Bellator 219 3/29/19: Brandon Girtz vs. Saad Awad 3R. Girtz is a former All-American wrestler, but you wouldn't know it from the way he fights. Granted, he's not the most technical striker, but he's not closing the distance to grab hold of the opponent, he's just throwing absolute bombs. The match was perhaps more exciting than it should have been because it had that movie fight kind of feel where instead of throwing crisp straight strikes, Girtz was just winging haymakers, which would sometimes pull Awad into a wild brawl even though he was trying to stay long & technical. Either way, it all looked really urgent & dramatic. Girtz dropped Awad early amidst a flurry of big windup, full power hooks, and it seemed like he might pound him out from the mount in a little over a minute. Girtz fights the way he does partly because at 5'7" he's giving up height & reach to almost any lightweight, but he carries his explosiveness from his wrestling days, making big aggressive pushes. Awad has great conditioning though, and no one is going to be able to sustain a style as aggressive as Girtz's nonstop. Almost as soon as Awad got back to his feet, he was on the attack using his distance punching game to take over while Girtz got a breath. This forced Girtz to get right back to closing distance as fast as he could, but he expended so much energy trying to finish early combined with his style taking a lot more that he was clearly the more fatigued fighter in the 2nd & 3rd. This had to be a really frustrating match for Awad because it seemed a good match on paper & he would take over for portions, particularly at the end of rounds, but he really couldn't stop Girtz when Girtz put his mind to it. Still, Awad was able to stalk Girtz late in the first, for much of the 2nd, and the 1st half of the 3rd. When Awad was walking Girtz down & using his distance striking game, he would dominate the fight, but he wasn't doing as much damage or looking as ferocious, so winning portions didn't necessarily translate to winning rounds. I thought Awad won the 2nd watching live, and it looked that way even more rolling it back, but still I wasn't confident the judges would all give it to him. Assuming it was even though, things were beginning to look good for Awad in the 3rd as Girtz's refusal to use his wrestling or even step off to the right more often so he could capitalize on the lefty vs. orthodox with more liver kicks allowed Awad to keep stalking him. The more time Girtz spent standing in range or backing up in between ever more brief lunges forward, the more it looked like Awad might steal the decision. Girtz finally righted the ship midway through the 3rd landing a liver kick. It's hard to tell whether his subsequent right hook did much or not, but Awad was at least still stunned from the 1st shot & dove for a single leg only to take repeated hammerfists from Girtz. It took Awad a minute of getting pummeled to find a way to create a scramble & stand. He was wobbly, but somehow he managed to push forward again and land some big hooks. The finish was in some sense even more insane as Awad, who should have been out on his feet if not finished a few rounds ago, somehow found the energy to goad Girtz, who had the fight won & just needed to stay away, into a big finish. Girtz seemed to realize he should just survive for about 10 seconds, but then started exchanging again, & Awad stunned him with 10 seconds left. Girtz threw such big replies that Awad had to back out of danger, and by then time expired with Awad collapsing to a knee. Just a crazy fight. Girtz won a unanimous decision 29-28, 30-27, 29-28. Excellent match.

UFC Fight Night 148 3/23/19

Bryce Mitchell vs. Bobby Moffett 3R. Mitchell vs. Moffett is the sort of match that wouldn't have been that great 20 years ago, but can be good now because everyone is fairly well rounded. At its heart, it's striker vs. wrestler, but the struggle in this contest was really compelling because Moffett is only going to go for the takedown when Mitchell isn't ready for it, and Mitchell has a good ground game himself & is actually the more threatening of the two chaining submissions. Mitchell got off to a good start dropping Moffett with a left straight against the cage, but Moffett was able to duck his aggressive follow up right hand as soon as he got up & get in on Mitchell's legs. They jockeyed back & forth quite a bit with Mitchell briefly getting Moffett's back when Moffett refused to relinquish his single leg attempt after escaping a standing guillotine, but Moffett cleared his left arm only to get triangled. Mitchell rolled this into a belly down armbar attempt. Mitchell couldn't get the arm extended, but this was a great 2 minute back & forth sequence. Moffett had the better cardio, and relied on it heavily. He did better in rounds 2 & 3 because he kept the pressure on with his standup. He wasn't landing much, but Mitchell had to keep backing because what Moffett really wanted was for him to plant his feet so he could grab him at the end of the punch combo. Mitchell had a crucifix late, and was looking for the armbar, but definitely lost the round with Moffett getting 2 takedowns & having a D'Arce choke attempt. Moffett's belief in his cardio began paying off in the 3rd as Mitchell was getting lazier with his footwork, getting taken down trying to plant & counter Moffett's punch combo with a hook to the head. Moffett had 2 takedowns in the 3rd, and his coaches were urging him to just stay on top & ride out the decision on control rather than go for the D'Arce again, but he didn't listen & Mitchell promptly got to his knees & took Moffett's back for a rear naked choke attempt. Mitchell was able to flatten Moffett out, but didn't have the arm under the chin enough to get the tap. Nonetheless, Mitchell essentially spent the last minute trying to adjust his lock & get the finish, which outweighed Moffett's earlier control & got him the 29-28 decision. I thought the 1st round was one of the better rounds so far this year, but once Moffett made the adjustment Mitchell was just forced to react to what Moffett was throwing at him rather than initiate any of his striking, and it kind of settled in to neither scoring in standup & Moffett having the takedowns but Mitchell having a better submission game once it got to the mat. There weren't a lot of fireworks, but some great position changes leading to submission attempts. Very good match.

