Masaaki Mochizuki Produce Buyuden 25/01/2007

Didn't know too much about this show when I picked it up, based purely on the line-up. A little digging tells me this is the first of a series of shows produced by Masaaki Mochizuki, which seems to be heavily assisted by Dragon Gate, whose ring is used and whose logo is all over this show. This was a pretty enjoyable 2 hours.

Naruki Doi, Gamma & Masato Yoshino vs Daichi Kakimoto, Super Shenron & Turboman

Not familiar with any of the second team here, though Google Image Search brings up Shenron as some anime character, so I guess him and Turboman are cartoon character inspired. This match is clipped, which is a shame, as it’s pretty fun, and unsurprisingly moves at a pretty fast pace. Gamma has this horrible spot where he gets his opponents in the corner, as if to hit 10 count punches, but instead spits in his hands and rubs it on his opponent. Lovely. Kakimoto was pretty impressive here, he’s the guy who gets worked over the most, but he had some lovely strength spots, including stopping a Doi small package and deadlifting him from the floor to slam him. There are a few comedy spots that get lost in translation, but I dug a rana by Turboman that whipped the opponent over with real speed before Yoshino hits him with a Paige Turner for the win.

Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito vs Shori Asahi & Makoto Oishi

Asahi and Oishi play heel here, coming to the ring with an entourage who aren’t afraid to interfere. The first part of this is wrestled like a classic tag match, with Horiguchi playing face-in-peril after getting low blowed. He even gets whipped by a valet on the floor. It breaks down as Saito enters without a tag and essentially becomes a tornado tag. There’s a lot of action, well-executed, but it feels like a missed opportunity, even if I accept that’s an affect of the style. Loved the camera work that saw Saito hit a frogsplash from out of nowhere onto Oishi, looked great. Asahi and Oishi always seem one step ahead of their opponents, outsmarting them and even causing friction when Saito is used to break up his own partners pin by being pushed on top. The end sees Saito rally and hit a dragon suplex on Oisahi, but Asahi hits the ref with a skateboard and the entourage come in to beat up Horiguchi and Saito for the DQ

Danshoku Dino vs Akira Tozawa

This is the first time I’ve seen Dino, but I’m fully aware of his character. Essentially, he’s like Pepe Le Pew, only wanting to molest wrestlers rather than paint-stained cats. This is a comedy match, with Dino essentially fondling Tozawa for laughs. It’s odd seeing sexual harassment played up for comedy, and this is the epitome of the match you don’t want people walking in on when you’re watching it. Tozawa turns the tables on Dino by stripping down to some tiny pants and straddling HIS face, in an interesting twist (and that sentence will do nothing for my Google search stats on Blogspot). Tozawa even does that “Joey Ryan overpowers his opponent with his penis” spot 9 years before it became a popular gif. Dino hits a tombstone with Tozawa’s head stuffed in his pants for two, and hits a piledriver the same way for three.

Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Onryo vs Don Fujii & Yamato Onodera

Pretty decent tag match here, with a healthy dose of schtick for good measure. Loved Don Fujii demanding to fight Kuroda early on, then immediately tagging out to Onodera. There’s a good chunk of crowd brawling, with both Fujii and Kuroda managing to hit their partners accidentally, and a few choice comedy bits – Kuroda does his patented “smash opponent legs into the ring post then elbow the leg” spot, and gets an old lady from the crowd to also hit an elbow to the leg of Fujii. Meanwhile, while all this is going on, Onryo and Onodera are having a pretty decent series in the ring. Loved Onryo stopping a three count by grabbing the ref’s hand as he was about to hit the mat for the third time. Keeping hold of the hand, he uses it to strike Onodera before downing him with a crucifix to win.

