RPW Live At The Cockpit 13 2/5/17, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mike Bailey 22:22. This is the kind of match I want to see on a small show. They didn't kill themselves early, but they didn't need to because they told a good story, combining old school technical wrestling with a modern MMA striker vs. grappler foundation. If anything, they actually went harder than they needed to trying to make it a great match late, adding a lot of excitement but somewhat negating the story they were telling, even if the finish was right. They approached this like an MMA match with 4th degree taekwondo blackbelt trying to use his movement to get a big kick in, while grappling ace Sabre tried to get hold of him so he could get into his submission game. People who just want action will hate this opening because in a sense, nothing was really happening, but that lack of progress was the story, and they told it fairly realistically, actually using something resembling the footwork, entries & exits you'd see in a real fight rather than just standing around & letting each other do what they wanted. The match took off when Bailey bowed after breaking cleanly on the ropes only to have Sabre kick him in the chest. An annoyed & disrespected Bailey then fired up & threw a massive flurry middle kicks, landing strike after strike until Sabre was forced to abandon his mat aspirations & fire back to defend himself. Bailey had really good impact on his strikes today & was overwhelming Sabre in standup until he got caught with Sabre's requisite leg catch trip out of the leapfrog & Sabre began debilitating Bailey's left leg so he couldn't kick him anymore. This totally turned the match, and set up the story of the 2nd half where Bailey kept trying to push through to mixed results. Bailey did his best selling in the few minutes after the injury occurred, hobbling around & grimacing if not falling after every kick. Sabre got an ankle lock in the bleachers, and when Bailey tried to climb down the steps to reenter the ring, his leg gave out & he tumbled down them. As Bailey's health continued to degenerate, Sabre was no longer apprehensive to strike with Bailey, and began winning even these exchanges. They started to lose me when Sabre challenged Bailey to the usual annoying 1 for 1 exchange to determine who could stand there & let the opponent hit them harder, but the match picked up tremendously when they sped up the exchange & finished it with Bailey eating a penalty kick but doing a kip up into a tornado enzuigiri. From here, Bailey did all his highlight reel stuff to make the match memorable and we can debate how much of it was just having stuff to do. The more interesting debate would be how we wanted Bailey to sell, but whether it was too much in the middle or not enough toward the end, what we didn't get here was consistency as Bailey was practically crippled throught the body then fired up & was hitting double tornados & a corkscrew running shooting star press so the stretch run would be lights out. Granted this was to set up him reinjuring the knee on his triangle moonsault, but he still reentered 1st & tried a shooting star press only to run into Sabre's European uppercut. Bailey got his ultuma weapon in, but Sabre ducked a soccer ball kick & went into his orienteering with napalm death to finally do Bailey's leg in & force him to tap. The story was stronger early, and there was some great crazy action late even if it didn't always serve it. . In any case, I just loved the inevitability of this match. Bailey could will himself to continue & throw all his somewhat compromised offense at Sabre, but Sabre just had too many options & eventually was going to break Bailey at his weak point. ***3/4

NJPW 5/29/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block B Match: KUSHIDA [6] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [6] 22:53. Taguchi was in the right place at the right time in his heyday, kind of the last prime years aged native under exclusive contract standing when they decided everyone else was a heavyweight regardless of their actual size. He had a good tag run riding the coattails of Devitt (and Golden Lovers in their famous trilogy), but has increasingly become a comedy wrestler. Though he was never a great singles wrestler, he can still lose the schtick & show up to be carried when he needs to, and this was his moment of 2017. The fans were all the more into it because at this point fighting serious puts Taguchi in the underdog role, but KUSHIDA was actually in the underdog role because he was trying to dig himself out of the B Block cellar, so the fans fervently supported both. It was easy to get behind them because while this wasn't the most awe-inspiring match of the tournament by a long shot, it was the 1st match I've seen so far that was about telling stories, thinking beyond the current moment, & using sequences of counters to further the match rather than just two guys having cool things to do & sometimes figuring out how to set something up in the present that's momentarily pretty sweet. These two were really on the same page, mirroring each other & playing off one another to the extent of their abilities. Granted, in Taguchi's case, those abilities don't reach an extremely high level, but they worked hard to overcome that, using the mental over the physical, and through those means they really managed to overachieve and actually notch the best match of the tournament so far. They know each other so well that they were able to not only counter each others signature spots building up to actually hitting them, & use each others signature spots on each other, but do so in a way that added to the focus of their appendage attack, which they went back to time & time again in new ways. Taguchi tried to get his hip attack going early, but KUSHIDA used his own at the same time then turned Taguchi's hip attack off the apron into an armbar to launch his arm attack. Taguchi came back working the knee when KUSHIDA contrived an injury landing on his feet for a suplex. KUSHIDA tried the cartwheel + dropkick he has to do every match, but Taguchi amazingly wasn't surprised & countered with an ankle lock. When Taguchi finally landed a few hip attacks, they did a really cool, if a bit contrived, sequence where KUSHIDA was again able to turn the hip attack, this time a swandive variation, into the armbar, but Taguchi countered with an ankle lock only to have KUSHIDA roll through into his own ankle lock, which Taguchi countered with his own armbar only to have KUSHIDA get to a knee & counter with a figure 4. I didn't believe the sequence, but it was a great sequence for a match where one guy was working the arm & the other the leg, and both guys wanted to make the opponent pay for said attacks. This was a big match because with everyone but KUSHIDA at 6 points, KUSHIDA needed the win to tie & stay in the hunt & Taguchi needed the win to pull into the lead going into the final day. They did a good job of portraying the urgency, and escalating it down the stretch with more frantic & scrambly sequences of counters hitting their finishers & their opponents until KUSHIDA finally won with his back to the future. KUSHIDA may have got the full 1.21 gigawatts on that move, but in a high end technical match that was mainly trading arm & leg locks, the culmination should have been a submission rather than a random head drop. Admittedly, I never went out of my way to watch Taguchi's big matches even in his heyday such as it was or beyond, but this is the best singles match of his that I've seen so far. He didn't suddenly become great, but I feel they set things up in a way that they were able to overcome his not exactly being the best athlete or slickest worker. It was also a nice change of pace to see a cohesive, well built technical heavyweight style match amidst these all these 8 minute half efforts with some random cool moments. ****

NJPW 5/26/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block A Match: Will Ospreay [8] vs. Dragon Lee [6] 10:05. Brief but spectacular athletic contest. It's kind of lame for even the featured tournament match of the day to be a lightning match, but I'd rather get this 75% effort for 10 minutes than a 50% effort for 15 or 20. I liked how after all the early land on the feet counters when Ospreay had Lee on the middle rope he faked the clean break, but then knocked him to the floor with an elbow (he likes to fake hitting the guy in the ropes but then stop his arm just short of contact) to set up his shooting star press off the apron. I feel like this version of Lee's running Frankensteiner with the opponent standing on the floor looks cooler, but the one with the opponent on the apron seems more damaging. They did a good job of making most of what they tried come back to haunt them, with even Lee's attempt to throw Ospreay through the middle rope to the floor resulting in Ospreay countering with his handspring enzuigiri. Later Ospreay tried to shoot Lee over the top to the floor, but Lee handspringed off the apron onto his feet only to get hit with a tope anyway. Ospreay took a couple of Lee's finishers then did a somewhat clunky reverse Frankensteiner to escape the Dragon driver & finished Lee off with the OsCutter. I really want to see these two get the opportunity to expand this match into something more complete & significant, but at least they made the most out of the time they had. ***

