WWF Prime Time Wrestling 23/06/1986

Danny Spivey & Mike Rotundo vs The Moondogs

This is from the period where Spivey was replacing Barry Windham in the US Express. He’s obviously not as good, but this is in no way a bad match. Spivey and Rotundo control early, confusing Spot with some fun teamwork, and the Moondogs find it hard to get into the match until a blind tag lets Rex attack Rotundo from behind. The Moondogs make everything look painful here, with Rex in particular hitting some meaty elbowdrops. The heat is worked on Rotundo, who gets in a few hope spots with a crossbody and a sunset flip for nearfalls. A back suplex leads to a hot tag, with Spivey not exactly lighting things up with a weak swinging neckbreaker. Liked the ending though, as Rotundo hits an airplane spin on Rex and covers him, with Spivey standing guard against a frustrated Spot in the corner. Solid bout.

The Iron Sheik vs Pedro Morales

The commentary team are quick to remind that these are two former world champions, setting the “screwy finish” alarm bells ringing with this being the second match of the show. Gorilla and Lord Alfred also take great pleasure in fat shaming a fan who gets into a big argument with the Sheik. Indeed, arguing and stalling makes up a big part of what Sheik bring to this match. He keeps breaking up every Morales advantage by bailing, and only stays in the ring when he’s got control following an eye poke. Sheik mainly controls with cheap offence, raking the eyes, throwing Pedro to the floor and ramming him into the announce table. Camel Clutch is locked in, but Pedro gets to fight back and make the ropes. Pedro’s comeback is fun, he’s pretty fired up which especially contrasts with the Sheik’s offensive run. The end is inevitable though, as Sheik gets Morales’ foot tied in the ropes, refuses to stop attacking him and pushes the ref for a DQ.

Lord Littlebrook vs Cowboy Lang

Typical midget comedy match with some surprisingly nice moments from Littlebrook. You have to get passed the usual shit first, Lang biting the ref’s arse somehow not drawing a DQ, but Littlebrook looks to throw in some clubbing blows and a proper nice kneelift, before Lang pins him following a rolling cradle. Not worth watching.

George Wells vs Hoss Funk

Man, Wells must have pissed on Monsoon and Lord Al’s chips at some point, as they spend most of the match talking about his size, his ponderous lack of speed and how he’s definitely not winning the match. Wells does get to overpower Funk at first, but gets backed into a corner and Funk just takes over. It doesn’t last too long before Wells blocks a suplex, hits his own and they just seem to reset the match. Right back to Funk trying to shoulderblock Wells down, as he had at the start of the bout. Monsoon says that Wells “starts slow and gets slower”, before a Wells football tackle is greeted with a knee right to the face. Perfectly timed, it looked like it knocked Wells out. Wells does get one last impressive power spot, catching a top rope clothesline and hitting a backbreaker, but a 2^nd rope splash gets knees for the Funk win. Monsoon and Hayes crow at their earlier prediction.

Harley Race vs Lanny Poffo

Interesting match here, as it’s a massacre by Race that somehow lets Poffo come out of the match looking better than he went in. Poffo is competitive in the early going, avoiding a diving headbutt and kipping up into a side headlock takeover on Race. Harley soon take over, lovely gutwrench suplex is followed by a piledriver, with a foot on the rope saving Poffo. Outside the ring, Race hits a brainbuster on the concrete, which is pretty wild. Diving headbutt on the floor follows, as Hayes and Monsoon put over Poffo just for surviving this. Back in the ring, Race drops some nasty kneedrops on Poffo’s face, grinding the knee there. Lanny makes a brief comeback with a flying headscissors, but Race adjusts his balance on a second and drops him into a stungun. Fisherman Buster finally puts Poffo away. Really fun stuff.

George Steele vs Nikolai Volkoff

This…wasn’t so fun. Both are limited guys who can be fun with the right opponent, but against each other it’s not pretty stuff. Volkoff clubs away in an unexciting manner, before Steele charges himself up by eating a turnbuckle. Steele hits Volkoff with a foreign object and blocks a clothesline with a bit in an admittedly fun spot, but when Volkoff refuses to let him back in the ring, Steele bops him with a steel chair. Brief, but not brief enough.