Kintaro Kanemura & Mammoth Sasaki vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Magnitude Kishiwada

Kanamura really looks like shit here, all strapped up and looking beaten down, which makes it kinda great that he’s still able to bust out ranas and an Asai moonsault (of sorts). Sasaki seems to be having a whale of a time in the match, grinning from ear to ear. Kanemura gets isolated and suffers the effects of the opposition bringing chairs into the ring, getting slammed onto them as well as taking a Death Valley Driver. I was pretty impressed by Sasaki hitting a Dragon suplex, which looked a lot better than the sloppy quebrada Kanemura hits. He makes up for it with a bulky top rope senton on Kishiwada for two. There’s a great power spot by Sekimoto, where Kishiwada hits a German suplex on Kanemura, from which position Sekimoto wheelbarrows Kanemura and deadlifts him into another German. It does feel like Kanemura is just dying out there, and by saving him Sasaki is only stopping him being put out of his misery. At least, until Kanemura grabs a backslide out of nowhere for the win. Pretty sloppy in places, but not without it’s charm.

BxB Hulk, CIMA & Matt Sydal vs TAKA Michinoku, MEN’s Teioh & Dick Togo

Yeah, this was really great, and even Teioh was able to keep up well. There are some lovely pairings in this that just make you wonder about a singles match, with the mid-match Sydal/Togo face-off being really fun to watch. I loved the triple teaming by both teams: Kaientai using Hulk for the traditional pose and a great sequence where CIMA and Hulk team up for a double-team Codebreaker on Michinoku, punctuated by Sydal hitting a standing moonsault whilst stood on TAKA’s back. Togo is probably the standout guy here, he just seems to put a little extra something on everything he does, and I thought his high-angle slingshot senton looked excellent. The final few minutes sees everything break down, and we go through a breathtaking sequence of moves before Hulk gets picked off by the Miracle Ecstasy Bomb from Teioh and a big Togo top rope senton for the three. Loved this.

Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru Tanaka vs Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita

Both Hidaka and Tanaka are holding Jr gold here, with Hidaka being Zero-1 International Jr Heavyweight champ and Tanaka being IWGP Jr Heavyweight champ. Tanaka was really fun here, and I loved him making a chump out of Fujita with a series of eye pokes and an over-the-top forward roll just to hit a low blow. The double-teaming by Mochizuki and Tanaka is really effective, nothing contrived, just one guy positioning an opponent to allow his partner to swiftly hit a move. Fujita feels like the weak link of the match: he’s decent, but some of his kicks are either off target or look realy milky. Mochizuki kicks the ringpost after Fujita ducks, and this allows Hidaka to go after the leg, working it over before locking in a figure four. I like the way they hark back to the injury throughout the match, highlighting it as a real weak point for Mochizuki. Hidaka and Tanaka work really well together, and their smooth sequence ends in a great spot where Tanaka has Hidaka locked in an armbar that Hidaka constantly gets THIS close to breaking before being powered back into it again. I loved the logic of Fujita going back to the injured leg of Mochizuki to lock on a Regal Stretch, and Hidaka holding a heel hook in Tanaka to stop him being able to break it, with Mochizuki instead getting the ropes. This is paid off at the end too, as this time it’s Tanaka holding Hidaka back with a return to the armbar, as Mochizuki kicks Fujita’s head off to pick up the win. Fun main event.

WWF Raw 28/2/1994

Randy Savage vs Yokozuna

Even though you knew Savage wasn’t going to win this match so close to Mania, they still did a good job of building this up, including Savage talking about doing the right thing and defending the title vs Luger and Bret. This was a really good effort from both men, with Savage setting a high tempo early by attacking Yoko before the bell. Savage is on fire, getting a close 2 on a clotheslines, and though Yoko tries to subdue him on the mat, Savage is too resilient and evades a Yoko splash. I liked Savage knocking Yoko to the outside, but really struggling to get the big man back in the ring. It made Savage look good, as if Yoko was only just holding on, and it allowed Jim Cornette to distract Savage and give Yokozuna the opening he needed to take control. They’re putting Savage over strongly here, so he soon regain control, and I loved Yoko’s wobble-selling as Savage hits a series of punches and a double-ax handle to try and knock him down. The end sees Fuji handing a wooden salt bucket to Yoko, only for Savage to grab it and use it himself. Flying elbow looks to have won it, but Crush comes in for the DQ. Really good bout.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs Mike Khoury

Bland squash. Bigelow mainly hits punches and drops some elbows, though I liked him catching Khoury on a crossbody and hitting a World’s Strongest Slam. Standing enzuigiri gives Bigelow the win.

