone greater who came before them, doing matches that are someone else's outdated notion of what a wrestling match should be, usually ignoring the most basic things we've learned from real wrestling or fighting, such as takedowns are the way a match goes from standing to the ground. What made this match great is that it ignored the stop and start style that makes everything disjointed and lacking in cohesion, believability and momentum, and instead gave us a geniune continuum. They just kept working consistently until they found a logical point to momentarily break the chain and restart it. And that's the way a fight goes, you defend yourself until once in a while a position changes and you maybe get a second or two to think about your next entry or method of attack. We need more matches like this that are less simplistic and constrained, boxed in and stretched out. 

I like what Zack had to say about his outlook on pro wrestling in a recent PWI interview. "I think the most important thing about pro wrestling is that it can be whatever you want it to be or whatever it can be. So, the restriction is only what the wrestler puts on themselves, or whether it’s another form of art, or sport, or entertainment, or whatever it is.  The key is just being sincere in this context. The rest that you want to be, I think people can connect with that, if the sincerity is there." Zack is one of the few who clearly has that sincerity. He's great because he's genuine, and genuinely great. I give this match 4.5 stars out of 5.


Technical Wrestling Masterclass Zack Sabre Jr vs Hechicero 1-11-25 NJPW Battle In The Valley 2025 San Jose Civic Great Match Review

Zack Sabre Jr. continues his great run with the best of his four matches against CMLL's Hechicero. This technical wrestling masterclass from NJPW Battle In The Valley 2025 1/11/25 at the San Jose Civic improves upon their 10/19/18 PWG, 6/22/24 CMLL, & 8/24/24 RevPro matches through a willingness to stick to the submission wrestling throughout, and do a back and forth, answer for answer grappling clinic where every motion solicited a countermotion. This wrestling match review discusses what is probably the purest grappling match they'll ever have, and is likely to be the best technical wrestling match of 2025. #njpw #puroresu #zacksabrejr

Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd

An all-time great comeback performance by "The Best Bout Machine". Kenny Omega returned in great form, still able to carry his opponent to probably the best match of their career. This was inarguably another great one man show from Omega, given he still tried to find a way to pull a match of the year out of an opponent who is nowhere near that level despite it being his first match in 13 months after surviving a life-threatening bout of diverticulitis. Whether or not he succeeded was another story.

There's a lot of sentimentality surrounding Omega's comeback, and Omega is one of the only current wrestlers that truly makes people feel something during his matches. The more emotional weight his matches carry, the more excess and silliness he can get away with. There's a lot of issues with this match, but at the same time, it's a lot better than almost all the recent matches over 30 minutes, and thus all the New Japan main events, or recent bloody and hardcore style matches in general, which usually combine aimless walking around the arena with endless setup. The standard is quite low for all of this stuff, and thus fans of any of it, which there are certainly of, are through the roof about this bout. 

Kenny Omega actually knows what he's doing, but even though he understands how to work a high level match better than arguably any active wrestler, this was still a mess and not particularly plausible by any standard. It's certainly an enjoyable ride, and in an era where most wrestling is just goofy, goofy fun rules supreme. By being built around big moments and going in multiple directions, it hits on enough things that people like that the general illogic of it all is largely forgiven. And that's fine, it's much more important that Omega is still capable of doing a high level match at 41 years old after a health scare that had us wondering if his career was over than it is that this actually wasn't one of the greatest matches of his hall of fame career. 

Omega largely stuck to the one man show formula he's used at the Tokyo Dome since he miraculously managed to drag a notable match out of the talentless, clueless, moveless Gedobot, Kazuchika Okada, on January 4th, 2017. To some extent, that's because Omega has continued to get opponents who were nowhere near his level, with washed up Chris Jericho & Hiroshi Tanahashi the following years. The one exception, and the one great match of the bunch, was on January 4th, 2023 against Will Ospreay because Ospreay is always capable of providing as much flashy offense as an opponent asks of him. These Omega matches provide tons of spectacle one way or another, and with Will, you never have to worry about it failing to be an extravaganza.

Gabe Kidd, who at 27-years-old is entering his prime, is better than the versions of Chris Jeriatric and crippled Tanahashi that Omega faced at the Dome. Kidd at least executes with impact and conviction, and can make his small and simple move set look good. That already puts him above any version of mechanical, telegraphed, and wimpy Okada, although there's really only two variations given Okada never improved or evolved, the initial posable try hard, and the recent broken down try not at all. 

Kidd is already in his 14th year as a pro despite his young age, and while he was never any kind of massive prospect, he's worked hard to become an effective if still somewhat limited wrestler. His tough guy act is somewhat cringy and tedious, but he'll show enough attitude, energy, and effort to get by in a match of reasonable length where he can roughhouse and do a few suplexes and drivers without getting too repetitive beyond the endless swearing, which I'm not bothered by, but is still obviously a crutch that he abuses to dramatically diminishing returns. So far despite being in King of Excess, New Japan Pro Wrestling for 6 years, Kidd has only wrestled 3 singles matches that went past the 20 minute mark, his Strong Openweight Title win over Eddie Kingston on May 11th, 2024 that went long enough that Kingston has yet to wrestle again, a 21 minute 23 second loss challenging Shingo Takagi for the NEVER Openweight Title on May 4th, 2024, and a 20 minute 27 second double KO against HENARE on February 4th, 2024. Kidd's performance tonight was far better than Shota Umino gave earlier in the show where it just felt like Claudio Castagnoli was pulling a lifeless doll around, and miles better than the soperific performance Umino gave in the neverending bore against Zack Sabre Jr. the night before. 

Kenny was checking off all the boxes and padding the time because it was New Japan at the Tokyo Dome rather than because he was wrestling an opponent that actually called for an "epic". Kenny's wrestling against Kidd's brawling would have been more than fine for 15 or 20 minutes, especially since the match was never competitive in the first place. Kidd would have been able to hold his own a lot more, and would likely have given a performance he could actually build on and follow up, which would be helpful given he was the big winner of the weekend in terms of earning new fans. But every big New Japan match has to go on eternally, so one has to question where that leaves the current version of Kidd. He'll undoubtedly have other good matches in 2025, and he'll probably be a lot more responsible for most of them, but he's probably not going to look much better than Umino did if he's going to be required to start having a bunch of 35 minute matches that he won't be able to sustain his energy and intensity for in order to move up the card.

One of the huge differences between Omega and Will Ospreay is Omega is able to make his offense seem significant by using his moves to tell a story. Omega varies the moves he uses from match to match enough that his matches feel individual, but left to his own devices, Ospreay is just showing us the same series of meaningless spectacle night in and night out. If there's variety in Will's match, it's coming from the opponent leading him to something different. Omega looks at the match as something beyond the collection of moves he performs. I don't think there was a match from 2024 that I noted so many spots from, and to an extent that was because Omega wasn't wrestling. Even though this match stalls out at a couple points, almost everything they do is notable in some way. A lot of it is simply putting a spin on the normal performance of the move, whether it be off the top rope, through a table, or onto a chair. That's kind of level 1 here. Level 2 is that we know Kenny has been out for 13 months, and he starts telling the story of his own body potentially not being able to hold up to the pressures and stresses of his own offense even before Kidd has a chance to put him to the test. The question of whether Omega's heart and mind can overcome his current physical limitations is level 2.

Level 3 is far less successful though. The match started off with the fans fondly remembering Kenny Omega, the man who ushered in the best era of New Japan since their supposed ally promotion WCW, owned by Billionare Ted, signed their best foreign talent in Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko in the mid 90s. Omega, the legend who managed to pull quality matches out of all their old, overrated, and useless wrestlers in the days when New Japan was able to sell 2 or 3 times the tickets for the Tokyo Dome they can today was back, and the fact he choose to return in New Japan rather than in AEW showed the remaining New Japan faithful that his time there was still meaningful and special to him. Omega came out to enthusiastic cheers, and was seemingly the face, especially against another foreigner who is a heel in the BULLET CLUB War Dogs. Kidd had the New Japan lion on his pants, and was channeling the promotion's founder Antonio Inoki down the stretch though. The match tried to tell a good interpromotional story, but forgot the crucial part where they ever made you believe the representative of the home promotion could possibly win. What's worse is it did this while morphing into a story that's easy to see as the New Japan guy who hasn't got the big money offer yet because he's still a young lion failing to defend the promotion against the former ace who sold out to Billionaire Tony in the first step towards Khan derailing New Japan by buying all their names that would leave Japan. Since Kidd was losing, New Japan was better off with the fans supporting Kenny, and trying to put AEW out of their mind for half an hour. As things started out, the audience got what they wanted. As things finished, New Japan's defender proved inferior to the stolen talent, and thus showed he's probably not good enough to be All Elite. A storyline of loyalty to New Japan doesn't work for New Japan when there's 0 chance betrayal isn't triumphing. 

Kidd was able to come off as tough even when he was losing because his performance was good, but he was always just a willful and determined young boy along for the ride. The fact that under any circumstance, two gaijins were the ones chosen to battle over the honor of New Japan shows how far the promotion has fallen, but anything involving the latest musketeers is all for naught, and one to skip, so this is where we're at with post AEW New Japan, a promotion where the latest upper tier worker who both began in the league and went on to win their world heavyweight title, Yuji Nagata, debuted on September 14th, 1992. In the pre AEW world, New Japan was able to paste things together by buying Omega, Kota Ibushi, AJ Styles, & Will Ospreay, but now all these guys, in addition to former IWGP Heavyweight Champions Okada, Switchchannel Jay White, & Shinsuke Nakamura are wrestling in America. I shouldn't be surprised by them trying to sell this match as New Japan's future vs. New Japan's past given that was basically how they sold the Ospreay vs. Omega match two years ago when Will was supposed to be the big NJPW loyalist and new generation representative, before Will followed Kenny to AEW, with Kidd just being another guy left in the dark pond until Gedo can get him over enough that Tony decides to overpay for him.

Fans of Kenny's other Tokyo Dome matches will definitely like this one. It's certainly more of a return to the New Japan style that's a slower paced collection of big spots and overdramatic selling. The majority of what they actually did felt notable if not significant to me, whereas in the typical New Japan main event, it just feels like they are repeating the same old contrived routine in between the same old hokey stalling. Even though Omega utilized his basic New Japan epic one man show formula, there's enough variety in what he does that some of this felt different and special, rather than just feeling like the latest performance of the same worn out play.

Omega was dictating everything here, and Kidd was just along for the ride, but Omega is always able to tailor his match to the opponent, hence the emphasis on brawling and violence. This was definitely a different style match than Omega did in more recent notable big matches against Hijo del Vikingo, Will Ospreay, or Bryan Danielson. When we think about what's worked best for Omega since joining AEW, adding in excellent matches against Rey Fenix and PAC, it's mostly been Omega being the base for a more spectacular opponent, and thus not doing as much flying or big offense in general as he did here. Today, Kenny had to deliver the overwhelming majority of the notable spots because Kidd isn't a spectacular opponent, or one with a notable move set of any sort. Fans who were scratching their heads at why Omega chose to control his AAA match against Vikingo on July 15th, 2023 with very pedestrian rudo offense rather than bring his own big offense or let the most spectacular high flyer in the business do his thing may have been surprised to see Omega busting out the high flying and spectacle that rematch lacked, but this performance was Omega returning to the form that made his name in 2017.

The match started well, and at a reasonable pace. It was never a sprint, but slowing down as the match progressed coincided with the bombs they were throwing at each other, and all the blood they were leaking, so it was less unrealistic than the typical New Japan match where they largely just beg the crowd for any reaction and stare at each other for no reason in order to stretch 5 minutes of action into 35 minutes of dullardry. Omega apparently learned how to box in his time away from wrestling, as he was throwing jabs to the body to set up the overhand right, and actually looked fluid and flowing. The boxing opening was at Kidd's urging, but was much better done than any phony forearm trope. I would have preferred to see more of this, where they did a good job of mixing their strikes up, rather than the cliched unrealistic striking exchange we saw later on. Omega was selling his midsection from his the first moonsault he landed very early on, and the announcers told the story of the intercostal injury slowing Omega's pace before Omega even slowed it down himself.

Omega reinjured his stomach early on with his own pescado, causing the pace of the match to slow down dramatically. Kidd still couldn't sustain an advantage though, and took a Dragon suplex on the floor, and a big powerbomb through a table that magically cut his forehead despite Kidd's upper back and arm contacting the wood. These were spectacular and memorable spots, but because there was so little going on otherwise, the match began to fall apart by descending into nonsense and inactivity even though the best portions of the brawling segment would have helped the match if incorporated better. This segment crawled, with what brawling they did lacking the energy and wildness that makes a violent match come off as a grudge match. It's an unrealistic standard to try to hold random matches to the level of intensity and hatred delivered by the Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori bloodbath from All Japan Women Dreamslam 1 on April 2, 1993, except that people are ranking Omega vs. Kidd as a top 10 match of all-time when it would have to be a terrible 2025 for it to even be a top 10 match of this year. 

AEW ref Bryce Rembsberg was among the pile of seconds taken out by Omega's awesome swandive tope con giro over the guard rail, but they were already out of the ring for 6 uninterrupted minutes by that point, and 8 minutes since Kidd suplexed Omega to the floor. Then it was another 4 minutes before Omega got to the apron and could arguably have broken the count if there were a ref, before another 3 minutes outside with Kidd putting him through a table. Excluding 1 or arguably 2 momentary interruptions, there were 16 consecutive minutes on the floor followed by a chair battle in the ring. Remsberg just got hit by Omega's arm, but was somehow never seen again, with Red Shoes Umino replacing him 10 minutes later. If literally half the match was going to be outside the ring, why not just bill it as a hardcore or no rules match instead of finding a bunch of unbelievable ways to turn it into one?

Wrestling would be a lot better if they didn't always make the refs look ridiculous. MMA refs are there to protect the fighter by stopping the match when they can't instantly continue. Pro wrestling refs are just there to count pins because forcing the actors to actually maintain the believability of a real fight would prevent them from taking endless naps during their no stakes performances. Even though a lot of this was overdone, it still felt like a struggle most of the time. Outside the ring though, the match just stalled out. First, it took Kidd a minute to make such a small cut on his forehead that I would have believed he used a blood capsule if not for the fact that it couldn't take that long for him to go that route. He stopped bleeding so quickly though, with all traces of the cut, and most traces of the blood gone well before the match ended. The endless selling after Kenny's dive over the guardrail was just too much. They could easily have gotten the point of Omega injuring his hip across two minutes sooner while much more believably moving on to Gabe finally hitting the body shot to make his comeback. 

After some chair shots to the gut, Kidd suplexed Omega through a table to bust Omega's forehead open, and soon superplexed him onto a pile of chairs. The injury cost Kenny, as he was finally about to finish after another tope con giro and a big avalanche Dragon suplex, but his midsection hurt too much to execute his one-winged angel. He tried it again, but Kidd slipped out into Inoki's manjigatame. Omega tried to Frankensteiner his way out of a powerbomb, but Kidd spiked him on his head with a Toshiaki Kawada ganso bomb. Omega took an awesome bump on a piledriver, but he was able to get his foot on the ropes. Despite these couple of big spots, it was still more a question of whether Omega could beat Kidd before his body gave out again, rather than if Kidd could actually beat Omega. In the end, Omega hit his one-winged angel to score the victory at 31 minutes 55 seconds.

This was kind of the good and bad of modern wrestling. They did a lot of notable things that were interesting and well performed, but the middle ground of the setup to the moves or the progression to the sequences no longer exists, so the match typically felt kind of empty. Beyond some strikes and unprotected chair shots, they did theoretically game changing spots or nothing at all, so it lacked the intensity and excitement that comes with a sense of the fighters having earned what they were able to pull off, and obviously, in half an hour, only so many spots can really change anything. The spots were at least somewhat meaningful because they tried to tell a story. They didn't just blow through the moves, but that was mostly because they didn't maintain any kind of pace. It was very overdramatic, a combination of spectacular set pieces and dead time. The excessive drama didn't come off as poorly as in all the other matches on these back to back Tokyo Dome shows because they did really impressive and damaging looking things that one could actually believe would stun the opponent, and they also lost a lot of blood. I'm one of the many fans who is thrilled to have Omega back. The big takeaway is that he can still perform at the highest level. This was very good, but I'm now confident it won't be his best match of 2025. I rate this match 3.5 stars out of 5.
    
0:00-0:25 Kenny Omega gives an all-time great return performance
0:26-1:01 Kenny Omega's comeback from diverticulitis carries a lot of emotional weight
1:02-1:39 Kenny Omega is still capable of doing a high level match
1:40-2:21 Kenny Omega did the one man show formula that's worked for him at the Tokyo Dome
2:22-2:47 Gabe Kidd is a better Tokyo Dome opponent for Kenny Omega than Kazuchika Okada, Chris Jericho, or Hiroshi Tanahashi were
2:48-3:59 Gabe Kidd has worked hard to improve
4:00-4:49 Kenny Omega did an epic because it was the Tokyo Dome
4:50-5:55 Unlike Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega varies his offense and matches enough to make them feel individual
5:56-7:35 Gabe Kidd defending New Japan against the traitors who took Tony Khan's money to join AEW didn't work for New Japan because  Kidd had no chance of winning
7:36-8:47 Gabe Kidd is better than the Reiwa Musketeers
8:48-9:18 The match will appeal to fans of Kenny Omega's other Tokyo Dome matches
9:19-10:20 Kenny Omega has had better matches since joining AEW when he didn't have to be the spectacular one
10:21-11:14 Kenny Omega learned how to box
11:15-12:12 Kenny Omega reinjured his stomach early on
12:13-12:59 Bryce Rembsberg was somehow taken out of the match by Kenny Omega's swandive tope con giro
13:00-13:52 The match should just have been billed as a no rules or hardcore match
13:53-14:40 Kenny Omega bled too
14:41-15:50 The match exemplified both the good and bad of modern wrestling

Kenny Omega makes his triumphant return from a near fatal bout of diverticulitis, picking up right where he left of, and proving he's still "The Best Bout Machine". Delivering one of his great one man show performances, Kenny Omega carries Gabe Kidd to the best match of his career, an epic spectacle and violent bloody brawl where New Japan loyalist and next generation representative Kidd fails to defend his promotion against former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Omega, who was the first of many New Japan stars to leave the promotion when Tony Khan started AEW in 2019. An early match of the year candidate, and one of the most anticipated and talked about wrestling matches of 2025. Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd 1/4/25 NJPW AEW CMLL Wrestle Dynasty at the Tokyo Dome wrestling match review.  #aewwrestling #kennyomega #njpw

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Continental Classic 2024 Gold League: Claudio Castagnoli [9] vs Darby Allin [6] 11:16

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Drby Allin was one of the most obvious matches Tony Khan could have booked. You have the best ragdoll bumper in AEW in Darby for top strongman Claudio to toss around. You also have arguably the best base in AEW, if it's not The Beast Mortos, in Claudio, to make Darby's daredevil stunts a little less unsafe, and his flash pins that much more impressive. Darby is most memorable for being courageous. Whether he's being a stuntman or taking a hellacious beating, Darby is all heart and determination. The 9 inch size difference, and huge discrepancy in strength make Darby even more of an underdog. Darby is great at making this sort of match compelling by emphasizing his dramatic speed advantage, and never giving up on himself. 

Claudio & Darby are just made to be opponents. Somehow, it took Khan almost 3 years to finally book them, but now he's making up for lost time, running it twice in a month. Their first match on November 20th, 2024 was quite good in its own right, but this December 21st rematch as part of AEW's Continental Classic 2024 League was a big step up in most ways, as they have more chemistry now, and did a more dynamic and exciting match where Darby was more competitive, even though he came in very banged up, and lost once again. Allin gets beat down, but he perseveres, and always finds a way to give himself chances, brief as they may be.

Darby is arguably the best TV wrestler in AEW, as his style being based upon speed, danger, and urgency is more suited to the typical 10-15 minute match length. He really seems like he's trying to accomplish something with his speed demon stuff. He's not powerful enough to just go toe to toe with most opponents, but he's one of the few small guys that makes us believe he'll practically be murdered if he fails to counter. He's willing to kill himself to hopefully kill the opponent a little more though, assuming he's fast enough to capitalize on his narrow windows of opportunity. At probably 150 pounds, Allin's margins are small, but he and Lio Rush are the AEW wrestlers who are fast, opportunistic, and hard working enough to get you invested in seeing them try to overcome the odds. 

Darby definitely doesn't have one of the best high-flying movesets in the company. He doesn't do that many different moves, and the standard version of his signature coffin drop is pretty pedestrian to be a big high flying move in 2024, but he has good variations of the coffin drop that he'll do to the floor or boomeranging off the ropes. A lot of Darby's offense is simply flash pins, but with his speed, it's somewhat believable that he could actually surprise somebody. What separates Darby is everything athletic he does is so much faster and more explosive than virtually any other high flyer. He's AEW's most exciting wrestler in terms of having the extra gear to make his athletic offense actually seem exciting and useful within the context of the match. He sets up and performs his offense fast and convincingly enough to make it less unbelievable, all of which make his offense superior to the much slower and more contrived gymnastic forms of Ricochet, despite Ricochet being able to do mid air rotations that Darby presumably can't.

Claudio vs. Darby is arguably the AEW pairing that will provide the best big man vs. little man match. Claudio hasn't been booked well in AEW, but his standing has risen by default due to Bryan Danielson being turned on then sadly gone, elevating Claudio to Jon Moxley's number 1 lacky. Claudio is actually portrayed properly, as a monster strongman, in these matches against Darby. Whether people are willing to buy into that long term may be another story given how inconsistent and ineffective Khan's booking always is, but these two were able to tell an in match story that at least temporarily made up for some of Tony's previous missteps. 

Logically structured with Claudio dominating, but Darby making a bunch of brief comebacks using his speed and guile to counter into flash pins and hope spots, the match was a joy to watch. Everything Darby did to try to counteract Claudio's size and strength was fast and exciting. They kept the match tight and compact, pairing things down to the essential. 

Claudio won their first match using a brutal giant swing into the ring steps to set up standing on one ringside table and doing a massive press slam onto another table, which didn't even break to help cushion the impact. That essentially ended the match, which was good in terms of the killer spot being more than another throwaway moment to garner a nanosecond pop and some likes on social media, but it felt like the 1st match was missing the final act where Darby found a way to push Claudio, or at least give him a scare or two. Claudio obviously isn't an opponent Darby needs to be almost knocking out a bunch of times. They wisely didn't go crazy trying to make it look like Darby had the match won, instead focusing on him trying to be opportunistic. 

The match started quickly, like both their Continental Classic matches vs. Will Ospreay, but did a better job of maintaining the high level throughout. Darby was fast and urgent as always, hitting a tope before Claudio could enter the ring, and a plancha from "15, 20 ft in the air" according to Tony Schiavone.

Once the bell rang, Claudio gained the early advantage, and was largely able to roll with it, tossing Darby around and mauling him. With Claudio's size, he was reasonably getting in the bulk of the offense. I liked Darby using his athleticism to outmaneuver Claudio in their 1st match, but that strategy ultimately didn't work because Claudio was still too devastating with what he was eventually able to land. Darby upped his game this time, recklessly throwing his body at Claudio with every offensive maneuver. Darby as the human battering ram, sacrificing his body hoping diving through the ropes or off the top rope would inflict more punishment on Claudio than it did on himself was an overall improvement. It was a more desperate and dramatic strategy, showing more desire to somehow overcome the odds, even if not in an ideal manner. 

Claudio was somewhat able to avoid Darby's dives last time, but Darby was more urgent and determined this time. There were more stunts and big bumps in this encounter, even though again Darby was mostly trying to get a flash pin. There was a great spot where Claudio kicked out of a roll up, but Darby went right into a boomerang body press for another near fall. They actually did a variation of this in their 1st match, but it came so early that it was a throwaway where Claudio reasonably kicked out at 1. 

Darby was all banged up coming into the match, with lower back and rib issues. He was going on guts before this big challenge even began, which left him more prone to getting overpowered by his hulking oppponent. Claudio brutalized Darby's injured body with his power moves. Darby was a bumping machine as always who was fighting from underneath. Anytime the pace slowed down in the 1st match, Darby was losing, so he just threw caution to the wind here, doing his best to create chaos. Even though Darby doesn't have a huge move set, he mixes up when and how he does things quite a bit, so his matches are less predictable and samey.

Darby keeps taking crazy bumps where the edge of the ring apron is the only thing that braces his fall to the floor. In this match, the ring apron slowed down Claudio body slamming Darby over the top rope. Claudio was all high impact destruction, including his giant swing into the ring steps. Their first match was a lot more one-sided. Darby sells like crazy in these matches, but he does so through grimacing and showing struggle, rather than by endlessly playing dead, so his selling doesn't feel as phony, or slow the match down too much.

Everything in this match from Darby was fast and wild, while Claudio was brute force personified. Darby dove off the apron into a standing rear naked choke, only to have Claudio put him through a table with a big dive to break the hold. Darby countering the superplex with a scorpion death drop was impressive, but really the only spot that felt too slow and clunky to set up. Darby got his final hope spot countering the ricola bomb with a code red. Claudio then managed to hit two ricola bombs, but Darby still wouldn't stay down, so Claudio resorted to brass knuckles to finally knock him out. Claudio rarely if ever loses his cool, so one could argue that Darby's resilience putting Claudio over the edge may have helped lessen the impact of Darby suffering yet another defeat. The cheap and lazy finish seems to instead be the reason this match isn't getting nearly the credit it deserves though. It's probably the best AEW TV match of 2024, but the finish was lame enough that I'm not ready to give it a quarter star higher than the 3.5 stars I gave Konosuke Takeshita vs. Darby Allin from January 3rd, Bryan Danielson vs. Hechicero from February 3rd, Will Ospreay vs. Claudio Castagnoli from April 17th, Will Ospreay vs. Rey Fenix from June 12th, Bryan Danielson vs. PAC from July 3rd, Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet from October 2nd, or Darby Allin vs. Will Ospreay from December 18th, and could possibly decide one of these matches was actually better if I binge rewatched them. 

At the moment, I'm certain this was better than Darby vs. Will Ospreay from December 18th because Claudio was doing all the things he does well, things that make Darby look better, while Ospreay was just trying to be Claudio, really. I credit Will for actually doing something different against Darby than the top this style he always does against another elite athlete, but while he typically tried his best, he certainly wasn't setting Darby up nearly as well as someone like Claudio who makes a living making the opponent look better. The best part of Darby vs. Claudio was definitely the wild opening. Before Tony Khan further undermined his mythical "sports based presentation" of late with these gimmicky shortcuts, it would probably have closed a little stronger. 

At 11 minutes 16 seconds, the December 21st Darby vs. Claudio was 2 1/2 minutes shorter than their November 20th meeting. That makes sense, not only because everyone in the tournament was doing at least 5 singles matches in a month, but the story they have been telling is that Darby should not have been able to survive as long as he did. I still don't buy the idea that Darby is progressing because Claudio needed to beat him by cheating this time. I think that most of what AEW has done since the plan to have Darby take the title from Bryan Danienson was leaked has been an unmitigated disaster, with the unwatchable Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy program driving even the promotions remaining loyalists off in droves, but that's a different subject. The issue relevant to this match review is that Darby's stock has dramatically dropped by losing his signature gimmick match for no reason to Jungle Jackass at Wembley Stadium, losing his title challenge to Moxley on September 25th, then losing twice to Moxley's lieutenant Claudio without getting any sort of revenge on The Death Riders whatsoever. Not even making it to the semifinals of the Incontinence Classic, and not even being booked on the last few PPVs is just adding insult to injury. I'm guessing someday Darby will just get the big win, and everyone will be relieved that Moxley's terrible reign has come to an end, but this isn't the leadup to winning the world title that's going to allow Allin to carry the company from a business standpoint. He'll unfortunately just get a handful of main events and essentially be forgotten like poor Swerve Strickland if some better plans aren't drawn up quickly.
 
Wrestling match review of Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin, a Gold League Match in the AEW Continental Classic 2024 from AEW Collision #74 Christmas Collision on 12/21/24 from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. A very good big man vs. little man match between best ragdoll bumper in AEW and the best base in AEW. This is probably the best AEW TV match of 2024. #aew #allelitewrestling #aewwrestling #aewcollision #darbyallin #claudiocastagnoli #wrestling #professionalwrestling #prowrestling #wrestlingmatchreviews

0:00-0:41 AEW's best bumper Darby Allin vs. AEW's best base Claudio Castagnoli
0:42-1:18 Tony Khan finally books this obvious matchup
1:19-1:59 Darby Allin is AEW's best TV wrestler
2:00-2:54 Darby Allin is better than Ricochet
2:55-3:28 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin is AEW's best big man vs. little man match
3:29-3:46 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin was logically structured
3:47-4:25 Claudio Castagnoli won their first match
4:26-4:40 Darby Allin did a plancha from 20 feet in the air
4:41-5:23 Claudio Castagnoli mauled Darby Allin
5:24-5:50 There were more stunts and big bumps
5:51-6:24 Claudio Castagnoli brutalized Darby Allin's injured body with his power moves
6:25-8:17 Claudio Castagnoli had to use brass knuckles to win
8:18-8:55 Claudio Castagnoli vs Darby Allin was better than Will Ospreay vs Darby Allin
8:56-10:23 Darby Allin needs to be booked better if he's going to carry the company as World Champion

Liger vs Hase 5/6/91

The best heavyweight and the best junior heavyweight in New Japan delivered a nearly 30 minute old school technical match at Korakuen Hall. This obviously wasn't going to be a sprint, but it never felt dragged out, phony, or empty like the ridiculously overrated Muto vs Chono G1 Final. This match is essentially the same length, but they work the whole time. There's no sitting around not defending themselves and not trying to finish after a near fall to take extra rests. There's no standing there holding hands pretending to exert force that obviously isn't even remotely there. They took the whole match seriously, doing a good job of resisting each other, and showing us they didn't want to be on the defensive. Holds actually looked painful. While this may lack the elegance of the British style technical wrestling or the credibility of shoot style grappling, they definitely make what they're doing feel dangerous and important. Although they battled over the junior title in 1989, with Liger taking the title on 5/25/89 to transition Hase into the heavyweight division, Hase's advantage here was that he was an Olympic wrestler to Liger's high school champion, rather than simply that he was bigger. They didn't force their arm attacks, and while both were faces, that didn't stop them from doing a good job of being vicious because they were doing what it took to win. They knew when to pick things up, and had some nice payback spots. Given this was a small show for New Japan, and this was more of a novelty match, they could easily have gotten away with staying with the submission style they had established. In the last 10 minutes though, they decided they wanted to put this over at the top, and turned it into one of their old junior heavyweight high spot battles. There's a great spot late in the match where Hase pulls Liger up and overhooks him, and Liger wakes up immediately, throwing a series of desperation knees to Hase's midsection, then running him into the corner to break free. I'm not sure if Hase was setting up the Northern Lights suplex, but Liger certainly wasn't taking any chances. This is the kind of thing that makes spots seem important, not ridiculous hammy motions to the crowd to alert them that it's time to actually pay attention. Has a recovers first though, and does enough damage with his uranage to finish with his Northern Lights suplex


It's long but it feels like how to do a long match. they take everything seriously and it evolves without making you feel like what you daw earlier was meaningless
good mat stuff building properly

Gran Hamada

Hiroaki Hamada was born on November 27th, 1950 in Maebashi, Japan. Coming from a judo background, he was one of the first trainees in the history of the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo. NJPW had been founded by Antonio Inoki in January 1972, and the league had its first show on 3/6/72. After being trained by Rikidozan's final student, Kotetsu Yamamoto, Hamada made his professional wrestling debut at the age of 21 at a NJPW show on 3/16/72 when he lost to Tatsumi Fujinami.
Somewhere around June 1972, he had started working under the name Little Hamada, since he was only 5'6" tall and was approximately 200 lbs, while NJPW was a league mostly focused on heavyweights. It is generally believed that NJPW sent Hamada for excursion to Mexico because they felt he was too small. NJPW wasn't known for their junior heavyweights in the early and mid 1970s, and it wasn't until 1978, when Fujinami won the WWF Junior Heavyweight Title, that NJPW slowly started working on a junior heavyweight division.

Mexican lucha libre had a strong emphasis on several of the different lighter weight divisions, which made Mexico a perfect location for Hamada to start coming into his own as a pro wrestler. Hamada had his first matches in Mexico in July 1975 for the newly formed league Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI), which was the first true rival of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). 
Hamada was the first Japanese wrestler to truly adopt and incorporate the Mexican lucha libre style into his work. Also, it was during this Mexican excursion that he started becoming known as El Gran Hamada after being well-received by the Mexican pro wrestling community. From 1979 onward, after Hamada returned from his big Mexican excursion, NJPW finally started booking Hamada more favorably.

Hamada returned to Japan in February 1979, was now billed as Gran Hamada in Japan as well and started feuding with Perro Aguayo, a Mexican wrestler who was on his first Japanese tour, in a feud that would see them have many matches together in various Japanese and Mexican leagues from 1979 until the year 2000.
Because of having family in Mexico, Hamada went back and forth between Japan and Mexico until the late 1990s, after which he seemed to spend more time in Japan. Two of Hamada's half-Mexican, half-Japanese daughters, Xochitl and Ayako, who were both born and raised in Mexico, eventually became wrestlers in 1986 and 1998 respectively. Ayako's career taking off in the ARSION league in 1998 is presumably one of the reasons why her father decided to start spending more time in Japan and less time in Mexico.

Hamada was an excellent athlete, and he was quite the spectacular high flyer for wrestling standards in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama), was an even more spectacular and amazing athletic high flyer in that era. Of course, next to the 1982 version of Tiger Mask, almost everyone would appear to be less impressive. This is perhaps why Gran Hamada's push in NJPW only went so far, and Hamada never really became the top star of their junior heavyweight division, despite giving Sayama a run for his money.

After some internal problems in NJPW regarding finances, several wrestlers ended up leaving NJPW in the mid 1980s, including Hamada, who left in late 1983 and wouldn't return to NJPW until 1994. Hamada joined the newly formed Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1984, but his high flying lucha-influenced style didn't suit the direction of the league, a league that started out as a hodgepodge type of league that seemingly didn't truly have a clear identity yet, but by late '84 turned more into a shoot-style league.

Hamada was a member of the original roster of the UWF, but he only worked a handful of shows for UWF, and joined All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in the summer of '84. Despite being part of AJPW for nearly two years, his mid 1980s run in AJPW certainly isn't the most memorable part of his career by any means, which probably has a lot to do with AJPW not really caring about wrestlers of Hamada's size, especially after Atsushi Onita's injury ruined the future plans the Babas had for their junior heavyweight division. Hamada's AJPW matches almost never seemed to make it to TV, despite sounding potentially promising on paper.

There are not many records available of Hamada's matches from 1986-1988 (and it appears he didn't even wrestle one match in 1987), and part of the reason for this is that he had become a trainer and referee for the joshi puroresu league Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (the original JWP), the first rival of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW). Due to internal struggles, the original JWP would eventually disband and be split up in two leagues, JWP Project (JWP) and Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling (LLPW).

Hamada ended up starting his own league. Hamada's league was at times known as Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre, Universal Lucha Libre, Universal Wrestling Federation and Hamada's UWF, but to avoid confusion, let's refer to this league as Universal. It was with the founding of Universal that the first true Mexican lucha libre style league in Japan was created. You could say this was the birth of lucharesu, a blend of Mexican and Japanese styles, which is something that would live on in the future with the creation of leagues like Michinoku Pro, Toryumon and Dragon Gate, which were leagues formed by Hamada's students.

Gran Hamada didn't only train two of his daughters, he trained (and/or helped train) many male and female wrestlers during the 1980s and 1990s, and most of them became well-known wrestlers, including Plum Mariko, Ultimo Dragon, Super Delfin, The Great Sasuke, Dick Togo, TAKA Michinoku and Kaz Hayashi (a.k.a. Shiryu) among others. However, Gran Hamada also was still a relevant in-ring performer himself during the 1990s and 2000s, as his in-ring work in Universal and Michinoku Pro was some of his best work.

Universal stopped running shows at some point in 1994, and Hamada started wrestling for NJPW on a regular basis in August 1994, which meant that he started appearing at NJPW shows for the first time since 1983. While it was really interesting and useful watching Gran Hamada wrestle obscure luchadores in Universal, his NJPW run made it possible for him to be included in match-ups featuring some of the biggest names in 1990s junior heavyweight wrestling. The homicidal, suicidal and genocidal wrestler known as Sabu once said in shoot interview that Hamada was even better than Jushin Thunder Liger.

NJPW wasn't the only league Hamada wrestled for on a regular basis during the mid and late 1990s, Hamada joined Michinoku Pro (MPW), which was a league founded by Sasuke. Hamada wrestled on several MPW cards in 1993-1995, but in March 1996, Hamada fully joined the league. Hamada participated in many of Michinoku Pro's top multi-person tag team matches, including the great 10-man tag from 10/10/96. 1996 and early 1997 MPW gave the world some of the best pro wrestling ever, and Hamada was one of the most loyal and reliable performers in MPW in the 1990s.

It appears Gran Hamada only worked a few matches in the United States, and they all happened in 1997 and 1998. Five of those matches took place at ECW shows, and one of them at a show of an indy league called Century Wrestling Alliance. Unfortunately, while it seemed the year 1997 started off relatively well, it was in 1997 that the MPW workers started drifting apart. 

Shiryu left MPW for Mexico and WCW. TAKA, Togo, Shoichi Funaki and MEN'S Teio all left for the American sports-entertainment league WWF, only to end up being treated like jobbers, despite being some of the most talented performers in the wrestling business at the time.

In April 1999, Super Delfin left Michinoku Pro to start running Osaka Pro shows, and he took Noahiro Hoshikawa and Masato Yakushiji with him (they would be joined by Togo). Gran Hamada, however, remained loyal to Sasuke's MPW by continuing to work MPW shows throughout the late 1990s. Hamada also continued appearing regularly at NJPW shows in the meantime, and in 1999, he appeared in the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament for the first time since 1995.
In 2000, Hamada was once again booked as a BOSJ tournament participant. In 2002-2005, Hamada started appearing at AJPW shows for the first time since 1986. Hamada was still a very good worker overall in 2003, but it appeared that his very best years were now behind him, as he no longer stood out as much as he used to, and the quality of his matches seemed to rely more on the quality of the work of his opponents. Of course, there was no escape from that anyway, because, after all, Hamada had been wrestling since 1972 and was 52 years old in 2003, and everyone shows their age sooner or later. Hamada was still particularly effective in a tag team setting though, because that allowed him to contribute with spurts of intensity.

From 2005 onwards, the main leagues he appeared in were leagues like Osaka Pro Wrestling, Muga/Dradition, Real Japan Pro Wrestling, Wrestling New Classic and Dotonbori Pro Wrestling. In the 2010s, Hamada started having less and less matches, which was not a surprise, since he was in his 60s. In the years 2016-2018, he wrestled only a few matches, and his final match took place in 2018 at a Michinoku Pro show on 9/28/18 at the age of 67, after wrestling over 600 different wrestlers and over 2400 matches in an illustrious pro wrestling career that lasted approximately 45 years.
Not only did Gran Hamada win many titles throughout his long career, Hamada also had quite an impressive luchas de apuestas (wager matches) record, as he won several hair vs. hair matches in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. On 9/12/91 in Universal, Hamada won a hair vs. mask match against Black Power, which meant Black Power had to unmask.

Why is it important to learn about Gran Hamada's career? Hamada is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever. Prior to his Hall of Talent induction, Hamada had still not been inducted into any Hall of Fame of sorts, and this is ridiculous considering Hamada was a very influential and talented pro wrestler who had a very interesting career that started in 1972 and lasted until 2018 (and for a large number of those years, he was a very relevant worker). However, we are happy to celebrate the fact that Hamada is indeed an inductee of the Hall of Talent!

Gran Hamada was a pioneer, since he was the first Japanese pro wrestler to truly master, adopt and incorporate the Mexican lucha libre style. One of his daughters, Ayako Hamada, is pretty much a household name among fans of international women's wrestling. Gran Hamada trained a large number of other well-known wrestlers as well, and he was directly and indirectly involved in the creation of several lucharesu leagues in Japan. Hamada was essentially the father of lucharesu. Here’s my overall conclusion of Gran Hamada’s career: 

0:00-1:34 Gran Hamada's background and early career
1:35-2:08 Gran Hamada travels to Mexico to work in LLI
2:09-2:39 Gran Hamada becomes the first Japanese wrestler to truly adopt and incorporate the Mexican lucha libre style
2:40-2:48 Gran Hamada returns to Japan, feuds with Perro Aguayo
2:49-3:46 Gran Hamada's daughters Ayako & Xochilt Hamada also became wrestlers
3:47-4:26 Gran Hamada was a spectacular high flyer, but overshadowed by Tiger Mask
4:27-5:10 Gran Hamada leaves NJPW, joins UWF
5:11-5:57 Gran Hamada moves to AJPW
5:58-6:39 Gran Hamada becomes a trainer and referee for Japan's 2nd joshi puroresu league JWP
6:40-7:32 Gran Hamada starts his own promotion Universal Wrestling Federation aka FULL
7:33-8:16 Gran Hamada trained many famous male and female wrestlers
8:17-9:01 Gran Hamada returns to New Japan, earns high praise from Sabu
9:02-9:52 Gran Hamada joins Michinoku Pro Wrestling, the promotion of his student The Great Sasuke
9:53-11:08 Gran Hamada wrestles his only matches in the UWF, many of his coworkers join US Promotions
11:09-12:22 Gran Hamada returns to NJPW & AJPW
12:23-13:17 Gran Hamada's career winds down
13:18-14:28 Gran Hamada is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever
14:29-15:01 Gran Hamada was a pioneer
15:02-15:17 The best and worst years of Gran Hamada's career
15:18-16:03 Gran Hamada's best matches

Steve Grey

Steve Grey was a wrestler from Peckham, England. He started his pro wrestling career in 1970, and he started appearing on World of Sport TV in 1971. He was initially known as Steve Green, but he changed his name to Steve Grey prior to his TV debut.
 
Steve Grey was definitely not a big wrestler, as he only weighed 147 lbs., and was about 5’5½" tall. In spite of his small frame, he often competed in catchweight bouts, which meant he was taking on larger wrestlers from heavier weight divisions. Grey’s speed and agility helped him overcome the size and strength of larger opponents. However, Grey is mainly known for his great in-ring feud with the great lightweight legend Johnny Saint, and after a couple of very memorable matches against the legendary Ken Joyce in the second half of the 1970s, it was after his series of matches against Saint in the early 1980s that Grey really was able to step up his game.
 
Grey deserves credit for being able to give wrestling fans the wonderful gift of memorable wrestling matches, as he participated in some of the best matches in British wrestling history, most notably his matches against Johnny Saint and Ken Joyce, but also his matches against Jon Cortez, Keith Haward and Danny Collins are some of the most memorable grappling bouts that have appeared on British television.
 
Grey was really good at reacting and acting in the moment, often in a very quick and well-executed manner. This always made him a wrestler to keep an eye on, and it made his matches more memorable than the average bout on British television, which says a lot, since back in the day, British wrestling shown on ITV, especially during the World of Sport days, was one of the most high-end wrestling in pro wrestling history, as many top-notch bouts took place in the United Kingdom during the 1970s and 1980s. 
 
Grey’s final televised bout took place in 1988, which was also the year British wrestling stopped appearing on national television. Grey’s best years were 1980 through 1986, and he was at least excellent in all those years. 1984 was his very best year, as he was a great worker in that year and was able to assume the role of a wily veteran.
 
After watching more than three dozen Steve Grey matches, it can be safely assumed that he was indeed an excellent pro wrestler who played an important role during the final ten years of British pro wrestling on national TV. And he is arguably one of the 8 greatest British pro wrestlers ever. Here is a list of Steve Grey’s top 15 matches:

0:00-0:25 Steve Grey's background and early career
0:26-1:17 Steve Grey was a big star despite being under 150 pounds
1:18-1:49 Steve Grey had memorable matches against Johnny Saint & Ken Joyce
1:50-2:29 Steve Grey was great at reacting to the opponent
2:30-2:59 The best years of Steve Grey's career
3:00-3:57 Steve Grey's 15 best matches

A look at the amazing career of Steve Grey, one of the greatest and most talented pro wrestlers of all time. Steve Grey is one of the best British wrestlers ever, a great athlete who was able to react beautifully to his opponent to pull off the gymnastics and tumbling oriented technical wrestling style at the highest level. Steve Grey Hall of Talent wrestler profile/career retrospective/history. Steve Grey best match list. By David Carli. #britishwrestling  #worldofsport #wrestling #prowrestling #jointpromotions #classicwrestling #submissionwrestling #professionalwrestling #wrestlingclassic #classicwrestling #catchwrestling #martyjones
A more detailed version of Steve Grey Hall of Talent focusing on all his best matches can be found here: https://quebrada.net/matches/stevegreyhalloftalent.html

Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse

Volk Han had a great year in 1993, his second year in pro wrestling, rocketing past the poorly booked Kiyoshi Tamura to claim the mantle as the top worked shootfighter. One of the reasons Han surpassed Tamura for Shoot Wrestler of the Year was that he was consistently featured in RINGS. UWF-I seemed to flirt with actually doing something with Tamura when they sent him to America to train with Lou Thesz then brought him back to challenge Nobuhiko Takada for the first time in the promotions biggest native vs. native match of the year on February 14th, 1993. Tamura managed to pull by far the best match we'd seen from uninspired Takada since UWF-I began, but predictably lost, which was fine, except that they didn't square off again for another decade, and that was in Takada's retirement match at PRIDE.23 on November 24, 2002. UWF-I went right back to being a Takada vs. foreigner promotion, with all the other natives just toiling in the undercard, to the point they then made the crucial mistake of immediately jobbing Tamura to Dan "The Beast" Severn on April 10th to set up Severn putting Takada over on May 6th. Han being the top foreign attraction in RINGS, and thus being featured on almost every show, certainly helped provide opportunity for him to showcase his amazing creativity. However, Han's best match of 1993 was actually an 8 minute midcard bout against Masayuki Naruse on October 23 at Fukuoka International Center. It was an opening round match in RINGS annual year end tournament, this year billed as Battle Dimension, but it wasn't a particularly important or even competitive match. Still, it might be the best under 10 minute wrestling match ever, which shows the lengths Han went to in order to make all of his matches unique and memorable. 

Han's very good January 23, 1993 match with Andre Tournamidze was just his 10th match as a professional, with RINGS generally running one show a month, with a portion of their entire roster. All of Han's 1993 matches except his May 29th match against a washed up Willie Williams are recommended. After carrying the limited cyborg Dick Vrij to what was previously the shoot fighting match of the year on July 13th, Han finally put it all together in this bout against Naruse, elevating his match to the level of greatness that he was previously only able to show as an individual. This was genius level maestro stuff from start to finish. The moment he had Naruse in his clutches was the moment Naruse found himself propelled to his back with shocking explosion and speed, left to try to fend off an amazing chain of threats before he even knew what hit him. The match was basically an extended scramble, interrupted by Naruse's rope escapes. That's a slight exaggeration, but the whole thing was super urgent and never felt cooperative despite a ridiculous amount of flash for the genre. 

Han doesn't do MMA as chess, but that doesn't mean he isn't concerned with realistically portraying combat. He has a different focus to his realism though, relying on pedal to the metal speed to overwhelm his opponent with a barrage of attacks they have to answer. Technically, the opponent goes along with what Han is doing, but there's a great deal of brute force violence and explosion to Han's technique, so it's not unreasonable for the opponent to roll with the pressure. Because Han jerks Naruse's arm with so much conviction, it feels totally believable that Naruse would use a form of gymnastics to alleviate the pressure on his shoulder, rather than like loose cooperative lucha libre, even though movement wise it's ultimately not so different. Han's techniques are very complex, and he doesn't sacrifice being meticulous and detail oriented with the setup and execution of his joint manipulations just to be fast and aggressive. 

This feels like the sort of match where the cocky student gets put in place by the wily master. Naruse is actually one of Maeda's students, but he was just 20-years-old, and had been wrestling a little more than a year. You could say this match was a short squash, and to an extent you wouldn't be wrong. However, that was logical and not a bad thing given Han was the top foreigner, and Naruse was badly overmatched in virtually every way. If we can free ourselves from the modern mindset where every TV jobber has to play even with the world champion for at least 10 minutes, we'll realize Han's offense was world's better than anything Naruse could have done in its place if there were more back and forth. Naruse isn't a spot merchant who needs to get his flips in to make his mark. He's just a scrappy kid who was taking an extra beating, gutting it out for as long as he could against an opponent who was very believably superior. Everything Han did was awesome, delivering a match so enthralling that he managed to believably increase interest in Naruse despite it being one-sided. They packed a ton of technical action into the 8 minutes they had, 25 times the substance you'd see in virtually any modern 35 minute exhibit of New Japan bloatware. As usual, Han was doing things you don't see from anyone else, including some you've never even seen from him before. 

This isn't the format Han would be able to use against Maeda. Every match can't be the big blowout of the biggest stars though, but this match was much better for not involving Maeda, even though Naruse wasn't able to put up as much of a fight. Han would have had to slow things down and stretch things out to cater to Maeda's plodding mobility, slower pace, lower workrate, conventional offense, and general durdling. There would probably have been more bombs, and certainly the outcome would have been be in doubt, but  Maeda's mediocrity would also be siphoning a lot of Han's awesomeness in order for their more even mix to come together. Han has the moves, but he also needs someone to move with him to maximize their impressiveness. Naruse did so many things well here to make the match much interesting and exciting wrestler, Han, look that much better. Naruse is an excellent athlete and a good worker who knows how to play the underdog. He has the speed and explosion, the flexibility and the bump taking ability to make everything Han does to him seem that much more impressive. Naruse gave up a lot of size, which made it easier for Han to toss him around, but he showed a ton of fire, heart, and determination. Naruse had the crowd, and knew when a little acting would go a long way. This match was super dramatic even though Han was basically schooling Naruse, and there was no chance in hell that Naruse would win. It's difficult to pinpoint all the little things Naruse did to improve the match, or how important it was for Han to be working with the caliber of athlete who could not only keep up with him, but actually enhance what he was trying to do. It's easier to just look at Han's December 8th, 1993 match against Pavel Orlov, where Han tries to do a similar awe-inspiring match against a debuting Russian heavyweight I assume he trained, and see that it just doesn't have the same oomph. The Orlov match is very good, but he can't move with Han or react well enough to him to make similar spots reach the same awe-inspiring level they do against Naruse. Naruse didn't get a ton of licks in, but proved to be the best opponent Han has faced so far, able to match Han's speed and energy. He didn't let being outgunned get in the way of his determination. He's also a lot of fun here, spunkily refusing to back down. 

Han is so skilled that you just accept him both dominating and winning. The thing is, his drama is based on the holds and the escapes rather than the outcome, so he can move an audience almost equally well whether he's obviously winning or he's in a match that could go either way. His matches are exciting and dramatic in the more important and difficult to achieve hold for hold sense that carries you along for the ride, rather than an overarching outcome oriented sense where you kind of sleep on them then wake up for the finishing sequence. He does so many things you don't see elsewhere, keeps evolving, innovating, and inventing that he holds the audience captive in anticipation. Victory may sometimes be a foregone conclusion, but you are never hoping for his enthralling contests comes to an end. This whole match was a highlight, and so much more explosive and impressive than a retelling  could possible be.

They delivered really dynamic and energetic action from start to finish. Han had big throws and slams into submission attempts, and Naruse was taking chances in standup because the ground was going to be hopeless. Naruse had a rear naked choke attempt, but Han stood and jumped backwards for the Michael Chandler slam, then worked the leg until he had Naruse's legs split, one held against his shoulder and the other scissored with his legs. Han had Naruse dead to rights on a number of occasions, but Naruse was usually close enough to the ropes. 

Naruse may not have had a lot of moments, but he was able to establish a path to victory with an early body hook knockdown. He had answers on the ground, even though Han had 10 answers back. Han did a great job of neutralizing and/or isolating one body part so Naruse couldn't defend another, avoiding the typical silly pro wrestling situations where the opponent's only course of action is to refuse to defend themselves so they can be posed in an outrageous manner. Unlike this usual pro wrestling nonsense where the opponent magically can't go anywhere despite only 1 point of control, best exemplified by the ridiculous Kurt Angle ankle lock, Han couldn't take Naruse down with a Kimura, so he dropped down and scissored his right leg to hold Naruse in place while he worked for the Kimura on the ground.

The camera angle wasn't great, their bodies blocking us from how Han's kneebar was locked. At first glance, the end felt phony because Naruse was trapped for way too long, but actually Han was too low on the knee to warrant the submission, just scissoring it to help keep Naruse from getting his leg free while he instead worked for the heel hook. This was a case where selling in pro wrestling actually worked because Naruse reserved it for the most crucial points. His selling here even addressed our disbelief, rather than created more of it by making us wonder why he wasn't defending himself. He survived the kneebar, but also paid the price of being in it too long, and was now hobbled. One reason pro wrestling psychology fails is the matches are structured so the mat and limb work take a back seat to the highspots, and thus come very early on in most cases. Assuming any lingering effects is the grand fallacy of 21st century reviewing, going against 99% of what actually takes place in a real fight, as proved every week by every MMA show. If wrestlers did sell limb work as a serious injury rather than simply registering the opponent's offense when it happened, that would make all the showy stuff that takes place for the bulk of the match 100 times more unbelievable because it would have to take that much longer to set up the spots they couldn't even reasonably do at full speed without the opponent allowing them to. In other words, just about the entirety of everyone's move set would require the opponent to find even more ways to stand or lay around doing nothing for another minute at a time. Han and Naruse were smart enough not to extend their match after Naruse's never surrender rope escape. An injured Naruse was a sitting duck, no need to waste 5 minutes trying to convince us otherwise. Naruse had a final hope spot getting 1 last body hook in, but Han avoided his follow up attempt, buckled Naruse with a knee to the midsection, then rolled him down into an armbar for the win. Just an awesome Han clinic! The best shoot style match of 1993, and at 8 minutes 8 seconds, probably the best under 10 minute match ever! I give this match 4.5 out of 5 stars.

0:00-1:35 Volk Han is the best shoot wrestler of 1993
1:36-2:33 Watch all the 1993 Volk Han except his match against Willie Williams
2:34-3:22 Volk Han's realism is based upon a overwhelming his opponents with a barrage of speedy attacks
3:23-4:36 Masayuki Naruse is a badly overmatched student
4:37-6:39 Masayuki Naruse is a better opponent for Volk Han than Akira Maeda is
6:40-7:27 Volk Han's drama is based on the holds and escapes
7:28-7:56Volk Han vs Masayuki Naruse was really dynamic and energetic
7:57-8:40 An early body hook knockdown was key to establishing Masayuki Naruse's credibility
8:41-10:41 The finish works because Masayuki Naruse knows when to sell

Dynamite Kid vs. Katsuyori Shibata

On December 20th, at ROH Final Battle 2024, Tommy Billington battled New Japan Pro-Wrestling legend Katsuyori Shibata, who was one of the most notable wrestlers of the 21st century until getting severely injured in 2017. This bout, which took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, started off with both men countering each other. ‘Dynamite Kid’ Tommy Billington, who made his Ring Of Honor debut here, did his Dynamite Kid-style front flip into a kick up, made famous by his uncle ‘Dynamite Kid’ Tom Billlington.

Tommy did a good job taking it to Shibata, but the veteran seemingly always found ways to escape and counter. This didn’t discourage Tommy one bit, and he kept showing the fire and determination that’s inside of him. The match was wrestled at a fast pace, and the match was constantly interesting. Billington sent Shibata through the ropes onto the floor by executing a Calgary-style escape. Billington then hit a tremendous tope suicida that was reckless and effective at the same time.

Billington’s execution seems to get more smooth with each match, as he’s constantly improving and working his way towards his peak. Wrestling a legend like Shibata is definitely a good experience for Billington at this stage of his career. Billington executed a snap brainbuster. Billington knew that he needed to keep going as fast as possible and do as much damage as possible to prevent giving Shibata a chance to fight back.

Billington executed a modified Silver King dive into a DDT. Billington then executed a flying headbutt. After an intense battle that was wrestled with an excellent amount of urgency on the part of both men, it was Shibata who managed to make Billington tap. Overall, it was a very good match that lasted 9 minutes and 50 seconds. I give this match 3.5 stars.

Wrestling match review of Dynamite Kid Tommy Billington vs. Katsuyori Shibata from the ROH Final Battle 2024 PPV on 12/20/24 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York. #roh #aew #prowrestling #aewwrestling #rohfinalbattle #dynamitekid #tommybillington #wrestling #professionalwrestling #allelitewrestling #rohwrestling 

0:00-0:36 Dynamite Kid makes his ROH debut against former NJPW great Katsuyori Shibata
0:37-1:09 Dynamite Kid shows fire and determination
1:10-1:36 Dynamite Kid is improving and gaining valuable experience
1:37-2:12 Katsuyori Shibata makes his young opponent submit

Volk Han

Volk Han was a Russian pro wrestler and MMA fighter. He was born April 15, 1961 in Dagestan, which was at the time a republic of the Soviet Union. Han started freestyle amateur wrestling when he was in college, and while serving in the USSR military, he began learning the Soviet combat sport known as sambo, which he would soon master.

In 1991, he was spotted by Japanese wrestler Akira Maeda and was recruited for Maeda’s Fighting Network RINGS promotion to be the leader and a trainer for the Russian Fighting Network stable. RINGS was a pro wrestling league that featured worked shoot-style puroresu matches and also some actual shoot fights. By the end of the decade, after Maeda retired, RINGS had started focusing completely on shoot matches and worked matches became a rarity on their shows.

While there have been several pro wrestlers in pro wrestling history that were good from the start, Han stands out as one of the most impressive rookies ever. While he would improve even more as the 1990s progressed, he was already a very good worker from the beginning. His level of understanding was impressive.

Han, a main eventer, was pretty much the top gaijin in RINGS for most of his career and RINGS’ existence. Han was one of the very rare performers who literally worked every match of his career for the same league (RINGS). When RINGS fully moved to shoot matches only, Han, who was quite a flashy shoot-style worker, proved that he was able to hold his own when he was fighting for real (even though it was clear that he was better at worked matches).

On average, Han had matches only about once a month during his nearly 10-year career that started in late 1991. 1996 and 1997 were arguably Han’s best years because that’s when he got to work with workers like Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Tsuyoshi Kosaka and Kiyoshi Tamura, who were able to work on Han’s level, unlike most of Han’s opponents in previous years, who tried but lacked the skill and/or understanding to reach Han’s level of shoot-style competition.

Han is one of the best technical wrestlers in pro wrestling history. He was arguably one of the 50 greatest men’s pro wrestlers ever, especially when you consider his great work during his best years, 1993 through 1997. And here is a list of Volk Han’s ten best matches:

0:00-1:09 Volk Han's background and early career
1:10-1:34 Volk Han was a remarkable rookie
1:35-2:20 Volk Han was RINGS top foreigner, and worked every match of his career for the promotion
2:21-2:48 Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Tsuyoshi Kosaki, & Kiyoshi Tamura were Volk Han's best opponents
2:49-3:07 The best years of Volk Han's career
3:08-3:38 Volk Han's 10 best matches

5 proven matches to convert your friends to puroresu

Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo

GSP is the GOAT of lay and pray, but if you watch MMA to be entertained, there's not many GSP matches you need to watch beyond the legacy preserving gift decision over Johnny Hendricks. Cub Swanson never challenged for any title, but he was the highlight of most cards he appeared on. He's not as good a fighter as Justin Gaethje, and arguably less entertaining, but certainly one of the GOAT's when it comes to match quality. In a year when one of the least interesting and entertaining fights of Gaethje's career, probably his 2nd dullest fight of the past decade next to the Khabib Nurmagomedov loss, is still being pimped as Match of the Year due to a meaningless last second KO in a fight Max Holloway was about to win 49-46, Swanson has swooped in on the last UFC show of the year to deliver another 2024 fight that's more entertaining. 

Swanson has shown that one can be a main eventer by providing entertaining matches, and is arguably the most beloved UFC fighter who never received a title shot. Always near the top of the Featherweight division in his heyday, but never quite at it, he defeated future champions Charles Oliveira & Dustin Poirier, but more often lost to the fighters at the pinnacle of MMA, including champions Jens Pulver, José Aldo, Frankie Edgar, & Max Holloway and title contenders Chad Mendes, Ricardo Lamas, & Brian Ortega. For those more interested in seeing the best fight rather than the absolute greatest fighter, Swanson easily ranks above all of these guys. Poirier and Edson Barboza hold the record for 10 Fight of the Nights in UFC, but Swanson tops the list at 12 when you add his 4 WEC Fight of the Nights. 

Swanson is 4-3 since tearing his ACL & meniscus when Jake Shields used knee reaping in what was supposed to be more of a fun exhibition on December 14, 2019 at the Quintet Ultra four-team grappling tournament. He's married with 3 children, runs a gym, and with Bloodline Combat Sports coaching, is instrumental in the careers of several fighters including Danny Silva, Rafa Garcia, Dan Argueta. At 41-years-old, Swanson's been thinking about his exit strategy. At the same time, since he has other things going on in his life, there's less pressure to perform, and he can have even more fun with his MMA.

Billy Quarantillo may not have experienced the same success as Swanson, but he's another fighter that's never had a boring fight, and always gives his heart and soul. He's 5 years younger, and used to watch Cub in the WEC before he even turned pro, but he's also a father and a gym owner who doesn't know how many fights he has left. This fight is a dream come true for Quarantillo, not only for the opponent, who was guaranteed to match his desire for action, but because this fight on December 14th, 2024 was almost literally in Billy's back yard. When Quarantillo moved from Buffalo to Tampa in 2010 as a 1-1 amateur to chase his dream of being a UFC fighter, his apartment was just two blocks away from the Amalie Arena. In a recent interview, Billy said, "I would literally run by the arena at nighttime while working these s**tty jobs. And I was like, one day I'm going to fight there. I would go to Lightning games, and I'd watch them play the Buffalo Sabres. And it's one of those things that I would always envision. And sure enough, here we are. It's a surreal experience." 

A hardworking Mickey Ward type of blue collar fighter, Billy is the most entertaining sort of grinding, war of attrition stylist. Quarantillo is as an opponent who makes for an exciting fight with anyone because he's willing to come forward throwing endlessly and stand in front of them taking their best shots then firing back. An all-action busy striker with wild technique that boasts the highest significant strikes landed per minute in UFC Featherweight history at 7.47, Quarantillo employs nonstop pressure and is perpetually attacking. He nonetheless lacks the physical attributes to overwhelm his opponent, and his strategy is always to wear the opponent out then take over in the 2nd half, relying on being better conditioned, tougher, and more durable. Even when things go right, the opponent is liable to punch themselves out on Billy's chin, as Billy's exchanging style also results in him having one of the worst rates of significant strikes absorbed per minute at 5.83. Each fight is thus a tougher go for Quarantillo, whose hope is essentially to have enough quantity to match Swanson’s quality. 

Swanson is one of the true savants of modern day fighting, and that's one of the reasons his fights are always so entertaining. In an era where most MMA fighters fit right into the cookie cutter, Swanson has one of the few distinctive styles, relying on the deception of his aggressive and diverse hands low boxing style. He doesn't evade as many shots as he used to, but in a division where speed is king, he was still a lot faster, more fluid and flowing than his junior fighter. Granted, Cub was a top tier fighter, while Quarantillo is only a main carder against a name opponent. That being said, when the door is closed on being world champion, getting value out of older fighters by putting them in with guys they can still compete with and have an entertaining match with is called good match making. It's the reason a guy like Jim Miller is still useful to the UFC, rather than an asset to a smaller promotion.

Cub got off to a great start in this fight. When Swanson was fresh, Quarantillo just didn't have the speed or disguise to match him. He closed the distance so much better than Billy. Swanson used very purposeful fainting and misdirection to disguise what he was eventually going to throw. He was very difficult to read because he has so many options with his loose hands at the hips style. Of course, it helps that Quarantillo never saw an opponent's right hand that he didn't want to eat. Cub would dip low then usually throw the overhand since Billy never stopped it. He was landing the lead left at will, and really doing damage following with the right. 

Billy had a hard time reaching Swanson, even with the front kick that he used repeatedly. He tried to be the aggressor, but Swanson would see the charge or the strike coming and easily hop backwards out of harms way. Quarantillo could land the low kick, or sometimes the second shot if he was able to follow up the first miss. 

Quarantillo was able to counter pretty effectively, especially on the inside before Swanson was able to reestablish distance. Quarantillo really wasn't seeing the overhand right coming though, and that made for a pretty difficult go. The striking numbers were nonetheless fairly close even though Quarantillo never seemed to land cleanly or with full power. Even when the announcers thought he wobbled Swanson at the end of the round, the strike appeared to only graze Cub under the ear, and be more of a case of Swanson losing his balance in order to mostly avoid it. One could definitely sum up round 1 by saying that Swanson did a much better job of landing big, while Quarantillo did a better job of touching. 

Quarantillo's corner was surprisingly looking for more teeps, seemingly playing into an overall strategy of keeping Swanson backing up to negate some of his power and aggression. Swanson definitely gains power by stepping into the shots, so there's some logic to keeping him on the back foot for sure. The problem is he's smart enough to just evade and then step back in anyway. His long stepping left straight really set the table well.

Cub did a great job of following the jab with the overhand right or just leading with the overhand right when Quarantillo was standing in front of him. Quarantillo was definitely doing his best work when Swanson was close to him because he could land his short hooks. He hurt Swanson with a big knee two minutes into the second. The problem was that Swanson had more firepower, so even though he wasn't invading as much on the inside, if it was strike for strike, he was still going to win most of the battles. On the other hand, since Quarantillo wasn't nearly as technical, he kind of had to make it something of a brawl. When they were both just winging shots on the inside, it was more difficult for Cub to really set things up the way he wanted to or generate as much consistent power as he could stepping in. 