NJPW 5/17/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block A Match: Dragon Lee [2] vs. Hiromu Takahashi [0] 18:56. It was no surprise that this match was quite good, these two had a strong program in CMLL for the last 3 years that they'd already taken to NJ since Takahashi returned, and being among the few guys in the tournament under 25 (or 30 for that matter), they are still working hard to prove themselves & raise their stock. Nonetheless, I was losing faith in NJ's ability to present an actual league match that was serious & looked like both guys gave a shit about winning after Desperado's endless shenanigans & Scurll's perpetual arm flapping cartoon were both rewarded with upset victories, but these two came out with an ignited fuse & went at it fast & hard like there was something on the line that was worth struggling for. There was more intensity in their opening head to head staredown than in those two matches combined, and the urgency kicked in from moment 1 as they just hammered each other with chest slaps you could hear across the hall before getting into the athletic counters. They started stalling on & off after Lee hit his awesome running Frankensteiner & no touch tope con hilo, but they'd already got my attention & drawn me in, so I was confident they'd at least make up for it later. It didn't take long as Lee used Takahashi's sunset flip powerbomb off the ring apron on him. Takahashi also used Lee's double stomp on him. These two know each other so well, and were able to use that to their advantage, both in the moves they did & the general timing & chemistry they had in performing them. This actually wasn't as crazy as some of their previous matches, but it was an excellent rivalry match with a lot of parity, including a lengthy exchange of released German suplexes & Takahashi ripping Lee's mask. There was so much great stuff throughout that they seemed to have trouble figuring out how to close it out. Takahashi leaping off the 2nd into a Canadian destroyer seemed like it would have been the finish in Mexico since the move is so feared there, but they had more in store, with Lee using Takahashi's running Death Valley driver into the turnbuckle then finishing Takahashi with his Dragon driver to avenge his 2/11/17 loss & hand the IWGP Junior Champ his first singles defeat of 2017. The fans were really into this match, and it was nice to see Lee get a lot of applause throughout rather than the crowd being really pro native. Lee made a couple mistakes here, but was the slightly better of the two apart from that, and has the higher ceiling in my opinion so of all these upsets this was the one to be excited about even beyond the fact that it was an actual match rather than just 10-12 minutes meandering to an end. ****

NJPW 5/18/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block A Match: Will Ospreay [2] vs. Ricochet [2] 27:27. Two of the best acrobats in the sport fired up for a New Japan main event & delivered a fantastic athletic encounter & a great mirror match where they tried to one up each other in technical wrestling, striking, & high flying, but predominantly it boiled down to who was the slightly more athletic of the most athletic. These two have great chemistry & were motivated to push the boundaries of just how many moves they could land on their feet to counter. The match started out with an off the charts display of athletic counters, which for me was actually the peak of the match. I didn't even matter what they were trying for, and it was more thrilling to see them not hit these holds than actually hit them because that kept the struggle alive. They eventually switching to striking, deciding the more sane solution was to try to wear the opponent down so they might actually hit something later, but then they were inexplicably selling huge after just a few strikes rather than waiting until they'd earned it. While I liked that the match was about parity, standing around waiting to be hit seems the worst possible complement to a match where they used their agility to avoid everything, and the striking, when they weren't doing midair spins, was very slow paced from the get go, with a lot of dead time to pad the match time. For a couple of guys who are known for their flips though, they really laid into each other, and this was an all around really high impact encounter. Things got really insane in the 2nd half when they decided escalated their battle of top this to landing on their feet for a Frankensteiner with both standing on the top rope & a reverse Frankensteiner off the 2nd. They were having so much fun they started trying goofy things like the 619 from the floor through the bottom rope & a float over overhead belly to belly on the ring apron seemingly just to see if they could pull them off. Even though the match was first & foremost spectacle, partially because it was really hard hitting & partially because they were putting so much effort into having a great match, it had good intensity throughout & never felt like an exhibition. There was so much great stuff, and it wasn't one of those matches where they did 6 moves too many, yet there also wasn't a great climax either. I mean, there were great moves throughout, and it felt like the match had to end sometime so a finisher was, well, a logical enough place for it to stop. Ricochet randomly used Ospreay's own OsCutter on him but couldn't get the finish, & soon Ospreay hit an amazing Dragonrana & his own OsCutter for the win. Normally I'd consider Ospreay to be vastly better than Ricochet, but given they were doing a match where they were trying to show who was better while actually essentially being equal, both kind of found the midpoint between them so the differences were less noticable. The match felt a little more toward Ospreay's overall as it wasn't purely a spotfest this time & was more striking oriented (for better & worse), but in the end, it was more that Ospreay has more drive & verve, which you'd expect from the younger guy who is now starting to beat all his heroes. ****

WCPW Pro Wrestling World Cup Quarterfinals 8/24/17

Pro Wrestling World Cup Quarterfinal Match: Will Ospreay vs. Mike Bailey 21:01. A high level athletic contest that had the ingredients of a great match, but never really put them together & rose above the exhibition feel. The match was well worked & speedy as hell, with numerous great counters back & forth, but Bailey's offense often felt like forms because he was concentrating so much on speeding up his kicks they often didn't have much on them. Early highlights included both cartwheeling out of the Frankensteiner & Bailey turning Ospreay's sunset flip into his standing moonsault double knee drop. The 1st half was somewhat lacking in intensity, but that feeling evaporated when things got really wild in the 2nd half with Ospreay avoiding 2 straight ultuma weapons (shooting star knee drop) & a running corkscrew shooting star press & hitting his own running shooting star only to have Bailey get his knees up for a corkscrew moonsault. It's really hard to fault a match where they are capable of putting such insane flying sequences together, but one of the reasons Ospreay is better than the Ricochet's of the world is he's normally able to get more out of them then simply the momentary jaw drop. Bailey looked better when he took the time to hit his normal solid kicks then when he was on to the next kick as soon as the 1st one grazed so he could machine gun his combos. I liked the spot where he used the top rope to go over the top of Ospreay's cheeky nandos kick & hit a spinning high kick with Ospreay's leg stuck on the top rope, and in general his kicks were much crisper in the 2nd half, though it was still a bit awkward that Bailey was supposed to be the kicker yet Ospreay's kicks were just way more solid. Ospreay was going out of his way to put Bailey over here since Bailey was doing the job, with Bailey seeming to have the match when he countered Ospreay's Rainham maker yet again, this time hitting a brutal ultuma weapon on the ring apron & then one off the top to a standing Ospreay. Bailey spun several times for a great spinning roundhouse kick in the corner & again seemed to have the match won as he ascended for another ultuma weapon, but Ospreay just popped up & they rolled out a few finishers back & forth before Ospreay won with the OsCutter. The match was really fun, but the storytelling just seemed a bit lacking. Ultimately, it was a lot of their best stuff until someone finally got pinned. ***1/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup Quarterfinal Match: KUSHIDA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 30:08. Slow building old school technical wrestling match that started well, but because it was so long, settled into being a battle of attrition before picking up in the final third. The match may not have had a huge awe factor to it, but they did some things right that pro wrestling normally gets wrong. For instance, I loved how they did a submission oriented match without actually killing the submission moves, spending 30 seconds trying to break the clasp to get the armbar rather than with the arm extended & just not submitting because they're superman, or just countering before it got that far. The entire match was built around parity. Both where in everything you can do I can do better mode, immediately matching each other hold for hold on the mat early on then more or less going for the same submissions as the match progressed, but always getting thwarted when they were 1 step away from something real. KUSHIDA focused on the leg 1st, but wasn't getting anywhere so he switched to the arm later, which is more toward his bread & butter anyway. The match picked up when he turned Sabre's forearm off the middle rope into an armbar, but Sabre would counter as soon as KUSHIDA broke his clasp & wound up with an momentary ankle lock before KUSHIDA kicked him off. Sabre countered KUSHIDA's standing moonsault with a leg scissors that he turned into a triangle, but KUSHIDA cartwheeled out. KUSHIDA was looking for openings for the hoverboard lock (Kimura), but Sabre wasn't making it easy, so KUSHIDA would get close, for instance countering Sabre's guard pull guillotine, but never have the leverage. As the match progressed, they were able to include some highspots into the submission sequences without losing the plot, especially since they were countered half the time like everything else. Sabre turned KUSHIDA's handspring back elbow into an armbar then triangle when he couldn't extend. The whole point of the match was these two were so even, so while there weren't a ton of near finishes, that probably stayed in the tone of the match & helped it come off as an epic battle of parity. In the end, after 30 minutes, KUSHIDA won, but there was still nothing decisive, he just finally made a counter that got him a flash pin. This is probably more a match that you admire than a match that you want to watch over & over, but I felt like what they did worked, and allowed them to tell the story they were trying to get across. ***1/2

WCPW Pro Wrestling World Cup Round of 16 8/23/17

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round Match: Ricochet vs. Angelico 18:44. I've always loved the early lands on the feet spots, they were the 1st thing that impressed me about Shodai Tiger Mask & Owen Hart. Ricochet probably has the most impressive arsenal of them in the history of wrestling, but other guys did a much better job of actually doing limb work & incorporating these into a technical match. Nonetheless, Ricochet was able to build the early portion around him making his lanky opponent look stupid by countering every one of Angelico's attempts to get him down. Angelico had to fly or strike with Ricochet to have a chance, but even then a Frankensteiner just gave Ricochet another excuse to practice his handspring. The match got more interesting as Angelico began to counter Ricochet & it became more of a struggle to get the big holds off, which gave the stiff striking a point as setup. Angelico being overmatched but finding ways to compete was the main theme, but these two had good chemistry & weren't just blowing through moves even though the action was spectacular. Ricochet's jumping reverse neckbreaker onto the apron was particularly brutal, and partly because of the great bump Angelico took bouncing off the apron, was actually more impressive than all the great athletics. When Angelico would gain an advantage he'd go for his fall of the angels finisher, but Ricochet kept finding new ways to counter it. Everything was going really well until the finish where Ricochet countered the fall of the angles for the 4th time with a Frankensteiner & Angelico was supposed to recounter jumping onto the middle rope but lost his balance so Ricochet had to wait to hit his reverse Frankensteiner off the 2nd. Nonetheless, this was a good effort from both & even though he lost, Angelico seized the opportunity to shine in singles & outside of a lucha ring. ***