Earthquake vs Black Phantom

Phantom was a pre-fame, in-good-shape Gangrel. This was pretty enjoyable, including a fun spot where Quake dropped an elbow when Phantom did a dropdown from a Irish whip. Nice fat man dropkick from Earthquake, and a slam and sitdown splash finish.

Kwang vs John Chrystal

The Kwang gimmick sucked, but this is the second fun Kwang squash we’ve seen. Nice series of kicks, big meaty slams and a nice superkick to the jaw to win. No complaints here.

Men On A Mission vs the Brooklyn Brawler & Steve Smith

It’s for the best to pretend the Mo sections didn’t happen. His offense never looks good, and he’s pretty pointless. Mabel is really fun as the dominating force, hitting a massive legdrop on the Brawler, though his elbow drop only seems to graze Smith. Assisted splash on Smith gets the job done.

WWE Main Event 04/03/2014

Whether it's due to the (then) recent launch of the Network or the build to Wrestlemania, this episode of Main Event is positively star packed. But does having bigger names result in better matches?

Daniel Bryan vs Kane

Quite a big match for Main Event. Surprisingly good match here, best Kane match I’ve seen in a long time. Of course, being in there with Bryan helps, but it looks like Kane has upped his game knowing he’s in the ring with someone who’ll go all out. First indicator is when he whips Bryan to the buckle near the start, and immediately follows with a big clothesline. Just a noticeable burst of speed I don’t associate with Kane. Bryan’s comeback sees him work over the knee of Kane, who sells it superbly even on offence. It also adds an interesting element to their interactions with the size difference, as it gives Bryan a weak spot to concentrate on and an easy focal point for his comebacks. At the same time, one shot from Kane is enough to take Bryan down, so both are vulnerable even when on offence. Bryan goes on a kick blitz that sees Kane positively wilt. Bryan lands on the back of his head following a failed top rope rana, which is a bit cringeworthy knowing what we do now. Kane tries a chokeslam, but Bryan hoists himself over for a sunset flip for the victory. Pleasant surprise.

Nikki Bella vs Alicia Fox

Also interesting to see Nikki slumming it on the C-show. Fox is on point throughout the match, hurling herself with gusto into Nikki’s slightly weak offence. Nikki got to be really good as a heel later this year, but as a face she’s a bit too lightweight. Not as much fun as the Nikki Bella who beasts women with massive forearm shots to the face. Fox is great on offence – her Northern Lights suplex is always terrific, and I liked her choking Nikki over the ropes whilst dismissively slapping her head. Nikki makes an uninspired comeback and hits the Rack Attack from nowhere for the win.

The Usos vs Los Matadores

This is the Usos first title defence, and is due to be against the New Age Outlaws, but the NAO claim injury and are replaced by Fernando and Diego. To be honest, it most likely resulted in a better match. A really fluid and fun opening ends with a dive series, before the matadors take control with a nice dropkick/legsweep combo. Los Matadores continue to work over the isolated Uso and, barring a sloppy two-man monkey flip, incorporate a nice mix of double teams. Fernando gets a real shine spot, hitting a springboard twisting Swanton and landing on his feet when an Uso avoided the second. The Usos helpfully don’t fill this match with a thousand superkicks, so it’s acceptable when they hit just the one and win the match with a top rope splash. Fun bout.

WWF - Andre The Giant

I believe this is an old CHV release that they just directly ported to DVD, but it's nice to see they used full matches on this release, was expecting a whole bunch of clipping

Andre the Giant vs Moondog Rex

Quick little squash to show Andre’s physical dominance. Some fun little touches with Andre booting Rex up the arse as he tried to cower in the ropes, and I liked the raw power of Andre lifting Rex off the mat by the belt. Big boot and splash get the win.

Battle Royale

Real who’s who of names here….Hogan, Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, Mil Mascaras, Pat Patterson….and Salvatore Bellomo. Even the commentators don’t know who’s in there, as Gorilla Monsoon occasionally blurts out “Is that Alexis Smirnoff in there?” Fun spot sees Murdoch and Adrian Adonis try and take out Andre in the corner, only to get shrugged off with ease. Terrible camerawork means we almost miss Big John Studd getting eliminated by Hogan then dragging him out of the ring. Somehow, as we hit the final furlongs of the match, Smirnoff and Tiger Chun Lee are still in there, with Smirnoff making the final four. Alexis is soon dispatched, taking a massive bump over the top from an Andre atomic drop, before the Giant eliminates Murdoch and Adonis to win. This was fun.