Swanson was really landing a high percentage, 62% for the fight, but by throwing 79 more strikes, Quarantillo was able to connect almost as often. Quarantillo was able to wrestle more in the second round, and even though he wasn't fully able to control Swanson on the ground, he made him work to get back up, and landed some knees while holding him against the cage. Swanson arguably hurt Quarantillo with a series of punches in the final minute of round 2, but Quarantillo came back with a big knee. Each round was basically even in significant strikes, but Quarantillo had a big advantage in control in the 2nd. If we're basically just considering damage like we're supposed to, the round probably still goes to Swanson. Either way, this was another really high action round. 

Quarantillo, who came in as a -155 favorite, was up to a -345 favorite at the start of the third round, so the oddsmakers clearly thought he won the second, and things were trending in his direction. His history of coming on after the first round due to fatiguing the opponent was surely considered. Cub may slow down in rounds more than he used to, but still gets multiple winds that other older fighters don't. In the end, that right hand that Quarantillo wasn't seeing all fight was his downfall. Cub used the left hook to set it up, and finally caught Quarantillo clean across the chin with the shot that he wasn't defending against. No need to follow up, as Quarantillo's head bounced off the canvas at 1:36 of round 3. Swanson's 20 wins now tie him with Max Holloway for the most ever in UFC and WEC featherweight history. His 9 finishes put him in third behind Aldo and Holloway, who have 11. 

Quarantillo almost predicted his own downfall in the leadup, saying "He probably knows he only has one or two fights left, so he's going to give it everything he has, and I think every fighter wants to end their career with that storybook win, that highlight reel finish." Though Swanson was expected to announce his retirement, in the post match interview, he said, "I kinda told my wife that this would be the last one," but ultimately, Swanson didn't throw down his gloves. 

I always wanted to see Cub face Alex "Bruce Leeroy" Caceres, as they are two of the most inventive and creative fighters around. With Caceres being 36-years-old and on a two fight losing streak, though the Sean Woodson decision should have gone to him, it seems a reasonable fight for both. That's more of a winable fight that hardcore fans would really enjoy, if Swanson just wants to stay around, than something with broad mainstream appeal he can cash in on. 

The long awaited rematch of his Hall of Fame fight against Doo Ho Choi, billed as Swanson's retirement match on a PPV, is a match that would be a good payday, as well as potentially a memorable fight. It's the last chance at the rematch we never got because Choi stepped away from fighting, and it's never going to look more enticing than right now with both fighters in good form.

While Choi is 8-years-younger than Cub, he's a fighter Cub has beaten before who has done less than Swanson since their meeting. At the same time, he's gotten his career back on track enough in the past year, finishing Bill Algeo and Nate Landwehr after a majority draw against Kyle Nelson that everyone knows he won. One can debate the merits of Choi getting docked a point by Chris Tognoni for a grazing headbutt, but it wouldn't have mattered if the judging in that fight wasn't so atrocious that only the blindest of the blind mice, Adalaide Byrd, knew to give Choi all 3 rounds. 

Cub's KO finish of Billy Quarantillo in an excellent match that once again won Fight of the Night is perhaps as good of a send-off as he could possibly hope for. Swanson had been wanting to get his 30th win, and to go out on a high note. If he's done, it's a storybook ending to a career smart fans will relive for years to come. I think he's got another win in him though, and since he doesn't specifically need the fight, he has the leverage. Cub isn't one of the many MMA fighters that obviously needs to retire, but since he has other options, it wouldn't be the worst idea. I don't think we've seen Swanson's swansong, but if we have, it would have to rank among the most fitting fights to go out on.



0:00-1:30 Cub Swanson is one of the GOAT's of great MMA matches
1:31-2:06 Cub Swanson thinking about retiring
2:07-3:13 Billy Quarantillo is fighting in the arena he used to run past while dreaming of being a UFC fighter
3:14-4:07 Billy Quarantillo is an all-action pressure fighter who comes forward throwing endlessly
4:08-4:56 Cub Swanson is one of the few modern MMA fighters with a distinctive style
4:57-9:04 Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo Fight of the Night MMA match review
9:05-9:17 Billy Quarantillo predicted his own demise
9:18-9:53 Cub Swanson told his wife he was retiring
9:54-10:43 Cub Swanson could retire in a rematch of his UFC Hall of Fame Fight against Doo Ho Choi
10:44-11:21 Cub Swanson couldn't pick a better way to end his career

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Kenta Kobashi

Kenta Kobashi was born in Fukuchiyama, Japan on March 27, 1967. After practicing judo and rugby in high school and practicing bodybuilding after high school, he was accepted into All Japan Pro Wrestling’s dojo in 1987. 
Kobashi was initially really good in the role of the young and sympathetic underdog. Of course, as time went on, he gradually moved more toward the role of established great champion, and eventually, he moved into the role of the middle-aged veteran.
Kobashi was a true survivor as he survived injury and illness. He has received a lot of respect in the wrestling community, from wrestlers and fans. Hopefully, people can remember Kobashi as more than just a wrestler who chopped real hard. He was a passionate worker who worked hard and played a big role in All Japan Pro-Wrestling’s successful run of the 1990s with Kobashi being one of the Four Pillars of Heaven along with Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue.
If there’s one thing you should learn about Kobashi, it’s that his match from January 20th, 1997 against Misawa is one of the greatest heavyweight pro wrestling matches in the entirety of the long and illustrious history of pro wrestling ever!
In fact, I’d say that 1997 was actually Kobashi’s strongest year, as he had another great match with Misawa on October 21st, 1997 and a surprisingly awesome match against Hiroshi Hase on August 26th, 1997. While you’re hunting down great Kobashi matches, don’t forget to also watch the April 12th, 1993 and March 31st, 1996 Champion Carnival matches against Misawa. 
When it comes to tag team competition, Kobashi was a reliable tag team wrestler, and he took part in one of the greatest tag team matches in all of pro wrestling history, the match from May 25th, 1992 featuring Danny Kroffat (Phil Lafon) & Doug Furnas vs. Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and featuring one of the most amazing pro wrestling crowds ever. Kobashi also took part in the tremendous December 3rd, 1993 Real World Tag League Final, a classic Four Pillars of Heaven match between the team of Kobashi & Misawa and the team of Kawada & Taue.
After having watched over 100 of Kenta Kobashi’s matches, it’s safe to say that he is one of the greatest heavyweight wrestlers ever. Depending on your definition of heavyweight, he’s arguably one of the top 5 heavyweight wrestlers in pro wrestling history. Kobashi was arguably the second-best of AJPW’s ‘four pillars of heaven.’ Toshiaki Kawada was arguably THE best, and Mitsuharu Misawa was probably the third-best. Akira Taue was a useful but distant fourth.
Kobashi was a great worker during his best years, 1992 through 1999, and he was involved in some of the most memorable matches of the 1990s. Here is a list of Kenta Kobashi’s 17 best matches:

0:00-1:24 Kenta Kobashi's background and early career
1:25-2:22 Kenta Kobashi's greatest singles match 1/20/97 vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
2:23-3:09 Kenta Kobashi's greatest tag match 5/25/92 with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Can-Am Express Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas
3:10-3:50 Kenta Kobashi is one of the 5 greatest heavyweight wrestlers of all-time
3:51-4:04 The best and worst years of Kenta Kobashi's career
4:05-4:41 Kenta Kobashi's 17 best matches

Misawa vs. Kobashi

Misawa had always been a really good seller, but in this match, it was certainly one of the key elements of this match working as well as it did. Kobashi deserves a lot of credit for pushing through and staying focused. In spite of the length of the match (about 15 minutes longer than what on average could be considered an ideal length for a big title match), these two managed to keep things interesting all the way through. These two once again proved that their pairing is the most consistently high-quality All Japan singles match pairing. The work was stiff, and the moves were superbly executed. The great storytelling in combination with the tremendous effort resulted in a captivating bout worthy to be remembered for decades to come. This is easily one of the greatest heavyweight matches ever, arguably THE greatest EVER.

Dynamite Kid vs. Mo Jabari

Stampede Wrestling was a pro wrestling league founded by Stu Hart and mainly ran shows in Alberta and Saskatchewan in Western Canada. Some of pro wrestling’s biggest stars came through Stampede Wrestling. One of the very best pro wrestlers ever, Dynamite Kid, was one of Stampede’s biggest stars. The positive impact he made on the wrestling world is immeasurable, especially during his best years from 1979 through 1983.

Wrestling’s glory years of Stampede Wrestling and the Dynamite Kid are gone, but current wrestling fans have the wonderful opportunity to watch Dynamite Kid’s nephew, Thomas ‘Tommy’ Billington, in action. The young Billington not only shares the same name as his uncle, Dynamite Kid (Thomas ‘Tom’ Billington), but he even started using the nickname ‘Dynamite Kid’ after the legendary Bret Hart advised him to do so because he recognized that Tommy resembles his uncle so much.

Billington is one of the most talented wrestlers in the world today, and those who were fortunate enough to attend Dungeon Wrestling’s November Pain show on November 10th (2024), had the opportunity to see Billington in action. One of the co-founders of Dungeon Wrestling, a league based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is local hero Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart. Another one of the co-founders is ‘Kid Chocolate’ Mo Jabari, and he was Billington’s opponent in this much anticipated match. Jabari was trained by Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp graduate Lance Storm and has been wrestling since 2017. Jabari is also a protege of Bret Hart’s, and you can tell he has been influenced by the Hitman’s style of wrestling.

Tommy Billington started his pro wrestling career in 2018. After having wrestled on indy shows in England, Wales, Scotland, Austria and Italy, Billington made his Canadian wrestling debut in 2022 when he started wrestling on indy shows in Alberta. Later that year, he made his American wrestling debut at an MLW show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In June of 2024, Billington made his Japanese pro wrestling debut for Kyushu Pro.

Even fans of mainstream wrestling have had the opportunity to see Billington in action. Billington made his AEW debut on May 11th, 2024 in Vancouver, BC against Dax Harwood. Billington once again appeared in AEW on July 10 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the Saddledome. At an AEW taping in Wales on August 21st, Billington wrestled Chris Jericho. Billington even appeared at AEW All In, which was held at Wembley Stadium in London, England, as Billington participated in a 16-man tag team match that took place during the pre-show.

Over the past several months and years, Billington had shown that he clearly had lots of potential, but it was in November of 2024 that he really showed that he was top talent, as he really stepped up his game and worked a really good match. Billington’s Dungeon Wrestling match at November Pain wasn’t his first match against Jabari, as the two had wrestled each other before at indy shows in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.

In the very same building where this match from November 10th, 2024 took place, the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary, Bret Hart had several memorable matches with Dynamite Kid back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What Mo and Tommy were able to do here was to have a match that was reminiscent of those Stampede classics. What was particularly impressive about Billington’s work in this match was that he was able to show more intensity than ever before, which was a big plus since that was exactly one of his uncle’s main strengths.

Jabari deserves credit for showing that he really was in tune with the ebb and flow of the match, as he knew what to do at the right moment, which is something he learned by studying the Hitman’s work. Billington mostly focused on explosiveness and tenacity, while Jabari mainly was able to capitalize by countering and countering counters.

One of the coolest sequences of the match was Billington doing the Dynamite Kid-style front roll, kick-up combo. Soon after, Jabari took a big Harley Race-like bump in the corner that sent him over the top to the floor after Billington reversed an Irish whip attempt. Billington showed some more of his viciousness by attacking Jabari on the floor. Billington continued the viciousness when the action continued in the ring. Billington executed a ruthless powerbomb that was very Wild Pegasus-like. Billington was now in full control of the match. However, Jabari made it clear he didn’t plan on staying down, and things could go either way again.

One of the moves Billington executed to perfection was the Dynamite Kid-style snap suplex made famous by his uncle. The match was never slow, but they really picked up the pace even more during the final five minutes of the match, which were also the most spectacular minutes with both men displaying a tremendous will to win. This final stretch period in the match, which featured several tremendous moves, felt like it came very naturally, as a natural progression to everything else they did before, which is something you don’t see very often anymore these days.

It was a very exciting match. Neither wrestler could really stay in control for too long, as it was a very competitive bout that went back and forth. Both workers clearly gave their best effort here, and it resulted in a very memorable match. These two modern talents showed that they could still be modern while implementing the logic and passion their old school influences had shown time and time again in this historical building they were now delivering a modern classic at. This was embodied and exemplified on many occasions in this match.

Billington really started channeling his uncle’s energy and delivered his best performance to date. The finish was reminiscent of Dynamite Kid vs. Randy Savage from the Wrestling Classic PPV in November of 1985. Billington protested, but the referee awarded the match to Jabari anyway. Hopefully we’ll get to see another match between Tommy and Mo in the near future at the Victoria Pavilion, as this was indeed a very good match. I give this match a rating of 3.75 out of 5 stars.

0:00-0:36 Dynamite Kid was one of Stampede Wrestling's biggest stars
0:37-1:26 Tommy Billington is one of the most talented wrestlers in the world today
1:27-2:02 Mo Jabari was trained by Lance Storm and is a protege of Bret Hart
2:03-3:26 Dynamite Kid has been wrestling all over the world and is now getting mainstream exposure in AEW
3:27-4:59 Dynamite Kid vs. Mo Jabari wrestle a Stampede classic in the Victoria Pavilion
5:00-7:08 Review and highlights of the Dynamite Kid vs. Mo Jabari match
7:09-7:54 Tommy Billington redid the finish of Dynamite Kid vs. Randy Savage

Toshiaki Kawada

Toshiaki Kawada was born on December 8th, 1963 in Tochigi, Japan. While still in high school, he was an amateur wrestler and became the national champion by defeating Keiichi Yamada (the future Jushin Liger) in the finals. Kawada was friends with Mitsuharu Misawa, who had attended the same high school and was part of the All Japan Pro-Wrestling dojo. Misawa advised Kawada to try out for All Japan (instead of New Japan).

Kawada had his first pro wrestling match for All Japan on October 4th, 1982 against future tag team partner Hiromichi Fuyuki. In November of 1985, Kawada was sent on a North American excursion to gain more experience. Kawada spent one month in San Antonio, Texas (where he wrestled in Texas All-Star Wrestling). Kawada & Fuyuki had a brief feud with Shawn Michaels & Paul Diamond over the Texas Tag Team Title.

Kawada also spent five months in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (where he wrestled in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling). Stampede booker Bruce Hart booked Kawada initially as the masked Black Mephisto from ‘Singapore’ before turning him into Kio Kawata from ‘South Korea.’ It was in Alberta that Kawada had the opportunity to wrestle a variety of opponents that included notable wrestlers like Chris Benoit, Robbie Stewart, Rick Patterson (the future IWA Japan Leatherface), Canek, Owen Hart and others. The North American excursion came to an end after spending three months in Montreal, Quebec.

After a year of wrestling in North America, Kawada returned to Japan and had hirst first match back for All Japan in December of 1986. Kawada wouldn’t start to get featured in All Japan until the final four months of 1987, though. In May of 1990, Kawada’s position in All Japan improved further as one of All Japan’s top stars, Genichiro Tenryu, had left the league.

By 1989, Kawada had become an excellent worker after having had the opportunity to shine in the ‘88 World’s Strongest Determination Tag League. 1993 was a memorable year for Kawada, but it was his tremendous performance in the ‘93 Tag League that cemented him as a truly great heavyweight wrestler. The storytelling and selling displayed by Kawada was incredible, along with showing his ability to carry and guide workers.

His ability helped him have some of the most memorable matches of the ‘90s, and one of Kawada’s best in-ring feuds was his series of matches with American wrestler Steve Williams. The two had several memorable matches, singles and tag team matches, against one another, but arguably the most notable one is the ‘94 Champion Carnival Final from April 16th, 1994 (a day on which rival league New Japan held the historical Super J-Cup). Probably Kawada’s most famous feud was with Misawa, and AJPW booker Giant Baba really milked the story he was telling as much as possible, as Baba ended up stretching out the story over a period of 16 years.

The storytelling through not only the in-ring work and matches, but also certainly the results are a big part of All Japan’s greatness. This is why it’s very useful to know who scored a big win over whom over the years in All Japan in order to get the most pleasurable viewing experience. Another one of Kawada’s great rivals was Kenta Kobashi. In fact, Kawada, Kobashi, Misawa and Akira Taue were considered the Four Pillars of All Japan due to the great storylines that often resulted in great matches involving them.

Kawada has to be considered one of the best heavyweights of all time, because in his excellent and great matches in the ‘90s, which are some of the very best heavyweight wrestling bouts ever, Kawada was very often the best performer in the match. 1993 through 1999 were Kawada’s best years, as he was truly great during those years. After having watched over 100 matches of ‘Dangerous K’ Toshiaki Kawada’s career, it’s safe to say that he was a great heavyweight wrestler. Depending on your definition of heavyweight, Kawada is arguably one of the top 5 greatest heavyweight pro wrestlers ever. Here is a list of Kawada’s 14 best matches:

0:00-2:08 Toshiaki Kawada's background and early career
2:09-3:17 Toshiaki Kawada's rise to stardom
3:18-3:56 Steve Williams vs. Toshiaki Kawada 4/16/94
3:57-4:37 Toshiaki Kawada's greatest fued vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
4:38-4:59 Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada
5:00-5:43 Toshiaki Kawada is one of the 5 greatest heavyweight wrestlers of all-time
5:44-6:19 Toshiaki Kawada's 14 best matches



Which tag team is the best in pro wrestling history?
 
The Jumping Bomb Angels, arguably the best women’s team?
 
The Crush Gals, possibly the most popular team?
 
Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith: The British Bulldogs, arguably the best ‘80s team?
 
Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart & Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart: The Hart Foundation, perhaps the best World Wrestling Federation team?
 
The Fantastics, possibly the best American team?
 
The Can-Am Express, maybe the most underrated team?
 
Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai, potentially the best women’s team of the ‘90s?
 
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue: The Holy Demon Army, perhaps the greatest team EVER?
 
What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment!


7/7/90 WCW NWA United States Tag Title: Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong 18:14. 

1990 was unfortunately the last year of the Midnight Express, who in their best incarnation with "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton and "Sweet" Stan Lane, were generally the best tag team in Jim Crocket Promotions and World Championship Wrestling from 1987-1990 since The Fantastics were often elsewhere. The national expansion efforts of Jim Crockett Jr., who had been NWA President since 1981, were an answer to Vince McMahon's quest to turn the WWF into the world's largest circus, but Crockett buying out or merging with as many of the NWA's regional territories as he could, including Ole Anderson's Championship Wrestling From Georgia, Sam Muchnick's St. Louis Wrestling Club, Bob Geigel's Central States, Mike Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida, and Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling resulted in a lot of deficit spending. While several factors from the bad management of not understanding how to book a cost effective national tour to the bad luck of the tragic car crash that ended the career of the man who was being groomed as the promotion's top star, Magnum T.A., played a big part in Crockett being almost bankrupt in 1988, arguably the biggest issue was McMahon sabotaging Crockett's biggest shows. Crockett had gambled on new streams of revenue, but Vince put his newly created Survivor Series on PPV against the NWA's first PPV, Starrcade '87, threatening to no longer offer WWF PPV's to cable companies who also carried Starrcade. After being scolded by cable companies who reasonably preferred to make as much money as they could from as many events as possible to never pull that crap again, Vince instead gave away his newly created Royal Rumble on cable TV against the NWA's 2nd PPV attempt, the Bunkhouse Stampede '88. 

Crockett sold to "Billionaire" Ted Turner in November 1988, but in more optimistic times, he had signed his hardest working, and certainly one of his top drawing teams, The Midnight Express, to $225,000 a year contracts. Rather than trying to get as much out of the Midnight Express as they could before signing them to lesser contracts the next year, there were attempts by Crockett's successors over the next two years to devalue the team and split them up, even after they took a $100,000 pay cut with their new contract. 

The Midnight Express briefly left in 1989 to wait out booker George Scott being fired in April, rather than have him continue to devalue them because working them every day wasn't going to get rid of them like it might the even more highly paid Road Warriors. They got their termination notices from Jim Herd in February 1990, even though Cornette was still on the booking committee. Herd wanted Cornette to announce rather than manage, and for the Express to be split up, with Lane being a babyface. Herd agreed to the Express staying together and joining the 4 Horsemen with Eaton's best friend, Arn Anderson, and frat boy Ric Flair, with Cornette selling them to Woman then putting them over as heel announcer, only to go back on his promise a few days later. Cornette then quit the booking committee, but the rest of the bookers ganged up on Herd to force him to resign them as a team. They stayed on because you couldn't escape the silliness Herd was alienating WCW's audience that still wanted to take wrestling seriously with by going to the WWF to face Vince's idea of a Hall of Fame team, the Bushwhackers, and you couldn't make as much kicking around the indies, who were getting increasingly silly as well, with gimmicks such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inspired Kowabunga. 

Whether or not the front office was willing to recognize it, The Midnight Express were the key to WCW's tag team division in 1990. They were the only heel team that was willing and able to make the faces look great, but also had impressive enough offense that the match wasn't hurt by them being in control. It was thus no surprise that pretty much all the good WCW tag matches of 1990 involved the Midnight Express, even though they'd been reduced to feuding over the lesser US Tag Titles in the midcard, rather than drawing good numbers near the top of the card. The promotions primary belts, the NWA World Tag Titles, were held by two of the many no selling teams the division was riddled with, The Steiner Brothers and Doom. 

The Midnight Express vs Steiner Brothers matches barely felt like Midnight Express matches because it was just the Midnight Express selling the whole time, as you would expect. Even when Rick Steiner supposedly injured his left shoulder in one of their TV matches, he still dominated one against two, just using his right arm. While the Steiner Brothers weren't boring because they had impressive offense, their matches were very samey, looking indestructible as they tossed the opponents around. The Road Warriors, Skyscrapers, Doom, & Samoan SWAT Team were lesser variations of the same mentality of just putting themselves over. Even The Fabulous Freebirds no longer wanted to sell. That might have been somewhat understandable if they still had their large, intimidating star Terry Gordy, who actually sold quite a bit more than the current members. This was the Flabulous Freebirds featuring Michael P.S. Hayes, who Ted DiBiase had dubbed the Prissy Sissy. Hayes was a charismatic talker, but even his most successful booker, Cowbow Bill Watts, tried to mostly use him as the manager of the actual workers, Gordy & Buddy Jack Roberts, so Hayes wouldn't screw up the matches. Rather than those quality wrestlers, Hayes was now meant to be carried by Jimmy "Extra Jam" Garvin, who was passable in his earlier days as a scrawny little weasle that needed to cheat to escape with the victory, but was completely ridiculous essentially acting like another one of the division's monsters without the physique or presence to back it up. 

The Rock 'n' Roll Express were different than the majority of the tag division, but their matches had followed the same bland, boring, and repetitive formula since the dawn of time, with the Rod Stewart wannabe wearing it well then Robert Gibson eventually making the hot tag for some punches and the dropkick. Their February 25th tag against the Midnight Express from WrestleWar '90 was the divisions most overrated match of the year, with the silliness of Cornette combined with all the stalling and diversions early on keeping me from ever really being able to take it seriously. The match did pick up in the second half during the Midnight's lengthy heat segment, but the payoff was Gibson doing nothing on his hot tag, and the match almost immediately ending with him scoring a totally unconvincing flash pin. 

One of the good programs the Midnight Express had was with Flyin' Brian & Z-Man. Pillman wouldn't reach his peak until the end of 1991, with his great series against Jushin Thunder Liger, but while he was still working on moving his high flying offense beyond the generic 1980's staples we saw enslessly from the Rock 'n' Roll Express, his hard work combined with his energy, effort, and general enthusiasm for performing already made him one of the promotions best watches. Zenk had a good look, but was nowhere near Pillman's level as an athlete or a charismatic performer. The team relied heavily on Pillman carrying the load, but when was motivated during his hot comebacks, Zenk was good enough. These teams had good matches on February 7th where Brian & Z-Man advanced to the final of the US Tag Title Tournament and at Capital Combat '90 from May 19th where the Midnight Express won the titles. 

The Midnight Express' best opposition in 1990 was the newly arrived Wild-Eyed Southern Boys team of Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong, a fiery and energetic duo who debuted in WCW on April 23, after having competed together semi regularly in NWA, New Japan, and CWF during the previous 3 years. Though Pillman had more upside than Smothers and Armstrong, the Southern Boys were a more complete team than Pillman & Zenk because both members had good offense and were willing and able to sell. Smothers is one of the more underrated wrestlers of his era because most people really only remember him doing the silly Full Blooded Italian gimmick that Paul Heyman strapped him with in ECW. A skilled and well rounded performer, Smothers had a unique striking style with his backfists and superkicks that was fun without being too ridiculous, and he was also ahead of the 80s American high flying bar in his running and jumping offense. 

Midnight Express & Southern Boys had good action packed TV sprints on May 1st & September 10th. These fast paced and energetic matches were distinguished by quick tags, nice teamwork, big bumps mostly by the Express, and Eaton and the Southern Boys coming off the top rope. Length only helps to a point, but in this case, the difference between these matches and their July 7th, 1990 Great American Bash match being 1990 WCW Match of the Year, and one of the best American tag matches of the decade, was that at 18 minutes 14 seconds, they had an extra 10+ minutes to properly develop the match. This had a little more bawling from the heels, but for the most part the extra time didn't slow things down. It was still almost all action from start to finish, with the emphasis on cohesive units double teaming that set classic tag wrestling apart, and minimal diversions despite the Midnight Express being heels who were happy to take shortcuts. The timing and execution were totally on, but it didn't feel too cooperative despite all the multiman spots. Smothers had excellent chemistry with both opponents, which wasn't surprising given Lane and his previous Fabulous Ones partner Steve Keirn had trained him, and Eaton was a top worker that could make anyone look better. 

The Southern Boys were on fire from the outset in their first PPV appearance. This had a lot more shine then the typical Southern tag because the Midnight Express had to get over these relative unknowns who had debuted in WCW just 2 1/2 months earlier, and were sporting the Confederate flag on their tights on a show taking place in the union state of Maryland. It was much more interesting seeing this more competitive and less predictable structuring. Despite actually having height, the Southern Boys clearly exceeded the promotions other tag teams when it came to athletic offense, and this really stood out as a quick hitting, fast moving affair that felt more modern and less predictable than the tired generic '80s formula tags the Rock 'n' Roll Express never moved beyond. 

For the most part, this match was made by Tracy Smothers and Bobby Eaton, the star performers of their teams. However, Armstrong and Lane still elevated this, aiding their partners with several smooth double team spots. Steve Armstrong may have not have been as smooth and technically competent as his brother Brad, and certainly didn't make his opponent look as good, but he had a lot more enthusiasm, and was more interested in keeping a high pace by running, jumping, and flying around. 

Staying in as a point of pride even though he was losing, Eaton had plenty of momentary advantages, but Smothers had answer after answer, using his athleticism to outmanuever the veteran. Smothers used his karate to outdo Eaton, so Lane, whose "educated feet" were made famous by Jim Ross, came in to match Smothers for a classic redneck karate duel. There were lots of "savate kicks" because every martial arts kick seemed to be a savate kick according to JR. Otherwise, Ross provided the great commentary he was known for in this era, taking the match seriously and providing the sports based presentation that is so lacking even in his own announcing in later decades, albeit partly because you can't credibly call a match that doesn't take itself seriously. 

The Midnight Express had the widest variety, and generally most innovative quick hitting double team spots of this era. This was a great example of how tag matches should be wrestled, using the fresh man to maintain the pace. As the match progressed, the Midnight Express tagged much more frequently to get their double teams in, but Smothers still kept sneaking out of what the opposition was trying, and making plenty of comebacks. They kept the crowd reacting to everything. The Midnight Express certainly took their shortcuts, but today none of them slowed down or spoiled the action. 

Smothers and Armstrong matched the Midnights move for move and strike for strike, even when the Express figured to have them down for the count. This had a lot more near finishes than you would expect from an American match of the time period, complete with a Killer Bees switcheroo by the Southern Boys that actually didn't work. The Midnight Express ultimately won when Lane blindsided Smothers with another "savate kick" from the apron when Smothers was running the ropes, and Eaton pinned him in the small package. 

These were true tag teams that worked in unison to really rise above the sum of their parts, rather than individuals temporarily paired. Unfortunately, you don't get much of that today. The art of tag team wrestling with dedicated full time performers has been lost to the revolving door of completely interchangeable units that offer little beyond T-shirt sales. This great athletic contest should have been the direction the tag team division went in, and a sign of great things to come in WCW. Jim Cornette had had enough of the clueless former Pizza Hut manager Jim Herd trying to emulate the childishness of Vince McMahon's circus though. He wasn't impressed by the proposed undefeatable tag team The Hunchbacks, whose rounded backs kept their shoulders off the canvas, and Herd's cluelessness toward submissions even being a thing probably kept them from losing that way. Cornette also wasn't excited by the bell wearing Ding Dongs, who jingled all the way. 

Herd joining Vince McMahon in his vendetta against actual wrestling with his ridiculous ideas for childish cartoon bs you can't take as a serious athletic contest irreparably destroyed the credibility of American wrestling because everyone that came after them or pretended to be an alternative also refused to remove the nonsense from the lexicon. Instead of trying to get all the fans of sports based wrestling to be fervent fans of a promotion they could respect and get behind, one promoter and booker after another grasped at the 1000 fans of every aspect ever introduced into the vaudeville variety show pro wrestling became, despite every metric showing that sports entertainment makes far less money as a whole than pro wrestling did as a whole. When wrestling is merely a parody of itself, there's no reason to consistently tune in. You might binge on the couple side show acts you get a kick out of, but if you can take them seriously enough to care, they're sure to run into opponents that make a mockery of things soon enough. It's a mistake to believe that people will care enough about comedy acts that they will keep tuning in despite it only being for shits and giggles or that people will care enough about their supposedly serious favorites that it doesn't matter how silly the opposition is. Capturing one of the 10 meaningless titles each promotion has isn't exactly winning the Super Bowl. Laughing at wrestling just doesn't engender that kind of passion, the kind where you need to be along for the entire ride. People today pop for moments, but you don't get sustained reactions to entire matches like you did in this Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys match, or the majority of competitive matches from the days when wrestling could be taken seriously. WWE can currently muster more fans with a worldwide audience for a single show in a city they may not run again for a year than pretty much any territory could pull from the million or something people close enough to drive to their weekly house show in the same building, but wrestling was drawing thousands of fans in most regions of America, Mexico, Japan, Britain, and Canada every night in the kayfabe era, with most of them coming back for more week after week.

Cornette & Lane quit WCW before the October 30th TV tapings when Cornette complained to Ole Anderson about the Midnight Express being scheduled for 4 matches that day after Eaton was there all day for nothing the day before. Ole told Cornette, "If you don't like it, go home", and Cornette did just that, for good. Eaton had 3 kids to provide for, so he stayed on while Cornette worked on setting up Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Eaton was such a good worker and so well liked that his WCW deal kept being renewed long after Cornette's territory came and went. Eaton was a quality wrestler for another decade, but never reached the same heights he did with the Midnight Express, as he was a much better tag wrestler, with his quick tags allowing him to keep a high pace, whereas in singles we'd get a rest hold rather than a double team and a series of kicks from Lane. More importantly, WCW never really pushed him in the 90's even though they kept him around, despite briefly holding the TV Title in 1991, and holding the tag titles with Arn Anderson in 1992. 

With Eaton out of the picture, Lane formed the original Heavenly Bodies with Dr. Tom Prichard in SMW, though his retirement on May 15, 1993 resulted in the better and more famous incarnation of that team, with Jimmy Backlund being renamed Jimmy Del Ray because Lane's fictitious hometown was Delray Beach, Florida.

The Southern Boys were never given the opportunity to capitalize on this great PPV introduction. Their Midnight Express program unresolved, they were left to the uninspiring program with the second-rate Freebirds. Turner switched them to the Young Pistols from Cheyenne, Wyoming to lose the civil war imagery, and they got one forgettable run with the US tag titles, turning heel and feuding with the awful Patriots team of Firebreaker Chip, who seemed better suited to be a replacement in the Village People, and Todd Champion, who appeared to be less talented than most of the jobbers despite his lofty surname. 

Armstrong left WCW in April '92, joining his brother Scott in SMW to fued with the Heavenly Bodies after a brief run in WWF as Lance Cassidy, a cowboy now hailing from from the great state of Texas. Smothers lasted another 4 months in WCW before joining SMW as well, where he was one of their top singles wrestlers, including two runs with the SMW Heavyweight Title. This Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys match was 4 stars, but even though the Southern Boys were in their 20s, and Eaton was 31-years-old, their new circumstances unfortunately never provided another opportunity for any of them to deliver another definitive classic.

Bailey vs. Takeshita

Mike Bailey and Konosuke Takeshita have developed great chemistry over the past 8 years, starting with a brief run with DDT's KO-D Tag Titles at the end of 2016. While good as friends, they've been much better as foes. Their first 3 singles matches took place in DDT over the next two years when that was still Bailey's primary promotion. While all worth watching, the very good July 2nd, 2017 meeting stood out more than the subsequent two, with much higher effort due to being a main event with Takeshita's KO-D Openweight Title on the line. Though then 17-year-old prodigy Takeshita momentarily captured the jokey DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title two weeks before he even made his pro debut on August 18th, 2012, and celebrated his 21st birthday with the first of 5 runs with DDT's Openweight Title, he has improved so much in the past few years that the younger skinny version who would work a body part, use his strikes and a handful of power moves is barely recognizable compared to the dynamic all around great we see today. 

In their early matches, Takeshita largely focused on being the solid performer, leaving the far more experienced and advanced Bailey to provide most of the excitement. Takeshita is now a well rounded opponent who fully utilizes his great athleticism, mixing size, strength, and speed to be a great base who can keep up with the opponent's movement and deliver a fearsome beating with brutal suplexes and heavy strikes. He does everything well, and is credible doing any style he needs to. 

Takeshita's best matches are against athletic high flyers, but Bailey isn't one of those spot monkeys that just jumps around, relying on his opponent to shape the match. He's the one leading these matches, and he makes his opponent look great with fantastic bumps, while having enough impact on his strikes that he's believable against a heavyweight. Certainly, the continued improvement in the series largely stems from the overall improvement and increased confidence of Takeshita, though Bailey has gotten better as well. 

Bailey has been one of the most consistently exciting and excellent wrestlers of the past decade. With his persona of the honorable martial artist and family man, he feels like an upgraded, modern version of Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat was a smart wrestler who executed really well and made everything the opponent did look better than it should, but his offense was always somewhat lacking, as his martial arts were largely chops, and his high flying was largely the dropkick and body attack. Bailey obviously comes from an era where a lot more emphasis is placed on what you do than how or why you do it. He's far more athletic and innovative, one of the wrestlers that definitely should be doing the junior style he is doing. A fourth degree Taekwondo black belt, Bailey is arguably the best kicker in pro wrestling. Certainly, no one has his variety or Andy Hug level of dexterity. He hits hard enough, and he's able to make up for what he lacks in size by utilizing his speed to beat the opponent to the strike or avoid and counter. As a high flyer, Bailey is near the top as well. Bailey is someone who tries to be fairly unique offensively, mostly using his own moves rather than doing every cool move he is capable of performing. While most high flying lacks the impact to seem worth the risk, Bailey's knee based attacks appear quite brutal. 

The path for a Canadian wrestler who was born after the countries last major promotion, Stampede Wrestling, closed for the second time in 1989 is ardous enough. Bailey has had an even tougher time receiving the adulation he deserves because the predictable trajectory to the US didn't work out for him. Crossing the border without a work visa to avoid having to cancel an EVOLVE appearance in 2016 that he thought the paperwork would be completed in time for, Bailey was banned from the USA until 2022. Bailey became a nomad who had standout matches wherever he appeared, but lacked the major exposure of a consistent large scale promotion to really break out. Regularly wrestling the best Europe and Japan had to offer for the next 4 years really helped round out his game though, turning him into a wrestler who could have a useful match with just about anyone. COVID largely cut off those markets, so it took until the past few years, when he signed with TNA, and was once again active all around the world, for his name value to begin to catch up to his fantastic ring work.

Bailey was able to rekindle his program against Takeshita in North America. Their fourth match on June 10th, 2022 was where they really took things to another level. Despite the hundreds in attendance for the small West Coast Pro show that took place in a dinky hall where chandeliers actually impeded some of their top rope moves, they still treated it like a big main event, and gave all they had to deliver an excellent match. This mindset impressed the thousands around the world when WCP uploaded the match to YouTube. While it didn't make as many match of the year lists as it should have, the video wound up reaching over 77,000 fans, becoming both the most popular and well regarded match in promotion history. The much improved, filled out athletic powerhouse Takeshita really began to contribute on a more equal level here. He did a far better job of both setting Bailey up and answering with his own impressive offense. It was a far more developed match, with a lot more counters than we saw from them in DDT. This match was the most similar to what they did in Maple Leaf Pro, an all out sprint with a great deal of urgency where they had to be on top of their game at all times or things would quickly go awry.

Their 5th singles match on January 8th, 2023 came in the final of perhaps the final PWG Battle of Los Angeles.  While a slight step backwards from the excellent WCP meeting, it still felt like it overachieved given it was the 4th full match of the night for Bailey and the 3rd for Takeshita. Bailey is an iron man with great cardio, but it always helps to not have wrestled three 15 plus minute matches earlier in the night when going into a 27 minute main event everyone has high hopes for. Bailey had previously lost in the finals both times he entered, in 2015 to Zack Sabre Jr., and in 2022 to Daniel Garcia. This time he really earned his victory by way of marathon, wrestling a total of 1 hour 16 minutes 54 seconds when he finally defeated Takeshita in a very good match that was surprisingly still quite aggressive and energetic. 

Bailey was super motivated to be headlining a sold out PPV in his home country, and given Takeshita has been working in AEW the past few years, he's probably forgotten what wrestling in front of a packed house feels like since Tony Khan would rather scale an NBA arena down to 1/5th of it's size, and still only sell 2/3 of that rather than book a building that's reasonable for the amount of tickets AEW will actually sell. The undercard of Forged In Excellence #1 on October 19th, 2024 from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario had a worthwhile opening match where the Canadian trio of El Phantasmo, Josh Alexander & Stu Grayson defeated Alex Zayne, Rocky Romero & Trevor Lee, and one of the worst Punk paced matches of the year where Bully Ray cringily talked his way through what purported to be a table match against fellow WWE reject Raj Dhesi.

The standout aspect of the crazy, hyper speed main event was the amazing pace that Bailey pushed tonight. This whole match was wrestled 2 gears higher than normal, and these two are already amongst the most consistent, hardworking wrestlers around. The execution was tremendous because they were able to maintain their usual high quality despite doing all the sequences that much faster. This wasn't a strategic match, it was an instinctual workrate match that was trying to swoop you up with its speed and urgency, and maintain enough momentum to never let you go.

Thankfully, this match actually wasn't bogged down by the tropes of modern wrestling, such as the corny no defense exchanges and phony theatrical overselling. It instead featured two performers who made you believe that they were actually trying to win the match. There was little of the typical jokey writhing around while the opponent didn't bother to attack their incapacitated foe. Instead, their was actual urgency to defend themselves. Trying to avoid or counter the opponent's offense at all costs put over the danger of what the opponent was throwing at them a lot more than taking a nap or doing some silly spasming would have.

This match was just so much faster than pretty much anything we ever see, largely due to the all out effort rather than the actual speed of the wrestlers. Granted, Bailey is certainly one of the fastest behind Lio Rush. However, there are plenty of speedier guys than Takeshita who just don't have the desire to go all out, and are happy that the lazy and phony WWE style has deluded so many fans into believing dead air makes for a lot better TV programming than it does radio.

This was the pro wrestling equivalent of flyweight MMA in the best possible way, and the increased activity lended an air of credibility that is lacking in cooperative wrestling of all styles. There are a million fundamental holes in the way everyone approaches choreographed fighting that result in it never really feeling believable whether or not they are using moves you actually might see in a real fight, but at least the urgency of a scrap was mostly here. Actually trying to beat the opponent to the proverbial punch provided some illusion of realism, while their phony offense and acrobatics provided a lot of exciting fireworks MMA can't deliver. Their consistent activity, and the scrambly nature where it often felt like both competitors were actually trying to do something, rather than just taking turns waiting for each other to get their moves in, elevated this above the typical cooperative exhibition this sort of spectacle would normally come off as. 

Comparing this fight that was wrestled with intensity and conviction to Takeshita's vastly overrated silly 3 way with Ricochet and Will Ospreay the previous weekend at AEW WrestleDream 2024 was like night and day. In that match, like every other 3 way match, they just kept watching and waiting. Several of the moves were cool when they finally got around to doing them, but it was more like cheerleading without all the practice required to keep the choreography to a reasonable speed. I'm sure any combination of the 3 could have had a very good singles match, but they were either staring at one another during the contrived 3 man segments trying to make sure everyone was in the right place so they could start another multiman spot or having someone who should be up in a third of a second magically be incapacitated for 3 minutes. Alternating a wrestler out spared us of the usual inactivity, but it was difficult to suspend disbelief when one wrestler was trying to hide so the fans wouldn't consider how nonsensical it was that they were all spending large chunks of the bout playing dead, while occassionally peeking over the apron so as not to miss their cue.

Bailey vs. Takeshita looks less unbelievable than other matches of its type because the speed of the performances hid the choreography to some extent. Takeshita would try to slow things down to utilize his size and strength, but these momentary breaks allowed you to appreciate all the super fast and dynamic portions without dragging or seeming like the usual unrealistic inactivity. Takeshita holding onto Bailey obviously wasn't one of the countless highlights, but the brief headlock or even bear hug made the next burst seem all the more dynamic and impressive. The choreography became more apparent the few times they slowed down for no real reason. For instance. when Takeshita stopped Bailey's moonsault double knee drop on the apron by kicking Bailey off to the turnbuckle, Bailey stopped himself with his leg, but was just frozen there waiting for Takeshita to slowly get up so he could superkick him. Even though Bailey is one of the only wrestlers who can throw a superkick that looks like it actually does something, this was a segment that stood out because they momentarily wrestled in the typical lazy manner where there's no urgency to defend themselves. Most matches look like this the entire time, and while they are just plain bad, they can often get away with that because when everything is done so sluggishly, no particular cooperative moment stands out from the rest, and fans chalk it up to being "WWE style".

I enjoyed the striking in this match because both were doing different things, and weren't just waiting for one another. Takeshita obviously has more weight of shot, but he often looks for one super heavy knockout blow, and is slow to unleash it. Bailey gets his shots off so much quicker, and can thus win the exchanges by beating Takeshita to the strike. 

The energy Bailey & Takeshita put into the match set it apart. There were several super fast and highly impressive sequences. Even though this wound up being a long main event, it was wrestled at the pace of a 12 minute sprint, so the near falls in the second half of the bout were more believable as potential finishes. Granted, modern main events never end, but they also don't have a bunch of bursts that feel like the start of the finishing segment. 

There are a lot of modern matches that feature next level athleticism and mostly consist of them throwing everything they have at one another, but this combined that with always feeling like an important match where both were going all out for the victory. Bailey feels more authentic than the other modern high flyers when it comes to doing things to win rather than to check off boxes. This was certainly showy, with great explosive segments, but it felt like they were pushing themselves to attain something rather than just putting on a meaningless show. 

Bailey hit a triangle moonsault, but the key early spot was Takeshita hitting the Death Valley bomb on the apron to start a neck attack. Bailey took some killer bumps, particularly on the released German suplex. One of several great explosive sequences saw Bailey land on his feet for a German suplex, hit a penalty kick into a standing moonsault knee drop that Takeshita avoided, & miss a spinning low kick. Bailey then back body dropped his way out of a powerbomb, and this time hit the standing moonsault kneedrop. Bailey busted out some new or rarely used flying moves, including the double springboard corkscrew dive and the ultima weapon leg drop. The match stalled out when Takeshita collapsed to the floor after Bailey hit the Canadian destroyer. Bailey took forever to pursue him, then had a little hissy fit when he couldn't lift Takeshita because he was dead weight. The goofiest comeback followed, with Takeshita regaining consciousness to knock Bailey off the ring apron with a devastating blow Callis described as an "eightarm". Circumstances protecting the moves by preventing the finish is fine when the circumstances themselves actually sense. 

I assume Bailey was supposed to hit the top turnbuckle rather than the ropes then the middle turnbuckle on Takeshita's reverse powerbomb, but it still looked impressive seeing him flung through the air like a sack of potatoes. Bailey's ultima weapon may not have hit the way it was supposed to, but the camera changing angles just as the move should be connecting, and going to a camera where Takeshita's body was largely in the way may have been the real issue. Bailey tried to finish again with his flamingo driver, but Takeshita countered with the hitodenashi driver. Takeshita knocked Bailey's mouthpiece out with a big forearm, landed 2 big knees, and won with raging fire. 

The announcing of the returning Mauro Ranallo was able to match the energy of the fighters, and Don Callis can add to a program when he isn't strapped with ill conceived storylines that have no logic or continuity. The fact that he finally stuck to the microphone rather than pulling out his screwdriver was one of the reasons Takeshita finally succeeded in having a great match. 

It's very exciting that a new promotion was able to deliver a match of this caliber on their first show. Yes, technically this is a revival, but no one involved in the Maple Leaf Wrestling that sold out to Vince McMahon 40 years ago has anything to do with it. It's just more of the usual marketing shenanigans trying to capitalize on name value and nostalgia rather than trust that there might actually be an audience for something that wasn't done better decades ago. Obviously, the success of this promotion going forward is largely going to be based on the willingness of larger promotions to continue lending their talents because all of the names on the show were borrowed. 

Scott D'Amore promoted a better match in his 1st try than his former promotion TNA, or any other American league, has all year. D'Amore is hardly an infallable booker. He believes in the whole variety show concept of wrestling, and as long as wrestling insists on being vaudeville, we'll never get top to bottom shows like the All Japan Women Dreamslams or the first New Japan Super J Cup. That being said, at least D'Amore understands how to utilize the talent he has to deliver the type of match fans of that style might actually want to see. I'm confident that D'Amore could actually get some good matches out of Kyle O'Reilly, one of the best technical wrestlers in the world, rather than strapping him with a clown that's out there playing with himself, resulting in even O'Reilly's more ardant fans skipping all his current matches.

D'Amore managed to book the only sometimes interesting US women's division by having Deonna Purrazzo in big matches with Jordynne Grace where she had time to utilize her technical wrestling skill, whereas Tony Khan, who hasn't booked a good women's match in 2 years, seemingly can't tell Purrazzo from Atsushi Onita. The Lights Out gimmick may have helped Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker be a bit more passable than it otherwise would have been given the less one can see of Britt's shoddy wrestling the better, but that doesn't mean Rosa against someone she could actually do a good straight match with is going to benefit from them just whipping each other with a bullrope or dealing with endless distractions from jobber lumberjacks the majority of the audience doesn't even know. 

Maple Leaf Pro may already be done for 2024, but even with just two shows, they made a big impact. Bailey vs. Takeshita is the second best match of 2024 behind Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. from February 11, and easily one of the best matches of the decade. I give it 4.75 stars out of 5. 




Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira

At just 24-years-old, Tatsuro Taira is the first and so far only fighter born in the 2000s to win a UFC main event. Despite being one of the youngest notable MMA fighters, Taira is likely the best submission grappler in the most technical division in the UFC, Flyweight. Taira has had a meteoric rise up the UFC rankings due to remaining undefeated, but his only test came in his last fight on June 15th where he defeated former title challenger Alex Perez by leaning backwards with his right knee behind Perez's left knee while in a standing body triangle, which injured Perez's right knee when his base gave out and he crumbled backwards at an awkward angle. Perez had lost 3 of his last 4 coming into that fight, while tonight's opponent, #1 ranked Brandon Royval has won 4 of 5, failing only in his title challenge against Alexandre Pantoja. 

Taira is a grappling specialist who can get the fight to the ground. A lot of lockdown wrestlers have given MMA grappling a bad name, but while Taira is a control grappler, he's one that is actually fun to watch because he's controlling to submit rather than simply trying to stifle the opposition. He utilizes a lot of movement to stay a step ahead, and is super smooth in his position changes. He has an elite body triangle, and can just keep sliding around his opponent's body, from front to side to back or vice versa with such ease that he easily negates the opponent's attempts to escape while continuing to pursue the submission win. He just processes the grappling interactions so quickly that he seems to know what the opponent is going to do before they even do, and he consistently remains a step ahead of them. Still, while he's a better athlete than Demian Maia, and his wrestling based game gives him a much better chance to actually get the fight into his realm, there are definitely a lot of holes in Taira's game at this point.

Taira could do a more believable job of sporting the phony neck brace than Tony Khan because he truly shows no head movement in standup. His right hand is pretty good, but he lacks the footwork and strategy to utilize it, just entering and exiting on a straight line all the time. He seems hesitant to commit to throwing any combos, but that could be a symptom of the afformentioned liabilities resulting in him taking every single punch the opponent throws full on. Right now, the only thing he's really doing with his striking is coming in behind a right hand in order to duck into a double leg, which makes him incredibly predictable. Still, even with everyone knowing what he wants to do and how he plans to do it, he managed to take Royval down 6 times. Sometimes takedown numbers are deceiving because the opponent is up almost as soon as they hit the canvas, but Taira kept Royval down for lengthy periods of time, if not the duration of the round, and Royval is no slouch when it comes to takedown defense and getting off his back. Taira has a great combination of determination and reaction time in these scrambles, and the ability to go outside the box. He's not afraid of winding up on the bottom, so if he can get a hold of his opponent, he will do anything he can think of to try to twist, turn, trip, or yank them to the canvas, assuming he'll then win the scramble. Even when it takes him a while to gain control on the mat, his grappling defense is much better than his striking defense. Taira gets worn down quickly in standup even though he's not super active there, but seems to recover almost as soon as he gets into grappling. 

Royval is a wily veteran with a lot of cardio, pressure, and volume. He has been knocking on the door of the Flyweight Championship for some time. He's proven himself capable of beating everyone but champion Pantoja, and really just lacks a jab to win the title. It's not so much that he lacks finishing power, but rather that he's not doing any damage while trying to set up his power, which limits both the number of openings he actually creates, as well as his ability to put the series of good shots together that would finish. Sure, Royval doesn't have 1 punch knockout power, but that's rarely what finishes in the lightest weight classes. 

Royval was often fighting out of a side stance, which allowed him to fight longer and helped keep Taira off his hips. While he did a good job of using his lead right hand to maintain distance, and as a constant distraction to try to set up the left kick, the problem with his striking attack is he didn't use the side kick at all, and for much of the fight there wasn't really anything the opponent needed to defend coming first from the lead side. Royval would sometimes follow with a good right uppercut or hook, but it was difficult for him to open up the left high kick he really needed by simply using his right arm as a wand. This forced him to throw more left body kicks than he would have liked, and Taira was sometimes able to catch these and initiate a grappling sequence. Later in the fight, Royval's standup was much more formidable because he began to sometimes lead with the right uppercut or hook, both of which commanded respect and attention. The issue with this is it forced him to be more square to his opponent, which increased the chances of Taira ducking into a takedown attempt.

This was an old school striker vs. grappler match, and in this case, the fact that both fighters had their strengths and weaknesses made it more interesting. This was a really intriguing back and forth battle. It did help that Royval actually has submission skills, so he was willing to engage Taira on the mat rather than putting all his effort into just getting back to his feet. Royval is actually a much more aggressive submission fighter than Taira. Royval really went after the finish, but against the grappler of Taira's pedigree, he'd lose position when his gambles backfired. On the other hand, Taira made sure he maintained control throughout. He made as much progress as he could going for the choke or the arm triangle without forcing anything. Overall, both men showed tons of heart, grit, and determination. They failed, but came back stronger the next round, turning things back in their favor. Even after Taira was nearly finished in the 3rd, a round that Brandon Fitzgerald somehow claimed was the swing round despite Royval outlanded Taira 81-7, Taira came back and controlled all round 4.

Royval had a clear speed advantage, and his reactions in the striking sequences are quicker and a lot more natural than Taira's. Royval counters well and closes distance very fast, so even though he's really only trying to do damage with his left strikes, you still have to be able to time his rights and counter them better than he can counter your stand-up attack. Taira wasn't really trying to attack in standup though. His goal was just to grab hold of Royval and go from there. He simply had to create enough diversion or have enough moments in standup to be able to dominate on the ground. Taira was able to off balance Royval 4 minutes into round one with a right hand counter to Royval's left straight. He then landed a good right hook coming forward while Royval was getting back up. Taira followed with a knee then tried to go into a double leg, but was able to take Royval's back and get the takedown. Royval looked for the knee bar though, so Taira wasn't able to get anything going on the mat. Although the last minute of round 1 was good for Taira, he was outstruck before that, and wasn't able to do anything with his takedown. I don't think either did that much in the 1st round, but Royval certainly had a lot more volume. I'm not even sure the right hand counter Royval was trying to avoid contacted anything but his arm, but if one is to assume there was any actual reason for Sal D'Amato scoring the round for Taira, which might be a reach given the scorecards he handed in tonight, one would have to think he thought this was a legitimate knockdown. Otherwise, Royval had too much activity, even though most of his kicks missed. 

In round 2, Royval worked his way in and tried to surprise Taira with a switch right knee, but Taira grabbed the leg, took him down and took his back right away. Taira got the body triangle in, and that was that. Granted, Royval didn't do a great job of breaking it up, but even when he actually rolled or put pressure on Taira's ankle, Royval didn't seem to make any actual progress. Taira was very active looking for the choke all round, and while Royval never accepted the bottom, Taira was a step ahead of everything he tried to do. Royval was very squirmy, but was spending too much energy trying to escape belly down rather than addressing the body triangle. Taira finally let it go in order to mount, and this was when Royval was able to attack the leg and stand when Taira kicked his leg free. The round was basically over at this point though. This would normally be a 10-8 round for Taira by virtue of Royval having no offense, but it shouldn't be because even though Taira was trying to set up a submission, he didn't lock anything in or land any strikes, so he was just tiring Royval out and being annoying. Royval's corner offered some good advice about not kicking to the body because the opponent was looking to grapple, but it felt like they were surprised that Taira was utilizing such a grappling heavy strategy, rather than just reminding Royval that this was all his opponent had. 

Round 3 of Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zellhuber is still arguably the round of the year, but Royval and Taira gave us a gem of a 3rd round that's not unreasonable to put in the conversation for round of the year. Taira was trying to distract with all of his standup to get the lockup. He landed a right hand and dropped into a double leg against the cage, but Royval countered with a knee and fought it off with a series of elbows. Royval finally began showing some variation on the right side, leading with the uppercut, which had some pop on it, and sometimes also using the right hook rather than the jab. Royval was connecting a lot harder and more consistency with this type of offense, and he had Taira in trouble midway through the third. Taira dove after a desperation single leg, and while this didn't work, he held on long enough that Royval decided to engage him in the grappling, which was predictably a mistake. Royval realized this, and disengaged quickly enough after his takedown attempt failed, landing a good uppercut on the break. Taira was slow attempting another desperation takedown, coming up short and exposing himself to a big knee. He was holding on to Royval's right arm while Royval was hitting him with his left, and tried some kind of odd combination of a judo throw and a trip. This didn't work as an offensive maneuever, as Royval came down on top and continued landing blind shots, arguably coming close to the stoppage. Still, Taira is so much more relaxed and at home on the mat, even when he's in a bad position, that one could argue he survived on the ground due to his comfort factor while he might have lost on his feet due to the stress of getting hit while burning energy sloppily and dangerously trying to force takedowns. Royval now had his own body triangle, but quickly gave it up for an armbar attempt that looked like it was going to work, but was really well defended by Taira, rolling to his knees just as Royval was trying to secure the straightened arm, and going into side mount. Taira got the body triangle in while Royval was trying to stand back up, and spent the last 25 seconds working a neck crank. This was an excellent round with Royval doing a lot of damage, but Taira showing a lot of heart and determination to not only survive, but create a potential last second finish. 

Taira weathered Royval's combinations early in the 4th, and as soon as Royval stopped throwing, Taira was in for the takedown attempt. Royval obviously knows it's coming, but even though he was able to defend, Taira just glued himself to Royval's back, and kept adjusting until he got him down. Royval gives up positions often, but doesn't give up on himself when facing adversity. The lesser opponent's Taira has been beating probably don't have Royval's massive willpower and determination to stay in a bad position all round. Royval always believes in himself, and he has the conditioning to come back just as strong on his feet in the next round despite getting his midsection compressed for minutes. It felt like Taira needed to strike more during these ground segments. His control with the body triangle is so solid and consistent, but without the distraction, it's difficult in this day an age to open up the rear naked choke or the arm triangle when the opponent only has to worry about defending submissions, and they have the mental toughness to stay calm and disciplined. In any case, I was super impressed that Taira was able to come back and take this round. It wasn't all that different from round 2, but most fighters aren't able to recover enough mentally, physically, or probably both to just be back to business after a round that went so badly.

With the fight even on reasonable scorecards going into the 5th, Royval listening to his coaches adjustment to his grappling defense proved to be the difference. By getting his back to the mat when Taira took him down rather than giving up his back, Taira didn't have the space to apply the body triangle. Royval was thus able to get to his knees and stand up. Granted, he would have been better off disengaging than going for his own takedown attempt, but by not getting immediately locked down, he had the opportunity to do this later when Taira got right back up and broke his standing body triangle attempt. Taira was a lot more aggressive in stand up in the final half of round 5 because he knew the fight was on the line, and he needed to make something happen one way or another, even if it was just setting up dropping into the takedown as usual. Royval was very accurate with his strikes down the middle though, and was busting up Taira's nose pretty consistently. Royval defended a key takedown, and Taira was getting more desperate, and thus slower and more predictable. Royval defended another takedown attempt with a guillotine, and made a beautiful move, rolling Taira over to his back. As soon as Taira popped his head out, Royval took his neck and flattened him out for a rear naked choke attempt. Part of the reason this fight was so good is that it was up for grabs until the final minute. If Taira gets the takedown and closes it out on top, he probably wins the fifth round even though he clearly took more damage in the stand up. Royval closing it out with a submission attempt where he utilized his own body triangle felt like the perfect stamp on him winning a match where he'd lost two rounds to Taira utilizing this same technique. In the end, it felt like Royval's experience was what pulled it off. He made the key defensive adjustment, and understood that he needed to take what was there in the final round. 

Taira lost the split decision 48-47, but that might not be a bad thing for him since his great chin and heart are only going to take him so far, and that's likely not past Pantoja. However, if he addresses his striking defense now and comes back as someone who can avoid some of the opponent's shots, staying off the center line while entering and exiting so he can do something beyond throw a big right and duck into the takedown, he'll have a much longer career, and really the sky is the limit. It would give him many more opportunities to get the fight to the ground because he won't be back to square one when he can't just go right into the takedown attempt after throwing the right, and he'll be less compromised when the fight does hit the mat. Men's flyweight has been UFC's most interesting division this year, and this was another very good match in the supposedly boring division Dana White wanted to get rid of.









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Mika Iwata vs. Mio Momono

At just 149cm, Mio Momono is the smallest of the top female workers the wrestling industry has been blessed with. She's one of the quickest wrestlers around, a great athlete and speedy mover who thrills the audience with her explosive bursts of action, and all around energetic, charismatic, and sympathetic performances. 

The fact that Momono is so overmatched physically naturally makes you want to see her succeed, but obviously there are plenty of tiny wrestlers who lack her charisma and overall enduring characteristics that no one truly cares about. Mio has a lot of intangibles to go with her tremendous skill. She also has tons of guts and moxie. She immediately stands up to her opponent not just once, but time and time again. She is wiling to fail regularly, but just refuses to accept the setback, and comes back for more. The fans can count on her to keep trying until she succeeds or the opponent incapacitates her. 

Crucial to Momono's success is that she's one of the only current wrestlers that can actually sell in a believable and useful manner. She takes awesome bumps and punishing shots, registering the blow, but showing it hurt without it preventing her from continuing to try to defend herself and finding a way to win the match. She is believable to the extent a speed and athleticism worker can be because she keeps pushing forward rather than trying to make a lot more out of everything than it actually is, so both wrestlers can keep taking breaks. Even though she's usually the whipping girl of grizzled veterans that can use as many time outs as they can con the audience into accepting, Momono is their favorite target because she takes their offense so well in every regard. 

What makes Momono the best around at taking is also what makes her great at giving, that she fights with the grit, determination, persistence, and relentlessness of someone who still believes in the pre kayfabe protection of the reality of wrestling. Momono is really easy to root for because whether she's winning or losing, she just keeps at it. She's not laying around taking a nap or begging the crowd to pretend to care about her. She's out there trying to win a wrestling match, and because she cares, it's easier for everyone else to follow suit. 

Momono is oozing with functional charisma. By that, I mean a brand of acting where she's doing things that pull you into her ongoing struggle, rather than just stopping the match to beg for a reaction. She is a very passionate performer that adds all the useful emotions into her match without killing the momentum by standing around pleading for the audience's approval. She will show her heart and desire while she's setting up her next attack or charging at the opponent, so it's not too ridiculous that the opponent somehow can't manage to avoid literally everything she tries. 

These days, everyone goofs around too much, especially in the undercard matches and on the small shows, but it never feels like Momono's just out there going through the motions and doing empty forms. She would obviously have been greater in a more serious era of wrestling because everyone clowning around during the early portion of less important matches undermines much of what Momono does well, whereas it hardly hurts the credibility of the plethora of workers that rarely do anything that can be taken seriously in the first place. Momono would obviously have a lot more notable matches if there were more opponents who were near her level, but even in the worst of circumstances, she's never dull or uninspiring. 

2024 has been by far the best year of Mika Iwata's career. At 28, Iwata is 2 years older than Momono, but despite Mika debuting 6 months sooner, and Momono suffering a couple major injuries, Marvelous' Momono has wrestled more often than Sendai Girls' Iwata because operating out of Tokyo is much more convenient for taking outside bookings. Iwata has tried to follow in the footsteps of her trainer, Meiko Satomura, being a serious, kick oriented wrestler. Iwata is more purely a bruiser than Satomura, pretty much just focusing on landing powerful kicks and punishing knees. She's become a good worker, a solid and dependable hand who can be counted on to do what she does well. 

Momono would normally be a style clash for Iwata, but Mio's propensity to work so hard and actually take things so seriously makes her a great opponent for someone who is supposed to be a badass shooter. Momono is a lot more dynamic and diverse, and adds a lot of things that Iwata lacks such as fire, charisma, energy, and exciting comebacks to keep the audience invested in her matches. Momono's an opponent it's credible for the 5 ft 3 in, 139 pound Iwata to be the beatdown against, and Iwata seems to want to be the beatdown against everyone, no matter what. Even when Iwata wrestled Marvelous' ace Takumi Iroha 6 days earlier, a far more experienced striker who also has at least 4 inches and 20 pounds on Iwata, Iroha was somehow the one who was forced to play the underdog who was making the hot comebacks.

Stylistically, Momono would typically be a less realistic opponent for Iwata, but Momono is great at adapting to whatever her opponent can and can't do. In this August 24th, 2024 match at Sendai PIT, Momono attacked Iwata before the bell with a German suplex, and did her best to take the fight to Iwata. Momono pushed the pace and tried to do her style in the first 5 minutes, but ultimately, they worked the brutal, stiff striking oriented match that suited Iwata. 

One big shot from Iwata would put Momono down, but both would keep trying to win, so there wasn't a ton of dead time, and it didn't devolve into the requisite cheesy exchanging that ruins almost every puroresu match these days. Momono probably should have tried harder to keep utilizing her speed and athleticism, rather than largely abandoning it once she got cut off 5 minutes in with a massive sheer drop brainbuster that was the highlight of the match. Momono is much more capable of doing different things than Iwata is though, and she did this very well, pulling Iwata's style off in a believable enough manner. This certainly felt a lot more like a fight than you'd expect a Momono match to. Obviously, this style wasn't going to yield a positive result in terms of Mio getting her hand raised, but I suppose that could also be an excuse for her losing, if actually handled properly.

The biggest issue with the match is Senjo just randomly rolled it out 3rd from the top. One would have thought that Momono would have been a logical title challenger for Iwata sometime after she regained the Sendai Girls World Title from STARDOM's Saori Ano on September 13th. Iwata lost the match to Iroha on August 18th though, so Momono was simply the sacrificial lamb to get Iwata back on track, and keep the interpromotional rivalry functioning. Even though this wasn't the best of circumstances, and they didn't do the best match they possibly could have, it was quite impressive. Momono wasn't dominated here, and actually controlled more than you would expect given she's great at making hot comebacks and Iwata mostly just tries to steamroll people. 

Mio probably never dished out more punishment, but Iwata has more precision and better striking technique, which equates to a lot more weight of shot. This was a match where Momono mostly kept things simple. She actually blew one of the more complex spots she did, her sunset flip powerbomb called the JK bomb, and Iwata had a nice counter for it later on. Overall though, it was nice crisp action, and Iwata's gimmick wasn't compromised by having to wait around to take a bunch of phony moves. Iwata always looks like she's up to no good, and while she doesn't have much variety to her acting, one can believe she's out to hurt her opponent. Now that she's finally allowed to win big matches, Mika's badass aura is certainly growing. 

Mio's fire, passion, and charisma helped her to steal the show even though it was Iwata's match, and Momono would otherwise have kept her striking to a minimum. Mio had all the exciting bursts, while Iwata just stuck to her paired down style and methodical pace throughout. Mio knows how to garner sympathy through taking a beating, and most of any crowd is going to root for her because she's such a great underdog. The Senjo fans were largely rooting for Marvelous' Iroha against Iwata though too, which isn't a great sign for Iwata, but is understandable given all the fire was being shown by Iwata's opponent, and they were the ones who made all the energetic comebacks. 