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jay Lethal 21:10. This match was very well laid out, but not as good in actuality. Lethal deserves credit for leaving his comfort zone to do Sabre's technical match, but the difference in speed & flexibility was stunning. Sabre looked great schooling Lethal, but obviously the match is a lot better when you have an opponent like Ospreay who can keep up with him in the hold & counter hold sequences rather than appearing to be stuck in molasses. This is not to say that Lethal is slow, he's athletic when he's running & jumping, and this was on display here at times when he did his standard high spots, he's just mechanical in technical exchanges. The match started off a bit labored due to Lethal, but got increasingly better as they did a nice job telling the story of Sabre working over Lethal's injured left elbow. Lethal did a a good job selling the arm, letting it hang & often essentially wrestling one-armed. One thing I love about Sabre is when someone plays to the crowd or taunts him, he counters their move, in this case Lethal tried to do one of the moves Flair stole from the real Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, but Sabre made 4 moves before he knew it & turned the figure 4 into a triangle variation. Later, he tried the Randy Savage diving elbow drop, but Sabre turned it into an his article 50 (armbar), however, Lethal managed to counter with the figure 4 before Sabre could finish off the bad arm by extending it. Sabre's leg was injured here, leading to a cute striking exchange where Sabre threw middle kicks to Lethal's arm & Lethal fired back throwing low kicks to the bad leg. The finish was pretty sweet as Sabre finally got the article 50 when he countered the Lethal injection then turned it into some weird double arm lock that didn't look like it did anything beyond keeping Lethal's arms behind his back for the win. Although Lethal left something to be desired, Sabre was fantastic & the match was dramatic. It certainly felt like a big match & an important victory for Sabre. ***1/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round Match: Will Ospreay vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. 19:28. Great atmosphere with an emotional Ospreay getting to wrestle his childhood idol & prove he'd not only surpassed him, but taken over his old mantle as best flying wrestler. These guys did a much better athletic counter opening than Ricochet did because both wrestlers were actually involed, and that made for much more complex & intricate sequences. Ospreay may not have had a better individual counter than Ricochet, but his cartwheel out of an armdrag & especially headscissors takedown were pretty sweet. This wasn't merely a flying exhibition, Ospreay devoted a decent amount of time to working over Rey's left knee, though this was essentially forgotten down the stretch until Rey started limping around after the match was over. Mysterio was generally getting owned, but made a number of huge counters such as turning the rainmaker into a Mysterio express to seize brief advantages. These two worked great together considering it was their 1st match. They went for it, and the quality & difficulty of the sequences & counters was high. They pulled off some insane stuff such as Rey turning the die hard Kansai into a Frankensteiner only to have Ospreay land on his feet (more or less). Yes, Rey's Frankensteiner off the top was blown, whatever, my gripe would be their decision to follow with a really contrived bulldog off the 2nd to make up for it. The bumps Ospreay took to get into position for Rey's 619 attempts were more contrived, but overall, this was a damn exciting & nicely creative contest. Ospreay was clearly superior, but not having to be the more spectacular wrestler actually worked really well for Rey, and Rey was super unselfish the entire match. This was totally wrestled like a match where Mysterio was winning, so it was all the more impressive for Ospreay (and showed a great giving attitude from Rey) when he didn't. ***3/4

Invicta 28 3/24/18: Kal Schwartz vs. Kay Hansen R2 4:27. Up and down wrestler vs. striker fight that was dominated by the larger wrestler Schwartz, but had some explosive segments & was entertaining when Schwartz wasn't just working the clinch game. Schwartz has some notoriety from stopping Tiffany Van Soest in both of their MMA debuts at Invicta 19, and just seemed so much stronger & larger than 18-year-old Hansen. Hansen is determined to be a fighter & not to half ass anything, so she's not going to college or forming Helloween, she's just focused on her MMA game. Right now she's entertaining, but not necessarily good. Hansen has quick hands & is happy to charge straight in & throw one strike combination after the other, but she fights really upright with little head or body movement, so she's easy to hit & doesn't get her body behind her strikes. Schwartz got the clinch early & maintained it for most of the 1st round. Schwartz started bringing some huge knees late, and nailed Hansen with a right when they finally separated, but Hansen landed some good combos in the final seconds before Schwartz stopped her hoptoss cold & brought her down hard. Hansen seems to be a best defense is a good offense type, and round 2 started similar to round 1 with her bringing the combos but quickly getting tied up & bullied. Hansen was able to get off the cage quickly this time, and use her speed advantage to do some good work in open space, though Schwartz was able to drill her with a right hand counter & turn Hansen's takedown attempt into her own takedown. Hansen was machine gunning lefts when Schwartz had her in the banana split, but you could see her combos weren't as fast when she got back to her feet & Schwartz drained her some more against the cage. Every time Hansen tried for a takedown or throw she just got overpowered, but she still tried a really ill advised hip toss where she didn't even have the space against the cage for the throw if she got it only to have Schwartz stop it with a short elbow that busted her eye open then hit probably the best backdrop in the history of MMA. I was half expecting the old UWF-I shoot wrestling, it's real commercial to show up this thing was so majestic! Schwartz was so pumped up going for the finish she didn't care that there was potentially a minute & another round left, she just threw punches & hammerfists at breakneck pace, targetting the cut when possible. Within 15 seconds the ring looked like Jackson Pollack did a run in, but referee Dave Seljeastad seemed too distracted thinking about where his paintbrush was so he could mix all the red on the canvas to actually stop the fight. Hansen had so much blood on her face by the time the fight was stopped that there were different shades based on the thickness & she could part the river wiping it with her fingers.

WCPW Exit Wounds 3/6/17, WCPW World Title Match: Drew Galloway vs. Will Ospreay 19:18. The best wrestlers realize it's not about doing the best match they are capable of, but the best match they are capable of with their current opponent. Galloway has probably 4 inches & 70 pounds on Ospreay, and while he's fairly athletic & explosive for his size, he's not going to be doing to much lightning fast chain wrestling. The generic match would be Ospreay's high flying against Galloway's power moves, but they instead found what turned out to be common ground in brawling & worked these type of signature spots into that base. Ospreay took huge bumps to make Galloway seem all the more imposing, including a full spin when getting heaved over the guard rail into a chair, but he's got enough on his strikes that his advantage segments in the striking didn't seem unreasonable. Ospreay definitely did a much better job of making Galloway look better than Galloway did for him as you'd expect given their size, but Galloway sold a ton for Ospreay. One big strike or throw by Galloway had a lot more impact, but because of that Ospreay had volume while Galloway had damage. As the match progressed, Ospreay began to make his mark landing on his feet for Galloway's power moves or generally spinning, twisting, & turning into his own move. The match was building well until the requisite opportunity for the Neanderthals to get a little woman abuse in, but to make the segment more pointless Galloway redid the future shock Bea Priestly had saved her boyfriend from getting pinned by a minute later, & Ospreay just kicked out. Ospreay turned a tombstone into a stunner, but supposedly made a mistake going for his OsCutter rather than going for the pin & Galloway caught him in midair & finally won with the future shock. The bridge between the brawling & the finishing segment could have been better, but Galloway's big power moves are so damn nasty Ospreay is bouncing off the canvas from the impact, so the ending actually felt late rather than early. ***1/4