Innovate Pro Wrestling - Regenesis

This is seemingly the last NWA Smokey Mountain show, as the company rebrands itself to Innovate Pro, and as such has a proper big show feel. There's the feeling of some matches being big blow offs and others being just the first chapter, but it's a really solidly booked show from start to finish.

Lenny Stratton vs Wayne Adkins

This was a decent little opener, both guys seem pretty impressive. Stratton is slightly larger, and was the aggressor in a lot of this match, really liked the combo of moves he hit with Adkins tied in the ropes, culminating in a flatliner draped from the second rope. He also showed great presence of mind when he turned into a handspring elbow from Adkins, as instead of just standing there to take the move, he sold a moment of confusion before walking into it. Adkins showed nice babyface fire on his comeback, had a string of nice punches. Stratton gets a close nearfall from an RKO, but a second try is reversed to a backslide for three.

The Cross Brothers (Aden & Christian Cross) vs The Jones Boyz (Hogan & Cooper Jones)

This is for the Jones Boyz NWA Smokey Mountain tag belts. Both teams seems like well-oiled machines, both showing nice teamwork from the start. Liked Hogan Jones hitting a crossbody in the corner, then staying there, held up on the middle ropes, to trap the opponent to allow Cooper to hit an enzuigiri. The Cross Brothers, based on the commentary, are working a “chip on their shoulders” gimmick, contrasting them with the Jones’, who are very popular with the crowd. Hogan especially seems like a really fun power wrestler, all high energy as he hits a big cannonball in the corner. The Jones Boyz look to be about to win with a Doomsday Device, but it’s stopped, leading to Cooper getting thrown off the top onto Hogan in a neat spot. The end sees Aden Cross go to get one of the belts, only to eat a huge spear from Hogan. However, he hits the belt, knocking himself out and giving the Cross Brothers the upset win. Good stuff here.

James Drake vs Kid Chaos

This is an open challenge, with Chaos answering Drake’s call. Drake seems really impressive, a big, thick no-nonsense looking chap. Chaos is a high-flyer, at times really impressively so, though he does almost flip himself out of the ring at one point. Loved Drake catching a plancha at ringside, hurling Chaos into the ropes to bounce back into a Drake forearm. Great spot. Chaos is really fast, which he needs to be in order to sell the story and be effective against Drake. You need to believe that this skinny guy moves quickly enough to befuddle this big beast of a man, and Chaos is good enough at that. Drake fully commits to missing a big moonsault, but Chaos misses a 450, getting up into a huge running boot and a double-underhook neckbreaker to give Drake the win. Good outing from both.

Rogue 6 (Jeff Connelly, Robert Laveau, Wild Bill & Travis Lee) vs Jason Kincaid, Chance Rizer, Garrett Coleman & Kyle Maverick

This is fought under lucha rules, which makes it a fast moving affair. The heel Rogue 6 group has apparently been plaguing Kincaid for months, so he’s brought in back up in the form of some newcomers to the promotion. The format of the match allows everyone to look good, as guys get in, hit their stuff and get out quickly. Even with that in mind, some guys stand out more than others. Wild Bill is a big fat guy in a mask, who moves really well and even gets an impressive bridge on a Northern Lights suplex. Coleman is another big chap, and he provides the full stop on a dive train by hitting his own big flip dive to the floor. There’s some sloppiness, but this is overall fun stuff, before Travis Lee gets the win with a falling slam on Coleman.

Caleb Courageous vs Chip Day

Really liked this, thought Chip Day looked terrific here. His range of kicks and running knees looked on point, coming in interesting combinations and from different angles, and he seemed to gradually be wearing Courageous down. They had their timing down pat on a few nice sequences, highlighted by Courageous kicking Day in the face from the apron, and Day turning back JUST in time to eat an Asai moonsault. Courageous wins a neat little sprint with a package piledriver, great showing from both men.