This Mio vs. Mika match wasn't supposed to be a Match of the Year in the sense that they didn't go crazy with the amount of near falls or the length or anything. Instead, they kept this midcard match short and compact, doing a simple but effective hard hitting match where they stayed within themselves and kept it interesting and relatively believable throughout. They hit hard and did a nice job of struggling for their holds. Iwata eventually hit her big flying knee then finished Mio off with the Michinoku driver II at 13:06. I give this match 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.


Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zellhuber

Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zellhuber from UFC 306 on September 14, 2024 at the Sphere in Paradise, Nevada is Fight of the Year so far. If you watched the entire Noche UFC show, this was the promotions best top to bottom card of the year, with a generally entertaining undercard highlighted by two other good fights in Joshua Van vs. Édgar Cháirez and Ronaldo Rodríguez vs. Ode' Osbourne. If you just watched the 2 big title fights, it was one of the worst, as Alexa Grasso accepted the bottom position much too readily despite throwing up a few good submission attempts and Sean O'Malley was afraid to throw kicks, or pretty much anything else, until he finally hurt Merab Dvalishvili with a front kick midway through the final round. 

Despite an incredible pace and a ridiculous amount of strikes thrown, Ribovics vs. Zellhuber just kept getting better and better each round, with a final round that was an all-timer. Both fighters threw over 300 significant strikes, with the 3rd round boasting a combined 307 significant strikes thrown. Ribovics insane 92 significant strikes landed in round 3 ranks 10th in UFC history, while his 191 attempted ranks 4th.

One of the crazy things about this fight is despite being a banger, it was still a good technical fight rather than a chaotic brawl where they were just winging sloppy hooks. Both had good game plans that they stuck to. Ribovics was giving up 8 inches in reach, so obviously he had to close the distance, but he did it technically, and with deception. He kept coming forward with a combo, doing a nice job of mixing the hand he was throwing first and the quadrant he was attacking. Ribovics often finished with a kick on the stance switch, but if he threw a kick first, he usually didn't immediately follow. Ribovics wasn't overaggressive, and he wasn't just biting down on the mouthpiece and coming straight in. He was throwing the first shot when he was closing distance, so it was difficult for Zellhuber to just hit Ribovics before he landed the first strike. 

Zellhuber was trying to maintain distance at all times by not only fighting behind his jab, but keeping his arm extended in between punches, and using it to push off with when necessary. The problem with this framing technique is his fingers were perpetually extended like Jon Jones. Jason Herzog warned Zellhuber about this countless times, but still refused to take a point when he finally gouged Ribovics. 

Zellhuber was certainly the less combo heavy fighter. His goal was to stay long, keep Ribovics off him rather than coming forward behind his jab to land a series of shots. Zellhuber would certainly take the space if he was able to back Ribovics, but he was definitely the less proactive fighter since he didn't specifically have to work to land. He was content to use the single jab, or to kick on the stance switch. When Ribovics was close, Zellhuber looked for the knee down the middle.  

Ribovics did a great job of getting inside and keeping his head moving, so he surprisingly wasn't getting hit back too often while he was throwing his combinations or exiting. He stayed low well, and worked the body, but he never tried to level change to even make Zellhuber consider a takedown. Ribovics probably should get with the modern kicking style, and attack the calf rather than the thigh. Despite these limitations, he was clearly the more skilled fighter, to the point you often forgot just how much reach he was making up for. 

Despite their completely different striking styles, they were incredibly evenly matched, and no one had an advantage for long until the 3rd round. One of the only counters Zellhuber landed was a right elbow early in the 3rd that dropped Ribovics when he was trying to exit after finishing his combo by landing a left. Ribovics barely took a break when Zellhuber gouged him after the knockdown, and came back with a lead uppercut/overhand right combo at 3:15 that sent Zellhuber wobbling. After 30 seconds of Ribovics throwing as fast as he possibly could against the cage, Zellhuber tripped while running away. Zellhuber wasn't answering back, and he was certainly in drunken boxing mode, but he was dipping, ducking, and rolling Ribovics fast shots. Part of the problem is Ribovics was also so excited that he just threw as often as he could rather than measuring his blows a little more, and trying to make sure he landed one big one rather than just mashing buttons. 

Zellhuber finally started throwing back after another 30 seconds, but was clearly still hurt badly, and just operating on instinct. Ribovics threw what Daniel Cormier exaggeratingly claimed was 1000 punches in the final 3:15 trying for the knockout, but this still wasn't just one way traffic, as Zellhuber did his best to fight back in the final 2 minutes. It felt like it could be a 10-8 round for Ribovics while watching it the 1st time, but Zellhuber was the one that actually got the knockdown, and his defense was better than it appeared to be on the first viewing. This was truly an insane and amazing round. Round of the year for sure. The first 2 rounds were consistently good, competitive stuff that could have gone either way, but nothing off the charts like the 3rd where their heart and desire really came to the forefront. While they were trading constantly, they had so many options and adapted so well to what the other was doing that their exchanges didn't become samey outside of maybe the hooks Ribovics was throwing while trying to finish Zellhuber in the 3rd. Ribovics won a 29-28 split decision. Excellent match that will be remembered for a long time.




https://www.postwrestling.com/2024/09/14/cmll-91st-aniversario-report-mistico-beats-chris-jericho-euforia-unmasked/

Will Ospreay vs PAC

Will Ospreay vs. PAC from AEW All Out on September 7th, 2024 at the Hoffman Estates NOW Arena was a match that I was All In on. It's two amazing athletes doing a spectacular, counter heavy mirror match that consistently delivered the explosive action the fans expected from start to finish. Everything they did was very cool and looked great. It was more satisfying than Will's PPV matches against Konosuke Takeshita and Roderick Strong largely because it was allowed to play out without shenanigans, and better than his matches against Fenix and Kyle O'Reilly because they were rushed and interrupted TV matches rather than the PPV classics they should have been. This still wasn't an extraordinary match though, but rather the sort of match we should always be seeing at least one example of in the AEW midcard, in this case done by guys that should be main eventing sometimes. I don't specifically mean this exact "everything you can do, I can do better" game of oneupsmanship, I'm more generally after some sort of high workrate athletic encounter between two serious, highly skilled technically adept workers who are accurate and precise in their movements, and thus don't "need" managers, run ins, staple guns, or games of pocket pinball to theoretically spice things up. Instead of an endless stream of ridiculously contrived multi man and gimmick matches where guys are trying to hide next to the ring apron for 5 minutes at a time or spending minutes setting up the latest prop stunt no one will remember 5 seconds later, just an actual legitimate contest between the multitude of guys wasting away that were signed based upon their ability to do high workrate matches elsewhere so AEW can actually still be the sports based alternative to Jerry Springer wrestling they supposedly set out to be. This group would include but not be limited to Kenny Omega, Bryan Danielson, Kyle O'Reilly, El Hijo del Vikingo, The Beast Mortos, Konosuke Takeshita, Roderick Strong, Mark Briscoe, Bandido, Lio Rush, Komander, Hologram, Claudio Castagnoli, Darby Allin, AR Fox, & Malakai Black.

For me, this Will vs. PAC match is actually a great example of how much effect the booking even has on a matchup where all the stars are aligned to almost certainly deliver a recommended match. 5 years ago, everyone was excited about the dream match between these two that took place on February 15th at RevPro's High Stakes 2019 show at York Hall in London. This was four months after PAC had returned to Dragon Gate after being iced for a year for quiting the circus. PAC had captured the Open The Dream Gate Title from Masato Yoshino on December 4, 2018, while Ospreay had captured the NEVER Openweight Championship from Kota Ibushi on January 4th, 2019 at the Tokyo Dome. The politics between rival Japanese companies Dragon Gate and New Japan kept us from getting a clean finish even on a small indy show in the UK, and with PAC's previous RevPro match being a DQ win over Zack Sabre Jr. on January 6th, 2019, meaning that Sabre kept his Undisputed British Heavyweight Title, though some dispute could now be made, they opted for the compromise of a 30 minute draw. 

The last thing anyone logical wants to see from two exciting, high-octane, action oriented wrestlers that aren't known for their storytelling is for them to drag things out for half an hour. This match was still good, but would only briefly get out of first gear. There was no urgency and tons of dead time where they were just staring at one another. The match began to pick up around the 15 minute mark for an attempt to make us believe they were moving into the finishing stretch, but really fell apart in the final third due to silliness. After Ospreay got a near fall with his Oscutter, it took him nearly a minute to overdramatically make his way up to the top rope, only for PAC to accidentally take out ref Chris Roberts when Ospreay kicked PAC off his leg. It took another minute for Ospreay to turn PAC's avalanche tombstone into a tornado DDT. Ospreay set up his hidden blade, but the CCK team of Jonathan Gresham and Chris Brookes showed up and took him out. Ospreay and PAC then temporarily aligned to get rid of CCK with a double pescado, only because Brookes pissed PAC off by trying to use his Dream Gate title belt on Ospreay. Roberts finally got up 4 1/2 minutes later to count the near fall on Ospreay's Spanish fly. Ospreay got a near fall with the shooting star press. Then there was a really goofy ending where PAC tried to get Roberts to DQ him for low blowing his way out of the stormbreaker, but Ospreay was still down when PAC finished petitioning for defeat, so PAC ascended to the top for his black arrow finisher. However, rather than try to pull off the last second win, he decided to settle for the draw by letting time expire. Despite some quality moves, this was an extremely annoying close to a good match that would easily have been much better without the interference, and with PAC just being a proud cheating Bastard who hit the black arrow a second late.

I don't praise Tony Khan's booking often, but this rematch got everything right in terms of not inserting any unnecessary silliness down the stretch, no Fallis symbols or cornball conflict as to how Will should win the match. This was essentially their RevPro match with 10 minutes of air removed, and an actual fun finishing sequence added. It's a great example of how removing most of what didn't need to be there in the first place can yield dramatically superior results. While their RevPro match dragged, their AEW match hummed. This one actually felt like they were being purposeful in trying to show each other up and to win. 

They started off with essentially the same counter segment, but it was much better because they eliminated most of the dead time, condensing 5 minutes down to 2. Will was mostly the one showing his athletic superiority here. Ospreay is the better, faster, younger version of PAC, but since everyone knew he would win, one could argue that him generally being the one to show up or match PAC wasn't necessarily the best thing for the match quality, though it makes sense the way Tony will book going forward, which is that Ospreay will be featured on every PPV, while PAC will once again struggle to be granted the opportunity to do anything useful with his talents. Speaking of not doing anything useful, AEW's newest high price talent Ricochet got to watch from the back because they already couldn't have him win his debut match at All In or find an opponent for what should have been his 2nd PPV. Let's hope he's not stuck in an endless stream of middling tags with AEW's mascot once he loses to Ospreay.

As expected, Ospreay & PAC's balance was great, their movement was swift and explosive, and their offense was crisp, precise, and impactful. Even early on, it was readily apparent how much better this match was flowing. There were a number of crazy spots and bumps from both men, but they also did a good job of setting each other up, with so many sequences designed to showcase their great body control and amazing athletic ability through insane counters. PAC attempted a neck storyline, but as expected, this was just a match that delivered based on the action, where succeeding at what they do well allowed them to provide the only interesting match of the night. 

PAC stayed on top of Ospreay this time because at 20 minutes he wasn't feeling he needed to just kill time. There were a few rest holds, but at least he was doing something offensively rather than walking a lap while Ospreay pretended to be unable to continue, and the ref just allowed this to interminably go on because apparently their primary job of protecting the fighters only applies to real combat sports where they are actually in danger. I would have preferred a bit more purposeful technical wrestling from PAC, even if it slowed the match down briefly. My biggest criticism of the match is it wasn't actually surprising despite the numerous gymnastics displays to avoid damage. 

Ospreay and PAC are two of the best modern British wrestlers, but obviously this was nothing like the gymnastics displays we'd see from the World of Sport era British wrestlers such as Johnny Saint, Mark Rocco, or Marty Jones who were serious about using technical wrestling to control their opponent and try to defeat them. Whereas those greats of yesteryear incorporated gymnastics and tumbling into actual technical wrestling, time and time again, PAC did a single technical hold for the sole purpose of allowing Will to immediately pull off some cool counter where he'd land on his feet. The payoff just came so readily and effortlessly that it was all too apparent that PAC was just going through the paces of pretending to do technical work to set Ospreay up. This was arguably a lot faster and more spectacular than classic wrestling due to this approach, but none of it felt earned. Will's counters all looked perfect, but there was no real suspense to anything, as it just existed for show. That being said, this wasn't nearly as flimsy as the usual cooperative Parkour because these are two of the best athletes and executers in the business. It was far more intense than their previous match, and didn't look contrived or phony beyond the minimal amount required to pull off the stunts. This was high level spectacle because Will had an opponent who can do the things that he does. PAC doesn't do as many different things as Ospreay, but everything he does looks really impressive. 

One of the big highlights was both doing sky twisters to the floor. Will's swandive forearm on the outside was the one spot that was much better in their RevPro match because he was able to hurdle the guardrail there, but even AEW can't be expected to have a vacant area in the front row for Ospreay to leap into, at least when it's not one of their thousand fans in a 90% empty NBA arena TV taping. They added a few good things, such as PAC hitting a released German suplex then poisonrana on the apron, which played into his neck attack. PAC was really in love with the poisonrana today. He hit another one in the ring, then Will avoided one in the ring. Finally, Will landed on his feet for an avalanche poisonrana and hit the hidden blade. Will then hit an Oscutter off the top, but PAC turned the stormbreaker into a hurracarrana for his final hope spot. Will rolled through into a Styles clash, and seemed to miss with his hidden blade, as usual, but got the pin with it anyway. 

This match flowed a lot better than their previous one. It was actually energetic, and they didn't waste much time. There wasn't a lot going on beyond being spectacular, but it felt like they were at least being spectacular as a means to win the match. The fact that they actually had a finish allowed them to actually build up to the finish, and even if build is used somewhat loosely, this match kept gaining momentum where the RevPro match just kind of sputtered along due to all the stops and starts. I give the RevPro match 3 stars out of 5, and the AEW match 3.75 stars out of 5.

Johnny Saint

John Miller was born on June 29, 1941 in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, England. Miller was trained as a wrestler by Billy Robinson and George Kidd. Miller made his professional wrestling debut in June 1958 under the name Johnny Saint.

On November 3, 1976, Johnny Saint started his run as World Lightweight Champion after beating Jim Breaks in the final of a tournament that was held after Saint’s mentor George Kidd had vacated the title upon his retirement. Saint held the title for a long time in spite of Steve Grey proving to be an amazing tough challenger who even beat Saint in two non-title matches. Saint would end up holding the World Lightweight Title on ten occasions during his career.

Johnny Saint was a great technician who always seemed to have a counter for every counter, and his matches are great examples of excellent displays of the British wrestling style during his prime years (the 1970s and 1980s). After Saint had appeared numerous times on World of Sport Wrestling on ITV, which was a show that broadcasted the top bouts from Britain (mainly from the Joint Promotions league), Saint also started appearing on Reslo TV in 1982. Reslo was a TV show mainly broadcast in Welsh that featured wrestling matches promoted by Orig Williams in Wales. Saint returned several times to the Reslo TV shows and was a perfect fit, since during the early days of Reslo, the style was oftentimes quite similar to the classic WOS Wrestling style (depending on which matches you’re watching, of course).  

Johnny Saint was a great technical wrestler who uplifted the match quality of each match he was involved in. If he was facing a top-notch opponent (for example, Steve Grey or Ken Joyce), he would be able to give the crowd a match that featured some of the most awesome technical wrestling they’d ever seen. If he was facing a more character-driven wrestler (for example, Jim Breaks or Mick McManus) or a simply a lesser known wrestler with less credentials, Saint would be able to uplift the quality of those matches by giving the crowd always something worthwhile in spite of the opponent not being quite on the highest level. Saint’s amazing display of intense counter wrestling (which featured seemingly a counter for every counter), in combination with a certain level of urgency and his ability to put over the idea that he was trying his best to be the best wrestler he could be, made him truly an all-time great professional wrestler.

Johnny Saint spent most of his career wrestling in the United Kingdom. Saint made his Japanese wrestling debut in July 1996 when he wrestled on a tour for Michinoku Pro. Saint retired from professional wrestling on 10/10/96 after wrestling Noahiro Hoshikawa at Michinoku Pro’s ‘These Days’ show, which was a show in Tokyo that featured the final match of another legendary English wrestler, The Dynamite Kid. However, like most wrestling retirement matches, it wasn’t his actual final match.

Johnny Saint would eventually come out of retirement to return to the ring to wrestle several matches, including a match against Johnny Kidd in 2007. Saint made his American wrestling debut in 2009 when he appeared in CHIKARA. His actual final wrestling match took place in 2015. Saint currently lives in Wales.

Many people have claimed to be a man of 1,000 (or even 1,004) holds, but if one man truly deserves the name ‘The Man of a 1,000 Holds,’it’s Johnny Saint. This man knew a counter for every counter, and he knew how to confuse and outdo his opponents through his dazzling display of technical wrestling. That’s why he almost never needed to break the rules. He was a relatively small wrestler, at approximately 5’7" and 154 lbs., but his tremendous wrestling ability and high workrate helped him turn the lightweight division into arguably the most entertaining division to watch during his prime, no matter whether he was the champion or the challenger.

My overall conclusion of Johnny Saint’s career is as follows...

Johnny Saint’s five best years were 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983, which was when he was in his late 30s/early 40s. By this point, he had really perfected his role as THE lightweight champion, and he had perfected his role as the veteran who knew a counter for every counter.

After watching more than 40 matches of Johnny Saint’s career, it can be safely said that he’s arguably the second-best British wrestler in the history of pro wrestling, second only to Dynamite Kid (and Mark Rocco would be a close third and Marty Jones possibly fourth). If we purely look at wrestling from Great Britain and ignore any wrestling outside of Great Britain (Japan, Canada, United States, etc.), then we can safely say that Johnny Saint is the best wrestler in the history of British pro wrestling, as no wrestler during the heyday of (available) British wrestling TV was such a consistently high-quality in-ring performer as Saint was.

Even though Saint mainly wrestled in the United Kingdom for the majority of his career, and even though he mainly wrestled in a typical ‘World of Sport Wrestling’ style, his great display of technical wrestling against a variety of opponents made him a wrestler who was truly enjoyable to watch for many years. 

Saint would enhance the in-ring quality of the product shown on World of Sport Wrestling TV, and he would help World of Sport Wrestling to maintain a certain standard of excellence. After Steve Grey had his series of matches with Saint, Grey’s overall in-ring work improved significantly. When Saint started wrestling in Wales in the early/mid 1980s, he also enhanced the in-ring quality of the product shown on Reslo TV.

No matter who he was facing, Saint’s work would always elevate the quality of the match. Of course, sometimes his opponents were better than other times, and sometimes they fit his style better than other times, but he’d always make the effort to have the best match possible under the circumstances.

Here is a list of Johnny Saint’s best matches...

0:00-0:52 Johnny Saint's background and early career
0:52-1:52 Johnny Saint stars in Joint Promotions World of Sport and Reslo
1:53-2:55 Johnny Saint technical wrestling style was based around having a counter for every counter
2:56-3:59 Johnny Saint's late career touring Michinoku Pro and wrestling in CHIKARA
4:00-4:50 Johnny Saint was The Man of 1000 Holds
4:51-7:16 The best and worst years of Johnny Saint's career
7:17-7:49 Johnny Saint's best matches

Mark Rocco

Mark Hussey was born on May 11, 1951 in Manchester, England. He is a fourth-generation wrestler, and his father was ‘Jumping’ Jim Hussey. Mark turned pro in 1970, became known as Mark Rocco and started appearing on World of Sport Wrestling on ITV also in 1970, not too long after he had become a pro wrestler. At 190 lbs., ‘Rollerball’ Mark Rocco was often the lighter wrestler in a match, as he was not afraid to battle heavier opponents in catchweight bouts. While he was great at getting heel heat from the crowd, he was even greater at making his opponents look good. He was definitely not a selfish worker.

Mick McManus and Jim Breaks were two of the top heels appearing on World of Sport Wrestling back in the day, but, with all due respect to those who enjoyed their theatrics, they were rather ridiculous wrestlers, as they were merely characters pretending to be world class wrestlers. At least Les Kellett was just a full-fledged comedy heel who didn’t pretend to be otherwise and was therefore more watchable and funny than Mick McManus and Jim Breaks who got boring and stale real quick.

Mark Rocco was in a class of his own. He was a true badass heel who took care of business. In other words, he was truly a great wrestling heel. You’d respect him for his ability, and you’d cheer his opponent for fighting back. Rocco was great at controlling and dictating the pace yet still being able to make his opponent look like a million bucks in the end. He was great at being heel while still being a competitive wrestler at the same time. So, this made him come across as a genuine mean and tough dude as opposed to the comedy clowns who were merely entertaining the old ladies swinging around their purses in anger at ringside. Kent Walton summed it up quite well when he once said on commentary: "Such a good wrestler this man Rocco, just a pity he gets a little wild."

In 1982, New Japan Pro-Wrestling picked Rocco to portray Black Tiger, and he was in fact the First Black Tiger (and in the future, there would be a Black Tiger II and a Black Tiger III, portrayed by Eddy Guerrero and Silver King respectively). Rocco became one of the three main rivals of the First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. During the late 1980s, Rocco also briefly feuded with Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger), and Rocco had even been involved with some of the early training of young Yamada. Rocco and Yamada ended up wrestling each other in TV matches in England, Wales and Japan.

Rocco was one of the most outstanding British in-ring performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He was great at carrying opponents and making them look good, which helped in getting those opponents (who were usually the babyfaces of the matches) over with the crowd and helped in making the matches more exciting. When Rocco had a match on the card, it would often be the most memorable match of the show.

Here is my overall conclusion of Mark Rocco’s career...

Mark Rocco’s five best years were: 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982. After watching over sixty matches of the ‘Mean Machine,’ it is safe to say that he is one of the all-time greats of professional wrestling, and he is arguably one of the top 3 greatest British wrestlers ever. Especially during his very best years, it was his bumping, selling, timing and understanding that would often help elevate his opponents and matches to higher quality.

He had the ability to guide his opponents really well and set them up for success. Mark Rocco’s in-ring feud with Marty Jones was arguably the most memorable pro wrestling feud of the 1970s, as it was of high quality and still looks impressive even when watched decades later. Their ‘70s matches were ahead of their time. During the early 1980s, Rocco’s in-ring feud with Dynamite Kid and Satoru Sayama were among the most interesting feuds of the time. Other than his best matches against Jones, the matches against Dynamite were Rocco’s best matches on World of Sport Wrestling. His feud against The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) in New Japan Pro-Wrestling was one of the top feuds in the New Japan junior heavyweight division at the time.

Here is a list of Mark Rocco’s best matches...

0:00-1:27 Mark Rocco's background and early career
1:28-2:21 Mark Rocco was a great wrestling heel
2:22-3:43 Mark Rocco is one of the greatest British wrestlers
3:44-4:42 The best and worst years of ark Rocco's career
4:43-5:31 Marty Jones, Dynamite Kid, & Tiger Mask were Mark Rocco's best opponents
5:32-6:10 Mark Rocco's best matches

Marty Jones

Marty Jones was born on September 26, 1954 in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. After being trained by Billy Robinson, Marty Jones made his pro wrestling debut in 1972, and that’s also the year he first started appearing on World Of Sport Wrestling. This famous wrestling television show on ITV featured some of the very best pro wrestlers of British pro wrestling.

Marty Jones spent most of his wrestling career in Great Britain, but he also wrestled in several different countries, including Germany. At some point in the 1970s, Marty Jones was asked to go on a tour to Mexico. On June 13, 1975, after a hot feud with Perro Aguayo, Jones lost a hair vs. hair match against Aguayo at Arena Mexico.

On June 30, 1976, Marty Jones battled Mark Rocco in one of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history. These two had several other excellent matches against one another as well, including a couple of very memorable ones in 1978.

In 1977 and 1978, Jones had matches in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. In some of these matches, Marty Jones 

teamed with Andre the Giant. After seeing Jones wrestle in Japan, Vincent James McMahon (a.k.a. Vince McMahon Sr.) asked Jones to come wrestle in the United States. However, Jones declined the offer because the type of wrestling shown by the American wrestlers of the World Wide Wrestling Federation wasn’t his thing.

In February of 1979, Jones started to spend some time in Stampede Wrestling, which was Stu Hart’s famous wrestling league that was based out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jones would occasionally team with Dynamite Kid and often wrestle against Bruce and/or Bret Hart. Dynamite Kid had made Calgary his home since arriving there in April of 1978. Dynamite would occasionally return to England to compete on World of Sport Wrestling, and on November 13, 1979, Marty Jones vs. Dynamite Kid was a really good match. 

In October of 1982, Jones returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for another tour. He wrestled The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) several times in singles and tag team matches, which included a very good singles match against Sayama on October 8, 1982 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

During one of Dynamite Kid’s brief returns to England, on January 16, 1983 in Walthamstow, England, Marty Jones and Dynamite Kid had a truly great match against one another. It was a match that lasted seven rounds and was one of the very best matches both wrestlers had wrestled in England.

On November 13, 1984, Marty Jones had a great match against Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay, a wrestler from Northern Ireland. These two also had a really good match against each other on April 4, 1984 in addition to several matches that were pretty good as well. Fit Finlay ended up becoming quite a famous wrestler all over the world.

In February and March of 1985, Jones wrestled for U.W.F. and wrestled several matches, including a very good singles match against Nobuhiko Takada and a very good singles match against Super Tiger (Satoru Sayama). Jones combined his knowledge of amateur wrestling and World of Sport Wrestling and used it to his advantage during this tour for U.W.F., which was a newly formed league that featured some of the earliest examples of shoot-style pro wrestling, which essentially could be considered proto-MMA.

Most of the matches Marty Jones wrestled during his career ranged from good to great, but occasionally he had to face opponents that should merely be considered larger than life characters that appeared on the small screen, as opposed to actual good wrestlers. For instance, on June 5, 1985, Marty Jones’ opponent was the 6’11" and 630-lb. Giant Haystacks. Some of you may remember Haystacks’ run in WCW in 1996 as Loch Ness. And it’s safe to say that to say that not many people are considering Haystacks to be an actual good wrestler would be an understatement.

On March 5, 1987, Marty Jones wrestled against Calgary’s Owen Hart in a tremendous match that lasted ten rounds. In spite of Owen’s plane being late and there not being any time for Owen to do anything other than getting into his wrestling gear and shaking Jones’ hand prior to the match, these two showed their amazing wrestling skill by having such a great match off the cuff. Owen showed relatively early in his career that he was top talent, and this match took place before he even had any of his tours of Japan.

The great Marty Jones never cared about gimmicks, he was all about wrestling skill. He liked to tell a story in the ring through realistic pro wrestling. This makes a lot of his matches timeless and still enjoyable even decades later. He won many titles during his career, and this confirmed that he was indeed a much respected wrestler. Even though he made many trips to different places in the world, he would always come back and make further contributions to British wrestling. In fact, over the decades, Marty Jones’ contributions to British wrestling have been quite steady and consistent, further cementing his status as one of the all-time greats of British wrestling. 

In spite of having lost sight in his left eye since the age of six, Jones was able to successfully compete in the pro wrestling business, since he was top talent, both as a great wrestler and great trainer. Even though he officially never retired, it appears Marty Jones started competing less often since the mid 1990s and hasn’t wrestled a match since 2003.

However, he continued passing on his knowledge of this great sport in his role as a trainer. At some point during his illustrious career, as his reputation of being an all-time great was firmly established, Marty Jones started being involved in the training of several promising wrestlers, including Lord Steven William Regal, Gabriel Kidd and also the nephews of the Dynamite Kid, Mark Billington and the extremely talented Tommy Billington.

Here is my overall conclusion of Marty Jones’ career...


Marty Jones’ five best years were 1976, 1978, 1979, 1983 and 1984. Some of Marty Jones’ most notable opponents were Dynamite Kid, Mark Rocco, Fit Finlay and Owen Hart.

Marty Jones definitely deserves a spot in the Hall of Talent. After having watched more than 35 of Marty Jones’ matches, it’s safe to say that he is one of the all-time greats of professional wrestling. He’s arguably one of the five best British pro wrestlers in pro wrestling history. And he’s also arguably one of the ten or fifteen greatest pro wrestlers in all of pro wrestling EVER!

And here is a list of Marty Jones’ 15 best matches...

The August 24th, 2024 Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero match was a huge step up from their previous matches. They once again did a match that was suited for the crowd they were wrestling for. Since this RevPro match took place in London, it was more of a classic British style technical match, albeit without the tumbling that would have made it play better for a 21st century audience. As with their CMLL match on June 22nd, 2024 in Mexico, this was a style of technical match that, albeit rare in the present day, the crowd could relate to and was consistently enthralled by. These were very different matches, and I suppose if you really love the loose Lucha Libre submission style, you could prefer their CMLL match, but for me this World of Sport style match was an improvement in literally every way. 

They lost all the cooperative matwork where they seemed to be posing one another, and did much more elongated, back and forth grappling segments where it was a point of pride not to take a rope break. This was slower and less flashy than Sabre's usual submission work, and a lot more painful looking than Hechicero's usual stuff, in part because both are normally wrestling opponents who don't really know what they are doing on the mat, and, at least in story, are actively trying to avoid being on the mat as much as they can get away with. Sabre & Hechicero were, of course, actually engaging one another on the ground, and while that took some of the speed and flash out of their submission work because they didn't have to counter another style in order to do theirs, it added a lot of positive aspects by making this feel like a consistent struggle where they were actually working against each others goals rather than mostly assisting one another in cosplaying at doing some unbelievable pro wrestling stuff. 

These technician vs. technician matches involving Sabre, Hechicero, & Bryan Danielson stand out a lot more these days because we are to the point where most wrestling is just one person standing around watching their opponent strike them or run and jump at them, and then they either immediately switch roles or lay around taking a break while the opponent walks in a circle playing to the crowd. In these Sabre matches, there's instead actually something resembling the resistance that was once part of pro wrestling. They keep working for a new hold or adjusting the one they have rather than being allowed to apply a submission and sitting in it until the opponent makes their phony crawl to the ropes then comes back with some slam or flying move on the restart. Zack vs. Hechicero was a battle for the marginal to big gains that are routinely just surrendered because the art of working the holds has largely been eliminated from modern wrestling. Even this wasn't so much about moving to maintain the current hold, but rather to get the opponent in an ever more compromising position that would be harder for them to twist or turn out of. Either way, wrestling is much more interesting when defense is a real part of the equation, and it feels like there are some actual stakes to not allowing the opponent to keep you on the defensive. 

Wrestling is also a lot better when it feels like something important could happen most of the time. The WWE has always pushed for a style with very tight and repetitive movesets so the crowd knows when to react, and that may be good for getting a handful of big pops, but that also means the crowd knows when not to react, and the problem for anyone who isn't super over is that's the other 95% of the match. Even if the crowd happens to be really hot, that concept results in the bulk of the match feeling pretty empty because we know this action is meaningless entertainment at best, and pure filler at worst, with only the few very prescribed finishers, that are generally also very telegraphed to maximize that big pop, being important if the match is going to end without shenanigans. 

Sabre & Hechicero were trying to constantly outmanuever each other rather than telegraphing their finisher and either hitting it now or having it avoided until later on. The majority of the grappling they displayed tonight wouldn't be utilized against a typical opponent because it evolved out of more technical wrestling rather than as an answer to the opponent running around. Under these parameters, the most important thing was not allowing their body to be trapped or controlled any more than it already was, and that resulted in a lot fuller match where most of what they were doing seemed to have some sort of purpose. Rather than simply doing moves for the sake of it, their movements were at least a means to an attempt at an end. A match like Sabre vs. Hechicero is exciting precisely because the audience doesn't know what to expect. They just kept moving with the goal of controlling their opponent better, but that could come in the form of a more elaborate submission hold where there were less loose body parts that the opponent could move freely. It could also come in the form of a flash pin because the shoulders of one, if not both fighters were on or near the mat most of the time. 

Hechicero may never have done a technical match in the British style before, but even though he was out of his element so to speak because this slower, grittier, nastier technical stuff isn't his normal brand of grappling, it was largely due to him that we got to see a coarser style of matwork than we normally see from Zack. Hechicero was really good here, giving a much more plausible performance than in their past matches. The fact that he was able to step it up considerably was one of the reasons this match was easily their best together, with his performance finally being much closer to Zack's level. 

This match was definitely one of the best examples of a modern match that didn't fall into most of the pitfalls of modern wrestling. It wasn't the usual cooperative cliche where they stand around watching the opponent do something to them, then lay around putting it over while the opponent plays to the crowd. They weren't just going with anything the opponent attempted, and they weren't just piecing the match together by checking off the boxes of what a good match is supposed to include. This was active technical wrestling where they kept adjusting and countering. There were submission holds throughout, so it was more interesting as a consistent threat than the usual stuff where someone goes from standing to their one signature submission. 

I thought the best part of the match was the opening 7 minutes when it was just matwork. I liked the incorporation of strikes on the mat to help open up submissions, or perhaps bait the opponent into a mistake, but their 1 strike exchange was box checking rather than advancing a match that was showcasing what makes them unique. After this, someone would put together a little run of strikes in transition if they were going to bother hitting each other at all.

One of the hurdles they tried hard to clear was that everyone knew Sabre was going to win this time. He had already lost in Hechicero's homeland two months earlier, and that obviously wasn't going to happen again in Sabre's triumphant UK return, after defeating the goofball who walks around flashing his teeth after most uneventful things he does to become the first British wrestler to ever win the G1 Climax. 

After the lengthy parity segment at the outset, Sabre was on the defensive much of the final 2/3 of the match to make Hechicero credible. Hechicero winning their previous match allowed him to be cocky and arrogant in dominating Sabre. Hechicero was able to connect with this crowd because he didn't have MJF undermining him at every turn. While the fans were obviously for Zack, Hechicero was certainly applauded and taken seriously as both a talent and a threat. 

Hechicero worked the ribs in a more interesting manner than Sabre's opponents normally do, and Sabre eventually conceded to taking a rope escape, which felt like a well earned feather in Hechicero's cap. They ultimately succeeded in making it feel like Hechicero was the favorite here, with Zack pulling off big counters to stay in the match, but being unable to really capitalize on them because his ribs slowed down his comeback attempts. There weren't many near finishes per se, and it didn't have a big escalation or really hit a higher gear, but it was still an intense and dramatic match because they were able to make most of what they did have some relevancy, and tell a broader story of both guys being a twist or turn away from a tap out or a flash pin. 

For the most part, they were able to work the highspots into the match in an interesting manner that didn't make it feel like they were just forcing things or now randomly switching to doing a different type of match. There were a few nice lucha spots where they figured out how to do something a bit flashier without diverting from their primary style. For instance, Zach used a tijeras as a setup move for his neck screw. When he went for the tijeras again later, Hechicero was ready for it, but Zack countered Hechicero's counter by going into an armbar. Zack would hit a big move to comeback, such as the tornado DDT or Zack driver, but be unable to capitalize due to the rib injury. Still, there were points where the action actually slowed down due to the few strikes and suplexes they threw in instead of them helping to pick things up. This sounds weird, but because they were no longer locked up, we got bits of the usual schtick where the heel does one thing then taunts the face while the face lays around selling. There weren't too many big risks here, and when Hechicero tried to boomerang off the middle rope, Zack caught him and pretzled him for the submission. 

While this wasn't as amazing as the February 11, 2024 New Japan Sabre vs. Danielson Match of the Year, or even their October 1, 2023 AEW match, right now this is my second favorite men's match of 2024. I'm not sure what to rate this match because I don't think it's an amazing example of British style wrestling overall, but this felt like a much different match than I'm always seeing these days in a lot of positive ways. It's consistently intense grappling in a time when almost all wrestling follows the annoying stop and start pattern because they don't do much these days beyond highspots and stalling, I mean, selling. It feels like a 4 star match overall that one could easily justify bumping to 4.25 stars if they are rating on a 2020's curve.








Silver King was a pro wrestler from Mexico. Perhaps one of the most important reasons why his career deserves the spotlight is because he's somehow one of the most untrated pro wrestlers ever. He’s one of the best wrestlers to seemingly have been almost completely forgotten or overlooked by the majority of wrestling fans and critics, at least until today. When the best Mexican pro wrestlers are being discussed, we usually hear lots of praise for Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo, and understandably so, since those two are certainly legendary luchadores. Sometimes we also hear praise for luchadores who are arguably less deserving of all that praise than Silver King is, El Dandy and Satanico, for example. Although, who are we to doubt El Dandy?

Silver King seems to be overlooked in virtually every discussion that is about the best Mexican wrestlers of all time, even though he was one of the most talented Mexican wrestlers of his generation. El Hijo del Santo may have been more graceful, Negro Casas may have been more thoughtful and detail-oriented, and Dr. Wagner Jr. may have been more charismatic and entertaining at times, but none of those outstanding luchadores were arguably able to adapt to different styles of the wrestling world quite as well as Silver King was able to. Wherever King went, he stood out as a spectacular and effective worker. He was trained in Mexican lucha libre, but quickly adapted to the lucharesu style when he wrestled for Universal in Japan. Whenever he returned to Japan, he kept showing that he was able to adapt to Japanese puroresu arguably better than any Mexican wrestler had ever done. Of course, Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras used to impress crowds in the 1970s, and Dr. Wagner Jr. did quite well for himself in Japan. However, King’s ability to adapt and combine the styles he encountered in Mexico and Japan was exceptional.

Silver King was a natural in any style and country he wrestled in. Even when King was hired by WCW, he understood he had to try to find a way to make his ridiculously short WCW TV matches work. He wasn’t selfish, and while certainly not afraid to hit cool-looking moves, he seemed more concerned about getting everyone in the match over. Despite never getting a big push in WCW, he played his role well, and his matches were not dull. He was deceptively agile, as he was a somewhat stocky luchador with a powerful upper body, but he was able to fly around like many of the smaller luchadores. His athleticism helped to be able to hit exciting moves seemingly with tremendous ease. Not only was he able to shine whenever he was on offense, he was also able to make his opponents look good through his ability to combine bumping, selling, timing and understanding.

Not too much is known about Silver King’s first five years in the wrestling business. King made his debut in November 1985. During his early years, he was still a masked wrestler, but after he lost his mask to El Hijo del Santo in a mask vs. mask match on 11/13/87, King started wrestling without a mask. Despite losing his mask so early in his career (which used to be a big deal in Mexican lucha libre), King ended up having a very successful career. It was revealed that King was the son of legendary luchador Dr. Wagner (Sr.). King’s brother, Dr. Wagner Jr., would also become a famous wrestler. Silver King’s career from 1991 onward is a lot more researchable, since there is a lot more information and footage available about King’s career from 1991 onward. 1991 was the year that King became a very good worker. It probably isn’t a coincidence that 1991 was the year King started wrestling in Japan more often.

Gran Hamada’s Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre (FULL), a.k.a. Hamada’s Universal Wrestling Federation, was a lucha libre league in Japan that was the first league to successfully be a Mexican-style wrestling league in Japan. The league was basically the predecessor of Michinoku Pro, a league that was very popular among puroresu fanatics on the Internet back in the 1990s, and which was more of a lucharesu league, a hybrid of Japanese and Mexican wrestling. While Michinoku Pro probably should be considered puroresu with strong lucha libre influences, Universal was an actual full-on Mexican-style lucha libre league that operated in Japan. King did well during his tours for Universal, and you could say that his run in Universal in 1991 and 1992 was when he first was able to put his name on the map of international wrestling in a truly successful way.

King didn’t only wrestle in Mexico and Japan in 1992, he also had a match in the United States. On 6/16/92, Silver King & El Texano (billed as Silver King I & Silver King II) wrestled Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes in a match that was quite a clash of styles at WCW Clash of the Champions. It was a random appearance that only happened because WCW needed a Mexican team for their world tag team tournament, and at least they picked arguably the best Mexican team around at the time (so somebody in WCW actually did their homework). This would be the first and only WCW appearance of King until he started working there on a regular basis five years later.

In 1993, Silver King started appearing on cards of Japanese hardcore/garbage wrestling leagues, first for the league known as W*ING, and in 1994-1995, in IWA Japan. King usually teamed with El Texano on these shows, and they oftentimes wrestled against the Headhunters, a mediocre American tag team that was popular among hardcore wrestling fans, partially because of them being heavy wrestlers who could perform moves that were usually not performed by workers of their weight category, like moonsaults.

By 1994, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) had become Silver King’s main league and would remain his main league until mid 1997, while still appearing on Japanese tours quite regularly. CMLL, which was founded in 1933, is the oldest wrestling league that is currently still active. 1995 was one of Silver King’s most interesting years, because his level of work had noticeably improved, and he had become an excellent worker and at times even a great worker. In 1996 and 1997, he wasn’t able to really show that excellence as much, though. This wasn’t necessarily King’s fault, and it was mostly due to CMLL’s booking. King mostly seemed to get booked in matches with workers who weren’t really able to go all out with him (Emilio Charles Jr., La Fiera, the Headhunters and the overrated Miguel Perez Jr. come to mind).

When King turned heel towards the end of this CMLL run, the focus in his matches were more his heel heat and interaction with the crowd, and there was a little bit less emphasis on the wrestling. And a lot of the trios matches King was involved in were matches with short falls that often seemed to lose momentum in between the falls. Of course, whenever he was in the ring with Negro Casas or Dr. Wagner Jr., it was really enjoyable. When he wrestled a guy like Felino, who could still go in those days, it was certainly also lots of fun to watch King work. King’s first run as a regular competitor in CMLL lasted from 1993 through May 1997. He would return to CMLL as a regular in May 2001.

The part of Silver King’s career from mid 1997 through mid 2000 was probably the most frustrating part of his career (at least from a wrestling fan’s perspective), despite still being in his prime. This wasn’t necessarily because of his work, but it was because after aligning himself with Konnan’s Promo Azteca league, King started working for World Championship Wrestling, an American wrestling company that at the time was trying to go head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation, the infamous sports-entertainment company you may have heard of.

His run in Promo Azteca is pretty much forgettable, as he was usually involved in matches featuring wrestlers that were huge stars but weren’t known for being good in-ring performers (like Konnan and Vampiro Canadiense). Promo Azteca was a place where Konnan’s buddies and other workers who were looking for a fresh start (most of them being former AAA workers who had become unhappy in AAA) would attempt to make Promo Azteca the third major Mexican league (which was an attempt that would come to an end by the end of 1998 when the league folded).

While appearing on WCW TV helped make a large number of people aware of Silver King’s name, working for WCW also meant that he was underutilized, under pushed and became used to performing 4-minute matches in front of crowds that weren’t really there with the intention to watch him or see good wrestling in general. On the bright side, if he would have worked for the World Wrestling Federation, he probably would have had an even worse time, because at least in WCW, he was involved in some fun matches against workers who were able to work cool spots and good in-ring sequences with him. He showed flashes of excellence in basically every match he was a part of.

For example, the 6/11/97 trios match he was involved in at a Saturday Night taping was a fun 5-minute match that was on its way to being a good match, but it should have gotten more time and attention from the company. King’s push in WCW seemed to gradually decline over time. It seemed that in 1997 and 1998, at least there was still some hope for King eventually getting somewhat of a decent run in WCW’s cruiserweight division. However, in 1999, his WCW push declined below a push that was already too low to begin with, and he rarely appeared on the main TV show Nitro anymore, as he appeared mostly on the B and C shows (Thunder, Saturday Night, Worldwide) in addition to house show appearances. 

On 10/21/99, Silver King & Juventud Guerrera vs. Kaz Hayashi & Blitzkrieg took place on WCW Thunder, and it was a match that was actually a very good 10-minute match and easily the best match of King’s WCW career. It’s even one of King’s 30 best matches of his career. On 12/21/99 in Salisbury, MD, in a match taped for WCW Worldwide, King lost to IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger in a non-title match that lasted 4:43. The match was excellent while it lasted, but it was obviously way too short to really be considered a very good match. It’s a shame such a promising match took place on a C show, and it was in line with how this league didn’t really seem to care about these talented wrestlers. In early 2000, this trend of Silver King being underutilized would continue, as King rarely appeared on Thunder and mostly appeared on the C shows and house shows. His run in WCW eventually came to an end in April 2000, despite it seemed he finally was going to get somewhat of a push again when it appeared Stacy Keibler was going to be the valet of the Fabulous One. He ended up not being used by WCW anymore and was eventually let go later that year. This was the best thing that could happen to his career, and what followed were some of King’s most interesting years of his career.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Silver King’s career was the year and a half he spent working New Japan Pro Wrestling tours. Despite being 33 years old at the time, 2001 was King’s peak as an overall in-ring performer. While being away on NJPW tours on occasion, CMLL was his home league. In mid 2001, he started working under the name Black Tiger (III) in CMLL. He ended up working as Black Tiger (III) in NJPW as well, as it was NJPW who had picked King to portray the third incarnation of the famous Black Tiger gimmick. The first two Black Tigers were Mark Rocco (in the 1980s and early 1990s) and Eddy Guerrero (in the mid 1990s) respectively. King did a really good job at working the masked Black Tiger gimmick, and yet still be an excellent worker at the same time, not getting overly caught up in the new gimmick. King’s run in NJPW only lasted from early 2001 to mid 2002.

Between 2003 and 2008, King’s tours to Japan would be for NJPW’s rival league All Japan Pro Wrestling instead. King’s best singles match took place in AJPW when he wrestled Low Ki on 10/26/03 in an excellent match. He also had a couple of memorable matches with Katsuhiko Nakajima in AJPW. In late 2005, King was picked to portray the villain Ramses in the movie Nacho Libre (2006). The story goes that about 30 other luchadores were considered for the role, which apparently included luchadores like Shocker, Universo 2000 and Canek. King’s matches in AAA were usually not that much more interesting than his matches in WCW. By 2008, AAA was certainly not a league that provided a good environment for workers to have matches on a high level (unlike back in 1992-1996 when AAA was at its peak).

In the weeks leading up to AAA TripleMania XVIII in 2010, which was held in Mexico City, King started wrestling under the name Silver Cain. This was because the boxing and wrestling commission (which tends to be particularly strict in Mexico City) didn’t like the fact that King was wrestling with a mask while using the Silver King name, as he had officially lost his mask while wrestling as Silver King in 1987.

King spent quite a bit of time in AAA during the final decade of his career, and by 2014, King, while still decent, was no longer in his prime and relied more on solid rudo brawling without the exciting wrestling we’d used to see from him earlier in his career. King’s career and life came to an end on May 11, 2019 during a match with Juventud Guerrera in Camden, London, England when King suffered a fatal heart attack during the match. He was 51 years old. 

After watching over 100 matches from over 25 different years of his 34-year career, it can be safely said that Silver King was a very talented professional wrestler worthy of more praise than he has usually been getting. His hard work, dedication and passion got him really far in the cut-throat business he was involved in. With his induction into the Hall of Talent, it’s now time to celebrate the excellence of the luchador who was known as Silver King. 

This is my overall conclusion of Silver King’s career...

0:00-1:33 Silver King is the forgotten great Luchador
1:34-3:13 Silver King adapted and excelled wherever he wrestled
3:14-4:07 Silver King's background and early career
4:08-5:13 Silver King tours Japan with Gran Hamada's Universal
5:14-6:00 Silver King appears in WCW's NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament
6:01-6:32 Silver King works for Japanese hardcore promotions W*ING & IWA Japan
6:33-8:14 CMLL is Silver King's home in Mexico
8:15-12:17 WCW wastes Silver King's talent & Promo Azteca fails
12:18-13:24 Silver King has his best year in NJPW and becomes Black Tiger III
13:25-13:48 Silver King jumps to AJPW
13:49-14:07 Silver King lands a role in the wrestling movie Nacho Libre
14:08-15:13 Silver King moves to AAA, becomes Silver Cain
15:14-15:30 Silver King dies in the ring
15:31-16:35 The best and worst years of Silver King's career
16:36-17:14 Silver King's best matches

Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus du Plessis was one of the most interesting UFC matches of the year on paper, and it actually lived up to the hype. Adesanya dominated the Middleweight division for 5 years, winning his first 9 fights before getting outwrestled by Jan Blachowicz in an attempt to become the Light Heavyweight champion as well. Adesanya's old kickboxing nemesis Alex Pereira finally defeated him after 3 more Middleweight Title defenses, but Adesanya KO'd Pereira in the rematch. Adesanya didn't get a rematch after getting upset by Sean Strickland on September 10, 2023. After going 13-3 in UFC over a 5 year period, he was suddenly coming back on August 17th, 2024 in the Perth RAC Arena after a year layoff in a pick 'em fight against new champion DDP, who has put together the best winning streak in the division since Adesanya, with a 7-0 record including a win over former champion Robert Whittaker to set up his title win over Strickland. Adesanya finally had his back to the wall in his 12th straight title fight because a loss to the division's newest sensation would mean he's suddenly dropped 3 out of 4 fights, and would basically have to take a step back to rebuild himself at Middleweight, or potentially move up to Light Heavyweight, where a win would presumably set up a decisive match with champion Pereira, whose only UFC loss came to Adesanya. 

This fight with DDP was not only interesting in the sense that a win for Adesanya would restablish him at the top, and give us a chance to see if he could once again avenge a loss by taking out Strickland. It was fascinating because this was one of the rare matches where the fighters were very different strikers stylistically, but still may have been evenly matched enough that the strategy wasn't going to be for the less rangy or less technical one to do their best to instead rely on their wrestling.

Adesanya is incredibly technical, one of the fighters most responsible for finally raising the highest level of MMA striking to something resembling his previous profession, kickboxing, with his reliance on fakes, feints, stance switches, and more evolved striking combos to constantly thwart foes that hoped they were going to be able to take advantage of his striking leaving him prone to their grappling. Izzy edging forward was obviously much safer than DDP rushing forward, but Adesanya still couldn't be as aggressive as he would have liked because there's a real threat of DDP taking him down, whereas DDP knows he doesn't have to worry about Adesanya's wrestling. Izzy keeping his jab hand out much of the time helped him maintain distance, and he did a lot of misdirection to try to create an opening. He mostly just wanted to touch DDP with his jab so he could follow up, so sometimes even the jab itself was largely just another distraction, while other times he really stepped into it to do damage. Adesanya has a 4 inch reach advantage, so his goal against DDP's very disciplined high guard was to go to the head in between the block and then follow the jab with a body shot. Adesanya did a great job of working the body, but DDP always kept his hands high protecting his head, so while he conceded the shots to the midsection and legs, he refused to give Adesanya the opening for the high kick knockout. 

In contrast to the technically proficient striking of Adesanya, du Pleisis is one of the most unorthodox and unconventional strikers around. He violates the core tenets of striking by blitzing straight in, leaving his feet on many of his strikes, lunging at the opponent with loopy hooks, and so on. He is often underestimated because his striking isn't very smooth or technically refined, but there is method to his madness, and his awkwardness makes him difficult to fight. He sets a lot of traps, and also has really bad body language that often makes him seem to be either gassed or hurt. He does a great job of disguising his rushes behind his stance switches, so he's not just biting down on the mouthpiece and doing the Bald Bull charge like Diego Sanchez. DDP is already in range when he starts his blitz, and has a great forward drive on his super fast explosions, making his timing tricky and the amount of distance he's able to cover quite surprising. While his style isn't one you would look to teach because it's only possible for someone with amazing gifts of speed, athleticism, durability, and physicality, he has enough heart and determination to continue mustering the energy to charge full speed and put everything into his punches despite getting hit a lot round after round. 

It's difficult to describe DDP's style without underestimating him, but while DDP may not be elite at any one aspect of MMA, he's incredibly durable and very well rounded, having trained in judo, wrestling, and kickboxing from a young age. What separates DDP is that he always feels like the definition of a mixed martial artist. I mean, he doesn't simply possess a wide range of disparate skills. He actually tries to put together sequences where he incorporates as much of his skill set as he can. His blitz is setting up his wrestling, and his wrestling is setting up his punching while holding a bodylock, and this punching while wrestling the opponent is setting up his choke. He doesn't think of all these skills as separate entities, but rather a chain of potential events where one method of attack gives him various options for the next, and he just keeps choosing the best follow up based upon the opponents reaction. He's a great MMA fighter because he's able to put all his skills together into these combos and sequences, instinctually doing the right thing at the right time, or at least forcing his opponent to defend in a manner that provides him options to continue on the offensive. His physicality certainly makes up for a lot, but he's just really difficult to deal with because he not only applies a ton of pressure, but can almost simultaneously do it in multiple disciplines.

The way their styles mixed was riveting even during the slower portions, but this was certainly a back-and-forth war that was controlled by whoever was currently coming forward. It made sense that Adesanya's gameplan was to keep du Plessis from charging at him, but that's not the way he normally fights. Adesanya usually moves laterally or backwards a lot more, looking to draw the opponent into a huge counter shot. Today he took the fight to DDP as much as he could, but DDP absorbed it until he made his aggressive pushes back. This was still tactical work from Adesanya, but different tactics, and DDP's charges made it a lot more of a fire fight than you'd normally see from Izzy. 

Adesanya would start the rounds holding the center, with DDP giving him that control, but holding his ground beyond that. After a few minutes, DDP would start coming on with his bursts. When du Plessis goes, he forces as much offense as he can get away with. He's not a position fighter beyond trying to start his charge from as short a distance as he can, and he's certainly not someone who aims for incremental advantages, as his sequences are a barrage where he applies as much pressure as he can, and immediately seizes an opening when the opponent's defense can no longer keep up with his offense. DDP generally throws a big overhand right then closes a lot of distance with the long left follow up, and will keep going from there into another punch or a takedown if his opponent doesn't circle off. Since both fighters had their share of success in each round, they surely felt like they were winning, and their strategy was a success. That was playing out in the scoring as well, which was split 29-28 for du Plessis, with DDP's 10-9 second round being the only round all three judges agreed on.

While to some extent the difference in the fight was that DDP had 4 takedowns, this is somewhat deceptive because the story of round 2 where Adesanya was able to get up, but not get free didn't have much to do with the rest of the fight. DDP showed more fatigue, but Izzy seemed more flat as the fight progressed, with heavy arms from defending wrestling, whereas DDP still had reserves even though his body language was much worse. The important aspect was that DDP's takedown attempts were always on his own terms. He could exploit an opening, but he was never grasping in desperation, praying for a respite from Izzy's standup like most of Adesanya's opponents. 

DDP was able to stand with Adesanya for as long as he needed to, and in fact the final striking numbers were almost equal. That is pretty amazing given the difference in technical skill. Adesanya is an amazing counter striker, but while he landed a high percentage, as all DDP's opponents do, he was barely able to counter DDP because DDP disguises his charge so well and closes distance so fast, combined with hitting so hard that the opponent doesn't want to gamble on standing their ground and eating shots in hope of landing a better counter. Adesanya was instead trying to be much more proactive, fighting the opponent rather than doing what he's normally done and hoping it once again worked. After the fight, Izzy said he felt his shot was coming because DDP kept reacting to the body punches. DDP was very disciplined with his elite high guard though, and while he took a lot of damage to the body, he wasn't exposing his head to the high kick by guessing middle or low. The body shots certainly took their toll, but Adesanya couldn't really land much to the head beyond what he was able to get in between the block, the uppercut or the jab straight down the middle. 

The first round was the best start to finish round for Adesanya. He set himself up as the more consistent worker, using the jab and going to the body. Adesanya tried to prevent the blitz by keeping his jab hand out and switching stances often. Du Plessis does a great job with his stance switching to disguise his first attack though, and this was the key tactic of the fight because he gave himself options. He could lead with a kick to the open body or blitz with a punch combination or try to use the punch to set up the takedown. When he rushed, he wound up lunging because he's primarily trying to close as much distance as possible so he can keep alternating power punches before the opponent can get away. If Adesanya had a takedown game, DDP wouldn't be able to get away with this style so easily, but without that, DDP just gambled that he has enough speed and power that Adesanya would put most of his effort into trying to escape and reestablish position. If an opponent does try to hold their ground, DDP is arguably in on them so fast that he'll be inside their hook anyway. Adesanya wasn't so much looking to counter the blitz as hoping to get lucky while staying safe. He would put his arm out while leaning back to avoid, but his focus was on circling away from the danger back to the center of the octagon. Adesanya cut du Plessis' forehead with a knee early in the 1st. This was a close round, without a lot of big action. DDP landed the harder shots when he actually landed, which I assume is why 1 judge scored it for him, but Adesanya's distance control allowed him to be the more accurate and reliable fighter.

Adesanya tried to be more aggressive early in the second, coming in behind the jab, but du Plessis dropped into a double leg takedown. Adesanya's primary goal when taken down is to get right back up while it's still a scramble, but that presents an opening for DDP to establish more dangerous control by taking the back and trying for the choke. Du Plessis' choke attempt forced Adesanya back to the ground to defend. Adesanya was up quickly, and started pushing the pace, landing a good front kick to the beltline. Du Plessis was looking winded already. He missed a punch, but in an ugly, drunken fashion, managed to drop into a leg pick while Adesanya was trying to reestablish distance. Adesanya spent the 2nd half of the round defending the wrestling, so now it was even on the scorecards, but DDP had worn Adesanya down a lot, even though Adesanya disguises his fatigue a lot better than DDP does. 
 
Round 3 was the best round of the fight. It was more wide open with more activity and big shots from both. Adesanya was backing du Plessis, which made DDP's blitzes easier to defend because he was already on his back foot or too far away. Adesanya countered the 2nd punch of a blitz, a left straight, with his spinning elbow. Adesanya tried to go back to the elbow counter right away, but got nailed with a really hard left this time. Adesanya was focusing on circling out to the center then reestablishing his forward pressure rather than trying to counter DDP, and perhaps this sort of thing explained why. DDP had some momentum, and was starting to pressure Adesanya before he could establish distance. Adesanya managed to come back with a nice right hook though. Adesanya still seemed somewhat hurt from the big punches earlier in the round. Probably due to this, he was willing to exchange a lot more often. DDP is sometimes willing to take punches to lull the opponent into standing in front of him. Moving less and bombing more was obviously an advantage for him because he has less technique but more power. Adesanya outlanded DDP this round because he did good work early, but as usual, DDP landed most of the significant damaging blows to go up 2-1.

When Adesanya wasn't under pressure, he could land under or around the block, but then Dricus would probably try for the takedown. This was the case early in round 4, where Adesanya came forward with a nice 4 strike combo, but then had to defend the grappling. Adesanya had landed almost every body shot he threw in this fight, and it felt like it was finally about to pay off. Adesanya had good success following the jab with the uppercut in the later stages, so he was doing solid damage with his second punch no matter what it was. DDP was looking tired during the early portion of the round, and getting outworked badly. Adesanya's confidence was rising as he was picking DDP apart, but it immediately became apparent how fatigued Adesanya actually was when DDP got another wind and quickly turned things around by pressing forward again. DDP making it messy wasn't a big issue when Adesanya was fresh. As the fight progressed though, even though DDP sometimes looked really fatigued, Adesanya was actually the one with his chin up, head exposed. When Adesanya was defending well, he was avoiding the left hook and throwing his own right hook while circling off to the right. In the 4th round when he was tired, he was backing straight out, or just turning and running away from DDP, first sideways and then when he got rocked, full on turning his back to him. 

The greatness of DDP in chaining his attacks together was on full display, mixing his power punches into his takedown attempt, which opened up the backpack, and led to the rear naked choke. Adesanya was initially dropped to a hand and a knee from a lead right, and he never really recovered. He stopped defending properly due to being disoriented, and just turned and ran. DDP had numerous options while Adesanya could only rely on outrunning him. DDP focused on landing free blind hooks because in this state Adesanya wasn't going to win a sprint, and thus was going to have to slow down to turn and face him if he didn't just lose trying to escape. DDP landed 5 unanswered on the blitz then took Adesanya's back, with Adesanya reacting to all this really slowly. Dricus didn't even have the choke under the chin, but still finished because his offensive sequence was just faster than a rocked and defenseless Izzy could think to defend. I mean, Izzy was basically still in the mode of trying to defend the takedown even after getting hit 5 times and having his back taken. This fight just turned so fast. You went from thinking Adesanya was going to win this round at worst, making the 5th round winner takes all, to seeing du Plessis steamroll him and capture the title at 3:38 when he became the first fighter to ever submit Adesanya.

DDP's body language might hurt him with the judges in the future, but as long as he keeps finishing fights, it's probably to his advantage because it gives his opponents a false sense of security. I'm sure Adesanya assumed DDP would either get outpointed or picked off, especially with Izzy connecting a lot more in the 3rd and 4th rounds. DDP's defense may not have been that great to begin with, but he's an extremely resiliant fighter with a ton of mental fortitude who protects his head well, and has thus been able to avoid a crucial failure that allows the opponent to take him out with something he wasn't already giving away. Perhaps Adesanya was both confident and tired enough that he might have gotten himself in trouble by being a bit impatient and overaggressive later in the fight? Either way, this was a great gutsy performance by DDP where he really cemented himself as the man at 185. Very good match.



Kiyoshi Tamura

A true fighter isn't someone who gets in the ring simply with the idea to beat people up just for the sake of it. A true fighter is someone who understands that the real fight is always against themselves. In a competitive fight, you'll get to see where you truly stand in the world of  combat sports and life in general, as you're basically facing yourself with your opponent acting like a mirror. During his years as an active competitor, Kiyoshi Tamura was a true fighter with a great level of discipline and skill, and he was great at what he did.

Kiyoshi Tamura was born on 12/17/69 in Okayama, Japan. When he was young, he admired Tatsumi Fujinami and aspired to become a professional wrestler. Tamura did some sumo while he was in high school. In 1988, he took and passed the Newborn UWF entrance test. Tamura made his  pro wrestling debut in Newborn UWF in 1989, and he quickly showed progression in his first few years, as he was already a great worker by 1992. One of Tamura's top opponents in the early days of UWF-I was Yoji Anjo, with whom he had a couple of great matches. In the early 1990's, Tamura received guidance from wrestling legends Lou Thesz and Billy Robinson.

Over the course of Tamura's career, he would be able to blur the lines between pro wrestling fiction and reality through his amazing ability to work realistic-looking matches (relatively speaking), yet he was also able to compete in shoot competition quite successfully. Just to be clear here for those who aren't familiar with certain pro wrestling terms that will be used in this article; a worked match is a match with a predetermined outcome, and a shoot fight is a legit contest with an unplanned outcome. 

On 5/8/92 at a UWF-I event, in what was billed as a ‘martial arts fight,' Tamura beat American boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad in 34 seconds. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's first shoot fight, but while it was a nice win, it was against an opponent who obviously was unprepared and/or didn't know what he was getting into. This was also before the start of Pancrase and UFC, so people didn't really know what MMA was (especially since the term ‘MMA' hadn't even been coined yet). 

At some point in the late ‘90s, the RINGS league, which Tamura was competing in at the time, decided to focus more on shoot fights instead of having mostly worked matches, which meant that the overall style of RINGS changed to an even more realistic-looking style than previously. This resulted in several cases where it wasn't clear for viewers whether or not Tamura's matches were complete works, partial works or complete shoots. This speaks volumes about Tamura's ability as both a worker and shooter.

Tamura had some of the best (shoot-style) pro wrestling matches of the 1990s when he battled against top-level opponents such as Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Volk Han and Tsuyoshi Kosaka, all of whom he had several memorable matches with. We'll have a closer look at specific matches a bit later on when we get to the reviews of Tamura's matches. When he wasn't competing in shoot fights and had worked matches, Tamura would always work shoot-style pro wrestling matches and never the regular (relatively more unrealistic) pro wrestling kind of matches. If a league like NJPW, for example, could be considered regular puroresu (which is generally still more realistic than the more entertainment-oriented American leagues), one could say that even within the realm of the shoot-style puroresu leagues, which were leagues that generally tried to be as realistic as possible (relatively speaking), there was a difference between the slightly more flashy and entertaining style of UWF-I, for example, and the slightly more serious and even more realistic style of RINGS. Of course, this would also depend on the people in the matches, as there was obviously quite a variety in terms of not only skill level but also styles and backgrounds.

Even though Tamura had participated in at least a few shoot matches prior (including a 55-second win over UFC 2 finalist Patrick Smith at a K-1 event on 12/9/95), and possibly some RINGS matches that may or may not have been partial shoots (or shoots), the first fight in the true shoot era of Tamura's career, which was the part of his career in which he mainly started competing in shoots and started leaving behind his worked  pro wrestling roots, was a win at the RINGS 12/22/99 event over American fighter Dave Menne, who would go on to become the first UFC Middleweight Champion in 2001. Tamura's shoot fights weren't as exciting as his worked matches, because Tamura was such an incredibly skilled worker that it was pretty much impossible to incorporate that level of excitement into actual shoots, since it wouldn't make much sense to be spectacular when the priority was now to actually beat the opponent, regardless of how entertaining the match is.

In 2003, Tamura debuted his own league, U-STYLE, which was a shoot-style pro  wrestling league that largely featured Tamura's students from Tamura's martial arts gym U-File Camp. U-STYLE was a great league that managed to revive shoot-style wrestling at a time where pretty much all shoot-style wrestling had died out. After U-STYLE ended, Tamura started focusing mostly on shoots during the remaining years of his career. The closest thing that Tamura ever did that resembled regular pro wrestling was when he faced "Amazon Goliath" Montanha Silva on 9/8/07 in IGF, which was arguably the worst worked match Tamura had ever been involved in (all due to Silva being terrible, of course). This turned out to be one of Tamura's last few worked matches.