NJPW The New Beginning In Osaka 2017 2/11/17, RevPro British Heavyweight Title Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Will Ospreay 13:51. They used a submission basis & built the striking & Ospreay's flying sequences out of it. Ospreay tried to avoid the striking because it obviously wasn't to his advantage against Shibata, he was more the one that was pushing the submissions as a way to keep Shibata out of his standup game, but of course got sucked into banging, & generally mauled for his efforts. Ospreay landed a fair about of strikes, but mostly because Shibata was brushing them off & waiting until he got bored to start blowing Ospreay away. Though both had their strengths, their styles blended together really well & it never felt like one or the other, as they used well timed counters to keep both styles active. The problem here is this was a midcard match that was close to 10 minutes shorter than would have been ideal, and yet somehow there was still more stalling than in Ospreay's longer UK main events. The whole part where Ospreay KO'd Shibata with a high kick on the floor & then couldn't decide what to do didn't work at all, and, in general, the match had a hard time building momentum as NJ matches tend to do because they're too often more worried about the crowd than their opponent. The match had some amazing spots from Ospreay such as the Sasuke special & air assassin, but despite Shibata's usual brutality was shockingly lacking in intensity for a Shibata match, and too often felt more like a performance than a fight (and I don't mean because of the high flying). Ospreay was allowed to be a competitive heavyweight, but ultimately went down fairly easily as there weren't many near finishes. ***1/4

KSW 42 3/3/18: Tomasz Narkun vs. Mamed Khalidov 1:18 R3. KSW might not always have the best talent in the world, but they do find a way to make big fights with what they have. These catchweight fights might not be fair to the smaller champion, but I'm a lot more interested in seeing a fight we shouldn't see than worrying about someone's record being tarnished, and this one turned out to be really exciting and dramatic. Khalidov has been the best fighter in the history of KSW, definitely a fighter who could have succeeded in a big way in the UFC, but one of the few who chose to stay put. I'm not big on records, and some of these decisions could have gone the other way as always, but with Khalidov it's important to note when you see his 34-4-2 mark that he actually started out 3-3. He's no longer in his prime at 37, and going from moving down to 180 pounds for a catchweight fight with KSW Welterweight champ Borys Mankowski to moving up to 203 pounds for this catchweight bout with KSW Light Heavyweight champ Narkun seemed to wreak havoc on his cardio, as did dealing with Narkun's power (or the threat thereof). Khalidov is a very ellusive fighter, but although he's the much better striker & had a huge speed advantage, he still had to expend a ton of energy to keep himself in open spaces. Conditioning almost didn't matter as Khalidov had a huge first round where he dropped Narkun twice within 30 seconds stepping right to get outside when Narkun was closing the distance & nailing him with a big right hand. Either of the knockdowns might have finished both a lesser fighter and/or a fighter in Khalidov's natural 185 pound weight class, but Narkun's chin held up. A big problem for Khalidov is Narkun is a European ADCC champ & because his grappling game is so strong he didn't want to stay on the ground with him after the knockdowns even though he was on top, which meant he had to work a lot harder with all the movement on his feet rather than potentially being able to relax on the ground while getting some free damage in. The one thing that was working for Narkun from the outset were his low kicks outside Khalidov's striking range, which meant Khalidov had to be active either moving or attacking to keep Narkun from just chipping away at his asset that was one of his biggest advantages. Though round 1 was a huge round for Khalidov, he was very obviously gassing late in the round even though he never pushed hard for the finish. Khalidov continued to score leading with the left hand while he was closing distance then bringing a big overhand right in the 2nd, but he was also picking Narkun apart at distance getting his low kick game going & connected with a body jab. Khalidov won the 2nd round, but you weren't getting the feeling that he was either going to knock Narkun out or have the cardio to keep avoiding him for another 3+ rounds. Narkun changed things up late in the 2nd, rushing Khalidov twice, and although Khalidov didn't take much punishment, the energy meter was waning. Narkun stunned Khalidov with a right hook counter early in the 3rd & was able to back Khalidov into the cage even though his high kick & flying knee were blocked. Narkun began to manhandle Khalidov against the cage, and the size & strength differences were now really obvious as he just bullied Khalidov with knees & short hooks. Khalidov seemed to escape to the right, but didn't get his back off the cage so Narkun just followed & went back to his knees. In what was now starting to seem like pro wrestling, Khalidov fired up & punched his way off the cage then got a takedown catching Narkun's leg & driving forward. You felt if Khalidov could make such a superhuman comeback he was not going to be denied, but again Narkun is the much better BJJ practitioner & now Khalidov was too battered to have the option of just letting Narkun up. When you're exhausted & beat up, it's easy to make a mistake, and Narkun just opened his guard & waited for Khalidov to throw so he could hook a triangle armbar that Khalidov tapped shockingly fast to, seemingly being so spent he knew he didn't have it in him to fire up again & try to find a way out. Just a fantastic comeback for Narkun. Very good match.

JWP PURE-SLAM 2008 9/23/08

Command Bolshoi vs. Megumi Yabushita 12:16. Bolshoi was a joke early in her career when she had the clown gimmick, but she was also essentially a rookie during the interpromotional period who was put in legitimate matches with big stars & that clouded people's judgement of where she was at & what she was capable of. Her high flying style improved a lot toward the end of the decade when JWP was imploding, and although she never made a mark in ARSION, she picked up a lot from Yoshida during her stint there & beyond & really started to figure out how to make a fast paced athletic style work with a n MMA submission based style. I loved that they actually employed the novel concept of using legitimate positions on the ground, with Yabushita getting guard early & making Bolshoi work to pass into half guard. This wasn't a worked shoot by any means, and the early patience quickly gave way to explosive transitions, entries, & exits, but the fact that they established some basis of credibility early made me take their grappling seriously & think of it as something beyond a counter based flashy submission exhibition. The execution was a little rough in spots, but they were really creative using their athleticism to twist, spin, & roll into every submission they could think of. The match was also a bit on the short side, and it seemed odd that it didn't actually end in a submission since that was almost all they were doing all match, but this was a really fun, creative match with a fresh, improvisational feel. It wasn't the best match they could possibly do, but it was a great midcard match in that they were experimenting & expanding their boundaries rather than going through the motions & rehashing to kill some time before the match(es) that actually mattered. ***

JWP Openweight Title Match: Kayoko Haruyama vs.Yumiko Hotta 19:43. Haruyama has enough size that Hotta took her seriously & was willing to treat her as something of an equal. Hotta had her working boots on today, and gave one of her best late performances. Nothing earth shattering, but she was intense & energized from the start. Hotta knew what she wanted to do with the match, and led Haruyama through from start to finish. Hotta took it to Haruyama with her stiffness, but even moreso with her brawling, making up for their limited move sets by fighting all around & through the arena. Hotta controlled the match, with the aid of chairs & a chain, but Haruyama always did just enough to remain relevant. Haruyama eventually lost it & started giving Hotta some of her own medicine, swinging a table at her & giving her machine gun lariats against the west sign until Hotta finally collapsed. Haruyama took what looked like a bad bump on her head when Hotta tossed her off the stage onto a pile of chairs out of a fireman's carry, but seemed okay & got a table thrown on her while she was recoving. When they got back to the ring they finally moved on from the brawling & went to their finishing moves. There was a ref bump that kept Hotta from going for a pin after her pyramid driver, but it didn't really feel like the match was going to end there & that Hotta got jipped. It felt more like Haruyama took 20 minutes of the best & baddest Hotta had to offer & still managed to lay her out with two lariats. This wasn't a classic, but it was a strong effort & the match worked because they tried hard & stayed within themselves. ***1/4