Maycee Barber vs. JJ Aldrich R2 3:01. Aggressive brawl where neither fighter is that skilled when it comes to striking defense, their head is pretty stationary & they go straight forward & back too much, so being on the attack was a big advantage in this fight. Barber normally bullies the opponent, but Aldrich has some of the best distance control in women's MMA, and once Barber felt her power she was hesitant to challenge her for the rest of the first round. Aldrich's strategy was to make Barber uncomfortable by pressuring the pressure fighter, and she was making her back up from the outset, but it also turned out that she didn't need to because Barber was so predictable. The motif of the fight was Aldrich stepping forward & tagging Barber with a straight down the middle when Barber threw a low kick. Aldrich dropped Barber this way at the outset, and Barber not angling out was a real issue throughout because she couldn't really commit to her attack or she would get nailed with another big counter punch. This sent her into a pattern of feinting, throwing a low kick without much conviction, and leaning her head back hoping to be just out of reach but big steps forward were quicker than little steps & leans back. Aldrich didn't have to fear Barber's kicks, and could just back away from the punches if they came & then press forward with her own punches quicker. Round one was pretty dominant for Aldrich, maybe not in terms of sheer volume, but definitely avoiding all Barber's punches & not taking anything of note & then rushing in with one or two good solid punches down the middle, time & time again. Aldrich's corner urged her to fight in the clinch in between rounds, which seemed odd given she was the better technical fighter & literally nailed Barber with a straight after every Barber kick because Barber didn't get her head off the center line. Barber's corner told her to get the clinch as well, and it can't be benificial to both fighters. Barber was the stronger of the two, which should help her there, plus given she had less technique, the more they brawled the more chance she had to get lucky rather than just repeating the pattern of getting snipped. Barber finally began to counter some of Aldrich's counter straights with her own punch. This gave Barber some confidence, and she was willing to come forward with more conviction & throw a punch from within range rather than the kick from a little further away that would surely get countered. Aldrich didn't seem to adjust to be ready for or adjust to the change, and got caught with a left cross when Barber actually threw a punch combo. Aldrich got on her bike, but Barber swarmed her with punches against the cage. It looked like Aldrich stabilized with the clinch, but Barber flurried when she broke free & seemed to break Aldrich's nose with a right hand, at which point Aldrich just covered her face with her hands & stopped fighting leading to the stoppage. Even though Barber is the one they are promoting because she's only 20 & she managed to win the fight, I was way more impressed by Aldritch, she just needs some better coaching & to handle adversity better. Good match.

Luis Pena vs. Steven Peterson 3R. Though one-sided on the scorecards, the match itself was really fun because they were really going all out to try to not only control, but submit and damage the opponent. They may not have always made the ideal move, but it was an entertaining match because they took chances. Peterson was giving up 5" in height & reach to the 6'3" "featherweight" Pena, but he was determined to not get picked apart, and just kept coming forward no matter how many times he got hit. There was a great sequence early that set the tone for the kind of fight we were going to see where Pena defended the takedown with a Kimura, but as he was scrambling to gain top position Peterson armbarred him only to get spiked on his head. Pena bloodied Peterson on the mat, and rocked him with a right hand as Peterson tried to escape back to his feet. Peterson got the early takedown in the 2nd & took standing back mount as Pena stood against the cage, but Pena shook him off. Pena had some good clinch knees, but in general, I'm not sure why he wanted to spend so much time on the inside with a better wrestler who was forced to keep closing the distance in order to have a chance. Peterson made sure Pena couldn't keep him off him with his jabs, mostly by walking through them, but Pena was angling off after hitting Peterson coming in, forcing Peterson into constant pursuit. Peterson had a better 2nd round because of his pressure, but still took too many punches fighting his way in to win the round. Pena kept defending the takedown by trying for a Kimura. While this didn't work in the 3rd, he quickly swept Peterson, but Peterson tried an armbar & a leglock off his back. Pena seemed to let Peterson slowly get back to his feet so he could nail him with a high kick once he was legal. I don't know how Peterson managed to stay on his feet, much less get a bodylock to keep Pena from following up. Pena won a unanimous 30-27 decision, but you had to admire Peterson's grit & determination. Good match.

