1/4/24 TJPW Princess Of Princess Title: Miyu Yamashita vs. Masha Slamovich 17:20
ML: TJPW is largely lighthearted random idol cosplay, but every once in a while, they feature something that resembles a serious, credible fight. Slamovich is an ideal opponent for Miyu because she can be hard hitting and credible, but is also dynamic and exciting enough to keep things diverse and entertaining. There was some good struggle here, and it didn't just feel like the same stuff you see from these two all the time, which Slamovich deserves a lot of credit for because Yamashita is generally a pretty samey striker. Slamovich gave a big effort, and really stole the show. They went after it early, with a big Dr. bomb on the apron from Slamovich, as well as a nice torneo. Slamovich was just running through Yamashita at the outset, showing both more impact and more skill. Normally the favorite in TJPW because of her size and strength, Yamashita was forced to up the pace and intensity to try to fight her way into the match. Yamashita came on in the second half, beginning to win the striking battles after hitting an avalanche AA. They kept this to a reasonable length, which allowed them to go hard throughout. There was one really bad spot where Miyu probably whiffed on her skull kick, then acted really corny throughout the double sell, doing an extra cartoonish job of pretending to be disoriented. There weren't too many missteps here though, and they were actually able to make it come across as an all-out big match with a lot of stakes where the outcome was in doubt, even though there was no way that Slamovich was actually going to win TJPW's title here. At worst, a strong candidate for the best match in the history of the promotion. ***1/2

1/13/24 NOAH GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Keno vs. Go Shiozaki 21:07
ML: Intense, hard hitting story match that was slow paced, but the offense that wasn't Keno's kicks vs. Go's chops was a lot more earned. There was a lot of the selling, particularly from Go, but it wasn't just stopping the match. Shiozaki really put a lot of effort into putting over a rib injury he suffered when Keno hit the PFS to the floor. Shiozaki made a comeback with his chops, but Keno reinjured his ribs with a diving knee drop. That was about how the match went for him. Shiozaki was fighting extra hard to maintain his role as the face of NOAH, and his "I am NOAH" catchphrase, but Shiozaki always seemed to be fighting an uphill battle. He could hang in with his chops, and he even did damage to Keno's leg and foot with them, but he could never neutralize Keno. Keno did a better job of fighting through the pain, and was still able to rely on his kicks. Almost everything that wasn't a strike was done by Keno, and his rib work broke Go down and took him out with the enrin. It was a decisive victory for Keno, and a ceremonial passing of the NOAH torch. The shorter length and one-sided nature was all the more surprising given Go won their previous match, the N-1 Victory Final, on 9/2/23 in 32:48. This started off really well, but never really became that dramatic or found a higher gear, largely because it wound up being kind of a routine title defense for Keno rather than feeling like the ace battle it should be. These two have great chemistry and work really well together, but while their story telling was on point, the story they told was kind of a bummer. ***1/2

5/26/24 AEW International Title: Roderick Strong vs. Will Ospreay 17:57

5/22/24 NOAH: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Masa Kitamiya 17:46
ML:. If you don't like Ishii's style or are bored to death with the endless striking exchanges, this isn't going to change your mind. However, it was one of the best and most motivated performances we've seen from Ishii in the past year and a half, so if you're a fan of his, this is definitely one of the best recent examples of his quality work. It's definitely like meets like. Kitamiya is more than happy to do Ishii's insanely hard-hitting style, as he is a very basic tough guy with a paired down move set. Kitamiya was still the more likely of the two to diverge from striking for anything beyond a near finish, as he did some knee work, but for the most part this was two rams butting heads. The result of that head butting was Kitamiya bleeding from the forehead. This was a little better than their previous match from 1/2/24 because it was more energetic, Kitamiya's performance was more comparable to Ishii's, and the atmosphere in the mostly filled small arena was much better than in the big empty cave. Kitamiya was able to push Ishii further this time, but you'd think with both singles matches being on Noah shows, NOAH could get at least one win for their guy out of it, but no. ***

