Sports Pro Wrestling Discussion Thread

[yureion]

i was watching dynamite after work with my lady and the mox/bat etc spot (im sure most here seen it lol) happened and she goes "is this the moment we look back on and say "AEW did too much?" and I was like shouldn't have that been the time Matt Hardy's spot happened?
We both love AEW/wrestling in general but phew, that was one of those "Holy hell, why?" and while I like/respect Mox (even tho I think this storyline is a dud - the Young Bucks got their humble pie last year with that "Takeover angle" no one cared about, and seems Mox is now) I still respect the work and all but --- at some point someone from a network or whatever is gunna be like "Aye.... what was that?" lmao

 

[Joementum]

Late response but I don't think the network cares. Remember they let the Chris Jericho/Nick Gage pizza cutter spot go without any complaint despite Domino's pitching a fit about it. The action movies/shows that these networks show in primetime have similar if not more amounts of gore than AEW does. Also I don't think the Mox spot is comparable to the Hardy/Guevara thing at all as that was a case of letting a match continue after a legitimate injury.

Agreed on the Death Riders angle being a flop, though. Tony doesn't seem to want to commit to doing a full takeover angle and that's neutered both the Elite and now the Death Riders attempts at it.

 

[Incognito Style]

Good day ladies and gentlemen! Today I bring to you something new! Welcome to Wildcard Wednesdays! This is a new project/series whatever you want to call it where I review a set amount of wrestling and it’ll be put up on a Wednesday! Since this is the first time, here’s some basic rules that I decided to make for myself regarding it!

1. There will be a bare minimum of 3 matches per Wednesday. This is so that there’s a decent variety in what’s being featured. There is no maximum but we’ll get to that below.
2. There’s no hard maximum but whilst the minimum may be 3 matches, Wildcard Wednesday may also just be a random full show such as an NXT TakeOver, old WCW & ECW PPVs etc. This is to add to the randomness factor of this series.
3. There are no rules or restrictions in terms of what wrestling promotions will be watched and covered in this series so anything from WWE, ECW, WCW to things such as old NWA/AWA, NJPW, Stardom, Marigold, Ice Ribbon you name it it’s all in contention to be featured!
4. In case it wasn’t obvious by a part of rule 3, there is no time restriction either. We could be covering anything from old 1980s wrestling to modern day 2020s!
5. The final rule in this case for the timebeing is that any match I cover will probably at least be around 2-3 minutes long minimum. I don’t want to be covering no 1 minute squash match. That’s no fun for this series (although believe me I have covered my fair share of those).

With all the admin out of the way, let’s get into the first set of stuff from this Wildcard Wednesday! This time, we’ll be featuring the following which if you want to read each match look down below!

Match 1

Brodie Lee vs PAC
DGUSA Bushido: Code Of The Warrior
12th November 2011

I was actually struggling for some stuff that I wanted to watch for this opening edition of Wildcard Wednesday. I had several matches in mind already (as seen further below) but I couldn’t decide on a final one. All I knew was that I wanted to do an independent match not based in Japan but from the 2010s. That’s when I started scrolling through mindlessly and before long, I realised I was a fool as the name was right in front of me for my last choice: PAC. PAC is a man I only really discovered originally (like probably most people reading this) when he came to WWE as Neville. Of course I managed to watch a little of PAC’s work post WWE such as an incredible match against Kzy in Dragon Gate but that’s 2019 and we’re going a bit further back to pre WWE PAC here as we go to a promotion that I think has some fantastic gems under its belt: Dragon Gate USA. I’ve seen some quality matches from here such as Bryan Danielson vs Shingo and even seen guys like Jon Moxley working here. Anywho I was scrolling through matches PAC had throughout his career and I soon came across the match that fascinated me most: him going against Brodie Lee (also known in the future as Luke Harper). I have not actually watched any Brodie Lee pre WWE so this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

This match was good but I wouldn’t say it’s as incredible as it could be. There’s a lot of involvement from Akira Tozawa on the outside early on which feels at least for me it kills the pace of the match which starts off fast and hot. Once Tozawa’s out of the way, this match starts to pick up but with this only really going 10 minutes, it’s hard to say that this reached a fever pitch or a high enough level in quality that it goes to the levels of great and incredible that some of these two’s other matches reach. This was a good match though for its place on the card and these two throw out some cool stuff whether it’s in the high flying department in PAC’s case or you’ve got the cool hybrid stuff that Brodie has (like his tope suicida or a really clean Truckstop aka a super clean brutal Boss Man Slam type of move) this just has what you’d want out of these two in a short span of time. In the end, PAC comes out on top after nailing Brodie with the Red Arrow (idk if that’s what it was called at this time but that’s what we’re going with). Not bad!

RATING: ***¼

Match 2

Aja Kong (c) vs Meiko Satomura
AAAW Championship
GAEA Yokohama Double Destiny - Battle Of The Crush Gals
15th September 1999

I thought that this would be a good and fitting entry considering Meiko Satomura’s retirement match the previous day on a Sendai Girls show. What better than to watch a match between her and one of her longest rivals in Aja Kong. I’m not the most well versed in women’s wrestling and joshi in general but I know enough about these two ladies to know that on paper: this should be pretty good and pretty nasty. Whether or not I end up being right about that you’ll see below. I should also note before I get into any part of the actual wrestling that this is my first time watching classic Meiko Satomura stuff from the 90s. I’ve seen a little bit of Aja Kong’s work in AJW such as one of her matches against Manami Toyota who’s also considered one of the legends in joshi history like these two ladies (especially Meiko Satomura herself).

This was actually fantastic I have to admit! I was a little worried at the start of the match that the pace would just be slightly slow considering how Aja Kong was beating down Meiko but they turned it around and they made this a truly compelling match to watch! This match seems to tell a story as well. Aja Kong’s the big bully and almost like a final boss of women’s wrestling at this point in time (at least that’s what I would think looking at this match) and she bullies Satomura around for the first chunk of this match. Satomura gets an opening here and there but she’s mainly swatted away by Kong whether she attempts a submission or tries to strike with her. The real turning point of this one (and where I felt this match really picked up as well) is where Satomura lands this beautiful pele kick like she’s Cristiano Ronaldo and it’s the first sign of possibly defeating Kong as a knockout finish is teased until the count of 8. From there this match truly starts to become competitive. After a vicious powerbomb from Kong, Satomura manages to string together a series of moves from a german suplex off the middle rope, another pele kick and her signature Death Valley Driver to score a major nearfall and probably the best nearfall of the match to be quite honest. There’s so much more to this match but I insist that you go out of your way to watch it as reciting it spot for spot would only be an injustice to this. In the end after some really good nearfalls and close calls, Satomura hits another pele kick (the move that changed the momentum of the match and made her stand a chance) but Kong fires back with her signature Spinning Backfist to knock down Satomura and win by pinfall. I really like the dynamic of Kong being the dominant force in this one that it takes the whole kitchen sink of what Meiko Satomura has to attempt to defeat her and bring her down. By the end of the match, Kong looks more human with desperation on her face to try put down the fiery Satomura. It’s different from Satomura’s future work where she herself comes across like a final boss in her own right as instead she’s working from underneath here. Honestly fantastic stuff and a worthy watch! Here’s to your retirement Meiko you’re a legend in this industry!

RATING: ****½

Match 3

Judas el Traidor vs Xelhua
Lucha Memes
19th May 2024

Now this one is what I would call a recurring segment that’ll be happening at least once on each of these posts: the Joker wildcard. In this case, the Joker card has the potential to be anything and it’s completely random as to what that anything will end up being. So I took to a randomiser and as a result I ended up with a match. A match right here between Judas El Traidor and Xelhua. Now just so you know, I know neither of this guys so I had to resort to some research and looking into these guys so I at least had some kind of information to present here. The main information I got was about Xelhua. Xelhua is a 21 year old prospect from CMLL who apparently has really rave reviews about him so that’s already a promising start. Judas el Traidor doesn’t have as much information about him but according to some tidbits and pieces, he’s more of an old school style of wrestler. Not really got anything information other than that and so here we are: Lucha Memes a promotion I myself have never actually watched and with two names that I happen to be watching for the very first time. What could possibly go wrong?!

Well… nothing necessarily went wrong but… this was very average unfortunately. I wasn’t expecting the setup of Lucha Memes to be outside in front of maybe 100 people or so but hey that’s what we got. The match itself was very very technical and in that regard also on the slow side. This one goes nearly 15 minutes and most of it is grappling. Now I know there’s a fair few luchadors who do grappling and all this technical stuff and it can be compelling it’s just… Judas el Traidor isn’t exactly the guy to be doing that with. Not because he isn’t technical but rather he’s slow and there’s not much excitement or fire to his work (quite frankly if anything that was proven by the fact the man called for a bottle of water in the middle of the match after some grappling and even gave Xelhua some water which says it all to me). He had a couple of strikes that actually made me think okay at least he has SOMETHING but other than that I wasn’t really sold on him. Xelhua looked decent but I think this was a very safe, almost very house show esque match based on the setup and based on how they worked this match overall. My thing with lucha libre is I like both sides of things - the technical side and high flying side. My preference is admittedly a mix of both but I can settle for one or the other too. This just wasn’t in that high level of technical lucha libre. Unfortunately you don’t have a guy like Hechicero in there (but I do see that Hechicero and Xelhua have a match on a later Lucha Memes show so that might be something to check out in the future and to have a proper second opinion on Xelhua) but this did the job and that’s about it. Xelhua won after tying up Traidor like a pretzel and got him to submit. Not the best first impression for either guy but the crowd liked this match so hey good on them!