GLORY 64 3/9/19, GLORY Women's Super Bantamweight Title: Anissa Meksen vs. Tiffany van Soest 5R. I didn't like the first match between these two because their styles basically negated each other to the point if felt like nothing was really connecting. The decisions in these women's title matches have been sketchy at best. I thought van Soest won the 1st fight 48-47, but that was at least debatable, unlike the ridiculous Jady Menezes win over Meksen where Menezes was lucky to have won a round. This decision was on par with the first Meksen/van Soest, 1 round either way though it was a much different fight because van Soest really changed her style in an effort to win the close rounds, except it was in France & the judges literally gave every French fighter any round that the opponent didn't win by say 65-35. Van Soest's problem has always been that she doesn't have knockout power, and while Meksen really doesn't either, that doesn't matter if the judges are going to give you any round they can. Every round in this fight was a few percentage points one way or the other, so that left van Soest out of luck. What made this a good fight where the previous one wasn't is van Soest didn't fall prey to waiting & allowing Meksen to utilize her reach on the outside, instead she kept the pressure on, really improving her output and strike differential over an opponent who also isn't overpowering but wins because she uses her reach so well that she can hit you & you can't hit her. Both fighters had their moments, and while they didn't totally negate each other this time, neither fighter was really making it happen here either. If you like pressure & volume, this was an impressive performance from van Soest because she committed to that style & was able to actually increase her pace with each round as she grew more fearless. If you like defense leading to counter striking then this was an impressive performance by Meksen. She did a good job of avoiding anything big van Soest threw coming in - Tiffany was particularly looking for the spinning backfist or even the high kick because she knew she needed something big to take the title home - and Meksen was also effective landing the right straight while van Soest was trying to get out of the pocket early on. These straights were her best offense, as her length made it difficult for van Soest to exit unscathed. Definitely the bests argument for Meksen were she had more weight of shot and her right straight was the best weapon either were using. Meksen supposedly has 2 inches on van Soest, but she's so much longer & bigger all around they don't even look like they are in the same weight class by the time the bell rang. My father kept asking if there was a lighter division that Tiffany could fight in, as if he was wondering whether Dinklage had a tough sister she could challenge. Meksen did land the one shot that hurt the opponent, but in general her numbers were coming from landing that extra low kick at the end of the exchange. Again in this fight, when van Soest was looking for her moment to close the distance, Meksen had the advantage with her reach, there just wasn't as much of that and van Soest seemed to get more aggressive with each round, perhaps because they had open scoring & she kept getting confirmation that she wasn't going to win this without getting a finish. The best shot of the fight though came at the end of the 3rd when Meksen beat van Soest to the left hook. I though van Soest was most effective when she led with a kick to the body. These front & middle kicks were fairly accurate, but she still wasn't able to land much following up even though the kicks often allowed her to close some distance. Technically, she landed a lot more of the knees, but neither could gain the leverage in the clinch to do more than exchange knees to the side. The biggest improvement van Soest made over the course of the fight was getting her head out of the way of Meksen's right straights on the exit. This is really what changed the fight, as in the last 2 rounds, van Soest was pushing the pace a lot more desperately but wasn't paying for it because she avoided Meksen's punches on the exit. She was really only getting hit with low kicks down the stretch, which weren't slowing her down. Granted, Meksen didn't need to do anything beyond not get knocked down, but she wasn't able to control the distance & chip away at range as she was in their 1st fight. In the end, van Soest landed 128 of 280 while Meksen landed 129 of 260 with the strikes landed in each round being virtually identical. I thought the 1st 2 rounds could have gone either way, Meksen got the 3rd & van Soest got the 4th & 5th. As with their 1st fight, you couldn't go crazy about 48-47 either way, but what was pure nonsense is the judges coming up with a 50-45, 50-45, 50-45, 49-46, 47-48 split decision win for Meksen. Good match.

UFC Fight Night 147 3/16/19

Molly McCann vs. Priscila Cachoeira 3R. Not the greatest technical match, but the kind of bout you can easily get behind, with both showing a ton of heart& desire & really going for it. McCann was super excited to be fighting at home, again getting the opportunity to be first English woman to win a UFC match. She was giving up a lot of size, but she was able to use her speed & movement against a lumbering opponent to make up for it. Cachoeira really hits hard, but man she has some of the worst footwork this side of a George Romero movie. She would literally walk toward McCann totally upright with no head movement throwing big hooks, with McCann, a former amateur national champion in boxing moving, laterally & trying to angle in to land. Cachoeira could back McCann into the cage, but could never cut her off, and McCann was able to hit an angle & hit a double leg then take the back for an arm triangle then armbar attempt when Cachoeira tried to defend with the whizzer. McCann was trying to finish the fight a lot more than she was trying to use her skill to win on points, so she sort of intelligently slugged it out with Cachoeira a lot rather than using a total stick & move style. She landed a spinning backfist early in the 2nd. McCann did a lot of ducking down then coming up with the overhand. She was bobbing & weaving like it was a pure boxing match, but Cachoeira didn't use anything but punches, so it didn't matter. Cachoeira's nose was probably broke in the 2nd, and she was just getting out manuevered. McCann was likely up 2 rounds, and was trying to seal the deal with early takedowns, but couldn't hold Cachoeira down & got a massive hematoma around the right eye that was so bad she later referred to herself as the elephant woman. Cachoeira was energized by the prospects of the stoppage, and finally began to swarm McCann with speedier plodding forward. Cachoeira dominated the fight when she could fight on the inside, and with McCann in survival mode that was happening a lot more often. McCann was still able to get on her horse, but she wasn't really firing back, just using the block to take a few seconds to get her breath back before she ran. The referee called the doctor in with just 45 seconds left, and the eye was completely swollen shut so the only real arguement against the stoppage is McCann had the fight won if she could last the final seconds. McCann helped talk the doctor into not stopping it then went to slap hands with Cachoeira on the restart, but Cachoeira turned rudo, cheap shotting her with a knee. It wasn't enough though, as McCann survived the round, and managed the unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.