Tamura retired as an active fighter at the age of 47 in 2017 after having lost his final three shoot fights in the Ganryujima league in 2016 and 2017. The unusual rules of Ganryujima and the fact that Tamura was entering his late 40s probably have a lot to do with him not being as successful in Ganryujima as initially hoped for. Technically, one could say that Tamura actually won his final three MMA fights in 2007 and 2008 in DREAM and K-1, since the Ganryujima league isn't considered traditional MMA and doesn't follow the Unified Rules of MMA.

Some of the more well known names Tamura was able to beat in shoots were fighters such as Renzo Gracie, Pat Miletich, Nobuhiko Takada, Masakatsu Funaki and Kazushi Sakuraba. Tamura was a really good MMA/shoot fighter, but he was a truly great shoot-style pro wrestler. His ability to carry opponents in worked matches was possible through his great understanding of how to elevate the quality of the matches without losing too much in terms of credibility and realism. As a worker, he was able to combine realism and spectacle in such an amazing way that virtually no other worker has ever truly been able to master it on that level.

Lidet Entertainment (former parent company of NOAH) founded GLEAT in the summer of 2020, and this was made possible after Lidet Entertainment president Hiroyuki Suzuki had a meeting with Kiyoshi Tamura on 1/25/20 to share ideas for the creation of a new league. Tamura became an Executive Director for this league, and one of his main visions for GLEAT was that it should have shoot-style matches on a regular basis to set them apart from what other leagues are doing. GLEAT created a sub-brand called ‘Lidet UWF,' which promotes the shoot-style matches on the GLEAT cards that are contested under UWF Rules (and GLEAT also has a sub-brand called ‘G  Prowrestling' which is represented by matches on the cards that are contested under regular puroresu rules and are more of the purolucha variety).

My overall conclusion of Kiyoshi Tamura’s career...

In this overall conclusion, only Kiyoshi Tamura's worked performances were taken into consideration. Tamura truly started excelling at being a shoot-style pro wrestler during the early 1990s. He was the top worker in the UWF-I from the outset. In 1993 and 1994, in spite of UWF-I mainly focusing on Nobuhiko Takada, Super Vader and Gary Albright, which seemingly meant that Tamura subsequently was being lost in the shuffle in terms of position on the card, Tamura gave strong performances no matter who he was facing and no matter what his position on the card was, making the most of the situation he was facing. He was arguably THE best pro wrestler in the world during the late 1990s (and mid 2000s), and some of his performances during the late 1990s in RINGS were some of the very best performances in  pro wrestling history. With his large resume of high-quality shoot-style matches in which he often elevated his opponents to greater heights, Tamura certainly deserves to be considered one of the greatest pro wrestlers ever. He always remained true to his style. Even when he started doing more shoots, whenever he would go back to having worked matches, he showed that he was still great at doing shoot-style works. When we look at the evidence of his fascinating career, Tamura truly has to be considered one of THE greatest pro wrestlers EVER!

Here’s a list of Kiyoshi Tamura’s 20 best matches!

0:00-1:17 Kiyoshi Tamura biography and early career
1:18-1:38 Kiyoshi Tamura trains with Lou Thesz & Billy Robinson 
1:39-3:20 Kiyoshi Tamura blurs the line between shoot wrestling fiction and MMA reality
3:21-4:38 Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Volk Han, & Tsuyoshi Kosaka were Kiyoshi Tamura's best opponents
4:39-5:48 Kiyoshi Tamura switchs to MMA, defeats future UFC champion Dave Menne
5:49-6:11 Kiyoshi Tamura revives shoot wrestling with his U-Style promotion
6:12-6:45 Kiyoshi Tamura competes in IGF
6:46-7:46 Kiyoshi Tamura finishes his career in Ganryujima
7:47-8:15 Kiyoshi Tamura has the best combination of realism and entertainment in shoot style
8:16-9:12 GLEAT brings back shoot style with Lidet UWF
9:13-11:22 Kiyoshi Tamura's best and worst years
11:23-12:06 Kiyoshi Tamura's 20 best matches

Mark Briscoe vs Roderick Strong

While it's great that Tony Khan has kept ROH alive, under his tenure, ROH has basically been a company that no one has any reason to pay attention to beyond 3 PPVs a year. Despite having a bunch of cold matches featuring guys that haven't actually wrestled in ROH much, if at all, these PPVs have tended to be better than the AEW's PPVs because they feature Mark Briscoe, some notable lucha libre matches involving El Hijo del Vikingo & The Beast Mortos, and fewer of the bums Tony insists on endlessly shoving down our throats, sometimes even sparing us stiffs that actually hold the ROH Tag Titles. Death Before Dishonor 2024 on July 26th, 2024 at the Esports Stadium Arlington was a big upgrade over the one miss of Tony's ROH, Supercard Of Honor 2024, reestablishing ROH PPV's as something to look forward to, largely due to a very good main event where Mark Briscoe defended the ROH World Title against Roderick Strong. 

ROH was once the primary alternative to mainstream American wrestling, but in 2024, outside of the one more presumably worthwhile PPV we'll get in December, it's largely just a place where Khan books some practice matches nobody attends or watches for wrestlers he isn't doing anything else with. It's arguably more useful to keep people active rather than just pay them to sit around and do nothing for two years like Scorpio Sky, who has wrestled just 6 matches since dropping the TNT Title to Wardlow on July 6, 2022 despite being healthy the majority of the time, and a much better wrestler than almost anyone who has held the title since. However, there is more than enough talent under contract to AEW that it wouldn't take much effort to give the promotion an identity, and make their weekly show still be a somewhat useful alternative to what Tony's already doing in AEW.

There was obviously a ton of sympathy for Mark Briscoe after the tragic death of his older brother Jay, who was taken on January 17th, 2023 when a reckless driver going in the opposite direction wound up in his lane, the head on crash also leaving Jay's two daughters, who he was driving to cheerleading practice, in critical condition. Mark may have been the lesser of the wrestling brothers, but that says more about how talented Jay was. Mark's redneck chicken farmer gimmick harkens back to legendary crazies such as Cactus Jack and Terry Funk. He's a much better athlete than both of them, a strong worker and good promo who is charismatic and unique enough as a wildman that he could be a mainstream draw while maintaining his status as a cult favorite. Tony Khan needed to decide in early 2023 if he was either going to give Mark a new tag team partner or a real singles push. Not that I want to see anyone against MJF, but Mark should have challenged for the AEW World Title at Double or Nothing 2023, the annoying rich city boy vs. the sympathetic hillbilly should have been easy enough for even Tony to sell. And then Mark should have either won the tag titles with his new partner or captured one of AEW's countless midcard titles to build himself back up. Certainly, he would have done a lot more with the TNT Title than the likes of Wardlow, Nasty Boy Hobbs, and the dinosaur who can't do lucha, or any other style. Instead, Tony really did nothing with Mark all year beyond jobbing him to Samoa Joe at Supercard Of Honor 2023 and having him go 1-4 in the Continental Breakfast League. Mark has finally received a little push in 2024, winning the ROH World Title out of nowhere from Eddie Kingston on at Supercard Of Honor 2024, and representing AEW in the latest phony Blood And Guts nonsense on July 24th, where he was the only good thing in the endless collection of repetitive contrived goofiness that Kazuchika Okada did us a favor by doing his best to hide his way through so he could survive this nonsense almost unscathed. The ROH World Title was obviously good when ROH itself actually meant something, but now that ROH barely exists, it's arguably more of a limitation to where Mark could actually be in AEW than a help. Mark is still only 6-6 in singles in AEW since Jay passed, with wins over Josh Woods, Preston Vance, Jeff Jarrett, Brian Cage, and two wins over Jay Lethal, or in other words, no wins that were actually meaningful when they happened. As beloved as Mark has been for the last 2 decades on the indy scene, he still needs a better modern resume than this if one expects people to actually purchase PPVs he is headlining in 2024 and beyond.

Even though Mark & Roderick haven't been booked strongly in AEW, they remain favorites of what's left of the ROH faithful. Both started with ROH when the promotion was in its infancy. Mark participated in the first Death Before Dishonor show on July 19th, 2003, where the Briscoes failed to capture the tag titles from AJ Styles & Amazing Red in the semifinal. Strong became a full-time ROH wrestler in 2004, teaming Austin Aries & Jack Evans to lose to Jimmy Jacobs, John Walters & Matt Stryker on the second Death Before Dishonor show on July 23rd, 2004, where the Briscoes again failed to capture the ROH Tag Titles, this time losing the main event to CM Punk in the days when he still got along with Colt Cabana. Briscoe vs. Strong was arguably the only real ROH feeling match on this years Death Before Dishonor PPV, with two of the legends of the promotion still able to reach, or even exceed the level they were at when ROH was really a thing rather than AEW in sheep's clothing. 

Though Strong & Briscoe have only squared off in two recent tag matches since Strong jumped to WWE in 2016, being two of the most useful and important wrestlers to have come through ROH, these guys have long and storied history together. This is the 51st time they've squared off going back to May 22nd, 2004, and they are 3-3 in singles matches. Strong, who held the ROH World Title for half a year from 2010-2011, adopted the monicker "Mr. ROH" in 2013. This was Strong's first ROH match since he lost to Dalton Castle, the Peacock who is such an awful WWE style comedy performer that he never even made it onto Peacock, on June 25th, 2016. Prior to that, Strong lost to Mark on June 24th in a match that wasn't that highly regarded at the time, but honestly is pretty comparable in quality to this one that everyone loves. The 2024 match does a better job of allowing Mark to play the "underdog", with the blood being a key factor in that, but aside from the juice and the higher profile with this being a main event title match, the 2016 match is arguably the better athletic contest and the more exciting of the two. In any case, Tony Khan's idea of creative booking was to have Strong avenge that 2016 loss to the flamboyant comedy wrestler in a #1 Contenders match on the July 10th, 2024 episode of AEW Collision, where Strong somehow managed to put Castle out for the rest of the year with his flying knee. Now Strong looked to avenge his previous ROH loss to Briscoe. This sort of history that no one remembered didn't make it any easier for these two to reach the height of drama a Ring of Honor World Title Match deserves, but it's not their fault that ROH barely exists, and these guys are busy toiling against other losers in AEW. To their credit, they did what real wrestlers do, create their own drama through wrestling rather than talking. In spite of everything, they were able to make this feel like an important and dramatic match.

Strong is one of the most all around solid workers in the business. He can work well with and carry an opponent of any style. While his general match layout doesn't actually vary that much, he will always cater to the opponent, feeding them for whatever they do well. Against Briscoe, there's less technical wrestling, really it only existed in the opening minute to appease Strong, while there was more brawling and out of the ring action from both, and Mark did his athletic stuff. Strong is one of the only active wrestlers who consistently pushes the pace, rather than just doing bursts, which obviously were designed for babyface comebacks, not to be a style unto themselves because few wrestlers these days know how to portray a technical struggle, so they just alternate between stalling and doing their flashy stuff. Strong's strategy is somewhat old school MMA oriented in the sense that he tries to win through his conditioning rather than finding as many places to give both wrestlers a break as possible.

This was a very hard hitting contest, as most of Strong's matches are. He is one of the few guys who actually looks like he's trying to hurt the opponent with his chops. Brisco is a bit jokey with his redneck Kung fu, but the match had a good level of violence and physicality. There was a real contrast of styles, with the consummate professional Strong doing everything in a technically precise manner, and the unorthodox savage Briscoe being loud and demonstrative. Strong pushed his fast pace, and handled the meat and potatoes of the match, all the technical wrestling, the setups, etc., with Briscoe being the charismatic performer who got crowd support, and made hot comebacks with big and athletic moves. Mark is a fantastic crowd favorite underdog, able to pop the crowd with his exciting offense. Briscoe did a somersault over the barricade, as well as his signature Cactus Jack elbow off the apron. 

Strong, of course, worked the back, including the back breaker on the ring apron. Brisco did one of his massive blade jobs after Strong posted him. The blood was literally dripping onto the canvas for much of the second half of the match, and while this was obviously a match Mark was going to win, the blood loss theoretically created more doubt and made him overcoming the odds more satisfying. I thought the announcers should have connected Strong's strategy of winning through superior cardio with the blood loss depleting Mark more rapidly, but at least Ian Riccaboni & Caprice Coleman don't scream incessantly like Tony Schiavone or disagree with everything to the point of having no credibility like Nigel McGuinness.

Mark avoided the Jay driller down the stretch, but Strong was able to get it on the second try. Mark was so pissed at Strong disrespecting Jay's legacy by stealing his finisher that he kicked out at one and Hulked up for the cartoon comeback. Strong came back with an avalanche Olympic slam for a near fall. The biggest issues with the match were Mark's jokiness clashing with Strong's seriousness, particularly with the striking, and the predictable Undisputed Kingdom run in was as uncalled for as it always is. Strong had two big near finishes, after Mike Bennett hit Mark with a title belt, and after his sick kick, but then Kyle O'Reilly and Tomohiro Ishii arrived to save the day. Strong had kept avoiding the froggy bow, but eventually Mark stopped a superplex and knocked him off the top rope to set up hitting it for the win. This match never dragged, it was quick hitting and action packed, as you'd expect from Strong. This was comparable to Strong's 2024 PPV matches where he had a real opponent. The match with Kyle O'Reilly from Dynasty was the best despite being hurt by being the lowest profile, with neither being booked in a manner that captivated anyone, while this and the Will Ospreay match from Double Or Nothing benefitted from the higher profile, as well as Strong's opponent at least being over. I give this match 3.5 out of 5 stars.

 


ROH World Title: Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong 19:35. Strong pushed his fast pace, and handled the meat and potatoes of the match, all the technical wrestling, the setups, etc., with Briscoe being the charismatic performer who got crowd support, and made hot comebacks with big and athletic moves. Mark is a fantastic crowd favorite underdog, able to pop the crowd with his exciting offense. Brisco did one of his massive blade jobs after Strong posted him. The blood was literally dripping onto the canvas for much of the second half of the match, and while this was obviously a match Mark was going to win, the blood loss theoretically created more doubt and made him overcoming the odds more satisfying. ***1/2


The primary difference between the 2024 and 2016 matches was the place on the card, and the blade job by Mark. To some extent, Mark is more appreciated these days because Jay is gone, but when Jay was around, they obviously played a much more prominent role because they were the dominant tag team. Tony Khan hasn't figured out how to book Mark in singles. He's starting to play a more prominent role, Being ROH Heavyweight Champion doesn't mean much given Mark has only wrestled in ROH 5 times in 2024. He had that many singles matches in less than a month during the Continental Classic League, where he only managed a single win over another ROH guys, Jay Lethal, losing to stiffs such as Jay Vanilla and Rush.

This one does a better job of allowing Mark to play the underdog, with the blood being a key factor in that.



Starlight Kid & Mei Seira are two of the brightest lights of new generation of women's wrestlers. They are great athletes who favor bursts of fast paced action, and are more interested in developing their athletic sequences than in simply trying to stand out by adding another partial rotation to their flip. Both are just 22-years-old, but Starlight Kid is far more experienced, starting three years earlier than Mei, and being a full-time wrestler since 2018. Starlight is definitely the better of the two right now. She's the more spectacular performer, but is also quite smart and diverse for her age. She's been moving towards a more thoughtful El Desperado influenced technical style where she works the opponents knee, and is one of the few women in STARDOM who is more than capable of leading a logical, cohesive match. 

Given that Starlight has more than twice as many matches, one could argue that Mei is actually the better prospect. It really feels like victory matters to her, and that just has such a positive effect on the whole tenor of her matches. Mei is the tougher one of the two to pin down because she isn't leading the matches against wrestlers of similar or greater experience. She can greatly improve somebody else's match, but she isn't to the level yet where she can make a match on her own, and this, combined with a lot of sketchy opponents, leads to inconsistency. Some of her best traits are showing a tremendous urgency to win, lending a scrambly nature to the match where they have to hurry to beat the opponent to the next move like in a real fight because the opponent doesn't exist simply to facilitate their offense, subverting expectations by crossing her opponent up, and playing the passionate spirited babyface. You may get all of this or none of this in any particular Mei match. In general, this match against Starlight and Mei's May 4th, 2023 match against AZM, which are my favorite women's matches of the last two years, are by far her best singles matches due to incorporating all these aspects, as well as showing a lot of heart and intensity. However, a lot of her other STARDOM work is more standard and conventional.

While Starlight has her moonsaults to fall back on if she needs to, Mei still isn't using a lot of big moves. She's mostly relying on her quickness and athleticism. Her offense is often the 80's high flyer staples. She might even win with her dropkick, but her main finisher is a pinning predicament called the nagareboshi that's jackknife cradle into a sunset flip variation. Even though her offense isn't nearly as spectacular as your typical athletic wrestler - a lot of times she's mostly chaining flash pins - her sequences are far beyond what most others of any age are doing. While Mei debuted in 2018, Marvelous was never a full time job, and she had the two year break after she left the promotion before joining STARDOM, so she's still only a little more than 300 matches into her career. 

Most of the hot moves in this June 22nd, 2024 match from Tokyo Yoyogi National Gym #2 were performed by Starlight even though she's the rudo. Mei's strength doesn't lie so much in what she does though, but rather that she does it with so much speed and conviction that it actually seems meaningful rather than just another choreographed forms exhibition. Mei was using enough speed and athleticism to get her moves off that it felt like she was doing important things, even though they might be kind of basic. 

These two have worked with each other in countless tags, where they have developed excellent chemistry, but this was their first singles match. Their style is on the more choreographed side, but their choreography feels more realistic than most others because they aren't just going through the motions, there"s actually some sense of struggle and resistance to most of what they are doing throughout the match. They chain several movements together here in a manner that feels like an urgent scramble to beat the opponent to the spot or move, while most wrestlers are either moving in unison at a calm 3 quarters speed or just standing in front of one another waiting for someone to do something they aren't going to resist. Starlight and Mei's stuff is very fluid and flowing, and they react to each other quite impressively, but there's also a more natural, on the fly kind of feeling to their sequences that keep them from coming off as such an obvious collection of practiced, preplanned movements.

A haphazard, chaotic exhibition of what they've been practicing at the dojo would be my generic description of most of the STARDOM tags these days. While they are often energetic, action packed, quick hitting affairs, they usually just feel like a disorganized collection of random choreographed sequences, phony forearm exchanges, and overdramatic tropes thoughtlessly pasted together. In singles, Starlight is able to lay out something more logically coordinated that has some connective tissue, and builds with a sensible progression. Though it started as a sprint, and they incorporated some really impressive flashy athletic counter sequences that actually felt like they evolved fairly organically throughout, the backbone of the match was the knee storyline. They were able to pull this off well, so it didn't feel like an uneven match that was alternating between 0 and 100 miles per hour. 

Starlight working the knee put her in the role of trying to slow things down so to speak. While Starlight could be more spectacular than Mei, she was trying to win the match, and she has a lot more options in a more deliberate and methodical match than Mei does. Mei always wanted to push the pace because surprising Starlight is her best chance to beat her. She was always coming back at full speed, at least as much as her knee would allow. 

Right from the outset, they were trying to get the win in any manner, reversing and countering into flash pin attempts. Although this would likely have been Mei's strategy anyway, Starlight working over her knee played into this well because Mei was compromised almost from the get go, and had to find any way she could to pull this out. This match had a high level of difficulty because it required a lot of speed, athleticism, and timing. Still, it always felt like a wrestling match, with the frantic action aiding the story of Mei just trying to eke out the victory rather than to incapacitate her opponent. 

Their first big gymnastics sequence culminated with Starlight injuring Mei's knee with the leg screw. Starlight then went right after the knee, targeting it with both her heel work by standing on it and for her flying with a standing moonsault. Mei did a good job of selling this without it slowing the match down. She was putting it over after her moves, and there was a double sell after her dropkick off the apron. Mei was still showing heart, determination and desire for victory though, trying to fight through it and keep on the offensive, rather than just laying around wailing so they could keep taking breaks. 

Starlight Kid was trying to punish Mei and win. If a sequence evolved out of that, fine, but she wasn't purely here for show. She was just as happy to counter Mei's dropkick into a midair Dragon screw and then go into numero dos, as she was to use the top rope. Mei was trying to push the pace to make up for getting out wrestled in the slower portions by her more diverse opponent. She was compromised, and was always fighting the uphill battle, but this is the kind of match where you believed she could actually still win by countering into one of her flash pins. Mostly all she tried to do was outmanuever Starlight into some sort of roll up that would keep Starlight down for 3. Starlight ultimately took Mei out with her Star suplex, which is what she calls her Tiger suplex. 

This was a rare modern puroresu match that didn't have to be that good, but still managed to be excellent because they cared that much about having a memorable match. This wasn't some big show feature match that everyone was counting on to save another otherwise forgettable lineup. There were no stakes here, none of STARDOM's 75 titles were on the line. Given this was the third match on the card, and actually part of the free YouTube PPV preshow, they could have done a halfhearted match, or even mailed it in. Instead, it's possible they were actually holding back a bit so as to not show all the overrated matches on the main card up too much. 

Unfortunately, these two joined forces after the match, which is good in the sense that it assures that their teammate won't drag them down, but bad in the sense that their opponents likely will instead. Having them facing each other regularly would be better for their personal development, and probably force them to become even more daring and creative in their sequences and counters. This match surpassed the January 4th Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri match, and is currently my top women's match of 2024. I give this match 4 stars out of 5.




If games of human Twister are your thing, then the Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero matches will be exactly what you are looking for. wrestling matches in the 21st century contain a more impressive array of shapes and entaglements. "Sabre vs. Hechicero, the 
the match that's always a twist" could be their tagline. Twist and shout, stretch and bend, this is definitely the matchup that will tie you up in knots, as these two flexible foes put their spin on submission wrestling. This was a whole lot of fun, but I wasn't as tangled up as I wanted to be, as it was too loose to be twisted enough, and trying to take this seriously as an athletic competition put more of a stretch on my mind than their clever submissions may have put on each other's bodies. I was happy they got to stretch the limits of their grappling game until they could feel the burn, but I personally couldn't get twisted up enough to really care who came out on top.

I don't mind that the majority of their submissions had no real life application, but the opponent needs to put up some kind of resistance to their appendages being twisted, turned, and scissored. It's cool seeing a match where they roll each other into some sort of knot or ball, but I'd prefer if it wasn't done in a manner where they could have been working with a doll, except a live opponent made things that much easier by clearly assisting. 

Their CMLL match from June 22nd, 2024 at Arena Coliseo isn't that similar to what Zack is doing elsewhere right now. While I'm in the minority for prefering his April 12th, 2024 New Japan TV Title match against Matt Riddle, a more technically precise opponent he has better chemistry with, in a match that was much easier to take seriously given they leaned into Riddle's UFC background, at least if this match with Hechicero was going to be unbelievable, Zack truly leaned into that. They didn't reverse and counter each other nearly as well as Zack and Riddle, but no one can accuse Zack and Hechicero of going half way. They did every sort of twist and scissor they could think of. One thing that's really in their favor is that we might not see another match like this all year, outside of perhaps their rematch that's set for August 24th on RevPro's 12th Anniversary Show, assuming neither jump to WWE and bail on all their preexisting dates like Stephanie Vaquer. 

Although there are a few current practitioners of the classic British technical style, one of the aspects that makes it more versatile than most people realize is that quality practicioners should be dynamic enough to modify it in a more realistic bend to do a quasi shoot style match or a less realistic bend to do lucha style match without betraying the core tenets of the style. This was definitely the later, and to Zack's credit, it didn't feel like a clash of styles in any way. While I could watch most Zack Sabre Jr. day and night, I'm glad he only does this variation on rare occasions. I want his grappling to be more believable, grittier so there's drama in the struggle and/or faster and more explosive so it's a more entertaining exhibition. This style just felt too much like a posing demonstration. There wasn't enough resistance to what the opponent was doing to take it seriously as fighters struggling for victory, which made all the typically overdone aspects of Lucha that grasp and cloy for drama, but only succeed in the opposite, that much more distracing and annoying. 

I don't think these Zack vs. Hechicero matches are awesome wrestling matches, but they are notable for their uniqueness. Similar to the Rey Fenix vs. Will Ospreay video I did recently, where I loved the athletic sequences they were able to develop by having an opponent who was their match athletically, Zack & Hechicero are developing their own technical grappling style together that they could only do with a small number of other opponents. They are certainly doing something interesting by pushing the boundaries of a brand of wrestling most others ignore, even if at the expense of believability, and a lot of other things.

Given their matches consist of tying and tangling each other up into a submission or a flash pin, everything was theoretically sort of a threat to finish. They would continue their sequences by twisting and turning some more to counter into a submission or a flash pin until someone grabs the ropes or kicked out, then annoyingly just stare at each other until they got around to restarting. The 3 fall format of their CMLL match worked better than the 1 fall format of their PWG match because it was more believable that someone would briefly be caught in an awkward position, or simply off guard, without necessarily being totally trapped. 

One of the big problems with these matches is that the lack of resistance never allowed me to believe they were really being trapped. I mean, the matches were way more toward exhibitions of appendage holding than submission grappling, and it just looked like they could stop all of this with even the least bit of effort. Hechicero being a bit sloppy, which made Zack's lack of resistance that much more obvious, wasn't helping things. There were several moments where you might say "nice" or "cool", but none where you'd say "oh my god, he's done for." The finishes were all just kind of there. None of them really felt earned, and even Hechicero cheating by flash pinning Zack with his foot in the ropes in the deciding fall of their CMLL match felt almost incidental, I suppose partly because Mexican nationalism had the fans going crazy for Hechicero even though he's otherwise a rudo. 

The CMLL crowd, who regularly cheered "This is Lucha", was much better, partly because they had someone to root for, even if it was someone they'd normally root against. The PWG crowd on October 19th, 2018 at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles was mostly just polite. Hechicero made his PWG debut in this match, and US indy appearances were very low priority for the British Sabre, behind his work in New Japan, RevPro, and other European indies. I definitely liked the CMLL match more because they basically stuck to the technical wrestling, and tried to carve out their own match. The PWG match started off as a fully technical match, and felt less like an exhibition since it was an international style match, rather than a technical match within the light and floppy lucha limb holding style. Because the PWG style is more universal, they felt more compelled to evolve it through more conventional means, building up to the 1st strike exchange, as well as a bit of running and jumping. The striking was less unconvincing in this match, and against any other opponent, this layout would probably have been a good thing. After all, whoever else they were wrestling would likely have been more of a high flyer, striker, or power wrestler who was trying to avoid their submission wrestling so they could get their own stuff in. I appreciate the CMLL match more because they pretty much just did the style they do best. There were lots of fun counters, reversals, and transitions into unique and and original submissions. In both cases, the 18 minutes 29 seconds of their PWG match and the 19 minutes 9 seconds of the CMLL match flew by quickly, with neither wrestler seeming to gain any real advantage, and someone eventually just randomly winning with a flash pin. 

The CMLL match was performed more impressively. While there still wasn't any real resistance to any of holds, they were doing them with more speed and explosion to help cover that up. Both matches look better in the pictures because Zack, at least, does a great job making faces that give the illusion there's some real struggle going on even though the rest of their movements suggest otherwise.

The slower, more deliberate style of technical wrestling Hechicero employs doesn't really accentuate what Zack does best, but he's a sincere opponent who tries hard to make his opponent look as good as he can. While Hechicero isn't necessarily an ideal opponent for Sabre because Sabre slows things down and lightens things up for him, he's a rare opponent Sabre can do whatever he wants with. Simply putting Sabre in with an athlete such as Will Ospreay who has enough knowledge of how to go with and escape the submissions should result in a more explosive and dynamic match, even if Zack only gets to do half of his technical match because the opponent is just going to answer him on the mat as much as they absolutely have to in order to get things into their realm. That being said, variety is obviously good as long as both wrestlers are serious about putting each other over. 

These Sabre vs. Hechicero matches are great examples of how real professionals take their  opponent seriously, and work with them to make them look good too, rather than what we predictably saw from their ill-fated AEW Forbidden Door matches on June 30th, which were doomed from the start by Tony Khan's poor matchmaking. People who want to see the sort of serious technical wrestling Sabre & Hechicero offer don't want to see that compromised by MJF and Pocket Pinball's comedy routines, and vice versa. Pocket Pinball standing around not hitting his opponent and MJF clowning the whole time and making everything look completely over the top ridiculous will never help anyone but themselves. 

While I'm sure they are capable of better, the two Sabre vs. Hechicero matches we've seen so far aren't exactly answers for the people who don't like the modern trampoline or striking exhibitions because it's just an offensive variation on the same cooperative forms displays. These matches seem more notable than they are because submission twister is so much rarer than wannabe toughman or flippy Parkour. In the end, the primary advantage these Sabre vs. Hechicero matches have on their competition is there isn't much competition within their own genre. I give their PWG match 3 and a quarter stars and their CMLL match 3 and a half stars.

Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland

Britain's top current wrestling star, Will Ospreay, coming into Wembley Stadium undefeated in AEW to challenge their still popular champion, despite being booked that much weaker since he won the belt, Swerve Stickland, was the biggest matchup AEW could have mustered to headline by far their biggest show of the year, All In London 2024 on August 25th. There was no good reason to rush to this match already for Forbidden Door 2024 on June 30th, beyond Tony Khan not being comfortable with headlining anyone from any of the three other promotions he was working with, after having already signed everyone from New Japan he could overpay for, and having all of them except Ospreay quickly prove incapable of main eventing. It's too soon give up on Swerve by taking the title off of him after this botched reign where he mostly just gets beat up on TV every week, but there's no point in handing Ospreay his first loss when he's your biggest draw to headline your biggest show of the year, which still has around 10,000 seats of the 51,000 available (and could be configured for almost 40,000 more if there were actual demand), whereas Forbidden Door only had a padded attendance of 11,477.

A year ago, I would have been overjoyed by Ospreay challenging Swerve at Forbidden Door, and frankly I could care less about AEW's business so long as they continue to exist, even if just by hemorrhaging Shad's Khan's billions. At that point, Ospreay was the best worker of New Japan's top stars by a mile since Gedo refuses to book Zack Sabre Jr. as anything but a midcarder, and has completely devalued Shingo Takagi after he had a great run in his first three years in the promotion. Meanwhile, Swerve, who had never even held a singles title in AEW, has really come out of nowhere in terms of AEW booking to become the top champion. A year ago on Forbidden Door, he was a curtain jerker in an 8 man tag on Zero Hour. Granted, there was nowhere to go but up from MJF's cornball spasming Kindergarten comedy routine in his pitiful phoned in title defense against the sadly almost crippled former ace of New Japan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, but these are big upgrades over that matchup even if we could have been with Tony Khan in his basement when he ran them through his TEW wrestling simulator, with everyone healthy, motivated, and in their prime.

Will vs. Swerve was the definition of a match that got there by being a big show main event. Will has had several opponents in AEW who are better wrestlers than Swerve, and do a much better job of being a base for him and setting him up to look great. In chronological order, we got Konosuke Takeshita, Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson, Roderick Strong, & Kyle O'Reilly. He also had a match with Rey Fenix that was a cool mirror match, with elite high flyers matching and topping one another. Every one of these matches didn't wind up being better than the Swerve match in the absolute. However, this main event went miles further, doing a lot more wild and dangerous spots, and kicking out of endless finishers, just to get to a level on par with what Will did in midcard PPV matches or even TV matches that were half the length against opponents who weren't presented as having a snowballs chance in hell of beating him, however great we may know them to be as performers. 

I don't want to diss Swerve or even this match, just to keep things in perspective. Even though the match didn't have a lot going for it beyond the big spots, it still actually exceeded my expectations. I was really hoping to instead be making a video about Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi, a match that on paper should have been very good, but neither took advantage of Shingo's strengths as an energetic sprinter, nor came anywhere close to doing that extra to try to save the PPV or steal the show. Had they been the focus show and had the extra time, maybe they would have actually gotten out of second gear. Whatever we think of Will vs. Swerve, no one can argue that they didn't go the extra mile. Even if their match largely stood out because the other 13 matches were mostly passable to bad, and we actually got to see crazy stunts like the Swerve stomp to the floor and someone finally kicking out of the stormbreaker, Will has once again managed to deliver the match to talk about this week.
 
In the end, the destination is way more important than the course traveled. They had a very good match, and Swerve stepped it up when he needed to. I thought this would be 3 stars, which has been the rare high point of Swerve's AEW career. This match shows the level Swerve can reach when he wants to, but that's my problem with him in general. He's a guy that has all the talent and ability to consistently be a top worker, but outside of one great cage match in Lucha Underground against the tremendously underrated, and now totally squandered in AEW, AR Fox, Swerve rarely shows more than flashes of this. We can see here that he can do most of what Will can do, match him or mirror him when he really wants to. This tended to be the best stuff in their match, and granted that was partly due to the surprise. I'm not saying Swerve should be Will. It's good that he has his own identity, and one of the reasons he rose from the ashes of Tony's misbooking to become world champion. That being said, I want to see a guy like Fenix who will do his great stuff all the time, and if you can hang with him or match him, he can do even greater stuff by taking advantage of the opponent with athletic spots, sequences, and counters that require two great athletes or playing off a power wrestler. Swerve can do that too, as proved by this match, or his own variation of it. The problem is even here he'd mostly rather keep things easy and basic, stand around exchanging supposedly menacing looks and flatfooted chops. 

The beginning was kind of dull and empty because they weren't doing their spots yet for the most part, but as expected, they weren't telling any stories or building the match in any real manner. They defaulted to Will's New Japan style long match striking opening, and did a lot of staring each other down to create tension and build anticipation. Still, it was Swerve's bout, at Swerve's methodical pace. They did a couple cool sequences to keep the crowd into in, and since this was a match the fans actually cared about, that was enough to get by on initially. Ultimately, they utilized the most basic escalation throughout the 27 minutes, do some flashy stuff, avoid some favorite moves, kick out of some finishers, do more big deadly stuff until someone finally stays down. They at least got across that the title meant everything to both wrestlers, which was ultimately what they needed to do.

The match picked up around the 10 minute mark with Ospreay missing a pescado and having his swandive move on the barricade backfire as well, but countering into a sweet Frankensteiner off the barricade. Swerve was definitely reigning Will in here, keeping it as a slow burner both as a strategy to win, where he was taunting Will and trying to get him to exchange strikes with him, and as a style of wrestling so they didn't do what he deemed to be too much too soon. The first great spot came 15 minutes in when Ospreay went to finish with the Oscutter, but Swerve jumped to the middle rope just after him, and intercepted him with a Swerve stomp. Swerve avoided an Oscutter on the apron after hitting an Avalanche Olympic slam. Swerve then set up a Swerve stomp with Ospreay on the apron, but Ospreay got off the apron, so after some delay, and with no logical setup, Swerve hit the spot of the match, an insane Swerve stomp to the outside where Will got sandwiched by a Forbidden Door desktop. Swerve did another spot we never see, piledriving Will on the barricade. Swerve tried to finish with the Swerve stomp, but Will unbalanced him, and hit a swandive cutter. 

The final 7 minutes was the finisher spam, with Swerve kicking out of the Oscutter, injuring his hand blocking the hidden blade, and sidestepping another Oscutter. He got hit with another Oscutter into a stormbreaker, but somehow kicked out. Hamming it up as though he were possessed by the devil, Will twice tried his hardest to hit the Tiger driver '91 that he just swore he'd never use again after his April 21st win over Bryan Danielson. Swerve turned it into a pinning predicament, and came back using Ospreay's own hidden blade on him. Will avoided another Swerve stomp and tried another hidden blade, but Swerve ducked, so Will took referee Paul Turner out with what was actually just a high cross body. Swerve tried a poisonrana while Will was bemoaning the damage he did to the ref, but Will landed on his feet and hit the hidden blade, except now there was no ref to count. 

The ref bump was actually okay, but logic began to break down, and everything went to hell as always when Don Callis came out to corrupt Ospreay. Will is 18-0 in AEW without screwdrivering anyone, and had already proven he was willing to do what he must to win by trying the Tiger driver '91, twice. Literally anything he did, if there were a ref, might have finished a seemingly knocked out Strickland, but the Callis rain delay wasted well over a minute in this amateur hour segment, trying to convince Will to use the screwdriver of doom we know from ruining Kenny Omega matches. There was all sorts of Z grade acting, with Will doing the least believable portrayal of emotional turmoil ever, Callis and Prince Nana having a lame shoving contest, and Will nearly using the screwdriver on Nana of all people. Swerve had endless time to recover while these clowns were losing Will the match by displaying all sorts of cheesy facials that only their mother and MJF could love. Swerve reasonably cut Ospreay right off with the house call when this nonsense was over, and nearly won with the Swerve stomp, with Aubrey Edwards conveniently arriving just in time to count the fall. Will had a noticable bruise on his right cheek now from Swerve's boot, which was pretty shocking despite the high impact nature of the contest, and was also writhing in pain because Swerve did a variation of the old Penta breaks the arm bit. Will kicked out of another house call, and in one of the corniest fighting spirit displays ever, wobbled around unbelivably like a caricature of drunken sailor while taking his elbow pad off for his hidden blade. Swerve just watched him land it with no impact, and caught him. Swerve patted him on the head a couple times and let him go because he knew he was out on his feet, which would have been the finish in a real combat sport, saving the face from having to kill the other face, but since wrestling is afraid to allow the refs to protect the fighters, Swerve had to eventually get around to doing another house call and his big pressure to beat the opponent who was already beaten.

This was more of a collection of moments than a cohesive wrestling match, but the last 7 minutes had a lot of memorable stuff, even if some of it was memorable for the wrong reasons. The connective tissue between the sequences was never good, but in the second half, that was less noticable, and arguably less important, because they threw so much at the wall, and a lot of it stuck. I think they survived this with Swerve getting an important win to prove he's actually the man, while giving Will an ascendancy storyline because he still has to prove he's ready to be the top dog. I'm excited that it looks like Bryan Danielson will have to win the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, and thus headline Wembley. If AEW were actually trying to be profitable though, it would have made much more sense to have Danielson challenge Swerve at WrestleDream 2024 in their hometown of Washington on October 12th, after having the Commonwealth Kingpin make his first challenge in England. I give this match 3.5 stars out of 5.

Rey Fenix vs. Will Ospreay

The Rey Fenix vs. Will Ospreay series is certainly one of the most exciting pairings in recent times for fans of high flying, super athletic pro wrestling. They're arguably the two best aerialists of the 2010s, although Ricochet might argue that he's King, and Dragon Lee and today's best flyer, El Hijo Del Vikingo, were quite spectacular soaring athletes who came on at the end of that decade. Undoubtedly, Rey & Will are era defining high flyers with virtually unrivaled athleticism who love delivering mind-blowing athletic spots. Fenix has such amazing balance. He's great at taking a preexisting move and putting his own spin on it, whether by incorporating it into his tightrope act, or adding a forward roll. Will is less creative, but has incredible explosion. He'll give you the picture perfect gymnastics execution of all his flying, really tight and precise movement through his midair twists and turns, with a well balanced landing. Aerial wrestling might not be the best style to pit the standouts against each other. Certainly putting grappling aces such as Kiyoshi Tamura and Volk Han or Johnny Saint and Steve Gray together enabled them to do a lot more elaborate, high speed, tricked out sequences that really went above and beyond what they could accomplish with most other people. Lucha libre is based upon pitting a high flyer against a sturdy base who can set them up and catch them well for a reason though. With an aerial matchup like this, I'm not necessarily looking for the best all around match, or too worried about how well they are able to dabble into the areas that aren't their strengths. I'm looking for them to find a way to push the boundaries of what they excel at. If they can show me a match where having a quicker, faster, more athletic opponent allows them to do things they couldn't otherwise do with an ordinary wrestler who understands how to make them look good, I consider that a success. By this standard, Fenix and Ospreay have very much succeeded in at least their 1st and 3rd matches. To me, these matches are about showing something that hasn't been done before, taking that next step forward in the evolution, and hopefully inspiring others to take a step beyond what Fenix & Ospreay are able to do now. The better Fenix vs. Ospreay matches are largely just two of the best high flyers in the world displaying their ridiculous athleticism in a game of top this that features some incredible athletic sequences and counters that are outrageous in the best possible way. They are wild aerial spectacles without much connective tissue where they are so creative that they could just keep a sequence of running and jumping at each other going for as long as they want to because something breathtaking will continue to transpire. PAC is a high flyer who can have a reasonable match with anyone. He largely just keeps jumping at an opponent who is required to do little more than stand or lay there, so even the most inept robots who are usually confused and don't have a single move that looks remotely impressive, such as perpetual rookie level worker Kazuchika Okada, almost can't screw up a PAC match, at least until they cut him off. Even with PAC doing some of the most impressive flips around though, this sort of match still isn't likely to be of more than marginal interest unless he has a real opponent who is at least answering him with a lot of their own well done offense. The better Will vs. Rey matches are quite developed in terms of how they work together. What these Rey vs. Will matches offer are two performers who can react beautifully to one another. The matches are at their most exciting when they fully embrace what they do well against an opponent who can do it equally as well, and try to take that athletic bend to the highest level they can within the time they have. They are mirror matches where they keep countering each other back and forth until someone finally outmanuevers the other to land one flying move. It's more about all the flips and rolls they evade than what finally actually works. You may or may not like this style of match, but it's their match, decked out in all it's glory. These matches might not have a lot to offer in other areas, but there aren't many matches where their opponents can also backflip out of the way or land on their feet for an avalanche move. The more these matches were truly aerial wars, the better they were. The more they were just leaping at one another, or thinking about doing the great match by numbers style where they just parrot whatever has gotten other people high ratings in the past even though they don't actually do it very well, the worse their matches were. Their first battle from September 2nd, 2016, a first round match in PWG's Battle Of Los Angeles 2016 still has that awe factor. This match yanks you into their video game world, where they just constantly impress with their stunts. A lot of the spins, twists, turns, rolls, and rope hops don't make the actual move do any more damage, and would of course realistically just make the move more difficult to execute. This match was just so crazy and the pacing was so high that they were nonetheless able to pull me into their world, get me to shut my brain off and enjoy the spectacle. This only lasted 10 minutes 29 seconds, but it actually felt much longer in a good way because they worked full speed, cramming so much amazing spectacle into the time they had. They basically eliminated everything that wasn't athletic action, at their best doing elaborate counter sequences filled with flips and rolls to avoid whatever the other could throw at them, until they finally couldn't. They would also mirror each other by doing their own variation out of the same setup. This wasn't a well rounded match, and sometimes even within the one dimension they were delivering they were content to just jump at one another when they could have developed things more interestingly, but they didn't waste any time, and basically didn't do anything that wasn't spectacular. Initially, they displayed their variation out of the same setup, for instance, Will forward flipped over a grounded Fenix, but Fenix jumped on a grounded Will's back with a footstomp. They varied more in the second half through their counters. Will was much more spectacular than he is today, including a space flying Tiger drop. Fenix answered with a torneo. After all this crazy stuff, they randomly paused in the middle, creating their own commercial break through Will applying a chinlock. Fenix escaped with an overhead kick, and they went back to jumping at one another for the rest of the match. Will tried for a back body drop, but Fenix flipped into a hurracarrana, only to have Will cartwheel out. The most memorable, truly incredible spot came when Fenix tried an avalanche Spanish fly, but both landed on their feet. Will got his feet up for the 450 splash, though Fenix almost missed them, and won with the Oscutter. This was kind of a standard finish given all the crazy stuff they'd already done, albeit still miles better than what we've gotten since Will's hidden blade era. This could have been more developed to be certain, but they just did highlights from start to finish, so at this length, it didn't become overkill. This match wasn't remotely believable, but they gave people more or less what they wanted, an incredible athletic exhibition, even if not much else. I give this match 4 stars out of 5. Their second match took place on March 31st, 2017 at the RevPro WrestleCon show. WrestleCon is always exciting for being a great gathering of the top indy wrestlers and smaller leagues, but one of the problems is by packing so many shows into Wrestlemania Weekend, you wind up getting lesser matches because both wrestled another match on this day, and Rey had two matches the next day, while Will had 1. Though this was longer than their previous match at 12 minutes 41 seconds, it wasn't urgent or creative. They didn't actually do as much, and very little of what they did really took advantage of the great athlete they were working with. Mostly they just did their routine, and thus either would have had a better match with a good base and feeder. It was more conventional, and less breathtaking. Of course, they still did some amazing athletic stuff, but it wasn't an all out match, or nearly as consistent, and it definitely didn't build upon or add to what they'd done before. This was more in line with the worst aspects associated with athletic indy wrestling, as both did really cool things, but the setup was slower and more predictable, and both were individually a lot more impressive than they were working with one another. They tried to do a more conventional opening this time rather than just getting to the good stuff, but it wasn't particularly impressive, or much more believable than the rest of what they did. The match took off after a few minutes when Fenix used a tijeras to set up a dive. They were exchanging flashy athletic moves at a high pace for the rest of the match. Rey avoided a superstar move, so Will just backflipped onto his feet, but Rey did a forward roll into a jumping cutter. They exchanged poisonranas. Generally in this program, Fenix was the more impressive of the two, even though Will doesn't put him over that well. At best, they would do 55/45 matches in Will's favor that Will would just kind of win without Fenix ever getting a truly believable near fall. This was Fenix's least impressive performance of the series though, as he seemed a little off his game, with Ospreay definitely standing out as the more impressive wrestler, especially in the final minutes. Will did a space flying Tiger drop, and got a near fall with a phoenix splash. Fenix took a great bump on the oscutter finisher to make it look like he got spiked on his head. They were individually impressive, but they didn't really need one another to do what they did here. I give this match 3 stars. After two matches in America, their third match for FCP on April 20th, 2019 took place at The Hangar in Wolverhampton, England. While still far from their perfect match together, this was the best example of them taking advantage of what the other is capable of. It's their most creative match, and when they were moving, they were doing an ungodly series of athletic counters and reversals. The match was arguably even more deeply flawed than their others. It sometimes annoyed me when they weren't moving, but this was aerial excess like we really haven't seen before, so I'm more interested in focusing on it's unique sequences, and appreciating it's originality. In the limited scope of the match, I thought they worked the spots into the sequences incredibly well, using their athleticism to avoid everything the opponent was throwing at them as much as to land their own stuff. This wasn't the usual standing around watching the opponent jump at them. They did long elaborate sequences where it took a lot of effort to counter and avoid all the many twists, turns, and flips in order to actually land anything. They teased their big spots well, avoiding them the first time then landing them later. The pacing of the match was bad though, with the match just stopping for an even lamer than usual version of the fighting spirit striking nonsense. This match was very, very choreographed, but the set pieces were fantastic! Even though everything was done for show, you don't really see these sort of sequences from anyone else, so the match was unique and original. The problem is between the set pieces, Rey would just stand or lie around for no reason, and Will would slowly get around to throwing a strike. Sometimes they would do a bad exchange, but either way, there was no urgency or resistance to any of this, the complacency killing all the momentum they just built up through the great counter sequence. The fact that they were killing time with the striking stuff made the sequences more jarring, it's what made them feel like set pieces rather than something organically occuring within a kinetic action sequence. These weren't the great, on the fly audibles in the midst of a frantic and urgent sequence of aerial action they should have been. It was standing around staring at each other, then running around again for no reason. The sequences were really elaborate, but ultimately they ended with one move being hit, so there was no reason for Rey playing dead, other than they needed a break after all those flips and rolls. The fact it was always Rey playing dead, in a match that he was once again losing, gave the appearance that Will was coming out on top of all the sequences even though it was theoretically the typical 50/50 match. The opening running counter sequence was actually the best part of the match. Just an incredible start with both cartwheeling out of tijeras, Will handstanding his way out of a superstar cutter, and Rey eventually ducking a penalty kick and doing a kip up. Rey tried to do his rope hopping, but Will kicked the top rope to knock him off. Rey eventually came back with more rope work, answering Will's attempts to knock him off this time, and hitting a missile kick then a moonsault to the floor. Will avoided the rolling solebutt in the corner, but Rey stopped him with a chop, backflipped over him, and hit a German suplex. Will hit the superstar enzuigiri this time. Rey avoided a moonsault off the second and a standing moonsault, got hit with a shooting star press then avoided another moonsault off the second. Ospreay then avoided a moonsault off the second, and Rey hit his cutter. None of the selling in this match was remotely convincing. They were just pausing and restarting. Pretty much everything that was avoided early on was eventually hit later on. Will landed on his feet for the avalanche Frankensteiner, but then they just stood around admiring their work. Rey handspringed out of a tornado DDT. The ending of this was really random and out of nowhere. Will hit a corkscrew moonsault to the floor, Rey hit his black fire driver, then Will caught Rey's moonsault attack off the second and hit his stormbringer for the win. Ultimately, while this was their longest match at 15 minutes 19 seconds, their shortest match on September 2nd, 2016 still felt like their most complete display of what they can actually do. They had improved as wrestlers by this point though, and this was their highest level match in terms of skill and level of difficulty. I think it's both their best and worst match in a lot of ways. It's definitely a lot more frustrating than the PWG match, but it also takes the sequences a lot further than that match does, and feels like an evolution, even if at the same time the strong style influence led to deevolution. There's a lot of memorable stuff here because so much had to occur to get to the point of them actually landing something cool. I'm rating it highly and calling it their best match because you just can't find this level of athletic sequence elsewhere, even in their other matches, but I could see where people might prefer the pureity and simplicity of the PWG match because it's bloat free. I give this match 4 stars. Their latest match took place in AEW on June 12th, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa for Will's AEW International Title. It was something of a lesser version of their FCP match. It's a nice introduction to what they can do together, especially for an audience that likely hasn't seen it before, but unfortunately this series still doesn't really have a signature match that truly captures the heights they are capable of reaching together. They did some things better here, but the commercial breaks resulted in it still being a stop and start match. With this style, the stopping and starting, whether because they need a break or due to the bad TV format, is really jarring because they don't lay out a match well to begin with, resulting in an uneven feeling match that keeps shifting between 0 and 100mph. The opening segment of athletic counters was pretty much right out of the FCP match, although that was their best stuff ever, well worth repeating. Rey avoided a pescado after Will took too long playing to the crowd. Rey seemed to be stepping through the ropes to go get Will on the outside, but instead jumped off the bottom rope with a Frankensteiner. This was a great start, but then, as always, the match lost all its steam with the first picture in picture. This semi interrupted segment was only notable for being the only control segment Rey had during their four match series. There was at least more urgency once they would come back from the commercials. They gained momentum again with Will hitting the superstar enzuigiri and landing on his feet for an avalanche Frankensteiner, and Rey handspringing out of a tornado DDT, only to get stopped in their tracks with the second picture in picture. By the time they returned, they moved into the finishing sequence, countering each other's signature spots. Rey cut off the hidden blade with a huracarrana, but Will cut Fenix off in midair with a hidden blade then took forever giving Swerve Strickland, who was at ringside, his "my house" catchphrase before hitting Swerve's finisher, the Swerve stomp, then winning with another hidden blade. Most of the variation in this match was towards the end because Ospreay has different finishers these days. This wasn't as spectacular as their 1st or 3rd matches, partially because Will especially isn't as spectacular as he used to be, and certainly wasn't groundbreaking or original. Though it was safer and more conventional, it was still a lot of fun, and might have been an excellent match under better circumstances. I give this match 3.5 stars. These matches aren't likely to stand the test of time as well as more well rounded matches because their flying will be surpassed, while solid wrestling tends to always be solid wrestling. Their better matches together are among the most spectacular matches these two have had though. Neither set each other up or cover some of the other aspects as well as their better opponents who aren't so similar do, but it's nice that we don't have to choose between always seeing mirror matches or always seeing fire and ice because both can be exciting and move the bar in their own ways. 


By far the best match of this year's Best of the Super Junior tournament, El Desperado and Taiji Ishimori proved they deserved to headline the second biggest New Japan show of the year, Dominion 6.9 In Osaka-Jo Hall. Granted, it didn't take much to be more impressive than the Heavyweight Title garbage match pitting the sloppy brawling of the master of the back rake, Jon Moxley, with plumber wrench in toe, against the fearful leader of the HoT mess, EVIL, in a lumberjack match that essentially begged for more of endless interference that's turned tons of people off to current New American Pro Wrestling product to distract from how inept the two actual competitors are. Desperado vs. Ishimori was consistently good action though, the only full start to finish effort we saw all tournament. 

Desperado headlining Dominion at age 40 wasn't something anyone would have predicted even a few years ago. Hiromu Takahashi fully became the face of the New Japan Junior division when KUSHIDA signed with WWE in 2019. Despite being 4 years older than Takahashi, and not even a player in the division yet at 35 years old when this tragedy occurred, Desperado has slowly and improbably took over as the ace of the division in the last 3 years, making the most of his opportunity when Hiromu went down in 2021 and COVID restrictions still kept most of the foreigners out of Japan. Desperado was 26-years-old when he debuted, something that would have been unheard of in the major Japanese promotions during the 1980's, when Giant Baba initially rejected Kenta Kobashi without even giving him a look because he was a 19-year-old without a major athletic background. In more modern times, many of the juniors are graduating from that division by the time Desperado really got going in it, if not well before. Despite successful Junior Title reigns in the first half of 2021 and 2022, Desperado still lost to Hiromu Takahashi in the 2022 Super Jr. Final after losing to him in 2020. In fact, neither of these two have ever won this tournament despite being 3 time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champions, as Ishimori lost to Hiromu in the good but really overrated 2018 Final.

Desperado had the best showing in this years tournament, with good matches against Kosei Fujita, TJP, & DOUKI. He is one of the least spectacular guys involved, but he's arguably the most technically and fundamentally sound. Because he's about doing the little things well rather than awing the audience with his stunts, he's more able to maintain a consistent level throughout a long grueling tournament. He was very diligent and disciplined in putting the extra little bit of effort in to make it look like there was some actual resistance and struggle going on in his matches. 

Ishimori was the most disappointing wrestler of this year's tournament going into the final. He wrestled very half-heartedly and lackadaisically, particularly in the overrated semifinal where TJP, who had given amongst the strongest and most consistent efforts throughout the tournament was trying as usual, but getting almost no help from Ishimori, who was still in the mode of just trying to survive the slog. Ishimori's tournament matches felt among the most cooperative because he wasn't working the holds, moving the way he's capable of to get to his spot quickly enough, or disguising the feeding in any real manner. I'm sure Yoshinobu Kanemaru was more underwhelming because he'd checked out by the time he transferred to New Japan in 2017, but at 41-years-old, after missing 5 months last year with a neck injury, there were questions about how hard Ishimori was still willing and able to push himself in the ring. Ishimori still keeps himself in amazing condition, and he answered those questions positively here. He finally showed consistent explosion in his movement, as well as energy in his performance, actually appearing to be trying to win, rather than simply surviving by filling time. 

This wasn't the usual Junior Final, partly because Desperado isn't your typical New Japan junior. They didn't go for the big highs, avoiding anything crazy or next level, but they also didn't wind up with the big lows by pausing the match with endless selling to stretch it out forever. They kept things moving, kept the quality reasonably high, and gave us a little bit of everything. There were stories, but they found reasons to quickly move past them rather than digging into them all that much. They each injured a body part that played into the submission they want to be winning with anyway, but they'd rather set those submissions up or do whatever they could to maintain the advantage, and the opponent also didn't just conveniently lay around allowing their weakest part to be endlessly beat on.

Ishimori's performance was kind of mixed in the opening technical wrestling, a lot better and more active than he's been in the league portion, but still not as good as we've seen from many of Desperado's opponents. He quickly picked things up after an eye gouge with a swandive huracarrana and a triangle moonsault, and he was on his game from here. In fact, Ishimori was probably the better performer in the final because he had the explosion and ability to do spectacular things that Desperado largely lacks, and his strikes even had a lot more zip on them. Desperado was definitely the glue that held the match together, and some of Ishimori being more diligent in the technical aspects and transitions was definitely due to Desperado's positive influence. That being said, Desperado's level didn't rise that much above the consistently good wrestler we saw in the league, while Ishimori was almost night and day, doing his best to turn back the clock to his hard working NOAH days when he was one of the most explosive and exciting juniors around. 

The closest there was to a theme in this match began after the dive when Ishimori injured Desperado's shoulder on the post. He took the turnbuckle pad off while Desperado was recovering, whipping Desperado into the naked corner before Desperado even realized there was no padding. Ishimori was more than happy to play heel, but made sure to keep it a wrestling match despite the random shortcuts. Ishimori wanted to be more diligent in working the shoulder, but Desperado was able to test his neck, countering the superstar enzuigiri with a backdrop then hitting a tope con giro.

Desperado was more interested in working Ishimori's knees than his neck because that plays into his numero dos finisher. This also didn't really get going though because, while Desperado avoided a jumping knee in the corner, Ishimori took advantage of the missing turnbuckle pad again and hit a shoulderbreaker. By the time Desperado came back turning La Mistica into numero dos, they were already ushering in the finishing sequence. Desperado was able to apply numero dos again after a sit-out kneebreaker. Ishimori kept having answers for him though. In fact, he turned this into a flash pin, and while he appeared to be following with la magistral, Ishimori instead took the opportunity to abuse the bad shoulder. Ishimori hit la Mistica this time into a lengthy bone lock, as he was able to pull Desperado back into the center twice, but the second time Desperado finally counted into numero dos. Ishimori eventually escaped with a Canadian destroyer. Ishimori used a low blow when Red Shoes was hunched over endlessly, protecting himself from what never really rose to being worthy of calling a ref bump, leading to a near fall from the Gedo clutch. Desperado got a near fall with his pinche loco while Ishimori had a nearfall with a reverse Bloody Sunday. This was really where the match could have used something extra to put it over the top. They spammed a lot of finishers, and the match reasonably could have gone either way in the sense that they've split their previous four singles matches, but you knew this was all about Desperado finally getting his Super Jr. going into his PPV produce show the following day. Ishimori's shady tactics finally came back to haunt him when Desperado stopped the bloody cross and ran him into the exposed turnbuckle. Desperado hit two more pinche Locos for the win. Desperado finally getting his Super Junior trophy was nice to see. Even though the moment for it had arguably past, it was still very well deserved. This wasn't an all-time great final by any means, but didn't actively annoy me like vast portions of the 2018 Ishimori vs. Hiromu or 2019 Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi. Ultimately, they stayed within themselves and successfully did the match they set out to do. I give this match 3.5 out of 5 stars. 




Mickey Gall was deemed a prospect by Dana White when he quickly won his professional debut against another debuting fighter, Ron Templeton, at Dead Serious MMA 17 on November 21, 2015. This bout was featured on Dana White's Lookin' for a Fight reality show, and led to Gall being one of the most inexperienced fighters on the UFC roster, with just 2 minutes 53 seconds of ring time. Gall somehow managed to also face debuting fighters in his first two UFC fights, which basically never happened during the Zuffa era, where fighters normally had to prove themselves worthy of working for the elite brand of combat sports. A 45 second win over Mike Jackson in Gall's UFC debut on February 16, 2016, once again with a rear naked choke, set up the match he became famous for against bad pro wrestler turned worst ever UFC fighter CM Punk. Punk managed to look completely clueless for 2 minutes 14 seconds before Gall choked him out. Gall's roll continued against another Dana White creation, the then 8-1 "Super" Sage Northcutt, with another choke out on December 17th, 2016. These wins earned Gall the 2016 Newcomer of the Year award, but that was about the end of his luck. 

Ultimately, Gall, Jackson, Punk, and Northcutt proved to not be nearly as good of prospects as the UFC hoped. Jackson managed to beat Punk in another of the lowest level fights in UFC history before Punk went back to not getting along with anyone in pro wrestling. Northcutt, whose father Mark was a karate blackbelt who began training Sage at age 4, was one of the most famous modern era karate fighters, winning 77 youth championships and getting inducted into the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame at age 15. I always found him to be a fun and entertaining fighter even though he was very overhyped by UFC. He's clearly had the most succeess of the bunch in MMA, although his career was nearly ended when kickboxing champion Cosmo Alexandre somehow fractured Sage's face in 8 places with a brutal overhand right in Northcutt's ONE Championship debut on May 17, 2019. Northcutt was out of action for nearly 4 years, but managed to defeat Ahmed Mujtaba in his return on May 5, 2023 to up his MMA record to 12-3. 

Gall's fall from grace was seemingly harder to understand, as we didn't know his back was refusing to cooperate. His issues started during his training camp for a December 7, 2019 bout against Carlos Condit that Condit ultimately pulled out of. Gall tried to fight through it, but was in excruciating pain anytime he tried to sit down throughout the training camp for his next fight on June 27th, 2020 against "Platinum" Mike Perry. Perry is an exciting brawler known for having arguably the lowest fight IQ in MMA, combined with not getting any useful advice from his corner, which sometimes consisted of just his girlfriend Latory Gonzalez. In the fight against Gall, Gonzalez imparted such crucial nuggets of wisdom as "hit him in the face". Perry praised Gonzalez's corner work after winning the fight via unanimous decision, saying "She kept it very simple." Gall lost 2 of his next 3 fights, often laying on his stomach in constant pain for hours after training sessions, before undergoing back surgery in December 2022. Gall was unceremoniously released from UFC during this time, but was resigned for this match against Bassil Hafez, which was his first fight since the surgery.

Another east coast fighter, Hafez was born in Pennslyvania 9 days after Gall, but it took him much longer to make the big time. He made his MMA debut in CFFC on January 1st, 2016, less than two months after Gall, but it took him 7 years to luck into a short notice opportunity to face ranked contender Jack Della Maddalena on July 15th, 2023. Hafez certainly overachieved here, actually winning round 1, and taking home a fight of the night bonus for his split decision loss. Though Gall has much more high level MMA experience, Hafez was confident coming into his second UFC match on June 1st, 2024 at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey due to having previously defeated Gall in a Grappler's Quest match in 2013. 

Hafez is a pretty intimidating dude, and he showed no fear of Gall right from the get go. This was a very exciting striking contest where Hafez applied a ton of pressure early, then became totally consumed with scoring the knockout, not worrying about standing in front of Gall and loading up. Hafez is a very good wrestler, but when he was dropping down, he was usually doing a very effective combo with a left to the body, then coming over the top with the right hand, and following with the left hook if he could. Gall was cut on the bridge of the nose from this two minutes in. Gall's strength has always been his grappling. His striking is a lot more of a work in progress, and early returns on that work weren't looking too promising here. Gall was stuck in a defensive mindset, spending too much time circling with his back to the octagon. It was odd that Gall only tried two takedowns during the fight, but Hafez succeeding in 3 of 5, combined with his grappling success against JDM probably shows that he's the better wrestler of the two. Certainly, he's the stronger man and more explosive athlete. Though Gall has improved his striking game considerably, he still had the same problem of lacking the overall athleticism to succeed more often than not in the exchanges. Gall spent round 1 trying to fight behind a jab that was too slow and too pushy, and Hafez kept beating him with the right hand counter before Gall could fully reset himself. Hafez was pressuring Gall, but most of his big power shots were actually counters to the slow jab Gall was trying to hold him off with. Meanwhile, most of Gall's success in round 1 came from his own right hand counter. The first round was clearly owned by Hafez, but Gall finally caught him with a really good body hook with 45 seconds left. Gall wasn't able to steal the round, but he gained enough confidence to turn the tide with a couple more good shots in the final seconds. It was a positive that Gall took Hafez's best shot better than Hafez took Gall's. 

While the early portion made this seem like it wasn't going to be much of a fight, and that standup brawling was going to be a big edge to the faster and more powerful Hafez, that ultimately wasn't the case. It felt like Gall got lured into a brawl, and eventually realized he could not only hang in that style of, but actually had a better chance of winning in a more chaotic manner than by staying technical in a fight where his physical tools weren't as good as his opponents. 

Hafez's confidence was nonetheless growing in the second round, to the point he became all too willing to just stand in the pocket throwing full power. The fans were happy they were brawling because the action was so good, but if they were a little looser and calmer, throwing their shots more directly, and in Hafez's case, without so much ill intent that it was slowing him down, either could probably have run away with the fight instead of it being so competitive. Hafez certainly bought into his own ability to knock Gall out, but Gall has a great chin, and had more stamina in the final two rounds because he wasn't expending so much energy trying to end the fight with a bunch of wide haymakers. 

Gall stunned Hafez early in the second, following the jab with a straight. Hafez kept coming hard, and landed a left hook that sent Gall into retreat. Though Hafez had this one big success, he largely scrapped the pressure gameplan that was working so well in the 1st. Rather than feinting and attacking behind the body jab, he was much heavier on his feet, and much more predictable about when he was going to attack. After throwing too hard for most of the round, Hafez finally began to go back to fighting within himself in the latter stages, letting the counters flow rather than being so steadfast in trying to knock Gall out with one big shot. Gall had a nice double jab right hand combo before the end of round two though. They landed about an equal number of shots in this round, and Hafez had the best shot, but it felt like Gall was the better fighter now because he was staying within himself a lot more, taking what was available rather than forcing things. This was a very good, close round where both men had some nice moments. I felt like Gall won the round when I wrote the review, but then changed to Hafez winning the round when I was getting the images for the video. Either way, the fight was trending in the direction of the more disciplined Gall because he had more left in the tank. The problem was that Gall might need the finish now, and each of his 6 finishes have been by rear naked choke, but that wasn't going to happen in a standing war. 

