UFC 278 8/20/22: Paulo Costa vs. Luke Rockhold 3R. Rockhold will always be the bum who donated the title to journeyman Bisping, albeit fighting with a torn MCL. Since that shameful night, he's continued to have one injury disaster after another, with six cancellations compared to this being just the fourth fight he's managed to go through with, only beating David Branch. Fighting at UFC 277 in Texas, as was the original plan, would have been better than fighting at altitude at this point, but Costa (and just about everyone beyond Dvalishvili, who simply failed to have any successful offense) was having huge trouble with their cardio as well. Costa certainly wasn't helped by a weigh-in day drug test where the USADA guy waited in his bedroom at 7 a.m. to take his blood, three hours before the start of the weigh-in window. This was just a very odd fight all around. Rockhold looked fast for the first minute, but when he failed to get the takedown and Costa wound up taking him down and busting his nose, Rockhold's stamina never recovered despite him being comfortable on his back, and seeming content enough to be tiring Costa out somewhat by making him work. In the first half of this fight, Rockhold seemed to be trying to keep a pace that was much higher than he could sustain. As the fight progressed, his "defense" became more and more super unconventional, as he wasn't really doing anything beyond the bare minimum to barely avoid the stand up strikes and hang in on the ground until he could explode. To some extent he was dangerous because he wasn't moving his feet or keeping his hands up or utilizing the fundamentals, he was really only using energy for his own offense, but his own offense was very energy heavy, he'd even turn his back to Costa, then come with a spinning punch or kick. This kind of made it difficult for Costa to know how to proceed because Rockhold was utilizing unconventional attacks that Costa had to be wary of, while at the same time leaving gaping holes defensively that weren't the sort of holes you would normally see in a professional fight, they were sloppiness and laziness rather than technical difficiencies or exploitable tendencies that Costa would have studied and been looking to force Rockhold into so he could take advantage. Rockhold had his moments in the first round, including landing 4 consecutive middle kicks, but was clearly the less consistent and more tired of the two, the story of the fight in general. He lost the round, and there were a series of really bad signs with Rockhold leaning over with his hands on his knees both after the first round ended and before the second round started, and telling his corner that he was exhausted. Rockhold came out hard in the second though with a couple of big left hands and another good middle kick leading to a takedown, but he lost control because he got too eager trying to take the back. Costa is by far the bigger poncher, but because he was fatigued, Rockhold could see his strikes coming just enough to not get finished, whereas Rockhold even landed a 360 roundhouse kick. Rockhold's kicks were really landing when he threw them, he just didn't have the energy/footwork to actively create the distance for them. Costa celebrated the finish three minutes into the second round, but it turned out that Rockhold went down from a big cup shot. Rockhold was a little more energetic after the restart, but still Costa was the one who was coming forward the entire fight, with Rockhold backing then throwing spinning shots, both of which are obviously much more fatiguing then what Costa was doing. I actually gave Rockhold the second round because damage is the primary criteria, and apart from the huge illegal blow, the best shots were mostly coming from Rockhold. The problem was his body language was beyond terrible, and that made it seem like Costa was having more success than he actually was. Costa also being the aggressor was in his favor, but I honestly don't think this was a very good round for him, or that he was impressive in this fight in general, despite the ease of his pursuit. If Rockhold simply had a better poker face, things might have gone better for him, as you felt Costa was gaining a ton of confidence and maintaining energy & enthusiasm because his opponent always looked ready to keel over. Costa started stong in the third, backing Rockhold into the cage and landing a couple good lefts. However, he lost his balance when Rockhold countered his spinning middle kick with a short right, and Rockhold was able to get on top, but again he got so excited trying to pounce that he lost control while trying to secure the mount. Fatigue was really leading to some diminishing returns now, with Rockhold just standing around like a pro wrestler in between his attacks, and making an ill advised gamble at a no setup double leg from way too far away, which resulted in Costa working for the rear naked choke. Rockhold turned into it with 25 seconds left, but rather than trying to come up with something to steal the fight, he just rubbed his nose blood all over Costa to be a dick. Costa won a 30–27 unanimous decision, and Rockhold retired. Good match.

