10/12/24 UFC: Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira 5R

9/9/24 Marvelous AAAW Title #1 Contendership 3 Way: Riko Kawahata vs. Mio Momono vs. Maria 36:16
ML: Though this was a three way, they booked it in the manor most conducive to having an actual good match, doing it as a series of singles matches, with the best worker, Momono, working three of the four matches. I'm not sure if someone had to beat both opponents or win two matches in a row to actually win this, but either way the one issue with this format was Momono had to go 1-2 for this to work without her being the one to get the title shot. They started and finished with the strong pairing, Momono vs. Kawahata, and these were both good matches. The first one was better than the second one because both were fresh, and they weren't repeating themselves, but the second one had more emotion. Each match was roughly similar in length, so they all had a chance to be good, but I wouldn't have minded if Maria's night concluded a bit earlier. Maria was the one who only wrestled two matches though, so it would have been kind of hard to also have one of her matches be 2 minutes or something. Maria is reasonable, but given she is primarily doing kicks and submissions, it's a real liability that her strikes are considerably softer than her two opponents, who also do a lot more good moves. Momono is the most energetic and enthusiastic of the bunch, but with Kawahata being a year younger at 25, and Maria being 24, they can hang with the pace Momono would prefer to wrestle, and Momono doesn't need to just get beat down for 80% of the match. Kawahata scored both her pins following the moonsault to earn her 1st challenge for the AAAW Championship on 9/29, which she of course lost. ***

4/24/05 TNA, NWA World Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Steel Cage: AJ Styles vs. Abyss 18:00
ML: I rarely enjoy cage matches outside of AJW, or Abyss matches in general. Normally the combination of a gimmick match and blood adds about 3 points out of 10 more than the match is actually worth on cagematch, so I wasn't expecting much from this match despite it being one of the more famous matches in TNA history, but it was shockingly good. This was a fantastic one-man show by AJ, who did a great job of urgently hurling himself at Abyss, inserting enough passion, exciting offense and big, punishing bumps into the Abyss dominated David vs. Goliath match to always keep things interesting enough. Abyss did what he needed to, and was effective here. Everything beyond his endless passable punches looked pretty damaging, so the 6' 5", 350 pounder was able to play the role of the monster very well. He made one of AJ's flying headscissor variations look bad, but they wisely kept his bump taking to the simplistic so he didn't ruin the rest of the spots AJ did get in. This was like what a Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker match should look like if Michaels wasn't just wrestling himself and taking his laughably over the top bumps, Undertaker did anything that had any impact or plausibility, and they didn't kill 2/3 of the match with their stalling. The start was great, actually the best part. AJ caught Abyss with a no touch tope con giro through the cage door as Abyss was about to enter. Abyss tried to whip AJ into the barricade, but AJ somehow slid under it, and came back with a swandive tijeras. AJ avoided another whip into the guardrail by jumping onto it, leaping to the 5th row where there was a separation he could land on, and then coming back at Abyss with the diving forearm. AJ charged with another flying forearm, but landed in the front row when Abyss sidestepped. They finally entered the cage, but not before Abyss slammed the cage door into AJ's shoulder and then AJ took a great sublte jump bump to make it getting slammed into his face look extra brutal and awesome. This "sliced him right open", and then Abyss used a chain. Abyss was catapulting AJ into the air, and heaving him into the cage. This set up a great counter where AJ turn the press slam into a DDT onto the chain. Abyss continued to maul AJ, but AJ would use his speed and athleticism to counter into hope spots. AJ hit a Styles clash on the tacks. He tried for a cage dive, but Abyss knocked him off balance by chokeslamming the ref into the cage. AJ then nonsensically hung on for an eternity while Abyss made his way up the cage. Eventually, AJ hit a sunset flip powerbomb into the tacks for the win. They didn't drag it out or overdo things too much, they kept this fairly lean, and generally maintained their momentum. The brawling too the back was the only time when it dragged. The gimmick spots were useful, seemingly done to help them win the match rather than just for torture ala crap like Swerve vs. Hangman. This match felt surprisingly creative. The crowd went nuts for these two homegrown TNA stars giving their heart and soul after being dead all night, especially for the predictable, boring, low effort matches involving WWE/WCW hasbeens that they supposedly needed because everything in stalled century must be a lifeless rehash, so obviously management ignored what actually worked, and continued to sink the company with more and more focus on hapless nostalgia acts. ***1/2