Hafez was tired in the 3rd from winding up too much and overthrowing, but he wasn't forcing things any less because he assumed he was up 2 rounds. By this point, Hafez had completely abandoned mixing shots from low to high, and was telegraphing too many of his blows. Hafez hurt Gall with a right uppercut under the slow pushing jab 90 seconds into round 3. Gall seemed to go back into his shell, responding to being hurt by backing up and circling once again, but when Hafez got in his face, Gall shocked him with a right straight that put Hafez down. Gall was definitely going for it in the third, throwing a lot harder than in the 1st, without overdoing it and just getting wild and loopy like Hafez. Gall was controlling the center more, landing a lot more cleanly and powerfully. He hurt Hafez again with another right hand. There wasn't much deception on Hafez's part, and Gall finally had his timing down, but now Hafez's iron chin was carrying him the way Gall's had earlier. Though Gall was absorbing the punishment better, his face was cutting, while Hafez wasn't wearing any damage. Gall was having good success with the right hand, and was defending takedowns with guillotine attempts. Hafez finally ducked under an elbow and got a takedown to seemingly ride out the final 30 seconds. Hafez instead let Gall up in the final seconds ala Max Holloway vs. Justin Gaethje though, and they just winged haymakers to finish it, with Gall on the retreat. Hafez clearly won round 1 and Gall clearly won round three. Round 2 was the tough round to score because both had their moments. Somehow, despite Gall being the hometown fighter, only one judge even gave Gall a round. This was some awful scoring lost amidst a night of it where Dave Tirelli proved to be even worse than the usual suspects, scoring a 49-46 win for Paolo Costa in a fight where Sean Strickland won every round, and a 29-28 win for Mitch Raposo in a fight where Andre Lima won every round. 

Hafez vs. Gall was a very good match that was both a lot more entertaining and a lot more competitive than the actual Fight of the Night winner Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier. Poirier is one of my favorites, but I thought he lost all 4 rounds before submitting to a D'Arce choke midway through the 5th. Chris Lee actually had it 38-38, and Eric Colon gave Poirier the 2nd, while Sal D'Amato gave Poirier the 4th, so the fight was theoretically closer than I viewed it. Nonetheless, the problem was that even though Poirier is the better standup fighter in theory, Islam's wrestling game was so superior that it made his striking a lot more effective and Poirier's a lot less effective, to the point that Poirier was often outstruck when he wasn't getting dominated on the ground. Poirier, who normally at least gets submission attempts, never had even a momentary advantage on the ground, and while he had a puncher's chance in standup, he couldn't be particularly aggressive because he'd get taken down again if he stayed in front of Islam for any length of time. It was a largely disappointing fight if not viewed from the perspective of Poirier being a 6 to 1 underdog, but I certainly hope Dustin doesn't retire. 



6/1/24 UFC 302:  vs. Mickey Gall vs. Bassil Hafez 3R. 

Satoru Sayama

Satoru Sayama was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan on 11/27/57. When he was young, he grew up watching wrestlers like Antonio Inoki and Mil Máscaras. In July 1974, Sayama entered the New Japan Pro-Wrestling dojo to pursue his dream of becoming a pro wrestler, against the wishes of his parents. Sayama made his pro wrestling debut on 5/28/76 in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall.  
In New Japan in 1977, Sayama took part in a wrestler vs. kickboxer match when he battled Marc Costello. This was still before Sayama had any real extensive kickboxing training, so he took what basically was somewhat of a crash course in kickboxing and ended up losing the bout. However, he had learned valuable lessons, and was motivated to keep pursuing the striking aspects of combat sports, which was a precursor to Sayama’s vision and dream to create a new combat sport. Before he was able to accomplish that, he had to go through several more years of pro wrestling first, and in those years, he used his physical gifts to the best of his ability and became a revolutionary in-ring performer. Sayama would always keep in the back of his mind that he wanted to pursue learning more about striking and incorporate it more into the pro wrestling game.
Sayama was sent on an exursion to Mexico from June 1978 until September 1980. This is something New Japan would usually do with wrestlers who were relatively small in stature, since the Mexican lucha libre scene was a great way for relatively smaller wrestlers to excel due to its emphasis on a faster-paced, more athletic and acrobatic style that catered to lower weight classes. However, Sayama couldn’t be further removed from what he actually wanted to do, because Mexican wrestling was almost the opposite of what Sayama liked about combat sports. Sayama was more interested in the hard-hitting aspects, while lucha libre Mexicana focused on show and not so much on stiffness and realism. Whenever he wasn’t wrestling, Sayama used his spare time to train in kendo, karate, aikido, judo and other martial arts. Around this time, Sayama also got the opportunity to spend some time with Karl Gotch in Florida. This helped Sayama to feel encouraged again to pursue his dream and believe in his dream to make a difference in the world of combat sports. After wrestling in Mexico, Sayama toured England for a bit, but Sayama was told to come back to Japan by New Japan, as they wanted him to become Tiger Mask, which was a Japanese anime character. Sayama didn’t like the idea of being a masked cartoon gimmick, but he did it because he realized he had to do it in order to become successful in the pro wrestling business. 
On 4/23/81, Sayama became the famous masked wrestler known as Tiger Mask. Two of the many aspects of Sayama’s game that made him so thrilling to watch in action were his tremendous speed and his ability to hit a surprise move from any angle. He was decades ahead of basically every wrestler from his generation in terms of innovation and his ability to raise the bar of what is possible in pro wrestling. It’s not surprising that his 1981-1983 feud with Dynamite Kid is one of the legendary feuds of all time, since Dynamite Kid was also one of the few wrestlers during that era who was able to have matches that were so ahead of their time that they seemed like they belonged decades into the future. The feud focused on fast-paced and athletic junior heavyweight action, and their series of matches inspired generations of pro wrestlers. Satoru Sayama vs. Dynamite Kid was a feud that helped wrestling slowly shift away from the big, slow power guys and shift slowly towards favoring more athletically skilled talents.
The 4/21/83 Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask match is still one of the greatest pro wrestling matches ever, because everything they did felt like they did it while engaged in a competitive match, not just for the sake of being spectacular. Them being so competitive and intense, yet still being able to be lightyears ahead of their time, made this match so advanced that a lot of people in wrestling today still fail to understand what made a match like this so great, since a lot of wrestlers nowadays are obsessed with getting good ratings from reviewers, forgetting the fact they’re supposed to put over their matches as a fight and not a posing exhibition. What’s also impressive is that the Sayama vs. Dynamite matches never needed more than 20 minutes to show what great wrestling was able to look like. That’s definitely something a large part of today’s wrestling in the 2020s. Unlike most wrestlers nowadays, Sayama and Dynamite had the fans in the palms of their hands through their display of creativity and risk taking. Meanwhile, nowadays it seems the wrestlers are too worried about having to wrestle a certain type of match to be fully accepted.
Sayama’s feud with Kuniaki Kobayashi in 1982-1983 was another top-notch feud in New Japan. During the second half of 1982, Sayama would appear several times on WWF TV. The WWF and its fans couldn’t believe what they were seeing, since Sayama’s style was lightyears ahead of the clunky style of the simplistic WWF workers. The only way the WWF commentators could describe what they were witnessing was by describing Sayama as a quicker version of Mil Máscaras.
It’s not uncommon for people to think that Sayama was only great and relevant from 1981-1983, because that’s when he had his famous run as The First Tiger Mask in New Japan. However, his run in the original UWF in 1984-1985 oftentimes seems to be overlooked. This is why it’s important to have a closer look at his work in UWF. He was initially known as The Tiger in UWF, but he would soon become known as Super Tiger, which was fitting since he was a super worker.
Sayama must have been bitter from him not being a main eventer in New Japan despite being the most amazing performer, while duller performers like Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami got all the spotlight. Of course, there were also money issues that led to a bunch of workers leaving New Japan. That being said, Inoki deserves some credit for planting the seeds of the UWF mindset of having matches between people with a variety of martial arts backgrounds. Inoki had always been interested in the idea of pitting fighters of different disciplines against each other, but it was UWF that went further than just toying with the idea from time to time, and eventually became one of the most important leagues in pro wrestling history due to its influence on pro wrestling and even MMA. 
Sayama’s awesome run as Tiger Mask from 1981-1983 showcased his physical gifts and his high flying ability, but his run in UWF showcased his passion for shoot-style fighting. Initially, he would still rely a lot on flashiness and spectacle in UWF, but he eventually started letting go more and more of the aspects of the style that made him famous as Tiger Mask in New Japan, and he excelled in UWF shoot style to the point that he was better at it than anyone else at the time (1984-1985). 
Along with his ability to hit great-looking kicks, Sayama’s ability to use footwork and feints to set things up made him the best of the best at striking. Now with more of a focus on strikes, takedowns and submissions, and with less of the regular pro wrestling silliness, Sayama was fighting in a style that was a lot closer to how he wanted combat sports to be. In particular, Sayama’s feud with Yoshiaki Fujiwara and even Nobuhiko Takada (who were still in their prime back then) produced top-notch bouts in UWF. Sayama unmasked himself to emphasize that he felt that his legacy in shoot wrestling was more important than the glory of Tiger Mask.
The UWF was a unique and groundbreaking league, as it really put shoot style wrestling on the map, and was somewhat of a precursor to proto-Mixed Martial Arts. The UWF shoot style matches were worked (pre-determined), but they were worked in a way that was a lot more realistic than standard pro wrestling, so it really was the bridge between pro wrestling and MMA. The UWF was a very promising league, and had its fair share of quality bouts, but the ending of the league was very disappointing. Sayama and Akira Maeda used to get along well, but by 1985, they didn’t see eye to eye anymore and had different ideas about the direction of the UWF, as Sayama wanted more focus on striking and was thinking of changing some rules, while Maeda felt that grappling should be the main focus. Sayama believed that the kickboxing and striking aspect of the matches was necessary to make the UWF style more exciting. The heat between the two culminated on 9/2/85 in a one-on-one match when Maeda gave Sayama a shoot low blow. Sayama stayed around for a little while longer in UWF, but he was fed up with the backstage politics, and decided to once again retire from pro wrestling. The original UWF never had another show after Sayama’s final UWF match on 9/11/85 and folded soon after.
In 1985, disgruntled by pro wrestling’s backstage politics, Sayama released a book called “Kayfabe” in which he exposed the pro wrestling world he had started disliking more and more. That same year, Sayama became the founder of one of the very first MMA leagues in the world (about a decade before the term MMA was coined) when he founded the Shooto league. Shooto wasn’t just a league, as the combat sport Shooto (originally called Shooting) was a fighting system created by Sayama. It was a precursor to modern MMA. Sayama wanted to capture the essence of combat sport by combining key elements of various combat sport traditions. You could say that in a way, Sayama was the godfather of MMA. The Shooto sport was created in 1985, and the Shooto league was founded in 1989.
Sayama also owned his (Super) Tiger Gym. During the second half of the 1980s, Sayama spent a lot of time training fighters, and Sayama’s training method was quite ruthless. Some of the people Sayama helped train include Yuki Nakai, Noboru Asahi and Yori Nakamura. Sayama was so ahead of his time with his visions for the future of combat sports that the world wasn’t quite ready for it. By the time the world started getting ready for it, Sayama started having disagreements with the board of directors of Shooto, leaving the company he founded to return to the pro wrestling scene in the summer of ‘96. In between the years of his retirement from pro wrestling and his return to pro wrestling, he would occasionally appear in exhibition or demonstration fights.
From the 1990s onwards, whenever he wasn’t known as Satoru Sayama or Super Tiger, he would be known as the First Tiger Mask or Shodai Tiger Mask. After Sayama’s successful run as Tiger Mask from 1981-1983, there were several wrestlers who had a Tiger Mask successor type gimmick. Mitsuharu Misawa was Tiger Mask II in AJPW from 1984-1990. Koji Kanemoto was Tiger Mask III in NJPW in 1992-1994. Tiger Mask IV (Yoshihiro Yamazaki) made his debut in 1995, and spent most of his first six years embodying the Tiger Mask gimmick in Michinoku Pro before joining NJPW in 2002. In RJPW, Super Tiger II (Yuji Sakuragi) and Tiger Shark (Kozo Urita) emerged on the scene. Women’s wrestler Candy Okutsu was known as Tiger Dream in 1998 in ARSION. A women’s wrestler trained by Sayama and Jaguar Yokota known as Tiger Queen made her debut in 2021. Apart from all the successor gimmicks, there have literally been a countless amount of wrestlers that were influenced by Sayama’s in-ring work, and to even begin to list those who have been influenced either directly or indirectly would be a nearly impossible task.
Satoru Sayama is an extremely important figure in the history of professional wrestling, and he should be considered one of the all-time greats. Sayama stands out as an all-time great not only because of him being so ahead of his time and so influential, but also because of his ability to do everything he did with a high level of explosiveness. 
 
 
This is my overall conclusion of Satoru Sayama’s career…
From 1977 through 1979, he was Very good.
In 1980, he was Excellent.
In 1981, he was Great.
From 1982 through 1985, he was an All-Time Great.
He was not active from 1986 through 1993, as he was retired from pro wrestling.
From 1994 through 2000, he was Pretty good.
From 2003 through 2014, he was Average.
As an in-ring performer, Satoru Sayama was at his best during the 1980s. Not much footage exists of his pre-1981 work, but during the little footage we have of his pre-1981 work, it is clear that he already showed the potential to eventually become the great worker he ended up becoming. Even though one could say he was carried by Dynamite Kid and Kuniaki Kobayashi in their best matches in NJPW, Sayama was easy to carry, and Dynamite and Kobayashi never had matches as great against anyone else. It is clear that Sayama was one of the greatest wrestlers on the planet during his revolutionary peak period as Tiger Mask (1981-1983). He was also probably the most spectacular wrestler in the world (with Dynamite Kid being the only real competition).
In UWF in 1984-1985, he was the one who was best at the UWF style, which was against all odds, since a heavyweight shoot style is obviously something quite different from the high flying junior heavyweight style he excelled at in NJPW. Sayama was far ahead of his time at whatever he did. Sayama reinvented himself and evolved as a more complete and realistic shoot style worker in UWF. This also shows that he was able to be great in different styles, and he was able to raise the bar of the styles he was a pioneer in. As great as he was in 1981-1984, it was perhaps in 1985 that he truly reached the peak of his peak as an overall performer. Obviously, this is debatable, since his run as Tiger Mask in 1981-1983 was far more legendary and featured more spectacular in-ring work overall.
However, if there is one year of his career that Sayama was easily the best professional wrestler in the world, it has to be the year 1985, as nobody else came close to being as great as he was that year.
Sayama was not active as a pro wrestler after retiring in 1985 until returning as an active pro wrestler in the summer of ‘96. He was pretty good during the 1990s, but it was nothing like his peak years of the 1980s. After the late 1990s, his work really declined drastically. This was understandable, because he was older, heavier and many years removed from his peak years. 
Sayama’s work in the 2000s and beyond is very underwhelming. Of course, this was understandable and expected. He would throw some good kicks here and there, and for the rest it just felt like he was being a nostalgia act, relying on some of his old tricks that were now executed in far less spectacular and far less convincing fashion. In the period of the 2000s and beyond, it seems like he only gave a couple of decent performances. With that being said, the post-peak era really isn’t that important in reviewing the career of the legendary Sayama, as his greatness of the 1980s should forever receive high praise.
In closing, Satoru Sayama should forever be remembered as one of the all-time greats. Without further ado, let’s have a look at the list of Sayama’s 20 best matches!
Here is a list of Satoru Sayama’s 20 best matches in chronological order!

0:00-0:36 Young Satoru Sayama idolized Antonio Inoki & Mil Mascaras
0:37-1:30 Satoru Sayama vs. kickboxer Marc Costello
1:31-2:15 Satoru Sayama is sent to Mexico to learn Lucha Libre
2:16-2:43 Satoru Sayama trains with Karl Gotch
2:44-3:37 Satoru Sayama returns to New Japan as Tiger Mask
3:38-5:30 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid revolutionizes pro wrestling
5:31-6:08 Tiger Mask has a great fued with Kuniaki Kobayashi
6:09-8:19 Satoru Sayama is the first great shoot wrestler
8:10-10:48 Satoru Sayama is the best pro wrestling striker
10:49-11:02 Satoru Sayama breaks kayfabe by releasing his book Kayfabe
11:03-12:34 Satoru Sayama founds Shooto, the 1st MMA league
12:35-14:52 Satoru Sayama influenced countless wrestlers
14:53-19:26 The best and worst years of Satoru Sayama's career
19:27-20:49 Satoru Sayama's best matches

Will Ospreay upped his mark to 3 for 3, delivering the best match on each AEW PPV since signing with the company. Roderick Strong was a great opponent for this AEW International Title Match that opened, and stole, their 5th Anniversary Double of Nothing 2024 PPV on May 26th. Finally, in these last two PPV matches, Strong has gotten a chance to show why he's one of the best wrestlers ROH ever produced, and has been a standout everywhere else he's gone for the past 2 decades. He did a great job of leading Ospreay through a speedy match with great counters and a lot of aggression that was more exciting because he was able to incorporate Will's amazing offense without just utilizing the same old setups that make Will's matches predictable.

The crowd was very hot for Ospreay, and he brought the energy and excitement to maintain their enthusiasm. They wrestled the match that you would want from them, a fired up Ospreay bringing his flashy and explosive offense in a quick hitting, opportunistic manner, while Strong used his technical wrestling, intense striking, and arsenal of backbreakers, but did so in a manner where he was actually the one pushing the pace even moreso than Ospreay. The wrestling was excellent from every technical aspect. They worked incredibly well with one another, executing crisply and precisely. There was an urgency to everything they did in this sprint right from the get go, and it felt like they both disliked each other and valued the title. One could argue that Strong did an even better job of working an Ospreay style match, and bringing out his strengths than Bryan Danielson did on April 21st and Konosuke Takeshita did on March 3rd, as this match felt far less predictable. However, as bad as those two greats have been booked, it's ultimately a lot less poorly than Strong, and that was a crucial difference. 

Strong is one of the best wrestlers in AEW, but you basically wouldn't know it from anything he's actually done in the company, where he's spent more time in a wheelchair than in the ring. Strong being mispositioned as the  goofball sidekick to the middling, thankfully perpetually absent Devil has only made him and this belt continue to be meaningless. Even Roddy's two and a half month title reign that was perhaps theoretically supposed to allow people to finally take him seriously has only actually equated to one very good match against his great longtime rival Kyle O'Reilly, who has sadly been rendered to jobber to the stars status, and some annoying color commentary that once again just made people consider Strong a dork they don't need to pay attention to. 

Strong may not be the king of charisma, but the problem with Strong in AEW has been that he's presented like such a geeky goofball that it's blinded the majority of the audience to the fact that he's a brilliant technical wrestler, and someone who should be taken seriously in the ring. Although Strong was the champion, I don't think there was anyone who gave him a chance of beating the most over guy in the company. It's fine that this was ultimately just another match designed to showcase Ospreay, but Bryan Danielson can get away with sacrificing himself a lot more easily because he's a much bigger name that's been given ample opportunity in AEW to showcase how great he is, Tony Khan's star reducing blunders of never having Danielson win a title or even many meaningful singles matches aside. The biggest issue with this match was that instead of focusing on all the ways Strong could outwrestle Ospreay to keep his title, they boxed Strong into a corner where Strong's only chance of defending was through some shenanigans involving the seconds. That's bad enough in and of itself, but none of the segments involving the seconds was actually good storytelling or remotely useful after the opening, where they were seamlessly incorporated the other Undisputed Kingdom members into the battle between Will & Strong. You can pretty much sum the match up by saying that everything they did in the one-on-one segments was impressive, maintaining the momentum and forward drive, while everything they did involving the seconds killed the flow to the point it felt like they just pressed the pause button, and then they'd just restart, essentially right where Will and Roddy left off, as soon as the nonsense was over. The ineptitude of Khan's booking becomes more glaring the more desperate AEW becomes, to the point where it's become obvious to basically anyone putting any thought into what they are seeing every week that Khan is making his product a lot worse than it should be through needlessly overcomplicating things. I'd go so far as to say the match would have been better if they just had commercial breaks in place of the Undisputed Kingdom & Don Callis involvement. 

I really liked the opening where Ospreay snuck in the ring during Strong's entrance, trying to catch Strong off guard with his hidden blade. They got the crowd into it right away with their urgent and motivated work, and set the tone for the entire high workrate contest. Ospreay taking the seconds out to even the odds worked because they figured out how to make it happen within the flow of the action on the outside between the actual combatants. This whole segment was very energized and exciting, a good sort of chaos that provided Will with the opportuntity for some out of the ordinary stuff. It sometimes even felt like a fight, as all the strikes here were done with fire and aggression, looking like they meant it rather than just staring at the opponent waiting around for their reply. Ospreay even took Strong down and pounded him because he owed him a beating after the post match on Wednesday where Strong bloodied Ospreay with the International Title.

The opening was arguably the most effective portion of the match, setting the tone that they were going hard because they didn't like one another. Unfortunately, the overbooking then kicked in, and they immediately lost momentum with an unnecessary outside interference spot. To make things worse, they nearly killed the golden goose a few minutes in. Undisputed Kingdom gave Ospreay a doomsday device on the floor, but Matt Taven couldn't even clear the top rope for his dive, and was barely able to touch Ospreay on a full reach. Mike Bennett threw Ospreay off his shoulders with the proper amount of force assuming Taven was helping topple Will over with his body weight, but that obviously wasn't enough force considering Taven was useless, resulting in a narrowly avoided catastrophe where Ospreay luckily landed on his toes and knees, lessening some of the unintentional impact to his poor neck. 

This match felt less about Will's offense than most because Strong had a lot of bang, bang offense himself, chaining his attacks together nicely, and they did a nice job of working together, consistenly countering each other impressively. This certainly wasn't a match where you were just waiting for Will to do his thing. This was a really impressive display from both parties when it came to speed, impact, technique, etc. All Strong's offense looked quite damaging, whether he was working the neck, laying in stiff aggressive chops, or setting up his backbreakers that Will kept finding different ways to thwart. Will's offense always looks amazing, but today it looked a lot more organic than usual because Strong was forcing him to counter rather than just standing around while Ospreay jumped at him.

After the ref stopped Wardlow's interference, Ospreay did the most spectacular flying spot of the match, hitting his sky twister press to the floor. Ospreay climbed to the top again, but Strong injured Will's knee pushing him so he fell onto the turnbuckle. Ospreay then tried the sky twister press anyway, but jammed his knee landing on his feet after Strong rolled out of the way. Strong certainly has the capability to flesh out these injury spots a lot more, if they were only willing to allow him to be credible through traditional means, or even simply devoted the time to that rather than the distractions, and that would have been a better, more dramatic match where the outcome might at least have momentarily been in doubt. Regardless of what one thinks about Will's selling, these injuries were really only going to be brief diversions in the match they actually did here due to the length and the overbooking. 

There was a great spot where Strong tried his sick kick, but Ospreay countered with a huge Ligerbomb. An intense segment of action culminated with Strong avoiding the Styles clash, but Ospreay landing on his feet for a back body drop, and hit the Oscutter, only to be too slow to cover due to the knee injury. The bad booking of this final portion really killed the match. First, you had the ref just pause the match to check on Strong right when Will was ready to finish him, rather than make a split second decision like in every combat sports match known to man. Instead, he decided to have the doctor check Strong out, by standing on the floor more than 10 feet away. Suffice to say, you'd probably get a less jokey medical exam from Dr. Britt Baker, even if she's a d.m.d. This already went on forever before the real purpose of the whole distraction even became apparent. Don Callis eventually took his headset off and strolled over to Will, giving him a pep talk, ala Martin Kove in The Karate Kid, that played upon Will's moral dilemna of trying to avoid using the Tiger driver '91. Callis told him that Strong was going to the hospital anyway, and ordered Will to break his neck. Beyond all the obvious reasons why this segment seemed completely out of left field and crushed the momentum the wrestlers had built up nicely, this didn't even serve any of the potential purposes it could have from a story perspective. You had two options here to give Strong his big chance at victory, either give this time to Wardlow instead of Callis, having him hit a big move on Will for Strong's big hope spot, except the cronies had already been ejected, or have principaled Will be brought to the brink of defeat due to ignoring Callis' heartless dictate.  Strong certainly made a strong showing, but he was the one that needed something out of the ordinary to put him over the top. Just teasing the interference without delivering it, and just teasing Strong's comeback due to Will not finishing him when he had the chance didn't actually add anything or help anyone beyond what simply doing a straight match would have accomplished. The setup itself was really poor, as even for fans who aren't familiar with the countless interminable Gedo epics Will has been involved in that don't start until the 30 minute mark, it was hard to buy Will being to the point of utter desperation when he basically already had Strong beat in half that time. To make matters worse, the whole excruciatingly acted segment of Will embarrasingly trying to portray being conflicted could hardly have been done more cartoonishly even by The Rock.

Strong made his comeback because Ospreay hesitated to injure him, much too quickly progressing to his end of heartache attempt, which Will just countered with a huracarrana for a near fall. This was a great example of how well they worked together to make things exciting, but this was not the time for Will to make yet another quick comeback. Strong really needed either a big run here, or at least a couple of credible near finishes. He not only got neither, but to add insult to injury, Will just immediately came back a second time, and essentially won the match just as easily as he would have without all this phony drama about not wanting to cripple the opponent. Strong tried the end of heartache again, but Will landed on his feet, and hit the hidden blade. Will then used the Stormbreaker to remain undefeated and take the title, so at least he won with a move that actually looked like something. I can't fathom how giving your only real option to dethrone Swerve Strickland for AEW World Title a completely meaningless strap in the meantime that has been defined by playing pocket pinball is going to actually help Will.

Ospreay and Strong did their best to transcend the nonsensical overbooking that plagued the entire show. At it's best, it was probably even more impressive than Strong's match against O'Reilly, but that match ultimately worked better because it was allowed to play out realistically, one-on-one. Booking issues are what always kill AEW. Beyond all the general silliness that littered the PPV, the matchmaking was just terrible to start with, as the only other matchup pitting two actual good workers, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Thunder Rosa, was buried on the pre-show. It seemed like a potentially good, if not overly energetic, 20 minute TV match that just inexplicably ended at 10 minutes with a lame fluky finish, and aside from the one highlight of Strong vs. Ospreay, things just got harder to even sit through as the night of nonsense progressed. It's hard to imagine things getting better in the short term when they are now forced to feature Waste of Mone and RoboCody to justify their ridiculous contracts, three more stiffs in MJF, Adam Cole, and Juice Robinson returned, and Tony unearthed a new geriatric in 55-year-old Gangrel. I give this match 3.5 out of 5 stars.

.

Strong may not have been as momentarily explosive, but he kept a consistent fast pace, chaining one move or strike after another. 


flow


Sareee's most interesting rivalry has been against Chihiro Hashimoto. Their chemistry together has continually improved throughout the last 5 years. They display a great combination of being able to pull off a credible match where they drag the brutality out of one another, while also being able to reasonably incorporate explosive, high energy sequences largely featuring high impact moves that fit the general theme of their intense battles. 

Normally, Sareee would have the advantage in this matchup because she debuted 4 years sooner, but while Hashimoto passed the Sendai Girls entrance exam at 15, she was urged by president Jinsei Shinzaki to take up either judo or amateur wrestling for half a year until she finished 9th grade. Hashimoto quickly excelled at amateur wrestling, and wound up staying in school. She won the Asian Junior Championship at 67kg and placed 3rd in the All Japan Wrestling championships, which resulted in her going on to college to continue her amateur career. She finishing 3rd in the World Student Championship, but while her hopes of making the 2016 Summer Olympihothai Chorwaikool vs. Taiek Kin 5RPhothai Chorwaikool vs. Taiek Kin 5RPhothai Chorwaikool vs. Taiek Kin 5Rteam were dashed, she did shockingly defeat Meiko Satomura to win the Sendai Girls World Title just over a year after her 2015 pro debut, an accomplishment that's virtually unheard of in a culture built around paying your dues. Sareee still managed to win the title of her promotion, Diana, at a younger age, being 22-years-old when she defeated founder Kyoko Inoue on July 22, 2018, as Hashimoto didn't even turn pro until she was 23. Nonetheless, Sareee giving up about 45 pounds to such a dominant amateur wrestler who took the pro world by storm has put Sareee in the role of chasing Hashimoto throughout the series. 

Their first run of 5 singles matches took place between June 28th, 2018 and October 13th, 2019, with Hashimoto going 2-1-2. Unfortunately, we don't have footage of their two matches in Diana, but the final two matches of that leg of the series, where Sareee temporarily unified the Diana and Sendai Girls titles on June 8th, 2019, only to lose just the Sendai Girls title back to Hashimoto on October 13th are very good matches that are well worth seeking out. Sareee was a different wrestler during this period, still figuring out her style. Even though Sareee got her first win over Hashimoto here, it wasn't particularly convincing, partially because Sareee was doing a lot more of the Manami Toyota inspired clapping and missile kicking in those days, and it wasn't really believable seeing Sareee come back with this type of offense after Hashimoto controlled the early portion with her size, strength, and amateur wrestling skill. These two also weren't that good at telling a story at this point. Sareee could temporarily upend Hashimoto with a dropkick or an arm drag, but couldn't maintain these advantages, and had no answer to Hashimoto's wrestling, which led to Hashimoto having to just abandon her strengths and miss athletic moves so Sareee could mount a comeback. They certainly did nice sequences, but never answered the question of how Sareee could actually win from either a technical or strategic standpoint. Sareee simply displayed enough heart, willpower, and determination to kind of make you believe in her. Most of these issues are still present, though to a lesser degree, as Sareee has become more credible both in style and in presentation.

The second portion of the fued began on May 16, 2023 with Sareee's first match back in Japan. Although Sareee wasted a few years doing nothing useful in Florida, she was more certain about the wrestler she wanted to be going forward. Tightening up her move set along the lines of Toshiaki Kawada to feature more credible and realistic offense that makes the match feel more like a fight, Sareee now caries herself better and feels more believable. The latest two Sareee vs. Hashimoto matches have been more attrition based heavyweight style contests, which has worked well because high impact wrestling was their strength to begin with. Sareee was rusty early on in this May match, having not had a match of any sort in more than 9 months. Suddenly going 23 minutes 27 seconds after only having one match longer than 10 minutes during her entire 2 year WWE stint was a lot to ask of herself. Ultimately, while this wasn't the most exciting match in the series, the improved storytelling featuring Sareee injuring Hashimoto's arm resulted in it being the one I was most invested in, and it was first one that really felt like Sareee could reasonably win, even though she didn't. 

Sareee's stock has continued to rise since then, outlasting SEAdLINNNG ace Arisa Nakajima in a brutal war that was one of the standout joshi matches of 2023 to win the Beyond The Sea Title on August 25th. In fact, Sareee's last singles loss was the one to Hashimoto she was looking to avenge tonight. The early portion of that May match wasn't that strong, and it lacked a big push at the climax, but these were some of the issues that were remedied tonight. This January 16th, 2024 encounter from Sareee Produce Sareee-ISM Chapter III at Tokyo Shinjuku FACE was their best match. It's more along the lines of the classic 90s All Japan heavyweight style, a hard hitting, slow building, story oriented match with a dramatic progression that makes it seem more exciting than it probably actually is. It wasn't bogged down by all the modern stalling aspects that have turned that once great style into a tedious cliche and parody of itself though. This was still a classic joshi match in that they got down to business, and worked hard throughout, even though they focused on impact rather than pace. 

The tension was simmering even before the opening bell. You could tell Sareee had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She had a lot of grand aspirations of how the match was going to go this time. She had every intention of standing up to Hashimoto, but when the staredown was over, Hashimoto just took her right down. Sareee responded by grabbing the ropes out of spite, but Hashimoto decided not to recognize the rope break, and pulled her back into the center of the ring. Sareee wound up fighting the early portion from underneath. They continued to play these little games with each other, with Hashimoto thwarting Sareee at every turn. For instance, Sareee dropped down when Hashimoto ran the ropes, but instead of charging over her, Hashimoto jumped down on top of Sareee into a headlock. Sareee dropkicked Hashimoto to the floor, but here we got the last vestiges of her Manami Toyota offense, as she wasted time clapping. By the time she ascended for her dive, Hashimoto was back in the ring, throwing her off the top rope. They eventually redid this segment, with Sareee being a bit more urgent, and hitting the plancha. Sareee coming back with flying moves after previously getting cut off after just about anything she managed to do wasn't the most believable aspect of a match that was largely about the struggle. Hashimoto's initial dominance certainly felt necessary for the story of Sareee overcoming the odds they were telling, and I'm sure they felt they needed to spice things up because the early segment of Hashimoto's control wasn't super exciting. Mostly everything from this point onwards was gas though. 

There was a nice spot where Hashimoto almost came back catching Sareee in a fireman's carry, but Sareee kept struggling to avoid the slam, eventually maneuevering into an octopus since she is channeling Antonio Inoki these days. Sareee's avalanche sunset flip powerbomb had been thwarted earlier, but she landed a variation for the first huge move, sunset flipping her way out of a suisha otoshi onto the apron, and powerbombing Hashimoto off the apron to the floor. This spot was a bit awkward though because Sareee had to turn 90 degrees after the sunset flip to position herself so she could bomb Hashimoto off the apron. Sareee followed with a footstomp off the barrier. She tried her uranage on the ramp, but Hashimoto avoided, and wound up hoisting her up and charging into the crowd for a running tackle through a row of seats. This led to their requisite count out tease. Hashimoto hit a big spear back in the ring, but Sareee avoided the last ride powerbomb for all she was worth, fighting Hashimoto off with repeated headbutts until Hashimoto fell, and continuing to throw one headbutt after another until the ref finally pulled her off to check if Hashimoto was still conscious. 

They seemed to be starting Sareee's arm work with a wakigatame counter, but Hashimoto answered with similar urgency to what Sareee was showing each time Hashimoto tried to throw her, and they instead moved to the finishing burst. Neither would relent though, still avoiding or countering most of the power moves, answering each others strikes, and refusing to submit. While in storyline they eventually ran out of energy, they still kept going on willpower, exchanging elbows until both collapsed after a double headbutt. Hashimoto recovered from the double sell first, and hit her big wheelbarrow suplex. Sareee came back to life just in time to counter the powerbomb, but while she was fighting off the German suplex, Hashimoto switched into a sleeper hold, and nearly put her out. Hashimoto eventually let it go favor of trying to finish with the last ride, but Sareee kicked out just in time. Sareee came back countering into the crucifix bomb, and hit a series of her uranages, eventually finishing with the wrist clutch exploder. This finish wasn't too dissimilar from Sareee's previous win on June 8, 2019, but the finishing stretch was a lot more violent, and they did a better job of conveying that she outlasted Hashimoto this time. Sareee had a lot more momentum coming into this match, and just feels like a bigger star at this point, even if partly because there aren't many big fishes these days, especially ones in their prime. This and the January 4th Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri match are the best women's singles bouts thusfar in 2024. Mayu vs. Syuri is a faster paced, flashier, and more spectacular spotfest, while this is a better developed, harder hitter, more credible, story oriented match. I rate this match 4 out of 5 stars.




This match played out in three acts, which started with Hash thoroughly dominating Sareee, who would get in maybe a move or two before being beat down again. Sareee took advantage of a single mistake by Hash and spent the second act unleashing a constant barrage of offense. Sareee taking Hash for some crowd brawling ended up backfiring on her as she was launched into the stands. They both struggled to get back to the ring for the last act where they just beat the hell out of each other with every move they could muster. 



1. They are begging to play with me
2. I am young, I am healthy, I am rich, I’m magnetic, charismatic, unforgettable, and irresistible 
3. Robotic affirming works amazing for me, I see movements everyday
I am all they have ever wanted

An in your face, crazily paced absolute slugfest, Trey Waters vs. Billy Ray Goff was an easy choice for Fight of the Night at UFC on ESPN 56: Lewis vs. Nascimento from May 11, 2024 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. This was just a wild, all action brawl from start to finish. Both men were rocked a few times in this back and forth war, but transformed into zombie mode during the second half, refusing to go down or give up.

Waters is a really tough opponent to deal with given he's able to make 170 pounds despite being 6'5" tall. Goff pressured endlessly to negate the size advantage, eating some to land some, and it was this relentlessness that made it such an entertaining fight. Waters is really heavy on his lead leg, and Goff was doing a nice job of using his low kicks to set up his other kicks, particularly the front kick to the face. He probably should have concentrated on this strategy more, rather than always getting hit to make something happen, but he was certainly creating a memorable fight in the process. Waters was definitely a much better fighter when he was able to utilize his reach though, so by getting inside, Goff was able to rely on his cardio to outwork Waters. Neither put much effort into the defensive aspects, with both holding their hands low and primarily being interested in the next strike they were throwing. The main difference was that Waters had much better head movement, and was able to dodge a lot of Goff's punches, and keep Goff from landing cleanly a lot more often. Still, even though Waters seemed to be the less disinterested in striking defense, Goff landed an outstanding 46% of his significant strikes, to Waters almost equally impressive 42%. Waters also defended a lot of takedowns, but that was largely because Goff's wrestling wasn't very evolved. Goff didn't really adjust after his first attempt at the single leg, settling into an energy wasting attempt to lift Waters off a high crotch rather than chaining threats until he found something that actually worked. This was obviously a really draining, low percentage way for Goff to go about things, and Waters simply has too big a height advantage for this to ever be effective. Goff definitely has more heart, determination, and toughness than skill and technique, but his effort was truly astounding. Goff's size disadvantage and lack of success with his takedowns made him feel forced into making the fight a sprint, and he was able to keep the pressure on Waters for the entire 15 minutes. 

Goff was able to take Waters down in the first round by spinning off of his body lock. He pounced on Waters' back for a rear naked choke attempt, but Waters was already standing back up, causing Goff to slide off the back. Waters was busting Goff's nose up with his jab, so getting tagged on his entries, but then landing back on the inside seemed a better option. Goff took Waters down again after catching his kick, once more threatened with the rear naked choke. Waters landed a big knee as Goff was getting back up, clearly illegal because Goff's right knee was down, but referee Josh Stewart somehow didn't notice. Goff fought through it, and quickly wobbled Waters with a flurry of punches. They just slugged it out toe to toe for the final 30 seconds, with Waters wobbling Goff with a right hook, and landing a couple good knees. We'll never know how either would have responded to the break for the illegal knee, but the fact that the ref didn't rule it as such could have played a huge part in the scoring of the round. Waters did land the best shot of the round near the end, but otherwise wouldn't have done much damage if the knee didn't count. 

While the first round felt more like all around MMA with a few takedowns and submission attempts, the final two rounds were mostly just slugging it out, with a few pauses for Goff's hopeless single leg attempts. Waters looked tired to start the second, but Goff's corner told him not to brawl. With Goff rendered hesitant to charge back into the fire, Waters was allowed to recover and get his jab going again. While Waters still seemed more physically fatigued, Goff seemed more damaged because his nose was bleeding from Waters' straights. Waters defended Goff's single leg, but Goff nailed him with a right elbow on the break, which was the only successful technique Goff would display once he'd get into this high crotch position. Goff was generally doing a good job with the right elbow on the inside, but Waters hurt him with a series of right hands with 1 minute 15 seconds left in round 2. Goff tried a desperation takedown, but Waters countered with a standing guillotine. Now Goff was the one looking worse for wear. Waters countered another double leg with a better standing guillotine attempt. Goff landed a couple more good shots before the finish of the round, but things were trending in Waters direction. 

After two crazy rounds of constant action, Round 3 wasn't that good until the final 2 minutes. Both were gassed, and the fight finally stalled out somewhat, with a lengthy takedown attempt by Goff that had to be broken up by the ref. While both fighters threw about 20 fewer strikes in this round, Goff arguably had a slight advantage going into the final minute, as he was the one who was holding Waters against the cage. Goff definitely managed to muster a lot more energy for the final surge, where both guys were just willing themselves to throw to try to pull it out. 

Goff was pressuring all fight like he said he would, and outstruck Waters. Waters landed the cleaner shots, and arguably did more damage, at least based upon the nosebleed, but at the same time, he faded more because he clearly had less stamina. There wasn't much effective grappling despite Goff's attempts to get Waters down, but Goff did have 4 minutes of "control", largely holding against the cage. A slight edge here could perhaps be given to Goff for his effort, but basically Goff's rear naked choke attempts and Waters' standing guillotines were a wash. Every round was close enough, but I thought Goff won the first and the third, despite the 2nd round being the one where Goff had a true statistical advantage with 20 more significant strikes landed. Goff just seemed a lot more active overall, and the longer the exchanges went, the more it was to his advantage because he refused to pause. I was shocked that nobody scored this fight for Goff, and one judge even had it 30-27 Waters. This was definitely an excellent fight for the first two rounds. The final round wasn't nearly as eventful, which could drop it to very good overall, but this was still the most action packed UFC fight thusfar in 2024, with over 500 standing strikes thrown. It wasn't a technical masterpiece, but this is the sort of fight where the entertainment value allowed them to transcend their skill level and deliver an excellent brawl.  





On paper, the UFC Championship shouldn't be defending against the number 10 contender, but at the highest level, a ranking is often just a number on a screen. Alexandre Pantoja was just a -185 favorite for his Flyweight Title defense against Steve Erceg, and that proved to be more than reasonable, as this fight could have gone either way. Everyone was really impressed by the inexperienced Erceg, who ran off 11 wins in a row after losing his second fight, capturing the Eternal MMA Flyweight Championship then winning his first 3 UFC fights, with an impressive 2nd round knockout of a ranked opponent, Matt Schnell, already earning him this surprise title challenge. Erceg was the better boxer here, showing more technique and footwork. This was a massive step up in competition though, especially in the grappling department, where Erceg is used to winning the scrambles, but here he was consistently outmanuevered, losing virtually every transition. 

Pantoja's strategy is to make it a dog fight. He constantly pressures, creating chaos in stand up by charging in and utilizing a lot of body punches and overhands to help disguise his real purpose, which is to drop down into or lock up and trip for the takedown. Pantoja isn't a great technical striker, but he was landing more when he was blitzing than Erceg was, and usually made up for his lack of perfect technique through his pace and the diversity of his attack. Even though you know what he wants to do, he does enough different things to disguise his moment to moment intentions, mixing speeds and quadrants, so it's difficult to predict where he'll be and time him for the counter. Erceg made a good adjustment incorporating elbows to slow Pantoja down, but Pantoja was clearly the faster reactor, and more creative fighter, especially on the ground. 

Constant pressure doesn't necessarily score, but Pantoja was landing at least a shot on all his blitzes, and often getting a takedown. He had a personal best 9 takedowns in this fight, though that's partially because Erceg refused to accept the takedown, doing a nice job of keeping a hip off the canvas, and creating scrambles, even if he lost a lot of them. Erceg's supporters claimed lay and pray because Pantoja wasn't able to attempt submissions or land much on the ground, but the level of the grappling here was excellent, and I was always entertained by these portions because there was almost constant movement from both, with a lot of position changes and escapes. It's not that Pantoja wasn't trying, he kept transitioning into positions that would have led to offense had Erceg not been so good defensively. Both were constantly moving to try to stay ahead of one another, which didn't leave Pantoja many chances to punch, but Pantoja was always threatening, and forcing Erceg to keep working hard. Control may not be as big a deal as it used to be scoring wise, but the fact that Pantoja was passing guard or forcing Erceg to surrender his back certainly should be scored as effective grappling, and was as much a reason this was a very good fight as the standup portions were. 

For me, there were really 3 fights here. The early portion was dominated by Pantoja's blitzes and takedowns while Erceg tried to figure out how to deal with his explosive athleticism and relentess pressure. The middle was dominated by Erceg after he cut Pantoja with a big elbow. Pantoja realized the elbows were landing when he initiated inside work, making him hesitate to do the things he relies upon to get the fight into his domain, which meant Erceg was finally given time and space to fight behind his jab and allow his superior technical striking to carry the rounds. The final portion saw Erceg, convinced by his corner that he needed the finish rather than to simply win the final round, try to utilize the losing strategy of grappling with ground ace Pantoja. A chin seemingly made of granite allowed Pantoja to just walk through all of Erceg's best shots, leaving Erceg convinced that he had a better chance of submitting Pantoja from the top than of knocking him out, especially since Pantoja was no longer charging into danger. Erceg has 6 submission wins compared to just 2 knockouts, so it wasn't unreasonable for him to think he's more of a submission finisher, it's just problematic to try to implement that against the best grappler in the division. 

In round l, Erceg was cut by an accidental clash of heads then taken down 3 minutes in. Erceg's defensive grappling allowed him to get back to his feet pretty quickly, a theme we saw throughout, but likewise Pantoja was still able to take a dominant position, and would just take Erceg right back down. The only round where Pantoja had less than 1 minute 25 seconds of ground control was the 4th because he didn't manage a single takedown. 

We can point to Erceg's decision making in the 5th round as the reason he lost, but I'd suggest that wouldn't have mattered if Erceg was a lot more proactive early in the fight. His jab and teep could keep Pantoja at bay, and basically all of Pantoja's standup offense other than the low kick is derived from making things unconventional through the rush. Even though Pantoja comes off as a bit of a wild man, there's definitely a lot of method to his madness, and the more Erceg waited, the more Pantoja made him defend strikes until the takedown was available. Erceg swept midway through the second, but Pantoja stood right up, which even at this point I was thinking wasn't the worst thing for Erceg given the difference in their grappling skills. Erceg began to come on in the second half of round two, doing a better job of backpedaling away from Pantoja’s rushes and answering on the move. He was very accurate, and landed a solid shot here and there. One of the key series of the fight saw Erceg land a big elbow followed by a left hook. Still, it just felt like Erceg was easily outworked in this round, as Pantoja's constant pressure had Erceg on the defensive for the majority of the round.

Erceg countered a low kick with an elbow to start the third, and this was really where the fight turned in my opinion because it made Pantoja begin to hesitate. Now that Pantoja was straying from his winning strategy of making things messy, staying on the outside or backing, Erceg was feeling much less pressure, and was more confident about putting his jab out. Erceg was still way too hesitant even though Pantoja was now giving him the chance to hit him. Pantoja wasn't answering the jab, Pantoja was answering the inactivity, but the way Erceg was fighting made you believe he felt the opposite. Erceg should have made a more concerted effort to establish himself here. After a thumb to the eye, Pantoja was cut by a right elbow and nailed with a left hook three and a half minutes in. Unfortunately for Erceg, Pantoja essentially proceeded as though he was totally unphased, immediately hitting a double leg takedown. Pantoja did feel his head to assess the damage while working for a second takedown against the cage, but that didn't stop him from dragging Erceg down again, and taking his back momentarily. Without any big or consistent offense from Pantoja, this round should go to Erceg for the damaging elbow. Both corners nonetheless told their fighters that Pantoja was up three rounds to zero, which seemed very bizarre since rounds 2 and 3 could easily have gone either way. It's difficult to comprehend why Erceg's corner didn't tell him he won at least 1 of these rounds, unless they believe the hometown judges will just score any non dominant round for the Brazilian.

Pantoja was very shaken by his forehead painting both fighters Jackson Pollack style, and didn't seem right the entire fourth round, which he basically took off. Erceg was now able to fight the way he wanted to without much resistance, stalking Pantoja the entire round. This was a very commanding boxing round for Erceg, fighting behind his jab, and picking Pantoja apart. Pantoja is an offensive fighter who fought entirely defensively, which again could partially be explained by the idea that he believed he just needed to survive the last 2 rounds.

Erceg surprisingly took Pantoja down early in the 5th, but as Cody Stamann put it, "Shooting on Pantoja is like taking yourself down." Pantoja gained control as soon as Erceg tried to pass, which was a huge confidence boost after a terrible 4th round, where in a fight he had 19 total takedown attempts in, only one of those came in the 4th. Given Pantoja had almost entirely abandoned the blitzes he built the early lead on, Erceg really had to make Pantoja prove he was still willing to risk putting himself out there. If not, Erceg would easily coast to another boxing dominated round. Pantoja would seemingly have to charge sooner or later, and that's where Erceg would have the chance to land another big elbow, or some other counter that might lead to the finish. Again, it came down to what the corners were telling their fighters, as Erceg could definitely have won this round by walking Pantoja down if Pantoja continued fighting the way he did in round 4, except that would theoretically have meant Erceg still lost 48-47. No one has been able to crack Pantoja's amazing during his 17 year career, and nothing Erceg hit Pantoja with appeared to be about to change that, so Erceg probably thought he had a better chance of utilizing his top game to get a submission win. Of course, no one has tapped Pantoja either, and Erceg hadn't made any progress in any of the grappling exchanges, although most of them saw him starting on his back foot so to speak because they were initiated by Pantoja. Erceg clearly grabbed the fence to avoid a takedown that would have been key. The 5th round was close, but I had Erceg ahead because he opened up another cut outside of Pantoja's right eye. With a minute and a half left, Erceg shot again, but Pantoja Granby rolled into a kneebar that he quickly abandoned to take control. Pantoja briefly mounted, and landed a handful of strikes to close out the fight. Controlling for the last minute and a half after Erceg's unnecessary gamble was ultimately enough to win Pantoja both the round, and a very close fight. 

Erceg gave an excellent performance, and not just for a relatively inexperienced fighter. This might be the most anyone moves up the rankings following a loss because Erceg convinced even most of the people who scored the fight for Pantoja that he was already skilled enough to win the title today. He just needs to be bolder and more urgent about getting his strikes in, as he did a great job of neutralizing Pantoja on the ground, but had a hard time turning that or his standup advantages into any sort of consistent offense. Pantoja made less mistakes, showing more heart, toughness, and fight IQ. Pantoja has this weird body language that sometimes makes him at least appear to be hurt and/or tired, but ultimately has this unyielding willpower that allows him to gut these big fights out one way or another. 

You could see Erceg's frustration with his corner when he heard the two 48-47 scorecards for Pantoja, signaling 1 to them upon realizing he just needed the final round rather than the finish. The 49-46 Pantoja scorecard from Dave Tirelli was aggregious, but basically rounds 1 & 5 were obvious for Pantoja, while round 4 was obvious for Erceg, so it comes down to whether Pantoja did enough in either round 2 or 3 to earn the decision. I am in the minority in thinking Pantoja won the 2nd where he continued to execute his gameplan, rather than the 3rd where Erceg was the one dictating, but Pantoja had 3 takedowns in each of these rounds. Even though only 1 judge, former fighter Fabio Alves, was actually Brazilian, it's hard to imagine Erceg taking both of these rounds from the champion even if the fans weren't behind Pantoja and it wasn't in a country that prefers grappling. Overall, Pantoja had 125 significant strikes to 111, with 9 takedowns to 1, and 8 minutes 15 seconds of control time to 32 seconds. This was a very good, engrossing fight, and it was a shabby move on UFC's part to deny these guys a bonus. There may not have been tons of big obvious highlights, but they kept a crazy pace, showing a high level of skill in all areas throughout a dramatic artistic contest with very small margins. I'm sure everyone would like to see a rematch, except for maybe Pantoja.


UFC Flyweight Title: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Steve Erceg 5R. 





The two best women who debuted in 2011, Mayu Iwatani and Sareee, were finally set to meet for the World of Stardom Title on February 8th, 2020, but Sareee got sick and was replaced by Marvelous ace Takumi Iroha. That should have been a good thing in the sense that we got a high quality match against a rival promotion leader as a bonus, but unfortunately Sareee signed with the WWE on February 22. Sareee then sat out the next 6 months due to the pandemic delaying her move to the Florida warehouse, so the match was never rescheduled. Spending the next few years on different continents, it seemed unlikely that Mayu vs. Sareee would ever materialize. Now, with Saki Kashima being the only other top 10 joshi rookie from 2011 still active, Sareee's return to the joshi scene finally made the dream match a reality on April 27th, 2024 at Yokohama BUNTAI, with it now being for Mayu's IWGP Women's Title, which didn't even exist when they were set to meet in 2020. 

As with the Bryan Danielson vs. Will Osprey dream match from April 21st, your opinion of it will somewhat depend upon what you wanted from it to begin with. If you were expecting something on par with their combined individual talent that lives up to the hype of being an all-time classic, you will probably be disappointed. If you are happy we finally got to see these two against an exciting new opponent who is much more talented than their usual opposition, and thus allowed them to deliver something that's more or less better than what we're getting elsewhere even though it could clearly be improved upon with more familiarity, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

The strengths of the match lie more in the generalities. It was a crisp and well executed physical contest where everything felt impactful. Certainly, one of the biggest strengths of Sareee is she tries her best to make things look belivable and maintain some level of credibility. She put an impressive beating on Mayu in a plausible manner, especially early on, while Mayu contributed a lot of impressive offense in the 2nd half. The match was certainly stiff and hard-hitting, with a lot of bombs back and forth, but Mayu definitely added another dimension with her more athletic offense that Sareee helped keep from feeling too implausible. When it came to taking each other's moves, they did a great job here of making each other look better. 

When it came to working with one another, the match was less successful, as there weren't many sequences, and the structuring and layout were fairly generic. I thought Sareee was going to establish the credibility of the struggle early on, but after starting in that mode, they kind of just did a little of this and a little of that throughout the first half, a nice lucha sequence, some brawling on the outside, a few random submissions, an elbow exchange. The first half was all unfocused weardown, but while a story might have helped, they made everything look good enough that it fell on the higher end of matches where all the weardown stuff obviously isn't leading to much. 

Sareee's match against Chihiro Hashimoto from her Sareee-ISM Chapter III show on January 16, 2024 also felt somewhat unfocused covering much of the same material, but that match was both more organic and compelling while being less predictable because Hashimoto offered more moment to moment resistance to what Sareee was trying to do, keeping her on her toes and making her work for her offense a lot more, rather than just selling until it was time for another big move as Mayu did here. Mayu arguably still answered Sareee better than Hashimoto did. However, the Hashimoto match felt more intense and less predictable because Hashimoto answered Sareee more often and more consistently, whereas the Iwatani match felt more like the typical STARDOM style match where they just take turns doing their thing back and forth and then pretend mixing overselling and no selling makes things dramatic. 

I liked the August 25, 2023 Sareee vs. Arisa Nakajima match the most of the recent big Sareee and Mayu matches because it felt like it unfolded more organically and maintained the intensity and attention to detail throughout, elevating the importance of their early work rather than just briefly dabbling in styles and self contained portions until it was time for the finisher spam. It was the most desperate, and thus dramatic of the bunch in general, and felt more like a war due to the brutality on display. I also thought Mayu vs. Syuri from January 4th, 2024 was better because it had the most action and did a better job of escalating, feeling like they reached their highest gear, while I feel like Sareee vs. Mayu could have shifted higher if they pushed themselves beyond just exchanging finishers. 

Ultimately, this was the typical hard hitter puts zombie Mayu in peril stuff, just done a whole lot better because Sareee is actually a world class opponent who is on, or right now probably actually above, Mayu's current level. It should be noted that these two have only worked together once in a 2019 tag match. While this singles match may not be what Mayu vs. Syuri or Sareee vs. Hashimoto have become, this is definitely better than than the first singles matches between those pairings. I want to consider this a very successful dry run, but obviously that depends upon their ability to continue to work together in the future. 

The first half of the match was fine. I was never bored, but I wasn't hooked either. They picked it up for an excellent second half with all their big moves. Ultimately, it was just a battle between Sareee's exploder and Mayu's Dragon suplex, which Mayu came out on top of at 20:26. It was a huge upgrade over the very standard tag Sareee and Chihiro Hashimoto had with the Cosmic Angels in their first STARDOM appearance of the year on March 9th, which practically felt like a handicap match in their favor because Saori Ano was hidden to the point that Natsupoi was usually working for her own comeback rather than the hot tag. You knew the outsider team was going to win, but they weren't even pushed or challenged in the slightest manner, so it didn't rise above the level of basically any reasonable tag match Sareee or Hashimoto have been involved in outside of STARDOM. The September 2, 2023 Sendai Girls Tag Title Match where Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu defended against DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto is a recent recommended example of what Hashimoto can do with opponents that motivate her and force her to react.

Another dream match that never took place and became impossible with Io Shirai signing with WWE was the subject of the post match. Thunder Rock were supposed to face Best Friends in 2016 when they were the two best women's tag teams in the world. Tsukasa Fujimoto, finally returning from her 2 year maturnity leave, showed up and said that Best Friends still want to finally face Mayu Iwatani before Arisa Nakajima sadly retires in August. Mayu refused the handicap match, then acccepted the challenge when Tsukasa said she'd allow her to choose a partner. The most interesting option would be Sareee, who has been Arisa's partner in Tsukasa's absence. Even though Iwatani vs. Sareee fell a half star below my expectations, I still have Mayu at the top of my 2024 women's match list for the Syuri match. If we can get a rematch against Sareee, and a tag match with Nakajima & Fujimoto, there should definitely be some interesting things for Mayu on the horizon. I give this match 3.5 out of 5 stars.

rfnBzyUcFqs_wR9



The only meeting between legends Katsuyori Shibata and Jun Akiyama took place on August 4th, 2005 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan. You wouldn't expect a somewhat arbitrary first round match between a 25-year-old freelancer who recently left New Japan just as he was finally starting to get pushed and a 35-year-old former GHC Heavyweight Champion who was very obviously advancing to the semifinals to be the 2005 Match of the Year, especially since it was only 13 minutes 46 seconds, and was underneath a dreadful Great Muta victory over Akebono. Keiji Muto co-promoted this otherwise awful Grand Prix Tournament with PRIDE & K-1 under the WRESTLE-1 banner during his All Japan days, years before he left All Japan and created a new promotion that he also decided to call WRESTLE-1. While we were lucky to have been spared from the torture of the Bob Sapp vs. Great Muta Tournament Final due to this endeaver being canned after the subsequent October 2, 2005 Second Round show, W-1 will always be remembered for shocking us with this tremendous, unique, hate-filled sprint between Shibata and Akiyama. It's hard to remember the last time an actual grudge match even remotely approached the intensity of this random one-off. Nothing from a transcript of Shibata vs. Akiyama would jump off the page, in fact, this would probably be a forgettable match in lesser hands, as all Shibata immitations tend to be. The greatness of this match stemmed from their ability to immediately make you feel like you were seeing something you weren't supposed to, sweeping the audience away in the illusion of a super aggressive, out of control fight. It was a relentless adrenaline rush classic that felt informed by Bruiser Brody's aggressive brawling, even though stylistically, it was closest to a looser interpretation of the UWF style. It's mostly strikes, submissions, and suplexes, but they achieved their goal of sustaining a violent fight for the duration, rather than trying to be shoot wrestling in any clinical sense. They understood that in order to maintain the illusion of a real fight, they needed to keep their unique shoot brawl plausible by constantly going all out, pouncing on any opening or opportunity, and taking the open shot the opponent's positioning dictated. These are tenets of MMA, but they applied them more like a street fight. It's not a particularly technical match despite some credible submissions, nor what one would associate with a pro wrestling street fight despite one excellent out of the ring segment, but they went all out to knock each other out. Shibata played the brash youngster who wanted to upset the applecart by taking out the superstar, while Akiyama was more out for the kill, wanting to avenge the affront caused by Shibata's amazing initial barrage. This was by no means an eloquent match, but it's a rare one where they made you believe that these guys were really beating the hell out of each other from the get-go, and not exactly stable, under control individuals. It felt like they were shooting on one another because they mostly fought the way they really would, immediately attacking the opponent rather than standing around as usual and politely facilitating another breather for both. The match definitely plays better the first time you see it because it really catches you off guard. It's not the conventional, laid back fluff you were expecting, and you really feel how the urgency and aggression differs from the usual stuff that fails to make you consider that you might be seeing anything beyond the usual docile cooperation. The start of the match was fantastic, and definitely the first half in general was much stronger than the second half because it was more untamed. Huge underdog Shibata opened with a series of big kicks, setting the tone by really nailing Akiyama with the penalty kick, which shockingly resulted in Akiyama bleeding quicker than Johnny Grunge. The blood really helped because it wasn't a match where you were expecting anyone to bleed, and it happened immediately, feeling more unscripted and justifying the enraged Akiyama performance that followed. Akiyama was actually more urgent here than Shibata because he was on the warpath. Shibata would take advantage of Akiyama being down to land another penalty kick, or just wait until he was vulnerable while getting up to land a series of knees to the midsection, but Akiyama had lost it and was rampaging, brawling through the crowd, and throwing non folding chair after non folding chair onto Shibata. The best and most motivated version of Akiyama was when he was coming up during the 90's heyday of All Japan, particularly in the great mid 90's tags that Toshiaki Kawada could lead. 21st century Akiyama rarely seems to actually want to be wrestling, but when he's actually in the mood, for instance the July 10th, 2004 Tokyo Dome match against Kenta Kobashi, he could still be great. Today, Akiyama was a madman going for the kill, delivering an impassioned, emotional performance that we basically haven't seen from him before or since. The intensity here was awesome, and they roused the audience with an actual great fiery striking exchange that they truly appeared to be trying to win by firing as fast as they could. Akiyama escaped to the outside after a big knee to the midsection, and referee Kyohei Wada did his best to prevent Shibata from following him to the floor, but Shibata pushed Wada out of the way, and dropped a punch off the apron. Shibata tried to fight through accidentally kicking the ring post, but Akiyama hoisted him up and tossed him onto the announcers table. Shibata did a great job of subtly selling the leg after kicking the post and getting chaired before he could get off the table, while still pushing through the pain like in a real fight. Akiyama could have attacked the knee after piledriving Shibata on the concrete, but decided he'd rather just bash him in the head with the chair a few times. It's more damaging, after all. Shibata tried to get up after this, but crumbled back down. This was the longest break of the match, as Akiyama waited for him in the ring, but avenged Shibata's knees with a huge running knee of his own as Shibata was reentering. One of the reasons this felt like a real fight was that you couldn't just do what you wanted without consequences. Sometimes the opponent was happy to take one to create the possibility of finishing with their answer to it. For instance, when Akiyama finally hit a wrestling move out of a big striking exchange, the backdrop, Shibata held onto the headlock on impact and nearly finished him, immediately transitioning to the rear naked choke. There was a great segment where Akiyama hit a running knee, and Shibata fired back with a kneel kick that didn't do much because he was too close to Akiyama, but rather than wait around for Shibata to get back up, Akiyama just dove on Shibata's face with a knee drop. This is the kind of thing I want to be seeing in wrestling matches, great urgency to hurt the opponent, just going all out to end it by whatever means necessary. This was all no respite, I can't wait to kick your ass kind of stuff. It was short, but they could have ended it sooner and still left everyone feeling like they got their money's worth, and then some. They felt the need to include their favorite spots despite it being rare match where they managed to create the illusion of trying to kill one another, but the speed and urgency in which Akiyama ducked Shibata's penalty kick and quickly came back with his exploder while Shibata was still off balance actually managed to preserve the illusion. The submission work wasn't a strength of the match, but at least maintained the air of shoot realism more than anything they could have done beyond just striking the entire time, which admittedly would have been better. The submissions lessened the feeling of hatred, but the goal was still to advance in the tournament. It got more conventional from here, but they were still doing their favorite moves extra fast to try keep things believable, not forcing the opponent to stand around waiting to get hit. They also keep this finishing rush rather brief, which made it seem like their few big suplexes were actually big. Still, just throwing themselves at one another was a key factor that took it to the next level, and I would have rather seen more of that to maintain the uncontrolled nature, and had the finish be one guy pounding the crap out of the other until he could no longer respond. They kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time though, largely because it felt wild. Akiyama eventually won, dropping Shibata on his head with a particularly brutal exploder. It was intense & vicious from start to finish. Some people won't like that there's not much selling here, but this is a great example of how much more desperate and urgent a match can be by going all out to seize every opportunity, rather than play acting to try to worry Mom. Shibata was really great here at blurring the line between pro wrestling and MMA. I wish there were a lot more matches in this style, and angry, rampaging performances from Akiyama. I give this match 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Everyone seemed to decide Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay from AEW Dynasty on April 21st, 2024 was a great match before it even started based on their amazing pedigrees. The crowd rightfully treated this as the main event even though it was one of the only non-title matches, and came on midway through the 4 hour PPV. I was extremely excited about this match too, especially with Ospreay proving to be the rare AEW wrestler who can both move the dial in a positive direction and actually justify his push once the bell rings. These two are so damn good from every physical and technical perspective that they made each other look better at every turn. They have great wrestling instincts, reacting to each other quicker and more precisely than others are capable of, and executing everything with the utmost stiffness, athleticism, body control, and technical precision. I assumed Danielson was going to figure out a way to lead Will in a manner that forced him to be creative and pushed him to an even higher level though. I think Danielson mostly did his part in providing the potential for this to be better than it wound up being, but Will being content to just do his thing kept this match from being truly memorable. The first half saw Danielson control as a means of setting up Will utilizing his athleticism to thwart Danielson's attempts at technical wrestling, proving the superiority of his action style. Danielson's offense was thus somewhat irrelevant, as while he built the segments up, the payoff was Ospreay's impressive athletic escape. Danielson tried to tell different stories, creating two injuries by countering Will's favorite moves with a middle kick, a swandive attack early on causing a rib injury, and a hidden blade later resulting in an elbow injury. Will didn't really contribute to these stories though, and even though Danielson was putting him in different positions and doing a different style than Will was, Ospreay just came back recycling his usual moves through his usual predictable setups. The second half was more about Will having things to do, and of course this stuff was fun and looked great, as he's such a next level athlete that basically everything he does other than the hidden blade looks awesome, but there was a better and more entertaining match that could have been had. Performing everything better because they were being aided by a more gifted opponent wasn't enough to push what was ultimately another exhibition of Ospreay's moves to the level of greatness, much less anywhere near the quality of even the far lesser of the Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. matches from October 1st, 2023, which certainly isn't the greatest match to ever take place in the United States, but might at least be the best AEW match if it's not the Lucha Brothers vs. the Young Bucks from August 31, 2019 or Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo from March 22, 2023. Will also has several matches with Sabre that are far better than this. Will ranks below Sabre because while he's the pinnacle of flash, and an incredibly hard and consistent worker, he has no substance and has become repetitive. Ospreay will do enough things to make every one of his matches reasonably good, and granted there aren't many people who are having consistently entertaining matches these days, but when Will isn't wrestling someone better like Kenny Omega or Sabre who can push him outside of his comfort zone while reigning in his excesses and keeping his match off rails, it'll just default to however many minutes of randomly plowing through momentarily impressive moves until Will hits the one that should remain hidden. I'd rate Danielson above Sabre because he has more variety. Danielson's ability to do a high level match that doesn't lean heavily on his technical style means he doesn't require an opponent who actually knows how to engage him in the dying art of technical wrestling the way Zack does in order to keep his offense from defaulting to posing an opponent who is having trouble just following, much less reacting in a manner where they can actually add something to Zack's grappling game. Zack does some key things that make his matches against these two better than what we saw here though, most importantly Sabre imposes his style, fluid technical wrestling, and forces them to switch things up and actually work to make the match evolve as naturally as possible out of Zack's technical setups into what they want to do offensively. While Danielson was also using technical wrestling, he demanded a lot less from Will by actively building to a single movement or counter allowing Will to escape rather than working a whole sequence of counters. Danielson often made it even easier for Will, just feeding his usual setups even though they didn't have much to do with the domain Danielson was contesting the match in or the stories Danielson was purportedly telling, leaving Will free to do his thing. Their matches against Sabre feel a lot less cooperative, with more steps required to create a well earned counter, and a greater urgency to stay on the opponent to try to get the win. Will did a better dive here, and they busted out a few special spots, such as Danielson's avalanche Tiger suplex, Ospreay landing on his feet for an avalanche Frankensteiner, and Will's Oscutter outside and hidden blade off the apron. They also did some things they probably wouldn't get around to in a 15 minute TV match, as they were clearly trying for a Match of the Year, but for the most part this was what you expected from them in every great and disappointing way. Will's Oscutter was countered as always, in this case both into an armbar and a busaiku knee, but there wasn't much that actually felt surprising or unique to this new matchup. I thought the better stuff came when they did engage more with one another, such as Danielson turning a powerbomb into a hurracarrana, a move he almost never uses without the top rope being involved, or Will using ground and pound to fight off the LeBell lock. There were some brutal strikes here, particularly Danielson's straight punches to the injured ribs. Will finding a way to use his Style's clash to escape Danielson's triangle was more along the lines of what I was hoping for from this match, as that was a different way unique to this opponent for Will to hit one of his favorite moves. In a lot of ways, Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita from AEW Revolution on March 3, 2024 was better than Ospreay vs. Danielson because being 10 minutes shorter forced them to keep things moving, and the sprint is much more suitable for Ospreay's video game style than this schizo sell huge or not at all stuff where either way none of it will have any effect on him going forward. Also, the power vs. speed match much more naturally emphasized the strengths of both competitors in a structure that meshed better and flowed together more. If Will is just going to be Will, doing the 15-20 minute sprint that totally plays into that like Takeshita did feels more cohesive than putting him through the paces of aspects he unfortunately just doesn't care much about. I think the Danielson match was still ultimately a little better because as excellent as Takeshita is, Danielson is just that much better even when he is mostly just having fun rather than crafting a match to his capabilities and getting a lot out of what he's doing. Eventually, Danielson joined in the fun of spamming great moves and doing the modern mix of overselling and no selling, though this match still moved a lot better and had a lot less downtime than New Japan matches of comparable length. They did two hidden blade vs. busaiku knee jousts, but due to the impracticality of both actually trying their move at the same time, they'd just run at each other with one doing their finisher and the other charging into it like an idiot or avoiding it and coming back with their weapon. This was whatever when they did it the first time and just moved on. Unfortunately, they decided to conclude this with a staring contest from opposite corners, setting up a corny suicide charge to end an otherwise "equal" match, and Danielson lost the duel, getting caught with the hidden blade. Will then gave him the devastating Tiger driver '91, with Danielson doing his ridiculous seizure spasming while the ref called for the doctor. Will didn't see any of this because he was "busy" posing in the other direction, so he supposedly "didn't know" he was about to KO an already badly injured opponent with another hidden blade, which, as usual, connected in the weakest possible manner, if at all. Danielson stayed down so long pretending to be paralized or whatever that they eventually cut away to the video package for the Young Bucks vs. FTR. This was presumably giving Will a reason to retire the Tiger driver '91 because opponents probably don't want to be taking it every match, especially as nothing more than a setup move, perhaps giving him the opportunity to bring it back when absolutely necessary in big matches as Misawa intended, but if it was mostly Danielson's fault, it was all in very bad taste, especially given the real life complications Danielson had with his 2014 neck surgery. This was an excellent match, the best AEW match thusfar in what's been a weaker 2024 for the struggling promotion, and possibly a top 10 AEW match of all-time, which is certainly nothing to scoff at. The point is more that it was good as it was because two of the most talented active wrestlers got to do their thing without constraints or interference, rather than because they did it somewhat optimally. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, but let's not get carried away here... I give this match 4 stars out of 5 stars.