RATING: **¼

Match 4

Jamal vs Satoshi Kojima
AJPW September Dream - Day 7
25th September 2004

This one is actually a recommendation from a good friend of mine who I have seen nominate this match several times under the room’s Match Of The Week and it intrigued me considering the two competitors are Jamal (best known as Umaga) from 3 Minute Warning and Satoshi Kojima who is great but especially great when you watch his older work rather than his current body of work (he’s still good but man he has another step back in these days). This combination intrigued me especially as an individual who did not know Jamal had a whole body of work in Japan and even several encounters against Satoshi Kojima. The one in this instance that we’re covering is billed as the “Loser Revival” match which is a series of matches Satoshi Kojima has in All Japan in 2004 where he pretty much loses. I actually unknowingly have watched one of these after research as I watched Kojima’s match against Mitsuharu Misawa from Battle Banquet not too long before this match itself but there’s other matches against guys like Keiji Mutoh out there as part of this series. There’s actually a recap of this whole thing just before the match itself so that’s super handy and educational for these purposes. Now on paper this one’s quite fascinating when you’ve got a big guy like Jamal who by this point doesn’t really have the popularity he’d get as Umaga but is post WWE run for 3MW and Kojima who is well known for his lariats. Getting to watch something like this is actually quite the treat in that aspect as I have no idea what to expect.

This was honestly really enjoyable to watch and to be quite frank with you I actually think the star of this match is Jamal more than it is Kojima. Kojima’s good as per usual but he’s also working from underneath here and this match feels very dominated by Jamal at times which makes sense. What surprised me is the variety in Jamal’s moveset which is stuff you absolutely would not see from him in WWE. He threw a cutter out, he hit a good chokeslam and the most surprising of all was the fact that this man threw out a moonsault from the middle rope. It’s scary how good Jamal actually was and he really got to show that here. Kojima shows why he’s as good as he is too but I think there’s better when it comes to Kojima matches (for example I prefer the Misawa match to this one). The crowd were HOT for Kojima all match long but Jamal threw everything at him and still couldn’t put him down. Each time he nearly did and Kojima kicked out, the crowd were elated and chanting Kojima to will him on. I do want to note some really good chops in this match too as each chop sounded blistering from both guys for that matter it added to that scrappy type of feeling at times. The ending to this match was cool as Kojima’s throwing lariats but can’t knock Jamal down. Jamal throws a Superkick at him but Kojima powers through it and nails the big Cozy Lariat which Jamal throws a flip bump like he’s Rikishi (although not as crazy as Rikishi’s can look when he takes a clothesline or lariat) and that’s all she wrote! Honestly a really fun match overall! It does slightly miss that next level but not everything has to be perfect or at that level. Sometimes you can just have a good, quality, enjoyable wrestling match like this one and that’s all you need! I’d recommend and approve this one so shoutout to the man who recommended it (if he’s reading this he’ll know who he is).

RATING: ***¾

Match 5

Dudley Boyz vs Edge & Christian (c) vs Hardy Boyz
WWF Tag Team Championships
Triple Threat Tag Team TLC Match
WWF SummerSlam
27th August 2000

This was an easy selection for this first edition. One of the primary reasons behind that is due to the fact I should soon be watching WrestleMania X-Seven in full. I’ve not done that in a long time probably since my old watch together days with a friend when we were going through 2001 WWF. Of course WrestleMania X-Seven has the very well known TLC match between these three teams known as TLC 2. However, this was the first one that they had back in the summer of 2000 and believe it or not: somehow I have never seen this match in my entire life. I’ve seen clips of it and a couple of spots but I never watched the whole thing. It’s surprisingly impressive and shocking. This match’s build though is really cool as it’s built around the signature weapons of choice of each team. The Hardys with ladders, the Dudleys with tables and of course Edge & Christian with chairs. Throw that all together and there’s the invention of TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. In the video package by the way, if you took a shot for every time you heard the words “oh my” - you’d probably be out cold before this match even starts. Now considering how I enjoyed TLC 2, I have no doubt I should probably end up enjoying TLC 1. The question is: how much will I enjoy it and will I find it better than the iconic TLC 2?

The answer I think I won’t have until after I rewatch TLC 2 but what I can say at the very least is this match is a car crash in the best way possible. This match is truly sensational and one of the best matches of its time. The start of the match is no nonsense as entrances are sped up and the Hardys don’t even care for theirs as they just run in and fight the Dudleys immediately. Jeff gets brained with a chair straight to the face a minute in. There’s so many spots in this match that I could talk about but talking about each and every single one of them would take so long. A lot of chair shots to the head, a lot of ladders used and nearly 10 tables broken at the very least as these three teams put everything on the line to put out a tag team match that would inspire many many teams for years and years to come. From spots like Jeff doing a Swanton Bomb from the top of a ladder through 2 tables, Bubba Ray Dudley going crashing from the top of a ladder through what was supposed to be 4 tables but he only went through 3, Jeff and D-Von dangling in the air hanging onto the title belts before they both eventually get knocked off and that’s just a small amount of the carnage that this match had to offer. Even WWF Women’s Champion at the time Lita comes out in order to help Matt Hardy after Jeff was wiped out before she eventually ate a Spear from Edge. Every person in this match took something absolutely brutal in some way, shape or form although I think the one who gets off the easiest in this case is Edge. Edge did take some brutal stuff but probably nowhere near as brutal as the other 5 men take. In the end, Edge & Christian are the ones who come out of this car wreck with the WWF Tag Team Championships and as a result retain their belts. What a beautiful match especially after the match they had at WrestleMania 2000 but this was better. 100% without even a question or a doubt in my mind I would recommend this match to anyone who loves destruction, carnage and overall just bodies being broken.

RATING: ****¾

Hopefully you all enjoy reading these and I do hope that you find something that you might think "oh hey this sounds cool I might go watch that". That's what this thought initially stemmed from and overall just wanting to cover as much of the wrestling world as possible. All in all though, I enjoyed doing this week's Wildcard Wednesday and I learnt a lot from it. We'll see what next week has in store as of yet but for now: enjoy all the wrestling you watch folks!

 

[Joementum]

Two MOTYCs in the span of a week. Mayu is simply the GOAT.

 

[Incognito Style]

I know I know I'm late and I missed last week's version of Wildcard Wednesday but for now I'll be playing catch up. With any luck there'll be two Wildcard days this week if not both being put out today (Wednesday currently in my timezone). Either way welcome to Wildcard Wednesday #2 - Electric Boogaloo! I covered admin stuff for this on the first edition but know that this edition is actually a special Bullet Club edition due to at the time I was looking at doing this, it had just not long since hit the 12 year anniversary of the group and the match between War Dogs & House Of Torture took place. The theme with this one to get this out of the way is there's a match in here from each Bullet Club leader on top of a Joker wildcard match so you're looking at a total of 8 matches here for this one!

With all that being said, let's get this going shall we? The matches will be below as usual as we've certainly got an interesting set and somewhat wide variety this time all things considered!

Joker Wildcard

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jado & Katsuya Murashima vs Taiji Ishimori & The Natural Classics (Stevie Filip & Tome Filip)
NJPW World Tag League - Day 1
19th November 2024
And so here we are to start off this edition: the Joker card for this one I worked it differently to fit the theme. I randomised into one random member of Bullet Club and then I randomed into a match of said member of Bullet Club. In case you’re wondering exactly who I got here, I scored Tome Filip of The Natural Classics and a member of Bullet Club’s Australian contingent alongside Stevie Filip his partner. I’d have preferred Jack Bonza or Caveman Ugg if I was gonna get someone from this side but beggars can’t be choosers so here we are. I was even more dismayed when I randomed into… broken down held together by tape Hiroshi Tanahashi and old man in his 50s Jado to boot. The plus side is I didn’t get their World Tag League match which did NOT feature the potential two bright spots of this on paper being Katsuya Murashima and Taiji Ishimori. Murashima is one of the current crop of NJPW Young Lions at the time of writing and I’ve not watched any of his work but if previous ones are anything to go by at their time of being lions (guys like Hirai Kawato also known as Master Wato, Shota Umino & Ren Narita before they went into their current phases) then he should at least be solid whereas Taiji Ishimori is just a joy to watch. So how will I find this World Tag League block tuneup match? Well…

That was dreadful. Jado was moving in slow motion for most of this match, Tanahashi it looks like he can’t do too much these days he looks like he’s hitting the ropes at 3 miles per hour if you’re lucky and well… the Filips were okay but nothing too special in this one (although I’m sure their block matches would have a better basis to form about them). The best two guys in this match barely even got to do anything in the match. Ishimori got to choke Jado with a shirt after coming out in the goofiest getup and that was basically it for his contribution whilst Murashima got to hit a move or two and some rollups before he was dispatched of by the Natural Classics. They attempted this Powerbomb + Neckbreaker tag finish which to be fair looked cool once they hit it but they struggled to even get Murashima up for the Powerbomb portion which was rough. This is why you pray you don’t random into tag matches like this one and suddenly Judas el Traidor and Xelhua from the previous edition looks so much better than this oh man…

RATING: ¾*

Prince Devitt

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Prince Devitt
NJPW 41st Anniversary Show
3rd March 2013

Starting off this Bullet Club themed week properly (besides the Joker card match that’s being put before this) we start off with our first leader: the OG and the main man himself - Prince Devitt! Most of you reading this may know him better as WWE’s Finn Balor nowadays! Bullet Club was formed due to this man right here and to commemorate that, I opted to select something that stuck out to me: a match with one of the greatest Japanese wrestlers of all time - Hiroshi Tanahashi. At this period of time, the NJPW Anniversary Show wasn’t really known for its tradition (at times) of the IWGP Heavyweight Champion facing the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion but in this case: Tanahashi and Devitt would do just that. This was just before Bullet Club’s official formation in May 2013 but a pivotal point in time where Devitt would slowly begin to develop the Real Rock’N Rolla persona that he would truly gain at Bullet Club’s beginning. It was for this reason that I chose this instead of his match against Kazuchika Okada later in the year (spoiler alert we’ll be getting to Okada later on but sooner than you think).