10/2/24 AEW International Title Match: Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet 17:37
ML: The expected super flashy battle of one-upmanship featuring tons of wild athletic action. This felt like a big match, with a really hot crowd split between the two performers from start to two bad finishes. This certainly wasn't their most convincing athletic exhibition because they are bulkier and less quick and agile than they were in the mid 10's, and thus the choreography was even more apparent. What they lacked in terms of being organic and free flowing with their classic sequences is mostly just in comparison to their own standard though, as their athleticism, and the spectacle they are able to produce is still much higher and more evolved than arguably all but perhaps a few guys. They worked really well with each other, with well developed sequences and an endless array of counters. They started out doing a high flying mirror match focusing on their similarities, but then shifted somewhat to focusing upon how they have changed since they last met in 2017, with a lot more high impact moves, and focus on Ospreay's hidden blade. The main difference, of course, is that Ospreay is no longer the young up and coming underdog. In fact, Ospreay won their last two matches to up his record to 5-4 against Ricochet, and with Ospreay becoming a top star in New Japan and now AEW while Ricochet was forced to be a parody of himself in the EWW, Ospreay is now very clearly the favorite in this matchup. They did their great counter sequences early on, and when the action spilled to the floor, Ricochet countered Ospreay's swandive off the barricade counter for the Irish whip with a barricade Frankensteiner. This setup will countering Ricochet's avalanche Frankensteiner by landing on his feet later on. Will momentarily had one up on Ricochet, but Ricochet answered by using Ospreay's own Oscutter on him. The second half had more high impact moves, with Ricochet countering the hidden blade with a backslide bomb. Ricochet avoided another hidden blade with a hurracarrana, but Ospreay rolled through and stood into a Styles clash. Ricochet ducked a hidden blade, and came back with his own. The first bad finished saw each hit of poisonrana then Ospreay pin Ricochet with the hidden blade, but Ospreay's shoulders were down also, even though he was on top. As clunky as this double pin was set up, having a draw without having them have to go an hour isn't the worst idea in and of itself. Restarting the match to do a cheesy forearm exchange then have Konosuke Takeshita cause the no contest after just 40 seconds when Ospreay hit the hidden blade was beyond infuriating. It's odd because one of the only good things about Tony Khan's booking is that he normally insists on mostly clean finishes (screwdrivers lead to near falls rather than screwjobs). Presumably, now that Tony gave in to a cop out ending, it was too difficult for him to decide which bad ending he should do, so they just did both. Either bad ending on its own would have sufficed to keep either from doing the job since Ospreay is the bigger star in AEW, but it's too soon to beat the new high priced talent Ricochet. However, having one finish right on top of the other was truly terrible, as obviously they didn't have time to add anything more useful to the contest, or even regain any momentum from the previous disappointment. The first finish was that much worse the way this was ultimately laid out because this sort of cute overbooking kind of dictates that there should actually ultimately be a clean finish. This match wasn't as good as Ospreay's 9/7/24 match with PAC because it was a TV match ruined by the awful ending, but they certainly showed the capability to have a PPV match at that level. I don't like the phoniness of 3 way matches to begin with, but adding this ultimate level on contrivance to two guys who are already accused of doing forms is a bizarre move that seems only designed to once again keep either from having to do the job. Takeshita should obviously be the top Japanese star in AEW because the only other one who isn't a decade past his prime, Kazuchika Okada aka RoboCody, has always been the same clueless rookie level performer that never evolved, grew, or even comprehended what was going on. He just used to be less broken down and actually put some semblance of effort into being led by the hand and posed by the opponent for 35 minutes of minimal activity. Unfortunately, Takeshita will continue down the road to nowhere at WrestleDream when he could have already risen to top overall heel status if they had done anything useful or consistent with him since he beat Kenny Omega at All Out 2023. ***1/2

10/5/24 UFC Light Heavyweight Title: Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. R4 4:32
ML: Even though Roundtree only won a round, given the opponent was Pereira, it felt like he overacheived quite a bit. Pereira had to always respect his power and explosion, and couldn't open up against him. The biggest difference between the two is that Pereira requires very little movement or tells in order to connect, whereas Roundtree needs a decent amount to go right in order to actually land anything because he has to cover so much distance even though Roundtree closes distance exceptionally fast. Pereira is an exceptionally long fighter, but he likes to keep himself relatively close to the opponent, stay in their face and make them surrender position. Pereira won the space battle consistently, forcing Roundtree to be the one who backed, which meant that when Roundtree exploded forward, Pereira had plenty of open space to temporarily utilize to avoid the rush. Roundtree has never been a cardio fighter, and having this challenge come at altitude against the fighter who was forcing him to back up made things that much more difficult for him. John Wood tried to get Roundtree to add a third shot to is combination because even though Roundtree would be exploding forward when he actually threw, he was basically done throwing before he gained enough ground on Pereira to get into range most of the time. Pereira would use the right high kick to freeze Roundtree, then follow with the calf kick while Roundtree was still planted. Roundtree was too willing to surrender space, and that left him breathing heavy by the end of the first round. Even though Pereira was staying in front of Roundtree, Roundtree still had to explode to really get anything going, otherwise with the reach disadvantage, Pereira would rather easily just lean or step back. Roundtree looked much better at the start of the second round because he was holding the center of the octagon and fighting behind his jab, but he didn't stick with it. Roundtree's right calf was starting to give him issues, but he surprised Pereira by ducking the right high kick rather than blocking it, which allowed him to answer with a right hook when Pereira was off balance. This made Pereira think twice about trying the right high kick/left calf kick combination again, which was key for Roundtree because he couldn't take too many more of them. Roundtree was able to push forward with a couple solid combos late in the round, and do some damage with a partially deflected high kick just before the bell to take the second. Roundtree had Pereira backing up after a good left hook and body kick early in the third. Roundtree just didn't have the stamina to maintain any kind of forward pressure though. Roundtree presented enough of a threat that Pereira was only throwing single shots now that he'd given up on using the high kick to set up the calf kick, but Roundtree wouldn't swallow up space after Pereira exited to keep Pereira out of this game plan of landing a single shot and backing just enough that he probably wouldn't take a counter before stepping forward again to repeat the process. The more Roundtree retreated late in the third, the easier it was for Pereira to take another step forward and hit him again. Rountree was growing increasingly more stationary due to both fatigue and beat up calf, and now Pereira was just nailing him in the right eye time a fter time with the left jab. Roundtree started swinging more and more aggressively trying to keep Pereira back with his fists since his movement was lacking, but also due to that, he wasn't closing distance in the process, and was just coming up short and taking big counter fire. The cut on Roundtree's right eyebrow became so bad that he had to basically keep his right hand over it in a hopeless effort to protect it, and now he was just completely getting picked apart. The fight was over, but Mark Goddard didn't quite have a reason to stop it yet. Khalil almost managed to gut out the round, but Pereira finally ended it with two body hooks and an uppercut. Good match.