Andre the Giant vs Black Gordman & Great Goliath

Handicap match, and pre-match Alfred Hayes highlights the empty front rows, as promoters were so worried about Andre throwing his opponents into the crowd, that they left those seats empty. Fans eat up all the size spots, laughing at Gordman trying to slam Andre and loving Andre placing Gordman on the top rope and slapping him. Goliath tries a go behind, but Andre rams his backside at him so hard, he flies out into the empty front row.  Just as the one-sided beating is wearing thin, Andre misses a corner charge and Gordman works him over with a concealed weapon. No matter, as Andre soon shows off his power, locking both men in a big body scissors and hitting a monkey flip on both men at the same time. Andre press slams Gordman onto Goliath and sits on the pair for the easy win.

Andre the Giant vs Johnny Rodz, Jack Evans & Joe Butcher Nova

Obviously not the Canadian high-flyer Jack Evans, though I’d love to see that. Andre repeats the body scissors/monkey flip spot from the previous handicap squash, so it was an obvious crowd pleaser. All three heels try a dogpile pin, which sees Andre power all three off. Nova and Rodz clash heads and Andre piles all three up and sits on them for the easy victory.

Andre the Giant vs Gorilla Monsoon

This is a boxing match from Puerto Rico, and is a lot of daft fun. None of this resembles a classic boxing match, with Monsoon punching Andre’s legs and hitting a spinning backfist of all things. Round 1 ends with Monsoon barely standing up, but he starts the second round in control until Andre hits a headbutt and a butt splash. Not strictly boxing moves. Andre hits three big roundhouses to the staggered Monsoon and stops him with an overhead punch for the KO in round 3. Stupid, but fun.

Andre The Giant & Jimmy Snuka vs The Wild Samoans

Man, Snuka is a pretty useless tag partner here. The first half of the match is just the Samoans destroying him whilst Andre watches on from the apron. To the point where now and then Andre will just get in the ring to hit a Samoan, probably through boredom. I did love Afa stopping Snuka getting a tag with a swift headbutt from the floor. Finally, Snuka tags in Andre to a MASSIVE pop, who blitzes the Samoans. Andre hits a big boot and Snuka hits a splash from Andre’s shoulders to pick up the win. The Samoans were fun on offence, so this was pretty decent.

Andre the Giant vs The Masked Superstar

Really enjoyed this. There’s a great visual early on where Superstar has a headlock on Andre, who just stands up with Superstar dangling from his neck. Andre dominates until Superstar hits a knee to the back and then wisely barrages Andre with blows until he falls to the floor. Superstar locks on a Cobra Clutch, but Andre escapes rather cheaply by trying to remove his opponents’ mask. Big boot and a butt splash seal the win.

Andre the Giant & SD Jones vs Ken Patera & Big John Studd

More angle than match, but what an angle. The heels isolate Jones early and work him over. Jones tags out, but is thrown over the top by Patera, hitting his head on the metal railings in the process. The heels swarm Andre, leading to the match getting thrown out, and they get scissors from Bobby Heenan to cut Andre’s hair. Hot angle to set up….

Andre the Giant vs Ken Patera

This is billed as the revenge match and is from MSG. Patera stalls to avoid the angry giant, but eventually gets caught by Andre, who throttles Patera. The faces Patera makes as he gets swung back and forth are hilarious. Patera gets very little offence, but ragdolls about all over the match for Andre, pretty impressive considering Patera is no small guy. He’s unable to escape the Giant, even outside the ring where he gets hurled into the railings. Heenan attacks Andre with brass knuckles, which briefly slows him down, and draws a DQ. Andre soon recovers and squashes both Heenan and Patera in the corner. Really fun, made better by Patera’s commitment to getting destroyed.

Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd

This is the Wrestlemania slam challenge. The DVD commentary is done by Michael Cole and Tazz, but my DVD started skipping here, so I went to the network version. Forgot how brief and one-sided this is. Andre chops Studd to start before a long bearhug sequence. Andre maintains control and easily slams Studd. Wasn’t much to it, but I don’t think anyone was hoping there would be

CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix 2003

After the first CHIKARA show (previously reviewed), there's a gap of filmed shows until this one from a year later. This is a tag team tournament, with 12 teams competing. A mixed bag this one, though it does improve as the show progresses.

The Nightshift (Blind Rage & Hallowicked) vs Team Midwest (Brad Bradley & Jimmy Jacobs)

Fun opener here. Bradley is the wildcard factor of the match, being substantially bigger than the other guys. He dominates both of the Nightshift with his strength, before press slamming his partner to the outside onto their opponents. He follows with a super-impressive tope, with Jacobs holding the Nightshift in place as a nice touch. The heat, logically, is worked on Jacobs, with some nice double-teams. Particularly liked Blind Rage hitting a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and holding Jacobs in place for Hallowicked to drop an elbow. They establish Bradley as an easily distracted hot-head here, as Nightshift barely have to provoke him before he tries rushing into the ring, distracting the ref. Bradley looks great again on the hot tag, with both Nightshift members taking big flips off clotheslines. Great back suplex on both heels by Bradley, before his short-attention span costs his team the match. Hallowicked grabs his foot as he runs the ropes, prompting him to leave the ring, leaving Jacobs to get pinned following a bridging O’Connor roll from Rage. Good tag formula.

Team Toryumon (Arakencito & Skayde) vs the Superfriends (Chris Hero & Mike Quackenbush)

This one never felt like it got going in a meaningful way, and felt too exhibitiony for most of it’s time. Before the match, it’s announced that Arakencito only needs to pin Hero or Quack for a 2 count to win, and they’d need to pin him for a 4. Arakencito is a little spark plug here, and I dug his run of offence in the closing stages, hitting repeat leaping headbutts on Hero in the corner. The opening stages, however, are given up to some matwork between Quack and Arakencito, and Skayde and Hero. It’s all very smooth and enjoyably goofy (loved Skayde turning a Hero hiptoss into an abdominal stretch), but it all feels quite uncompetitive, like none of the wrestlers are really trying to win. There is an Arakencito tope to Quack that looks great, but there’s no sense of trying to stop tags or actively win the match. The end sees Arakencito try and ill-advised Tiger suplex on the much bigger hero, and Hero instead locking in the Hangman’s Clutch for the tap.

Team FIST (Gran Akuma & Icarus) vs The Conundrum (Jigsaw & Rorschach)

This wasn’t very good, which surprised me because some of these guys were really good within 12 months, but a lot of this was very awkward and sloppy. The reversals of go-behinds by Jigsaw and Icarus looked really co-operative. Akuma hits a lovely dive on Jigsaw, which I hoped would kick start things to life. Jigsaw does some nice heeling here, arguing with the ref whilst draping his knee over his opponents throat, and opportunistically slapping his opponent from the apron. There are some good moments from the heels, including a series of reverse and normal atomic drops, but there are several signs of greenness and hesitancy throughout. The faces regain control following a terrible looking twisting splash that misses by Jigsaw. Rorschach grabbing Akuma to go all the way over on a sunset flip and instead be hit with the Jig N Tonic was nice, before Jigsaw takes a stunner/crossbody combo for the loss. Patchy at best.

American Gigolo & Jolly Roger vs UltraZERO (Ultramantis & Mr ZERO)

At first this feels like a step in the right direction. Mr ZERO looks terrific in the early going, showing himself to be quite graceful for his size and showing nice touches like slapping Roger’s chest to open him up for a headlock. Gigolo and Roger seem to be working heel, and gain control of Ultramantis by Gigolo simply outwrestling him. There’s a lot of headscratching moments throughout, like Gigolo trying to whip Ultramantis towards his own corner during the heat section (and worse, Ultramantis deciding to reverse it), and there’s a few sloppy moments like Roger having to stand like an idiot and watch Ultramantis climb to the top. The faces win with a double-team neckbreaker on Roger, who gets abandoned by his partner.