Claudio Silva vs. Danny Roberts R3 3:37. This is the modern grappler vs. striker bout where Silva is actually the aggressor in standup pressuring with leg kicks & often going for high kicks because he's more than happy to have Roberts take him down so he can work his BJJ. Silva was, of course, looking to get inside where he could take Roberts down, but as with Fabricio Werdum, there was no urgency to him getting the fight to the canvas until Roberts found an answer for his aggressive kicks. Eventually Roberts uncorked a big left hand & Silva got a bodylock & dragged him down. The mat segments in the fight were all very entertaining with Silva advancing position & threatening with ground & pound & submissions, but Roberts being so active off his back & eventually getting a sweep or escaping out of the scramble. Silva worked from side & full mount, and nearly had an arm triangle late but Roberts swept & had a brief flurry of ground & pound before the bell. Silva wasn't looking that fresh to start the 2nd while Roberts still looked great despite being under fire the majority of the 1st round. When Silva tried to duck & come up with an overhand right Roberts beat him with a right hook. Silva was momentarily wobbled, but dropped into a double leg when Roberts tried to follow it up with a left cross. Roberts used the cage to almost sweep, but ref Kevin Sataki stopped them in the midst when Silva was about to armbar him, resetting them in Silva's mount without taking a point, which possibly cost Silva the finish. This was sort of a meant well call where Sataki tried to do the right thing but didn't recognize that Roberts cheating was actually about to backfire. That might be besides the point, but it's probably right to either take a point and reset them or let them go & warn Roberts as the action continues. Nonetheless, Roberts was really scrappy off the bottom even if all his methods weren't legal, and managed to sweep out the arm triangle again midway through the 2nd. Roberts was hoping to get some ground & pound in, but Silva threatened with a few submissions off his back, causing Roberts to disengage. Silva didn't have the energy for his usual attacks, and Roberts followed a right straight with a nice left hook. Silva went for the takedown, but Roberts broke with a knee then hurt Silva with a short left. Silva is so good at making the adjusments until he gets the takedown though that he got Roberts right back down. Silva couldn't quite flatten Roberts out or get the rear naked choke or triangle, and somehow Roberts would keep turning until he was free despite Silva being the far superior BJJ practitioner. Silva seemed to have tweaked or injured his ankle in addition to just being tired, and him being a more stationary target helped Roberts to drop him early in the 3rd with a big left. Roberts tried to finish on the canvas, posturing up & dropping some big blows down to open up a cut. As Roberts pace slowed down, Silva was able to stabilize & get back to thinking about his submission game. Roberts turned out of the heel hook, but once he didn't go right back to an aggressive ground & pound you felt it was long past time he just disengage. He did stand up, but his left hand was still on the canvas next to Silva's ear & Silva, who had been slow all round, suddenly exploded with his hips to get the calf on Roberts head. Roberts had Silva stacked, but instead tried to slam his way out. Silva was ready for it the 2nd time & avoided enough of the impact on his head that he was able to take Roberts over into a belly down armbar. Sataki claimed Roberts scream was a verbal tap, but Roberts protested claiming he might have grunted but he'd already escaped & Dana White was a dick about it in the post fight, or in other words the same sort of thing that happens every week. I don't know what was or wasn't said by Roberts, but this looked like a justified stoppage with Roberts only "escaping" because Silva immediately released so as to not seriously injure him. It was at least a much better stoppage than what we get from Herb Dean most weeks, but regardless, this was a really impressive back & forth fight with Silva being the better fighter, but Roberts being so scrappy & doing better & better with each round as his cardio advantage grew more decisive. White's displeasure with the finish must have blinded him to how good the match actually was because Masvidal vs. Till was nowhere near the quality of this fight, and really was only notable for Masvidal's comeback KO. Very good match.

AJPW King's Road New Century 2001 1/28/01

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 18:04. There weren't many good things about the AJ split, but Fuchi's resurgence was at least one highlight. Though a 47-year-old junior heavyweight isn't exactly what a promotion is looking for in their #2 native, hence him ceding the position to Tenryu when they got a 3rd native, Fuchi is the sort of crafty old sadistic buzzard who could still be viable in his later years, and he'd managed a classic with Kawada against Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata on NJ's PPV the previous month. Liger was an ideal opponent for him in the junior division because he was also a lot more about craft than flash at this point, and these two just ground away at each other's appendages for the majority of the match. Fuchi worked over Liger's knee, but this wasn't so much a focused contest as a match about Fuchi being a big dick, pulling shenanigans such as crotching him on the top rope, headscissoring him in the top rope, & hanging him across the middle rope & standing on him. Black Liger eventually lost his cool, refusing to release his armbar when Fuchi made the ropes & then just putting the boots to him. The match really took off & changed entirely once Liger snapped, going from something that could have taken place in the 1950s to a spirited exchange of high spots. I'm not sure this was the ideal format, but these managed to get & keep the fans reacting, which was rare today. Fuchi's tactics also allowed Liger to play the underdog role, and the fans got really excited when he reversed Fuchi's suplex on the floor & hit a plancha. Liger collapsed when Fuchi tried to follow his backdrop with a front kick, and Fuchi milked this for all it was worth, with a helpless Liger seeming destined to be pinned by one of Fuchi's many backdrops. Liger kept kicking out even though he was too wobbly to stay on his feet, and eventually countered Fuchi's whip with a leg trip & flash pinned him in la magistral. ***1/2