8/8/24 Marvelous, AAAW Title: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Takumi Iroha 22:58
ML: The ace of Marvelous against the ace of Oz Academy, although one is almost twice as old as the other. Iroha is getting much better at showing fire and making energetic comebacks. She was really good at playing her role, and keeping this interesting. Ozaki laid out a good match. It was smartly worked heel stuff, with Ozaki dominating, but setting up Iroha for regular brief comebacks to keep popping the crowd for her bursts. This felt like an important match, and the effort of the wrestlers combined with the energy of the crowd made it come off better than it actually was. I thought this was better than the Ozaki vs. Momono matches, but while Ozaki was more active here, she didn't actually use any wrestling moves this time. I'm not expecting miracles, but she could still do a couple suplexes and bombs, the neckbreaker drop, etc. This was literally all the chain and the chair. Ozaki kept a relatively high pace here though, which was surprising given she didn't have her minions to do most of her work for her. This was definitely her best 2024 effort, and she willed this to work. Iroha tried to make Ozaki pay for her transgressions, busting the chair over her head, and spewing mist in her face. Iroha eventually bled, and Ozaki worked over the cut. This is all out of the Dump vs. Chigusa playbook. Iroha eventually took the title with her (Chigusa's) running three to deliver the happy ending for the home fans. ***1/4

8/24/24 Senjo: Mika Iwata vs. Mio Momono 13:06

AAA 1/29/93 Mexico City Juan de la Barrera: Psicosis & Heavy Metal & Picudo vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Super Calo & Winners. DC: Heavy Metal wore a t-shirt for the thrash band Testament. Heavy Metal was such a useful wrestler back in those days. His bumping was spectacular, and he understood very well how to make the tecnicos look impressive. The first fall was definitely all about feeling out and building up. Psicosis and Rey Misterio Jr. already stood out, though. The first fall told some good stories. The rudos were very rudo-esque, while the tecnicos were being sympathetic. Picudo wasn't outstanding, but he rounded out the team well enough. Winners was very good athletically and was over, but lacked in everything else, like all the more subtle aspects that makes a wrestler more than very good. Psicosis did a crazy dive. Winners hit a tope con giro. Heavy Metal executed a nice somersault plancha to the floor. Rey Jr. topped it all by hitting a moonsault to the floor. The tecnicos won the first fall. Impresionante! In the second fall, the rudos dominated and won. It didn't feel like a rushed fall, which second falls tend to do. Psicosis couldn't help himself but to take another crazy bump, and then a big Jerry Estrada-esque bump. The final minutes were certainly exciting and spectacular. They definitely felt like the climaxing part of the match. The match ended when Metal and Misterio both fouled each other at the same time, which resulted in a double DQ. Great match. ****½

AAA 2/6/93 Texcoco de Mora: Psicosis & Heavy Metal & Picudo vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Super Calo & Winners. DC: This was a great follow-up to the match from the week before. They managed to deliver quite a different match, which was a nice thing. It really looked like the rudos were going to score a quick win in the first fall. Heavy Metal did a tope suicida while still having his leather jacket on. However, Rey Misterio Jr. managed to pin Psicosis while Psicosis still had his entrance cape on, and this was instrumental in the tecnicos winning the first fall after all. There were several spectacular moves and sequences in the match, for sure. However, their previous match felt more like a great match that was superbly built up than this one. After somewhat of a chaotic second fall, the rudos scored the equalizer. The third fall inherited some of the chaotic nature of the second fall, which helped make the match feel like one continuous whole. Everyone eventually started doing dives, which helped cement the status of this match as a truly excellent one. After all the dives, Metal pinned Misterio in the middle of the ring. Los rudos! Los rudos! Los rudos~! Excellent match. ****¼ 

Best Matches of 2024 YouTube Playlist

Hall Of Talent YouTube Playlist