5/18/24 TNA X-Division Title #1 Contendership: Trent Seven vs. Mike Bailey 19:23
ML: A PPV caliber effort that, due to the wrong wrestler winning, will surely wind up being better than the actual PPV title match. This was good largely due to Bailey getting a proper opportunity to show his stuff. Seven is a minus athlete like Eddie Kingston, but at least he does the moves he stole from AJPW/NOAH well. The problem is that for some reason Seven is still competing in the junior division at 42-years-old despite actually doing the heavyweight style he's suited for as much as he can get away with given the circumstances. Seven completely ruined the Bailey's poisonrana, but generally Bailey was smart enough to tailor what he did around what Seven can and can't do reasonably well. Bailey wisely didn't try to do a bunch of sequences or quick athletic counters here, doing more striking exchanges and jumping at the opponent, so the difference in athleticism wasn't as relevant. There was a nice spot where Bailey went for an avalanche style frankensteiner, but Seven countered with the emerald flowsion. Bailey took an awesome flip bump for the Seven stars lariat. X-Division champion Mustafa Ali and his cronies came out midway through to scout the opposition, and Bailey accidentally took Ali out with a running front kick when Seven avoided, which Ali was ridiculously down from for minutes. Seven hit his Birming-Hammer on the apron. Bailey avenged with his moonsault kneedrop on the apron, but when he went to do the Ultima weapon in the ring for the finish, Champagne Singh unbalanced him, and Seven hit the Birming-Hammer to earn the title shot. ***

5/22/24 AEW: Malakai Black vs. Kyle O'Reilly 10:17
ML: The opening of this match was so good. I can't express how exciting it was to actually see two guys in a mainstream wrestling promotion moving like they were in an actual fight, rather than comfortably settling into their relaxing cooperative bs. They started out throwing jabs and range finders, worrying about distance. All of this was building a sense of actual threat towards what really getting hit by the opponent could mean. Kyle had to feint his way into a double leg takedown attempt, settling on a wrist lock that Black arm dragged him out of. All of this was super basic, anyone with proper training who wants to actually put any semblance of effort into making it look realistic could actually do this instead of the same old laughable stale parody of Kobashi vs. Sasaki wannabe tough guy exchanging. After this realistic opening, it began to take off, which was good in terms of action, but bad in terms of credibility. The rest of the match was simply a good, albeit much more conventional martial arts oriented match. They went back and forth using fairly realistic strikes and submissions, but it no longer felt like U-style. Still, the exchanging was much better than what we normally see because they would aggressively try to get a second or third shot in before the opponent could fire back, and they would move fairly believably into a reasonable counter, even if they weren't defending themselves "properly" anymore. This was ultimately very rushed, with the typical obvious result of every AEW TV match keeping it from being dramatic even though it was competitive. It was a waste of a PPV match that could have been fantastic with proper development, and was much needed for Sunday, which is totally an Ospreay vs. Strong or bust lineup overloaded with the same lousy, overrated wrestlers that win in uneventful and/or silly matches every week. O'Reilly, their 2nd best healthy wrestler behind Bryan Danielson, didn't even make the cut. Black gets whatever rub you can get beating a guy who loses every week here, leading into a lousy match where he would have to fight a boring conventional style against a geriatric he could realistically KO in 30 seconds, except due to Tony's nonsensical booking that thinks you should be running gimmick matches in the 1st meeting rather than as the blowoff of the program, it's instead some BS Barbed Wire Cage Death Match that will probably just result in Black and/or Copeland getting injured. I may overrate this match slightly, as it's more the style I want to see than a fully realized version of it obviously. ***1/4

5/18/24 SGPW: Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu vs. Mio Momono & Yurika Oka 19:46
ML: This was about what you'd expect, 3 good efforts resulting in a match that was quite good when Hashimoto was in, but forgettable when Yuu was in. Yuu just isn’t the right partner for Hashimoto. Rather than being the one who sells for the team and allows the unique talent of Hashimoto to be featured as she dominates with her size, strength, skill, and athleticism, she's just the 1/50th version of Hashimoto. Yuu has more size, but she can't do much beyond feature her own chops and power moves, so Hashimoto winds up having to work much harder than she should because she's the only one on the team that can take the opponents offense effectively. Yuu would be more useful as the leader of a team with a good worker supporting her, someone who could physically stand up to Hashimoto, but wouldn't be asked to do much more than be big and imposing, with brief periods of domination. Momono was fiery and exciting as always. She did a great job of utilizing her speed to make herself credible, and Oka is coming along nicely as someone who can work with, follow, and emulate Momono well enough. This was an exciting quasi handicap match when they were taking on Hashimoto, using their quick hitting attack to catch her off guard, but would just kind of die out anytime Yuu became involved. Hashimoto vs. Momono was the selling point obviously, but Oka did a nice job of making herself relevant against Hashimoto with some fiesty counters and flash pin attempts to keep her off balance before Hashimoto took her out with the last ride. ***