Jushin Thunder Liger was the biggest name and top drawing junior in the world at this point, as well as being the best. He didn't headline this junior supershow he put together on June 17th 1996 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan where eight different junior heavyweight titles were defended because he chose an up and coming opponent. On September 15th, 1994, Michinoku Pro's SATO, Shiryu, and Terry Boy formed the rudo unit "Heisei Kaientai'', but perhaps due to Michinoku's small roster, it wasn't uncommon for two or more members to team with top face The Great Sasuke against top heels Jinsei Shinzaki & Super Delfin. Sasuke, Delfin, Shinzaki, and to a lesser extent TAKA Michinoku had made a name for themselves outside of Michinoku Pro through appearances in New Japan and FMW, but since coming over from Universal, SATO had rarely appeared outside of Michinoku Pro, and began to lag even further behind his contemporaries due to missing the second half of 1995 with an injury. Upon his January 10, 1996 return, he changed his name to Dick Togo, and rebranded his group "Kaientai*DX". Now the top heal group going against Sasuke's Sekigun, the unit was completed on June 14th when the Dream Hunters team of TAKA Michinoku and Shoichi Funaki came aboard, ushering in the peak period of Michinoku Pro with the famous 10 man tags on October 10th and December 16th, 1996 that all the indy high flyers have spent the last 28 years failing to top. Togo's British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Title, which he had just won from Danny Collins on May 5th, and had yet to defend, was on the line here. However, this was before Dick Mania was running wild. In fact, Togo had no real singles pedigree having spent his career in purolucha leagues that primarily run tag matches, making him a gigantic underdog against the King of the Juniors, Liger. I'm surprised this match hasn't maintained its reputation over the years, but I suspect that Togo's rise to greatness leaves newer fans a bit disappointed because it wasn't as competitive as we'd like the lone singles match between all-time greats to have been. The two purposes of the match were to get Togo over on a major stage, while transferring his title to Liger, so Liger could put this belt on the line and use seven other champions he considered to be more valuable for his big J Crown tournament that August. The early portion of this match was designed to establish Togo's credibility. Togo started off wrestling cleanly, including a tope and a DDT on the floor, and should have stuck to that rather than poking the bear. He quickly began attacking Liger's midsection, including a diving footstop off the second, a suplex onto the top rope, and a senton. Liger took offense to this young punk posterizing him, standing on his stomach and being way too cocky, so Liger decided to put the kid in his place. The story of Liger immediately making Togo pay for his excessive cockiness throughout the match could have been fleshed out a bit better, and Liger's surprising bad attitude could have been better justified. In any case, Togo had a bad left elbow, and Liger just mercifully took it apart. This focus made for a good story, but beyond trying to win, we were getting the most sadistic version of Liger. It definitely felt like he was more concerned with hurting Togo, really wanting to make him pay. We basically never see this side of Liger, especially in these days when he was such a beloved baby face, and that made this a unique match. For me, the brutality of the match made it work as a shorter, more compact match that didn't feel overdone. The selling was really great, with both men making you believe they were truly in pain, particularly Togo, who just seemed in agony. More importantly, unlike most modern matches, this selling didn't come at the expense of the pace or the flow of the match, as they found convincing ways to immediately sell while the opponent was in the process of doing their next move. The impact on all these nasty techniques warranted the extra effort they were putting in to put them over, and the extra selling seemed somewhat credible because their offense wasn't light and fluffy. The execution was really great, with everything done very precisely and forcefully. This was the best sort of junior style, flashy but everything they did still looked like it really hurt. Liger avenged Togo's diving footstep with one to Togo's bad arm. The highlight of the match saw Togo hit a big somersault senton to the floor, then try a tijeras off the apron only to have Liger turn it into a wicked powerbomb that looked like it could crack poor Togo's skull. Liger then followed it up with another powerbomb on the floor, just in case Togo's skull was still intact. Liger had things well at hand now, and was doing an impressive job of mixing power moves designed to finish the match with elbow moves designed to cripple Togo, and arguably also finish the match. They sporadically worked in hope spots to keep Togo in the match, including a foul to stop Liger's German suplex, setting up two of Togo's diving senton finishers. Liger avoided the third diving senton though, and in a spot out of the classic January 21st, 1996 El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani match, as Togo was using the ropes to pull himself back up, Liger hit a diving footstomp to Togo's arm, then got a near submission with an armbar because Togo was too close to the ropes. The match would likely have been a little better if they rearranged a few things and just had the armbar be the finish, as paying off Liger's great and all too rare arm work would have been much more satisfying than the typical knockout blow. Togo hit a nice leg trip counter to Liger's running shotei, and got his final hope spot with the a graceful la magistral. Liger came right back though, and ultimately hit an avalanche style fisherman buster and a running shotei for the win. Everything they did was marvelously performed and super impressive, but their transitions definitely could have been better. The match was competitive enough to help Togo advance beyond where he was at the time, but not as competitive as you'd like a great match to be. This didn't have the big crazy endless near fall finishing segment, rather Liger comprehensively destroyed Togo, and actually just put him away. Liger's ruthless performance was awesome though, and Togo more than held up his end, announcing himself to a larger audience as someone to pay attention to. This was an all-action match, but it didn't feel like an empty spotfest because they were able to make the offense meaningful, and feel so damn punishing. I wish they had a rematch in the early 2000's when Togo was at his peak, as even this one off against an outgunned Togo was arguably better than any singles match Liger had against a Michinoku wrestler other than The Great Sasuke. I give this match 4.5 out of 5 stars.

https://youtu.be/xxp41ABSRro

Sendai Girls 1/6/19 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee 16:37 
PA: The first battle of 2019 between these two for the Sendai Girls World Title. This one felt like something of a dry run of what they’d on 6/8/19, as they were still figuring stuff out. I really liked the early portion with Sareee slipping out of everything Hashimoto was going for, and trying to throw her off her game with slaps and flash pins. She wasn’t afraid to bend the rules with hair pulling either. The result was that Sareee had more of the advantage in the first half than Hashimoto did, but couldn’t do any real damage. She was able to score some nasty back kicks, and one to the head, but Hashimoto caught her when she tried a PK, and put her in an ankle lock. Sareee got control back afterwards and ended up dropkicking Hashimoto to the outside and hitting a pair of diving footstomps, but ended up getting dumped with a suplex out there, with the 19 count tease. They worked with good intensity in the final minutes, but it was certainly something they'd improve upon. Hashimoto was mainly dropping Sareee with suplexes, and Sareee would make fiery comebacks and catch flash pins. Sareee caught a couple of big moves and won the last striking exchange, but as she signalled to the crowd, Hashimoto used those wasted seconds to grab her and drill her with a German suplex and had the match won from there. Sareee was able to catch a last gasp Uranage but Hashimoto caught two more Germans to put her away. Sareee was able to catch a last gasp Uranage, but Hashimoto caught two more Germans to put her away. This was a good match, and they worked with good intensity, particularly in the final minutes, but it’s something they’d build upon in their subsequent matches. Sareee did a good job with asking Hashimoto a lot of questions, but Hashimoto had the answers. ***1/4 

Sendai Girls 6/8/19 Niigata City Gym, Sendai Girls World & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Double Title Match: Sareee [WWWD] vs. Chihiro Hashimoto [SENDAI] 18:06 
PA: After defeating Meiko Satomura in April to set up another challenge for the Sendai Girls World Title, Sareee defeated Aja Kong in May to regain the World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Title, resulting in this being a double title match. This match was basically an evolved version of what they’d done in January, for the most part. The layout was the same, as were many of the big spots, though they made variations to them and they made things a lot more dramatic overall. The improvements mostly came later in the match though, to the point I found the first half to be a step down from what they’d done in January. They didn’t lose my attention, but it was a more of a methodical straightforward affair with Hashimoto generally dominating things, and Sareee asking less questions. Hashimoto is a reactionary wrestler, so if she’s not being pushed, she tends to let things drift and gets stuck in a methodical second gear. Sareee was able to catch some stiff kicks and picked things up with her footstomps, forcing Hashimoto to start unleashing her big power moves. Hashimoto went for a lariat, but Sareee avoided it and dropkicked her out of the ring. She followed up with a plancha and a footstomp off the apron. She seemed to be setting up to do it again, but Hashimoto thwarted that, and powerbombed her on the floor. They did the 19 count tease again, and made it a little more dramatic with Sareee falling from the apron when she was trying to return to the ring. This is one of the improved spots I mentioned, but I guess what hadn’t occurred to them was that the biggest improvement would have been just not doing a count out tease that no one buys at all (at least the third match didn’t have one). I liked Hashimoto’s follow up though, as soon as Sareee made it into the ring she urgently tried to pin her, and when that didn’t work, she started hitting vicious short arm lariats. From this point on the match was excellent. They were really urgent and intense. Hashimoto hit her rolling senton from the second and she was slightly off target, landing on Sareee’s face. Sareee was desperate not to take another one of those and fired up. They ended up exchanging German suplexes for a double down, and had an excellent striking exchange. Hashimoto kept trying to land her big moves and lariats while Sareee was countering and going for flash pins. Hashimoto caught her in a wheelbarrow German and powerbombed her but she couldn’t hit the finishing German suplex. Sareee managed to catch Hashimoto coming off the ropes and dump her on her head with two Uranages, and while she wasn’t able to finish with them, they turned out to be the killer blows. Hashimoto was hanging on now, she caught her with short arm lariats again but they didn’t have any of her power behind them like the ones earlier and Sareee countered for another Uranage, a rolling sabot and a Wrist Clutch Uranage to get the win. ***3/4 

This match didn't start out strongly because it didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know. Hashimoto had too much size, strength, and amateur wrestling skill for sorry to handle her out of any of the lockups. Sorry upped the intensity for a flat-footed elbow exchange, but despite hitting really hard, she wasn't putting a dent into her much larger opponent. Sorry could temporarily upend Hashimoto with a dropkick or arm drag, but couldn't maintain these advantages. When Hashimoto wanted to control sorry, she could, but she got cocky, and sorry was able to avoid her lower percentage athletic moves. Hashimoto is much more interesting when she is forced to react, as she'll come up with something when she needs to, but tends to just settle into second gear during her segments of control. Sorry was doing a lot of Manami Toyota homages here, the main difference being she did half diving footstomps rather than all missile kicks. When sorry tried to re-enter after a diving body attack to the floor, Hashimoto power bombed her off the apron, and they teased the count out as in their previous match. The intensity picked up considerably when Hashimoto blocked sorry uranage, but sorry head-butted her to open up the German suplex. From here, Sareee switched from being Manami Toyota to Arisa Nakajima, and made it more of a physical batter that she won dispite the huge size disadvantage by pushing herself harder, going the extra mile. They were really laying into each other until sorry charged into a lariat. The first half was nothing special, but the second half had much the faster paced and more urgent action, forcing Hashimoto to bring her A game and shift into high gear. The second half was sequence-based, so they had to keep finding answers in order to keep making something happen. They never answered the question of how sorry could actually win this match from a technical or strategic standpoint, but she displayed enough heart, willpower, and determination to kind of make you believe in her. The finish saw sorry hitting her uranage then a wrist clutch uranage. It seemed to come a little early in terms of Hashimoto not being able to kick out, but at least they kept this to a reasonable length, which allowed the second half that made the match to be one lengthy burst of action, energy, and emotion. 3.5

Sendai Girls 10/13/19 Sendai Sun Plaza, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Sareee vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 17:03 
PA: Their third and final match of the Senjo series. Hashimoto looked like a killer, dominating and using her power and submission to try to stay in control and shut down Sareee. Sareee was creative with her counters and used to her speed and agility, looking for anything she could pounce on to get in as much damage as she could before Hashimoto would inevitably catch her. They weren’t covering new ground, but they executed it far more effectively and with Hashimoto being such a force it made Sareee stand out a lot more in the scrappy babyface role. The first half felt like it was always building and never got stuck or started dragging. It also helped that there was no long count out tease, and the action just kept going the whole time. They teased it, but they actually never left the ring for the entire match. They kept coming at each other, and the match got more urgent and intense as it went on. Sareee would do what she had to derail Hashimoto, and wasn’t too worried about damaging herself to do so. She attempted a Uranage when she had the chance, but Hashimoto blocked it and slapped her so Sareee fired back with a nasty headbutt that caused a double down. She followed up with some great forearm strikes, but ate a vicious lariat and a powerbomb. Hashimoto was done with this now, and wanted to put Sareee away. She went for her Wheelbarrow German, but Sareee scrambled to the rope. Hashimoto attempted another lariat, but Sareee countered that and got a couple of flash pins before getting caught in the Wheelbarrow German. Sareee avoided Hashimoto’s lariat again and hit two brutal Uranages. She went for the Wrist Clutch Uranage, but Hashimoto blocked it, so she hit two rolling savate kicks, and then was able to hit the Wrist Clutch Uranage, but this time Hashimoto survived it. Sareee tried another kick, but got caught, and Hashimoto caught her and was finally able to put her down with a German suplex, one more and that was all she wrote. Hashimoto regained the Sendai Girls World title. Of the three matches, this was the best easily in terms of everything coming together and being an excellent match from start to finish. **** 

Dynamite/Rocco

Dynamite Kid and Mark "Rollerball" Rocco were two of the greatest wrestlers ever. These incredibly diverse workers were years ahead of their time, capable of being as technical, as rough, and as athletic as they needed to be. Rocco wasn't called "The Mean Machine" for nothing, but the fact that both had a real edge to their work elevated their matches together beyond mere technical contests into fights for their life where neither would be bullied or allow a cheap shot to go unanswered. Joint Promotions presenting their matches as sport made it much easier for these two aggressive workers to build up the intensity throughout, lending a high stakes feeling to their encounters. Dynamite was famed for his explosiveness, while Rocco was famed for his stamina, which proved to be a great combination, as these two were able to have really fast-paced dynamic contests where they changed styles and paces logically and credibly. 

Rocco took the nickname "Rollerball" after working as a stuntman on Norman Jewison's 1975 sci-fi/action movie where heartless corporations utilized an ultraviolent version of roller derby to quell individuality. Dynamite, of course, was famed for his huge bumps, but Rocco matched him, also taking impressive high backdrops, hard flip bumps into the corner, and dangerous bumps through the ropes. Both could seemingly do just about everything the other could, more or less as impressively. They had a wide variety of techniques to display, and the desire to pack as many into their match as they could. 

These were outstanding technical bouts that mixed activity and realism incredibly well. They took their grappling seriously in terms of effort and exertion, making it feel meaningful and important. When they were sort of playing by the rules, their matches were based upon erupting into several brief explosions. None of their holds lasted long because neither were ever complacent about their offense or defense. Starting with the typical surge to gain the 1st advantage out of the lockup, the wrestler who seized control was constantly adjusting positions and changing holds, trying to stay a step ahead to retain the advantage in the sequence, while the defender continually moved to try to alleviate the pressure and work their way into a counter or reversal, usually through a gymnastics series. 

When they were at their best, their whole match evolved out of this technical base, retaining the feeling of a struggle without obvious cooperation while at the same time flowing in a very organic manner that allowed them to change things up believably when they wanted to. The key was that all their movement not only opened up more locks, but also allowed them to sneakily work in one or two direct, compact little dastardly cheap shots that were big because their unexpecting opponent was prone. Their strikes were set up so well that they actually felt like they could potentially lead to a finish.

Although these futuristic Dynamite vs. Rollerball matches contained a lot more glamourous high spots than the typical matches of their time period, they didn't feel like they were about the high spots because everything was done with an equal amount of effort and care. Their shifts between active technical work and bursts of junior style wrestling seemed reasonable. An aggressive whip into the ropes would start a brief running sequence or a punishing whip into the corner would stun the opponent, leaving them unable to defend themselves long enough that charging the opponent wasn't too unreasonable. Regardless of what created the burst, these style changes were presented as simply another way to utilize the opponent's arm they already had control of. 

Their matches were a fluid collection of small and brief offensive manuevers that provided a progression, continuing to gain momentum for the worker on the ascendancy until a successful movement from the defender turned the tide. Because the wrestler in the hold was always actually defending themselves by moving to alleviate pressure, it was reasonable that they were able to stay in the match, and often regain control. Once that movement stopped because they really got caught with a flash knockdown off a stealthy strike, it was reasonable enough that a submission from a joint manipulation could finally stick or a knockout blow from a leap or throw could occur. While the grappling itself was never dull, largely because of the constant activity, these bursts and cheap shots made the "slower" portions more interesting because they had the audience anticipating the next outburst or affront that might leave someone helpless long enough that a submission would work or a high impact suplex or top rope dive wouldn't be avoided. For better and worse, their matches unexpectedly ended, maybe too early to be ideal, but reinforcing the idea that the audience, just as the combatants, always had to be on guard and ready for anything. 

Their first match that's available is a classic British technical style bout that took place on November 26th, 1980 in Walthamstow. It's my favorite of the series because they put their heart and soul into doing a flowing and shifting start to finish match where everything was earned and worked for. What's so awesome about this match is it feels like a whole rather than a disjointed assortment of cooperative action spots lamely connected after segments of rest. These are actual wrestling matches where they put a serious amount of effort into utilizing joint locks and manipulations to the fullest of their abilities, rather than just holding the nonresistant opponent for a minute then moving on to flatfooted striking and cooperative highspots. They credibly built everything off the technical base, which actually allowed them to explore quite a bit of other ground in a more believable manner by eventually catching the opponent in a position where their defenses were down, rather than just striking, running, or jumping at an opponent that was conventiently standing there waiting to be hit. This was a great example of what makes the British wrestling of this era so much more artistic and credible than what passes for today's stop and start wrestling. The matches feel like one long sequence because the action continues through reversals and counters until an escape forces them to quickly and credibly reestablish control through a new explosion to gain the advantage. There aren't really rest holds in good World of Sport because there's useful work in and out of the holds, and they don't really stay still for any length of time. As with a real fight, this technical style was primarily about moving and doing all the necessary work to maintain the advantage rather than constantly pausing for some nonsense then forcing a certain hold or point of attack because a one note story is supposed to be logical and psychologically sound. World of Sports stylists operated under the same premise every grappling sport has, that control and positioning lead to victory, as through them you can eventually win with literally anything, whether or not you attacked that area before. They told a series of short stories that were organically set up based upon what was available, trying to present several options rather than telegraphing what would likely lead to or play into the finish. In a sense, these old matches have a ton of misdirection because they don't just announce what they are about through endless theatrical selling and contrived focus. That's not to say that the matches are random, but rather that there are more points of focus, with less duration. A key sequence of linked events will probably occur at some point when the opponent's defense breaks down or the aggressor takes a cheap shot to make something happen, but even the matches that have injury storylines understand a finish doesn't require a certain area to be weakened, and put more effort towards momentarily breaking down the opponents defenses so their point of no return can be somehow be reached. These matches feel more reactionary than what we get today, less scripted and choreographed, and more based upon creating a position while an actual defensive effort is being put forth. They are complete, proper start to finish wrestling battles with urgent and continual offensive and defensively movement to avoid getting hurt, rather than hokey theatrical performances where they showcase the "highlights" of a cooperative exhibition in between a bunch of overdramatic spasming and supposedly "suspenseful" lying around. The matches feel more complete and satisfying because there's 100% effort towards everything, making the small portion where that effort is put towards a specific storyline stand out more. In the end though, there’s no real "story" aside from doing the only thing that actually matters, trying to win. 
The early portion of Dynamite vs. Rocco focused on arm locks in order to feature an entertaining array of gymnastic counters and tumbling. They showed the lost art of escaping in steps, with Dynamite having to roll to his back, kip up, cartwheel, duck under, back body drop and turn into his own wrist lock to counter Rocco's wrist lock. Though this match was detrimentally short, it felt the fullest of their matches because they saw each technical wrestling sequence through from start to finish without losing focus on the importance of every step in the chain. This felt like such an amazing technical match, but in reality, it followed the traditional British format of starting technical, and then heating up as the wrestlers became less honorable and began working in cheap shots, so it was actually only the first round that was predominantly technical wrestling. Everything in this match just seemed connected and working in unison. For instance, Rocco gained the advantage in the opening lock up of round 2 with a body lock then moved into a wrist lock, but Dynamite forward rolled to alleviate the pressure, and fired back with a huge elbow. The explosive stiff elbow was, of course, the point of the sequence, but the way they incorporated it had so much more art, believability, and surprise to it. Today, they would just stand in front of each other with Rocco simply waiting to be hammered, and then he would eventually get around to firing back, wash, rinse, repeat. The second round was a lot more about whatever cheap shots they could incorporate out of the technical base they started the segments with. When your goal is to beat the opponent through any means necessary, technical wrestling still works because twisting and turning someone eventually puts them into a position where they are no longer able to avoid a big strike, or perhaps even a suplex. In this setting, the cravate could just as easily lead to a chinlock, an elbow drop, or a brief segment of control setting up a stomp to the face. No matter what, the technical wrestling was so completely interwoven with whatever high spot the sequence was setting up that the high spot didn't kill the illusion. Safe standups weren't enforced, so taking the opponent down any way you could was a great strategy because even if they had answers to your locks, you could always just lower the boom when they were getting back up. Rocco was winning the technical battles in Round 1 by gaining the 1st advantage out of the lockup. Dynamite tried to speed things up in Round 2, and do a more junior style match, but Rocco escaped to the floor and caught him with a kick to the stomach when he was reentering. While they presented a technical contest within the realistic realm of a sporting event, increasingly everything they were doing was really about riling each other, and the fans up. As the action grew more and more heated, the ref handed out his public warnings, but increasingly struggled to retain control. Dynamite kept ratcheting up the pace and intensity, while Rocco worked in cheap shots to slow him down. Rocco did his damage in Round 2 by capitalizing on positioning, and while he didn't land a knockout blow, he set his path to victory in motion. Late in round 2, Rocco busted Dynamite open out of the headlock with a punch around the eye, further opening the cut through a kick, headbutt, elbow, and just digging into the wound. Rocco had more control time in the 1st two rounds, but Dynamite made memorable brief explosive comebacks. Dynamite was cleared to start the 3rd round, but seemed to be running out of time due to the blood loss. Kid was able to make something happen quickly, landing on his feet to counter Rocco's 2nd backbreaker and using one of his own, a falling headbutt, and a released German suplex to score the 1st fall at 1:22 of round 3. The second half was quite fast paced, intense, and heated. They really build this up well, unfortunately, to an abrupt ref stoppage that stole the victory from a game Dynamite Kid right after he scored the first fall. Being on the short side didn't helpthe match because they fill all the time they have, and the finish was very anticlimactic because we anticipated a restart after the fall that never came. It was a way for Dynamite to look good by scoring the only fall and look tough by wanting to fight through his injury, while Rocco, the star who was actually staying around, got an important win over the guy who was becoming the top export. Everything in this match served a purpose. The only downsides were that they definitely could have gone longer at the same pace and quality, and it built to a rematch they couldn't deliver for another year. Everything they did was so well done and entertaining though. They used a lot of simple head, wrist, and arm locks that would be obvious rest holds you might be fast forwarding through in an American context, but they were never stagnant, and all of it was meaningful and actually active. This match really flew by. I give    it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Their second match we have footage of took place on November 18, 1981 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham. It's quite different, a fast-paced grudge match that's more about explosive brawling and general nastiness. This was their most aggressive and mean spirited bout, with both quickly becoming quite chippy, and just beating each other up at every opportunity. Scrawny little Dynamite was bullied during school, and once he learned to defend himself, he was always going to stand up for himself against obnoxious ruffians who tried to torment him. Dynamite was almost as much of a heel here as Rocco, certainly as much of a punk. This felt more similar to a great version of the American brawling style rather than the classic British grappling we saw the year before, focusing more on punching, and less on how to actually work any of it in. It was incredibly heated, urgent, and intense though. The primary difference here was that instead of setting the cheap shot up with the cravate, they were much more likely to just start with a body slam and kick the opponent when he was down or punch him when he was getting back up. The skill level was the lowest of their three matches, but they were exchanging being technical for being angry. It wasn't as eloquent an artwork, but was arguably more effective of a fight. While not as technically evolved or gymnastic oriented as Dynamite's New Japan work from this period, everything was done with ill intent. In the end, it's actually more of a modern international style match, an aggressive technical brawl with fiery action, and some flying moves reasonably worked in. It's a really strong rivalry match, setting up the rematch. These two made you believe they wanted to hurt one another. Everything was just mean and nasty. Though this match was less flashy, they made every simple move look deadly. You've never seen a whip into the corner like the one Dynamite Kid did. Normally just a means to an end, setting the opponent up to charge at them, they made the corner bump look harder and more damaging than practically any move you'd see in an American match of this period. Again, their similaries helped make the match so good because they were at home doing an aggressive style where the goal was predominantly to inflict punishment, and both are big bumpers who make the opponent's moves look much better. Rocco slapped Kid before the bell, and it was on, with Rocco aiming to take as many cheap shots as he could from the outset, which brought out an even more fiery version of Kid. Without losing the grudge match feel, they were able to work their way into the technical wrestling, and deliver junior style action with offense and pace very much ahead of their time, at least outside of what Dynamite was doing with Tiger Mask in Japan. Rocco being the heel that was utilizing some dubious tactics set Dynamite up for his explosive, empassioned comebacks. Still, the stylistic shift here away from the consistent technical struggle led to their two 1981 matches breaking to run and strike rather than these aspects occuring more naturally within the flow. They definitely beat each other up in an exciting manner, but the match felt less believable and more disjointed because they spent more time standing in front of each other and less time truly defending themselves. Dynamite was supposed to be the baby face, but he got the first public warning, and generally wasn't much less of a dick than Rocco. Dynamite did some stuff that would normally be kind of lame, such as smashing the opponents head into the canvas, but he did it in such a vicious manner that it actually felt like a high spot. Meanwhile, Rocco dug his thumb into Dynamite's eye just to be sadistic.  Rather than do the traditional slingshot suplex, Rocco did a lot more damage to the midsection just dropping Dynamite on the top rope, then he picked him up and did a traditional vertical suplex for the first fall 2 minutes into round 2. Dynamite evened things up 1:30 into round 3 based on one of the most brutal diving knee drops you'll ever see. While it earned Kid another public warning for attacking a downed opponent, it really felt like the coup de grace for Rocco even though this bizarrly didn't even score Dynamite his first pin. While most flying moves are little more than fun fluff, this was really something else because their matches had been built around taking advantage during the moments the opponent was defenseless. With Dynamite in mid flight, you felt like helpless Rocco was so vulnerable his head was going to be squashed like a grape from the impact. They definitely didn't need Rocco's wobbly attempt at a backbreaker comeback being thwarted by Dynamite landing on his feet and dropping Rocco on his head again with a big backdrop to finish this fall. Rocco's mouth was busted open hard way, and Dynamite would have been okay with avenging Rocco's ref stop victory due to a cut in their previous match. He was on Rocco as soon as this intermission ended, battering him with more headbutts and head rams that didn't do wonders for Rocco's wound. This took a more realistic trajectory, as once Rocco was hurt, Dynamite never let him off the hook, resulting in an easy second fall since Rocco never had the opportunity to recover from the first fall. A tombstone piledriver and the signature diving headbutt should have been enough, but again Dynamite randomly followed with an unnecessary suplex to finish things off at 1:20 of round 4. Despite some excess, this was their best and only decisive finish. The match felt much longer and more complete than the 9 minutes 50 seconds the 4 rounds actually added up to, partially because the breaks between rounds make it easier for them to go all out during the rounds, but mostly because everything was so well done it seemed like more happened than perhaps actually did. This predictably earned Dynamite the title shot less than 2 weeks later, before he went back to Japan. This wasn't exactly the style people think of when you talk about a World of Sport match, as it barely had any mat work. They tried not to sacrifice realism for flash, mostly allowing things to evolve out of the fight rendering the opponent prone, hurting the opponent enough with their blows that they could pounce on them when they were down. Stylistically, this was the least interesting of their three matches, but it was really effective, and once again very much ahead of it's time, this time in a different style, the hard-hitting grudge match. The result wasn't a surprise because Dynamite had to win to earn the title shot, but they figured out how to make the finishing segment memorable, if more for the general brutality than the actual finishing hold. We don't normally see this much brawling from Dynamite, but the match still contained the aspects that would become signatures of his style, as it was fast and snappy with a lot of aggressive bursts. I give this match 4 1/4 stars.

Their final match that we have footage of took place less than two weeks later on November 30, 1981 for Rocco's World Heavy-Middleweight Title. This match kind of combined the 1st two, trying harder to reincorporate the technical aspects we saw in their first match with an increased focus on gymnastics, while amping up the aggressive rivalry aspects that made their 2nd match work. It's very explosive, and higher impact, but it didn't feel as unified and cohesive because they were now trying to make the best aspects of two very different stylistic matches work together in one match that, at 12:50, was hardly any longer. The mentality here was to escape into a high spot rather than stay with the technical base and really be disciplined about when they found the opening to catch the opponent with something big. The 3 minute rounds naturally lent themselves to more bursts, whereas the 5 minute rounds of their 1st two encounters aided the more consistent development. While not as successful as a grudge match because they were trying harder early on to behave, perhaps because the title was on the line, it was their stiffest and nastiest match. Though not as urgent as their other matches, Dynamite more or less pulled out all the stops trying to win the title. Dynamite did resist the urge to drop a knee after the first round bell, avoiding a public warning, but for the most part he seemed to be extracting revenge for Rocco's past sins, particularly with a brutal knee drop to Rocco's nose. The early portion was much more technical than what we saw a few weeks earlier. Dynamite was made for this British Style that was based upon the explosive the first movement, and arguably did more than anyone to broaden the scope of that initial burst from the purely technical realm to include suplexes with his famous snap suplex and running sequences with his springier and more elastic whips into the ropes and corner. Gymnastics had long been established as a primary means of defense in this style where they didn't just stand around paralized by any random no body control lock, and thus could more easily be utilized as a means of regaining the offensive. This was definitely a more proactive and less patient match than their 1st. They began heating up the grudge match aspect in the second round with Kid slapping Rocco on the break, which led to Rocco slapping Dynamite out of the lock up, then kicking him in the face when he was down. Dynamite dropped a knee on Rocco's nose after a snapmare, and a pissed off Rocco kicked him while the ref was scolding Dynamite for having taken too long to follow up. Rocco was still recovering from the 24 stitches he suffered against his great rival Marty Jones earlier in the month, and he reinjured the knee by missing a jumping knee in the corner in the 3rd. Dynamite was once again warned for being too late following up with his stomp to the knee, but they didn't really go too far with this knee work, as the action was never stagnant enough for either to have their choice of attacks. The junior stuff worked well here because the arm drag flows as easily out of the running position as it does out of the lock up, and the rules stating you have to immediately follow up on a downed opponent or let them back up, keep risky elbow and knee drops from feeling too out of place. This match had more rope running, but less activity when they were on the ground. They purposely slowed things down as it progressed, with Dynamite responding slower in the fourth after Rocco ended the 3rd with a sleeper that garnered him his 1st public warning for not breaking at the bell. Rocco was now willing to try the reverse diving elbow after his body slam because Dynamite was more groggy than when he hit the standard elbow drop, but this backfired on him. For the most part, this was a more honorable bout, with a lot of quick technical action. They mixed it up here and there, but were more interested in better flow than more heat and intensity. The action was super smooth, though there was still a sense of resistance and struggle, without anything coming too easy or anyone being down for too long. Even if this wasn't their most active bout, there was tons more movement than you would normally see in 1981. There were more fake moves, but they made a genuine effort to make sure these high spots were logically set up, and worked in out of the position they were already in at the time. Their spectacular moves didn't feel like just showing off. While this match was more well-rounded than the other two, it didn't excel at one particular thing like those did. The match wasn't about any particular hold, or working to the finish. It was about staying in the current moment, stretching and tossing the opponent as much as they could without getting ahead of themselves. The last round was all action, but you didn't know that it was about to end. There wasn't the sense of "hey, we're doing a finishing sequence". Unfortunately, the finish was just a means of avoiding either taking a loss, as neither man could continue after crashing to the concrete when Dynamite suplexed Rocco over the top. This kept the title on Rocco, sending Dynamite back to Japan and Calgary without having to put him over. Given they were doing a more explosive match, the finish kind of worked within the big letting loose at any opportunity style they'd been working throughout the series. As with everything else, Dynamite seized an opportunity that just evolved from the position they were in, it just didn't work out as well for him as he hoped. The match, and even the finish, felt spontaneous and reactionary. They didn't try to make one spot more important, opting for more of a chess match where every move was important in the progression, and even though some pieces are less powerful, they are equally important towards the development because a chain of events is required to earn the victory. This was worked with a bit less verve than their previous matches, feeling like it was going to go a bit longer than it actually did. I give this match 4 stars. 

While the Dynamite Kid vs. Rollerball Rocco matches fell a tad beneath their amazing  potential due to being on the short side and not having ideal finishes, these two top talents certainly went all out to make the absolute most out of what they had to work with. That was the kind of work ethic they brought regularly. Hulk Hogan, who had no interest in the art of wrestling, and was only in the business for what he could take from it, may have forgotten his supposed good friend Mark Rocco just a few years after their New Japan heyday when Hogan laughably claimed to be miraculously breaking the international time zones to the point he was working 400 days a year. Real wrestling fans will always be discovering the great work of these two legends though, and once you've seen what Dynamite and Rollerball can do in the ring, their extraordinary work is unforgettable. 

https://projectfreetv.ru/watch/the-second-civil-war/6195193158607cdfb9f97eea


Today we're looking at a dream match between JWP champion Arisa Nakajima and STARDOM champion Io Shirai from STARDOM Year End Climax 2013 on December 29th at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. Along with Kana, JWP ace Arisa Nakajima and STARDOM ace Io Shirai were the three best female wrestlers in the world at this point. Especially after the great Kana vs. Arisa match in JWP two weeks earlier, the expectations for this were through the roof. The high hopes make it a more difficult match to rate because you invariably want to give it a bigger rating because it's two amazing talents, but at the same time, part of you wants to give it lower rating because it wasn't as awesome as it sounded on paper. Adding to that, they didn't do the traditional throw everything and the kitchen sink at one another type of big match that was popular before wrestlers realized they could get away with just standing and laying around for half an hour. I would probably have preferred that spot oriented match, Arisa has many options but it's certainly what Io does best, but I feel this match was pretty interesting and clever nonetheless. This match would, for the first time, unify the then fairly recently created World of STARDOM title with the JWP Openweight title, for many years the number two women's title behind AJW's WWWA World Singles Title, and arguably more prestigious women's title at this point given JWP was essentially the last of the classic women's promotions still standing, even if on very shaky ground, with AJW and GAEA closing in 2005, and LLPW barely running any shows after 2009. Since this was a high stakes intrepromotional match with repercussions extending far beyond a mere win or loss for the wrestlers involved, they set a more serious and less cooperative tone, especially early on. I enjoyed the intensity, and they did a good job of making the matwork seem believable in the sense that it was snug, they were working the holds, and they weren't feeding each other positions too easily. While it wasn't as fast or technical as what Arisa would do with Command Bolshoi, a far more skilled grappler than Shirai, it was a credible enough display of somewhat MMA oriented ground fighting to hold your interest despite being on the slower and less interactive side. The more complete season 14 Goddesses in stars 2013 commercial DVD retains more of the early portion, which helps to convey the less obliging feel of the matwork, allowing them to work the high spots into the match in a less unbelievable manner that felt more earned. The first high spot fit perfectly into the atmosphere they were trying to create. Nakajima was working to secure a front guillotine, but then did a suplex that Shirai didn't appear to cooperate with at all. They kept this format for much of the first half of the match, getting up for a brief series of strikes or a high spot or two before returning to the mat. The second half was quite stiff, as you'd expect from an Arisa match. The shift to standing, running, and jumping during this portion was somewhat forced though, as it just got to the point where they needed to finally get going. This sense of having to rush to accomplish what they wanted to while getting in enough moves made the second half feel a bit forced and underdeveloped. They did their best to continue the theme of non-cooperation, with a big crash landing for Io when Arisa avoided her tope, but there were more and more runs of big offense, which made it more difficult to walk the tightrope of believably resisting. This setup an interesting spot where Io crawled under the ring to the adjacent corner after ducking a lariat, with Arisa unable to find her when she turned around, allowing Io to deliver a swandive plancha. Shirai followed with a series of swandive moves, while Nakajima jumped off the top and DDT'd Io on the apron, suplexed her off the apron, and hit a diving footstomp to the floor. The match was gaining momentum as they exchanged big spots back and forth, but Nakajima seemed to get stunned when Shirai brutally deposited her on her nose with an underhook facebuster. Oddly, after a double sell to allow Arisa to recover, they went right back to the same spot, but this time Nakajima took the bump on her forehead. Their lack of familiarity with one another wasn't helping matters to begin with, and while Nakajima was apparently okay, they seemed to get a bit sidetracked after this when it came to continuing to actually develop the match. Since it took so long to get going in the usual sense of what consists of a big high workrate joshi match, it made it even more obvious than it was going in that there wasn't going to be a winner. Due to Shirai defeating Nanae Takahashi at 29:59 in her previous title defense on November 4th, 2013 with her mahiga de Io, a la magistral variation relying on a bridge rather than a cradle, they hoped people would buy into the possibility of some more last second heroics. Otherwise, there was less build to the non-existent finish, partly because the match was almost over by the time anyone was really trying to win, which made their big suplexes and pinning predicaments in the final minutes even less believable as finishers. For a 30 minute match, especially one that took quite a while for the pace to pick up, I must say that the time really flew by. For better and worse, it really left you wanting more. While I found the match somewhat disappointing, that's only because it came from the best of the best. It was certainly never dull, despite a lot of matwork, which isn't something you would normally see from Shirai. This was a match that really demanded a rematch, but we were lucky that we got it once. Sadly, this was the only appearance Nakajima ever made in STARDOM, and a return has become less and less likely as the years have gone by given she has been a vocal critic of the idol promotions. I give this match 4 stars out of 5.

Mariko Yoshida vs. Megumi Fujii from the May 24th, 2003 ARSION show at Tokyo Differ Ariake is a match that will likely always be relevant no matter how fighting, or fans perceptions of it changes. Pro wrestling has had a huge television presence since the 1950's, while early MMA was often difficult to even pay for due to political pressures limiting their ability to operate, causing it to take 12 years to really become mainstream. Sooner or later, almost every child of the 20th century stumbled across pro wrestling, and many become hooked before they ever witnessed a legitimate sanctioned full rules fight, often maintaining at least a nostalgic interest because wrestling plays well enough to anyone willing to look past a certain amount of nonsense. Michael Betz, the MMA historian who runs our Kakutogi Road Patreon, enjoys contemplating what useful role pro wrestling can play in an MMA world, particularly enjoying the tighrope act walked during the mid-period of the original Battlarts run where the matches were still rooted in martial arts and attempted to maintain a real fight feel, requiring actual footwork and legitimate grappling skills, yet granted themselves more and more freedom to break away into a spectacular move or lucha sequence. If you're going to watch pro wrestling, you might as well see something you can't get from MMA, as long as it isn't so stupid that it jars you out of the illusion of it being a fight. Similar to movies, the important thing is that they're well crafted to facilitate the suspension of disbelief. The WWE's answer to pro wrestling's continued relevance has been to avoid all aspects that once made people consider it a sport, relying on everything that makes it impossible to take seriously by amping up the soap opera, shenanigans, and buffoonery. I still think any style of pro wrestling is viable, but rather than endlessly perpetuating the same old nonsense, it would be nice if things were actually improving based upon what we've learned from 31 years of MMA. Imagine if we started with the premise that there's no reason for something that doesn't work in a real fight to exist in pro wrestling unless its actually worth finding a way to incorporate. We could then easily eliminate turning your back on your opponent, walking in circles when the opponent is prone, posing, flatfooted no defense striking, laying around pretending to be dead, allerting the opponent of your "injury" so they know where to target their next attack, outside interference, and other assorted silliness. Shifting to match times that have proven to be realistic, this nonsensical filler would no longer be necessary, allowing workers to actually have the energy to constantly press their advantage and convey the intensity and urgency of a life or death struggle that makes fights interesting, and their outcomes meaningful. Even if these ideas, as well as the Yoshida vs. Fujii match, are largely descendants of the UWF shoot fighting revolution, Yoshida vs. Fujii is a further evolution of a style that largely died at the end of the 1990's due to the popularity of PRIDE FC. It's a fight that not only proves pro wrestling still serves a purpose, but that well done fake fighting is likely to wind up being more entertaining than most real fighting because the workers can control as many aspects of the fight as they need to, answering all the criticisms MMA faces in the process, such as fights stalling out, becoming too repetitive, and looking too similar because everyone more or less trains the same way now. The best example of how a real fighter can come in with minimal pro wrestling training and immediately improve the quality, credibility, intensity, and urgency of pro wrestling was this brilliant debut of Fujii. What made ARSION an excellent and groundbreaking promotion in their first 2 years is trainer and ace Yoshida got most of the wrestlers to adapt to the changes in combat sports & modernize pro wrestling into something more MMA oriented without actually being shoot wrestling. They all trained with Pancrase fighters & assorted martial artists, picked up the basics & some things beyond, but outside of high level judoka Hiromi Yagi, who Yoshida had her previous best match with on February 18th, 1999, Yoshida's opponents didn't come from a legitimate combat sports background. Long before 2003, ARSION had sealed their fate by shedding the identity that made them the most unique and exciting joshi promotion of their time, completely homogenizing their product into something that truly pleased no one by doing every style passably rather than growing their devoted fanbase by doing their thing really well. Yoshida had lost her influence, and everytime we saw nonsense such as Rossy Ogawa making a fool of himself as a cringy Tiger Mask, we had to laugh at what our once thrilling and credible promotion had become so as to not become too depressed. Yoshida was no longer able to do her style regularly, but on the league's penultimate TV show, we finally got to see what she could do with a real mixed martial artist, and it was otherworldly, the best women's grappling oriented match we've ever seen! Yoshida carried her student AKINO to one of the best debuts ever on 7/21/98, and they had several high quality matches throughout the years, but Yoshida was not at all the story in this match. Although Yoshida facilited the pro wrestling aspects, which were the least useful and successful of the contest, dragging Fujii through a few locks or throws with no real world application, the match was more about her trying to keep up with this then "unknown" warp speed grappler. Rather than it feeling like the debuting Fujii was laboring to figure out pro wrestling, what was so thrilling about this match is it instead decidedly felt like Yoshida was strugging to hang with a real fighter in a more legitimate contest. As with best in the world and interpromotional matches, the more the stakes are raised due to pride and bragging rights, the more interesting it becomes for the fans because the fighters put their best foot forward, trying their hardest not to get shown up. Perhaps it should be obvious that Fujii was the story of the match given what an unreal competitor she was in judo, sambo, BJJ, ADCC, MMA, anything and everything she tried. Fujii had excellent but not off the charts results in judo, which her father began teaching her at age 3, finishing in the top 8 in the All Japan Student Championships at 52kg 3 years in a row during high school, but it seemingly wasn't until she started sambo at age 23 after graduating college that everything really began to click, winning the All Japan Championship every year from 1998-2005, with 4 silver medals in the Worlds. At the same time, she also won the All Japan Championships in BJJ in 2002 & 2003, and the Pan American Championships in 2004 & 2006 after starting her MMA career in 2004, where she won 22 consecutive fights, generally against larger women, before her first "loss" came at the age of 36 when Bellator screwed her out of a decision against Zoila Frausto Gurgel on October 28th, 2010. Fujii was the female MMA GOAT when she retired in 2013, which was truly amazing because she wasn't any sort of physical specimin. She didn't have an overpowering takedown, great reach, huge knockout power, some sort of obviously great genetics, but she had amazing speed and precision, and was so skilled, driven, creative and well rounded that she'd find a way. Even arguably more credentialed modern ground fighters such as Mackenzie Dern, who won the Worlds in both submission grappling and BJJ in 2015 among countless other medals, have not been able to show the same grappling wizardry in MMA as Fujii, who earned the nickname "Queen of the Seconds Kill" for her quick submission victories. When Fujii wrestled Yoshida, she wasn't known outside of the amateur ranks in sports that don't get a lot of press, while Yoshida was peerless in this MMA oriented style match. Anyone assuming this would be a master vs. a debuting student who hasn't put the usual amount of time into pro wrestling training because it was just a fun side project was in for quite a shock, as Yoshida had so much respect for the skills of Fujii that she actually let her lead the majority of the match. Yoshida had befriended Fujii at the AACC dojo, & eventually got her to give pro wrestling a try. This wound up not only being the greatest pro wrestling debut ever, but the best fight ever in the female grappling genre. Having recently gone through all the male shootfight stuff from 1991-93 for Kakutogi Road, this is better than anything even the all time greats of the genre, Kiyoshi Tamura and Volk Han, did during those prime shoot fighting years, which perhaps shows that the rise of MMA did contribute to the quality of their later works against each other, Tsuyoshi "TK" Kosaka, & Yoshihisa Yamamoto. The best Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda matches feel like they are worth mentioning due to sharing the all out attacking nature, but I don't have any trouble calling Yoshida vs. Fujii better. Puroresu organizations getting known, credentialed athletes from other combat sports to moonlight jobbing for their far lesser credentialed stars has been a huge part of validating the so called superiority of pro wrestling. Yoshida vs. Fujii contrasted the historical pro wrestler vs. real fighter match not only for being a classic, but also because it was more a showcase for the outsider. It definitely made a difference over the typical wrestler vs. kickboxer debacle that grappling is a lot easier to do credibly than striking since it's less noticable when someone is a little off the pressure point or isn't cranking and torquing optimally than when they are hitting air, but the difference here was that Yoshida didn't make this about getting herself over, instead challenging herself to go with Fujii's great grappling. In the realistic style match that they did, Fujii already knew most of what she needed to know. Sure, she had to learn to take some bumps, & work out escapes to some unusual positions, but because the match was rooted in realism, mostly she did things she'd learned elsewhere long ago. What's so astonishing is Fujii was able to confidently perform all her chain grappling at lightning speed despite Yoshida's reactions being different than the usual opponent who wasn't cooperating. Her ability to go all out showed a great deal of trust in Yoshida's ability, and respect for her skill. Fujii did it all flawlessly, with the few issues coming when Yoshida couldn't quite keep up with the pace they desired. In the end, while there are similarities to the high speed scrambling performances of Kiyoshi Tamura, the creative submission chaining of Volk Han, and the work of "Little Volk" Hideo Tokoro, though Fujii was able to win real fights doing Volk Han things that Tokoro was usually only able to succeed in entertaining with, it isn't too hyperbolic to say this is somewhat unlike anything you've ever seen, before or really even since. The pace was fantastic! They just went all out, almost nonstop as if it were an MMA match with the exception of Fujii escaping to the floor late in the 2nd, doing 5 more cool things in the time other wrestlers would have filled with aimless meandering. They weren't killing the submissions to keep the fans interested, but rather they did such a great job of making every motion seem legitimately useful that it was okay that most of them only succeeded in the micro, if at all. Fujii's quickness, athleticism, and explosiveness were much more striking here than they probably ever were in an MMA match, and she really just hit it out of the park in all aspects to the point the only possible argument against her as Rookie of the Year is she didn't continue wrestling. Fujii really outshined Yoshida in this match in literally every way, and if pro wrestling wasn't merely a brief hobby she dabbled into during her quest to master all the real grappling arts, I'm confident she would have been the GOAT in that too. Her movement, entries, traps, feints, and crazy athletic attacks were just a thing of beauty. Fujii never stopped launching attacks or diversions on the mat, sometimes seeming to be setting up two techniques at once, and just taking the one that seemed most available. Yoshida had always led against less confident workers, so she rarely had to react so quickly in response, adjusting to so many different attacks and threats. Yoshida really upped her game here, doing a great job working a lot faster than she ever had before to keep up with Fujii. Sometimes Yoshida was able to use her size advantage to throw Fujii around or rough her up, but usually Fujii was just so quick, she had another takedown or submission attempt before Yoshida could set it up. Another thing that really impressed me is the match wasn't the least bit repetitive. This may seem a weird comment, but given they didn't utilize many unrealistic highspots & one of the competitors was a novice, you'd think they might have been short on material, but this match was really diverse in all the positions, sweeps, & submissions they were able to show over the course of 13 & 1/2 minutes. They did keep going back to Yoshida's air raid crash & spider twist finishers because they were telling the story that Yoshida needed her best pro wrestling offense to win since she wasn't winning the battles in the areas that Fujii was familiar with. They didn't make it easy on Fujii in the sense that they placed the differentiation on her shoulders, asking her to keep having different answers for Yoshida's top techniques. My favorite counter was a sort of modified flying crucifix takedown where Fujii got her leg over Yoshida's head while Yoshida was standing, and was able to go into the armbar once she got Yoshida onto her back. Fujii's one pro wrestling high spot was super creative, taking Yoshida over with a hurracarrana, but instead of going into the pin, she flowed into an Achilles' tendon hold, then switched to a half crab. They rarely released the opponent, chaining one submission attempt after another where they kept adjusting until they decided to switch the point of attack. Fujii had Yoshida on the defensive from the get go, using the Imanari roll, a jumping leg lock, some crazy jumping guard pull sweep into an armbar, & a flying armbar that Yoshida was saved was from by the 1st round bell. The weakness of the match was Fujii was so obviously superior to Yoshida on the mat that there wasn't a lot of space for Yoshida to try to compete with her there, so she was almost pushed into using her pro wrestling oriented offense, similar to how Yoshida's opponents would generally try to beat her in standup because the ground was a losing battle. Yoshida kind of had success with pro wrestling techniques due to the element of surprise. For example, Yoshida got a pedigree in after stuffing Fujii's second double leg takedown. Yoshida has never been so owned on the mat, and she took some of her frustration out by stomping Fujii even after she got to the ropes. In general, these diversions didn't help the quality of the match, particularly Yoshida's phony punch combo in the corner, and they sometimes felt out of place. The action managed to kick up a couple more gears late in the 2nd, and this time Fujii was saved by the bell from Yoshida's spider twist. The third round was just nuts, working at overdrive, doing one speedy submission or air raid crash counter after another. I'm probably making it sound like the match was less competitive than it actually was, the whole thing was back & forth a light speed one way or another, and though Fujii seemed to be dominant, it was more that she's an all-time great athlete who is a lot more dynamic, and has otherworldly speed and explosion. Yoshida might answer her move for move, but you've never seen someone in a pro wrestling ring that's going so hard & fast on the ground as Fujii. She really made every movement seem important to her goal of winning. The third round in particular was both having answers for everything their opponent could possibly think up, with Yoshida really pushing herself to the absolute maximum of her capabilities to keep up with the ease and fluidity of Fujii's counters, attacks, and adjustments. Fujii may be new to this style of fighting, but virtually everything she did was performed with the speed and confidence of someone who does it in her sleep. Fujii eventually made the mistake of getting sucked into striking, and Yoshida wound up winning the match with a backslide at 3:30 of round 3, which obviously wasn't the most convincing finish, but it was logical in the sense that it's something Fujii wouldn't expect or be used to defending. Fujii unfortunately didn't return often because she was off conquering the world, but Yoshida, who was by far the most successful trainer of the past 3 decades in terms of turning athletes into quality workers, did send her students to roll with Fujii, who was still instrumental during the Ibuki era. This was a truly unique match, showcasing state of the art technical skill. If the question is how pro wrestling can meaningfully exist in an MMA world, one answer is Yoshida vs. Fujii! I give this match 5 out of 5 stars. It's the best joshi puroresu match of 2003, and probably the best match of that year overall.


no nonsense, energetic, struggle, urgency

One of the best aspects of the Japanese shoot wrestling I love, particularly in the 1990s, was that they increasingly turned their pro wrestlers into martial artists by focusing the training on legitimately and practically defending themselves against opponents who were trying to dominate them, rather than what we see today, where even a successful MMA fighter such as Matt Riddle is immediately schooled in all of the most unrealistic aspects of pro wrestling to the point you can't tell he ever did the real thing. For the most part, martial artists need to learn how to bump so they don't get injured and how to fake their strikes so they don't injure their opponent or ruin the credibility of the match trying not to, but a lot of classical training just steers them away from all the good habits they bring from real competition. 

, but the matches themselves were almost never any good whether it was Antonio Inoki, who obviously couldn't be carried if he was the only one who actually knew what he was doing or Shinya Hashimoto, whose matches always seemed way more credible & dramatic when he fought a faker who understood how to tell the story rather than a real fighter who didn't understand how to fake it. Sure, there were 

Prime KENTA was one of the most fiery, energetic, and aggressive strikers the sport has ever seen. His game was charging full speed ahead, delivering wall to wall violence and aggression. He was normally a fighter that benefitted from having an opponent such as Naomichi Marufuji that brought different skills to the table, had a more diverse game, and the ability to work around the consistent and somewhat linear greatness KENTA would bring. 
Katsuhiko Nakajima wasn't that kind of opponent at all. In fact, he was arguably the most similar opponent KENTA ever wrestled. A teenage prodigy who won the national karate tournament sponsored by the Kyokushin Kaikan Matsui School in his first year of junior high school, Nakajima was thus earmarked for a career in MMA. He was recruited by Akira Maeda to join RINGS when he came of age, but unfortunately the Fighting Network had crumbled by the time that occurred. Maeda's old rival, Riki Choshu, swooped in and signed Nakajima for his new indy promotion Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling in December 2002, but even under Choshu's auspices, Nakajima made his pro debut at age 15 in an MMA match on September 6th, 2003, KOing Jason Leigh in 1 minute 25 seconds. This was the only MMA match of Nakajima's career though, and when Nakajima made his puroresu debut on January 5th, 2004 against future fan favorite Tomohiro Ishii at 15 years 9 months old, he became the youngest male wrestler ever to debut in Japan. 
WJ was but a blip on the radar, but it introduced Nakajima to Choshu's now superstar protege Kensuke Sasaki, a freelancer who then started his own training school and mini league, Kensuke Office, with his better half, former AJW great Akira Hokuto. Sasaki became a surrogate father to his top protege Nakajima, who was raised by his mother in a single parent home. This program against the more established 27-year-old KENTA was designed to help bring the then 20-year-old Nakajima up to KENTA's level. 
Despite the incredible talent and desire these two possessed, the quality of their matches together varied quite a bit. This was perhaps even weirder because the matches themselves are often too similar for their own good. The performers certainly had great chemistry, and understood each other well, but it was largely a mirror match. While sometimes they exceeded expectations, delivering a super aggressive, urgent, abnormally stiff kick oriented contest where they were charging full speed ahead at one another, rushing in the best sense of the term, sometimes they didn't because they just had too much time to kill. This may not be the most successful program overall, but it exemplifies much more than most how seemingly subtle differences can actually have a huge effect on the overall quality of a program. 
When KENTA vs. Nakajima was firing on all cylinders, it was an intense, energetic, all-out striking war in the junior heavyweight style. They utilized their speed and athleticism to bolster the quality and diversity of their striking, but weren't limited to merely kicking, even though that was their primarily focus. In a period that wasn't noted for high effort and high workrate men's matches, Nakajima vs. KENTA managed to perform at a really high level, despite regularly being undermined by match times that hampered their ability to feature their strengths and hide their weaknesses. When booked to a somewhat reasonable length, they were able to go hard throughout, while escalating the intensity and aggression. When they were forced into 30+ minute wannabe epics, they had to stretch things out and slow things down, and their lack of diversity and storytelling became more apparent, with the matches becoming more repetitive and less explosive. 
Their first match took place in Kensuke Office on June 13, 2008 at Osaka Prefectural  Gym #2. It was clearly their most original match, with the rest of the series being minor variations of the style, ideas, and offense utilized here. They delivered a full speed ahead aggressive battle. They weren't as all in on striking and "realism" as in their subsequent matches, utilizing a wider variety of attacks. There were more flashy, athletic, and flying kicks, including solebutts, missile kicks, running front kicks, and question mark kicks from Nakajima. It was their most junior style match overall, with more running and jumping, as well as less time watching and waiting. They focused on elevating Nakajima, having him match KENTA at every turn. Despite being 27 minutes 35 seconds, this match never felt long. Though there were some ebbs and flows in the intensity, they always seemed to be doing something useful, and knew how to get away with leaving the striking battles then going back to them, so they were able to find a good balance that kept us wanting more without getting burned out. They immediately drew us in with a great, shot out of a cannon exchange of front kicks until Nakajima tried a leapfrog only to get knocked out of the air with a jumping front kick. The early portion was all parity, and they continued to match each other's kicks until Nakajima hit his sankakugiri (or triangle kick). KENTA gained the initial advantages because he was the first to change things up in the exchanges, but Nakajima began attacking the knee after catching a kick, and took over with a knee breaker on the guardrail. Nakajima got too ambitious though, charging at KENTA on the outside, only to get leg tripped into the guardrail and fireman's carried onto it to set up KENTA's rib work. The submissions they threw in allowed them to keep going all out in stand-up, but because they were targeted to the weakened body parts, and were reasonably wrenched on, they didn't come off as rest holds the way they did in some of their lesser matches. That being said, the submissions never really helped any of their matches, and this match wasn't particularly focused. It was more about beating each other at their own game since they are so similar. They would take what was available, but they wanted to knock each other out one way or another. The match built up well, and just kept getting more interesting as they answered each other so effectively, increasingly working more and more big moves into the mix. One of the problems with the series was that the finishes usually felt kind of random. In this case, they could have used an actual transition rather than KENTA just answering with a series of high kicks until Nakajima was out on his knees, then hitting the go to sleep for the win. This was their 2nd best match. I give it ****1/4
Their second match on February 11, 2009 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall for KENTA's GHC Junior Heavyweight Title was once again hosted by Kensuke Office. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that two junior heavyweights with similar striking oriented offense are not likely to benefit from being forced to exchange hard shots for nearly 40 minutes, but they nonetheless decided to add that extra 11 minutes. KENTA especially is a diminishing returns sort of wrestler, as some of his biggest strengths are his energy, aggression, and explosiveness. Everything was really slowed down here, feeling nonchalant compared to the previous classic. It was slow with some occasional bursts, marred by too many rest holds, and a lack of urgency. The striking lost a lot of its charm because they were standing around waiting on each other, and repeating the same blows over and over. The match was never dull, in fact it was very well executed and credibly performed, but there was literally no reason for it to be 38:53. As you'd expect, there wasn't a whole lot of story. In this amount of time, one is likely to land repeatedly to any number of spots, and clearly whatever effect the handful of rib moves from KENTA and neck moves from Nakajima might have had was lessened by being so spread out they practically could have been incidental. Nakajima trying to slow things down to keep KENTA off his tempo made sense, but felt less like a strategy, and more a necessity KENTA wasn't exactly fighting against. Certainly, the match lacked the zip and pep that distinguishes KENTA's best work. Nakajima did a good job in his role as counterwrestler. The highlight of the early portion was Nakajima injuring KENTA's midsection by using his own go 2 sleep on him. KENTA did more damage to Nakajima's stomach with a diving footstop off the apron followed by one off the top to the floor. KENTA also countered a pescado with a middle kick. If these bits of focus weren't separated by long periods of kicking and selling, the match would have gained a lot more momentum. Instead, it was a match that had a number of random good spots, just not enough to make up for all the problems they had filling the time. There was a lot of good action on the floor, highlighted by KENTA's falcon arrow off the apron. They were able to pick it up tremendously for the last 10 minutes, and this portion showed the sort of match they were capable of. While the faster finishing segment saved it for me, the escalation actually seemed at odds with the match they had been doing. Underdog Nakajima tended to be on his back foot, but was able to do things such as turn the go 2 sleep into a Frankensteiner for a near fall. Nakajima was ultimately able to score the upset with an awkward death roll that seemed a pretty feeble finisher after all this time and effort. This was their 4th best match. I give it ***1/4
All of their subsequent matches were hosted by Pro Wrestling NOAH. After the disappointment of the previous match, these two really hit it out of the park for their March 1st, 2009 GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. The main difference was simply that at 25:45, the match was a more reasonable length, so they were able to go all out from start to finish. The result was a vintage KENTA match, a fast paced, aggressive striking war where neither would back down. There was enough differentiation to keep things fresh and interesting, and they told a much better, more compact story by removing much of the filler around the key points. Nakajima was more confident now that he had defeated KENTA, believing in himself as champion. He injured KENTA's knee early, and then kept cutting KENTA's striking comebacks off by going back to it. KENTA was always battling from behind, fighting both Nakajima and his own ailing body. KENTA thrives on raw energy and aggression, but Nakajima knew how to keep shutting him right down, and this knee strategy kept KENTA from ever building momentum. This was their best story match. It wasn't as fast paced as their 6/13/08 match, but the pacing was better, as they were able to pick things up and slow things down at the right moments, so while it wasn't a sprint, it was never a slog where they were just going at half speed, throwing in a bunch of extra selling. The opening striking exchange was fantastic! They were charging with front kicks, which evolved into Nakajima getting kicked out of mid-air trying a leapfrog. Nakajima was able to duck a penalty kick, but KENTA jumped over a suimengiri (or spinning leg sweep), and tried for another penalty kick. However, Nakajima ducked again by dropping to his back, and after trading solebutts, they put each other down with simultaneous high kicks. This was a somewhat contrived sequence in theory, but it was very surprising, and done with so much speed and aggression that it seemed far less choreographed than it actually was. To some extent, this opening sequence was just flash, but it still set up the first portion of substance, where an aggressive exchange of middle kicks led to KENTA injuring Nakajima's knee by countering with a Dragon screw. Nakajima had so much more confidence here, and that translated to having so many more answers. I liked how the sequences were developing, as they weren't telling the knee story in such an obvious, deliberate, and predictable fashion. For instance, the next key spot was Nakajima Dragon screwing KENTA into the middle rope, but this evolved out of a lengthy sequence where KENTA reversed an Irish whip, but missed his avalanche when Nakajima escaped to the apron, then KENTA thought he was going to kick Nakajima off the apron, only to have his kick caught again. Now Nakajima was on the knee full-time, and KENTA was taking amazing bumps on these Dragon screws to make them look extra damaging, doing a great job of putting over the injury in general. The struggle felt more believable than in their other matches, less like they were cooperating and waiting around for each other. They did a better job of incorporating the striking, with KENTA using it for comebacks, trying to gain momentum with a series, while Nakajima used it to cut KENTA off. Nakajima was targeting the knee with his strikes when he could, while KENTA tried to catch kicks so he could counter into his go 2 sleep finisher. The striking segments were more believable because there were more instances of someone throwing more than once shot in a row, rather than politely waiting to be hit back, and they also countered more often. KENTA's knee was a story throughout. He still ran and jumped, but had a hard time getting back up, even after his own offense. KENTA was able to consistently sell here without it slowing down the match in a negative manner that trades off flow for story. The fact that they had a clear focus, but at the same time could also allow the match to breathe made for a much more dynamic and interesting match, as the action could be more varied and less predictable. KENTA could have chosen to be more careful, but that would have provided more opportunities for Nakajima to attack the knee, so instead KENTA chose to turn the speed and aggression up another notch or two, just trying to get as many attacks as he could in before the inevitable knee retaliation. KENTA was finally able to turn things around with a Death Valley bomb off the ramp. Both sold after Nakajima cut KENTA off with his death roll the 2nd time, and at this point you felt they'd moved on from the body work to trying to finish the fight. After KENTA couldn't finish with the penalty kick, they had a desperate exchange where KENTA ducked the high kick, but ate a superkick to set up the death roll, only to have KENTA counter and finish Nakajima with his go 2 sleep to regain the title. This was a great match, the best of the 6 they had together. I give it ****1/2
Their October 25th, 2009 Sapporo Teisen Hall match being a 30 minute draw probably had more to do with wanting to protect the fighters records in something of a small show interpromotional match. The lack of result played a big part in KENTA failing to advance to the semifinals, and thus the belt being switched to Yoshinobu Kanemaru without KENTA actually dropping it to him. This overlong match was obviously even less likely to be outstanding than the 2/15 one because both men were surely banged up by the end of this long, grueling singles league. They did most of what they did in their previous great match, they just didn't do it nearly as well, so it was even less of a positive that they weren't really doing anything new or different. It never felt like there was even a possibility of this being less than 25 minutes. It was less story oriented, and since there was no finish to build to, they didn't put too much effort into the structuring, just kind of doing all their good things in a more random manner. This was ultimately more of a solid match where they got by on their skill and talent than an exciting one. It was interesting and entertaining enough, but it didn't gain momentum or have the bursts of action to make up for the slower parts like their previous match. It was their most striking oriented match so far, and while fairly credible and believable, it was also slow and narrow, and they were standing in front of each other too much. It felt elongated because they were adding pedestrian offense and rest holds, in addition to taking more time between each strike. There were still moments of excellence, though too few and too far between, as the match never really took off. Nakajima was mostly selling, and he doesn't sell as well as KENTA. KENTA was more consistent with his rib attack, at least early on, and the match was well performed. It was basically just a house show match that didn't really add much to what they had done better in previous matches though. I enjoyed the fighting in the back of the building by the wall, which was mostly just another kicking exchange, but it had more urgency than the ones they were doing in the ring. Toward the end, there was a nice spot where KENTA countered Nakajima's triangle kick by dropkicking him out of mid-air. Another great spot saw Nakajima land on his feet for a Tiger suplex, but KENTA countered his charge with a cutter. There was a nice sequence where Nakajima caught KENTA's leg to counter the go 2 sleep. He tried to turn into an ankle lock, but KENTA actually rolled for his own ankle lock rather than just lay there like an idiot, so Nakajima had to immediately answer with his own roll to maintain his initial advantage and prevent KENTA from ever getting his own ankle lock. This was their 5th best match. I give it ***1/4
After 4 fights as juniors, including trading the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title, it was only fitting that Nakajima's 1st GHC Heavyweight title challenge came against KENTA. This October 5th, 2013 encounter at Yokohama Bunka Gym came towards the end of KENTA's big title reign, and he was trying to tie Takeshi Morishima for 3rd all time with 8 defenses. As you'd expect given it was a 33:41 heavyweight title match, this was a slower and less urgent version of what they had been doing 4 years earlier, although since it was a big show main event, they added a few more dangerous moves. For the most part, this was two great wrestlers devolving into all the pitfalls and tropes of modern wrestling, doing a meandering, repetitive match that went on and on without going anywhere. There were too many no defense toe to toe 50/50 strike exchanges, and it was also plagued by rest holds passing as submissions to pad the time. KENTA had 1 burst, but otherwise, it was slow and lacked even a lot of the story they'd tried to put into their previous matches. It was their most kicking oriented match, with some of the most impressive thudding you'll hear on every shot, but at this length, their lack of diversity became an issue. Their usual knee and rib stories weren't particularly fleshed out, and played little to no role during the later stages. The match was mostly built around strike exchanges patterned after their mentors, Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki, except these two used middle kicks rather than chops. Taking a detour all the way to the stage in the back just for a penalty kick, which doesn't benefit or become any more dangerous from being on the stage, then fighting all the way back to the ring was mostly emblematic of how meandering this match was becoming. The finish saw KENTA finally break up one of their 50/50 middle kick exchanges, almost finishing Nakajima off with a series of fast overhand palms followed by a couple of high kicks with Nakajima on his knees. KENTA was then able to hit the go 2 sleep for the win. These two really battered and blistered each other, but unfortunately the match was little more than who could withstand more big kicks. This was their worst match. I give it ***
Their final meeting took place just a few weeks later on October 27th, 2013 at Sapporo Teisen Hall, as part of the Global League 2013. At 19:52, we finally got a reasonable length match, but as with their 10/25/09 match, it was on a small show in the midst of another long, grueling league. The effort was reasonably not as high as in their big title match from earlier in the month. However, the more manageable length kept them from having to worry about simply surviving an endless match, and allowed them to utilize their energy more efficiently, resulting in their best match together since March 1st, 2009. Being compressed kept it from becoming repetitive, as they were able to do their better stuff once without having to worry about filling the time. Having more activity and movement was a benefit, and they just did a better job of building up to the finish, rather than simply pacing themselves throughout. Their October 5th match was very brutal, but probably because they were less interested in killing each other for a few hundred people, they decided to go back to doing more of a junior heavyweight style, which played a lot better than a less urgent, lower intensity striking match would have. I found the athletic moves to be an improvement over consistent kicking, and even their striking was more interesting, if less stiff than their staple standing exchanges, as they incorporated more combination attacks. While this match was only good at the start, it's the only one where they really increased the pace and intensity dramatically, building up to something that was arguably four star level in the second half. The biggest issue with this match is the finisher wasn't very believable, as after they'd absorbed 9 zillion big kicks throughout the series, going from KENTA almost having the match won to Nakajima suddenly finishing him out of nowhere after one rather pedestrian high kick was just bizarre. I give this match ***1/2
After so many matches in the early portion of their career, it's somewhat surprising that they haven't faced off in the last 11 years. With KENTA joining WWE in the middle of 2014, and then New Japan in 2019 when he requested his release from WWE, ending what he described as "the most frustrating days of my life", they've never been in the same place at the same time. At this point, we're probably better off if they let their prime era work speak for itself.