Toshiaki Kawada & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Hiroshi Hase 23:48. As the culmination of a sad show that only existed to honor two legends, they needed to come out like gangbusters to make us forget that Baba was gone, Hansen was done, and AJ was on life support with few stars & nothing major going on, or at least honor those legends with a match worthy of their heyday when All Japan was the best promotion in the world as Kawada would later do turning back the clock for the excellent Misawa Memorial match on NOAH 10/3/09. Instead, they did a match that felt more like a Korakuen main than a Dome main, and even then, it was more of a NJ match than an AJ one, one of those well executed hard hitting contents that was totally solid but lacked anything to pull the crowd in & really getting them engaged. The pairings were odd as you had former partners Kawada & Tenryu and Sasaki & Hase opposing each other, but there was no particular reason for their current aliances other than AJ needed two names beyond their current top two stars - Kawada & Tenryu - to have something that resembled a main event. Sasaki had just defeated Kawada 3 weeks earlier in the final of the IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament, which was one of the best 10 minute matches you'll ever see. This was also a violent match, but nowhere near that next level of violence, with Hase being something of the odd man out because he's a technical wrestler rather than a striker, but carrying the majority of the load because he's 11 years younger than Tenryu and that's what Hase has always done. Sasaki was finally coming into his own in this time period, and was the one most responsible for upping the stiffness & intensity, just mauling poor Hase. Tenryu was mainly paired with Kawada, and while that was good, it didn't exactly approach their great match from 10/28/00. Hase really needed to find a way into the match or Tenryu needed to answer Sasaki's roid rage & bullying to get the crowd involved & take the match to another level. Sasaki instead put a beating in Tenryu after breaking up his attempt to pin Kawada following the Northern Lights bomb. Tenryu did somewhat avenge when Sasaki was legal, softening him up with the guu punch so Hase could finally gain an advantage on Sasaki and do his giant swing, but Sasaki destroyed Hase's midsection with knees twice fending off the uranage & came right back. As much as I enjoyed Sasaki beating the shit out of Hase, he was just so dominant here it was taking away from the match as much as it was adding. Compounding the problem was Tenryu never got that big energized run you were expecting, so it almost felt like an elongated squash given you knew Hase was eating the pin sooner or later, and they didn't do much to make you forget that. Overall, it was a fine match in a vacuum, but it really needed a story & some more dynamics to live up to the billing. ***

EVE WRESTLE QUEENDOM 5/5/18

Kay Lee Ray vs. Meiko Satomura 15:33. Satomura works a lot harder for her outside bookings than she does in her own promotion, doing a faster paced, more intense match with less filler. That being said, despite it being EVE's biggest show of the year, this was nowhere near the level of Ray's match with Satomura's protege DASH Chisako from 3/30/18, which is no surprise since those two have surpassed Satomura. Ray vs. DASH was a lot more original, unpredictable, & creative. The level here was still very high, and it was stiff & crisply executed, but it just wasn't nearly as captivating. Even though it was also new match, it just seemed like a generic high end Satomura match as Ray was so respectful she went along with whatever Satomura was doing rather than really delving into her speedier attacks or brawling. Ray proved herself with an impressive array of answers to Meiko's technical wrestling and aggressive striking, but never really made it her own match. It was nonetheless a very good match, but fell prey to the usual problems of Satomura's matches, the biggest at this point is the match is built up in an interesting enough manner, but then at some point they just leave all that stuff & spam the same few finishers over and over until it randomly ends. The early portion was built out of lock ups, with Satomura always starting off with the advantage, but Ray countering soon enough. They graduated to big strikes before Ray finally gained the first decided advantage when Meiko missed her cartwheel knee drop, though it was short lived and Meiko was able to land the cartwheel knee drop early in her comeback. In general, Ray was losing the majority of the match, but she'd almost get back to even before Satomura would take over again. Ray finally got Satomura into her element landing a Gori bomb on the apron, but Satomura topped her with the Death Valley bomb on the apron. The match was building well to a nice 20+ minute match, but then they just left everything for a finishing sequence where Satomura got near fall with the Death Valley bomb, but Ray somewhat clunkily turning the scorpio rising into her Gori bomb. Both kicked out of each others finishers again before Ray got the flash pin turning a Death Valley bomb into a schoolboy. Ray offered a handshake after the match, but Satomura instead bowed to her, which was a nice final touch. I don't think the length in and of itself was that far off as Ray often has shorter matches that are as satisfying if not more, but rather the final portion was too condensed and abrupt as they just rolled out the big moves rather than really setting them up or supporting them. While considerably better than the Satomura vs. Toni Storm matches because Ray can do the opponents thing rather than just repeating the same few patterns, it felt more like a match where Ray was supposed to increase her reputation by showing she could hang with the legend in the legend's style even though she ultimately lost than a match where she arguably scored the biggest win of her career. In theory, it's more impressive that she for the most part beat Satomura at her own game, but this isn't so much a match you'd show to someone to impress them with Ray as a match that shows Satomura is still one of the better wrestlers when she wants to be. The most impressive thing for Ray is that even though this isn't the ideal style for her, she's still proved a better opponent to plug into Meiko's typical match than almost anyone. ***1/2