5/3/24 Marvelous: Mio Momono & Takumi Iroha vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Maya Yukihi 20:00
ML: I didn't care for the Ozaki vs. Mio rematch in OZ on April 28th. It was nothing but an endless series of meaningless, nonsensical, chaotic run-ins, or in other words, exactly what you would expect from and Ozaki match in OZ Academy. Again, the Marvelous match was so much better because Ozaki's cronies weren't allowed at ringside, so she had to actually do something that resembled a wrestling match. This was a Momono style high-speed sprint, with the rivalry aspects taking it beyond the standard spotfest. Momono and Iroha were excellent here, both individually, and as a team. Momono was so fiery and exciting, and she really wanted to get at OZ, especially when she was hiding on the apron. Ozaki and Yuki slowed things down because they had no chance of matching speed with the Marvelous team. They are all about brawling, and that was okay here, as they were able to bring different things to the table, while actually allowing Momono & Iroha to do their thing since it was actually a two on two match, so Ozaki couldn't just dominate due to the numbers game. Ozaki had to do some work here even to get her gimmick spots in, but she managed to powerbomb Momono onto a pile of chairs, as well as do some quality actual wrestling. Yukihi wasn't amazing offensively, but it definitely helped having her in the match because she, of course, took the majority of Momono and Iroha's offense, which is what was making the match, allowing Ozaki to just come in and find a way to take control with a weapon. Unfortunately, Momono was nearly killed 13 minutes in when miscommunication led to her trying to counter Ozaki's Ligerbomb with a hurracarrana, but Ozaki was thinking she was just hitting the Ligerbomb. The result was Momono taking a really scary bump on her neck, taking her out of the match, although her trip to the emergency room was delayed by Yukihi taping her hands together, and hanging around for a post match angle where she screamed at Ozaki. Iroha kept with the style of her team, continuing to burst even though she was going alone. Part of the point of the match was to get Iroha involved in the OZ vs. Marvelous angle, so Iroha playing a big role wasn't the worst thing, even if the circumstances that led to it were far less than ideal. The match would obviously have been better if Momono had been around for the final third, as she was the primary wrestler making it exciting and spectacular, but the others did a nice job of audibling. Ultimately, the match wasn't hurt much because Iroha & Ozaki did a nice job of stepping up. If they play this well, they could use Ozaki injuring Momono to heat their fued up even further. ***1/2

7/1/22 MPW Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title: MUSASHI vs. Fujita "Jr." Hayato 30:55
ML: After missing more than 5 years (with the exception of a one-night return in on 12/13/19) due to an LCL rupture then spinal cancer, Fujita's first match back was a grueling, totally badass 30-plus minute potato shot filled title match. The fact that Fujita made it here at all was amazing in it's own right. During the time he was out, his trainer and friend "KID" Yamamoto lost his battle to cancer. Fujita came out to Yamamoto's old theme song "I Believe", and his guillotine choke finisher, named K.I.D. in Yamamoto's honor, was his go to submission. Fujita had said he'd retire if he couldn't make it back by the end of 2022, and what was even more shocking than returning at all was that he still performed at an elite level, carrying MUSASHI to what's surely the best match of his career. This was one of the stiffest matches ever. The problem is it started out being more than just that, there was good footwork from Fujita, feints, hesitation to show the opponent wasn't just cooperating, setting things up, mixing in the low kick here and there when it made sense, etc. Fujita does so many things with more attention to detail and realism than other wrestlers. He does little things to break patterns, be unpredictable, and keep the opponent on their toes. Once they began exchanging though, that's about all they did for a really long time. And even though their strikes are a hell of a lot harder and more believable looking than just about everyone else's, it still got tedious quickly, especially in a match that was this long. At least they realized this too, and started inserting more submissions, and the occasional suplex, before going back to another big exchange. Even though Michinoku Pro is predominantly a purolucha league, this match was essentially a Battlarts match with a few more flourishes. They were capable of doing a lot more junior style stuff, but tried to keep it to a minimum. They broke the illusion of it being a fight when they did it, but at this length, something else was kind of necessary. This might have been a great match at 18 minutes, but while they were ferocious throughout and everything looked impressive, they repeated themselves a lot or just did slight variations because there's only so much one can do in half hour match that's trying to be a believable fight. Fujita is so brutal and nasty. He'll gladly make it look like he's trying to break the opponent's fingers in order to get them to move so he can lock in the arm bar. MUSASHI was no slouch here. Still working under his real name, Daichi Sasaki, when Fujita went down, MUSASHI rose to the top of the company in Fujita's absense. MUSASHI really brought it here too, matching HAYATO blow for blow. He regularly attacked Hayato's leg, trying to slow him down, but Hayato wouldn't be denied in this battle of attrition. Fujita kept going for the K.I.D., seemingly coming closer each time until he finally got the tap out, winning the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title for the first time since 2013. There actually weren't that many near finishes here, which made them feel more important and earned. This was an emotional match, with the old ace dethroning the man who took over in his unfortunate absence. They definitely put all they had into this, not taking any breaks or shortcuts, and were able to maintain an unwavering intensity throughout. ***3/4

1/16/24 Sareee Produce: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee 23:29.