I think this was good for what it was but I don’t think it hits that level of great or incredible like some of the other matches in both guy’s careers. It does a pretty good job of showcasing Devitt being able to hang with heavyweights even as the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion. Tanahashi also does his good work here but I don’t think this hits the highest of his performances against guys like Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura but it’s still a good night at the office for Tanahashi. They take a bit of time to get into the match but what confuses me most here is it feels like both guys try to play heel at some point even though both guys are getting face reactions (with both guys being face) with Tana not making clean breaks or Devitt shoving the ref whilst hitting Tanahashi with a chair on the outside. It kinda doesn’t really make the match flow as well as it should. This does take some time to get out of first gear and into second gear and eventually it reaches the point of nearfalls primarily on Devitt’s side of things hitting the reverse Bloody Sunday and several double stomps and rollups but they don’t put Tanahashi down and eventually after multiple Sling Blades, Tanahashi hits a standing High Fly Flow followed by a definitive on the ground High Fly Flow in order to put Devitt away. The crowd was certainly into it and Devitt got major reactions here so I can see why they eventually transitioned him into a big player for a while leading the top heel faction in the company (sorry Suzuki-gun). Overall something I’d probably recommend but if you’re looking for only the best of the best for both guys, I’d probably recommend something else. Either way a good match!

RATING: ***½

Karl Anderson

Karl Anderson vs Kazuchika Okada
NJPW 40th Anniversary Tour - G1 Climax “The One & Only” Day 9
12th August 2012

So we reach our second leader now and whilst you might think it’d be AJ Styles, by technicality it’s actually Karl Anderson! The Machine Gun became leader just after Prince Devitt left NJPW for WWE and just before AJ Styles came into New Japan. We’ve gone a bit further back for Karl Anderson’s entry into this week and once again (as you might notice the theme with a few of these) it’s a match before they entered Bullet Club. The match that I was most intrigued by ever since I saw the statistic a long while back of G1 Climax finalists. I realised Karl Anderson was on that list and he was against none other than the Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada. This was Okada’s breakout year in wrestling as he’d shocked the world earlier in 2012 by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He’d lose the championship back to Tanahashi at Dominion (in an even better encounter than their first one) which would lead him to take the route of attempting to win the G1 Climax for another shot at Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 7. Karl Anderson was also the first foreigner to make it to the G1 final since Rick Rude in 1992! Also notably this is the second match of the show both guys work after Anderson advances from A Block by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in the match right before this whereas Okada advanced earlier in the show defeating Togi Makabe to win B Block. Regardless this match caught my eye for a plethora of reasons especially one being checking out what a match between these two would actually end up looking like.

Man oh man that was actually pretty damn great! The crowd was hot, this match felt like a G1 final since the opening bell and I wouldn’t have guessed Karl Anderson had the performance that he pulled off in him prior to this match. They worked through the motions but they worked through them fast enough to where they had a solid enough time span to pull off the best stuff (and at a good reasonable pace too). Highlights that got me in this one were Anderson’s Rocket Kicks which looked great all round, Anderson’s TKO from the middle/top rope (Okada was on the top rope whilst Anderson was on the middle) and a beautiful closing stretch which teased the Rainmaker and the Gun Stun on multiple different occasions. Karl Anderson had one of his best performances of his entire career here I’d argue and he delivered in a very high stakes matchup. Okada also continues to show why he’s as incredible as he is as well but this match felt more like the Karl Anderson showcase than the Okada showcase. In the end after several fantastic nearfalls and a molten hot crowd, Okada manages to win the finisher exchange as he counters the Gun Stun with a Dropkick to the back. He follows this up with a Tombstone Piledriver and a Rainmaker (which Anderson sells beautifully by the way literally looked like he folded him in half) in order to pick up his first of what would be 4 G1 Climax wins overall for Okada. I’d absolutely recommend this match without a doubt in my mind and if anyone asked for a Karl Anderson match, this would be the one I’d suggest. It begs the question though: where did this version of Karl Anderson go over the years?

RATING: ****¼

AJ Styles

AJ Styles vs D-Lo Brown
NWA TNA #48
4th June 2003

We’re going a lot further back in time here with leader 3 as we have the one and only: AJ Styles! Now I figured in terms of Bullet Club leaders, Styles would offer me the most diversity other than the next leader in terms of what promotion and what type of match to watch outside of NJPW. Styles became the leader after defeating Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in 2014. He’d hold Bullet Club leader status until January 2016 when he’d leave for WWE alongside his guys Doc Gallows and the previously mentioned Karl Anderson. For this, we’ve opted to go all the way back to the early days of TNA where they’re with NWA as a specific matchup caught my eye. D-Lo Brown formerly in WWE as part of the Nation of Domination as well as previously aligned with Theodore Long as part of Thuggin’ and Buggin’ Enterprises was the name who caught my eye in AJ Styles’ TNA run. Admittedly my knowledge of this and curiosity about this match came from a clip I saw a while back of this very match. I’ll acknowledge the clip when I see it in this match but it was the clip that had me intrigued to see how a match between AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown would be. Now I’m aware that these two have several encounters across this period of time so I should clarify that this is a #1 Contendership match between these two and the first singles match they’d have together. How will it go? Well there’s only one way to find out!

This was good but I felt it was hindered from being able to be better than what it was. I blame that part due to the involvement of Raven in this match (yes the very same Raven from WWF/WWE). AJ Styles looked good but D-Lo had the best work in the match and the most notable spots to say the least. You had D-Lo hitting a springboard Moonsault from the top rope which looked extremely impressive mind you, he hit a Sky High from the ropes too which looked brutal and the spot that I’d seen prior to this match was D-Lo hitting the Lo Down from the top rope to the outside of the ring to AJ Styles who was laying at the bottom of the ramp. That spot was brutal. Now I’ll get to my gripes: Raven’s involvement in this. As far as I can see, Raven’s involvement is due to his obsession with wanting the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the time but Raven essentially screws D’Lo Brown out of this win as one of his fellow members of The Gathering Julio Dinero pulled the ref out of the ring after D-Lo’s Sky High. This led to Raven striking D-Lo with a chair (and it didn’t look too great but D-Lo did a full flip bump for it). As if that wasn’t enough when D-Lo survived AJ’s Springboard 450 Splash, the ref is then distracted by Dinero and Alexis Laree (the soon to be Mickie James at the time) which leads to Styles hitting the Styles Clash on the steel chair Raven left in the ring. Bit of a meh finish and a disappointing involvement from Raven but a good TV match otherwise. Hindered from its full potential however due to interference which is a shame. Props to D-Lo Brown though for a great performance!

RATING: ***½

Kenny Omega

Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (c) vs The Young Bucks
AEW World Tag Team Championships
AEW Revolution
29th February 2020

You’d be surprised to know that I never actually watched this match when it happened. Here we are though with Bullet Club’s 4th leader: Kenny Omega! Kenny Omega usurped AJ Styles in January 2016 hitting Styles with a One-Winged Angel and took leadership of Bullet Club. Under Omega’s leadership, there would be popularity for the group: as The Elite. That’d be Kenny and the Bucks until eventually it expanded for guys like Hangman Page. Kenny had the epic clashes with Okada that some if not a lot of people hold in extremely high regard (the Wrestle Kingdom 11 match changed wrestling in the long run a lot more than you might think) but also over time this popularity would lead to the inception of All Elite Wrestling. That’s where Kenny, Hangman and the Young Bucks would all leave for in 2019. Fast forward to February 2020 just before the COVID worldwide pandemic led to a worldwide lockdown you’ll see that Kenny Omega & Hangman Page won the AEW World Tag Team Championships in January 2020. The Young Bucks would challenge for these titles at Revolution in a battle of The Elite’s members. This isn’t the first time Kenny Omega has had a tag match with the Bucks as he also had a clash with them in 2018 with his partner being Golden Lovers teammate Kota Ibushi. This one was a recommendation from a good friend of mine and as such it fills in our recommendation entry for the week.

This match in my personal opinion was great but I don’t think it reached the level of excellent. For a Young Bucks tag team contest this was very good but I do think there’s better and I’d actually make an argument that despite its potentially arguably lesser story that the Golden Lovers vs Young Bucks match from 2018 was better than this bout was. The story in this one plays off Hangman Page being more of a loose cannon and he was more willing to inflict damage on the Young Bucks unlike Kenny Omega who was wanting to end the match more quickly. The two teams throw out a lot of big moves in order to try put an end to this one over the course of 30 minutes with notable moments like the Indytaker on the ramp, Hangman hitting a powerbomb on Nick Jackson through a table and even Hangman drilling Matt Jackson with a One-Winged Angel for a great nearfall might I add because Kenny was struggling and unable to do it as a result of a (I believe in story mind you I don’t know if this injury was legit) shoulder injury caused by PAC during a 30 minute Ironman match on Dynamite just a few days prior. Both teams put out strong performances in this one but I also feel I wasn’t as engaged as some people would be with Elite drama but also a minor complaint but still a complaint nonetheless: did they hire Kevin Dunn for this match? The amount of camera cuts at unnecessary points in time were ridiculous and I felt like I was missing parts of the action because of it. Small rant over. This match was pretty fun though. Was it a 5 star classic? To some maybe even most people perhaps so but to me? Not quite I think this was missing something. I also feel Hangman Page works at his best in more violent encounters and whilst this had a small degree of that, obviously it didn’t have like a bloodbath or anything like that. This match did end around that 30 minute mark just after Justin Roberts made the announcement as Hangman nailed Matt with a Buckshot Lariat in order to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championships! I’d recommend this that’s to say the least.

RATING: ****¼

Jay White

Jay White vs Kota Ibushi (c)
IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 Day 2
5th January 2021

Past the era of The Cleaner and Best Bout Machine and now onwards to the era of the Switchblade. Switchblade Jay White is our next leader on this list as he takes over from Kenny Omega after The Elite declare themselves no longer in Bullet Club and Jay White takes over the Firing Squad contingent of Bullet Club which then leads to Bullet Club finally being united again as a whole. The pandemic was a weird time but also not a great time for NJPW with everything pertaining to EVIL winning the two belts on the line here (the reason for these two belts being stuck together is due to Tetsuya Naito defeating Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 14 with both belts at stake) and overall clap crowds just not feeling like the greatest NJPW aura and atmosphere. So here we are with WK15 - the year after the belts had been linked together where Jay White and Kota Ibushi who lost to Naito and Okada respectively the year prior are now in the same position those two were - both belts at stake except the difference being Kota Ibushi has both belts. Ibushi’s journey to this match was odd. He won the G1 and then lost his briefcase to Jay White. Despite that, Naito opted to defend his belts (as he’d just won the belts back from EVIL) against Ibushi on the first day and then Jay White on the second day. Ibushi beat Naito the first day and so we have Ibushi/White here. A match that happened at the previous WK with no belts at stake and with a Jay White victory - I wonder how good this match ends up being in comparison.