EVE Title Match: Sammii Jayne vs. Charlie Morgan 20:29. Wow! Just wow! This match so greatly exceeded my expectations I'm still dumbfounded. Jayne has been a fairly consistent good performer this year but never struck me as having a ton of ability to go far beyond that level, while Morgan is a very good athlete who has had her moments but overall has been struggling both in storyline & actuality to trust her body since breaking her collarbone last year. I knew this would be good, maybe even hit ***1/2, but I wasn't expecting it to be better than Ray vs. Satomura, much less to be consistently surprised by their brilliance as they delivered a match of the year & one of the great grudge matches I've witnessed. This is what a big match can be, and what a rivalry match can be when the performers know this is the moment they are going to be remembered for & do everything in their power to seize it. You kind of know what to expect from a main event title match whether it's the IWGP Heavyweight Title or JWP/PURE-J Openweight Title, every league kind of has their standard length, arc, etc that's almost regardless of the popularity of the promotion or the magnitude of the event. This was the biggest show in the history of EVE, and yes, 1000 fans was the Tokyo Dome for them, but while a bigger effort was certainly expected, this looked nothing like what I've seen before from EVE, and the wrestlers themselves were hardly recognizable half the time they did so many new & different things & fought with such anger & disregard for their bodies. They did a ton of stunts I've never seen from them before to make it special, but it wasn't so much that as how ridiculously energized they were. They wrestled with so much raw hatred to put over the reason they were wrestling as they were that they really elevated the rivalry, title, and promotion. This feud has been brewing since Morgan defeated Jayne & Satomura in the SHE-1 final on 11/12/17, earning this title shot as well as the monicker "The Ace of EVE". In the months leading up, Jayne, aided by Jetta, has tricked, tormented, bullied, and outsmarted Morgan, culminating at the previous EVE show on 4/14 where Jayne & Morgan got to pick each other's matches, so Jayne put Morgan through a gauntlet match where she was so worn out by the time she got to Jayne it was an easy win for the champion. Jayne started tonight's war with a taunting shove off the staredown, and Morgan was just on her like a rabid dog, tackling her & running and leaping after her when she'd manage to get away. The start perfectly set the tone of the match, but they also never relented, rather than having an adrenaline dump, the whole thing was a giant adrenaline rush, with Morgan really feeding off the support of the crowd. Morgan's Fearless nickname is based on her coming out at an EVE event last year, but today it was her wrestling style as well. Though earlier in the year Jetta made a big deal of Morgan shying away from following the others in doing a dive, today she went all the way in the other direction getting nuttier and nuttier as the match progressed. She was just throwing her body all over the place from start to finish. The early portion took place on the outside because no ring could contain them. While Jayne began the main thrust of the match working over the mending collarbone after each hit a dive, they mostly just wanted to kill each other and if a table or ladder seemed an easier or more interesting way to do that, they were happy to give it a try. This led to the signature stunt of the match where Morgan powerbombed Jayne off the ladder into the crowd then climbed the ladder to the balcony & did a somersault off the guard rail, which was up there in the are you out of your mind category even though they had an army of catchers. Again Jayne had some good shoulder work when she twisted out of Morgan's implant DDT finisher, dropping her down onto the shoulder & turning into a wakigatame, but it was interspersed with Morgan doing every flying move she could think of and exchanging big suplexes. Jayne ascended to the top rope, and Morgan seemed to be countering with a climb up move, but instead threw her onto a table they'd set up on the outside 10 minutes earlier. Jayne still kicked out of the implant DDT, leading to a great spot where Morgan tried a senton atomico, but Jayne lifted her legs up to avoid then brought them down into an armbar, which would have been a perfect finish if Jayne was retaining. Morgan just refused to submit though, and Jayne eventually switched into the wakigatame. Morgan came close to making the ropes, but Jayne pulled her back in the center with a reverse roll & reapplied the wakigatame, which again would have been a great finish. The actual finish wasn't as good because it wasn't really logical and took too long to set up, though it was different & I understand the need for something big in a match where they already threw everything they could think of at each other. Jayne got desperate after her submissions failed & left the ring to find the ladder, setting it up in the corner & climbing up, which would have given her an extra 5 feet over the top turnbuckle, but is that really worth suddenly giving Morgan all this time to recover in a match when they'd been on each other with no pause? They battled on the ladder until Morgan finally hit her implant DDT off it for the win. Nonetheless, a fantastic match & great culmination to their program. It's hard to imagine either wrestler topping this, though I'd love to see them try. All the other wrestlers flooded the ring after Morgan was presented with the title, with even Jetta clapping for Morgan. ****1/2

WGP 48 8/24/18: Leo Corrales vs. Lucas Arce 3R UD. Really fun fight between two super fast, flashy combatants. Undefeated Corrales is definitely the better technician of the two, able to consistently throw 3 or 4 strike combinations. He threw some nifty spinning strikes as well, landing the back kick a few times and at least grazing with a hook kick. Arce applied a lot of pressure, coming forward with the left low kick, but had trouble opening up his boxing or combos, his attempts were mostly on Corrales' gloves & then Corrales landed back. At the end of the 1st, Arce backed Corrales into the corner, but Corrales timed his low kick & dropped him with a right hook. One of the strong points of the match is they were able to maintain their pace throughout. Two low blows in a row didn't even slow Corrales down. Arce's determination to come forward was keeping him in the fight, though Corrales did a nice job of countering Arce's single shots with combinations. Corrales probably won every round, but Arce kept making Corrales work & better him. Good match.