1/6/19 Sendai Girls World Title Match: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee 16:37
ML: A good start to their fued, but little beyond a dry run where they learned how to work together, gearing up for their bigger matches later in the year. It took a while to get going, with the focus being on Sareee was figuring out how to be credible against Hashimoto, and throw her off her game. The problem was she could slip out of things, and gain little advantages, but had trouble really hurting her with anything beyond her uranage finisher. They established the urgency of Sareee avoiding Hashimoto's suplexes, and that Sareee was clever and crafty. This was well worked, with some intensity, but it never got into a high gear, or felt like Sareee could win. ***

6/8/19 Sendai Girls Tag Title Match: Charli Evans & Millie McKenzie vs. DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto 18:38.
ML: I liked this a little more than Sareee vs. Hashimoto. It was so energized and urgent it felt more like the big interpromotional match than the actual title vs title main event did. This was also fast-paced, hard-hitting, high intensity action from start to finish, rather than just in the second half. DASH vs. Millie was as fun as you'd expect. These two really took it to each other, and particularly Millie went all out trying to one up DASH. Mckenzie was really fired up here, putting a lot of pressure on her own performance and success, as everything seemed life and death. DASH vs. Millie was the speed pairing, while Matsumoto vs. Evans was the hard-hitting pairing. Mckenzie was happy to mix it up with anybody though. Normally, McKenzie doesn't reach the level in Japan that she does in EVE, but this was her going all out to have a match of the year. Matsumoto and Evans were good, but the match was mostly DASH and McKenzie making things happen. The worst part of the match was the finish, which was a bit underwhelming, with DASH finally hitting her hormone splash, but McKenzie rolling her over for the flash pin. ***3/4

6/8/19 Sendai Girls World & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Double Title Match: Sareee [WWWD] vs. Chihiro Hashimoto [Sendai] 18:06
ML: This match didn't start out strongly because it didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know. Hashimoto had too much size, strength, and amateur wrestling skill for Sareee to handle her out of any of the lockups. Sareee upped the intensity for a flat-footed elbow exchange, but despite hitting really hard, she wasn't putting a dent into her much larger opponent. Sareee could temporarily upend Hashimoto with a dropkick or arm drag, but couldn't maintain these advantages. When Hashimoto wanted to control Sareee, she could, but she got cocky, and Sareee was able to avoid her lower percentage athletic moves. Hashimoto is much more interesting when she is forced to react, as she'll come up with something when she needs to, but tends to just settle into second gear during her segments of control. Sareee was doing a lot of Manami Toyota homages here, the main difference being she did half diving footstomps rather than all missile kicks. When Sareee tried to re-enter after a diving body attack to the floor, Hashimoto power bombed her off the apron, and they teased the count out as in their previous match. The intensity picked up considerably when Hashimoto blocked Sareee uranage, but Sareee headbutted her to open up the German suplex. They were really laying into each other until Sareee charged into a lariat. The first half was nothing special, but the second half had much the faster paced and more urgent action, forcing Hashimoto to bring her A game and shift into high gear. The second half was sequence-based, so they had to keep finding answers in order to keep making something happen. They never answered the question of how Sareee could actually win this match from a technical or strategic standpoint, but she displayed enough heart, willpower, and determination to kind of make you believe in her. The finish saw Sareee hitting her uranage then a wrist clutch uranage. It seemed to come a little early in terms of Hashimoto not being able to kick out, but at least they kept this to a reasonable length, which allowed the second half that made the match to be one lengthy burst of action, energy, and emotion. ***1/2

10/13/19 Sendai Girls Tag Title: Charli Evans & Millie McKenzie vs. DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto 14:39
ML: A disappointing follow up to their show stealing 6/8/19 title match. This was wrestled with much less urgency, intensity, and aggression despite being shorter. It was consistently good, with quality performances from everyone, but it didn't really get any better than that until the final few minutes. The best stuff was still DASH vs. Millie, but whereas they really took it to each other from the outset in the previous match, this wasn't that heated, and didn't begin to approach their potential until it was almost over. ***