W5 42 11/11/17: Milan Pales vs. Stas Kazantsev 3R. Exciting battle of two high pace, hard hitting fighters with only a handful of losses between them. Pales is the bigger, stronger fighter, and that was really the difference here, as he was able to bully Kazantsev, coming forward & backing him with his punches & front kicks. Kazantsev has a big high kick that he's not afraid to throw up at almost any time, but he was just leading with it, so Pales wasn't fooled. This would back Pales though & keep him from pressuring momentarily, but Kazantsev was never able to get his own inside pressure game going. He threw a lot, but you never felt like he was dictating. The shots that were regularly landing were Pales jab, which bloodied Kazantsev's nose, & Kazantsev's middle kick, which bruised Pales up but ultimately didn't seem to take the toll I expected. The difference was Pales did a good job of coming in behind his jab & landing his power punches while Kazantsev wasn't able to follow his middle kicks, and though he countered well, essentially was just throwing single shots all night against a guy who was regularly able to land in combination. Pales stunned Kazantsev early in the 2nd following a right push kick with a right hook. Pales' confidence was growing & he was more willing to throw his big power punches on the inside, but Kazantsev stunned him with a left over Pales' right hook. Kazantsev soon dropped Pales with a wicked right middle kick, and you thought he might have taken over the fight until you realized Pales crumbled because it was a low blow. Pales was in tremendous pain and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to continue because they'd only allow him to squirm on the mat for so long. He actually went down to a knee again & threw up after he finally got back up & then at least came close to puking again twice after he told the ref he was ready to continue, so you knew he was in really rough shape. The fight eventually restarted, and you thought Kazantsev might just walk over Pales, but although Pales was never the same fighter (and thus the 1st half of the fight was better), he still did reasonably well for the rest of the fight. The low blow was definitely an equalizer in the 2nd though, & the round wound up being even. When Kazantsev landed one of his big punches, it made its mark, but there wasn't a lot of setup or deception & Pales was a little too quick to be throwing such wide heavy hooks & overhands at. Pales' punches were a lot more direct, and he had a much greater variety always coming behind the accurate jab. He wasn't running away with the fight once he got kicked in the jimmy, but he still launched solid & thoughtful attacks. Kazantsev is explosive, and when he fights guys a little slower who don't read him as well, he can win spectacularly with his high kick, but tonight he needed to adjust to something that would be more consistent because if he couldn't catch Pales after he turned into the pukemeister it probably wasn't going to happen in the 3rd when he'd had the minute to recover. Kazantsev never really changed anything up though. The ref was getting frustrated with Kazantsev, warning him several times, mostly for holding. Both fell down after Kazantsev caught a left kick, and it seemed like the ref had just had enough & decided to dock him a point. Kazantsev wasn't really stalling, if that's what it was for, he lost his mouthpiece & repeatedly failed to pick it up due to the clumsy big gloves. Pales definitely won the 1st round, and was probably winning the 3rd, but taking a point with just 10 seconds left sealed things in his favor. Pales won a unanimous decision. Good match.

UFC Fight Night 127 3/17/18: Jan Blachowicz vs. Jimi Manuwa 3R. Manuwa was on the verge of getting a title shot before losing almost immediately to Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 214, which led to Oezdemir showing his 3 minutes of stamina against Daniel Cormier. This was supposed to be a bounce back fight on his home turf against a guy he already beat at Fight Night 64 4/11/15. Blachowicz has been gotten his act together of late, and should be on a 3 fight winning streak if the judges in Buffalo didn't suck. Blachowicz gave a solid technical performance here, fighting behind his left jab & being ready to evade Manuwa's huge overhand counters & land while Manuwa was still off balance. Blachowicz missed a left uppercut counter 3 minutes in, but nailed Manuwa with the followup right straight while Manuwa was trying to get out of the pocket & dropped him with another right to bloody Manuwa's nose. Manuwa wasn't as hurt as Blachowicz hoped, but Blachowicz was able to land most of his subsequent jabs while Manuwa got the cobwebs out & wear Manuwa down landing punches from the clinch even though he couldn't get the takedown he wanted. Both were getting caught squaring up too much in the 2nd, with Manuwa finally getting his left hand going, though still just overcommitting to one big shot that Blachowicz could see coming a mile away rather than using even a single jab or trying an actual combo to get something in. Blachowicz had two takedowns, but though Manuwa was looking winded & having to breathe through his mouth because his nose was busted up, he wisely used his energy to keep Blachowicz from securing him once they hit the ground. Blachowicz had the 2nd round, but stopped moving his feet in the last minute, and against the cage he didn't have room to evade Manuwa's haymakers. Manuwa landed a big right high kick, and although Blachowicz finished the round failing at another takedown, the round was close enough that you knew at least some of the judges were going to give it to Manuwa for landing the signature damaging shot. Blachowicz's jab was certainly the key shot in the fight because it's quick & well disguised, but round after round of backing away was wearing him down & thus opening the door for Manuwa to land his heavier punches. The fight was definitely there to be won for Manuwa, but Blachowicz had a much better gameplan & was able to adapt, adding in more left body kicks, right low kicks, & uppercuts as well as double jabs as the fight progressed in addition to breaking Manuwa's rhythm with his jab & countering really well. Manuwa really didn't do anything different the entire fight even though his connect percent was down from over 50% to just 1/3, just stepping forward & leading with a power punch. In the end, it came down to activity, and Blachowicz was able to throw 109 more & land 60 more because he was throwing reasonable shots, defending, & throwing more reasonable shots rather than just looking for a bomb left hook or a high kick out of nowhere. Blachowicz won a unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 30-27. Good match.

ONE 69 Visions of Victory 3/9/18

Khon Sichan vs. Riski Umar 3R. Umar is 5 years younger & was surely the favorite having finished his opponent in the 1st round finishes in both his One matches whereas Sichan had been finished in the 1st round in his two previous attempts. It's easy to see why Umar has won so quickly as he's a very aggressive striker, but Sichan made him look slow & downright foolish. Sichan was just waiting for Umar to attack so he could Matrix it & fire back. Sichan's biggest weapon was the right hand, and he dropped Umar with that counter after leaning away from his front kick a little more than a minute in. Sichan pounced when he had Umar hurt, and was able to open up a cut around the right eye, but in general he's not a high volume striker, jumping back when the opponent attacks & then if he can jumping forward with the right hand while they're prone. Umar got tired of missing, and was able to get it to the ground, quickly getting reversed but then threatening with a triangle for much of the rest of the round. Umar winning his other fights so easily was coming back to haunt him, as the deeper he had to go in the fight, the more tired he got from chasing Sichan around. Umar moving directly forward really played into Sichan's hands, and though normally the advantage would clearly be to the guy taking the step forward rather than the guy taking the step backwards, Umar's offensive style and inability to move laterally or cut off the cage were perfect for Sichan's style. Umar was finally able to back Sichan enough that he could clinch against the cage, but Sichan outmuscled him from the 50/50 position, scoring the bodylock takedown then threatening with a rear naked choke for the rest of the round. The speed difference was such in the 3rd that it felt like Sichan had evaded before Umar even threw. I'd love to see the connect percentage because I feel like Umar was landing about 5%. When Sichan got an outside trip with 90 seconds left & immediately mounted, you figured Umar's tank was below E & Sichan would either finish him or ride it out, but Umar was actually able to buck & roll & spent all his remaining energy trying to pound Sichan out. Umar ran out of energy before he ran out of time, but still, it was a good position to finish the fight in, and one judge actually gave the fight to Umar. Good match.

Christian Lee vs. Kazunori Yokota 4:34 R2. The younger brother of undefeated One Women's Atomweight champion Angela Lee, Christain is also one of the most promising fighters around. With all of his fights taking place in One, his 8-1 record gives him the most wins in the history of the One featherweight division at just 19-years-old. Having defeated the inaugural ONE Lightweight Champion Kotetsu Boku in his previous bout, Lee got another tough aging Japanese star in former 2 division DEEP champion & Sengoku LW GP finalist Yokota. Yokota had won 13 in a row before losing his One debut to Marat Gafurov last May, but he's very much a Takanori Gomi style right hand winger with a lot of technical deficiencies, and that's a tough style to maintain when you're closing in on 40. Yokota was really scrappy though, and kept turning bad positions into good ones, getting behind because Lee was the better athlete & technical fighter, but pulling something out of his bag of tricks to stay in it, which made for some pretty exciting back & forth action. Lee, a BJJ & no-gi grappling world champion, is a much stronger grappler than striker, but he's perpetual motion on his feet whereas Yokota is a flatfooted chin up bomber. Lee had such huge speed & footwork advantages that he was able to stay on the outside & back away from Yokota's step jab, using his kicks & getting in & out of the pocket quickly in between Yokota's single shots. Still, that's not his winning strategy, and when Yokota landed a big low kick 90 seconds in, Lee had enough of giving Yokota chances in standup, getting in on a body lock. Yokota kept making what I'd consider the same mistake of just surrendering his back every time Lee got hold of him, but he was able to break Lee's grip a few times using a Kimura. Once he broke free, Lee was soon able to follow a left middle kick Yokota blocked with a huge right to the exposed chin because Yokota was just standing there waiting. Toward the end of the round, Lee threw an overhand right & plowed forward for the takedown when Yokota threw the low kick, mounted & dropped a few big elbows after Yokota pushed him off as he was rushing into an armbar. Yokota had a better gameplan in the 2nd, never waiting for Lee to pick him apart & make him miss, just putting the pressure on by charging forward with his punches quicker than Lee could back away from them. Lee again took over with his grappling, landing north/south knees then trying to finish with a guillotine & rear naked choke, but Yokota snuck out the back & caught Lee's leg as he tried to step off the now standing Yokota, driving forward for his own takedown. Yokota was beginning to take over with his lunging lead overhand rights & another takedown, but finally giving his back when Lee grabbed him came back to haunt him, as Lee dragged him down & rear mounted. Yokota initiated a scramble & almost got the top, but Lee got up before Yokota could get on top, so Yokota got up a step behind, which gave Lee leverage & time to get around the side & drop into an arm in guillotine for the win. Good match.