I don't find that any of the matwork is particularly helpful. It's slow, resting pro wrestling oriented stuff that's not really adding to the credibility to go along with the "shoot" striking, and it's kind of dull, without much movement or working in and out of the holds, so it's not really adding to the junior or coolness factor. Some of it such as Nakajima's figure 4 is targeted to the weakened area
Naomichi Marufuji was much better at carrying the matches than these two, and while he didn't do the striking portions nearly as well, he was better at basically every other aspect, and brought some much needed diversity and creativity






Yujiro Kushida was born May 12, 1983 in Tokyo, Japan. When he was 7 years old, he was practicing wrestling moves like Liger bombs in his bedroom with his pillows. He was trained in both MMA and pro wrestling while he was still in junior high school. He did professional MMA from 2003 to 2005. He had eight MMA matches and was undefeated. Multiple MMA promotions offered him a contract. However, Kushida decided to retire from MMA and start a pro wrestling career instead.

He went to Mexico and was trained in lucha libre Mexicana by El Oriental (a member of the Moreno family) in Mexico. Kushida made his debut in Mexico on September 18, 2005. He returned to Japan in 2006 and started working for the HUSTLE promotion after being scouted by TAJIRI, who took him under his wing. KUSHIDA made his Japanese pro wrestling debut on September 7, 2006 in the HUSTLE promotion, a promotion founded by Nobuhiko Takada. At the time, the promotion considered their style ‘fighting opera’ style, which was ironically fitting, because about 12 and a half years later, KUSHIDA would join a sports-entertainment company elsewhere. 

KUSHIDA started competing for All Japan Pro-Wrestling (AJPW) in the summer of 2007. In 2008, he made appearances in Osaka Pro Wrestling. In 2009, he spent time in American and Canadian indy promotions. Once he returned to Japan in 2010, he started wrestling for the SMASH promotion. He started wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and participated in their annual Best Of the Super Juniors (BOSJ) tournament in 2010 as well. He was impressive enough to be offered a full-time New Japan contract in 2011. He spent the majority of the 2010s in New Japan. His final matches for New Japan that decade took place in January 2019. Later that year, he left the puroresu world and became a sports-entertainer for a certain company in the United States. 

Here's a little history lesson about KUSHIDA's main finishing submission move, the Kimura lock (also known as the hoverboard lock). On 10/23/51, Masahiko Kimura (a Japanese judoka who had an infamous pro wrestling match against Rikidozan in 1954) defeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ founder Helio Gracie in the famous Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the story goes, Kimura was greeted with raw eggs and insults by the Brazilian crowd. However, Kimura executed an armlock but Gracie did not surrender so Kimura rotated Gracie's arm until it broke. Gracie still refused to give up, resulting in Kimura breaking the arm a second time. As Kimura was about to break the arm a third time, Gracie's corner threw the towel in and that gave Kimura the win in that match in 1951. That's why this brutal submission hold is known as the Kimura. 

KUSHIDA was one of the very best junior heavyweight pro wrestlers of the mid and late 2010s. Along with being one of the best at figuring out how to incorporate his MMA background into junior heavyweight style matches, he was also an extremely gifted athlete and a diverse worker who didn't have to limit his opponents to working a certain style, and in fact, preferred to challenge himself, and thus everyone involved. He was capable of having a high-quality match against virtually any capable opponent. He was involved in a good number of matches that were excellent or better. He was an excellent in-ring storyteller with excellent wrestling psychology.

One of the best things about watching KUSHIDA matches is that you won’t get to see the same match over and over, as instead you’ll get a lot of variety. Though he had success in his brief MMA career, his beginnings in puroresu were much more humble. KUSHIDA certainly came a long way. Even though the quality of his matches improved tremendously as his career moved forward, some of his innate qualities that facilitated these improvements were his passion, dedication, and admirable work ethic. While he wasn't a product of the New Japan dojo, his status in the promotion rose very quickly, and he wound up easily being the most important Japanese wrestler in their junior heavyweight division during the second half of the 2010s.

Here is my overall conclusion of KUSHIDA’s career…

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, he was okay. He already showed that he was talented, but he was still figuring things out.

In 2009 and 2010, he was decent. Not only did his athleticism make him stand out, but he also started becoming better at being a smart in-ring performer.

In 2011, he was good. He had become a full-time member of the New Japan roster and started working with their top junior heavyweights on a regular basis.

From 2012 through 2015, he was excellent. Had improved significantly, and he really started coming into his own and was clearly top talent.

In 2016, 2017 and 2018, he was great. This was the peak era of his career, and some of his performances from this era were some of the most memorable performances in the history of the New Japan junior heavyweight division.

From 2019 onward, his career wasn’t that outstanding anymore, as he ended up spending three years as a sports-entertainer in the States, which caused him to lose the momentum he had built up as a top worker in Japan. When he returned to Japan in the summer of 2022, he failed to live up to his previous reputation. That was partially due to the fact that three years of sports-entertainment in the States had detrimental effects on his in-ring work, but New Japan booker Gedo’s poor-quality booking of KUSHIDA in 2022 and beyond also played a role. Still, KUSHIDA’s work and performances were good, even after his sabbatical.

KUSHIDA was able to make the most of the situation in many different settings whether it be the New Japan junior heavyweight division, the smaller Japanese promotions, or the foreign excursions early in his career. In the early North American matches, he showed that he could adapt to the North American scene and work heelish (while he generally worked as a sympathetic babyface type worker most of his career). He certainly showed that he could be a great rudo in lucha libre Mexicana. He also appeared on shows in the British Isles and impressed people over there as well. He even played his role well on ‘fighting opera’ and sports-entertainment shows. KUSHIDA has always been able to incorporate the lucha style he was trained in very well into all these different settings. When you factor in that he has an MMA background as well, it's safe to say that he's really been able to work a wide variety of styles and be successful at it. In some ways, he's basically a ‘jack of all trades’ (and arguably a master of none).

One of his main strengths was his versatility, and this played a big role in him having a history of excellent matches with a wide variety of opponents. His ability to carry opponents in a selfless manner was incredibly useful for the overall quality of the matches he was involved in. Plus, he always seemed to give a good effort at the very least. He was arguably the most consistent junior heavyweight of the 2010s. He would have a good to a very good match on a regular basis, and he was involved in a good number of matches that were excellent or better. His work was often so smooth that it's sometimes easy to take for granted how much of an all-round wrestler he was and how much he was able to enhance the quality of matches.

KUSHIDA should be remembered as one of the best Japanese junior heavyweight wrestlers of the mid and late 2010s. He was the junior heavyweight ace of the 2010s. Along with being able to work an impressive number of matches that were excellent or great, his ability also translated into many kayfabe accomplishments. He won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title on six occasions, he won the Best Of the Super Juniors tournament twice and he won the 2016 Super J-Cup, among other title and tournament victories. When it comes to the booking, there were times when New Japan could have done more with him (especially in 2013), because at times he got lost in the shuffle for a bit by being booked in many multi-man matches (although that seems to be an ongoing issue with Gedo's booking in general). Gedo’s booking of KUSHIDA in 2018 also could have been better, and let’s not even begin to talk about 2022 and beyond.

When you think of some of the great history-making junior heavyweights from previous eras, like Satoru Sayama and Jushin Thunder Liger, KUSHIDA represented a new era, but very few wrestlers have accomplished what KUSHIDA did in the 2010s, as he was a very important wrestler for that decade. He'll go down as one of the all-time greats, and he's arguably one of the 40 greatest men's pro wrestlers ever.

Here is a list of KUSHIDA’s 15 best matches! 

10/9/17:

KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay. The match started off with some really spectacular moves. KUSHIDA dropkicked Ospreay over the guardrail, and as KUSHIDA was about to hit a move after jumping off a chair that he had placed on the floor, Ospreay was one step ahead and caught KUSHIDA in mid-air. When Ospreay went for the space flying tiger drop, KUSHIDA caught him in mid-air with an armbar! Ospreay was definitely giving his best effort here, and KUSHIDA once again showed his tremendous all-round qualities as a wrestler. They clearly wanted to do something different here and that certainly made for an interesting match. This was even better than their great BOSJ final match, because this match had more urgency and was wrestled at a faster pace. Also, it was interesting to see them having learned from each other’s moves, which meant they were avoiding each other’s moves more often instead of simply letting the other do whatever they pleased and going along with it. This was a super exciting match. The action was non-stop, and they didn’t give the viewer a chance to even consider looking away. Great match. 4.75 stars.

Today we're looking at Konosuke Takeshita vs. Will Ospreay, the best match from the good AEW Revolution 2024 PPV on March 3, 2024 at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, which was Will's debut as a full-time AEW wrestler. Will Ospreay is the recent AEW signing that actually possesses talent rather than simply being the beneficiary of one big marketing machine or another trying to convince us of such. When it comes to the ability to precisely perform athletic manuevers, few have ever been better. His ability to control and manipulate his body for any sequence or counter is so far beyond what almost anyone else can do that it's sometimes hard to even appreciate the level of difficulty of what he's doing because he makes it all look so effortless. If wrestling were purely mechanical, he might be the best, but unfortunately his strengths don't extend far beyond the physical. Ospreay is always going to work hard, and work well, spamming one big move after another, but it's really up to his opponent whether or not it's going to amount to anything. Konosuke Takeshita has also been one of the best wrestlers in recent times, and he both succeeded and failed in utilizing Will in this one. Takeshita was able to guide Will through an entertaining spotfest in a swift and compact fashion, the key fact that he just kept things moving being crucial because it kept things from devolving into Will utilizing cringy mannerisms while the flash dissapated. Ospreay's overrated February 18th, 2024 RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match against Michael Oku is a perfect example of a match that didn't live up to its potential because there was no one to carry it, and the best idea they could come up with to fill the ridiculous 47 minutes with their 15 minutes of spots was to just stop after literally every move like it was 1985 WWF. Takeshita was clearly in control here, dictating the pace and tempo, and keeping Will on point, doing what he does well. Takeshita pretty much left things at that though. He didn't make any attempt to create any rhyme or reason for what they were doing, or to make anything dramatic or meaningful. He just did the best version he could of Will's video game match where everything and nothing felt like an actual big move until Will, as usual, beat him with the worst move he did all night. Unlike the Takeshita vs. Chris Jericho match from February 7th, 2024 where Takeshita practically had to move in reverse so as to not leave Jeriatric in the dust, there were times when Takeshita had his hands full just keeping up with Ospreay. Though the level of difficulty was miles higher than anything else on the show, by more or less sticking to moves they do rather than incorporating super crazy special spots for the PPV, they were able to make a match where every spot was somewhat equally impressive work well enough largely based upon the constant forward drive. This wasn't the case with Sting playing with his friends and relatives in the collection of barely cohesive and connected setpieces that closed the show, where Darby Allin taking one of the craziest bumps in the history of mainstream wrestling should have been set up, built around, and given meaning and purpose. The work in Takeshita vs. Will was next level, with the amazing speed and athleticism of Will making almost every spot look that much more impressive than usual, and Takeshita being equally effortless despite being a relatively large man. No one can chain a backflip into an enzuigiri the way Will can. Takeshita did his best to use his physicality to control. He brought a lot of huge impact striking and bombs, and Will was able to match him with his own one shot knockdowns when he needed to. You could really hear and feel the impact of all these strikes and power moves. Takeshita got a near fall countering the Oscutter into the blue thunder bomb. While they picked all of this sort of the low hanging fruit with one wrestler intercepting their charging or flying opponent, there weren't many sequences that were particularly evolved or counters that were surprising or clever, which is one of the reasons this doesn't stand out the way Will's matches against Zack Sabre Jr. do. It was a highly athletic contest between two of the greatest athletes where it was easy to appreciate the car crashes, but it doesn't feel like many individual spots or sequences really need to be discussed, as their goal wasn't build or staying power. Takeshita avoiding the Frankensteiner off the top and seemingly trying to hit a sheer drop brainbuster out of the corner stood out mostly because Will's lower back and the back of his knee were what actually hit the turnbuckle, causing a scrape just above his top of his pants. The finish was notable in the sense that this was the point where they busted out something next level crazy, but quickly became groan inducing because Will used one of the most dangerous and deadly looking finishers ever, the Tiger driver '91, which in the All Japan days was preserved by Mitsuharu Misawa as a way to finally get out of the ring in one of the toughest title matches of the year, merely to set up winning with that silly thing where he flicks his elbow straight. This was nonetheless a lot of fun. It was extremely well executed, technically precise stuff, and they packed everything they could think of into their 21 minutes 57 seconds. I give this match ***3/4 stars out of 5.


Ospreay brought out some hokey spastic fighting spirit nonsense once, but arguably the goofiest aspect was Takeshita selling a great rolling elbow by contorting his hands. 


collard vs burgos

Today we're looking at the best PFL fight of 2023, a PFL Lightweight Semifinal between "Cassius" Clay Collard and Shane Burgos from PFL 9 on August 23, 2023 from New York's The Theater at Madison Square Garden. This fight sounded great on paper, as both are very good fighters who provide great action, and are leading candidates to win Fight of the Night by delivering another banger. They didn't disappoint, providing us with the exceptional, high output war we expected. Collard has 18 pro boxing matches since 2017, and while his 9-6-3 record is indicitive of it being a payday and some on the job training, against fighters who only train MMA striking, he's not only far more technical, but also one of the best and most relentless punchers in the sport. That's basically what he brings, strong consistent boxing offense to all quadrants and good boxing defense, which means upper body and head movement. Collard did his thing here, landing 193 strikes in this match, 178 of which were punches, and his relentlessness was typically hard to handle. Collard does have a strong high school wrestling background, though unless things go awry, he's basically just employing it defensively, trying to stay on his feet so he can knock the opponent out. "Hurricane" Shane Burgos is a warrior as well, and while it would probably have been to his strategic benefit to try to utilize his grappling, as he has a good takedown, ground striking and submission game, he was not surprisingly willing to stand toe to toe with Collard, absorbing the initial barrage in order to land his own counters back. Collard was the more aggressive of the two, but anytime Burgos had a chance, he took advantage of Collard's poor kicking defense, beating up his legs. Collard may have dominated the punch stats, but Burgos landed 49 out of 57 leg strikes, and by the third round Collard could barely step. Collard doesn't have great movement to begin with, but his game still relies on being able to enter and exit efficiently, especially so he can work his body punches, which are the key to his effectiveness given he isn't threatening the body or legs with kicks or takedown attempts. Even though the opponent knows that Collard is just going to come in with a punch combo, it is much more difficult to defend than it sounds because he mixes quadrants so well, and is one of the best body punchers in MMA, often starting his combinations with one or two punches to the body rather than the traditional jab to the head. Although Collard is a volume striker in terms of overall activity, he isn't a Diaz sort of slapper, he really digs in, especially on the body punches when he is able to combine them with forward movement. Burgos was doing targeted damage, but not quite fast enough, especially as he lacked an immediate method to quell Collard's excessive striking volume. Collard hurt Burgos with a left hook late in the first round to seal that round. In the second round, Burgos began to fight smarter, throwing the low kick and then exiting, which forced Collard to come to him. Collard's best striking came from stepping forward with the body hook, but now that Burgos was doing a better job of controlling distance, Collard was forced to use more jabs because he was finding himself out of range a lot more often. The fight seemed to be trending in Burgos' direction when Collard did a backward roll away for the second time in the fight after taking a big calf kick. Dan Hardy suggested that the reason Collard hadn't switched stances was that his back leg may also be in bad shape. Collard came right back with a left hook knock down though, which shows the value of all his body work because he was down low like he was perhaps going to the body again, but instead came right over the top to the chin, and Burgos couldn't do anything about it because he was already committed to his own counterpunch. Burgos was 7-0 in his hometown of New York, but with the late knockdown ensuring Collard won the 2nd round, a decision victory now seemed very unlikely. Burgos was forced into desperation mode, standing toe to toe with Collard even more often in the 3rd, rather than forcing Collard to use what was left of his legs to come to him. We can focus on Collard being compromised, but a lot of fighters would have been done after Collard's 2nd round knockdown, so it was amazing to see Burgos be able to adjust his strategy and finally win the 3rd round. Burgos began finishing all his combinations with the inside leg kick, and at this point Collard wasn't really able to fire back with much because he couldn't really move forward to get into range, or use his lower body to get anything behind the shots he did manage throw. Instead of stepping forward to close the distance, Collard had to just kind of fake it, leaning forward with arm punches, which dramatically limited his ability to actually reach Burgos. Though Collard was largely forced to throw jabs on the outside while waiting for Burgos to come to him, this was somewhat effective because Burgos couldn't be passive or play the waiting game given he needed to finish. Collard was still gutting it out, eating a jab while hopping into range if Burgos didn't "cooperate" with this strategy. Burgos was much more accurate and effective in the 3rd round because Collard was either stationary or very slow closing the distance. Burgos really broke Clay down, and I'm sure he would have won the fight had it been scheduled for 5 rounds. Unfortunately for Burgos, he just wasn't able to get the job done quickly enough. The activity of Collard was definitely a key as always, as even though Burgos' output was high, Collard still managed to throw twice as many strikes, attempting 438 to Burgos' 213. Collard would likely have slowed down somewhat in the 3rd round just from his crazy activity, but once again that was okay, because Burgos simply winning the last round wasn't enough, with Collard taking the unanimous decision 29-28. This was an excellent match that was clearly the highlight of PFL's year. Collard, who was dropped from the UFC twice, moved to 4-0 against UFC rejects with this victory, but unfortunately went on to lose the Lightweight Tournament Final to 12 time UFC competitor Olivier Aubin-Mercier on November 24, 2023.

robinson

Combat sports have been around for a very long time. Cave paintings depicting wrestling moves were found in France, and are believed to be more than 15,000 years old. The ancient Egyptians were practicing combat sports as early as 3400 BC. Scandinavian wrestling was practiced as early as 4000 years ago during the Viking age. Wrestling in England dates back to 1829 BC. Wrestling during the Greek Olympics dates back to 708 BC. Pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, essentially an ancient version of no-holds-barred fighting, became part of the Greek Olympics in 648 BC. When the Roman empire conquered Greece around 2 BC, it merged the Greek and Roman styles of wrestling to become the original version of Greco-Roman wrestling (later the French would start the modern-day version of Greco-Roman wrestling). The Japanese have been practicing sumo since at least 23 BC, Japanese jujutsu since the 1600s, and judo since 1850.

Catch-as-catch-can wrestling used to be practiced by coal miners and steelworkers in the north of England. Men who traveled the world, like those in the British army and navy, started to pick up all kinds of different fighting techniques and brought them back to England. That’s how wrestlers in the Lancashire region of England found a hybrid grappling style that was believed to be able to beat all the different combat styles. Catch wrestling incorporated influences from various different grappling styles, including several styles of wrestling from England (mainly Lancashire-style wrestling, which was a merger of English folk catch wrestling and wrestling styles from continental Europe), Irish collar-and-elbow wrestling, Japanese jujutsu and judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, Iranian pahlavani and Indian pehlwani.

By the end of the 19th century, catch wrestling had made its way to North America, and German-born American catch wrestler Ad Santel eventually taught the art of catch wrestling to Lou Thesz, one of the most legendary American wrestlers, who was one of the main opponents of the father of puroresu, Korean-Japanese former sumotori Rikidozan. One of Santel’s most famous feuds during his wrestling career took place from the mid 1910s till the early 1920s when he essentially practiced a form of proto-Mixed Martial Arts more than seven decades before the term MMA was coined, as the catch wrestler feuded with a Japanese judo dojo called Kodokan and battled several judoka. Catch wrestling was an important grappling style, especially since it had an influence on various combat sports one way or another, including freestyle amateur wrestling, professional wrestling, Russian sambo, Brazilian luta livre, Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

English catch wrestler Billy Riley founded a gym in Wigan, England. One of the main wrestlers who trained at Billy Riley’s gym to become a catch wrestler was Karl Gotch, a Belgium-born German amateur wrestler, who had competed at the 1948 Olympics as an amateur, became a pro wrestler in the 1950s, invented the German suplex, started wrestling in Rikidozan’s Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) in 1961, became known as ‘puroresu no kamisama’ (God of pro wrestling) in Japan and was one of the trainers of several legendary Japanese wrestlers in Japan.

This includes Antonio Inoki (who would end up founding New Japan Pro-Wrestling and challenging several martial artists from different disciplines), Tatsumi Fujinami (who would end up essentially being the first junior heavyweight star in New Japan), Satoru Sayama (who would end up being a junior heavyweight pioneer in New Japan, then would end up being one of the main performers in the original Japanese UWF, and would end up founding Shooto), Yoshiaki Fujiwara (who would end co-founding PWFG after training Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki), Akira Maeda (who ended up founding Newborn UWF in 1988 and RINGS in 1991), Masakatsu Funaki (who helped train Ken Shamrock and then ended up co-founding Pancrase) and Minoru Suzuki (who was a great shoot-style wrestler in the early 1990s and ended up co-founding Pancrase).

It was Karl Gotch who called Billy Riley’s gym 'The Snake Pit,' and the name stuck. Other than Gotch, there were several other notable wrestlers who trained at The Snake Pit and one of them was Billy Chambers (a.k.a. Jack Fallon), who is notable because he ended up becoming one of the trainers of 'The Dynamite Kid' Tom Billington. The Dynamite Kid briefly wrestled at the Snake Pit, but The Kid’s original trainer Ted Betley felt they were beating the Kid up too much over there and sent him to Fallon’s gym, where the Kid learned some catch wrestling.

Let’s talk about Billy Robinson. William Alfred Robinson was born on 9/18/38 in Manchester, England. He came from a family of fighters. His great-great grandfather Harry Robinson was a bare-knuckle boxing champion, his father Harry Robinson Jr. was a street fighter-turned-boxer, and his uncle Alf Robinson was a boxer and pro wrestler, and it was Alf who was the one who invited Karl Gotch to come to Wigan and discover catch wrestling. It was also Alf who suggested to Billy that he should become a professional wrestler. Billy’s dad, Harry Jr., recommended that 15-year old Billy should learn catch wrestling at the Snake Pit. Billy ended up coming back to the Snake Pit for years to keep learning the combat sport he referred to as physical chess, catch wrestling. Billy Robinson was taught by Billy Riley not only how to wrestle, but also how to learn and how to keep an open mind to different angles and possibilities.

Billy Robinson made his professional wrestling debut in 1958. In 1968, Robinson started touring Japan, and he wrestled for International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE), where he became one the first gaijin babyface superstars. After meeting Calgary wrestler Dave Ruhl in Japan, Robinson was booked for a tour in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling league in Western Canada, and this was Robinson’s first tour in North America. In Stampede, Robinson unexpectedly won the North American championship after Archie Gouldie walked out during the match. Soon after, Robinson challenged Dory Funk Jr. for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Title in a series of one-hour matches. The NWA World Heavyweight Title was at the time considered by many the most prestigious pro wrestling title in the world.

After wrestling in Stampede Wrestling for a bit, Robinson went to wrestle in Hawaii, which is where he met Verne Gagne, who happened to be there on a workation when Robinson was there, and Gagne ended up booking Robinson for Gagne’s American Wrestling Association in Minnesota. Robinson became a headliner in the AWA, and a teacher for wrestlers getting their career started in the AWA such as Curt Hennig, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter, Iron Sheik, Jim Brunzell, Buddy Rose and Ken Patera. In the AWA, one of Robinson’s main opponents was Nick Bockwinkel.

Billy Robinson always took his role seriously, and his role was that of a wrestler with a reputation of being one of the best technical wrestlers. He was also very proud of his catch wrestling roots. When he grabbed a hold, he grabbed it in an intense manner, and he wouldn’t just kinda faint-heartedly do things. One of the things that made Robinson stand out so much was the marriage of shoot-style with tumbling-style wrestling. Due to Robinson doing such a great job getting over the struggle, he was able to get away with incorporating some of the more theatrical bumps and athletic sequences into his matches. 

It appeared that Robinson always tried to stay true to himself no matter where he was or who his opponent was, yet he was still able to adapt to different styles and environments. Also, keep in mind that in those days, wrestlers didn’t worry about star ratings and there was no Internet, so it appears that it was more important for someone like Robinson to simply be the best they could be, and that’s why he was respected by many wrestlers, fans and promoters. Robinson was certainly the sort of wrestler that everyone in the arena and locker room took notice of. Everyone had an opinion of Robinson. In some leagues, many of his peers didn’t like him because he didn’t take it easy on people. In the AWA, Robinson wasn’t disliked, because Gagne wasn’t scared to work with him, as Gagne respected Robinson for his technical ability.

The British Lion is not only famous for his wrestling, but also for his training. Billy Robinson helped train some top-level English pro wrestlers in England, most notably Johnny Saint and Marty Jones. In Japan, Robinson was a coach for Japanese leagues IWE and UWF-I. He ended up being one of the trainers for Japanese wrestlers and fighters like Kiyoshi Tamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Shigeo Miyato and Manabu Inoue. Also, Robinson used to attend Pancrase shows to watch some of the people he helped train.

There have also been female wrestlers who were influenced by Robinson. Meiko Satomura and Megumi Fujii got the chance to get some advice from Robinson. In 2011, American MMA fighter turned pro wrestler Shayna Baszler attended training sessions with Robinson to improve her skills. Because of her fascination for catch wrestling, Baszler wants to help remind pro wrestlers that it’s supposed to be a fight. Baszler was even once quoted saying in an interview: “I don’t think Billy would be really happy with me as the representative of catch wrestling if I did a moonsault. I’m not saying I don’t like it, but I have a style to uphold.”

Billy Robinson passed away on 3/3/14 at the age of 75. Robinson didn’t have a gimmick, he was simply a great wrestler who stayed true to his catch roots. He was more realistic than many of the other wrestlers in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and you could say he was also more realistic than most wrestlers today. Robinson approached his matches in a way that put over the idea that he was trying to beat his opponent, as opposed to some of the goofy nonsense many other wrestlers have been doing over the past several decades. Robinson was influential in the Japanese shoot-wrestling scene and the MMA scene, through his wrestling career and coaching career. Pro wrestling and MMA have common roots, and Billy Robinson is the embodiment of that fact.

My overall conclusion of Billy Robinson's career is as follows:

There’s unfortunately no footage available of the first twelve years of his career. 

From 1970 through 1973, he was very good. He was in his mid 30s by then. There isn’t much footage available from this era, but his work appeared to be of very good quality.

In 1974 and 1975, he was excellent. There are at least a couple of excellent matches available from this part of his career, and Robinson really comes across as one of the best in the world in that footage.

From 1976 through 1980, he was great. During these years, he wrestled some of the very best matches of the time, most notably his matches against Jumbo Tsuruta.

In 1981, he was excellent. He started to slow down a bit, as he was in his mid 40s by then, but he was still able to provide excellent-quality work.

From 1982 through 1984, he was very good. His career was clearly winding down, but his ability and knowledge was still good enough for his work to be of interest.

In 1985 he was good. It was the last year he wrestled in All Japan Pro Wrestling. He had some matches elsewhere after 1985, but his career after 1985 wasn’t that memorable.

Billy Robinson was one of the last great catch wrestlers, the best pro wrestler of his generation, arguably the best British heavyweight wrestler of all time, and one of the top 25 or top 30 greatest men’s pro wrestlers ever. By watching his best matches from Japan, you could tell that Robinson was a decade or two ahead of most pro wrestlers when it came to his catch-like and basically proto-MMA approach to his matches, for example, like in his 12/11/75 match against proto-MMA pioneer Antonio Inoki. Robinson’s best feud was his feud against Jumbo Tsuruta, and these two great wrestlers had more than 20 singles matches against each other between 1976 and 1984. March 1977 was a particularly amazing month for pro wrestling, as Robinson vs. Tsuruta produced 3 memorable matches in 1 month, including two of the best matches of the ‘70s on 3/5/77 and 3/11/77. 

Here is a list of Billy Robinson’s 10 best matches!

Today we're looking at a really strong 2024 Match of the Year candidate, Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. from New Japan The New Beginning In Osaka 2024, February 11th at EDION Arena Osaka. Zack was really determined here, perhaps making one last bid at getting New Japan to finally recognize his greatness by building around him now that Will Ospreay has finished up, Kazuchika Okada is slithering away without putting anyone over, having not lost a singles match since the G1 Final on August 13 2023, and the remaining few stars are old and broken. Zack was on a mission tonight to earn this win rather than simply receive it, really seeming prepared both in storyline and in actuality for every hold Danielson could possibly throw at him, as well as tremendously stepping up his striking game so Danielson no longer had the notable advantage there that allowed him to win their great October 1st, 2023 match. This was easily their best match so far in literally every possible way except the finish. I've already detailed their previous 3 matches in this earlier video, so you might want to watch that video first. I was a bit suspect when I saw that New Japan had predictably added almost 10 minutes to the length, going up to 32:46 from the 23:12 of their AEW WrestleDream encounter. All the usual criticisms of the BS Road epic don't apply to this match though. This was a wholly engrossing, intense struggle from start to finish where their movements, counters, and emotions felt realistic and genuine. Everything they did, no matter how big or important the movement, no matter how early or late in the match, was done with purpose and conviction. They didn't waste any time, do anything that felt like resting or stalling, or take any shortcuts in the performance of the holds or pacing of the match. The match shockingly felt short because they did such an amazing job with the early portion that actually striking, doing a couple high spots, and a few near finishes almost felt like a cheat even though the striking had so much more impact and intensity than anything we've ever seen from them. They really just upped the ante on everything they were doing, so it felt like they were pulling out all the stops for the biggest match of their careers, even though nothing was actually on the line beyond theoretical ownership of the best technical wrestler in the world monicker, and we know that that and their 30 pounds will secure them the cheapest seat at Wembley Stadium for All In London 2024. It's really difficult to achieve, much less sustain such a high stakes feel throughout such a long match. Having seen the match time beforehand, I was actually dreading that their brilliance was coming to its conclusion, rather than my typical reaction to Gedo New Japan of being happy to have managed to survive 30 minutes of nothing so I'd finally get 5 minutes of their same old big moves. Rather than causing the audience to yawn at their latest inaction in order to stretch a few minutes of actual action into something epic in length only, Danielson & Sabre were not only able to work their entire fully developed match that was brimming with intricacies and useful tactics at essentially the same A+ level, but do so in a manner that kept you anticipating their next action, while admiring the current one.
This was not a simple match, but they developed simple stories of equality and one-upsmanship in ever more elaborate manners. It was both more fluid and more violent than their previous matches, which is a difficult line to straddle, but they had to keep escalating things just to gain simple, momentary advantages. Both were very stubborn in their desire to win technically at all costs, and there was a form of parity in this. They didn't do anything for the sake of it, so when they introduced a suplex, a jumping attack, or a near fall, it felt out of the ordinary and special, perhaps also a bit out of place in both a good and bad sense. 
The flowing early portion was the most World of Sport oriented of the match, building intensity through their loose, fluid movements for the lockups and the athletic explosions into takedown or submission attempts. It was a much more realistic 21st century take on the style without obvious cooperation. Though I am more awed by the pure, off the charts athleticism of Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey, their gymnastic tumbling oriented variation of the style is far closer to polite Lucha Libre ballet, while Danielson and Sabre opted for an ill-intent brand of technical wrestling that was less showy, but much more impactful. The consistent tone of this match where they were totally zoned in, refusing to even break eye contact early on, was important because one could envision some things they did such as both dropping to the ground simultaneously being a comedy spot in Michinoku Pro. There were very few instances where they got cute, but Danielson twisting out of the British surfboard and putting Sabre in one of his own, only to have Sabre escape by bridging and sneaking through Danielson's legs was part of the game of one upsmanship rather than clowning. 
The first key spot saw Danielson counter a standing guillotine with an arm whip, with Zack injuring his left knee rolling through into the ropes. This began the first series of control, with Danielson working over the leg. It was also the start of the battle of wills, as Danielson tried to get Zack to grab for the rope so he could take the arm for the Romero special, but Zack continually refused to make any necessary or unnecessary movement that might give Danielson an opening. Danielson thus opted towards impact rather than forcing the submission, jumping on the knees. When Danielson went back to the Romero special, he opened Zack up by attacking the nose, then used kidney punches to force Sabre to surrender his arms, again calculated impact serving the submission wrestling rather than diverting from it. 
Their roles were reversed this time since the crowd largely roots for the wrestler of the home promotion, but again, it didn't really matter. There was no posing or stalling to pad the time in either match, tonight Danielson being heel just meant that he was mercilously attacking Zack's knee, choosing his easiest potential path to victory without remorse.
Danielson countered the first magic screw, but Zack hurt his neck with it out of a series of snapmares, and began to turn things back into his favor. Both men displayed fantastic counter games, and that's the primary factor that allowed the match to succeed as an equal battle between technical masters. They sold their injuries, but for the most part without particularly delaying the action, with Zack hopping around on one leg in a later lockup being one of the best examples of how they showed that their condition had changed, but at the same time, they had to keep fighting.
Some people felt their WrestleDream match actually wasn't technical enough, as the grappling largely built up to having Danielson tactically shift to striking since simply winning the match was more important to him than winning the monicker, and as in a MMA match between experts in the same style, the best strategy is often for the more well rounded fighter to try to utilize their secondardy skill set or exploit a hole in the opponent's training. Today, strikes weren't a weakness for Sabre, as both were somehow striking with the violence of a prime era Katsuyori Shibata. This was the most startling aspect of the match, as I've never thought of striking as a strength of Sabre, and even though Danielson is a very good striker, he's more someone who does everything he dabbles into well than someone you feel is truly locked into savaging the opponent with every shot. The huge improvement in the believability of the strikes altered the feel of the match, adding a lot of desire, determination, and rawness to the proceedings, but these weren't necessarily the most important aspects. By beating the hell out of each other while in or working for submission moves, they succeeded in making the striking exchanges an organic, interweaved portion of their still more or less 100% technical match, rather than something that felt in opposition to it. The signature sequence saw both simultaneously utilizing the Achilles tendon hold, with Zack prodding with a slap then a kick exchange. This prompted Danielson to escalate things after annoyingly proclaiming, "you really wanna play this game?", at which point they truly went nuts with a sitting kick exchange while both continued holding onto their locks. Even though we saw some of this in the previous match, this was a much more violent variation that came off differently. Tonight's match felt a lot more like a fight that just didn't have a ton of standup, and was also a lot more emotional, as they struggled with their anger and frustration with, for once, being unable to firmly establish technical superiority, and balanced that against their stubbornness to just win in some other manner. The match purposely had very few near submissions because it was so focused on showing how equal they were. For me, this was an advantage because it kept them out of the overdramatized territory of straining credibility by staying in the submissions far too long. It's also one of the reasons the match never felt like too much, like spam and/or overkill. Thematically, the idea was that they were too good to really put each other in trouble because they both knew all the holds, and more importantly, all the counters. At least for me, the escapes were far more exciting than seeing one wrenching away while the other made faces as they very slowly slid over to the ropes. Zack finally wound up rolling off the ring apron to end the Achilles tendon hold exchange, leading to Danielson hitting the busaiku knee off the apron, which was the first conventional high spot of the match, more than 20 minutes in. Danielson then tried to come off the top rope, but Sabre did his counter into the triangle, and this evolved into the first real near submission. 
This is a difficult match to review in the sense that the abberations stand out for being different, but they are also the more conventional things they would do in their regular match against an ordinary, less skilled opponent, rather than the intricacies that made this stand out as a technical classic. The best part of this match were all the twists, turns, and rolls they made to alleviate the pressure, and possibly escape or counter. It's all the beautiful mirror or parity spots they pulled off to outsmart each other, except the opponent would also find a way to regain the advantage by throwing the same counter, or something similar, right back at them.
The big standing striking exchange would have worked better if Danielson had won with a leg kick, especially since he went right back to the leg after that. They simply weren't willing to relent or back down, which resulted in striking that was really above the normal level of impact and intensity for not only them, but almost anyone else, particularly some crazy headbutts. Danielson finally conceded to going for a pin attempt after an avalanche style backdrop 25 plus minutes in. Sabre responded going for a pin with his Zack driver, but these were really the only near falls outside of flash pin attempts. The escalation continued, with Sabre countering a punch by dropping into a triangle, but Danielson nearly knocking him out with a series of elbows. Sabre's attempt at the O'Connor roll began an elegant series of counters that resulted in Sabre nearly getting a flash pin with a jackknife, which was a much better sequence of the same type than the actual finish. Sabre had kind of gotten away from selling the leg, but when Danielson tried to end a strike exchange by going into a backslide, Sabre reinjured the leg landing on his feet, which allowed Danielson to hit the busaiku knee. Danielson went for another one to finish him off with it again, but Sabre sidestepped, leading to an elaborate series of flash pin attempts that went one too long, as Sabre's final crucifix didn't flow naturally out of the pattern of back bridges, and thus took too long to set up to be credible as the actual finish. The clunky finish was literally the worst aspect of the match, as it was just too slow to maintain the element of surprise, and wasn't clever enough for a match that was otherwise so brilliant. While Danielson's knockout win in October was much more convincing than Sabre simply getting one over on Danielson, a flash pin still made sense in the grand scheme of things, as technical surpremecy again remained ellusive, hence nothing has really been settled. Danielson first followed in Sabre's footsteps in refusing the post match handshake, but then walked back over to him and gave him the credit he deserved. If there's to be another match, which I certainly hope there will be, a submission match would be a reasonable gimmick, not that these guys need one. This was the best match of either man's career, which is that much more impressive for Danielson, given he's edging towards retirement. Despite the unsatisfying finish, the rest was so far beyond what we've been seeing in recent times that this is still probably closer to 5 stars rather than 4.75





Winning is my birth right
I always quickly get what I want
I am the perfect setter, they don't want to miss their chance to play on my team
I am getting paid
All my videos are going viral
I have 2 complete championship teams filled with BFFs

Today we're looking at the 1999 matches between Mariko Yoshida and Hiromi Yagi, including the 1999 joshi puroresu Match of the Year from February 18th at Tokyo Korakuen Hall where Yoshida defends her Queen Of ARSION Title. Yoshida spent the first year of ARSION training girls that had just left AJW, JWP, & LLPW in a new grappling oriented style that revolutionized joshi puroresu, quickly establishing herself as the top trainer in the female game. One of Yoshida's biggest successes was Yumi Fukawa, a hard worker who was never pushed in AJW because she was deemed too small. Fukawa completely revamped her style, and wound up being the most improved wrestler of 1998. Another of Yoshida's initial successes was prodigy rookie Mika Akino, who was good enough to challenge Yoshida for the Queen Of ARSION Title less than 6 months after her debut, though the promotion insisted on instead extolling all the "Super Rookie" virtue onto Ayako Hamada because she was the daughter of legendary purolucha pioneer Gran Hamada, even though she made no attempt to integrate herself into the primary style of the league, simply doing a high flying lucha libre style without much personality. The pinnacle of the Yoshida style came at ARSION's 1st Anniversary show where Yoshida headlined against Hiromi Yagi, someone who wasn't one of the bigger names in the promotion, but was their best legitimate martial artist, Yoshida included. Yoshida didn't come from a martial arts background, she just trained in the AJW dojo under the legendary Jaguar Yokota, making her pro wrestling debut in 1988. In 1992, she shifted to more of a high flying style based upon her Mexican excursion, where she trained with Gran Apache, among others. This wound up being a brief period in her career though, as she suffered a cervical spine injury in October 1992. During the 21 months she was out of action, she fell in love with the UWF style, and began training under Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Unfortunately, AJW never really allowed her to showcase this submission style, putting her in Manami Toyota's Freedom Force, where she did high workrate spectacle, and having her continue her lucha libre style, defeating Lady Apache for the CMLL Women's Title on 2/6/97. Yoshida reinvented herself as a grappling ace upon leaving AJW later in 1997. All Yoshida's ARSION matches from 1998 through mid 1999 are more or less recommended, but her best opponent during this period was Hiromi Yagi, who was a high school judo champion with sambo training, and a generally great athlete who possessed body control like no other. Yagi is quite simply one of the most underrated wrestlers to have ever competed. She arguably even ranks above Momoe Nakanishi and Azumi Hyuga, who became the aces of their promotions, as the most talented woman to debut in the '90s. Yagi never reached her true ridiculous potential because she retired after 3 years due to marriage, then came back the next year as a part-time freelancer, but between being tiny and not being committed to a particular promotion, there wasn't a lot of impetus for anyone to build around her, as AJW & JWP ultimately had to do with Momoe & Azumi because they simply had no one else near their talent level. Yagi had the same problem in JWP that Yoshida had in AJW, in that she was never really able to showcase her grappling skills because there weren't any other shooters in the promotion. She instead fit in doing a flashier, more junior heavyweight style that she incorporated some judo throws and armbars. Given this was still early days in the transition to the Yoshida style, the key to this match was Yoshida didn't need to train Yagi to follow along with her like she did with the other girls. After all, Yagi grew up reacting to real threats and utilizing all the practical offensive and defensive positions, so all of this was more natural to her than it was to even Yoshida. The mistake with Yoshida's submission oriented style in the ARSION era is to want it to be something grappling oriented that came before it, such as UWF or WOS. It never tried to follow the logic of worked shoots or European catch wrestling, if anything, it's more an answer to the laziness and unbelievability of Yoshida's old promotion, AJW, particularly exemplified by her old "mentor" Manami Toyota applying meaningless "submission" holds with no conviction, or just laying around screaming in someone else's to kill time during the early portion of the matches. While Toyota would save her effort and energy for the high spots she actually cared about, Yoshida's style only incorporated things people wanted to be doing, and required effort and energy be exerted in all areas. For the most part, anything that required the obvious cooperation of the opponent standing or laying around waiting was removed, as wrestlers could do what they wanted, but they had to earn it with a credible entry, capture, or counter. In a sense, the style was similar to the hard gym sparring Masakatsu Funaki gravitated towards early in the 1990's, but while also taken seriously and done without flourish, Yoshida strived to maintin the high pace, action oriented joshi style, while Funaki was content with the more realistic stalling out through control. Yoshida's style wouldn't be for DDP, who despite being a hard worker who could craft a dramatic match around his Diamond cutter finisher, thrived on choreographing every aspect of his matches he could get away with, so it's unlikely he would have excelled in an environment that was far closer to being all reaction than all scripting. This definitely isn't a style for "Mr. Gedoboto" Kazuchika Okada, as Yoshida would probably just allow him to short circuit rather than pose the marionette for 30 minutes until his finishing program finally kicked in. Yoshida's style is more towards exploring what wrestling would look like if both fighters always had to be on guard, putting effort into defending themselves and trying to find openings for their offense. This is a style where they never stop moving, and every movement counts because there are no "handouts". It took some wrestlers longer to adapt to the style than others, but because there was some realism involved in the sense that the opponent wouldn't necessarily just give an opening and flow with it, everyone who faced Yoshida tried to beat her standing because Yoshida was their grappling instructor, the obvious ace. Tonight's title match was different though, as right off the bat when Yagi took her air raid crash finisher, she seemed to decide she was going to either beat Yoshida on the mat or force Yoshida to outmaneuver her there. This lead to one beautiful flowing series after another, as Yagi had answers for everything Yoshida did. Yoshida would try for an armbar, but Yagi would quickly counter with a kneebar. One of Yagi's tone setting counters saw her turn Yoshida's single leg elevation, which was one of Yoshida's key transitions to the mat, into an armbar. Yoshida always had both elbows taped up during this period, and there was a lot of focus on the arm here However, it never felt like this was something necessary to give Yagi a fighting chance because Yagi was so great that, even though it was unlikely she would actually be booked to win, she didn't need storyline help to be competitive because her technical skill and ability to adjust to and answer everything Yoshida did gave her the credibility that was often absent in Yoshida's opponents. This was unfortunately one of the only matches where we got to witness just how good Yagi could be with positioning. She kept maneuvering into rear mount especially, looking for the choke. There were some lovely scrambles, and it was a more believable touch that they didn't always lead right into a high spot. For instance, Yoshida turned into a wakigatame from Yagi's German suplex bridge, but Yagi rolled and took her back, just pulling Yoshida down when Yoshida blocked the suplex, and working for a choke. This match was never dull because the movement was so cool, but it also understood that in order to maintain some air of believability, they had to avoid instant gratification, and the phony I'm simply too tough to submit brand of "drama". This wasn't about showy submissions, or big corny mannerisms, but rather knowing how to move and counter in a legitimate grappling environment. Because they always had to be moving to position and reposition themselves, as in MMA, they built up a great deal of tension we otherwise never see in pro wrestling. The audience could understand that countering the backdrop by weighing down on the opponent in a side headlock wasn't a rest hold, and actually worked well on its own. They followed with a Yagi bridge out into an armbar, but the action could breath first because the smaller moves and movements were invested in more or less just as much as the high spots. Yagi had mostly competed in tag so far in ARSION, having won their inaugural tag title tournament with Rie Tamada on December 7th, 1998. Their tag title defense over Yoshida and Akino on February 1st, 1999 and a singles upset over Mikiko Futagami on January 7th were the main reasons she got this opportunity. However, every time she answered Yoshida, she became more believable while increasing the tension of the match. Yagi is easy to get behind because she's so energetic and spunky, a great competitor who cares about winning, and thus shows a lot of determination. The match had the cumulative effect of impressing the audience through what they don't do. While they did a great job portraying the struggle, they never got overdramatic or stuck with anything much past its expiration date, switching to a different attack rather than burning themselves out while straining credibility. There's really nothing here that distracts from their desire to win the match. Yagi learned from the initial air raid crash, and kept having answers for it. The finish saw Yagi turn it into a sunset flip, but Yoshida answered with a choke, and just keep adjusting until she finally put Yagi out. I give this match ****3/4 out of 5 stars. It was the joshi puroresu Match of the Year for 1999, and the 2nd best match in the history of ARSION behind Yoshida vs. Megumi Fujii on May 24th, 2003. Yoshida was women's Wrestler of the Year for 1999, but in her brightest moment, Yagi was actually the more entertaining and impressive of the two. This was the best match of Yagi's career, in part because it was the showcase of the brief period where any promoter or booker actually used her properly. Yoshida understood the greatness of Yagi, and after losing to Candy Okutsu in Candy's debut as Tiger Dream, the first female character based upon Tiger Mask, on August 31st 1998, Yagi was very successful in ARSION. They had an excellent rematch in the Semifinal of the ARS '99 tournament on May 4 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall after Yoshida defeated Yumi Fukawa in an excellent ****1/4 quarterfinal. The Yoshida vs. Fukawa match was arguably the most memorable of the night because it was the point where Fukawa truly arrived, showing so much heart, desire, determination, and improvement that she became credible even against the top grappler in the league, and really made you care whether she won. It's one of the best under 12 minute matches ever, with Fukawa giving such a passionate underdog performance, paving the way for Yagi's victory over Yoshida by attacking Yoshida's left arm with everything she could think of, and then some. The Yoshida vs. Yagi ARS '99 semifinal was an excellent follow up to their 2/18/99 classic. At 13:39, when both had already worked a quarterfinal, and Yagi still had a final to work, it was a bit truncated compared to the 20:36 of their title match, but I wouldn't be surprised if some people found it even more enjoyable because it was a faster paced, more dynamic contest where they eliminated some of the more realistic setup and feeling out, packing as much action as they could into the time they had. They didn't break a lot of new ground, but their familiarity with one another resulted in a slicker match that was one of the more exciting matches in the Yoshida style, and once again one of the top joshi matches of 1999. It didn't have quite the drama of the Yoshida vs. Fukawa, as Fukawa gave a more charismatic performance than Yagi, but Yagi is on a whole different level technically, with much more precision and explosion in her attack than just about everyone. I liked that Yagi was confident in her ability to win one way or another, so she wasn't just forcing the arm work the way Fukawa was. Yoshida did a great job of selling the arm here, having it cost her a couple chances at victory. Yoshida delivered two classics in one night, while Yagi scored arguably the biggest singles win of her career here with a wakigatame, handing Yoshida just her third loss in the 15 month history of ARSION. I rate this semifinal ****1/4. Yagi losing the final to Michiko Omukai was okay in the sense that she had to give all she had in order to upset Yoshida, while Omukai somehow had a two move win over Candy in the semifinal. Yagi continued to be pushed the next few months, with a 15 minute draw against Aja Kong, and wins over Ayako Hamada & Candy Okutsu. Tragically, Yoshida was only the trainer in ARSION, and Rossy Ogawa & Aja Kong completely abandoned the Yoshida style just after all Yoshida's hard work and determination had finally gotten it over with the audience, with Kong taking the title from Yoshida on 8/6/99. Aja then squashed Yagi in the 1st round of the ZION '99 tournament on 8/22/99, and Yagi was paired with Chaparrita ASARI the rest of the year, shifting to junior style matches as ARSION became a jack of all trades, master of none. Yagi made limited appearances for ARSION after 1999, with Wrestle Yume Factory being her primary promotion in 2000 while Big Japan was her main home in 2001 & 2002. Meanwhile, Yoshida was once again defeated by Kong at the year end show on 12/11/99, and had to resort to teaming with Kong to get the tag titles off Yagi & Rie Tamada on March 15th, 2000, only to immediately lose them to Michiko Omukai & Mima Shimoda on April 7th. While Yoshida would still be able to do her thing from time to time if the opponent was willing, for instance a memorable rematch with Yumi Fukawa on 9/26/99 and her all-time classic with future women's MMA GOAT Megumi Fujii on 5/24/03, it wasn't until she opened Ibuki on June 5th, 2005 that we witnessed not only a return to her grappling style, but actually another evolution.







Today we're looking at arguably the greatest fued in Dragon Gate history, the 2 decade rivaly between Shingo Takagi & Masaaki Mochizuki, perhaps culminating with their January 10th, 2024 match at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. It's a truly urgent, energetic, hard-hitting, no-nonsense program where they bring the violence from start to finish, going all out until they finally manage to incapacitate one another. It's not the quintesential flashy and spectaclular Dragon Gate purolucha style by any means, as while it's certainly fast paced, and there are a few dives from Mochizuki, it's much more of an intense, aggressive striking war where they incorporate bombs when it makes sense. Their matches aren't necessarily realistic in terms of the offense they utilize, but they maintain enough pro wrestling realism to be highly compelling contests where we actually believe victory is important through their ability to convey the pressing need to maintain the advantage because both are so dangerous, mighty, and unyielding.
Mochizuki's work in this program has been no less than astounding, carrying the green, young Takagi in the early days, and managing to stay fit and relevant enough to still deliver the best match in the program, if not in his entire career, at 45 years old. Even in the most recent match that took place a week before his 54th birthday, he was miraculously still able to maintain the minimal very good level of the series. Meanwhile, Takagi has grown in this series from a great rookie to one of the best workers in all of wrestling, and while Mochizuki carried their earlier matches, Takagi's input and contributions have increased dramatically throughout the two decades, and more recently he's been the driving force. 
The series is notable for the escalating, back and forth slugging, with Takagi pushing the pace and utilizing his physical, go for broke, aggressive brute force striking, while the quicker, leaner, more technically skilled former karateka Mochizuki tries to utilize his speed, dexterity, guile, and educated feet to slow the raging dragon down. The primary motif of their encounters is that Mochizuki's principal mode of defense against Takagi's pumping bombers and chops is to try to intercept the crushing blow with a kick, only ducking and dodging if he must. A far more secondary motif is Takagi attacking Mochizuki's knee, but while Mochizuki will happily ground Takagi and try to follow with submissions, Takagi isn't really interested in defeating Mochizuki through any kind of knee work, he just wants to temporarily immobilize him so he can once again plow him over or scoop him up for a deadly bomb. 
These two have literally been going at it since the beginning of Shingo's great career. He debuted on October 3rd 2004, with the first of his 10 matches against Mochizuki taking place on November 28th, 2004. Takagi was much skinnier in their 2004 encounter, and at 5 ft 10 in, without the thicker body type he sports during his current New Japan tenure, the bigger promotions in Japan at the time weren't interested in him, so he ended up being the 1st graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo despite growing up idolizing Genichiro Tenryu and Atsushi Onita, and not really doing the purolucha style Dragon Gate was trying to establish as their brand. He was certainly a very high quality rookie though, and Mochizuki did a reasonably competitive match with him that was quite impressive for what it was, before defeating him at 12:54. This is not surprisingly the least of their matches, but it's still worthwhile, and already showed that their styles blend well. 
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be footage of their second match from January 16th, 2005. It was a 7 minute 13 second no contest, which especially given how this program has generally gone for him, seems an impressive result for young Takagi. 
By their third match on September 18th, 2005, Shingo had bulked up considerably, and was looking a lot more like the wrestler we are used to. This was Takagi's first Open The Dream Gate Title challenge, having won a four-way match over BxB Hulk, Genki Horiguchi, and Susumu Yokosuka the previous night. These two already had good chemistry and a nice dynamic. Shingo still wasn't great here, but he became a credible challenger through his knee attack, really the only time in this series where he strategically looked for an edge to control the action, as by the later matches he was largely relying upon his physical presence. This tactic directly corrolated to it being by far the slowest version of Takagi we witnessed in the series, but that was still fine because Mochizuki is more than capable of delivering the more exciting and spectacular action. Mochizuki won the striking and running battles before ultimately knocking Shingo out with a high kick at 20:32. I have this at ***1/2 stars.
Their 4th match on October 12, 2007 at Korakuen Hall, which Takagi finally won with his last falconry, is the match where you really have to take notice of both the high quality of the contest, as well as the tremendous growth of Shingo in both skill and ranking. It's a great example of an all-out aggressive Katsuyori Shibata style striking war, well before Shibata made the style famous with his 2012 return to New Japan. It's just got a great urgent drive, exchanging bombs back and forth at a very frantic pace, topping each other with impact. This feels like the best of their early matches, and probably the 2nd best match in the series, but unfortunately, it's clipped to 6:31 of 14:20, so we'll never truly know. I'd rate this as ****1/4 star range.
Their 5th match on January 17, 2010 was contested for the FIP World Heavyweight Title, which  Masaaki Mochizuki had just captured from Davey Richards on December 6, 2009. Shingo was into his peak years now, and was a real chore for Mochizuki to handle, with notable advantages in size, strength, and power. Takagi brought an incredibly aggressive style, battering Mochizuki with his hard hitting power game, but this is where Mochizuki really began implementing the strategy of working the arm to slow Shingo down after injuring his arm on the ring apron. While Takagi kept mauling Mochizuki, his arm was too compromised to just steamroll him. Mochizuki beautifully showcased his karateka background, having nice runs mixing several of his impressive athletic kicks in. However, his plan was clear, and by continuing to go back to the arm, targeting his kicks as many times as he could, in addition to utilizing his underused submission skills, he was ultimately able to take out the weakened appendage with an udegatame submission. At 13:03, this was a little on the short side, but was nonetheless an energetic match with both near the top of their game. I give it ***1/2
Their 6th encounter on May 12, 2011 was a First Round match in the 2011 King Of Gate tournament. It was a better version of their previous match, and the best of their complete matches thusfar, with Takagi bringing his energetic bursts to deliver a stronger overall performance. Mochizuki was once again destroying his arm, and just had an answer for virtually everything Takagi tried. Takagi did his best to fight through the pain and level Mochizuki with big strikes, but Mochizuki just intercepted Shingo's punches and pumping bombers with his kicks. Takagi had more power, but time and time again, the senior wrestler Mochizuki was a step or two ahead. They pulled out all the stops, but the Rocky II finish at 18:18 where Mochizuki beat the 10 count but Takagi collapsed trying was a bit much. I give this match ****
They faced off in the First Round of the King Of Chop 2012 tournament on April 19th, but this is just Power Slap to the chest, and was only notable for Takagi's continued woes in the series. He was the only one who managed a knockdown, but Mochizuki once again prevailed because Takagi's hands were ruled to be together on his double chop.
Their actual 2012 wrestling match took place on September 14, with Takagi getting a much needed victory at 15:02, though only by count out. This match felt like a step in the wrong direction because Mochizuki had won the previous two by attacking the arm, and while I'm glad they didn't keep repeating themselves, it nonetheless made no sense for Mochizuki to fight an ever improving opponent with no strategy at all when he had only won their previous two encounters due to implementing a solid game plan. Today, Mochizuki just threw a bunch of random kicks, and was largely run over by his energetic opponent, who just kept blasting him with lariats and chops until Mochizuki was no longer able to resist his power moves. They once again ended with a variation of the Rocky II finish, this time with a lengthy double sell on the floor after Shingo Death Valley bombing Mochizuki on the canvas actually resulted in a count out. While a bone for Takagi, who had lost five of their first six matches, it wasn't one that felt particularly satisfying. It would have been a useful stepping stone to justify a prompt rematch, but since they didn't fight again for 3 years, this just added to the overall feeling of the match being a little beneath their high standards. Though their energy level and the quality of work was higher than some of their earlier matches, it was mostly just them being skilled tough men. I give this ***1/4 stars
Their undisputed classic came on November 1, 2015 at EDION Arena Osaka. They truly pulled out all the stops to elevate their usual high level contest into a really crazy, all out match of the year candidate. It was kind of their greatest hits, but they took the best aspects of everything they'd done before, and finally figured out how to combine them into a classic big match. It was close to twice the length of their usual match, yet still worked faster and more aggressively than most of what they'd done before, with extra brutality, but also tons of bombs and more dives. This was during the period where Shingo was trying to rid Dragon Gate of the old codgers, and it was more toward his signature pace and style than their previous encounters. Mochizuki was still wrestling like a man two decades younger in all the best possible ways. He was also back to utilizing strategy after just trying to brute force the bigger, stronger bully in their previous encounter, once again intercepting as many of Takagi's strikes with kicks to the arm as he could to keep Shingo from gaining momentum. Takagi had more answers, as well as more willpower this time though, and was just so strong that he was often overwhelming Mochizuki even though Mochizuki was fighting smartly. It had been those brains that had carried Mochizuki through this rivalry, but tonight simply being the more experienced fighter with the higher fight IQ wasn't enough. He had to keep digging deeper, pulling out flying moves we hadn't seen from him in this program such as the quebrada and swandive missile kick, but Takagi's new moves were much more imposing and damaging, particularly his STAY DREAM, an avalanche Death Valley bomb. Early on, Takagi hit the Death Valley bomb onto the ring apron, the finish of their previous match, and while this time it was more of a control spot to set up working over Mochizuki's knees, a storyline that was unfortunately dropped along the way, it set him up for being the one who was generally ahead in the match, even though there was arguably more exchanging big spots than their should have been. They did everything they could possibly think of, with a lot more big spots from Takagi, a lot more athleticism from Mochizuki, and tons of huge impact offense from both. Takagi had two runs with Open The Dream Gate Title by this point, but in winning this match decisively with his last falconry, this was the first time it felt like he had finally managed to surpass the master that had owned him for the first 11 years of his career. I give this match ****1/2, though even that could be low.
Given their 9th meeting on May 9th, 2017 was a 13 minute 11 second King Of Gate league match at Korakuen Hall rather than a 25 minute PPV match at EDION Arena Osaka, this was a great follow up to the best match of the series on 11/1/15. It started off very fast, but as soon as Takagi had an answer for Mochizuki's flying, Mochizuki pro-actively shifted to the arm work to slow him down. Takagi answered with knee work, wrapping Mochizuki's legs around the post and cracking him with the chair. This was an energetic sprint though, where Takagi did his best to get them away from strategic wrestling, and into bombing away. Mochizuki still tried to intercept Takagi's pumping bombers with kicks, but whenever Mochizuki tried to leave the striking battles, Takagi tried to cut him right off to keep him in his realm, often succeeding, so overall, they were mainly bruising and blistering one another. Everything Takagi did was really hard-hitting, whether it was close range exchanges, or full momentum charging attacks. The brute was clearly overpowering Mochizuki here, even though it was a lot of trading blows. This was a match Mochizuki should have lost, but he saw the sliding bomber coming, and turned it into a crucifix for the flash pin. It was lucky, but one of the main points throughout the series is that the bully Takagi lives and dies by his aggression, while Mochizuki is the smart and crafty hero. Today, Mochizuki wasn't able to win the head to head battles, but still managed to find a way to steal the match. While this wasn't as amazing as their 2015 match, it was still a hell of a war that didn't show any deterioration in the performers or the matchup. I give it ****
At 21 minutes 21 seconds, the latest Takagi vs. Mochizuki match from January 10th, 2024 is the second longest of their 10 singles matches. On the bright side, it's miraculously almost as good in quality, crispness, and execution as their previous matches. The main difference is it's the only one that feels overlong, as all their previous encounters had little to no dead time, but this one finally felt more like the contemporary dragged out match. It's possible this was necessary since Mochizuki isn't as youthful as he once was, but he still managed some impressive athletic feats, such as a standing moonsault off the apron. Though these two know each other like the back of their hand by now, this match had by far the most feeling out of the series, as they really eased into things. Mochizuki wound up working the arm again, but this time not necessarily on purpose, as he ducked the pumping bomber on the outside, resulting in Shingo's arm crashing the post. Mochizuki appeared to be baiting Takagi into the chop exchange Takagi always desires, but countered into a wakigatame. Shingo didn't so much attack the knee as have a few answers for the kicks he knows Mochizuki is featuring, such as the dragon screw. As the match developed, it continued the trend of their last few matches, where the older Mochizuki is generally hanging in there, but nonetheless fighting from behind. They redid the finish of their 2017 match where Mochizuki counters the sliding bomber into a crucifix, but this time Shingo narrowly escaped. Mochizuki kicked out of two pumping bombers, but eventually fell prey to the Thunderfire powerbomb. This would certainly have been better at no more than 15 minutes, but it's still a very recommendable, ***1/2 match. If it winds up being the final chapter in their great series, it's a hell of a lot better closing than most wrestlers have been able to write.


dynamite hot

Dynamite Kid is one of the most influential in-ring performers in pro wrestling history. He wanted to be the best wrestler he could be, and he wanted to be known for his ability in the ring. His work during the early 1980s is legendary and is a must-see for anyone who wants to learn more about pro wrestling history. His New Japan Pro Wrestling feud with the First Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, is one of the most important series, not only in Japanese pro wrestling history, but all of pro wrestling history. Those matches were so ahead of their time that they changed everyone’s perception of what pro wrestling could be like. The athleticism displayed in those matches was top-notch and inspired future generations of pro wrestlers.