10/13/19 Sendai Girls World Title Match: Sareee vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 17:03
ML: A well built physical contest that was performed more confidently now that they've become familiar with one another, and benefitted somewhat from being able to play off their previous encounters. They eased into the action, establishing that there were stakes, and consequences for everything they tried. Hashimoto could control Saree, but Sareee made sure she did everything in her power to avoid Hashimoto's suplexes and powerbombs. There wasn't any reason real that Hashimoto couldn't avoid Sareee's missile kick or diving footstomp, though Sareee's aerial moves played a much smaller role in this contest. The match was quite stiff, with both landing thudding elbows, and everything they did was high impact. Sareee kicked out of a brutal jackknife. There was a nice burst of action from here where Sareee was countering Hashimoto's power moves with flash pins until Hashimoto wheelbarrow German suplexed her off a cazadora attempt. Sareee had answers for Hashimoto being proactive with her suplexes, but was trapped when Hashimoto instead caught Sareee's spinning high kick and turned it into a German suplex. Sareee kicked out once, but Hashimoto did it again to regain the title. The escalation here was better than their previous matches, but the stretch run wasn't quite as fast or action packed. ***1/2

5/16/23 Sareee Produce: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee 23:27.
ML: I was ready to not like this match as much as their 2019 series, as while Hashimoto has improved in the last 4 years, Sareee was really rusty, having rotted in the warehouse for 2 years, and not had a match of any sort in more than 9 months. This match was more than 5 minutes longer than any of their previous matches, which they may have felt was necessary because it was only a four match show, but Sareee only worked one match over 10 minutes during her entire WWE run. The extra time resulted in a lot of unanswered Hashimoto control early on, which is never a good thing, as the good Hashimoto is the one that is reacting to the opponent. While this took a while to get going, it was the first match in the series where they bothered to develop an actual path to victory for the much smaller Sareee. Sareee has also tightened up her offense along the lines of Toshiaki Kawada since her previous matches with Hashimoto, dropping most of the Manami Toyota flying in favor of more credible and realistic offense that feels more like a fight, and made her seem more credible against her imposing foe. This was ultimately more of an attrition based heavyweight style match, which wound up working well for them given their strength is high impact wrestling. Things got interesting when Sareee worked her way into the match injuring Hashimoto's arm with a footstomp. Sareee worked the arm for the next several minutes, including a diving footstomp on the outside, but Hashimoto avoided the big uranage off the ramp. Hashimoto then did huge damage with a windsprint lariat on the ramp, but kept forcing the lariat on the inside until Sareee countered into a wakigatame. Sareee rolled into a pin to counter the German suplex, but preferred to stand up and footstomp the arm rather than try for the flash pin. Ultimately, while this wasn't the most exciting match in the series, it was the one I became the most invested in, and it was the only one that really felt like Sareee could reasonably win. They ultimately didn't do much in the way of counter-laden bursts, which was what distinguished their 6/8/19 match especially, or find the extra gear for the finishing sequence. While this could have been better, probably under a more ideal circumstance, it was reasonably that they didn go crazy here given the style they'd been doing throughout the match. Ultimately, Hashimoto won with the German suplex, which made sense because the Anti-Performance Center won't teach you how to beat a real wrestler like Hashimoto. ***1/2

2/20/24 AJPW Triple Crown Title: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Jun Saito 18:11
ML: Simple but effective no-nonsense title match that was designed to look like a real fight. This was totally done in Nakajima's new style, and he did an excellent job of carrying Saito, plus it helped a lot that they kept things basic. Saito is 6'4", so Nakajima stayed on the outside, chopping his legs and moving to avoid retaliation. Saito is hardly a top worker, but the match was structured so he just had to be an effective monster. Saito was capable of landing some big strikes and grabbing hold of Nakajima once in a while so he could use his power to bully him. Nakajima was technically beating Saito with his striking, but they weren't doing those cornball exchanges, it was due all to the usually ignored aspects of speed and movement. There was some intense ground and pound back and forth after Nakajima's Northern Lights bomb failed. Nakajima used a Frankensteiner and won with the Northern Lights bomb, but otherwise he was basically all UWF style. ***