UFC on ESPN 41 8/13/22

Angela Hill vs. Lupita Godinez 3R. Hill normally has entertaining fights, and while I like Godinez, I wasn't confident that this would be one of them because I assumed Loopy would just keep taking Hill down, and probably win three rounds to none if she didn't finish her. The fact that Godinez barely even tried to use her wrestling was pretty baffling. I'm not sure if she was too focused on having an entertaining fight, or she was just so enamored with her early success in stand up that she was never able to shift gears even though it somewhat dried up after the first minute. I'm not complaining, it's just odd if this was actually the game plan. Hill has the reach advantage, but early on Godinez was doing a great job of landing the left jab when she stepped in, and then she rocked Hill stepping in with a big right instead. Godinez was just beating Hill with speed early, nice footwork and fast hands. But still she had to come forward to get into range, whereas Hill could land the jab from anywhere without moving her feet or alterning the distance. That being said, Hill was the one that was level changing, and even though she wasn't getting takedowns, she was at least giving Godinez something different to think about. Godinez won the first round, but things were definitely trending in Hill's direction in the second-half of the round, and she finished nicely with a jumping switch knee. Godinez, whose nose was now bleeding, did get a takedown a minute into the second round, on her first attempt, but Hill guillotined her and rolled her, standing because the choke wasn't there. Hill was moving forward most of the second round, and even though that seems like it would be good for Godinez in the sense that it meant Hill both wasn't using her reach and was closing the distance for Godinez, Godinez ultimately didn't strike all that successfully when she wasn't taking a step forward first. She also didn't have the same foot speed after the first round to make her striking happen. Hill definitely won the 2nd round, but Godinez did a better job of initiating in the third round. The problem was she was still biting on all of Hill's fakes, and that was just stopping her in her tracks, so she was never able to be consistent with her aggression, or really gain momentum. Godinez had moments, but Hill was the more consistent fighter. Godinez almost had a takedown because she was underneath Hill's right hook, but Hill was right back up. Godinez opened up in the last minute, which was quite exciting. While the fight was still on the table, as this was a very close round, it was a bit too little too late in the sense that in such a high paced fight she didn't quite have the energy left to suddenly change the patterns we'd been seeing for the past 13 minutes. Hill won a unanimous decision 29–28. Good match.

Yazmin Jauregui vs. Iasmin Lucindo 3R. This was a basically unheard of situation where two young women, 23 & 20 respectively, were making their UFC debuts against each other in the middle of the main show rather than on the early prelims. Both are big prospects, so they would normally be fighting bottom feeders like Na Liang or Hannah Goldy to gain experience and get into the win column. This was a very exciting high paced match where they went after it from start to finish. They aren't the most polished fighters, but they certainly delivered a fan friendly action oriented standup fight. Jauregui is the better athlete, she's quicker and more fluid, while Lucindo is the bigger puncher, she really likes to throw some big hooks. Jauregui was the better fighter at range even though she's giving up 2 inches in reach, partially because she's the better kicker, but more because she's got more speed. Generally, Jauregui had the ability to land when she came in, but the bad habit of not exiting quickly enough, which allowed Lucindo to land quite a few counters that a more experienced fighter with Jauregui's athleticism would likely have learned how to avoid. Lucindo was a good counter puncher, but she also kind of had to be because her loopy punches were slow to the mark when they were leading. And this inability to successfully attack on her own was really what was holding Lucindo back, as Jauregui was beating her on volume. Lucindo's corner was looking for her to somehow match that, at least enough that she could win by doing more damage, but it was hard for Lucindo to ever land more than one or two shots before Jauregui was smart enough to just reset. Unlike Martin Buday getting perhaps the most ridiculous decision I've ever seen over Lukasz Brzeski despite getting outstruck 2-1 and being the only one who got hurt, ultimately this was a somewhat tough fight to score because although Jauregui clearly won the fight, the numbers were close enough to justify giving rounds to Lucindo based on landing the most damaging punches in the round. Ironically, I thought the first round, which was the round that Derek Cleary & Sal D'Amato scored for her, was actually her worst round as a whole, but she did hurt Jauregui ith a hook 2 minutes in amidst one of her few actual flurries. Good match.

Nate Landwehr vs. David Onama 3R. Onama was the better fighter when they were fresh, but perhaps because it was just over a month ago that he defeated Garrett Armfield, Onama's stamina was very subpar. Onama is very long, and he utilized a feint of questionable legality where he put the hand out halfway, and then would sometimes turn it into a short jab. Landwehr was having a lot of trouble reading him early, and got dropped with an overhand right 3 minutes in, with Onama arguably waking Landwehr back up with his immediate ground and pound. Landwehr was able to survive the onslaught, giving his back then turning into Onama's guard, and made a bit of a comeback in standup late in the round. Onama was pretty much gassed after the first round though, and Landwehr's strategy in the second was putting as much pace on him as he could, making him carry his weight in the clinch while he beat him up with knees. Landwehr was really putting a beating on Onama on the ground, but they were so slippery that he would lose position every time he went for the choke. Onama was clearly compromised, but he was still doing the best he could within his current reduced capabilities to stay in this match. This was a 10-8 round for Landwehr, and James Krause seemed to be considering stopping the fight in between rounds, as they worked on the mouse above Onama's left eye that was apparently effecting his vision. Onama somehow managed to hurt Landwehr with a rather slow jab to overhand right combo 2 minutes into the third, and there were five or 10 seconds when you thought Onama might somehow find a way to finish this before his adrenaline rush ran out and Landwehr went back to at working him over. Onama had a couple other moments of hope in this round, including a strong finish where Landwehr wound up going down because Onama pushed forward with punches so aggressively. Still, another Landwehr round due to his consistency. Landwehr won a majority decision 29-27, 29-27, 28-28. Good match.