This was really good but at the same time it’s also very very long. This match goes over 45 minutes just as a disclaimer so it’s the longest match I’ve reviewed in this series thus far and if you plan on watching this, I suggest you get some snacks or something to strap yourselves in but it has some really strong work in that 45 minutes. Despite it being a pandemic clap crowd, Jay White plays a really strong role as a heel here and he’s clearly just great at what he does. It’s the one thing I can’t discredit about him because he knows how to do it arguably better than a lot of people. There’s a lot of stuff packed into this 45 minutes but it also takes a long time for it to feel like we switch gears. I think as a result you could trim some of that time off for sure but still. Ibushi has some moments where he’s just straight up brutal here whether it’s his cold, emotionless striking mode (which I love by the way) or he’s just nailing Jay with big moves all whilst Jay opts to dump Ibushi on his head several times in this match with suplexes it just makes you wonder: is Ibushi made of rubber when it comes to his head and neck? One of my favourite parts in the end was also when Ibushi drilled Jay with a Kamigoye to the back of the head before hitting another one to the face to finish him off. This combined with Jay’s great focus on some of the smallest details (e.g. the Backslide with the feet on the ropes that beat Ibushi at Power Struggle as referenced in the pre-match video package or even just slightly moving his shoulder up in an exhausted way), Blade Runner teases and V-Triggers from Ibushi there’s strong work overall here all round. Would I call it their best match? No not at all because I think their G1 Final in 2019 is far stronger without a doubt but this is still solid. A good Tokyo Dome main event but one that could’ve been shorter and still been as good despite the NJPW clapping crowd.

RATING: ****

EVIL

EVIL vs Tomohiro Ishii
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku - Day 2
4th May 2019

The pandemic was a weird time for NJPW as mentioned above and in said pandemic there was 2 leaders of Bullet Club: the aforementioned Jay White who was leading the charge in the US but of course when he came back to NJPW he took back over and then there was the next leader on this list: EVIL. EVIL became leader of the Japan side of Bullet Club after betraying Los Ingobernables De Japon and would go on to defeat Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and Intercontinental Championship too. He’d then go on to establish House Of Torture much to many people’s dismay. Luckily for myself and for the people reading, what I’m covering for EVIL’s section is a pre pandemic/BC match where he’s still in LIJ up against Tomohiro Ishii. Ishii’s a workrate machine especially around this time and around this time period LIJ and Chaos were feuding due to Kazuchika Okada and SANADA wrestling for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. As a part of that, EVIL and Ishii ended up in a little rivalry that led to this match right here!

This was very hard not to enjoy and I loved it to be quite frank. This would not have looked out of place as a NEVER Openweight Championship match but also it’s Tomohiro Ishii and most of the time his matches are hard hitting and fun. You might know what he’s gonna do going in but at the same time it’s consistent, it works and they’re bangers. In this case, EVIL more than kept up with him and it makes me miss this period of EVIL because he could hold his own with the best of them without having any shenanigans or any kind of hindrances to hold him back. These two were violent from the opening bell as they got straight into shoulder tackles and forearms and as the match went on, it only got more brutal with them trading chops and lariats at several points in this match. The crowd was hot for this one as these two were going at it for 23 minutes in a standard singles match with no titles at stake: just toughness, grit and warrior mentality. It’s not the best of Ishii’s overall career but this is still a solid feather in his cap and one of the better EVIL matches over the course of his career. In the end, Ishii managed to put EVIL down with his Brainbuster (which let’s be real with how it looks most of the time when Ishii’s doing it it just looks like a slightly more glorified Suplex rather than an actual Brainbuster) to get the win. Banger match and a banger recommendation on this one. Approved.

RATING: ****¼

David Finlay

David Finlay vs Will Ospreay
NJPW G1 Climax 33 - Day 17
10th August 2023

And so we finally reach the most recent and current leader of Bullet Club: David FInlay! David Finlay came into Bullet Club in 2023 after Jay White was ousted from NJPW (to go fire off to AEW). Under Finlay’s leadership, we have the Bullet Club we have now which is basically the BC War Dogs consisting of guys like Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors and many more. Finlay and his War Dogs recently ousted House Of Torture from the Bullet Club banner too after defeating them not too long ago at the time of writing in a Loser Leaves Bullet Club Steel Cage match. In this instance, I opted to select something from Finlay’s run in Bullet Club and what better than to pick his matchup in the G1 Climax Quarter-Finals against none other than Will Ospreay. This is a rare case of a one on one Champion vs Champion match (just like the Tanahashi/Devitt match above) as Finlay was the NEVER Openweight Champion at the time whereas Ospreay was the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion at the time.

This was pretty good and I do think these two have solid chemistry together as shown in certain moments in this match. For a G1 Quarter-Final, I’d say this one did the job as it was good and the crowd was really into this one especially when you had United Empire going up against Bullet Club. Naturally considering Bullet Club, there was interference at several points in this match but I do think it was kept to a reasonable amount and even led to moments like Gabe Kidd getting superkicked as well as Great O-Khan being launched onto Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd by Jeff Cobb. I do think there was at least a point or two where Finlay didn’t look the greatest especially when he took that apron Oscutter it looked more like he landed all knees and nothing else (it looked more painful for Ospreay if anything) but there was also good moments like the end sequence he had with Ospreay and his offense in general is just really nice and brutal. Finlay also ate a Powerbomb through a table on the outside too at one point which looked pretty good too. The ending sequence was clean too as Ospreay reversed Into Oblivion into a Stundog Millionaire, went for the Hidden Blade and got countered into another attempt at Into Oblivion before connecting with the Hidden Blade to the back of the head. He followed that up with a Stormbreaker (which Finlay sold fantastic might I add) to pick up the win and advance to the semi-finals! Good work and a solid little G1 match here!

RATING: ***¾

Once again I hope you all enjoy this piece and just remember: if there's something out there you find interesting or want to watch no matter whether it's good, bad or mediocre, watch it! It might be more fun than you expect! With that being said, expect the next edition soon! I'm looking to have some interesting stuff on this next one!

 

[Incognito Style]

Currently still playing catch up but you get an earlier one this time on a Tuesday/Wednesday whenever you're reading this: Welcome back to Wildcard! This one's not a special edition like the previous Bullet Club edition but should be similar to the first edition of this. I will give you a heads up and tell you that we have 5 matches for this one and each of them are different in their own right! With that being said, I think it's time to get into the matches which of course as usual will be listed below!

Match 1

Sabu vs Terry Funk (c)
ECW World Heavyweight Championship
Barbed Wire Match
ECW Born To Be Wired
9th August 1997

I wanted to do something in honour and in memory of Sabu after his passing recently and I figured it’d only be appropriate if I did something of his that was hardcore and fitting of the nickname “The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death-Defying Maniac” and so here we are: Born To Be Wired 1997 where Sabu challenges for the ECW Championship. My knowledge of old ECW is next to none I’ll be completely truthful with you and it’s something I want to change myself as an avid lover of violence in my wrestling. I’m already prepared for something along the lines of a bloodbath and something insane from watching Big Japan Pro Wrestling deathmatches with maniacs like Masashi Takeda and also guys like Jun Kasai in the past. I’m actually interested by this match not just because I want to see some of Sabu’s old work but also by the inclusion of Terry Funk. I’m a young spring chicken in a way as I wasn’t even born when ECW was originally a thing and I wasn’t born until after the Invasion so I saw nothing of old ECW as a child and the only really bits and pieces of Funk I’ve seen are either teaming with Dory, some of his work as Chainsaw Charlie or ECW One Night Stand 2006 when him and Tommy Dreamer took on Edge & Mick Foley which is nearly 10 years after this. Strap yourselves in folks we’re in for an extreme one here especially given this is a Barbed Wire Match.

Holy moly… Now I knew this was gonna be violent and there was gonna be a lot of barbed wire involved but this was nasty but still good. The barbed wire was the center point of this match as every side of the ring had barbed wire ring ropes so whenever Funk or Sabu would be thrown into them it was gonna be gnarly. Sabu got busted open on his face and also on his arm at one point. The arm one was bad enough to where Sabu requested tape from his manager Bill Alfonso in order to tape it up and probably try to stop the bleeding on it. Funk luckily only had his face busted open but this one was far from done. From being irish whipped into the barbed wire and having their faces rubbed against it, it then devolved into wire cutters being pulled out in order to start cutting barbed wire off the ropes to use even more of it. Sabu’s pants were already ripped half open early on in this match but these two would get even more immersed and entangled in the barbed wire as this match went on. Sabu would put Funk through two tables one of which Sabu decided to wrap himself in a whole load of barbed wire all whilst Terry Funk had been wrapped up in another set of barbed wire. The finish was uncomfortable to watch as both guys were so entangled in barbed wire, Alfonso and a referee had to literally use wire cutters to cut some of it off so they could get into the ring. Sabu and Funk were laid on the ground and whilst they fought to get the barbed wire off, Sabu pinned Funk in order to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. They took countless minutes post match to get the two untangled and believe me it’s not a pretty sight nor is it one for the weak of heart. Good stuff but also tough to watch at the same time no wonder ECW never did another one after this one.

RATING: ***½

Match 2

Fujita Hayato vs MUSASHI (c)
MPW Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship
Michinoku Pro Wrestling Tokyo Conference Vol. 1 ~ Genko Itch
1st July 2022

So here we are in our recommendation portion of the entries and I’ll be quite frank: I know this was recommended but I cannot remember who recommended it to me. What I do know is that this is a match I wouldn’t have found on my own nor would I have sought it out because I’d never heard of either Fujita Hayato or MUSASHI in my time of watching Japanese wrestling. I’ve heard of Michinoku Pro in the past but only due to The Great Sasuke so I’ll admit I’ve had to do a little bit of research on this one. Fujita Hayato apparently made his return in this match after nearly 3 years away due to battling a spinal tumour. He made his return here and challenged MUSASHI for his Junior Heavyweight Championship. MUSASHI had held this belt for nearly a whole year at this point just to add to things. So with a champion who had held his championship for a year nearly going against a man returning from battling a tumour for the past several years - I wonder how the match quality turned out in the end.