1/3/24 AJPW Triple Crown Title: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Charlie Dempsey 19:42.
ML: 3 days after Hulk Miyahara's usual overrated stallfest, Nakajima returned with an actually interesting title match that featured 50 times the amount of activity despite being 6 minutes shorter. I wanted to say action, but that may not be the proper term in the sense that this was a 70s style technical match with minimal "big" spots, though certainly there was a lot more actually going on than in these modern style do one thing then give each other 30 seconds to recover playacting exhibitions that have plagued All Japan during Miyahara's reign of posing. In any case, this match featured actual struggle, with both consistently working hard, reacting to one another, and maintaining the illusion that they were doing meaningful things in the quest for victory. Nakajima is trying to do a more credible shoot style gimmick patterned after Antonio Inoki, but obviously that only works if your opponent also comes to fight. A wrestler on loan from NXT would seem an unlikely candidate to make that happen, but Dempsey is the son of legendary British technical expert William Regal. Dempsey has been wrestling for 6 years, but he's only managed about a hundred matches, so he is still somewhat green, and this was a big step up for him in notoriety and competition, given he's never held a title of any sort before, even if this version of All Japan is a far cry from the glory days when Giant Baba was running things. This was definitely European style rather than shoot style, but either way, they consistently kept after each other. These two have no experience working together beyond last night's tag where Dempsey surprisingly pinned Nakajima, but they have good chemistry. Most of the offense was quite basic, but at the same time, Dempsey is using holds that are out of fashion, and in a serious manner, working the headlock rather than just using it as a means to a rest. Dempsey did a really cool dragon screw variation here where he lifted Nakajima and essentially suplexed him, with Nakajima basically doing a kneel kick to the air to take the bump. Dempsey did a more cute than effective variation of the bridging double arm suplex where he put his hands on the front of my shoulders and did a full bridge to push them down. The fans were cheering Dempsey from the beginning because Nakajima is a heel, but the match itself was mostly about getting Dempsey over because he lacks credibility. Nakajima was selling for him a lot more than their relative ranking would justify, but because Nakajima isn't familiar with Dempsey, and Dempsey was throwing things at him that aren't common in 2024, it was more believable than it sounds. Dempsey is used to matches under 10 minutes, but they wisely kept it to a reasonable length for Japan main event standards. This all meant that Nakajima did a lot to help Dempsey look good then just kind of won when he felt like it. The match was definitely more different than great, but Dempsey definitely has a lot of potential if anyone can ever find opponents who still willing and able to do this classic European style with him. ***1/4

1/27/24 AJPW Triple Crown Title: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Shotaro Ashino 19:40.
ML: This is the kind of solid, realistic title match that I can get behind. It was one of the most interesting Nakajima performances of recent times, though in general, he's so much fresher in AJPW because they aren't forcing him to work endless striking bouts that make him repetitive and actually his render striking rather meaningless. It may not have been a match of the year attempt, but these days, that can also be a good thing because they did a match that made some sense and actually ended, rather than a bunch of contrived nonsense just to check off the boxes. It began as essentially a shoot style match, and this was a much more useful way to ease into the match than what we normally see. Since everything they had done before the first big spot was actually credible, Ashino's gutwrench suplex over the top rope really came off as a massive killer move, even though it was the least believable thing they had done, and required him to carry Nakajima a bit to get close enough to the ropes to throw him over. They brawled on the outside, and it felt like a fight. Back in the ring, they started running the ropes, which shattered all illusions. It remained a good match though where they stayed on each other, just increasingly a more conventional pro wrestling match. Ashino missed the second half of 2023 with a broken left arm, so Nakajima worked it over, getting heel heat without doing cheaterific nonsense. Ashino didn't use the bad arm for the cliched elbow exchange. Ashino hit a killer jackknife powerbomb, and got his suplexes going, but Nakajima nearly knocked him out with a right palm, and again with closed fists from the top. Ashino could tough these and the brainbuster out, but his arm didn't hold up to the arm bar. Ashino didn't make a huge push here, so this wasn't as "dramatic" as most big matches, but it told simple little stories pretty effectively. This match lacked a bit of spark despite the viciousness showed by Nakajima, and the general seriousness and credibility. They kind of assembled a series of set pieces in order to diversify, rather than really organically creating these opportunities through transitions, but the tenor of the match was believable enough that nothing seemed forced or really out of place. Nakajima did much less striking here, but Ashino sold it like it was damaging, nearly match ending stuff without the match just stopping so they could tell you that Nakajima almost has the match won, at the same time we see that Nakajima isn't actually trying to finish. ***1/2

4/21/24 SEAdLINNNG: Arisa Nakajima & Sareee & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hanako Nakamori & Hiroyo Matsumoto & Miyuki Takase 22:34.
ML: Arisa returned from injury after a 3-month absence and Tsukasa returned from maternity leave after a 2-year absence. Despite having much bigger names, this was basically the same sort of well performed but immediately forgetable main event we got from SEAdLINNNG all last year when Arisa was simply taking on the youngsters. They kept the pace high, and everyone actually knows what they are doing, but they didn't try to do much with the match beyond have fun and entertain. Arisa worked most of the match, taking some big bombs from Matsumoto before pinning her. The good news is that Best Friends appeared to be on about the same level as they were when we last saw them. The bad news is after the match, Nakajima announced her retirement, and challenged Matsumoto to be her final opponent on August 23, although this doesn't appear to be finalized. ***

