What are you watching: August - December

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8/3 Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne. Awesome squash match by Swagger. Bourne gets the shit kicked out of him at the end. Swagger hits a Big Van Crush too.

Todd Morton vs. Mitch Ryder, 2008.

Man, that ending, I'm so glad we can still see stuff like that in pro wrestling. Todd begging off the the ringpost crotching followed by the out of shape, ugly, but charismatic Mitch doing his gingerly walk was the secondary highlight of the match. Just great stuff. This is my first taste of Morton and he totally lives up to the hype, even though his punches could stand to look a little less pulled.

Celestial/Mini Talisman vs. Mr. Aguilita/Pequeno Halloween, 7/26/09

This was fun when you could actually see the action. Match had plenty of crazy dives and bumps to the outside and, thanks to a strong performance by the rudos, this never lacked direction. One of the better spotfests you'll see this year.

Kobashi/KENTA vs Shiozaki/Ito, 8/2/09

This was all about Shiozaki trying to hang with Kobashi, so wasn't good. Shiozaki has zero presence and doesn't know how to do any of the little things right. Kobashi still shuffles around like an 87 year old and didn't sell much, so was pretty worthless. KENTA and Ito worked in a few vanilla junior exchanges. Forgettable tag. I doubt I'll watch another Shiozaki match this year.

I don't think Kobashi is ever going to not shuffle around like an 87 year old again. That's what holding off major knee surgery does to you.

As for Go, I agree that he doesn't do some things right. But I think he has presence. He just needs to grow a bit more.

At this point he has the look, he has the moves, now he just needs to string it all together.

He doesn't feel like he has the upside of rookie Mossman/Kea.

No but Kea had been wrestling a lot longer by the time he hit his stride in 2002. Kea also had the luxery of training under "Prime" Misawa, Kobashi, Taue, Kawada & Akiyama.

Perhaps giving him the title like this was silly but who else would they have gone with on such short notice?

Omori also trained under prime era Misawa, Kobashi, etc.

It's not that Go doesn't feel like he has the upside of 2002 Kea. He doesn't feel to me like he has the upside of 95 Kea.

Chris Sabin Vs Tyler Black


I feel these guys probably practiced trying to do the first ever double enzigury spot for a good hour before the match. I don't know why I watched this...

G1 Climax/Nakamura Return Match: Shinsuke Nakamura Vs Hirooki Goto, 8/7/09

WOW! After two years, the real Shinsuke has returned! This was a cracker of a match and even though Goto forgot to sell his ribs at some points he did a good job overall. Some of the submission spots were things of beauty, especially that Frankensteiner-Jujigatame counter Goto did. I like Nakamura's return to his old dress sense too.

Eddy Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho, Fall Brawl 97

Haven't watched this in years and almost forgot about it for my SC WCW ballot. I haven't been WOWed by a match like this in a long time, just fantastic stuff. Eddy pulls out an amazing performance here, claiming fake hair-pulling, throwing tantrums, and bumping around making Jericho look like a million bucks. Trying to use the ropes for leverage to get out of Jericho's armbar was awesome. When he finally gets on offense(and does so with a pretty great transition btw), he looks totally vicious and dominating, just best-in-the-world class. Home stretch is awesome, tons of cool moves, near falls and reversals, but they actually, you know, sell shit, and don't get ridiculous. Really good ending.

I'm thinking of how many juniors matches are better than this. Sano/Lyger for sure. Eddie/Rey from Havoc. Maybe Eddie/Benoit from NJ in 96, have to rewatch that. But I really can't think of too many. Incredible match, top 20 on my ballot.

I don't like it that much, but it's one of a handful of cruiserweight division matches that will make my ballot and it really is a great showcase for Eddy who I think was the best in the World in 97. Their match at Slamboree - while not as good - is very strong in its own right.

G1 Climax: Shinsuke Nakamura Vs Takashi Sugiura, 8/8/09

Yes my lovelies, Nakamura is carrying on being awesome. This was a fantastic little match with them actually doing limbwork that counts (when was the last time you saw that in NJPW or NOAH?). It was very manly sutff with Sugsy yelling randomly throughout and Nakamura just looking pissed off for the whole thing (is he a heel now?). Good fun, but the running knee finish wasn't stiff enough for my liking.

Nakamura turned heel back in either March or April.

Ahhhhh good. I like this returned grumpy skinny shooter Nakamura much better than the 2006 roid monster one.

And someone has got to get hold of Goto's entrance music. Very cool stuff.

Dylan you are thinking of Superbrawl 7 for the first Eddy/Jericho match.

Dreamer Vs Regal 8/11/09

Dreamer might have been at his best tonight and that's still barely presentable. Way to waste a Regal TV main event fuckface.