Marlon Vera vs. Dominick Cruz R4 2:17. Vera is an interesting fighter because his style is based entirely on getting the finish. His record is 4-7 in decisions, which is pretty telling for a guy who came in at 19-7 overall. There is definitely a part of me that finds him annoying, in the sense that he is generally wasting his tremendous power by waiting all the time and not actually throwing. It feels like Vera has the highest knockdown to strike thrown ratio outside of heavyweight where one slob usually just keels over just due to the exertion of having to throw or defend 10 punches. I mean, part of that is he just never throws, but it seems like whenever he actually managed to hit Cruz, even once with a jab, he dropped him, which is hard to argue against since we see this from him fight in and fight out. The fight being five rounds was a big disadvantage for Cruz, because he was going to outwork Vera so badly that he definitely would win any round he could stay on his feet, and even when he couldn't, he would probably get the majority. The extra two rounds then basically became 10 minutes he had to be elusive enough to avoid the huge shot, and fighting Vera definitely has that Wages of Fear vibe where you may feel safe because you're just driving along, but the nitroglycerine can still do you in at any second. Cruz is arguably both the smartest and the most original fighter in MMA, and he looked great tonight, especially early on. He was extremely fast, and he was creating openings with his movement and diversity, then blitzing Vera with the sort of lenghty combo you rarely see outside of kickboxing, usually starting with a kick and then charging with 4 or 5 punches. It felt like unless Vera could stop Cruz before or right at the start of his blitz, there wasn't much he could do because he Cruz has so much hand speed and foot speed that the opponent doesn't really have an opportunity to counter. Most of these were landing, but Vera finally countered a low kick with a left hook, and suddenly Cruz was on the canvas. Due to Vera refusing to take the initiative when Cruz actually paused between blitzes, Cruz really had free reign to dictate the pace and go when the time was right. Vera would do a good job of backing Cruz into the cage, but it wasn't coming to anything, as Vera wouldn't actually throw any strikes, and Cruz would just regain the real estate when he threw his combo. Most of the time, Cruz was more or less in front of Vera, but it felt like he wasn't because Cruz moves both endlessly and in patterns unique to him. Cruz easily won the second round, and for the most part, he was just humiliating Vera with blazing combos. Theoretically, Vera was only outlanded 32 to 19 in the second round, but it felt like Cruz was landing four or five at a clip, whereas Vera wasn't even throwing, much less connecting. Early in the third round, Vera actually put out the double jab when he had Cruz near the cage, and then he was able to knock Cruz down again by following with a big right hand. Cruz was right back up with a takedown attempt and a flurry of punches, but it was super impressive that Vera was able to drop him again basically just by finally taking the initiative to throw a standard combination. And you really had to wonder, why did it take Vera 11 plus minutes to just actually go once? Vera didn't really go on the offensive, but the fight did change because he was now willing to put out a jab or a front kick to keep Cruz honest, and thus at bay. Cruz still outlanded Vera 28 to 21 in the third round, but he was now having a hard time getting his flurry started, and the damage from Vera was finally enough to win him a round. I expected Cruz to be more wrestling oriented, especially after he built up the early lead. Vera had a triangle attempt right after Cruz scored his first takedown that shouldn't have detered him compared to what Vera can do by landing anything, and while Cruz was ultimately 2 for 7, it never felt like wrestling was something he was actively trying to make happen so much as just something he would take if the opportunity presented itself. Vera backed Cruz into the cage as usual, but this time he intercepted him with a jab for another knockdown when Cruz was either coming forward with a fake or to start a combo. Even though Vera was largely unwilling to capitalize, Cruz was beginning to spend too much time backing up until he ran out of room, which wasn't good both from a strategical or stamina perspective. Vera got him close to the cage again, and when Cruz dipped his head as he was circling away to the right, Vera brought up the high kick for the massive KO! Lots of good matches tonight, but this was a much much higher level of skill and technique than anything on the undercard. Very good match.