I have to admit the quality turned out to be pretty damn great with this one as they went into a brutal battle of just hitting each other and knocking each other’s heads off for about 30 minutes. Now don’t get me wrong, I love myself a good fight but do I think this needed 30 minutes? I’d say you could get away with this being maybe about 20-25 but this 30 was at least good. This is my first time seeing Fujita Hayato and I have to admit: he looks like a delinquent in this match and his wrestling style sure fits the vibe as he’s just straight up firing off kicks (ruthless ones at that) and headbutts at several points in this match. MUSASHI fought like a champion here as he refused to go down easily and threw as much as he could as Fujita but on this day, it wasn’t enough to best the returning Fujita. I have to say I’m not really a fan of skull on skull headbutts so these two having a full sequence of them throwing about 10 of them isn’t exactly something I find ideal but alas. Hayato’s kicks were just brutal this entire match and they never let up whether it’s to the chest, the legs or even the head - he certainly fits into a tier of kickers like KENTA, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh and all the brutal kickers of Japan especially with that last disgusting kick that looked like a mini punt straight to MUSASHI’s face (I could’ve been convinced that was the finish alone with how devastating it looked). MUSASHI threw some good offense in this match including at one point a multitude of German Suplexes consecutively which didn’t point Hayato away. I couldn’t help but think he has a striking resemblance to Susumu Yokosuka in his face and hair. Regardless, this was really fun to watch and I’m always up for watching a good striking match especially one with the brutality these two had where they just don’t let up. Hayato won in the end after making MUSASHI tap out to a Guillotine Choke and as a result became the new MPW Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion. Would greatly recommend this one to those who love themselves some good strikes!

RATING: ****¼

Joker Wildcard

Brutus Beefcake vs S.D. Jones
WWF On MSG Network
28th December 1984

So the Joker card for this edition is certainly out of my realm of knowledge as we’re diving all the way back to 1984 for a match between Brutus Beefcake (who I’ve at least heard of thanks to delving back a little into late 80s and early 90s with WrestleManias) and an individual by the name of SD Jones who after some research was apparently a jobber of the 80s. That doesn’t instill me with any hope regarding this match quality but I’m an open minded man to some extent so I’ll hold out some hope this should be at least decent (I mean the bar for these Joker cards has been VERY low if you look at the past two entries). I don’t think there’s any storyline elements with this one I need to cover but I’m also surprised I was able to find footage of this match out there in the first place so let’s see how this goes.

Oh man… This was not good and as a matter of fact this might be even worse than the two matches that I’ve seen so far for the Joker card. With Traidor/Xelhua there was at least some solid grappling and moments of the wrestling that you could appreciate. The 6 man tag from the previous edition wasn’t too great but it at least felt somewhat like a match even if some of the wrestlers were on autopilot or were extremely slow and had the one bright spot of a young boy. This had none of that. Sure the crowd were into it but back in those times the simplest of things would get you into the action and whilst I do like some simple wrestling, this wasn’t it. The whole match was worked basically in first gear and the match itself was 10 minutes where most of it was Brutus Beefcake working a headlock or a rest hold whilst “Special Delivery” Jones laid there. Jones did some bits of offense here and there but it was nothing too thrilling and by the time he actually got something going the match was done. The ref in this one as well must’ve been blind because this entire match Brutus Beefcake used what Booker T would call “illegal tactics” whether it was choking Jones or raking Jones’ eyes constantly and this ref would have the slowest counts or reactions to said things you’d think he’s deliberately allowing it. Nonetheless there was a couple moments it at least felt like a match it’s just a shame this was absolutely crap filled for the most part. Beefcake won after hitting a Jumping Knee (with some relatively good height mind you). Don’t watch this you’ll have better things you can do in 10 minutes than watch this (13 actually if you count the 3 minutes before the match of Beefcake’s manager messing around and you have to hear a bell about 1000 times too).

RATING: ¼*

Match 4

Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim (c)
TNA Women's Knockout Championship
No Disqualification Match
TNA Final Resolution
6th January 2008

So I’ll admit my reasoning behind this one was just off the top of my head that I remembered Gail Kim and Awesome Kong had a big rivalry across their TNA careers and I wanted to check out something from it in some capacity. I’d seen a bit of TNA growing up and as a result I’d seen at least a little bit of Awesome Kong prior to watching this match here whereas I didn’t really get to see much of Gail Kim other than mostly her WWE work (the second run not the first one). All that I do know is that their rivalry was talked about and it sat in my mind before eventually deciding to bite the bullet here and check out their match from January 2008. How will this go? Well that I don’t know but given the Sabu/Terry Funk match I watched before this was barbed wire violence: I imagine this’ll be tamer at the very least!

I would say that this match was pretty good and overall pretty fun but it felt like it didn’t exploit the No Disqualification stipulation as much as they could’ve here and I’ll explain why momentarily. I really liked the David vs Goliath dynamic they played with Gail and Kong here as it felt like Gail was this scrappy underdog who’d do anything she could to win here despite being the champion whereas Kong felt like this presence who could just dominate the match at any point and it made sense. There’s some critiques admittedly with this one with several of these being minor. The first of which being: why was the ref trying to stop Awesome Kong at countless points when she can do whatever she wants in a No DQ match? To explain: the ref is doing the count in the corner (like you would in a normal match) but it has no purpose here when he can’t disqualify Kong and yet he’s still trying to pull her off it’s pretty stupid. My second critique is the lack of weapons involved here. I felt like this stipulation was very underused when I kid you not the only real weapons involved in this match were a Steel Chair and… an empty plastic Coca-Cola bottle from the crowd. I’m talking the 500ml ones that you buy from a corner shop or you buy in a meal deal (you get the idea) which admittedly this is partly relatable when you’re joking around bonking friends over the head with them but I never actually expected to see it in an actual match. Points for originality at least! I mean Awesome Kong doesn’t really need any weapons but it’s besides the point: if you’ve got this kind of stipulation - make at least a little more use of it. I will say some notable spots in this one though include Kong literally throwing Gail Kim into the barricade with a swing which sounded and looked brutal, Kong delivering an Awesome Bomb (I don’t know why her and Mike Awesome have the same finisher name) to a referee (a clip I’ve admittedly seen but I didn’t know for sure it was this Kong/Gail match where it happened) along with Gail Kim literally headshotting Kong with the aforementioned chair. The finish came when Kong was trying to Awesome Bomb a second referee which failed as Gail Kim rolled her up with the ref landing on top of Kong before moving into position to count the 3 count. Gail retains the title in a solid match which keeps Kong strong but… feels almost obsolete when you consider the fact on the very next week of TV Awesome Kong wins this title off Gail Kim by debuting Raisha Saeed. Solid stuff though!

RATING: ***¾

Match 5

Jimmy Kagetora & Jimmy Susumu vs Masato Yoshino & Syachihoko Boy (c)
Open The Twin Gate Championship
Dragon Gate The Gate Of Passion - Day 3
9th April 2015

This one’s a match I’ve been meaning to check out for a while now being something I’ve personally wanted to watch as one of the longest tenured Dragon Gate units of all time in the Jimmyz (represented by Kagetora & Susumu) challenges Akira Tozawa’s Monster Express unit for the Twin Gate Championships (represented by Yoshino & Syachihoko Boy). Now for a few people reading, if you’ve seen Bron Breakker hit the ropes at the speed he does - Masato Yoshino holds the nickname “Speed Star” for a reason because boy that guy can hit the ropes FAST (before Bron could do so but Bron’s great too). I’ve been a very avid Dragon Gate watcher over the years as it’s one of the promotions I find is very enjoyable although I’ve found I’ve not watched it that much over the past few years. Despite that though it’s enjoyable to go through the history of the promotion like I’m doing here and finding units like the Jimmyz and Monster Express battling it out for tag gold.

This was fantastic and all 4 guys brought it to the dance here for these belts. I have to say Kagetora in particular here brought his A game to this one as he was just consistently good throughout this entire match whenever he was needed whether it was brutalising Syachihoko Boy’s lower back in the early goings of this match or down the stretch where he nailed his big moves like his Gurumakakari move (seriously take a look at that move if you can) and this brutal driver he hit Syachi with for a nearfall too. Susumu was his usual self here just drilling people with Jumbo No Kachis (lariats basically) despite his taped up right arm and overall he looked as good as he normally does but he got outclassed on the lariat front in this match when Masato Yoshino absolutely nearly decapitated the man with a lariat of his own that looked disgustingly beautiful. I would not expect a man like Yoshino known more for his speed to throw out some power and force in a lariat like that. Probably revenge for the fact Susumu nearly sent Yoshino spilling to the floor earlier with a Jumbo No Kachi on the top rope. Syachihoko Boy was good in his own right here as he certainly had moments like when he cartwheeled with Kagetora in a German Suplex position (it looks cooler than me describing it honestly) but also he had moments down the stretch like the closing stretch with Susumu too. In terms of the action, Syachi at least to me was at his best getting brutalised in the early parts of the match and selling that beatdown but then later down the stretch got outdone by Yoshino and Kagetora especially. A couple gripes here like a little sequence where Yoshino and Susumu just spam Jumbos and Torbellinos (sounds like it could be a pizza joint put together) within the span of a few seconds which slightly got to me but the finish unfortunately this time with Syachihoko Boy instead of Yoshino didn’t look the cleanest which was super unfortunate because these guys were cooking incredibly. It was nice Syachi got the rollup win but the manner in which it was executed due to Syachi losing his grip trying to get Susumu down didn’t look as great as it could’ve been. Such is the case sometimes however when you’re working a 25 minute match at least. This absolutely ruled though I highly recommend it if you’ve got some time to spare.