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, 2008

Hey check it out, Tanahashi actually gets a good match beaten out of him. Large part of the match was really good, with Kawada carrying Tanahashi, beating the shit out of him, and really working a good strike based match. Tanahashi's annoying tendencies begin to take over towards the end, but still good overall. Has Tanahashi had a better match?

A friend brought over the new Legends of the Arena DVD tonight--what a putrid pile of shit. I liked the Too Cold Scorpio vs. C.W. Anderson opener, and some of what Chris Hamrick did was decent, but overall this was just excruciatingly painful to watch. Almost every guy, from bottom to top, had put on a bunch of weight, the crowd was too busy making self-referential jokes and crude chants to give anything heat, the work was patently lazy, overall just an insultingly bad ideal/show. The more I see of stuff like this the further and further it deteriorates any ECW memories I once held and makes me question if ECW ever was any good?

Yeah I have a tendency to get confused on Superbrawl/Slamboree.

Chikara - 4.26.09 - The Bobliographon

Incoherence (Hallowicked, Frightmare, Delirious) vs The Roughnecks aka Forever in Bluejeans (Eddie Kingston, Brodie Lee, Grizzly Redwood)


During the intros Brodie likes to bully Loudon as he tries to do his thing but this time he throws him down and kicks him out of the ring so he can't even finish. Since Loudon is awesome he sells it like death. Bryce reminds us of all the history between the combatants. The littlest barefooted lumberjack and Delirous start it off with some back and forth'ing, a quick chase around the ring and in comes Frightmare and the King. Brodie makes sure Grizz is all the way out of the ring by kicking him off the apron. Eddie makes fun of Frightmare's size but philly gives the lil guy some love with a chant. King with the power advantage early but gets too proud of himself with some funny posing. 'Mare brings some quickness and King's had enough. Wicked and Brodie are next, they are mad at each other storyline wise and start trading big blows. They work well together in the ring. Brodie gets the advantage and tags in El Grizz. Redwood works him over for a bit and while the ref isnt looking, drops his strap to apply a hidden, by the beard, choke with a headlock applied as well. Wicked finally drops him on his head and in comes Frightmare who finally has someone his size he can do some moves on. Brodie with a blind tag and comes at 'Mare with the big boot, but he ducks it only to eat the "not so big" barefoot-boot by Grizzly. Brodie again shoves Grizz out of the ring for the tag. Lee and King work him over for a bit, the highlight being Brodie standing on the second rope and lifting 'Mare up by his neck while King peppers him with body shots. Frightmare tries to escape but Lee grabs him by the head and pulls him up over the ropes. Click, click, boom and poor guy eats a double big boot by King and Lee. Brodie is just being an awesome bully tonight. While 'Mare is sitting up all loopy selling the kick, Lee just shoves him hard to the canvas like he's about to make him eat mud but instead goes for the pin since its wrestling and not a playground. Some more beating up of Frightmare and finally a leaping hot tag to Delirious. Some lariats and leaping headbuts lead to Lee and Grizz down in the corner for a double Panic Attack. King's in and gets dropped on his head by D, pin attempt but Brodie throws Grizz into them to break it up. Wicked and Brodie are going at it now and Brodie with a running step up 'rana! (like the one Wicked does) and everyone loses their shit especially Bryce on commentary. Wicked and 'Mare with some teamwork get Brodie to the floor to set up for Frightmare's running front flip over the ropes, which Brodie catches perfectly btw. King and Wicked start trading slaps in the ring, BIG headbut by King, but it effects the both of them and King's facial expression after it was glorious. It leads to a missed backfist, a slam and a sloppy running elbow by King. Delirious now in and we get about 15 clothelines in the corner on Eddie. He whips him to Wicked who hits Go to Sleepy Hollow followed by D's Shadows over Heck topped off with Frightmare's double knee moonsault which he hits all of King's ample midsection with. Brodie with the save and its his turn for triple teaming. Kind of a sloppy finish. A yakuza by Wicked followed by a charging clothesline by Delirious which then leads into Wicked backdropping Frighmare onto Brodie and into a sloppy dragonrana pin. Frightmare almost missed him but Brodie caught him and still ate it, then he got pinned by Frightmare to the crowd's delight. Wicked/'Mare and Brodie/Grizz really all work well together. Brodie was killing it the whole match, from his big bully act, to the suprising rana and how he ate and sold everything they threw at him - he was the star of the match by far.