STARDOM 1/17/16 High Speed Title Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Kay Lee Ray 13:48. Though this is for the high speed title, it's actually much slower and more conventional than there 8/21/16 5STAR Grand Prix bout. Ray isn't looking nearly as confident or advanced in this contest, there's really no next level chaining of holds or anything, as in the rematch. This is more a straight up junior heavyweight bout, matching athleticism and just trading flying moves. Ray is still carrying the match, and generally doing more to make it good spamming topes and whatnot, but Mayu looks much better here in so much as this is really in her wheelhouse, just asking her to be the spectacular athlete that she is. It's a good match because you have two top ten females going at it, but it's less than the sum of its parts. ***

STARDOM 8/21/16 5STAR Grand Prix 2016 Block A Match: Kay Lee Ray [2] vs. Mayu Iwatani [0] 11:21. While the format of the 5STAR Grand Prix with the 15 minute time limit and way too many matches in way too few days doesn't exactly lead to a ton of actual 5 star matches, Kay Lee Ray is someone whose style is pretty conducive to still excelling under these less than ideal circumstances. She is going to work hard from bell to bell unless she's specifically doing comedy, and she brings a a lot of intensity and little bit of everything stylistically. Neither fighter truly stepped up and wrestled to their potential in their 1/17/16 High Speed Title Match, but Ray really takes things to the next level here and gives an excellent performance that unfortunately leaves Mayu in the dust. This was Ray's signature speed brawl, not exactly high flying on her part though she did a nice Hokuto dive and was leaping around more than in later years, but certainly very fast and reckless sequence oriented wrestling. There was some good action on the outside early, including KLR taking a couple bumps onto the chairs, then it shifted to more of a traditional junior style match, where Mayu began to shine more, though Ray's sequences and counters were way more evolved, as she was flowing with chain wrestling, whereas Mayu was still doing just looking to exchange running and jumping, as in their first match. Mayu had a great year in 2016, including three of the best matches, two against Io Shirai and Thunder Rock vs. Satomura & Hojo, but Ray gives a spectacular performance, and is very clearly the better wrestler in this match to the point it's basically a one woman show. Ray is just on fire throughout when Mayu is able to keep up with her, which admittedly doesn't always happen. It was too short to reach their potential, and Mayu was sometimes befuddled, but this match was very exciting, and had a lot more action than most 30 or 40 minute main event title matches. ***1/4

BEW 5/22/16 Tooting Tram & Social SWA Undisputed World Women's Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Kay Lee Ray 8:53. What a difference a day makes! This match also took place before about 50 people, but it was in the UK now, and Ray was suddenly going all out to impress her countrymen, knowing even a short match against Io would be one of her better chances to deliver something memorable. Both women were posing on opposite corners during the ring introduction, but as Shirai got off her corner, Ray leaped at off hers for a missile kick, and continued to wrestle like she was shot out of a cannon. Shirai just sees the game so much better than Mayu, so this was much more of a back and forth match where both were identifying and reacting to what the other was throwing at them. There was a lot of fighting on the outside early on, but even though this isn't Shirai's style per se, she seemed totally at home, whereas Iwatani was uncomfortable there in the 8/21/16 match against KLR. This was quite rushed because it was really short, but today they tried to pack as much as they could into it. The level was very high, not just in the sense that both are fantastic, but moreso because they had to keep upping their game to keep up with and answer the opposition. It's disappointing the match was so short, but Io won three matches the day before in Spain to become the first SWA World Women's Champion, and had a World Of Stardom Title Match vs. Kasey Owens the day before that in France, so this was a rough tour physically where it made sense to not give them the opportunity to do something truly special. ***1/4

NJPW 1/4/17 Tokyo Dome, IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 46:45.
DC: This was the first singles match in the Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada quadrilogy. The main reasons this one-man show was so interesting was because of Omega’s athletic moves, creativity and willingness to go the extra mile to carry Okada. Omega’s selling was also superb, as his bumping and facial expressions made Okada look good in the eyes of the general mark. Omega had the Young Bucks in his corner, and Okada had overrated NJPW booker Gedo in his corner (arguably to help guide him through). Kenny Omega tried to go for a one-winged angel about five minutes into the match. Okada escaped and tried to go for a rainmaker, but Omega spit in Okada’s face. When the action got a bit too fast, Okada had trouble keeping up. When the action slowed down, Okada was able to fully comprehend what Omega was doing, and that’s when Okada’s selling looked more convincing. Omega hit a tremendous tope con giro. Once the action returned into the ring, Omega hit an amazing missile dropkick. Omega got a lot of height on the dropkick and hit the back of the head of Okada. This was Omega's first time headlining the Tokyo Dome, having been in midcard Junior Title matches the previous two years, and his enthusiasm was so contagious that not only was it intriguing for the viewers to watch this match, it seemed that even Okada started showing a bit more enthusiasm than usual. This match probably would have been even better if Okada would have shown a similar amount of intensity and fire as Omega did, but even that is not really within his capabilities, such as they are. One of the biggest moves of the match was Omega hitting a springboard moonsault over the guardrail to the floor on Okada. A bit later in the match, Omega hit a huge back body drop bump over the ropes through a table on the floor. The finishing stretch had many close near falls. Of course, this match is notorious for receiving a 6-star rating from a certain newsletter writer, as it ended up “breaking” his 5-star scale. We’re sticking to a 5-star system here though. Excellent match. ****¼   