Swiss Money Holding (Ares & Double C) vs Senior Assault Team (Lester Crabtree & Melvin Snodgrass)

Double C is, of course, the future Cesaro. Brief comedy squash, with the SAT being two masked lads playing old men. Double C sends Irish Whips Snodgrass, sending him off very slowly. This gives the Swiss time to destroy Crabtree in the corner and still have time to hit the onrushing Snodgrass with a double-team spinebuster/neckbreaker combo. Effective enough.

Mercedes Martinez & Sumie Sakai vs The Wildcards (Blackjack Marciano & Eddie Kingston)

Intergender tag match here, and one that does show some of the pitfalls of the genre. Mercedes is pretty tall and looks quite strong, so it’s not too much of a stretch to see her keeping up with and controlling the Wildcards, especially when Marciano is cockily underestimating her. Sakai, however, is tiny, and as talented as she is, it doesn’t look believable for the heels to bump for her. A top rope crossbody to the floor looks very safe given how easily they catch her en route to the floor, and you can see Marciano clearly protecting her on some slams. I did like the story of Kingston in particular being dismissive of Sukai, with some loud mouthed trashtalk, before Sukai gives him comeuppance, but some timing issues mean Kingston is on his feet looking like an idiot on more than one occasion before getting downed with a missile dropkick. Kingston takes slow looking ranas from both women, before Sakai accidentally dropkicks her partner. This allows Marciano to roll up Sakai for the victory. I do like Sakai, I’ve seen her have very good matches with other women, but even in those matches she looked small, so against two men she looked positively tiny, and her offence didn’t look tough enough to overcome that.

The Nightshift vs Team FIST

On the retrospective commentary on the first CHIKARA show, Mike Quackenbush revealed that Blind Rage had some wrestling experience before coming to learn in CHIKARA, and boy does it show. He’s really on here, love the sequence where he hits a necksnap on Akuma, slaps Icarus in the face then holds a chinlock on Akuma whist staring daggers at Icarus on the apron, all in one slick sequence. Everything looks a level above the last FIST match, as the Nighshift are both more experienced than the Conundrum. Icarus looks really good on the hot tag, nicely fired up, though he soon falls prey to a huge crucifix bomb by Rage. The end sees Hallowicked hitting a Michinoku Driver near the ropes, with Rage holding onto a leg to guarantee victory. This was fun

Swiss Money Holding vs The Superfriends

This was a whole heap of fun, and despite going 30 minutes, didn’t feel overlong or padded out. All four guys exchange some really nice mat sequences at the start, including Double C falling victim to the Sword in the Stone from Quackenbush. There’s a fun early spot where Ares twice fakes getting slapped in the face off a rope break by Quack, so on the third time, Quack does just slap him. Things heat up with a dive series, with a Quack flip dive followed by a Double C tope and a twisting dive from Hero. This takes us to the second stage of the match, where SMH work a heat section on Quack, including a great STO/Side Russian legsweep double team. After a long heat period on Quack, Hero then becomes face-in-peril, and this is even better. They pepper in enough hope spots to keep it interesting, but you get little details like Hero ending up in the wrong corner to prolong the heat. Things break down and the SMH spinebuster/neckbreaker only gets two. Hero’s Welcome on Ares gets 2. Hero locks in the Hangman’s Clutch on Ares as Double C locks a chickenwing on Quack and it’s a race to see who taps first…only for the bell to go for the 30 min time limit. Dig the fact they didn’t do any time announcements so as not to telegraph the result.

The Wildcards vs UltraZERO

They were always going to struggle to follow that, being two teams of rookies, but this was also really good. Wildcards jumped their opponents at the bell, which is a sensible change of pace from the previous match. The Wildcards do nothing fancy in this match, they’re just dirty cheating heels, and this also helps their opponents stand out. They concentrate an assault on Mr ZERO’s leg, and I love all the cheating from the apron behind the ref’s back, and Kingston trashtalking to the other corner whilst holding a Boston crab is great. Hot tag is made, and even when all four guys are in the ring and it breaks down, Mr ZERO still sells the legs, which I appreciate. Lovely sequence sees Marciano block the Praying Mantis bomb with a Northern Lights suplex, which Ultramantis holds onto and hits the Praying Mantis bomb second time round. It ends disappointingly though, as Ultramantis hits a really shit looking top rope…suplex? Kingston looks legitimately angry at his landing and ZERO awkwardly covers for the win. Until then, this was good.