DEEP JEWELS 19 3/10/18: Mizuki Furuse vs. Nanaka Kawamura 2R. These two are really green with only 5 bouts between them, but fought with a lot of heart & spirit. Despite being an idol, Kawamura came out with a souped up Texas Chainsaw Massacre chainsaw & a Friday the 13th hockey mask, which would be the two '70's-80's horror franchises I think suck (Salem's Lot was Hooper's classic & Mario Bava's Bay of Blood, which Friday ripped off, is a quality mid tier Bava), but an entourage of hockey masked women marching to the ring made for a pretty impressive entrance, especially on the prelims of a show that drew a couple hundred. Kawamura doesn't have a lot of variety in her game, she just wants to throw a few kicks to open up bombing away with her big straight right. She was landing early, but Furuse, who I don't think wanted any part of the standup going in, learned within 10 seconds that giving Kawamura space to operate wasn't the strategy, and spent the rest of the fight trying to ground her. Kawamura was okay with clinching, even initiating it herself sometimes, but Furuse was the better wrestler so she couldn't take her down & the random knees Kawamura was landing in the clinch weren't worth all the energy she was expending pinning Furuse against the ropes, nor the opportunities she was giving up to blast Furuse with strikes. Furuse ducked a jab into a takedown with 70 seconds left in R1 & had a rear naked choke attempt then ate some punches trying for a last second triangle or armbar. I thought Kawamura won the round marginally, as Furuse did more with her time in control, but Kawamura was winning for 4 minutes before Furuse got anything going. Furuse reversed the clinch & got the early takedown in the 2nd. This looked like it would be a straightforward round as Furuse mounted & pounded away, but Kawamura was able to briefly turn into Furuse's guard after giving her back. Furuse just kept scrambling though, and turned Kawamura right back over. To her credit, Kawamura didn't give up even when Furuse mounted again. Furuse couldn't get anything going with Kawamura holding her close, so she just suffocated her with a forearm choke until she exploded into an armbar with 1:18 remaining. Furuse tried to go belly down, but they got stuck in north/south for quite a while as Kawamura tried to turn out before Furuse rolled Kawamura onto her back with 25 seconds left. Kawamura defended by turning her free (left) shoulder toward Furuse into the lock, keeping the arm from being straight but still leaving it bent in a position that had to be bad for all the joints, and just gutted it out until time expired probably figuring if she somehow held on at least she wouldn't lose. One judge ruled it a draw, but the others had it 20-18. Good match.

NJ 10/9/94, Super Junior Tag League Match: Wild Pegasus & Shinjiro Otani vs. The Great Sasuke & Black Tiger 13:19. A nice companion to the final, but by no means a classic in its own right. Benoit brought the intensity from the outset, doing particularly nice work with Eddie early on but not getting much chance to build on it. The heat should have been on Pegasus vs. Sasuke, but their first meeting since their classic J Cup Final somehow wasn't a story, and that was even more of a shame when you saw the finish of Sasuke getting a flash pin to avenge that historic loss. Pegasus was in top form, but didn't get a ton of help here, and the match was more designed to feature Otani. The match was moving along in an entertaining enough fashion, but they practically went from squabbling over making saves on weardown submissions to the finishing sequence, and it ended 5 minutes sooner than expected, with pretty much all the stories & tons of ammunition left in the holster. Tiger was solid, and it was his match when Pegasus wasn't in. Sasuke did little flying, so it didn't feel like a Sasuke match, even if he did add to it. Otani showed good teamwork with Pegasus and was trying his best to hang with the others, but despite a strong effort, as you'd expect was pretty well outclassed by Benoit & Guerrero. I know this is only Korakuen Hall, but a show featuring 4 jr league matches would normally be highlighted by something a lot more all out than this. ***

NJ 10/18/94, Super Junior Tag League Final: Wild Pegasus & Shinjiro Otani vs. The Great Sasuke & Black Tiger 18:14. They stepped it up for the final, delivering a far more intense match from start to finish. Pegasus was really jacked up from the get go, wrestling with furious aggression. He ignited the spark that was missing all tournament lariating Tiger before the bell and taking it to the floor only to get railed and chaired by Tiger. Even in the early portion, the pace Benoit was pushing was faster than even the finishing sequences of the prior tournament matches. His bumping/mannerisms were exaggerated, but pretty much everything else he did was fantastic. Tiger was able to step it up here and provide much more support for Benoit than in their league match, working well with Benoit & helping to raise Otani's level. Still, Benoit was several notches above everyone else, and his efforts to will the others to step up their game & close this with a frantic classic were largely successful. The problem was the match was designed to feature Otani, who was getting a title shot at Honaga on 10/30, and he was decidedly the weak link, getting sloppy in his efforts to maintain Benoit's high pace. Never was this deficiency more pronounced than at the finish, which was probably supposed to be Otani hitting an elevated diving Frankensteiner, but the spot was completely blown, so he then improvised & pinned Tiger with a Dragon suplex. Sasuke was flying from get go, doing consecutive hilos with Tiger, but again there was no real rivalry with Benoit, who had now fully switched all the heat to him vs. Tiger, so Sasuke's role here was just adding some hot flying moves. He can obviously do that in his sleep, but he did have a submission battle with Otani as well, and with them being more of a pairing in both matches, it seemed more random (read the outsider isn't doing the job in the final) that Otani went over Tiger. While the match wasn't without flaw, it finally felt like a big match, and this was an especially fantastic effort given they'd worked the semis earlier in the night. ****

JD Star 9/5/04: Megumi Yabushita vs. AKINO 14:42 of 20:00? While the glory days of ARSION were a distant memory even in 2004, I figured this would be more grappling oriented with AKINO being one of the most technically capable opponents Yabushita is going to have a chance to work with, and Yabushita training for ReMix 2004 where she beat Roxanne Modafferi & Erin Toughill en route to winning the openweight tournament. While the matwork was more patient than in their 9/23/04 tag, it mainly comprised the early portion that they were hacking minutes from, and thus wasn't that big part of this junior style match where they dabbling into several areas. The main difference stylistically to the 9/23 tag was the brawling. AKINO played heel now & then, & Yabushita paid her back with chair shots after avoiding her dive, with AKINO returning the favor with a DDT onto a chair after Yabushita missed her dive. There's surely better things Yabushita could be doing than swinging a chair, for instance anything, but one of the reasons the match came off as well as it did despite the editing is they built up what felt like a genuine rivalry. Overall, this match was neither as good nor as clever without Mariko Yoshida, but they did a much better job of building to the finish, such as it was, & making the match intense & the result seem important. I didn't see the draw coming, as they were going back & forth with hot near falls, and it seemed like someone would manage to get the finish soon when they suddenly gave the one minute call. AKINO was the star here, though not as much as on 9/23, and Yabushita came off better here because we actually got to see what she could do. ***1/4 range

JD Star 9/23/04: Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs. Mariko Yoshida & AKINO 14:46 of 21:56. One would expect this submission oriented match would be a showcase for Yabushita as she is, of course, the only JD wrestler in the match & the only legitimate MMA fighter of these pro wrestling grapplers, but Yabushita was barely involved during the 1st 10 minutes that aired, pretty much just coming in for a few seconds here & there. Though the weak link in the match in any style, and technical grappling being less her go to than the others, that turned out to be okay because Bolshoi stepped it up & was a good catalyst & link between the athletic style you normally see in women's wrestling & the technical style of Yoshida & her acolytes. Bolshoi would start the sequences running the ropes then someone would hit a standing submission or jump into a submission to initiate a quick transition submission laden scramble. The heart of the match was speedy grappling exchanges, but they threw in all sorts of athletic spots whether they be dives or flying takedowns. AKINO had the highlight with a flying bodyscissors into an armbar that looked like it was going to be her tornado A, but Bolshoi showed the most midair spinning & twisting whether it be to get into a submission or a cradle. Bolshoi wasn't as good as the others once the submission sequence was underway, chaining submissions just isn't second nature to her the way it is to Yoshida, but the sequences still worked well enough. Though not the most believable match, the goal was to make it exciting, and they certainly succeeded. I would have preferred if they stuck with the more Yoshida style match, but as the match progressed, they brought out more & more suplexes & flying moves, and were trying to stay true to the submission base with spots such as AKINO going into a wakigatame once they crashed the mat from Bolshoi's avalanche style uranage. One of the reasons the match worked is the pace was so frantic, no matter what style they were doing it was about seizing the moment & hitting the counter. Everyone was pulling really athletic & nifty spots throughout. To some extent, the match was too exciting for its own good because they were exhibiting submissions rather than using them for intense near finishes. It wasn't a match where you cared all that much who won or when, the performers were having fun testing the boundaries of their speed & athleticism within something of a catch wrestling base. AKINO really put on a show here because the match encompassed the two styles she's done in her career, technical & junior, and she really put them together well. Yoshida was the other standout, being the base for the junior style stuff & finding clever ways to transition into grappling. I felt bad for Yabushita because she even got pinned with the tornado A AKINO had teased earlier. Not a classic, but a super fun encounter where everyone was dynamic & reactive, doing cool things that weren't the same old cool things. ***3/4 range