NJPW 6/11/17 Osaka-jo Hall, IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 60:00.
DC: Prior to this match, the challenger was interviewed and had the following to say. Kenny Omega: “ As a performer, as an athlete, you evolve through your losses. Of course, it would have been a great moment for me to win the belt at the Tokyo Dome. It would have been the greatest moment of my career. But then, had I had won, maybe I would have turned out like you Okada. Maybe I would have turned into a pattern wrestler. The kinda guy that gives the same effort, gives the same performance every night he is in the ring. That’s not evolution, and that’s not my mission statement. I’m here to change the business. I’m here to change the way people look at professional wrestling. Maybe I was never meant to win the big one, because I was meant to rethink professional wrestling all over again. How do you make a flawless match better? It’s easy, the right man wins in the end. Like me or hate me, and if you hate me, it must really hurt your feelings that I am so dominant in the MOTYC category. But I deserved to win at Tokyo Dome. My brain is my greatest tool. Okada doesn’t have one. He has sense, he has instinct, but he doesn’t have a brain where he can think for himself. The company does all the thinking for him. Gedo does all of the thinking for him. The sponsors do all of the thinking for him. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they even chose his moveset. Okada, you lack creativity. You are the robot, you are programmed. Nothing that you do is of your own choice. That makes it tough for me, a foreigner coming to a foreign land, and I’m not only facing the champion. I’m facing the company. I’m facing the production team. I’m facing the sponsors. I’m facing all of the dumb brainwashed fans that don’t get how things really work in the wrestling world. I’m facing all of you. All of you people wanna see me fail. All of you people still believe the hype that is Kazuchika Okada. It’s never one-on-one when you face Okada. You are always, always at a disadvantage. ” Those were strong words by Omega, but he is right. This match ended up lasting 60 minutes, because it went to a time limit draw. Normally, booking corporate champion Okada in a 60-minute match is a dreadful idea. However, in this case, it provided an interesting challenge for Omega, who seemed motivated to try to make this match even better than their excellent 1/4/17 match. The fact that they went 60 minutes also unfortunately meant that it was worked at a slower pace. After some minutes of a feeling out process, Omega decided to work over Okada’s knee. Omega had lots of time to tell the story he wanted to tell, and Okada had lots of time to do what he always does, lie around, sell and be dragged through a match. Just like in the previous match, Omega was accompanied by the Young Bucks, and Okada had Gedo in his corner. Omega hit a top-rope Asai moonsault when the match had been going on for nearly 20 minutes. Okada followed this up with a missile dropkick. At the 25-minute mark, Omega took a big death valley driver bump on the apron. This started a portion of the match that saw Okada having the upper hand. Omega focused on selling and putting Okada over through bumping and facial expressions. The Young Bucks also tried to add more drama to the match with their reactions to what was happening, as they showed support for Omega, and their disapproval of Okada’s title reign. When this match reached the 30-minute mark, it really felt like a lot less had happened than when the 1/4/17 match had reached the 30-minute mark. Still, thanks to Omega’s greatness, it was hard not to get invested in the story of his quest to dethrone Okada. The match wasn’t necessarily dull, because there was always a sense of anticipation and curiosity of what was going to happen next. Close to the 35-minute mark, Okada hit the rainmaker, but Omega kicked out at 2. Okada placed Omega on a table and slowly made his way to the top turnbuckle while Omega pretended he was not able to move. About 75 seconds later, Okada finally hit the elbow off the top rope onto Omega through the table. During the next four minutes, Okada hit four dropkicks and two clotheslines while Omega was selling. Okada seemed to be in no hurry at all, and acted like he was waiting for a bus instead of being involved in a big title match. Okada wasn’t sure what to do next, and kinda wandered around. In the meantime, commentator Don Callis mentioned that Okada is a robot and that Gedo should shut up. Omega’s Bullet Club stablemate Cody Rhodes showed up and wanted to throw the towel in, but the Bucks stopped him, as the Bucks felt that Omega still had a chance to win this. Omega was able to hit several moves, including the one-winged angel. This wasn’t the end yet, because Okada was able to get the rope break since he was so close to the ropes. Okada hit another one of his rainmaker clotheslines. The final minutes of the match didn’t have the exciting near-falls stretch you would hope to see. This match had a lot less urgency than their 1/4/17 match, and the big moments were spread out a lot more. Of course, it’s not easy wrestling for 60 minutes, but this match shouldn’t have gone that long to begin with. It is a classic example that a longer match is not necessarily a better match. Because of Omega’s carryjob, it was a good match overall, but it’s hard to see how this was supposedly a 6.25-star match, and it is even harder to understand how this supposedly is the second-greatest match of all time. ***¼   