Chikara - 5.24.09 - Aniverario Yang

The Roughnecks (Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood) vs Los Ice Creams (Ice Cream Jr & Hijo del Ice Cream)


Loudon has finally smartened up, runs away before Brodie can bully him and does his intros from the floor. Ha, he calls the Ice Creams "the deadly duo of dairy". Los Ice Cream's battle over who can get the bigger cheers in the opposite corners. Lee gets fed up and tells Grizz to try, but the barefooter is met with boos. Brodie refuses to play thier game and leaves the ring fed up and in disgust. Double posing now by the Creams. Tomfoolery to start off with Jr snapping the suspenders and Hijo doing a celebratory invisible trombone on the canvas. Jr and El Grizz in the ring, and Jr with the old drop down at the guy running the ropes feet and trip him up. Time for some back and forth b/w Lee and Hijo and we get the Hijo crying spot after Lee slaps him, which of course leads to the "estupido" kick. Hijo gives him a pinch on the backside and Brodie is not amused by any of this and leaves the ring again. A seated senton to the floor by Hijo on Brodie and now Hijo is very proud of himself so he struts around on the outside. Jr and Grizz in the ring and we get the 'scoop' slam. Hijo climbs the ropes and tells Jr to move Grizz toward the middle of the ring, he re-climbs and decides again it is not far enough so "mas!" is declared and we get a 'mas, mas, mas' chant as he checks the wind in the arena. Grizz is now on the other side of the ring where he wants him, Hijo jumps down runs across but he trips and falls, and of course starts to cry again. Jr over to check on his hermano and we get stereo boots to the face from the Denim Duo. Playtime is over according to Bryce, as Brodie takes over and beats on them both for a bit. Lee picks up The Grizz and drops him on Jr for a leg drop. Grizz and Hijo go at it while King and Bryce hilariously go at it on commentary. Hijo charges Grizz in the corner but eats a bare foot to the side of the face, he regroups to charge again and eats another foot to the other side of his face, one more charge and we get a sunset flip from Grizz which leads to a roll through dropkick by Hijo and they're both down. Clever finish sees the Ice Creams try to double team Grizz by whipping him at Lee who picks him up sideways and takes the IC's down with his Grizzly battering ram then immediately dropping him onto them for the pin. Quick and fun match. Brodie/Grizz are becoming one of my favorite teams. Kingston was killing it on commentary picking on Bryce.

Johnny Saint VS Fit Finlay - 1/15/1988

Princess Paula had a killer pair of legs. Even though it's common knowledge that Saint is an ageless wonder, it's still amazing seeing him fly around the ring in his mid 40s. I mean he was lightning fast. Match is fun with some good exchanges but not quite as good as I'd hope from this matchup.

1. Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Barry Windham & Ron Fuller (Tokyo, 12/12/1983)

Seeing Dos vs Barry is something I never thought I would see. Sadly it's not that great as Barry's really young and Fuller gets most of the action. I like Ron on the mic better than his more popular brother but his work isn't that good from what i've seen. Dos and Mil are still pretty good here.

KENZO TEAM(Kenzo Suzuki, Oriental, Sugi) vs Cuervo, Escoria, Zorro 7/17/09

This aired on AAA today and it was awesome. Kenzo Team is one of my favorite things about AAA. Kenzo has been reborn it seems as a black warrior esque awesome Rudo and Sugi fits in with AAA. Plus you got Zorro being his great self as always. Escoria almost breaks his face after a Sugi dive and he lands face first into the steps of the arena. Fun match.

Escropion Negro and Mini Psicosis vs Chris Stone and Octagoncito Arena Coliseo Monterrey 8/9/09

These are 4 guys you hardly ever seen on AAA tv. In fact right after this taping, Negro left AAA and now is in Puebla. He'll fit in well there and kinda reminds me of Policeman as he's a good catcher for the tecnicos. Mini Psicosis is the former Jerrito Estrada under the mask. This was another fun AAA match with Los Metrosexuals(Brazo and Dennis) helping the rudos win.

The Masters Of The Powerbomb VS Sting/Davey Boy - Beach Blast

First I watched the press conference that Col Parker and Race hold to announce their challenge Sting/Bulldog and make the ultimatum that they either move to a retirement home or be powerbombed. Not exactly White Castle Of Fear level of good but still painfully campy in an enteraining way. Then the match, like most things Sting/Vader related, was awesome. Vader is at his best here looking completely dominating but also extremely vulnerable when need be. Sid & Vader just look so god damn intimidating standing next to each other. They are like every monstrously evil tag team in a wrestling video game combined into one real life duo of bad assery. I will forever mark for Sting using the entrance ramp to leap into/out of the ring for big spots, as I will for any time Sting and Vader exchange punches. Did these two teams ever face each other again? There's a lot of great stuff to build on in this match, it felt like the beginning of what could have been a tremendous tag feud. It doesn't look like they face each other again on this Best Of Sting/Vader comp I have though.