GLORY 51 3/3/18: Mohammed Jaraya vs. Miles Simson 3R. GLORY has aquired another exciting young fighter in former ENFUSION -67kg champ Jaraya, returning from a 2 year reduced to 10 month suspension for assaulting a judge on the conditioned he moved to a more "professional" gym, which tured out to be Colosseum with Beztati & the Wilnis brothers, & now moving up to welterweight. Jaraya tried to come forward all night, negating Simson's reach, but Simson, also making his GLORY debut, stood his ground & got off first, forcing Jaraya to eat a shot if not a combo to get in. The standout aspect of the fight was the workrate both fighters displayed, they were more concerned about their own offense & just kept throwing and throwing. Once Jaraya got inside, both were generally content to stay in close quarters & just slug it out, which was clearly an advantage to Jaraya because when Simson would exit he'd give himself the opportunity to keep Jaraya back momentarily with the teep or use his reach to get a jab in while Jaraya was charging forward. Simson also did some good work stepping in with the right knee or the front kick to the face, but the longer Simson just stayed in the pocket, the more Jaraya broke him down with the left hook to the liver & the inside leg kick. I thought Simson won the 1st round because he was so active, outlanding Jaraya 57-29, but Jaraya has more weight of shot & did do good work to the body & the legs. The crazy pace as well as the type of shot Jaraya was landing repeatedly were clearly swinging the conditioning edge to Jaraya in the 2nd, as he maintained his pop while Simson's shots grew increasingly weaker. Jaraya did a really good job with his left hand, using hooks to the head & body to set up his uppercuts. Simson continued to land good front kicks & step knees in the 3rd when he created the space for himself, but his punches were all arm & he wasn't able to strike any fear in Jaraya or slow him down at all. The scoring didn't show the fight to be all that competitive, but Simson struck 1st & countered well, outlanding Jaraya 130-92 even though he lost every round. Good match.

UFC 222 3/3/18: John Dodson vs. Pedro Munhoz 3R. Dodson is probably the 2nd best flyweight in the world if it's not Kyoji Horiguchi, who was actually Munhoz's training partner here, but he'd rather take his chances fighting up a weight class than work his way back to a 3rd loss to the greatest of all time Demetrious Johnson even though his first challenge was the least non competitive of Johnson's illustrious title reign. The advantage of fighting up is Dodson's speed is accentuated that much more, and nowhere will it be more striking than against arguably the divisions slowest fighter in Munhoz. Dodson did a great job here of getting outside Munhoz's left leg & darting in with the left hand or knee down the middle. The problem is that was kind of all he was doing, never using his right hand that's been broken in the past for more than diversionary slapping tactics. When Dodson moved, even though Munhoz figured out what he was going to do before long, he was simply too speedy for Munhoz, consistently making him look foolish. Munhoz tried to walk him down & throw body kicks, but he was really square to Dodson taking up more space in his attempts to cut off the ring to compensate for his speed deficiency, which made it easier for Dodson to get to the outside & beat him with his speedy entries & just cut the angle to exit around the right side like a matador. Munhoz's right body kick was too predictable to land enough to slow Dodson down, but he did a better job in the 2nd of applying so much forward pressure that he was sometimes able to back Dodson into the cage & hit him before Dodson could charge in & exit out the right side. Dodson was so fast that even though Munhoz knew where he was exiting, it took him more than half the fight to finally make him pay on the exit with a big punch, and he was really never able to repeat it. Munhoz also got a high kick in, and toward the end of the 2nd round the combination of the overbearing pressure & these couple stunning shots had Dodson a bit rattled. Munhoz cracked Johnson to start the 3rd, but after the 2nd accidental low blow, Dodson became more determined & did a better job of circling into the open space before Munhoz could pin him. Dodson was just dazzling with his speed, even though something surely seems wrong when a fighter is repeatedly throwing combinations with just one hand, seeing Dodson land 3 straight lefts without Munhoz even getting a shot off was a thing of beauty. Dodson was up big in this round, but Munhoz had a late flash takedown & had Dodson pinned against the cage trying for another, leading to a big closing flurry where both tried to make a final statement for the judges. The judging tonight was way more terrible than usual, as should be expected of any show where Adalaide Byrd is out there flipping coins, but Dodson apparently had better luck than Mackenzie Dern, getting heads in every round to come away with a 28-29, 30-27, 29-28 split decision. Joe Rogan should incorporate some of his jabs on Byrd into his comedy routine, they're surely more humorous than "A unicorn is a donkey from the future." Good match.

ONE 42 Ascent to Power 5/6/16, Inaugural ONE Women's Atomweight Title: Angela Lee vs. Mei Yamaguchi 5R UD. Grappling oriented fights, as a whole, may not be as exciting as kickboxing oriented fights, but that's because it's much more common to find to fighters who will throw caution to the wind trying to get the KO than trying to get the submission. Each entry or exit is essentially a new fight on your feet, but all positions are not created equal on the ground. Lee vs. Yamaguchi was that rare fight where they didn't care if they were working from the top or the bottom, they both had an arsenal of submissions they were going to force from wherever they happened to be, seize the title or go home saying they at least gave it their all. If there was a semblance of sanity early in this perpetual scramble, it seemed to go out the window in the 3rd when Lee found herself behind for the 1st time and wasn't going to stand for that. You can argue the logic of some of what they tried, but there was no denying the urgency, and there's nothing better than two fighters who want to win so badly they are willing to lose. 19-year-old Lee had submitted her 5 previous opponents quickly, with Lena Tkhorevska being the only one who managed to last half the fight against the phenom, but now she was in a 5 round title match with a veteran who has never been finished despite facing a number of champions & has at least as many decision wins & losses as Lee has fights. Yamaguchi is probably stronger as a striker than a grappler, her first martial art was karate because she was a Jackie Chan fan & she's got 13 fights in Shootboxing, but she became good enough in BJJ to dabble in ADCC & most of her MMA finishes are by submission, nicknaming herself after the V1 armlock. What's great about the smaller fighters is even when they are out of their comfort zone, they rarely gas. These two didn't merely fight 5 hard rounds, what set this fight apart is they were increasingly more active gambling for submissions as they perhaps should have been content to control for 20 seconds just to stablize, clear their head & take a breathe. Granted, the superior fight as a whole scoring system One uses somewhat dictates that you're going to have to do more to win a fight like this where both fighters are going to have their runs on top, but these two went well above & beyond, taking countless chances you rarely see outside of grappling rules or hell, maybe even the old worked shoots. Heart & determination were certainly big factors here, and the fight was getting better & more urgent as it progressed because the big underdog Yamaguchi showed she was for real in the 2nd then took over in the 3rd & Lee had to do big things & take her game to a much higher level than she'd needed so far to take the title. Though Yamaguchi has demonstrated a lot more standup prowess in pro rings, she really had no interest in exchanging with Lee, probably because Lee had a huge reach advantage. Right from the outset, Yamaguchi looked to grab Lee whenever she could, but while she didn't have much luck following it up with a takedown in the 1st, the highlight of the round was definitely Lee jumping guard & immediately rolling through into mount. Lee didn't really secure the position because she was more interested in the opportunity to throw a flurry of punches, so Yamaguchi was able to turn to a knee & stand, looking for a single leg, but Lee locked her neck & eventually dropped into a guillotine. Lee held the submission far longer than was seemingly profitable, a tendency she displayed all fight, but wound up not taking any damage because of that, shifting into an armbar attempt almost as soon as Yamaguchi finally got free & tried to bring the leather. Lee was arguably too comfortable off her back for her own good, content to spend the second round threatening armbars from the bottom. Yamaguchi didn't do consistent damage by any means, but when you are on top long enough, you're going to get some in. Yamaguchi finally hurt Lee with a guard pass left hand after slipping out of an armbar late, then tried to finish with her own guillotine before the round ended but wasn't able to hook her legs when she was rolling Lee. Yamaguchi charged in with a left hook at the bell that missed but dropped Lee with the overhand right that followed & tried to finish on the ground. Lee was in surprisingly good shape given how hard she crumbled, and although she didn't get her leg up high enough for a triangle or mission control, she was at least able to hold Yamaguchi around the neck to stop the flurry. Lee sat up & tried for her own takedown, but Yamaguchi had the leverage, and got side mount. Yamaguchi was pounding from mount, but quickly gambled for the armbar & almost had it belly down but wasn't quite high enough on the arm by this point so Lee was able to punch her way out & take Yamaguchi's back. Just great stuff! Lee's instinct is offense first, so she went right to the elbows even though she wasn't recovered, and wound up in another armbar, though she turned her hand down before Yamaguchi could lock it under her armpit. The match was quickly veering into Volk Han exhibition territory as Yamaguchi dove for a kneebar, and they just kept rolling around going for finishes, control be damned. Lee also failed on the anaconda choke her brother Christian beat Cary Bullos with on the undercard. Definitely one of the best rounds of the year! Lee seemed to be testing some more patient ground & pound early in the 4th, but although Yamaguchi wasn't defending it well, she still dropped into the heel hook. Yamaguchi was ahead through 3, but round 4 was all Lee, as she followed a lengthy arm triangle with a triangle & a guillotine, wearing Yamaguchi down by depriving her of oxygen. Yamaguchi has a good technique to just keep enough space that she can breath in the arm traingle, but still just wasn't the same fighter after being deprived of air for that long, and even with the round to recover, she was noticably slower in the 5th, and the taller heavier Lee weighing on her in the clinch wasn't helping her any. Yamaguchi was just standing in front of Lee in the 5th, and though Lee was picking her apart, Yamaguchi was doing what she could, dropping her chin & coming forward, albeit too slowly. Lee probably did her a favor taking her down because Yamaguchi was more likely to come up with yet another scramble than to find the energy for the kind of footwork she needed on her feet. Lee was more patient here though, and Yamaguchi wasn't able to make another miracle happen. Lee eventually worked her way into another arm triangle that she held until the final bell. I don't know how Lee's arms hung in for minute after minute of squeezing on Yamaguchi, but all her submission attempts in the last two rounds clearly swung the fight in her favor & earned he the unanimous decision. Great match.