NJPW 8/12/17 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, G1 Climax Block B: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 24:40.
DC: This was the third singles match between Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega. Their first match was truly excellent, and their second match was merely good. This time, they wrestled each other in a different setting, as this wasn’t for the title, but it was a match in the G1 Climax tournament, a tournament that was won by Omega in 2016 and won by Okada in 2012 and 2014. Neither Omega or Okada would win the tournament in 2017, but at least they got the opportunity to wrestle each other, and try to surpass their previous matches. This excellent G1 Climax match between Okada and Omega was arguably their best match together. This match mostly benefited from the fact that they didn’t have to drag things out into the overly long encounter Gedo books for every Heavyweight title match. The story here was that Omega needed a win to advance to the final, but he had never beaten Okada before. Okada just needed a draw to advance to the final, and he had drawn Omega a couple of months prior to this match, in a match twice as long as this could be. The fact that they had to wrestle more urgently due to the 30-minute time limit than in their first two matches against each other, which lasted 45 and 60 minutes, was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the match. As usual, Omega had the Bucks in his corner, and Okada had the booker in his corner. This match started off with fast-paced action. About four minutes into the match, Omega hit a missile dropkick that got him a 2 count on Okada. Omega’s facial expression showed his frustration of just getting a 2 count. Omega continued his urgent approach, and hit some stiff strikes in the process, including chops, kicks and v-trigger knee smashes. Omega hit his moves with great explosiveness, and the constrast between the skill and precision in which Omega is able to manipulate his body to execute his moves compared to Okada's lack of flexibility (especially at the waist) and body control was as stark as ever. Okada had now wrestled Omega twice before in singles matches, and this familiarity helped Okada a lot, because Okada functions like a programmed robot, and now had some more specific input to rehash, rather than just falling back on the same few moves he can unimpressively perform against anyone. Also, the robot didn’t have to worry too much about running out of battery since the match was guaranteed to be at most half the length of their previous match. Omega really put over very well the urgency and desperation of wanting to beat Okada. He continued to show great facials and great intensity. When Okada hit his offense, Omega sold it tremendously, which was especially true for the huge bumping Omega would do for Okada’s dropkicks. In the end, Okada fell prey to Omega’s one-winged angel. Okada got lucky in 2017, because he had three excellent matches in one year, two against Omega (1/4/17 and 8/12/17) and one against Shibata (4/9/17), while he usually has none. Of course, the opposition did almost all the work, manipulating the marionette to the best of their abilities. If Okada was more capable, this probably would have been a great match. Also, on this night, unlike in their previous matches, the right man won. That made this match so much sweeter. ****¼   