UltraZERO vs The Nightshift

This is the tournament final, filmed on another day, but they’ve helpfully added it to this show. UltraZERO control this to start, with Ultramantis frustrating Hallowicked with armdrags, and I dug Mr ZERO holding an abdominal stretch on Hallowicked whilst Ultramantis dropkicked him, with Hallowicked having to eat the full impact. Blind Rage’s offensive run on Ultramantis is really good looking, love the big back suplex and a nice Fujiwara armbar. Rage also has nice little touches like rubbing his head after giving a headbutt, putting over how much thrust he put into it. ZERO tags in, and both Nighshift members take hilarious flip bumps from Mr ZERO clotheslines. Odd moment as Ultramantis goes for the Praying Mantis bomb on Rage, and Hallowicked runs at him but elects not to stop it, instead breaking up the pin on a two count. Hallowicked plants Ultramantis with a top rope brainbuster, and this gets the win and the tournament for the Nightshift. 

WWE Main Event 25/02/2014

Decided I'm going to concentrate on Main Event for my C-show watching, Superstars is too much recapping and not enough wrassling for my tastes. Really fun show this week,

Cody Rhodes, Goldust, El Torito & Los Matadores vs Curtis Axel, Ryback & 3MB

This was a real blast. Face Cody was so much fun here, really nice run of offence before Ryback catches the Disaster Kick and plants him with a powerbomb to make him face-in-peril. Loved the spot where Drew tagged out to Mahal, who tagged out right away to Slater, which meant all three were in the ring to quickly each hit a move on Cody before the ref could remove the non-legal men. Ryback hit a great press-slam into a powerslam. The heels attack the faces on the apron, which leaves Cody no choice but to tag El Torito. Really fun offensive run by Torito before everything breaks down with the faces flying out of the ring onto their opponents. This leaves Torito with Slater, which is won by the bull with a flying headscissors that rams Heath’s head into the canvas. Lots of fun.

Natalya & Eva Marie vs Alicia Fox & Aksana

Ha, and to think I was complaining about watching Cameron vs Aksana on the last episode. Natalya and Fox work a pretty good sequence to start, with Fox hitting this great goofy flying headscissors, but you just know we’re killing time until the inevitable Eva/Aksana showdown. Eva comes in and poor Fox hurls herself around for some arm wringers. Fox takes control before Aksana comes in, and goes to hit her eye-busting knee on Eva, but hilariously Eva totally no-sells her beating and starts crawling for her corner right away. Poor Aksana is forced to try and hit a diving missed knee just to keep some forced sense of drama. Natalya comes in and tries a Sharpshooter on Aksana, but gets shoved into the ropes, hitting Eva on the apron and Aksana rolls her up for the pin. Well, three of the four looked competent.

Darren Young vs Titus O’Neill

PPV rematch here, now relegated to semi-main on Main Event. Nice quick tempo to start before Titus takes control. Love the look of disgust on Titus’ face as he looks at his chest after taking control following a few chops from Young. Titus has some great cocky swagger here, and he beasts Young in a really fun way. Sadly, it’s over pretty quick, and Young escapes a slam to roll up Titus for the win.

Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow

This has Sin Cara’s shitty mood lighting, which doesn’t help the viewing experience. Sandow is really aggressive throughout this, and just wails away at Cara with some stiff looking knees to the gut. Even with the Elbow of Disdain, he does the pose, swiftly goes to the mat to repeatedly punch Cara in the head, then drop the elbow. Was there a Cara/Sandow feud I’d forgotten about, because this is pretty heated for the C-show. Cara comes back with some slightly slow-mo lumpy looking highflying, and gets a very close 2 count from a one-armed powerbomb. The swanton gets three for Cara, and this was a pretty fun change of pace, Sandow’s aggression really helped the match.