RATING: ****½

This one was a good set of fun to be quite frank and I'm glad I managed to watch different kinds of wrestling which is always fun when you're doing something like this. The message is the same as the previous editions: if you find a wrestling match fascinating or interesting, watch it - it might surprise you (now whether that's in a good way or a bad way is open to your interpretation on how you find said match). Until the next edition folks!

 

[ThugKing25]

loving this

 

[TheEaterOfBergs]

Hangman Page vs. Will Ospreay at AEW: Double Or Nothing 2025 was an incredible match between two of the best wrestlers in the world.

Some great storytelling between the two as they tried to win with their Rivals biggest moves and Ospreay getting a bit more desperate as the match progressed trying to put Hangman down, even challenging him to a standoff with the Hidden Blade vs. Buckshot Lariat. In the end it was the Hangman that came out on top in spectacular fashion.

The post match was great too as Page walked back to the ring and showed respect to Ospreay, The complete opposite of what He was about to do to Swerve after their Cage Match.

Overall an excellent match and a huge win for Page who may have finally slayed the demon inside of him.
Now hopefully Hangman can put an end to this Death Riders angle and defeat Jon Moxley at All In: Texas.

 

[Incognito Style]

We're back at it again with another edition of Wildcard! You know the drill by now! This time we have no themes but we do have another set of 5 matches ready for this one! Some of these are quite interesting to say the least and not in my usual type of thing to pick out and watch so I hope you enjoy what you're gonna read! Now that that's out of the way, let's get into some wrestling shall we?

Match 1

Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada
AJPW Champion Carnival - Day 5
30th March 2007

So here we are with some Mutoh and some Kawada on this edition inspired actually by the fact that the Champion Carnival had not long since ended (which was won by Rei Saito) and so I was scrolling through the finals of these tournaments as I was curious about them. I came across this match in 2007 between Keiji Mutoh and Toshiaki Kawada. Neither of these guys are in their prime like in the 1990s so I’m not expecting Four Pillars prime Kawada level performance when he went toe to toe with guys like Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi back in the 90s of AJPW but I’m also not expecting Mutoh to be putting out work like he did against guys like Masahiro Chono in the 90s of NJPW either. This caught my eye though due to the names involved and especially with it being such big stakes. The question is: how good is it if it is good? Well we’ll soon find out.

This isn’t as good as I hoped it would be but it’s not terrible either. Is there better matches for these two? Without question yes as mentioned above. It felt like these two were in slow motion and on autopilot for a good chunk of this match and they never really kicked it up into the next gear until towards the end of the match. It’s a lot of limb work involved with Kawada working Mutoh’s left arm and Mutoh working Kawada’s legs constantly throwing Dragon Screws his way. Compared to some of the other Champion Carnival finals I’ve seen especially, this match never really felt like one of those until the very end. It felt like a standard tournament match whereas the feel with some of the older stuff or even more modern stuff with talent like Kento Miyahara have that big fight feel and epicness that you want in a Champion Carnival. If you came in expecting Kawada to throw Ganso Bombs and end up in a full blown strong style battle, this isn’t what you’re looking for. The closing stretch was at least good but lasted a little longer than I’d hope. After all the battling, Mutoh finally nailed a second Moonsault to put Kawada away and win the 2007 Champion Carnival. I came in expecting something decent and that’s what I got. Was it anything special? Sadly not.

RATING: ***¼

Joker Wildcard

Ren Narita vs YOH
NJPW Best Of The Super Junior XXVI - Day 12
30th May 2019

And so welcome to our Joker card for this 4th edition: Ren Narita vs YOH. Ironic this is the match I got due to at the time of writing YOH’s appearance in this year’s BOSJ finals but I planned on doing a BOSJ match regardless until I rolled this in the Joker card spot. Shame too because I was looking at BOSJ finals from the past and they looked more interesting than this. YOH isn’t in his artist phase at this period of time but he’s actually still with what we now call his former Roppongi 3K teammate SHO who had an absolute barnburner with Shingo Takagi in this very same tournament alongside a blinder of a match against current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion at the time: Dragon Lee. YOH on the other hand got the shorter straw of blocks but did have notable opponents like Will Ospreay, Robbie Eagles, Bandido and a few others. I couldn’t tell you if he had a good match with them but I know that the matches happened. Now this match wasn’t originally the plan from research and I thought that someone else was supposed to be in this block alongside those names. It turns out the name I was thinking of got pulled due to visa issues and that’d be Flip Gordon. He got pulled and young lion at the time Ren Narita took his place. This was way back before Ren Narita got involved with the doofuses known as House Of Torture. So how did this one go? Well…

I have to admit I enjoyed this more than I thought I would as despite only being a young lion at the time, Narita put on a really good showing showcasing why he was primed to be one of the guys at the top (though it really hasn’t gone that way) whereas YOH had a solid performance but nothing too special. Narita’s movements especially on the technical side of things were slick as he rolled YOH back to the middle of the ring for what looked like a Sharpshooter at one point rather than the typical lion Boston Crab and his suplexes looked great especially a bridging German Suplex that Jushin Thunder Liger and Milano Collection AT bit on (keep in mind I’m watching this with Japanese commentary rather than English which is a subject for a debate at another time) for a nearfall. YOH worked Narita’s non kneepadded leg for most of this match and that’d play into the finish as YOH locked in what they called the Stargazer submission hold which is basically AJ Styles’ Calf Crusher submission. Narita tapped and so stayed on 0 points whilst YOH advanced to 10 points. Neither guy advanced from this B-Block mind you but still it was a fun little match. Probably unironically the best of the Joker cards so far and that’s really not saying much.

RATING: ***

Match 3

Slex (c) vs Will Ospreay
MCW Intercommonwealth Championship
MCW 100
18th August 2018

Something that managed to evade me a long time ago is something that I’ve finally found and am able to watch in this very series: MCW, an Australian wrestling promotion and after all these years I finally found this show. MCW 100 features a match on my list for years to check out: Slex vs Will Ospreay. I’d heard good things about Slex at the time and I’d heard good things about this match plus it’s a match with Will Ospreay in Australia that doesn’t feature Robbie Eagles (no offense Robbie you’re fantastic I just wanted something different). I have no idea how this’ll shape out as a match but it’s a Will Ospreay match which should probably be self explanatory in itself on what to go in expecting. The question is: was I right many years ago to pursue this match and seek it out?

To answer my own question: the answer was yes as it happens as this match was pretty great. Will Ospreay put on a stellar performance which by this point he’s pretty much notoriously known for but Slex more than kept up with him here and it’s a testament to the Australian independent scene itself when you’ve got talent like Slex and many others coming out of it (I mean just look at guys like Buddy Matthews or even individuals like Rhea Ripley if I need to name more). For my first time watching Slex, he had some charm to him especially when he had some spots involving his signature sunglasses but also his offense whether it was the chops he was hitting, the big high spots like when he countered the Oscutter with a springboard kick of his own or with a Tombstone Piledriver, the Tornado DDT he hit which looked great and even to the super Powerbomb that he hit at the end of the match that looked devastating: he delivered in this match and it makes me curious and interested enough to check out not only more of his work at some point in the future but also more of the Australian independent scene. There was a lot in this match from stellar sequences to big high spots and in general just a great atmosphere too. Slex managed to retain his championship in the end after the aforementioned super Powerbomb from the top rope followed by a Slexecution (basically a Trouble In Paradise for anyone wondering) in order to put Ospreay away after a good solid 20+ minutes of action. Worth the watch and I’d recommend to anyone wanting to check out something from down under.

RATING: ****½

Match 4

Big Van Vader (c) vs Ron Simmons
WCW World Heavyweight Championship
WCW Main Event
2nd August 1992

So you’re probably wondering what made me choose this match in particular? Well to be quite frank this one was more of an impulsive decision as I thought to myself: I’d never seen Ron Simmons win the WCW belt but I’d heard so much about how he won the title and so I looked into what match he won the belt in. I found this match against Big Van Vader who I thought ruled in the 1990s from the little I’ve seen of him whether it was against Shawn Michaels in 1996 or against Kenta Kobashi for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship in 2000: the guy had diversity and talent and in my personal opinion was an incredible big man wrestler especially for the time. This is the furthest back I’ve gone when it comes to Vader but I was certainly curious when I saw him against Ron Simmons so here we are in 1992 WCW. I did have another match in mind from that year being Jushin Thunder Liger vs Flyin’ Brian but we might cover that down the line. It’s certainly not a match I’d normally pick this one but I thought hey why not because I want to see the moment itself in full.

Sometimes wrestling doesn’t have to be a 30 minute long epic or a 40 minute long match dragged out for the sake of being long. This just had this great feel to it. It felt like a championship match the whole time, the crowd were hot, Jim Ross was losing his mind on commentary solo but did a fantastic job and both Vader and Simmons did a great job of putting on this match. Vader plays this big force so well where he’s able to beat down and bully his opponent whilst keeping control of the match in a convincing and compelling way which isn’t easy to do whilst Simmons plays a great underdog in this match. Ron gets a few chances whether he knocks Vader off his feet with a clothesline or he’s desperately trying rollups like a schoolboy or a backslide to catch Vader off guard and sneak away this win despite being a last minute lottery replacement basically. Vader beats down Ron for a good amount of this match which is only 10 minutes might I add if that. 10 minutes and yet it accomplishes its goal so well of having this big upset victory from Ron Simmons as the finish is Vader going for a Powerbomb which Ron gets out of. Vader then hits the ropes and gets caught with Ron Simmons signature Powerslam out of nowhere for a 3 count. Vader immediately gets up after in shock and it just goes to show: sometimes you can catch a guy out of nowhere for 3 seconds and win the big one. Vader still looks great in defeat and Simmons comes out with an upset win and a world title. What more could you ask for? Quality stuff especially for the 90s and I’d recommend it for how short it is. I’m glad I acted on my impulse here.