NJPW 6/9/18 Osaka-jo Hall, IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 64:50 (28:47, 19:00, 17:03).
DC: The fourth and final match in the Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega quadrilogy. It was a no time limit two-out-of-three falls match. Omega was accompanied by his tag team partner Kota Ibushi. Okada was accompanied by Gedo, as usual. Nothing really happened in the first five minutes. After that, they would gradually start introducing some more exciting stuff. For instance, when they were on the floor, Okada went for his big match dive over the railing, but Omega caught him with a v-trigger knee smash. Around the 12-minute mark, Omega hit a springboard plancha over the guardrail onto Okada on the floor. Still, this match generally was wrestled at a slow pace with a focus on extensive selling. This was no surprise, of course, since it was obvious that they were going to have a long match with the no time limit stipulation added. Around the 22-minute mark, Omega took a big bump off the apron ribs-first into the guardrail. When Okada did his pose to signal that he was going for a rainmaker, Omega quickly hit a snap dragon suplex. Omega followed this up with a tremendous tope con giro that he calls the rise of the terminator. They were now at the 25-minute mark of the match. Once they were back in the ring, they went for the finishing stretch of the first fall, which came to an end when Okada pinned Omega. In order to still win this match, Omega had to beat Okada twice in a row, which was not going to be an easy task considering the track record of corporate champion Okada. In the first minutes of the second fall, Okada was not in any rush. It took Omega a while to start getting some momentum going his way. Omega placed a table on top of Okada on the floor, and hit a double footstomp off the apron onto the table that was on top of Okada. Things started going a bit more back and forth again now. Omega executed a reverse rana when they were on the floor again. Back in the ring, Okada almost pinned Omega again, but Omega kicked out and fought back. Eventually, Omega managed to win the second fall after hitting the one-winged angel and pin Okada, just like in the G1 Climax tournament. They were now tied one fall apiece. The third fall started off with Omega going for the one-winged angel right away, but Okada managed to avoid it and hit the rainmaker. Omega kicked out though. Later in the match, Omega went for a Kota Ibushi-style phoenix splash, but Okada moved out of the way. At this point they had been wrestling for nearly an hour. Okada hit two rainmakers, but was not able to follow up quick enough. Omega hit two German suplexes. Okada hit a German suplex. Omega hit a reverse rana. Okada hit a dropkick. Omega hit a running v-trigger. Omega hit the one-winged angel and scored the pinfall to win the third and final fall! Omega’s long quest to dethrone Okada had finally come to completion. Omega had become the first Canadian-born IWGP Heavyweight Champion. After the match, despite there being some dissension in the Elite, the Young Bucks showed up, and Omega gave them a hug. Omega deserves a lot of credit for carrying Okada to such an excellent match once again. While this wasn’t quite on the level of their 1/4/17 and 8/12/17 matches, it was a lot better than their 6/11/17 match. According to a certain newsletter writer, this match from 6/9/18 was a 7-star match, and the greatest professional wrestling match ever. However, realistically speaking, while it was an excellent match overall, it’s not even one of the top 1000 matches ever. Of course, rating matches higher than 5 stars on a 5 star scale is silly, especially since going forward, no one knows if matches are supposed to be 4 stars out of 7, which would explain why every marginably passable main event now gets 4 stars, or they're still out of 5, except every few weeks when a match is miraculously better than 5. ****

GLEAT 7/1/22 Tokyo Dome City Hall, UWF Rules: Takanori Ito vs. Yuji Nagata 10:07.
DC: Takanori Ito not only represented the GLEAT league, but he also represented the UWF Lidet brand, GLEAT's shoot style brand. Despite his age, Yuji Nagata was probably the best possible choice of a NJPW native to represent NJPW in the PPV main event because of his ability and credibility in something of a shoot style match. 54-year old Nagata gave a good performance and did well in this match. He wasn’t always super urgent, but despite being so used to working NJPW matches, he definitely managed to be helpful in making this a worthy main event. After countering each other’s leglocks on the mat, Ito used the first rope break, which brought a slight smirk to Nagata’s face. Ito hit a series of knee strikes, which caused Nagata to go down. This meant they were tied on points again, with both having four points left. After a heated slap exchange, Nagata hit a suplex, which was followed up by Nagata applying a sleeper hold on Ito, who then had to use a rope escape. Ito was able to send Nagata down twice in a row, first via a released German suplex, and then via a high kick. Nagata hit a backdrop suplex that kept Ito down for a 9-count. Both guys only had two points each left now. Things got more and more urgent as the match progressed. Nagata eventually managed to get Ito to submit to a Nagata Lock. Ito gave a very good performance and reacted well to the situations he was in, and he did a very good job representing his brand and league. This match was a good match, and the best match on the show. The action in this match wasn’t quite as crisp and intense as the preceding match on this card, a match between Yu Iizuka and Shinya Aoki. However, this 10-minute Ito vs. Nagata bout was a lot less one-sided than the Iizuka vs. Aoki battle that saw Aoki put away Iizuka in less than six minutes. ***¼