Filsinger Games - Legends of Wrestling 2014

So yeah, here's an interesting little show. Basically, me and technology have never been the best of mates. I'm a bit of an old luddite at heart. But, I decided that it might save me time and money to start downloading shows rather than buying them. I got this from Smart Mark Video, and I basically chose it because it was the cheapest show I could find, and wanted to make sure I actually was able to download easily. As it turns out, I had no problem, so here is a very odd show. My research shows that Filsinger Games are a company who made a Legends of Wrestling card game, and seemingly put on this show to promote it. However, a look at the line-up will show that only Brutus Beefcake (and at a stretch Stevie Richards) fit the term "legend" - well, a little research revealed that Marty Jannetty was also due to appear, but no-showed in classic Marty fashion. Still, the rest of the show looks like an interesting enough curiosity...

Alex Reynolds, John Silver & Papadon vs Bill Collier, Brandon Thurston & Jimi The Flying Hippie

Pretty decent six man opener here. The heel team of Reynolds, Silver and Papadon all seemed pretty decent, especially considering the opening stages saw all three having to stooge about for Jimi. The Flying Hippie is a gimmick I’m almost pre-designed to hate, and he was pretty annoying. He seemed fine in the ring, bar a rolling senton to a bent-over Papadon that looked utterly painless. Papadon was probably my favourite guy in this, thought he sold well (including some wonderful stooging on a airplane spin), did some nice offensive touches like rebounding off the bottom two ropes to hit a low clothesline and did some fun shit-talking while on offense, which saw him eat a punch to the face. Thurston looked pretty green, bar a nice tilt-a-whirl into an armbar, so I was surprised to learn he was a 10-yr veteran at this point. The heels work heat on Thurston until Collier tags in, and he’s basically the world’s best Colin Cassady. Moves like a big guy, uses his weight and size to crash into people, and showed nice strength in holding all three heels up for a fallaway slam/Samoan drop combo. Everything breaks down with a string of finishers and Collier simply punches Reynolds in the face to knock him out for the win.

Stevie Richards vs Chuck Taylor

This was for Taylor’s 24/7 Kentucky Hardcore title. Stevie looks in fantastic shape here, looking really cut. Before the match starts, a fat Doink waddles out and rolls up Taylor to win the title. Stevie quickly gives him the Steviekick, and becomes the defending champion going into the match. This sets the tone for a really disjointed comedy match. There’s a load of terrible Taylor schtick at the start of this, which is really annoying, and it’s utterly infuriating how he can’t sell a move without pulling a stupid face or yelling at a fan. I like the way the commentators put over Richards’ hardcore experience to explain his dominance early, and he takes maybe the best bump on the show as he’s hurled through a chair into a bin. Stevie takes control again with some lovely punches, before the match totally drops off a cliff.

Basically, commentator Robert Evans enters the ring with a mic, explaining he’d made a deal with another promotion, and had a court order to stop the show. Because the middle of the match is the perfect time for that. Stevie rips up the paper, teams with Taylor to beat up Evans, then the match resumes. Just bafflingly bad booking to properly take me out of the match.

Anyway, the restart goes maybe two minutes. We get a ref bump, both guys hitting low blows, some guy in a mask hitting a DDT on Stevie, then Taylor retaining. Just a hotchpotch mess of a match, though Stevie looked really good. I don’t blame this shit on him.

Brutus Beefcake & John McChesney vs Bennett Cole & Rocky Reynolds

Right, let’s be honest to start: no, this isn’t a great match. Even in his prime, Beefcake wasn’t great and this is him aged 57, so it’s unlikely he’s going to be great here. But, to be fair, he also wasn’t terrible– he worked over the arm of Reynolds nicely, worked a double-team or two with McChesney, could still get his leg to face height to hit a big boot and, most importantly, looked happy to be there, and you can’t expect much more from him than that. Most of the match was Reynolds working McChesney, and that was pretty good. Reynolds was like a mix of Fritz von Erich and Crash Holly, small with a gravelly voice and a real fun presence in the ring. I thought he looked pretty good, loved little things like him selling his injured arm after hitting an ax-handle. Cole was a big fat guy, and his stuff looked pretty wimpy. At one point McChesney hits a top rope rana, which sees him land on the floor before Cole manages to take a bump, and that’s on Cole. I thought the Reynolds/McChesney segments were good, and Brutus tried, so I enjoyed this for what it was. The end saw Brutus lock the sleeper on Reynolds, drawing two associates of Reynolds’ manager into the ring for the DQ. The faces knock these two men out, and cut of their hair, which gives the show a crowd pleasing finish.