RATING: ****

Match 5

ASUKA vs Syuri
Hana Kimura Memorial Produce Bagus!
23rd May 2022

Our final entry into this edition of Wildcard is our recommendation entry and this time it’s a recommendation from my friend Bergs! He recommended this match to me a little bit ago and I’d never seen it as I’d never really watched these Hana Kimura Memorial shows. We may cover some Hana Kimura at some point in this series and believe me she was a very talented woman. This is the second of what has become an annual event over the years and this one’s the main event between World of Stardom Champion at the time Syuri going head to head against ASUKA (not the WWE one you might be thinking of) who you may also know as VENY (which I was originally gonna address her as but the ring announcements and commentary for this match call her ASUKA so that’s we gotta go with). I’ve watched a bit of Syuri work previously even though she wasn’t really around when I was watching bits and pieces of Stardom: she’s very stiff and very much up my alley in terms of wrestling styles whereas ASUKA is also really good from some of her work I’ve watched in DDT. I’m looking forward to watching this recommendation.

This was pretty solid and overall a pretty strong match. Syuri and ASUKA both brought it to the table here with a mix of solid grappling and some killer striking. I really liked ASUKA’s strike combo at one point as it felt like I was watching a game of Tekken and someone just hit some nasty combo on their controller whereas Syuri had some nasty kicks all match round that just felt like they had some venom on them. Crowd seemed quite into it despite the fact it was a clap crowd too as these two went on to show exactly why they’re as talented as they are. In the end after near enough everything in her arsenal, Syuri put ASUKA away with a One-Winged Angel Emerald Flowsion which after some research goes by the name of the “Syu-Sekai” (someone correct me if I’m wrong) which looked quite crisp and a good way to end the match. Overall a pretty good recommendation and I’d say it’s not a bad watch by any means. Thumbs up from me.

RATING: ****

I enjoyed this set I must admit! More coming soon and I honestly enjoy doing these as it just allows me to watch a whole bunch of different things and motivates to check out a bunch of different wrestlers and promotions whether I know them or not! Until the next edition ladies and gents!

 

[Incognito Style]

After some trials and tribulations, I've finally caught up with Wildcard! Just in time too! This one is a double header! Both Wildcard editions #5 and #6 combined together for this one (saves me doing a separate post for each one). Wildcard #5 features 4 matches whereas Wildcard #6 features only 3 matches hence why I thought it'd be best to combine the two together in this post. With that being said, we've got quite a bit in here and Wildcard #6 is a WWE Theme whereas #5 is anything goes as per the standard Wildcard editions usually are! Hopefully you enjoy everything below and I'm sorry it took so long to catch up!

Wildcard #5: Anything Goes

#5 Match 1

Black Taurus vs El Hijo Del Vikingo (c)
AAA Mega Championship
ROH Final Battle
15th December 2023

I figured with Worlds Collide having just happened at the time of this being posted, watching a contest of Vikingo would be most appropriate for this edition of Wildcard and in my thoughts of what Vikingo contest would be best to do, Black Taurus came to my mind. Taurus is an extremely great base in wrestling and he’s just such a great talent and well Vikingo’s shown that he’s an extremely high level talent in his own right so what happens when you pair these two together on an ROH PPV for the AAA Mega Championship? I mean ROH and AAA in itself sounds like a crazy enough pairing and this is post Sinclair ROH but set in the time of Tony Khan ROH where Athena rules for all eternity (no quite literally even at the time of writing that woman still has the ROH Women’s Championship that she held on this very PPV).

This was great but it felt like there could’ve been more and something better within these two. Vikingo wasn’t exactly as incredible as he has been in the past and there was several moments in this match where you could visibly see it especially in the moment of where he did a springboard moonsault and he did two takes prior to it where he just didn’t set off either because he felt unbalanced on the ropes or he just couldn’t do it as well as he planned and some of the stuff he did just wasn’t exactly the cleanest whereas on the other hand, Taurus was about as incredible as he could’ve been in this one. All his big hits connected, his power spots looked devastating and to Vikingo’s credit, he sold them like death. A beautiful press slam from the top rope was one such example or where Taurus was knocking his head off with lariats. Everything about this from Taurus’ side just looked amazing and I most certainly need to watch more of the man whether it’s his past or his present as The Beast Mortos in AEW. 16 minutes these two went at it and it wouldn’t have looked too out of place in an actual lucha libre promotion. Vikingo got the win in the end though after hitting Taurus with a 630 Senton to retain the AAA Mega Championship. Strong stuff and a recommendation from me with also a note to check out some more of Taurus’ work.

RATING: ****

#5 Joker Wildcard

Alec Price vs Rickey Shane Page
Beyond/WWR+ Reverse The Curse
7th November 2021

Our Joker card in this case comes in the form of this match of a Rickey Shane Page. Now I know bits and pieces of RSP but that’s primarily from deathmatches against guys like Jimmy Havoc, Drew Parker, Masashi Takeda and the list goes on but what I don’t really know about him is how he actually wrestles. Alec Price on the other hand I know pretty much nothing about him but from research it seems he’s worked around a lot of the American independent promotions from Beyond to GCW to Deadlock Pro Wrestling etc. Now do I know what to expect here? To be quite frank: not really I have no idea but given the theme of the other Jokers so far, I’m not expecting much the bar is pretty low when YOH and Ren Narita is the best thing that’s happened with it so far.

This was fine I suppose but I’ve certainly seen better wrestling. This match was structured in a way of Price being the cocky, young upstart heel whereas RSP is the veteran and RSP’s trying to get into Price’s head by outdoing him on the shenanigans initially such as pretending he’s injured or pretending Price didn’t clean break to the referee by clapping so he could gain an advantage. The wrestling here for the most part was fine and showed at least that Alec Price has some talent I just don’t think Rickey Shane Page was the guy who he could’ve showcased it best against. Price hit some real cool offense from a cool tornado DDT to what looked like a tilt-a-whirl snapmare beyond some other moves. This match was thankfully short but my gripe comes with the ending. Page has Price in a cover and the ref’s counting until he reaches 2. Then Alec Price’s manager (B3CCA or Becca however you wanna say it) got up on the apron to distract the ref. Despite being mid count, the ref STOPS HIS COUNT to go deal with it and RSP drags her into the ring. He blocks an initial Low Blow attempt but the second one goes through successfully and then a house call like kick connects with RSP to get the win for Price. A fine main event to the show but nothing special. Alec Price was interesting though whereas RSP should probably stick to deathmatches.

RATING: **½

#5 Match 3

Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly) vs The Super Smash Brothers (Player Uno & Stupefied) (c) vs The Young Bucks
PWG World Tag Team Championships
Triple Threat Tag Team Ladder Match
PWG Threemendous III
21st July 2012

This is one match I’ve had on my radar for a good while now and I never got around to watching it: that is until today. I’d always wanted to check out Player Uno/Evil Uno’s work in PWG in the Super Smash Brothers tag team and I’d known about this match’s existence. The other curious factor in this match I have is Future Shock of Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly as I was only ever able to see them as a tag team back when they were teaming in Undisputed Era in NXT and also now in Paragon in AEW. The Young Bucks being here is no surprise as it’s PWG and this was moreso their territory so I’m not as fussed about them since I’ve seen a fair amount of Young Bucks stuff up to this point. The most fascinating thing is that this is all the way back in 2012 so it’s before any major accomplishments and mainstream attraction for any of the guys involved really (of course minus the fact that the Young Bucks worked TNA as Generation Me prior but that aside). Add on top of that fact it’s a ladder match and the only guys that scream ladder match are the Bucks and then well this becomes quite the intriguing, unique and yet fascinating matchup that I’m curious to watch. The questions lie here: was my curiosity misplaced and is this gonna be fun or is this gonna be a stinker?

This was carnage and pretty much everything you’d want in terms of a multi team match like this one: bodies everywhere, ladders all over the place and guys taking nasty spots for the love of the crowd. They started off hot when Nick Jackson went flying into the crowd and that led to the first few minutes of this being chaos on the outside of the ring. You don’t really see everything due to there being not many camera angles in that part but you can tell it’s carnage. The Bucks take some of the nastiest bumps in the match to their credit whether it was Nick taking a bump on the apron or Matt taking a double superplex courtesy of Future Shock from the top of a ladder through a table these guys sure took some punishment in this one. Uno took an assisted brainbuster through a chair at one point, Adam Cole got trapped in a ladder and superkicked through it, Kyle took an apron DDT and then got put through a table by the Bucks the list goes on in terms of the amount of bumps these teams all took and the punishment they endured for these tag titles. However, I have some problems here and my problem lies with the referee Rick Knox. I get he had a thing in PWG where he’d be frequently involved in matches whether it was for comedy or legit but there’s a time and a place for this stuff and in the main event in a tag team title LADDER MATCH no less: there’s no need for referee involvement. Rick Knox took a ladder to the face despite being in the ring to officiate. After Stupefied took a superkick from the Bucks in mid air, Rick Knox after being busted open and taken away earlier in the match comes BACK OUT to screw the Bucks over, push the ladder over and then deliver a Tope Conhilo to them to take them out of the match. I wish I was joking. Had this been in the middle of the match rather than the actual finish and the ending of this match, I’d have been a bit more lenient on it but due to this, I have to knock some points off. Super Smash Bros retained as a result of this and to me instead of Super Smash Bros looking like a great team or just in general credible, they look like a bunch of goons that needed a ref’s help to win. Minor gripe but what can I expect with PWG? Anywho this was solid otherwise so small recommendation at the very least but the finish nearly makes me take it out of recommendation tier.

RATING: ****

#5 Match 4

Bret Hart vs Chris Benoit
WCW Monday Nitro #211
4th October 1999

This one was recommended to me by a friend named Reaper and he certainly knows ball based on what he’s given me here. Something I wouldn’t have even thought of having happened but a match between Chris Benoit and Bret Hart both wrestlers whom I love watching their bodies of work. I have no idea how this match is gonna be but what I’ve been told is that this match is the Owen Hart tribute match and in a way having two technicians on the level of these two feels almost appropriate for something like that. Owen Hart was fantastic in his own right and a special talent and that’ll never be forgotten. I wasn’t even born by the time Owen had wrestled and passed but I also wasn’t born by the point of WCW overall so I had no idea that this match even existed until just recently. What you’ll see here is my blind reaction and genuine thoughts on this match from bell to bell and I will even mention that Harley Race is ring announcing for this match it’s that special.