UFC on Fox 28 2/24/18

Max Griffin vs. Mike Perry 3R. I thought Max Griffin vs. Mike Perry & Jessica Andrade vs. Tecia Torres would essentially be the same fight. Perry & Andrade were just going to come forward & it was up to Griffin & Torres to move intelligently, sometimes landing then evading & sometimes timing them coming in. Being able to hold your ground & make the stalker think about coming in is nice, but that in my opinion is a by-product of doing the afformentioned well. The difference between the two fights, and why Griffin was able to win & Torres wasn't is Griffin moved laterally while Torres moved backwards. By moving laterally, the cardio required for both fighters was much more equal so Griffin maintained his movement a lot longer, and more importantly, Griffin was able to step in & strike in combination at full power off his front foot. Griffin was also able to use angles much better because his movement wasn't as linear, and thus be first coming forward on his own terms, in combination behind a jab. Perry did what Perry does, step forward & bomb mindlessly, but he was unable to cut the octagon off so Griffin saw it all a mile away & had room to evade. Despite Perry moving forward, it was Griffin who consistently throwing 1st, and he was connecting while Perry was watching & occasionally missing badly. Perry did better in the 2nd when he circled with Griffin & kicked the lead leg, but he didn't do this nearly enough & seems incapable of throwing a combination of any sort, so this didn't open up his power punches. Griffin was regularly landing his power right hands over Perry's low defenses, leaving the left side of Perry's face crimson with multiple cuts dripping down. Perry was rarely using his jab, or really doing anything beyond moving forward & waiting for Griffin to hit him. Perry finally started incorporating a few jabs, but with no feints & no defensive posture as usual, Griffin was able to slip one & push forward with a right/left combo to drop a much too close Perry before he could get out of the pocket. Perry finally hurt Griffin to start the 3rd, defending a 5 punch combo, Griffin's most aggressive of the fight, & clocking Griffin with an overhand right counter. Perry was unable to get the takedown, but Griffin got conservative trying to recover & eventually was a step to slow backing away from Perry's charging left hook. Perry followed hammering Griffin with a lead overhand right when he was too close to the cage, and though Perry was down 2 rounds, he was putting himself back in the fight with the potential to either finish or at least get a 10-8 round to potentially make it a draw. Granted, with Griffin landing more than Perry had thrown through 2, Griffin may have had a 10-8 round 2, but there was some legit drama in the 3rd. Since Perry almost never feints, it's really difficult for him to back Griffin into the cage where he has less options to escape, and once Griffin reestablished his position inside the octagon border, it was back to the usual whiffing for Perry until he Perry pressed with even more wild reckless abandon than usual in the last minute. This would probably normally get him dropped, but he stunned Griffin with a right high kick, and was able to land a couple big punches with Griffin on the fence. However, Perry let the remainder of the round slip away going for a takedown that wasn't going to win him the fight which he did eventually get in the final seconds. Perry won the last round, but it wasn't enough as Griffin took the unanimous decision 29-27, 29-27, 30-27. Good match.

Jessica Andrade vs. Tecia Torres 3R. I felt this was a fight Torres could win, but she didn't move the way Max Griffin did earlier in the night. Torres moved backwards rather than laterally, which is much more tiring and also takes away much of your power because you are striking off your back foot. That was crucial as Torres' plan was to earn Andrade's respect with her strikes to keep her from just plowing forward, but since they had so much less on them than normal, that never happened. Torres was increasingly trying to plant when she was ready to attack to get more power, but that meant their proximity was closer so she was more prone to getting hit with counter shots and especially getting grabbed & taken down. Torres could never come forward with a combination the way Griffin was because she wasn't angling to create space then closing the distance with her attack, she was just taking 1 step back for every 1 step Andrade took forward so when she stopped to attack, Andrade was on top of her. Torres won the 1st round fighting this style because she's got a considerable advantage in striking technique and she's a lot quicker, but the style is such a cardio drain, and with each notch that she dropped off, Andrade was getting closer to landing the haymaker or grabbing her & throwing her. The more Torres stood in front of Andrade, the more she was stuck relying on head movement to evade Andrade's bigger shots, which was a risky and far from reliable proposition, and the more she was close enough for Andrade to transition to her wrestling, which is really what the 2nd and especially 3rd rounds were all about. Torres really needed to have an alternate strategy because Andrade was taking over late in the 1st, and nothing Torres was doing was altering the facts that Andrade was fighting her fight, getting off 1st, and controlling the positions. Dominick Cruz was looking for Torres to use teeps to establish & maintain distance, which also would have been great for allowing Torres to use her kicking game in general, as she was generally too close & under too much pressure to really get anything going. She didn't want to get taken down, but Andrade is more about brute strength takedowns anyway, she began just scoop slamming Torres early in the 2nd, so low kicks would have been something that might have slowed Andrade down some if Torres was fighting a distance style rather than just backing away from Andrade. Even though Torres wasn't taking damage from Andrade's first few takedowns and was able to try a submission & get back to her feet, again she was just having to work so much harder than Andrade was. Andrade increasingly realized Torres was there for the grabbing, and turned it into a clinch & throw match. Torres would get back up, but Andrade had too big a strength advantage for her to fend off even some of the takedown attempts she defended properly. With the fight a round a piece, racking up points was a good strategy for Andrade, and the more she made Torres work in the clinch or off her back, the more Torres was standing in front of her rather than moving once she got back to her feet. By the 6th Andrade takedown, Torres was lacking the explosion for the quick submission attempt or escape, and Andrade was now digging the fists into her ribs. Torres had a quick reversal of a takedown in the last minute & tried for the rear naked choke with Andrade on her knees, but was high on Andrade's back & was never able to get her left leg hooked, so Andrade eventually shook her off & took the top as usual to close things out. Torres showed a ton of heart as always, but Andrade doesn't slow down when she's doing her thing, and Torres needed to fight a different style from the outset & make some changes rather than just further entrenching herself into a bad gameplan that was having less & less success for reasons that should have been obvious coming in. Andrade won a unanimous decision 29-27, 29-28, 29-28. Good match.

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