JWP 1/6/91, UWA International Champion Decision Tournament 1st Round: Miss A vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 16:46. While Noriyo Tateno limped through much of the 90's and beyond, her far superior old partner Yamazaki had a brief but excellent run as one of, if not the top worker in JWP only to sadly retire at 25 even though that was no longer manditory. While still the best Manami Toyota in the game in 1991, this is a fantastic example of what she could do above & beyond the workrate style, an intense & well focused bout that felt truly desperate & meaningful. Though at heart the expected technician vs. bruiser bout, they blended the styles really well with A mirroring the body focus & some of the holds to get revenge. This was a really good tournament for A, who was beginning to come into her own as the big powerhouse who could maul the smaller girls, but was still athletic enough to hang with them in the faster paced sequences. She had illusions of steamrolling her much smaller opponent, taking her out with a lariat before the bell then whipping her into the guard rail, but Yamazaki caught her kick & injured A's knee posting it. Though less the case in JWP where they had more proper technical wrestling training, normally the early portions of these old joshi matches weren't that great because the matwork was random filler until it was time to start jumping around, but that was definitely not the case here, as here Yamazaki negated A's size advantage by debilitating the leg. This wasn't just A laying around letting Yamazaki pretzel her, she kept trying to make comebacks only to have Yamazaki reinforce the storyline by cutting her off with another shot to the knee. Kansai eventually regrouped on the outside, but her attempt at a hot comeback was immediately thwarted when Yamazaki again caught a kick & this time went right into a leg lock. Finally, A answered Yamazaki's forearm to escape the Northern Lights suplex with a really stiff one of her own, hit the suplex, and was able to sustain an advantage with the scorpion. A gave Yamazaki some of her own medicine working Yamazaki's knee, leading to one of the better little touches of the match where Yamazaki was desperately punching A's knee to try to get her to break the figure 4. Yamazaki was really thinking about how she was doing things, and she made some nice little adjustments to throw pressure onto A's knee such as a high elevation on the figure 4 reversal. A still sold her own knee here & there, but working Yamazaki's knee also allowed her own to recover, and she began to finally get into her powerhouse routine, really overwhelming Yamazaki with her kicks. Yamazaki eventually avoided a corner charge & hit a diving missile kick from one corner, a reverse body attack from another then climbed a third corner, but actually got down when A rolled to her side & piledrove her to set up a diving headbutt. I know this didn't really change much, but I really liked how Yamazaki reacted to the opponent's recovery rather than making just Kansai lie on her side & take another flying move like probably everyone else would have done. A answered with her own tombstone piledriver, but missed the diving headbutt. Yamazaki was up a bit sooner, but by the time she charged at A, A was recovered enough to charge back & lay her out with the lariat for the win. Starting & ending with the lariat was nice & all, but while the best finish in the tournament, it still seemed forced & rushed, with Yamazaki having the out of that she sort of kicked out though she never really got her shoulder off the mat. Still, this would have been fantastic as the tournament final, much less as the simple 1st round match that it actually was. The only real problem was nothing else here could top it. ****