MPW 7/1/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, MPW Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title: MUSASHI vs. Fujita “Jr.” Hayato 30:55.
DC: After battling spinal cord cancer for several years, Fujita “Jr.” Hayato returned to the ring, and was ready for an in-ring battle. Apart from a match he had in December 2019, Hayato hadn’t been wrestling since April 2017. While this sounds like a situation that could lead to a lot of emotion taking over, Hayato has always been one of the most intense badasses around, and was not going to let sappy emotions get in the way of this big return match. He was clearly determined to fight once more, and this bout had the feel of a competitive title match that was contested between two guys who were not going to back down until the other was defeated. It didn’t take Hayato long to convince the viewer that he was a worthy challenger in this title match against champion MUSASHI, who had been the holder of Michinoku Pro’s main title since 7/17/21. I like how Fujita Hayato didn’t let MUSASHI get away easily on the mat. When they did some standard reversals on the mat, what wasn’t standard was Hayato blocking MUSASHI from reversing at some point. Hayato’s strikes also looked good and appeared to make a good impact. MUSASHI was inspired by Hayato’s stiffness, and tried to match Hayato’s intensity. They hit each other with several headbutts, which all looked painful. The pace wasn’t super fast, but at least they were constantly taking it to each other. MUSASHI’s tope con giro wasn’t the most graceful or classic-looking one, but it was effective. The overall gritty and raw execution of the moves fit the nature of the match, since it was more about getting the job done in a competitive match. This was refreshing to see from a current pro wrestling match, and this certainly wasn’t one of the many latest melodrama theater performances. Hayato confirmed he was here to make MUSASHI struggle when he executed some British-style finger twisting on MUSASHI. Hayato had things under control and hit many well-placed kicks. Things were definitely looking bright for Hayato, and it looked like he had a big chance of winning the match and title. They did the seemingly mandatory elbow exchange segment, but at least they put it over like they were beating the crap out of each other in a struggle. MUSASHI almost pinned Hayato after a frog splash. Hayato almost pinned MUSASHI after a series of knee strikes and kicks. Hayato never gave up hope. He decided it was time to slap on a guillotine choke hold, and was determined to not let go. This plan worked, because MUSASHI could not escape and had no choice but to tap out. This was an enjoyable and intriguing match from start to finish. Despite it going over thirty minutes, it never felt excessive because of this being a head-on confrontation that was competitive and well-worked. Hayato’s performance was quite incredible when you consider this 30-minute match was his first match in a long time. After the match, Michinoku Pro president Jinsei Shinzaki presented the title to the new champion. ****¼

NOAH 7/22/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Keno & Masakatsu Funaki vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Kaito Kiyomiya & Satoshi Kojima 18:52.
DC: NOAH booker Kendo Kashin must be reading this website, because soon after I mentioned last month that not much had changed since Kashin had taken over the book, spry 37-year-old Keno beat 51-year-old Satoshi Kojima to win the GHC Heavyweight Title on 7/16/22, ending the run of consecutive 40+-year-old GHC Heavyweight Champions at 3. On that same show, 26-year-old Kaito Kiyomiya also scored a great win over 59-year-old Keiji Muto, though the match is a strong candidate for most overrated puroresu match of 2022, mostly because Muto should have retired 20 years ago instead of supposedly next year (and because a lot of people tend to overrate matches more than ever these days). Despite Masakatsu Funaki only being 6 years younger than Muto, the work shown when Kiyomiya wrestled him during the opening minutes of this six-man tag team match from 7/22/22 was like the opposite of the work in the Kiyomiya/Muto match, because it was based on focus and challenge (and not on lying around endlessly in passionless figure-four leglocks). This promising start set the tone for a match that certainly looked interesting on paper. Katsuhiko Nakajima and Satoshi Kojima were up next. Nakajima showed that he should have had that title run instead of Kojima. Current champion Keno wrestled Mochizuki. Keno hit Mochizuki with a spin kick, but this only seemed to enrage Mochizuki, who is quite the impressive striker himself. Speaking of impressive strikers, Nakajima entered the ring and kicked Mochizuki stiffly several times. Funaki wanted to join the party, and kicked Mochizuki as well. Nakajima’s teams made frequent tags to keep the fresh man in. When Keno was back in, he was a bit cocky, but he backed up his cockiness with good wrestling. Mochizuki took a lot of punishment, and at some point, all three opponents were kicking him at the same time. Once Mochizuki finally had a chance to recover, Kojima hit a series of chops on Funaki, followed up with a flying elbow drop. Funaki blocked an elbow smash attempt and hit Kojima with a kick to the head. Mochizuki and Kiyomiya dragged Kojima to the corner, and Kiyomiya was a house of fire until a mid kick by Funaki stopped that fire. Nakajima and Kiyomiya were wrestling each other next, which was interesting because it was NOAH’s best worker (Nakajima) against the worker who is the future of NOAH (Kiyomiya) if things are ever allowed to come to fruition. The main issue with this trios match is that when it really reached a point where it felt they were having a very good match and ready for several minutes of a hot finishing stretch, the match just abruptly ended when Nakajima pinned Kiyomiya after a brainbuster. Of course, the result was never in doubt since Nakajima’s team was far stronger, but a bit more build up to the finish would have been nice. Still, this was a fun match overall, because at least it was fascinating from start to finish. ***½