5/3/24 NJPW World Television Title: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb 13:28.
ML: Sabre worked outside his comfort zone for the majority of the match, doing a style Cobb was more comfortable with. It was still a serious wrestling match that they kept believable enough, despite Sabre inexplicably trying to match Cobb with suplexes and slams. Cobb got to show some of his amateur wrestling early, leading to Zack reinjuring his intercostal on Cobb's takedown. It became much easier for Cobb to lean upon his strength advantage now that Sabre was comprised, and less of a grappling oriented match, with Zack finding the middle ground that still had them do things that were reasonable for both. Every bump was weighing extra upon Sabre, and even his tornado DDT hurt him too much to actually regain the advantage. Zack's German suplex caused the same problem. So did the Sabre driver, but ZSJ at least managed a pin attempt. Sabre was being much too stubborn here, insisting on power moves rather than utilizing the logical gameplan of attacking the arm. His best submission attempt until the finish was countering a superplex into a sleeper while Cobb was still on the middle rope, but that was quickly broken up by the ref enforcing the five count. A few spots didn't quite come off because Cobb is so thick, but Cobb gave a good effort, and was enjoyable here. Zack finally got the armbar he should have been working for all match momentarily, but Cobb rolled through, hoisted him up, and powerslammed him for the win. ***1/4

5/3/24 TNA X-Division Title: Mustafa Ali vs. Ace Austin 16:36.
ML: They did a nice job of telling a story and being creative to elevate this match beyond the typical collection of spectacular junior offense. Ali injured both Austin's neck and shoulder, which played into one another, as well as the arm, while Austin injured Ali's shoulder for revenge. Austin really took this all seriously, going the extra mile to try to put these stories over, while Ali has charisma and a nice move set. The best spot saw Ali do a tornado DDT on the outside that was set up like it was going to be an Orihara moonsault. Ali injured Austin's shoulder posting him, then did an STF around the turnbuckle. These kind of spots where they used the architecture to their advantage made the match seem more interesting and unique. Austin came back with one armed body slams, then evened things up by injuring Ali's shoulder on the turnbuckle, and following with a diving leg drop to the arm. Ali pulled Austin off the apron into a German suplex, reinjuring Austin's neck. Austin was shoulder blocking the turnbuckle pad trying to knock his shoulder back into place. Austin evaded Ali with a one armed handstand and dropped him with a kick when he was on the apron and Ali was on the floor, but took time to pose, so Ali gave him what he deserved, picking his leg, resulting in a hard bump for his neck onto the ring apron. This was a really good matchup until this point, but unfortunately the morons in black began interfering. The overbooking only served to distract Austin from the whole neck and shoulder storylines, and Ali just pinned him with a 450 splash, which looked impressive, but typically had nothing to do with any of this. ***1/2

5/4/24 NJPW NEVER Openweight Title: Shingo Takagi vs. Gabe Kidd 21:23.
ML: This started off great as a really aggressive brutal striking battle where they were trying to beat each other to the next strike, instead of just waiting for one another like they weren't trying to win. They didn't have much material beyond this, but they were doing it so well initially, it actually felt like a fight. Unfortunately, since Gedo refuses to ever end a match at the right time, they predictably went twice as long as it needed to. In order to keep things going, they resorted to the usual nonsensical schizo mix of ridiculous overselling and fighting spirit surges of no selling, or in other words the usual goofball mix of fighting styles that just reminds us what a bad performance this all is. There were still bursts of great action, and times when things appeared to be urgent, but you couldn't really believe them because Shingo would soon be back to doing really aggregious corny wobbling, which was way worse than the usual lying around playing dead, which we got plenty of as well. Even before the 10 minute mark, they were selling like they were 5 hours into an island death match. They were actually purposely mixing in wimpy strikes, pretending to be on their deathbed, then collapsing. It was so silly. If the match merely never developed into into anything beyond striking with a few suplexes and bombs, that could have been excellent if they stuck with the initial all out attacking mode, and knew to keep things to 12 minutes. Unfortunately, most of the final 3/4 negated the good work of the first 1/4 through the same old cliches of very controlled and contrived striking exchanges, combined with overselling that was never useful or believable. Kidd hit a big piledriver, but ran in a circle and collapsed, acting as if he suddenly didn't know where he or the opponent was. Good grief! Shingo finally won with last of the dragon. ***

5/4/24 UFC Flyweight Title: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Steve Erceg 5R