Tom Billington was born on December 5th, 1958 in Golborne, England. When his father introduced him to former wrestler Ted Betley, Billington started training at Betley’s gym and learned how to wrestle. Betley ended up taking Billington to Billy Riley’s Gym, which was known as the Snake Pit. Riley had trained catch wrestlers like Billy Robinson and Karl Gotch. Catch was an essential part of Billington’s training, but Betley didn’t like the way Billington was treated at Riley’s Gym, so Betley started bringing Billington to a different gym. This time it was the gym of Billy Chambers (a.k.a. Jack Fallon). Billington, under the name Dynamite Kid, made his pro wrestling debut on December 24, 1975 in Malvern Wells, England. He was a talented young wrestler with a bright future ahead of him. His speed and agility made him stand out during the first ten years of his career.

Stu Hart was the promoter of a league called Stampede Wrestling in Western Canada, which mainly ran shows in Alberta and Saskatchewan. One of his sons, Bruce Hart, was on a tour in England during the fall of 1977 and saw Dynamite Kid wrestle. Bruce was very impressed and wanted to bring Dynamite in for a Stampede Wrestling tour, but Dynamite initially turned the offer down. However, after a disagreement with the promoter of Joint Promotions in England (which was the league featured on World of Sports), Dynamite decided to accept Bruce's offer. On April 27, 1978, with 20 British pounds sterling in his pocket, Dynamite left England for Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was going for a six-week tour, but Canada ended up being his home for the next 13 years.

On April 28, 1978, Dynamite Kid had his first match for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. He would be a regular name for Stampede for the next six years. Stampede was traditionally a territory where bigger wrestlers had been on top, and promoter Stu was initially apprehensive about bringing in a smaller guy like Dynamite, but Bruce convinced Stu to give Dynamite a chance. Stampede was struggling at the time and Stu was even thinking about selling the company. However, Dynamite not only managed to get himself over, but also showed that junior heavyweight wrestlers could be drawing people to shows. And on top of that, Dynamite basically turned business around to the point that Stampede ended up having some very successful years. Soon after Dynamite had arrived, Stampede started pushing their mid-heavyweight division more because they knew it would be good for business to push Dynamite more. 

In July 1979, Dynamite would make his first tour to Japan for the IWE (International Wrestling Enterprise) after Mr. Hito asked him if he would be interested in working in Japan. Along with Kazuo Sakurada, Mr. Hito was one of the main trainers in Stu Hart’s dungeon and a regular for Stampede Wrestling. Mr. Hito and Sakurada were also two of the main trainers of Bret Hart, who would arguably end up becoming the most well-known member of the Hart family. Mr. Hito explained to Dynamite that working a Japanese tour was a good opportunity to get exposure in Japan and that more promoters would be interested in him.

Also in the summer of ‘79, Dynamite’s life would change when American wrestler Silvester Ritter, also known as Junkyard Dog, would introduce Dynamite to steroids. This would have a big impact on his career and life, initially perhaps in somewhat of a positive way, but eventually in quite a negative way.

Dynamite wrestled a couple of extensive tours in Germany, one in the summer of ‘78 and one in the summer of ‘79. Dynamite certainly was a well-traveled wrestler who had the opportunity to go on international tours on a regular basis.

Stu changed his Japanese business relationship from IWE to New Japan. This resulted in Tatsumi Fujinami coming to Calgary to wrestle Dynamite Kid on 8/17/79. This match between Dynamite and Fujinami was probably Dynamite’s best match up until that point in his career. Luckily, there was a Japanese crew filming that day because that’s why we have this match available in full form (as the Canadian TV version is incomplete).

Even though most Stampede Wrestling footage that is available are only the last few minutes of their matches because the matches were edited to fit a one-hour TV show, watching Dynamite’s matches from Stampede still helps piece together the pieces of the puzzle when researching his career. His input was great, but he rarely had an opponent that was on the level of Fujinami in Stampede. To say that Bruce and Keith Hart aren’t exactly Sayama and Fujinami would be an understatement. Regardless of all of that, it is clear that Dynamite was a worker who gave strong performances on a regular basis, and he elevated the overall quality of the territory from a business and especially an in-ring work perspective.

From 1980 through mid-1984, Dynamite would tour New Japan on a regular basis. This era was also the peak era of his career as an in-ring performer. He stood out as a worker who was able to innovate and combine styles of British, North American and Japanese wrestling. He had a great match against Tatsumi Fujinami on 2/5/80 at a New Japan show. Also in 1980, Dynamite made his first appearances in the United States as he wrestled in Hawaii and Montana.

In 1981, Dynamite Kid showed how versatile he was by giving memorable performances in Canada, Japan and England against a variety of opponents. It was also the year the legendary feud started with the First Tiger Mask. Their first match together was on 4/23/81 in New Japan. It was an excellent start to one of the most influential feuds in wrestling.

In May 1981, Davey Boy started wrestling for Stampede. Davey Boy was Dynamite’s first cousin (Dynamite’s father was the brother of Davey Boy’s mother), and Davey Boy, who had come over from England, was eager to step into the footsteps of Dynamite. Even though they were family, Dynamite didn’t like Davey Boy too much, and they weren’t too close. But, in the ring, they had very good chemistry as workers. First they were opponents, and later they became a tag team that would become famously known as the British Bulldogs.

In 1982, the feud between Dynamite and Sayama continued. Dynamite and Sayama were arguably the two very best workers in the world at the time. Sayama had toured Mexico and England. As a result of those international tours, Sayama had incorporated aspects of Mexican wrestling and British wrestling into his style. This resulted in the legendary matches between Dynamite and Sayama having elements of British, Northern American, Japanese and Mexican wrestling influences. In other words, Dynamite and Sayama basically created a wrestling style for the future.

August 1982 was a particularly eventful month for Dynamite Kid. After having a great match against each other on 8/5/82 in Tokyo, that same month, Dynamite vs. Sayama took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This was on 8/30/82, and it was the first time working at Madison Square Garden for both these wrestlers. The next day, Dynamite went to Portland, Oregon for a tour to wrestle in the Pacific Northwest Wrestling territory. He spent the rest of the year and the beginning of the next year mostly in the Calgary area. In April 1983, Dynamite returned to Japan for a tour with New Japan. On this tour, one of his opponents was once again Sayama. The two had a great match on 4/21/83. This match, along with their 8/5/82 match, is among the most legendary junior heavyweight matches ever. Once again, Dynamite and Sayama put on an amazing display that inspired and influenced future generations of wrestlers.

In June 1983, Dynamite Kid returned to the PNW territory. He played a big role in the territory and joined Rip Oliver’s heel stable known as The Clan. He even held the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title for a month. Since Portland wasn’t too far from his home in Calgary, Dynamite was able to appear in PNW regularly from June 1983 through December 1983. His main opponents in PNW were Curt Hennig, Buddy Rose and Billy Jack Haynes.

Despite being a junior heavyweight wrestler for most of his career, Dynamite showed that a top junior heavyweight can potentially hang in there with the heavyweights. Dynamite’s intensity, versatility and overall ability made him credible against wrestlers larger than him.

Dynamite had quite a successful career in New Japan from early 1980 through mid 1984, but Dynamite felt that things weren’t the same in New Japan once Sayama had left NJPW in the summer of ‘83 because of Sayama being dissatisfied with the company’s backstage politics. In 1984, Sayama became part of the UWF, the first shoot-style league. Supposedly, Sayama even asked Dynamite if he would like to join the UWF, but Dynamite didn’t think the league would last.

At some point in the summer of ‘84, Dynamite Kid was contacted by All Japan Pro Wrestling, and they made him a good offer. All Japan was the rival of New Japan, but Dynamite decided to jump to All Japan anyway. This was a huge deal at the time, not only because of the rivalry between the two leagues, but also because New Japan had a working relationship with Stampede and WWF. Dynamite made not only New Japan, but also Stampede and WWF very upset by jumping from New Japan to All Japan. Dynamite didn’t really care about that, because he felt that any other wrestler would have done the same since he was offered a good extra amount of money (and part of it was guaranteed), and he was given the option of picking any tours he wanted to work. All Japan promoter Giant Baba was at least willing to honor New Japan’s request of not showing Dynamite’s matches from 1984 as part of a media blackout, perhaps in an attempt by Antonio Inoki’s New Japan to hide from the fans that quite a few wrestlers had jumped ship at the time. Dynamite participated in AJPW’s annual tag team tournament in late 1984. Dynamite returned to AJPW for three tours in 1985. During the second tour, he won the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title when he beat Mighty Inoue in All Japan on 6/8/85. Five days later, Dynamite would lose the title to Kuniaki Kobayashi.

As mentioned before, Dynamite Kid had wrestled in New York on 8/30/82 when he faced Sayama at MSG. That was just a one-off and not a regular thing for Dynamite at the time. The match took place because New Japan had a working relationship with WWF. However, from 8/29/84, Dynamite would start working more often in the northeast of North America. You see, this organization called WWF was run by a promoter called Vince McMahon, and he was trying to take over the wrestling world and turn it into a sports-entertainment industry. WWF started as a regional territory in the northeast of North America, in the New York area under Vince's father, Vince McMahon Sr. However, after Jr. took over, they slowly started invading other territories and running other promoters out of business. Instead of trying to run Stampede out of business, McMahon offered Stu to buy him out in order to start running shows in Western Canada. Stu and McMahon came to an agreement. Also part of the deal was that McMahon would start booking Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, who were Stu’s top three guys. WWF would later end up hiring more wrestlers that at some point had come through Stampede.

The final card of Stampede would take place in the fall of ‘84 (until they would eventually start up again a year later). Dynamite teamed with Bret Hart in Bret’s first WWF match on 8/29/84 at a WWF TV taping in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Dynamite was impressive and worked unlike anyone else in WWF at the time. The second time Dynamite wrestled at a WWF TV taping in ‘84 was in Poughkeepsie, New York on 9/11/84. The remainder of September and also in October, Dynamite appeared on some WWF shows in Ontario. Dynamite told McMahon that Davey Boy Smith, who started getting booked by WWF in late September of ‘84, was his first cousin and that they were both from England. This gave McMahon the idea to call them the British Bulldogs. In November, WWF finally started running a few shows in Western Canada, which was traditionally Stampede Wrestling territory. As a result, WWF didn’t draw well in that area as the fans were used to Stampede and not the less serious product WWF was trying to spread everywhere. Because of that, McMahon wanted out of his deal with Stu, and Stampede would be able to start again in October of 1985.

From March of 1985, Dynamite Kid had started wrestling even more often for WWF and now not just in the Northeast, but also in different areas, as the WWF was expanding. On 9/14/85, Dynamite wrestled a pretty good match against Bret Hart in Landover, MD. Most of Dynamite’s matches while working for this league aren’t noteworthy, though. The British Bulldogs vs. the Hart Foundation, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart, was a feud that resulted in matches that should definitely be considered really good for the standards of the WWF circus, but not something that stands out in the bigger picture of things, especially when compared to Dynamite’s work in Japan.

Just like in Calgary, it was through his matches with Dynamite in WWF that Bret got to show his true potential. WWF was expanding and so was the physique of Dynamite (and Davey Boy), who had become less flexible and clearly way too roided by mid-1985. In November 1985, Dynamite wrestled a few matches for Stampede. He’d also wrestle a tour for AJPW and take part in their annual tag team tournament later that year. WWF had been trying to sign the Bulldogs, but Dynamite would keep refusing because he wanted to keep touring Japan. However, WWF finally managed to convince Dynamite, as they promised that the Bulldogs would get the tag titles on 4/7/86 at WrestleMania 2. Unfortunately, this meant no more Japan for the Bulldogs.

On 12/13/86 at a house show at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Dynamite suffered a severe back injury that almost ended his career. It was not necessarily something that specifically happened during the match that caused the injury, but it was years of bumping, high risk moves and steroids that culminated in nearly a career-ending situation. In 1987 and 1988, after returning from the severe back injury, he was clearly not the worker he once was. In January of 1987, Dynamite wasn’t even able to walk without assistance, but he showed up and took part in the short match that saw the Bulldogs drop the title to the Hart Foundation. The Bulldogs weren’t pushed that much by the fall of 1988, and a physical altercation with Jacques Rougeau that happened backstage also didn’t help. It was time for Dynamite to leave the circus, and Dynamite’s last match for WWF took place on 11/24/88 at the 2nd annual Survivor Series.

Unfortunately, along with physically not being the same wrestler he was in the early 1980s, Dynamite Kid's moveset only started getting increasingly smaller from the mid 1980s onwards, in addition to his work having become increasingly more inconsistent from 1984 onward. To his credit, he always seemed to give a good effort, but it seemed that his effort and what his body was able to do were no longer matching up as the years went on. First it was the roids making him less mobile, then it was the injuries limiting his ability, and then it was also getting used to working repetitive matches against opponents of lesser quality in the WWF.

Dynamite (and Davey Boy) finally returned to Stampede in late 1988. Also, finally it was time to tour All Japan again in early 1989. Dynamite was certainly not the wrestler he was in the early ‘80s, but he could still go during 1989, and managed to make good contributions to many of his matches. The fact that he had now left WWF also seemed to have given him some extra motivation again. At some point during this return to Stampede, Dynamite was the booker for a few weeks. During the spring and summer of 1989, Dynamite would make a few appearances in Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in eastern Canada. During the 1990s, he was physically such a broken wreck that he was no longer really able to live up to his reputation. Still, he was respected, and he still continued to tour All Japan.

In 1991, in a full circle type of situation, Dynamite moved back to England with the same amount of money he had left England with, 20 British pounds. The last couple of tours for All Japan were rough. On one particular tour, Dynamite looked so ill that Giant Baba forced Dynamite to take a day off. Dynamite decided to retire from Japanese pro wrestling in December 1991. Dynamite continued to wrestle on the British independent scene, which wasn’t thriving by any means during the 1990s. Dynamite was invited to watch some matches at ringside at an All Japan show on 2/28/93. Dynamite didn’t have too much money at the time, and that’s why he accepted All Japan’s request to return to the ring in Japan for a couple of matches in July 1993. There is also some hand-held footage available of some of Dynamite’s matches in England in late 1993, but his 1993 matches were all quite average and certainly not recommended viewing. 

After having wrestled approximately 2,000 pro wrestling matches and more than 300 different opponents during a career that had started in 1975, Dynamite Kid retired after working his final match on October 10, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan. He was barely able to wrestle by that point, and it was clear for everyone that this would really be his last match. It was a match for Michinoku Pro, and he wrestled in a legends six-man tag team match. One of his opponents in his final match was his favorite opponent, Satoru Sayama.

In 1997, Dynamite would end up in a wheelchair as a result of all the suffering his body had gone through over the years (injuries, bumps, high risk moves, steroids and other drugs). In 1999, Dynamite’s book “Pure Dynamite: The Autobiography of Tom ‘Dynamite Kid’ Billington” was released. In this book, he was not only sharing interesting stories about his wrestling career, but he was also honest about his drug usage and some of the terrible pranks he pulled on other wrestlers. Regardless of what people thought of him as a human being, he was a great pro wrestler. Even though some feel that he came across as bitter in his book, Dynamite said that if he would have the chance to do it all over again, he’d do everything the same. Dynamite said “Wrestling was my life, and I loved it. No regrets. I had a blast.”

Dynamite was interviewed a few times in the 2010s. He was told that many Japanese fans still believe that the matches he had with Sayama are the best matches ever. Dynamite said that it made him happy to hear that. After his health had kept declining, Tom Billington died in Wigan, England on December 5, 2018, which was also the day of his 60th birthday.

Dynamite Kid’s influence on professional wrestling really is immeasurably great. When you watch his matches from his prime, it becomes clear how much of an influence he was to other wrestlers and to stylistic changes in pro wrestling all over the world. Those wrestlers may or may not have been directly influenced by his famous series of matches with Satoru Sayama and/or Dynamite’s work in general, because sometimes they were possibly influenced by his work even without knowing it since Dynamite’s influence was much like a ripple effect. A large number of wrestlers, especially those who came through the Calgary territory and/or the New Japan junior heavyweight division were clearly influenced by Dynamite’s work, either directly or indirectly. In particular, Dynamite’s series of matches with Sayama was a huge influence on the Japanese junior heavyweight wrestling scene and subsequently all of modern pro wrestling.

The list of wrestlers who were influenced by Dynamite is pretty much endless, but just to name a few of the wrestlers who appeared to have been influenced significantly by his work are wrestlers like, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Chris Benoit, Owen Hart, Keiichi Yamada, Ben Bassarab, Biff Wellington, Johnny Smith, Brett Como, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Sean Waltman, Rey Misterio Jr., Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Psicosis, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Bryan Danielson, Prince Devitt, PAC, Davey Richards, Kyle O’Reilly, Tyler Bate, and Dynamite’s nephews, The Billington Bulldogs (Thomas Billington & Mark Billington), etc., etc. Dynamite Kid certainly deserves a spot in the Hall of Talent. 

My overall conclusion of Dynamite Kid’s career is as follows:

In 1976, he was Decent. He was still learning at the time.

In 1977 and 1978, he was Good. He showed significant improvement during that period.

In 1979, he was Very Good. After showing great potential earlier, Dynamite Kid really started becoming very good in 1979, and this was also when he started wrestling in Japan.

In 1980, he was Excellent. This is when he started appearing in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

In 1981, he was Great. He kept becoming more and more amazing around this time.

In 1982, he was an All-Time Great. His work from 1982 is legendary, especially his work against Sayama.

In 1983, he was Great. He was still great, and he had one of the best matches ever on 4/21/83 against Sayama.

In 1984 and 1985, he was Very Good. He became more inconsistent, and he started slowing down due to excessive steroid usage. However, he was still able to add explosiveness to the matches.

In 1986, he was Good. He was still good, but he had become a very repetitive WWF worker.

In 1987 and 1988, he was Decent. His work was never really the same after getting severely injured in December of 1986. 

In 1989, he was Good. He actually improved a bit in 1989 because of him starting to work in Japan again, which seemed to motivate him quite a bit, and he was facing better opponents again.

In 1990 and 1991, he was Decent. During the 1990s, he was too broken down physically to perform at the level he used to perform at. After he came back from his original retirement in 1991, he was average at best. For example, he was just average in 1993 and below average in 1996 before he eventually retired on 10/10/96.

So, Dynamite’s peak was definitely the early 1980s, and he gave tremendous performances in Japan during this time period. Dynamite’s work in Canada and England was also top-notch around that time. He was one of the very best workers in the world during the early 1980s, arguably the best. Satoru Sayama, Tatsumi Fujinami, Mark Rocco and Marty Jones were among the best opponents Dynamite wrestled during his career.

He was tenacious, rugged, and vicious. Even though he was an incredible worker during his relatively short in-ring peak, what perhaps stands out the most about Dynamite is that he is absolutely one of the most influential wrestlers ever. His work, in particular his matches against Sayama, influenced a countless number of wrestlers. In recent times, it has become somewhat normal to see spectacular junior heavyweight matches, but Dynamite was one of the pioneers in an era that mostly had slower heavyweight matches on top of the cards. Dynamite’s in-ring work helped people in the wrestling business to start thinking more outside the box. In the end, Dynamite should certainly be considered one of the twenty greatest men’s pro wrestlers of all time, and maybe even one of the top 10. 

Here’s a list of Dynamite Kid’s 15 best matches!

bryan zsj
Today we're looking at the best AEW match of 2023, a dream match between technical wrestling sensations Bryan Danielson and Zack Sabre Jr. from AEW WrestleDream October 1st, 2023 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. With Kiyoshi Tamura no longer having a home to display his otherworldly technical wizardry after running his final U-Style show on November 23rd, 2005, for all intents and purposes ending the shoot wrestling era in Japan despite Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda's enjoyable attempts at small scale revivals, the best technical wrestler conversation centered on Bryan Danielson in the second half of that decade. As he gained more experience and notoriety, Zack Sabre Jr. took over the mantle in the second part of the 2010's. Though they met twice before, neither encounter was what one would describe as a proper, satisfying match between two all-time greats, as both were one-sided wins for Danielson very early in Sabre's career. Their initial encounter took place on March 2nd, 2008 at the Jolly Beggar Club in Coventry, England. It was the first notable, and perhaps also the first good match of Zack Sabre Jr.'s career. At this point, Danielson was in his heel stage, trying to get heat by annoying the crowd, while Sabre was less of an out and out mat technician, in the sense that he used a bit more athletic junior style offense such as the tope. The overconfident "Best in the World" Danielson smartly led his 21-year-old opponent through a match that actually did a lot to increase Sabre's stock even though Danielson largely dominated, as Danielson knew when and how to give the talented and over kid offense to keep the very partisan British crowd of about 30 involved and make Sabre look strong in defeat. Sabre displayed impressive submission offense, moving and countering well, but was reasonably less confident in other areas. It was difficult to tell whether referee Damien Dunne blew the finish, or they planned on turning a 1 fall match into the most unconventional 2 out of 3 fall match, but after Danielson was announced as the winner, the promoter tried to claim it was only a two count despite Sabre clearly not having even come close to beating the count. Danielson asked a little girl in the stands who was wearing his T-shirt if she wanted him to agree to five more minutes, and she responded, "I want an hour!" After the restart, Danielson continued to dominate, but Zack was able to small package Danielson when Bryan was going for the pin after hitting his superplex. Now Danielson's fans made false claims of a 2 count, and a deciding fall was added. Here, Zack tried for the flash pin again after Danielson hit an avalanche style backdrop, but this time Danielson was ready, and reversed for the win. Though Zack was miles from the fighter he would become, he was a solid opponent who knew how to move and counter, making it a fun match that's still worth watching. Their March 9th, 2009 rematch, a quarterfinal in the wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament, was unfortunately quite forgetable. The fans in Oberhausen were at their most obnoxious even before the match started, more into their own silly, irrelevant chants than anything Danielson was or wasn't going to do, and he just took it easy against an inferior opponent. In his defense, he went all out defeating Bad Bones in a hard fought, nearly 28 minute match to capture the wXw World Title later in the show, and overall worked an hour and 50 minutes that weekend after the lengthy flight to Germany. The Bad Bones match was quite good, a very competitive hard-hitting bout that felt like a big important contest. The Zack match was basically just a jobber match with an arrogant Danielson stretching and contorting the kid, who was doing very little in return, not really even countering or making Danielson work. Danielson angered the ref by off flipping him off, so he fast counted when Zack ducked a kick and went into a flash pin. Zack advanced to the semifinal, where he lost to another future legend, Shingo Takagi, but certainly his 2008 match against Danielson where he lost did a lot more to actually make him look like a winner than this thing. Thankfully, their 2023 match was nothing like their previous two, as they were finally presented as equals, and thus truly allowed to do their thing. They did a lot of feeling out, parity, and mirror spots to show how evenly matched they now were, as well as respect for what the opponent was capable of. The early portion did a great job of creating anticipation. Unlike almost anything else we see in AEW, they were able to build the match without killing their bodies by putting the focus on the little details and what the wrestlers are capable of doing, rather than big, grand, and probably dangerous actions. All of the action took place inside the ring, relying on escapes, counters, and creativity rather than dives, weapons, and blood. Despite removing so much of what AEW does, it felt far more varied because they weren't just moving from one of the usual tropes to another. There was way more depth to the technical wrestling than what we would see from even their matches against lesser opponents. Both would make a little progress, come close to a hold or have one locked momentarily, but ultimately, the opponent would react properly to their movement, shift their weight, roll through, somehow alleviate the pressure or counter into their own attack, resulting in a stalemate that was never dull because they kept trying new things even if they weren't exactly working. It all evolved in a manner that felt natural and logical. Hold after hold, counter after counter, they progressed through so many great little moments of frustration and one upsmanship, building the match with great attention to detail, and making even the smallest movements feel substantial. They created heat and garnered anticipation through their pride and determination to outclass each other, as well as their 
resourcefulness. Their very different styles of technical wrestling, Sabre on the smooth and slick side and Danielson on the gritty and grindy side, balanced each other out to create something that wasn't too effortless or too deliberate. In the old World of Sport tradition, they started out honorably, slowly escalating into a fight, with the first strike coming when Zack broke cleanly 7 minutes in, but then decided to land a European uppercut while Danielson was still in the ropes. This baited Dragon into a European uppercut exchange, which Danielson began by throwing with his left arm to protect the recently broken right arm, but Zack's taunt suckered him into throwing with the steel rod inserted right arm instead. Danielson was immediately shaking the arm out in between uppercuts, and since he knew it was coming, after a couple Zack was able to reinjure the arm by stepping forward and blocking it with his own arm. This led to the first segment of control where Zack was working over the injured right arm. Sabre is a bad opponent to face when you aren't 100%, as he has all the knowledge required to exploit your weakness with his painful joint manipulations, and will gleefully do so. Danielson shifted to working on the knee, with a couple painful looking Dragon screws, but Zack wasn't compromised coming in, so it was hard for Danielson to play even when they were countering back and forth into locks targeting these appendages. There was a nice bit where Danielson tried to come back with a half crab, but couldn't use his right arm to complete the lock. They did a great job at telling simple little stories, crafting a series of small battles that flowed together and fit into a greater whole. The match contained some of the best selling of the year, particularly from Danielson, because rather than stopping the action endlessly, it was mostly done through facial expressions and body movements while they continued to try to push through the pain to make the best move they could at that moment to help them win the match. While the first half was all about the crisp fluid technical wrestling the match promised to deliver, successfully depicting the struggle between two wily masters, as the animosity increased and the desire to win took hold, the second half was more of a violent striking battle. The goal was ultimately to win the match rather than to win via submission, and one of the reasons it became increasingly striking oriented in the later stages, is they are both such great grapplers they negated each other by always having the counter to every stretch or submission. Danielson is theoretically the better striker, but he was having difficulty using his primary striking arm, and Zack began targeting his strikes such as the European uppercut and the penalty kick to the bad arm to add to these woes. The intensity continually escalated, whether through harder strikes or more sadistic contortions. The counters back and forth were exceptional, just very fast, fluid, and flowing as they moved into new submissions or pinning predicaments. One of the things that makes them great is unlike most wrestlers who simply have the same "stuff to do" in every match, they are able to switch up their offense based on the damage done to their opponent, as well as what their opponent has done to them. They can take many different routes to get to their destination. Sabre should have won in the sense that he's the younger, healthier, more in form fighter, and also has yet to beat Danielson, but Danielson had to win because he's the hometown hero, and this shift to striking was also the story that made it reasonable for Danielson to actually win. Zack had an answer to every hold Danielson threw at him, but he was better off early on during the honorable exchanges than after he became frustrated he wasn't gaining the traction he normally does. Striking worked for Sabre initially, but it's overall a much stronger part of Danielson's arsenal, and the more Danielson threw, the more Zack could only fire back to answer him, rather than seize control through a counter. While the exchanges were fairly equal, Danielson has finishers in that realm, while Zack really doesn't, and ultimately Danielson was able to take this with two busaiku knees. The finish was more of a reasonable conclusion than one that put this over the top as a great match. Danielson had to resort to hard hitting when it was clear he couldn't win solely via technical wrestling, so in the end, Sabre can still claim to be the best technical wrestler in the world, while Danielson remains the all around better, tougher, and more determined pro wrestler, which perhaps for the last time was still just enough here. I have very high hopes for their rematch in New Japan on February 11, 2024, but regardless of what happens there, we finally have a match here that will be looked back upon for years as one that actually lived up to their great potential. I give this match 4 and 1/2 out of 5 stars. 





Today we're featuring an IWGP Women's Title Match between Mayu Iwatani and Syuri, the best match from the January 4, 2024 Tokyo Dome shows, though unfortunately it was only held at their small City Hall facility. Bushiroad wasn't able to come up with anything compelling for this year's Wrestle Kingdom to follow last year's great Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay match, though with a lineup that failed almost universally to pair talented workers, it felt like the card greatly overachieved by actually managing to deliver two good matches, Shingo Takagi vs. Tama Tonga and Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado. Bushiroad did get things right with their STARDOM main event, especially when you consider it was a one match show that actually didn't make the same mistake as the first two Iwatani vs. Syuri title matches, forcing them to go 10 minutes longer than they needed to just for the sake of calling it an "epic". The major problem with the BS Road epic is you are sliding wrestlers of varying strengths and weaknesses into a format that requires very particular strengths in order to actually justify the excessive length. Unfortunately, as good as Mayu and Syuri are, carrying matches, laying out matches, and telling stories aren't among their strengths, so the wannabe epic doesn't suit them at all. Their October 3rd, 2020 World Of Stardom Title encounter felt like a dream match going in, two of the very best workers of the 2010s that had only faced off in tag on a couple random produce shows during that decade finally being in the same league after Syuri had worked almost everywhere from Yoshihiro Tajiri's largely men's leagues SMASH and WNC to CMLL to Pancrase and UFC. Unfortunately, it wound up being a bloated procastinating exhibition. It was definitely the most Syuri style match of their four, especially early on, with more focus on kicks and submissions, justifying Syuri's domination, although it grew into a more conventional spot oriented match as it progressed, and ultimately Mayu was able to overcome with her Dragon suplex at 28:58. Their March 27th, 2022 World Of Stardom Title Match was arguably hampered by Syuri having a 27 minute title defense against Giulia the day before. This was nonetheless a better effort with more things to like about the bout overall, though it once again largely exemplified the weaknesses of the two, that neither are great at carrying or laying out matches, and they don't utilize their impressive offense in a manner that actually results in much drama. The Mayu knee injury storyline was at least a reasonable justification for the down time, and it was paid off with an actual knee submission in the white tiger. As someone who is annoyed by refs constantly being made to look like powerless fools who allow fighters to be down and/or out for a minute at a time to keep the lazy C.M. Punks of the world from having to do more than 20 things in half an hour, this particular finish that probably sounded good on paper still didn't really come off because Iwatani was in possession of all her faculties and was simply choosing not to quit. It could have worked if they had played things better to get over the fact that the ref was saving Mayu from herself, or had Mayu made the ropes only to have the ref stop it because her knee gave out trying to stand back up, but again, storytelling is not their forte. Their first two matches were very disappointing because the excessive length required them to slow down considerably, leading to more meandering while downplaying their biggest strengths of athleticism, workrate, and intense hard hitting action. Even though they weren't going all out in their September 3, 2023 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 Block B match, it was probably the most successful of their matches to date simply because they just did what they are good at for 12 and a half minutes without trying to manufacture a lot of false drama. Their weaknesses were largely hidden because there wasn't enough time for them to be exposed. Overall, these three matches were all good, just not the sort of high end match you hope for when top workers finally meet. Their 2024 match match really built upon the 2023 match, and was a major step up that finally displayed the great potential of the matchup. Both brought their A game and pulled no punches, going all out for a 19 minute big match that truly felt worthy of the main event and the title. They just kept going until they couldn't go any more, throwing bombs and building the match so to speak through escalating craziness. Sure, it's just a spectacular workrate match that was all about speed and impact, but doing limited things you do exceptionally well works better than trying to do a bunch of things you aren't very good at in a passable fashion just because convention dictates that you are supposed to. They did way more today in 19 minutes then they did in nearly 30 minutes in their previous title matches. Basically, all they removed was 10 minutes of dead time, and in doing so they were able to deliver a match with much more urgency, now trying to fit everything in, rather than trying to drag everything out. Mayu was in great form, and it felt like what we were expecting to see from her first World Of Stardom Title reign before injuries to her and Io Shirai, combined with the departures of Kairi Hojo and Shirai sent the league on a very different trajectory. Everything Syuri did just felt brutal. She tried her best to decapitate Iwatani with kicks, knees, even a guillotine single leg off the top to a standing Mayu. The most dangerous of these spots was probably throwing Mayu head first into the turnbuckle pad. This match wasn't particularly submission oriented, but Syuri did an avalanche hoverboard lock KUSHIDA would have been proud of. Iwatani was mostly trying to win with her Dragon suplex, but was unable to capitalize when she hit it on the apron because it came soon after taking a tornado DDT off the apron. Later, Mayu released her Dragon suplex in order to then pin Syuri after the 2 step Dragon suplex, but in suplexing Syuri twice in a row, she wound up too close to the ropes. Mayu somehow came up from this with blood dripping down her chin onto her neck. Mayu was able to hang with Syuri stiffness wise, and the striking sequences were so much better here because the match as a whole was so much faster and more aggressive. They just keep spamming big moves at a crazy pace until Mayu ducked a running elbow and hit a released Dragon suplex into an avalanche style reverse Frankensteiner for the win. There weren't really any ideas here, and it was largely just a much better battle of the titans version of the usual 50/50 stuff you see from STARDOM to avoid any legitimate thought or struggle needing to be being put into gaining or maintaining control, but from an athletic perspective, there just aren't many women around who are capable of delivering better nonstop action. It was top shelf video game fun, with a level of stiffness and intensity that allowed it to come off as more than pure spectacle. I give this match 4 out of 5 stars.


https://youtu.be/jea4eRB31MQ

Today we're examining Darby Allin vs. Konosuke Takeshita from AEW Dynamite #222 January 3, 2024 at the Newark Prudential Center. Rebounding from their worst disaster of a PPV ever on December 30th 2023, with no match on AEW Worlds End exceeding 2.5 stars, which was way less annoying than the ridiculous coronation of champions aged 50, 50, 44, and 42, Tony Khan at least understood that the watchable part of his big 8 man match that would have tanked even if not for the Chris Jericho allegations, Darby Allin vs. Konosuke Takeshita, was well worth running in singles. Takeshita seemed poised to finally get a big singles push as the lead in The Don Callis Family after defeating Kenny Omega in a very good, match of the night at AEW All Out 2023 on September 3, but has again been lost in the shuffle, with a singles victory over then Callis Family hopeful Kyle Fletcher on October 25th being his lone AEW singles match in the final quarter of 2023. Darby and Takeshita's styles really mesh well and compliment each other nicely, with the big bully Takeshita ragdolling the fiery kamikaze Darby around so he can take his huge, scary bumps. Allin is great as the babyface in peril, and because we've seen him win so many times while largely getting destroyed, you always believed in his ability to survive long enough to resourcefully utilize his quickness and athleticism, even though the logical result would be Takeshita going over. Takeshita, of course, played the steady powerhouse, with Darby answering his brutal attacks, or dying trying. Takeshita is just so much more dynamic, athletic, and creative than your typical strongman that the individual spots maintained an aura of surprise even though the match as a whole looked as you expected it to going in, with big dramatic offense, very dynamic reversals, and a lot of recklessly flinging their bodies at one another. There was a decent amount of filler, especially during the commercial picture in picture, but Darby is so suicidal that a crisp, fluid, well timed back and forth sprint was the reasonable way to go, if anything about this match can be described as such. Darby bumped even that much bigger than usual, making Takeshita look even that much more savage. The action was definitely wild even beyond Allin getting hoisted, heaved, and pinballed to make Takeshita look like a million bucks when Darby couldn't momentarily foil Takeshita with a high flying hope spot because Takeshita was so monstrous in pulling out all the stops with power moves. Even when things got a bit goofy with Takeshita doing a double roll chaos theory on the ramp, it was one of several spots that stood out for being both unexpected and uniquely over the top. The creative spot I really loved was Takeshita's jumping knee to counter Darby's tope, the sort of actually logical spot we would see a lot more often if there was any way to protect the diver, but obviously intercepting the opponent in midair isn't helping them have the much safer landing that catching them provides. The finish saw Takeshita hit an amazing avalanche German suplex, then the power drive knee because Allin still called for even more. They worked at a 4 star level, but largely due to this being a rushed 12 minute 50 second match with 7 or 8 minutes of real action, I'm giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

https://youtu.be/morpL64od_s

Today we're focusing on the best SEAdLINNNG match of 2023, a Beyond The Sea Title Match between Arisa Nakajima and Sareee. Arisa Nakajima hasn't been as amazing since she injured her knee inexplicably taking a horrendous drop off of Hiroyo Matsumoto's shoulders to the floor on August 17, 2022, resulting in an abrupt end to her 3rd reign with the Beyond The Sea Title, as well as 4+ months on the shelf. She's been slowly returning to form, picking things up in the second half of 2023. Though she maintained her famous crispness and precision throughout, this is the first match we've seen from her in ages that exemplifies the majority of what made her the female wrestler of the decade for the 2010's. Arisa's unparalelled ability to maintain intensity for the duration of the match has been one of the main aspects missing from her recent performances. She isn't going full bore in every reasonable singles match like she did in her 20's, keeping the action from divirging from the plot by doing something useful to keep it on track when the opponent begins stalling or meandering. Part of the reason for this is obviously breaking down, but also her role has changed with seniority, and these days as the big fish in the small pond, she's usually just bullying some poor kid, who despite having talent and being in the main event for lack of anyone else, isn't portrayed as being remotely credible enough to put Arisa in jeopardy, much less actually defeat her. This results in rather by the numbers glorified semi squashes, that while good because Arisa is still one of the very best, and the students are a lot better than the majority of girls with their limited experience because they are actually receiving solid training, still lack drama and don't add up to the sum of the talent involved. They just wind up being rather interchangable and disposable 3 star range bouts that you enjoy, but forget by the next day. Part of Arisa's greatness was that she was amazing as both the frontrunning Chichibu bruiser, as well as the the imperiled underdog who beats the odds of being one of the smallest women through sheer determination and nonstop, all out violent aggression, but due to the lack of reasonable opponents these days, we haven't seen much of the later. For Arisa's 4th title defense, SEAdLINNNG finally brought in a star who is in her prime that Nakajima would feel comfortable having an even contest with, and while this would likely have been a great match had it taken place a few years ago when Arisa was in better form and Sareee hadn't spent 2 years rotting away in an Orlando warehouse, the result was nonetheless one of the best women's matches of 2023. It was one of the stiffest matches I've seen in a long time, filled with thudding elbows sure to produce a lot of swelling and bruising. It's a rare long bout that just flew by because there was no downtime. Certainly, just maintaining the intensity for nearly half an hour in an era of endless main events that largely consist of filler is an accomplishment in and of itself, though it was an aspect of Nakajima's work we sometimes took for granted in her heyday. Arisa and Sareee had two tag matches leading up to their big singles match that surprisingly saw each eat a pin. On the July 26, 2023 SEAdLINNNG show, Nakajima & Itsuki Aoki defeated Sareee & Riko Kawahata when Arisa pinned Sareee with her D×D, then embarrassed her in the post match. Sareee took her revenge on her own produce show, Sareee-ISM Chapter II, on August 4, teaming with KAIRI to defeat Nakajima & Takumi Iroha when Sareee pinned Arisa with her wrist clutch uranage. These matches were both good, with the latter being better because it was taken more seriously as a big main event due to having bigger names and going longer, but there was a huge improvement in quality here without the likes of KAIRI to get in their way. They were really trying hard to allow tonight's match to evolve in a logical and believable manner. It purposely wasn't that flashy, as they instead focused on delivering a more credible version of the traditional brutal rival war, with the spots appearing to occur a lot more naturally, and thus believably, rather than just being there for the sake doing cool things. They generally utilized offense that could be set up and performed quickly and realistically so the opponent didn't look too silly waiting around for them. The end result is - at least in the non shoot wrestling sense of a match that still contains some running and jumping - this looked and felt like a fight, rather than the usual juvenile pissing contest where wannabe tough guys just concede to being hit hard back and forth. Arisa played the bully, and while theoretically the tougher of the two, Sareee was rough enough to stand up to her, and wrestled the smarter match. Part of the build up saw Sareee vow to break Arisa's arm, which Sareee worked from almost the outset to neutralize as much of Arisa's aggresssion as possible. Sareee just seemed a step ahead of Arisa strategy wise. For instance, Arisa rolled through a German suplex attempt and countered with a footstomp, but then Sareee rolled Arisa, except her footstomp was to the bad right arm. Arisa began exchanging slaps, but Sareee was hitting her full strength with her right arm, while Arisa was forced into much weaker left handed blows. Arisa trying to avenge Sareee's mount elbows on the floor led to Arisa getting armbarred. Though they built the match up really well, one of the faults was that Sareee largely gave up on the arm work midway even though it was working, with Arisa just going back to throwing huge right handed elbows so the impact would be more impressive. The primary exception was a near finish where Sareee countered Arisa's charge into a wakigatame. The violence continued to intensify until they had a big thudding elbow exchange. Arisa finally wound up for a big walking elbow, only to have Sareee decide to not play along with the escalation, and instead cut her off with a floating kick to the bad arm. Sareee began to go to town with elbows, but appropriately got cut off when she charged at Nakajima for the cliched double sell. When they finally got back up, Nakajima threw a series of elbows, putting Sareee down then continuing from the mount. I'm normally not a big fan of striking in pro wrestling because it seems so contrived once you've seen even the lowest of low level kickboxing matches, but Arisa rarely falls into that category due to her fiery barrages, and once again all the action here was no nonsense, without wasted time or motion. They departed from the brutal striking enough to keep things interesting, with a couple excursions to the floor, highlighted by an Arisa double footstomp off the top, a Sareee backdrop on the stage, and an Arisa flying DDT onto the apron, though overall, most of the attempts at more phony offense failed miserably. They appeared to be going the distance, with a bizarre call of 2 minutes left despite it being a 30 minute time limit match that purportedly went 27:32, but Sareee managed a series of exploders before finally scoring the pin again with her wrist clutch uranage to become the 10th Beyond The Sea champion. Sareee may still be a little below her 2019 level, but she's definitely back in a big way, more or less matching Arisa here at every turn. She still isn't the better of these two when all things are equal, but has nonetheless put herself into the best female wrestlers of 2023 conversation by working harder on a more consistent basis than almost any of her peers. Her first title defense against Ayame Sasamura from December 28th was, for instance, better than Arisa's defense against Sasamura from March 20th because Sasamura was actually portrayed as having a chance to beat Sareee, which allowed it to be a competitive and more dramatic main event that brought out a higher level from both, rather than an entertaining foregone conclusion that didn't justify their highest gears. I give this match 4 stars out of 5.

0:00-0:43 Arisa Nakajima is returning to form after a knee injury
0:44-2:08 Arisa Nakajima is the big fish in a small pond in SEAdLINNNG
2:09-2:56 Sareee and Arisa Nakajima was stiff and intense
2:57-3:40 Sareee and Arisa Nakajima had two good lead-up tags
3:41-4:31 Arisa Nakajima and Sareee focused on delivering a credible rival war
4:32-5:55 Sareee focused on breaking Arisa Nakajima's arm
5:56-6:31 Arisa Nakajima is a high quality striker and no nonsense performer
6:32-6:49 Sareee become the 10th Beyond The Sea champion
6:50-7:10 Sareee was one of the best wrestlers of 2023 due to her consistent hard work
7:11-7:35 Sareee had a better match with Ayame Sasamura than Arisa Nakajima did

https://youtu.be/7ow2XSbog-M

Today we're focusing on the best match of the AEW Continental Classic League, Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade El Idolo from AEW Collision #26 December 9, 2023 taped December 5. These two delivered an excellent intense, dramatic, hard hitting old school story oriented match with modern moves thrown in. It was the first AEW match I've been truly invested into in ages. Several AEW matches are flashy and spectacular throwaway fun, but these two actually made me care about what they were doing, and suspend disbelief that Danielson's career was on the line due to Andrade's merciless attack to the surgically repaired orbital. Danielson has had an excellent in ring year in 2023 at age 42, but also a really rough one physically, suffering a broken arm in June and a broken orbital in October. He was a little less slick and more sloppy tonight, most likely due to soldiering on through these injuries, which have obviously also thrown his body off and hampered his training. One great thing about Danielson is even though he wasn't at the pinnacle of his technical game, he's so smart he was able to craft a well laid out story match that wasn't as much about what he was doing technically, but instead showcased his heart, as he gave all he had to fight through the vicious and sadistic tactics of Andrade. It was ultimately the second best Danielson match of 2023 behind his technical classic with Zack Sabre Jr. from AEW WrestleDream on October 1 due to what he was able to bring to the match from a mental perspective, and Andrade's best match of the year. Although Andrade was the tecnico here, and both men showed some sportsmanship and a general respect for each other, in the end a chance to win the new Triple Crown was important enough for each to pull out all the stops for, and Andrade is certainly in a better place physically than Danielson is right now. Danielson's selling of his eye was great, keeping the injury in focus, but never in the comically over the top manner MJF employs to ruin his matches by making it impossible to suspend disbelief, which only serves to take me right out of the story his is purportedly trying to tell and instead just laugh at his spastic theatrical buffoonery. At just 34, Andrade is a far cry from the amazing luchador we saw fueding with Volador Jr. in CMLL in his youth. Meanwhile, the always superior Volador Jr. has had an outstanding 2023 at 42-years-old, including getting the best matches we've ever seen out of Rocky Romero in CMLL despite Romero being a guy no one has taken seriously in years in his home promotion of New Japan (although that's largely due to Gedo's typical silly, stagnant, and unimaginative booking), having a match of the year candidate with Angel de Oro at the CMLL 90th Anniversary show on September 16, and an excellent match in New Japan with Templario on February 27, among others. Andrade is still good even though he isn't the exciting high flyer he was before he bulked up, but these days he's delivering more in situations like this where he isn't the best wrestler in the match or the one who is carrying things. His psychology was good here, and everything he normally does played that much better due to being directed at the injured left eye. This may be the only time in 2023 I talk about a side headlock in somewhat positive terms, but it's important to use the basic holds you are doing to tell the story as well, and Andrade did have the lock on Danielson's injured orbital to plant the seed for the more interesting attacks that awaited. The early portion was a bit slow, with a lot of feeling out because they were trying to ease into the storyline of a match that was going almost to the 20 minute time limit. The match got going when Andrade removed Danielson's eye patch and busted open Danielson's surgical scar tissue, cringe inducing wrestling in the best uncomfortable and unsettling meaning of the term. They really began to amp up the stiffness, and Danielson wasn't exactly helping his own cause by constantly insisting on fighting back with headbutts that beat up his own orbital almost as much as what Andrade was doing. The key spot saw Andrade cut Danielson's tope attempt off with a big elbow to the eye. There was a truly gruesome spot where Andrade seemed to be setting up an avalanche style move, but instead, just gored his thumb into the eye and the cut around it. He did eventually go for a superplex, but Danielson broke it up with another headbutt with the bad orbital, and came back with a missile dropkick before Andrade was able to execute the superplex later on. Andrade eventually hit his spinning elbow to the eye out of nowhere twice, and was just bombing elbows with Danielson down in the corner to set up a meteora. Danielson kept hanging on through sheer willpower and determination, but Andrade eventually spiked him on the orbital with his signature hammerlock DDT for the win. Danielson was very clearly the MVP of the Continental Classic, with good matches against everyone in the block, especially impressive compared to the dreadful Gold League, where even Swerve Strickland wasn't able to pull a good match out of anyone. The Blue League was quite enjoyable, but it's unfortunate AEW went to all these lengths to deliver a final, Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley, that has no up and comers or hot workers who normally don't get the push they deserve. Danielson vs. Strickland or Moxley vs. either Andrade or Brody King would have been much more useful finals, especially with Swerve and King being hot now, rather than going back to a program Tony Khan dropped the ball on 3 years ago when Kingston was hot, and still in his 30s, even if just barely. I give this match 3.75 out of 5 stars.

0:00-0:36 Bryan Danielson & Andrade El Idolo made me care about what they were doing and suspend disbelief
0:37-1:29 Bryan Danielson has been great despite his physical challenges
1:30-2:04 Bryan Danielson did a great job of selling his eye
2:05-2:59 Volador Jr. is still better than La Sombra
3:00-3:31 Andrade El Idolo actually made good use of a side headlock
3:32-4:40 Andrade El Idolo did a great job of working Bryan Danielson's surgically repaired orbital
4:41-5:30 Bryan Danielson was the MVP of the Continental Classic

https://youtu.be/fGNRk1A4Fsg

UFC 296 12/16/23: Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa 3R. Tonight we're examining Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa, the Fight of the Night from UFC 296 December 16 2023,  true classic of will over skill. No one was making any adjustments, but they're both relentless volume strikers who rank among the top 5 in the history of the women's bantamweight division in significant strikes per minute, and they typically refused to slow or back down. Undoubtedly, the action was tremendous, the display of heart was great, but there certainly wasn't a lot of diversity, so it kind of wound up being 3 rounds of the same thing, entertaining as that may have been. In the end, they did what they know how to do, for better and worse, and they did it all out for 15 really rough and tough minutes, just battering each other until even their bruises were bleeding. Aldana can be counted on to get into tough scraps she should be skilled enough by this point to avoid. Already recovering from a knee injury, it's pretty inexcusable for a UFC title contender to seemingly not know how to check a leg kick, reset at any sort of an angle so she's not just standing right in front of the opponent waiting for them to clobber her, or even switch stances to protect the damaged leg. After the fight, Aldana said she trained to swallow the pain and keep going forward, and that all the kicks she sustained hurt but just made her tougher. This thought process coincides with the advice that Aldana's corner was giving her, urging her to be more aggressive and apply more pressure, which is all well and good given what she is currently capable of, but training to avoid the pain by checking kicks and angling off to reset would actually give her optioins beyond just sprinting in an effort to minimize the amount of space the opponent has to inflict punishment. As Daniel Cormier pointed out, the only reason Aldana was still in the fight in round two was that Rosa was consistently kicking the meatier thigh rather than the smaller calf. Also, because Rosa was doing such a good job of mixing the inside and outside leg kick, she was spreading the pain around. Regardless, had Rosa employed any tactic or technique to actually open up the low kick, she probably still could have won with just that. While there was no threat of Rosa's kicks leading to a takedown because Aldana was simply boxing, as always, it was a bit puzzling why Rosa was so keen to just exchange, given she has a big advantage on the ground, and even just throwing in a few takedown attempts could have brought out the hesistant version of Aldana we saw in her debacle title challenge against Amanda Nunez where she didn't show up offensively until the 5th round. Rosa really only tried 1 takedown at the start of round 3 though. While I certainly enjoyed this gritty and grueling, no retreat no surrender, high paced, all action stand-up brawl, it probably would have been more awesome had Rosa had any answer for Aldana's boxing pressure beyond waiting for Aldana to give her any space so she could chew up Aldana's thigh with low kicks, and had Aldana been able to do anything beyond relentless pressure boxing. Rosa won the first half of the fight by either leading with the low kick or throwing a 2 punch combo then finishing with the leg kick. Aldana was able to apply enough pressure by walking forward and constantly throwing in the second half of the fight that Rosa was mostly on the defensive because she didn't do anything to create her own space. The more Aldana came in behind her jab and operated on the inside, the more she was able to utilize her body punches to hurt Rosa, and this was really the difference in the halves. Certainly in a pure boxing match, Rosa was no match for Aldana, but that could only occur when Aldana only moved forward or held her ground, never resting or resetting, which both took endless energy on Aldana's part as well as a certain brand of acquiescence on Rosa's part. On face value, suggesting passivity, seems nonsensical given Rosa threw 108 strikes in the 2nd and 153 in the 3rd, well up from the 89 she threw in the round she actually won, but there's a big difference between being proactive with your footwork to set up your aggression and merely reacting to the opponent and taking the shots that are available to you, ridiculous a number as that happened to be. In a sense, the most impressive aspect of the fight was Aldana's perserverance. Her commitment to moving forward throughout, which only grew as the fight progressed, would have been incredibly impressive even had she not been taking so much damage back that absolutely should have slowed her down. I honestly don't know how she was able to keep moving on this leg, but again, the fact that she was only getting more effective as the fight progressed should have been a sign to Rosa to look elsewhere. After two rounds, 80 of the 93 strikes Aldana landed where to the head, while 52 of the 99 Rosa landed were to the leg. Aldana made as much of a shift as there was here because she hurt Rosa to the body midway through the third, and while she wasn't often able to capitalize on the damage she did to the liver, Rosa dropping her right arm to protect her side left her face more open. Both women were very compromised by the end, with Aldana's left thigh swelling to what Cormier described as twice it's normal size, and Rosa having a mouse under her left eye that was nearly swelling it shut, in addition to several little cuts. Aldana finished very strongly, with the final two and a half minutes of the fight being her best and most active, taking the unanimous decision 29 to 28 to put herself back into title contention now that Nunes is retired. If she trains to a little differently so she's able to maintain the use of both legs, there's a decent chance she can be Mexico's 2nd female champion. Very good match.

0:00-0:47 Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa was a classic of will over skill
0:48-2:05 Irene Aldana doesn't seem to know how to check a leg kick
2:06-2:56 Karol Rosa was content to just exchange despite being the better ground fighter
2:57-3:39 Karol Rosa was mostly on the defensive in the 2nd half
3:40-4:35 Karol Rosa wasn't proactive, but took what was available
4:36-5:03 Karol Rosa had to protect her body after Irene Aldana hurt her with a liver shot
5:04-5:41 Irene Aldana finished strongly

Today we're looking at El Hijo del Vikingo defending the AAA Mega Title against Black Taurus from ROH Final Battle 2023 December 15, 2023. Vikingo is the most out of this world high flyer in the sport today, and I've really enjoyed the majority of the matches I've seen from him in 2023. He isn't going to tell stories or do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to building or structuring his match, but he's the most offensively creative aerialist around. That this didn't feel like his match, and was actually better for it, says worlds about just how impressive Taurus was here in his ROH debut. This was a much better match than they did in AEW 5 days later because Taurus, who is a much larger man and isn't particularly known to American fans, was always a step ahead of Vikingo here. Taurus was getting off first, and maintaining his momentum as an overwhelming powerhouse, which both got him over as the monster, as well as made the audience believe he actually had a chance to end Vikingo's historic 2 plus year run with the AAA Mega title. Taurus is much different than the typical high flying opponent we see Vikingo against in America, who just winds up being a lesser version of Vikingo. He's a much thicker and stronger luchador, who has about 50 pounds on Vikingo. While Taurus can fly surprisingly well, he's more adapt at tossing his opponent around and generally overwhelming them, including an avalanche style press slam. Though currently a technico, Taurus has largely been a rudo, and it shows, as he's a much better base and feeder than the typical Vikingo opponent, though he also commands more offense, so in some ways Vikingo seems more impressive in this matchup, but in others he seems less impressive. Overall though, due to what Taurus brings to the table, this was far less exhibition feeling than the typical Vikingo match, and maintained an aura of danger because they were able to actually make it seem like Vikingo was taking risks rather than simply putting on a show. The key early spot was Taurus catching Vikingo out of the air when Vikingo tried a tope con giro, and powerbombing him on the floor. Catching opponents is one of Taurus's specialties, so Vikingo had to pick his spots better and speed things up here, try to get his flying in before Taurus recovered enough to counter. Taurus was just manhandling Vikingo, hoisting him up by the throat and throwing him over the top. Vikingo started to come on after the first 5 minutes had established Taurus, which led to the notorious spot where he couldn't get the right footing for the springboard moonsault to the floor twice in a row, leading to him just slinging himself onto the top the third time rather than running the ropes yet again. Taurus was certainly stuck standing around on the floor waiting too long, but I accept some level of misfortune when the level of difficulty is so high. What annoys me is when guys are stuck just endlessly standing around waiting for the opponent to get around to trying to perform the next strike or easy to perform hold. These guys kept a high pace though, and other than that one spot, regularly effortlessly performed high level of difficulty manuevers despite Vikingo getting banged up taking the powerbomb on the floor. Overall, this match may have flowed as well as any Vikingo match I've seen this year, as he wasn't left to his devices of trying to set up one slow but all time great flying move after another. The biggest offender of that being his 3/31/23 ROH match against Komander, though that's partially because Komander's offense is even more balance based and his tightrope walking is even that much slower to set up than Vikingo's high wire act. Taurus' offense is much faster to perform, and so physically overwhelming that the match was top notch with him on offense, though obviously because Vikingo is the most breathtaking high flyer in the business, the match did become more interesting and spectacular later on when he was more consistently getting 1 or 2 spots in before getting cut off. The match continued at say a 60 to 40 rate for Taurus until Vikingo finally got his finishing run, starting with the crucifix driver and culminating with the 630 senton to retain the Mega title. This was just the opener of the Final Battle 2023 PPV, but it was miles better than anything else on the show. Kyle Fletcher vs. Komander vs. Bryan Keith vs. Dalton Castle vs. Lee Johnson vs. Lee Moriarty was entertaining chaos when the theatrical joker Castle wasn't involved. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood & Mark Briscoe vs. Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley was also worth watching due to the talent involved, but really just a standard 19 minute tag with 11 minutes of hardcore nonsense tacked on to appease Mox the Fork. Out of Vikingo's 2023 major matches in AAA, AEW, & ROH, this is my 2nd favorite behind the 1st match against Kenny Omega from 3/22/23. I give this match 4 out of 5 stars.

https://youtu.be/r7u2txlU4aU

Goddesses of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Kairi Hojo & Meiko Satomura 24:21
Today we're looking at the best STARDOM match of 2016, and arguably the best match in the history of the promotion, a Goddesses of Stardom Title Match with Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani defending against Kairi Hojo & Meiko Satomura from March 21st 2016 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. This was a match that really overachieved, largely because of the performance of Satomura, who was never the most consistent performer, and was kind of goofy in her early GAEA years as the hyperactive arm flailing undergod, but now 21 years into their career, when most wrestlers should simply be retired rather than hanging on like crippled zombies, Satomura has really come into her own as the wrecking ball boss, and was able to deliver the best match of her career tonight, and while it certainly helps that both of her opponents are amazing, this was very much a brutal Satomura striking war. Satomura was treated as the big conquering hero, a total wrecking ball. All her segments were electric. This was really unlike her typical match in the sense that didn't feel patterned and formulaic, but rather she was so urgent the entire time, really precise with her execution and flowing in a the more organic manner Shirai was known for. She really kept things on point, ensuring the battles were fast, full energy and impact skirmishes. This allowed Hojo to be the underdog, which is a role she is much more suited for given her offense not only lacks spontaneity but is just pretty lame in general, and she isn't exactly dynamic or creative in any way. As with the "better" robots, what she can do is allow the opponents to do the work for her, and adapt to the match enough that she stays within the parameters the people who know what they are doing have set forth. Hojo's slaps sound better than they look, but this was the most effective she has ever been. She may not have added to the match, as she was largely just bent and beat on, but for once I can't really say she detracted from it. Her segments were all good, just not as shot out of a cannon riveting as Satomura's. Even though Satomura was simply an outsider randomly thrown into a title match between pals, this felt like an interpromotional war from the glory days. It was super intense and energetic right from the outset. For the most part, this match was in the style Satomura excels in, but Thunder Rock are underrated in this style largely because they rarely do it, as shown by the tremendous quality of their first singles title match. Of course, they were able to work other aspects into the match to keep things entertaining, and have a bit of diversity, but while one could say that the intensity wavered from time to time in the middle because they obviously left the hard-hitting now and then to do some of flashier stuff that separates Thunder Rock, it never felt like they were waiting or screwing around. Thunder Rock especially did quite a bit of running and jumping, but it was all done in an opportunistic fashion, at lightning speed and with great urgency, so it didn't feel like the usual contrived lucha exhibition. I mean, when they ran, they sprinted, and when they jumped, they catapulted themselves at the opponent. Thunder Rock, of course, provided amazing work, but this was truly a textbook example of how phony high flying can reasonably be incorporated into an otherwise serious war. Thunder Rock were even super stiff, but also very precise in everything they did, especially Shirai, whose execution could always be counted on to be so tight and crisp during this period. Mayu pushed Shirai out of the way to force a start between her and Satomura, and Satomura went at her full boar from the get go. Iwatani had some counters of her own though, and proved that she could hit Satomura back hard enough to command her respect. Similarly, Hojo did enough to hang in the exchanges, but where Satomura was winning them, Hojo was losing them. Thunder Rock are obviously the much more cohesive unit, as Satomura's previous interactions with Hojo were carrying her to shocking respectable matches that went a long way toward creating her unwarranted stardom in STARDOM. It felt like it took both of Thunder Rock to gain an advantage on Satomura, while Satomura also opened up a lot of Hojo's offense with her saves, setups, and interference. Hojo was mostly just getting bullied, and not offering Satomura much assistance, even in storyline I mean, but Satomura didn't really need help here, and was really able to steps things up in protecting Hojo in the later stages, though even Satomura was hampered by the team's lack of coherence. Of course, the battle everyone really wanted to see was Satomura vs. Shirai, and with Shirai having defeated Satomura to win the World Of Stardom Championship for the 2nd time on 12/23/15, Satomura was very much out for revenge. Shirai definitely gave back to Satomura here, but in the end, she left with two belts after pinning Hojo following her moonsault. I liked this more than the two great Shirai vs. Iwatani singles matches from 2016, it was simply more frantic and intense, feeling like the best interpromotional joshi matches of 1993. Unfortunately, none of these women work this style of electric battle, with this amount of urgency or intensity, really ever. That's what made this STARDOM's best match of 2016, and probably all-time, but also a reason 2017 and onwards STARDOM keeps getting less interesting (though obviously a minor reason when compared to the general style ultimately becoming untrained idols trying to do BS Road epics). The most similar STARDOM match would be the great 9/23/15 Thunder Rock vs. Jumanji Sisters match, which was also an electric interpromotional war. ****3/4

0:00-1:00 Meiko Satomura delivered a career best performance
1:01-1:45 DASH Chisako stole the show in the 2015 Thunder Rock vs Senjo tag
1:46-2:17 Meiko Satomura was the wrecking ball boss
2:18-3:21 Kairo Hojo played the underdog role she's best at
3:22-4:13 This felt like an intense interpromotional war from 1993
4:14-4:51 Thunder Rock's running and jumping was fast and urgent
4:52-5:34 Young Mayu Iwatani commanded Meiko Satomura's respect
5:35-6:17 Thunder Rock are a much more cohesive unit
6:18-6:38 Io Shirai vs Meiko Satomura was the featured pairing
6:39-7:12 Thunder Rock vs Satomura & Hojo was better than the Io Shirai vs Mayu Iwatani matches
7:13-7:35 Thunder Rock vs Jumonji Sisters is the most similar STARDOM match