JWP 7/19/90: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito 18:54. Most likely the finest performance of both women's careers, really the perfect genesis of the unbridled hatred Kandori brings to a contest that makes it come off as a real fight with a great worker in Harley who could not only clean things up, but was stylistically suitable enough to get away with beating Kandori up. There's not one element, aspect, or style that makes a great match, but perhaps the most important thing once reasonably skilled individuals are paired is they're able to convey that they care enough to do everything they can to beat the opponent. That's why so called entertainment wrestling always falls so flat, once they start stalling, posing, doing their laps after every punch, generally screwing around, it just feels like the uninspired show it is, it no longer provides that visceral feeling that you're seeing a fight. Harley vs. Kandori, on the other hand, feels like two lions were let out of the cage in the middle of the Roman colosseum. This was pure savagery from the opening bell, oozing disdain from every pour. It's not exactly a full on shoot style match in that they deviate here and there, running the ropes, going for flash pins, throwing in a dive & a couple moments on the outside, but few matches feel more like they're shooting on each other. They just put so much energy into their urgent hatred, jerking the appendages on the submissions & striking with the ferocity cranked into overdrive. It's not so much that their strikes were stiff because most stiff striking reeks of cooperation with the opponent standing there like a doofus, but rather that they were filled with anger & rage to the point they came off as mostly being wildly out of control with a bit of calculated disregard for doing the honorable thing when the opponent was in prone position. Even a simple bodyslam was fantastic here because Kandori deposited Harley so hard she bounced off the mat. The match started with a staredown where Kandori acted& Harley answered her back, first with a push then with a slap, quickly establishing that Harley was not only going to stand up to Kandori, she was going to try to beat her at her own game, which made her an even bigger underdog than she already was. Harley then landed a knee to the midsection but got thrown down trying a snapmare. In the next lockup, Kandori got a reverse bodylock, & when Harley did a go behind, Kandori hit an ipponzeio, getting the sort of toss Harley had just failed at. Harley paused for a second on her knees then just exploded to her feet with a sick elbow & buckled Kandori with brutal knees to the midsection, taking her down with a snap suplex, but having Kandori counter into a wakigatame. Kandori's flash submissions were used to great effect throughout, but again it's really the urgency that both performers put into them, Kandori really cranking on them & Harley kicking Kandori in the face or doing anything else she could think of to break the holds before they broke her, & then taking advantage of a prone Kandori, kicking her in the face some more for having the gall to try to hurt her with these moves. Kandori's offense has never been finer because in this match she threatened from every position. When she couldn't get a throw or suplex to set things up the way she'd like she just dropped into a leglock & forced Saito to have another answer. If Harley's answer wasn't good enough, for instance grabbing the ropes, Kandori would just pull her back to the center & reapply. Harley got the worst of the grappling exchanges as you'd expect, but her striking was much better than Kandori's, and it not only kept her in the match, but kind of put Kandori in her place. I mean, when else do you see Kandori just getting beat up, taking all sorts of unanswered shoot kicks to the face & ear? There was a great spot where Kandori whipped her into the corner, but Harley reversed late & went right into an elbow in the corner. Harley's performance was just so fearless. She was going to take everything that the more dangerous opponent she'd ever face could throw at her, and do it right back, for instance a big body slam into mount punches and answering Kandori's leg lock by grabbing one of her own. The match felt a bit sloppy, but that's mostly because they purposely weren't doing clean rolls & tumbles to make the cooperation in a match that's all about being uncooperative less obvious. Harley is probably the most opportunistic of JWP's wrestlers when it comes to winning with the flash pins they booked too often, and when she finally initiated her, it was small packaging Kandori after her kick was caught. What's great is Kandori immediately turned the tables, rolling into her own flash pin attempt. The match arguably would have been better if it was less diverse, but the deviations actually worked really well, keeping the audience on their toes & giving Harley more of a chance. Still, I'm glad it didn't end with the back & forth flash pins sequence after Kandori back body dropped her way out of a piledriver. Harley still gained something from getting the win there even though her victory was quickly overturned because Kandori got her right shoulder off the mat for an instant (surprising given even more obvious kickouts purposely go unnoticed when JWP does flash pins). The thought of actually losing added a lot of wood to Kandori's fire that had already been burning bright all night, and now she just wanted to kill Harley, though this is where the holes in the execution of her striking game were most obvious. The portion after the restart was more a traditional pro wrestling finishing sequence with a lot of suplexes, and Kandori even ascended to the top rope only to get superplexed. Kandori's leglock would have been the more fitting finish based on the match they'd been doing, but good god was the Tiger driver she actually won with brutal, and a match of this caliber kind of needed something that sick & incapacitating to warrant actually ending because neither were going to quit mentally. The ref was just raising Kandori's hand when Miss A cold cocked her with a charging right hand and every woman at ringside hit the ring to stop the brawl, with a good five women holding A back the first time then a few more after Kandori said something to A on the mic. Not merely the best original JWP match I've seen so far by a wide margin, but a true classic for any league at any time. ****3/4

UFC 235 3/2/19: Pedro Munhoz vs. Cody Garbrandt R1 4:52. This wasn't so much a high quality match as an amazing 30 seconds of wild swinging when Cody either thought he had the fight won or got too emotional depending on your perspective. For the most part it was quality tactical action from Munhoz, who learned a lot from Garbrandt's two losses to Dillashaw. Munhoz might not be the more physically gifted fighter, but he certainly showed a much better understanding of how to beat Garbrandt than Garbrandt did of how to beat him. Munhoz was chopping the lead leg to compromise his mobility, which was one of Garbrandt's biggest advantages against Munhoz, setting up the high kick. Munhoz wasn't throwing combinations, instead just getting close enough to land the calf kick & then backing right out tying to get Garbrandt to commit to a big counter punch so he could use Garbrandt's momentum against him & connect with a big right hand. Garbrandt's calf began to cramp up 3 minutes in, and Munhoz was able to land a spinning back kick. After a few more leg kicks, Munhoz went for the big high kick and tried to follow it with a left hand when Cody avoided, but wound up knocking Garbrandt off balance with an accidental headbutt that the refs (in this case Goddard) weren't on top of like everything else tonight. Munhoz tried to guard pass, but Garbrandt created a scramble & landed a flying knee as he was getting back to his feet. Garbrandt finally came to life here, feeling he had Munhoz hurt & this was his moment, he just threw huge wide power hooks hoping to finish him with one big shot. Munhoz had clearly more or less recovered when he backed into space, but Garbrandt didn't care. Watching it live, I felt like he might just have been going for it because he didn't have a lot left in his leg, but now I'm thinking he just had the adrenaline rush & felt like he needed to finally answer, unable to envision a brawl ending in any way that wasn't positive for him. Munhoz clearly had the edge in a more strategic contest and was winning the round, so I suppose the onus was on him to try to get the fight back to a technical contest. Instead, Munhoz decided to engage in the slugfest. Garbrandt was the one landing most of the shots, and Munhoz was bleeding heavily from the left side of the head, but Cody was telegraphing the big haymakers, and Munhoz was able to ride his great chin long enough to finally beat Garbrandt to the right hook for the KO. Definitely on the low end of fight of the nights, but one of the most exciting, caution to the wind exchanges you'll see from championship level fighters. Good match.

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