5/10/24 SGPW: Mio Momono & Yurika Oka vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Manami 14:04.
ML: A really good small show main event tag. They worked hard, moved fast, and didn't overstay their welcome. This actually felt like an early '90s joshi match where they were doing more than they needed to just because they wanted to. Momono was really energized, and seemed to be moving faster than ever despite a trip to the emergency room last weekend when Ozaki nearly broke her neck with her powerbomb. Momono kept a ridiculous pace, and was taking great bumps. Hashimoto was motivated to carry this as well, and was often taking Momono & Oka on at once. This allowed Momono and Oka to show some of their good teamwork, as well as giving Hashimoto a reason to be selling for girls who weighed half as much. I liked when they ganging up on Hashimoto when she was down, taking turns dropkicking her each time she tried to get back up. They did their best to work around 19-year-old Manami, mostly having her sell. She was really the weak link, not so much because she doesn't have the skill, as while certainly better, Oka isn't amazing either. Oka was able to mostly work above her level despite missing a few dropkicks due to working harder and doing a nice job of going along with the others, while even though she had a few nice moments, Manami wasn't even trying to match the speed and intensity of everyone else. Momono & Oka worked over Manami's arm until she finally made the hot tag. Hashimoto was really slick here, doing nice sequences and counters to make up for Manami not being able to do anything paricularly advanced. Hashimoto, of course, showed huge power as well, with Momono taking a great bump when she launched her on a released German suplex. It happened again later when Momono was trying to footstomp Manami, but Hashimoto caught her in mid-air and heaved her. Momono was really fun here, even taking Manami down with a flying headscissors at the same time she took Hashimoto down with a headlock. Manami, of course, did the job. I may be overrating this, but it was just a really fun little sprint. ***1/2

5/11/24 UFC: Trey Waters vs. Billy Ray Goff 3R

5/12/24 STARDOM Goddesses Of Stardom Title: Hazuki & Koguma vs. AZM & Miyu Amasaki 16:08.
ML: AZM one woman show. She was able to pull off a number of her fast sequences and counters, keep things moving and force them to really work together some of the time. She often fought 2 on 1 to kind of create sequences where they otherwise wouldn't have been, but this was still very unevenly paced, shifting from fast and flashy AZM stuff to competent and pedestrian. Little beyond AZM'S contributions were elegant, but everyone else was at least fine. "Super rookie" Amasaki executed her offense well, mostly consisting of DDT's and 80's high flying. She is built something like Riho, and obviously isn't particularly evolved as a worker 200 matches into her career, not doing much in the way of sequences like AZM, who she is actually 1 year older then. Everyone was going out of their way to help her look good, but given the usual standards of what passes for a top talent in STARDOM, she has a lot more potential than most of what's already been pushed to the top. AZM was in 80% of the time to carry things and keep Amasaki from getting exposed. Koguma was AZM's main opponent, doing power vs. speed stuff. It felt like we should have seen more from Hazuki, as while Koguma is capable of doing good things with AZM, she lacked the stamina, and was sucking wind midway through the match. Koguma started to fair better again later on when things slowed down a bit, but bursts aren't the strong point of her game the way they are AZM's. ***

5/13/24 NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 31 Block A: El Desperado [2] vs. Kosei Fujita [2] 17:16.
ML: Fujita is New Japan's hope of actually having a new generation, a very technically capable junior trained by ZSJ who can do more a lot than just jump around. In other words, he's a younger version of SHO before Gedo ruined him. This match against the current junior ace was largely a technical match. Fujita did some damage to Desperado's arm, but the wiley veteran not only had answers that prevented him from capitalizing, but largely kept him on the defensive by injuring Fujita's left leg, which had already been damaged in his previous tournament match against Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Desperado beating Fujita in submission wrestling pushed Fujita to do more flying because this area was more of an advantage against the more ground based junior champion, even though it could theoretically have resulted in less flying because Fujita might not have been able to jump as well. For the most part, they weren't doing a lot to truly wow people, but this was a solid fundamental technical wrestling match that would have worked in any era. Young Fujita was a lot more motivated than the more slow and deliberate Desperado, but Desperado maintained focus trying to get a leg submission. The match was aided by Fujita actually having an arm answer for Desperado's numero dos, and later submitting when he was truly trapped rather than the usual wrestling issue where all the appendage work still just results in their same old suplex/driver finisher. ***

5/13/24 NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 31 Block B: DOUKI [2] vs. Hiromu Takahashi [0] 16:35.
ML: DOUKI brought good energy and worked fluid lucha sequences as usual. A faster pace, and more running spots always suits Takahashi. As usual with Takahashi, the action was pretty random, and everything was either really impressive or kind of whatever. They are definitely capable of better, but this is a long grueling tournament. The sequences where one was lifting and the other was countering into a pinning predicament or DOUKI's Italian stretch #32 all seemed very contrived, and DOUKI getting the ref stop off this didn't really come off, although obviously it's a huge surprise win to go back to back on Hiromu after DOUKI finally got his first win on 2/24/24. ***

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