This was just some smooth and quality wrestling that I can’t complain about in the slightest. These guys went at it for nearly half an hour on TV no less and they worked in a style that suited and catered to both guy’s strengths the best: a technical clinic. Bret worked Benoit’s back most of this match whilst Benoit was hitting big moves from suplexes to a tombstone piledriver to the big diving headbutt as well as even the Crossface. Bret worked at a solid pace and some of the technical work in this match was great even including the finish where Bret counters the Crossface into the Sharpshooter. Both guys put on a special match that was worthy of being the Owen Hart tribute match and I’m sure it made Owen super proud. I’m glad I got recommended this match because it’s special and it’s not a match I’d have thought of but I’m glad I got to see two of my favourite all time wrestlers work a stellar match where even though there was nothing fancy, it was all business and a beautiful piece of art in wrestling. Regardless of any ad breaks or anything else surrounding this match, this is a recommendation worth your time especially if you love a more methodical pace rather than fast, high paced flippy stuff or strong style. A worthy recommendation too!

RATING: ****¼

Wildcard #6: WWE Edition

#6 Match 1

Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio
WWE SummerSlam
25th August 2002

So I’ll be honest: there’s no recommendation on this one compared to previous editions but I felt in the mood to watch a fast paced opening contest with all these long matches that I’ve covered so far (and there’s more yet to come) and so I thought back to what could be a fun one that’s in WWE given the little theme I set myself. The first thing that came to my mind was this match right here. 2002 Rey Mysterio who whilst he wasn’t 1997 Halloween Havoc Rey Mysterio is still one of the best high-flyers around at this time and had an opening match on a SummerSlam against Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle is a machine. He’d come into his own by this point in terms of workrate and pairing him against someone with the caliber of talent that Rey Mysterio has is one of those matches where it just feels like the perfect and most fitting thing to do. I also love a good clash of styles and that’s what these two are: pretty much polar opposites in the sense of Rey being a high-flyer whilst Angle has that Olympic wrestling background and is also a really damn great technical wrestler in his own right.

This match right here is proof that not every match needs to be some 20-25 minute epic match and that you can still accomplish a great, stellar match in under 10 minutes because Mysterio and Angle both went out there and put on a clinic with the time allotted to them. It started off hot with Mysterio running a fast pace and there being finisher teases from the beginning. It slowed down a bit with Angle working Mysterio’s back but would soon pick right back up and in all of this, Angle made Rey look like a million bucks. Of course Rey himself is incredibly talented and everything he did here just looked super smooth and super crisp but little details from Angle like the last second kickouts and making the Ankle Lock look like one of the most devastating submission finishers cannot be understated and overlooked. The crowd was into this the entire match and I myself was also super into this as neither guy had a dull moment. It’s a splendid sprint these two put on and a fantastic way to warm up the crowd. Rey even got a great nearfall with the 619 and West Coast Pop down the closing stretch of this match. In the end though after attempting a super Rana from the top, Angle came off the top behind Rey and grabbed him into the Ankle Lock. He pulled him away from the ropes with intent to finish it off without grapevining the leg as he sometimes does and Mysterio tapped out in the end. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a fast paced match and just some wrestling to get them in the mood and hyped up.

RATING: ****¼

#6 Match 2

John Cena vs Kevin Owens
WWE Money In The Bank
14th June 2015

The year is 2015 and we’re in the midst of the 2015 United States Championship Open Challenge run of John Cena where he’s having weekly matches against talents like Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Dean Ambrose just to name a few and up comes NXT Champion at the time Kevin Owens who doesn’t challenge for the belt but disrespects Cena and lays him out. These two clash at Elimination Chamber and much to many’s surprise, Kevin Owens beat John Cena clean in the center of the ring with the Pop-Up Powerbomb. No shenanigans, no shortcuts just clean. That established Kevin Owens as a guy on the roster but instead of just leaving it there, they extended this feud to this show: a rematch of course! Once again a non championship bout like their Chamber contest but the question is: why cover this match and not their original bout? With Money In The Bank having just happened and John Cena main eventing, I figured it’d be good to go into history and see a Cena match. Of course this KO match felt like the right choice considering that but how good is it compared to their original? Well…

This is a pretty good match but it just slightly misses that next level. Partly due to some unfortunate issues mostly on Cena’s end with a slightly botched Sunset Flip Powerbomb (albeit it looked cool after the recovery) and a not fully executed Springboard Stunner and just in general feels so close to a great contest. Cena and Owens admittedly have good chemistry and that was shown at Elimination Chamber as well as here and this was a time where Cena was trying new things whilst putting on solid work. Owens did really well in this one and it feels this match did a good job of showcasing him further to the main roster audience at the time. Crowd was into him, they were hot for the whole match and bit on several nearfalls whether it be multiple Attitude Adjustments or Pop-Up Powerbombs it just felt like this was good for an albeit rushed 2 week build to this rematch. Overall it was solid though and it came to an end after a shaky Springboard Stunner by Cena followed by a third Attitude Adjustment to finally put Owens away. Owens looks good in defeat and Cena put another good match into his 2015 cap to go alongside the previous match alongside that incredible match against Lesnar and Rollins at the Royal Rumble that year. Why did they have to run this three times though with a United States Championship match at Battleground though I’ll never know (maybe we’ll cover that one in the future). A solid recommendation.

RATING: ***¾

#6 Joker Wildcard

Damian Priest (c) vs Drew McIntyre
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
WWE Clash At The Castle
15th June 2024

Here’s a match I never thought I’d be watching again so soon as we reach the Joker card of this pack: Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre from last year’s Clash At The Castle event. Admittedly somewhat close to home albeit the wrong part of the UK as this one took place in Glasgow, Scotland at the Hydro. This one stems from WrestleMania 40 as Drew McIntyre won the world title from Seth Rollins only for it to last but a few minutes as CM Punk would beat him up a little and Damian Priest would cash in Money In The Bank (or should I say Señor Money In The Bank) to become World Heavyweight Champion at McIntyre’s expense. This marks Priest’s 2nd defense of the championship after a defense at Backlash against *sigh* Main Event Jey Uso. Now you would think this is just a way of WWE saying okay okay we’re gonna give you this match right here, give McIntyre the belt back and then the Scottish crowd go home happy! Surely that’d be a great idea right?! Oh man just you wait till I get into this one!

Well… this match is actually really good is the thing and it’s probably the best Joker card I’d been given so far (this is also why I went with the WWE theme when I got given this for a Joker) but it just misses that great tier and I truly believe that’s due to the involvement of CM Punk in this one. I get it in a way because it’s very difficult when you put yourself in a corner as your options are either: Drew wins and crowd goes home happy or Damian wins but he can’t win clean because otherwise crowds are gonna turn on him (even though he’s kinda tweener at that point in time with Judgment Day not really being face and the only other person in that same position as Priest was Rhea Ripley). CM Punk obviously builds the whole Punk/McIntyre feud (which in the end had a pretty good blowoff but I never rated it so I wouldn’t actually be able to tell you for definite) but it just felt like a real low blow for all UK fans due to the fact that this is the SECOND time this happened to Drew after Roman beat Drew in Wales two years prior due to Solo Sikoa interference (then we try not to remember the fact Drew and Tyson Fury had a singsong on air afterwards to end the show). As for the match itself, these two end up hitting each other really hard and it’s just generally a well paced world title match. There is a scary moment where Priest gets caught in the ropes doing his step up tope conhilo and he’s selling his leg for the rest of the match (whether his leg was still genuinely hurt or he was just selling it I have no idea but kudos to Priest either way) but he pulled through and still managed to put on a killer performance. Drew had a strong performance too as him and Damian have good chemistry but I think there’s better performances for Drew out there. The finish of course was after a ref bump and Drew hitting a Claymore. Drew had the pin and the win but as the “referee” starts counting: it’s revealed to be CM Punk who then kicks McIntyre in the goolies (feels appropriate using a British term here given the location) and that allows Priest to hit South Of Heaven to retain the championship. Shame Priest didn’t really get a definitive clean win in his title reign but a solid showing nonetheless.

RATING: ***¾

Thank you for being patient on these Wildcard posts and now we're all caught up! I will say I'm out of town this coming week so there won't be a Wildcard for this week and I plan on taking a small little break. The next official Wildcard posting will be no earlier than the 25th June. In the meantime, I encourage you to enjoy all wrestling you watch and if something comes up that you like the look of, don't be afraid to watch it! Until later folks!

 

[TheEaterOfBergs]

FINALLY! After a long and agonizing reign from Jon Moxley. The AEW Championship has changed hands and the man to take it from him is THE rightful person to take it from Mox, The Hangman himself Adam Page!

Hangman continues his incredible journey as the Main Character of AEW as He finally regains what He's long fought for after a rough last few years fighting his demons and trying to get himself back on track. Despite interference from all the Death Riders, He had some help from those who the Riders have wronged in Bryan, Will and Darby, As well as an unlikely ally in his eternal rival Swerve Strickland.

What will be next for The Hangman? We'll just have to wait and see as He continues to better himself and begin carrying AEW on His shoulders yet again.

I have always and will continue to believe in Hangman and hope that He has a long and fruitful 2nd Reign as World Champion because He deserves it after everything He's done for AEW and Pro Wrestling as a whole.

 

[Joementum]

Thank god the Mox reign of terror is over. It'll be very interesting to see where Hangman's story with Swerve goes from here.

 

[Ithi]

I'll admit it.

I'm not the biggest mercedes mone fan. She always felt like she was just more bright lights rather than an actual superstar for the company.

However, I have to give credit where credit is due and say she's MASSIVELY improved her in-ring prowess and put up one of the most intense fights in women's wrestling since the toni storm vs mariah may feud that was going on in AEW.

Needless to say, there's no stopping toni storm anytime soon and I can't wait to see who steps up to finally dethrone her. A few names come to mind like thunder rosa, anna jay, athena, deonna and julia hart

 

[Fdmw]

Wwe better

 

[ThugKing25]

i feel AEW's been better than WWE this year so far (PLE-wise)


NXT still better than both tho

 

[Joementum]

Joshi promotions lap all of them though!