The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude & Rob Killjoy) vs The Brothermood (Myron Reed & Mickey Midas)

Another change of pace here, with this being a quick workrate tag match. These kind of matches live and die by the crispness of the spots and the continuity of the tag teams, and thankfully that was on show here. Loved how the Ducklings wore down Midas when they got control of him, hitting him with a quick succession of springboard moves. The dives in this looked great, Midas hitting a big tope, Reed taking people out with an incredible high leap, and one top rope sequence in particular looking great. Reed hits a frankly ludicrous top rope reverse rana on Killjoy, who bounces to his feet to eat a brainbuster from Midas, only for Lude to come off the top with a corkscrew moonsault for the save. Timing was vital to the success of that sequence, and they pulled it off. The Brotherhood get a convincing nearfall with stereo 450 splashes, but the Ducklings get the victory with Killjoy using his partner as a projectile to throw into both Brotherhood members for the win. This ticked all the boxes it needed to.

Devin Driscoll vs Rob Conway

Probably the weakest match on the show, though it’s more due to booking than performance. Very short affair that sees the two men brawling on the floor, another well-chosen change of pace. Just a big slugfest. Driscoll’s stablemates The Illuminati come out to help him, leading to Driscoll missing everyone and faceplanting on the floor on a dive. Back in and a sloppy looking cutter gives Driscoll the win.

The Illuminati (Austin Tyler Morris, Chris Richards & Jordan Kage) vs The Heatseakers (Elliott Russell & Sigmon) & Axton Ray

This carries on from the last match, with the face trio coming out to stop the Illuminati doing more damage. They manage to isolate Tyler Morris, working him over whilst exchanging some quick tags. Axton Ray is probably the standout of the match, he’s a totally unassuming looking character, but he’s really impressive, with great movement and crisp looking offence. Sigmon becomes face in peril, with Richards being the least impressive member of his team. He’s a big guy, but he hits some really wimpy looking headbutts, where you can see clear air between his head and Sigmon’s. There’s a wonderful false tag, where Sigmon gets cuts off at just the last second. The actual hot tag dissolves things into a fun melee, before Ray gets crotched on the top rope, allowing Kage to hit a rainmaker paydirt for the victory.

Toby Farley vs Timmy Lou Retton

This is for the vacant IPW United States title, and through a slightly muffled pre-match promo, we get both guys agreeing to fight to a finish, effectively wiping out stoppages, DQs and countouts. From there, we go to a big brawl, and this is great from the get-go. Loved the absolute height on Retton’s big boot, hitting Farley square in the face. Farley hits a big powerslam right on the hard floor, which looked painful. Retton seems really good, he filled the match with lots of fun touches, like kicking Farley in the head whilst lying on his back after a two count. Fun little sequence where Farley hits a belly-to-back suplex, which seemingly knocks out Retton. The commentary team mention that this move concussed Retton before, and we get a full on “X” angle, complete with glassy eyed sell by Retton. The rules, established earlier, means the match doesn’t get stopped, and Retton suddenly reveals it to be a ruse by charging for Farley. In a nice twist on the “playing possum” spot, Farley is a babyface who isn’t a complete idiot, being aware enough to side step and hit Retton with another belly-to-back suplex. Retton does get control, and claws away at Farley’s mouth, pulling it apart twice in a way that is played up as having broken Farley’s jaw. In a beautiful pro-wrestling moment, Farley rolls to the floor and tapes his jaw shut. Retton wisely focuses his attack on the jaw, nailing some big uppercuts and a jawbreaker. Loved how this match was built, with moves being sold enough to give everything some meaning. At one point, with Retton fully in control, he hits a swinging neckbreaker from the second rope that should finish off Farley, but landing on the back of his head causes HIM some pain after eating the two earlier suplexes, delaying his cover just long enough for Farley to kick out. A lovely looking running knee to the face only gets two for Farley. In the end, Retton’s own impatience costs him, as he rolls to the floor to get a trophy to use as a weapon. He swings, he misses and Farley plants him with another belly-to-back suplex in one quick motion. Another running knee, this time with the kneepad off (great touch) gets the win. Really terrific bout. Loved the build and the storytelling throughout.

NYWC Sideshow 2018

This show is the last stop before Psycho Circus, the annual show headlined by the eponymous titular match, equal parts Wargames and Cage of Death. The matches here build up nicely to the show, a lot to enjoy in this one.

Bull James vs Johnny Radke

This is part of a “Pick Your Poison” deal, with Alex Reynolds and James picking opponents for each other before their title match at Psycho Circus. At first, I thought James was selling disinterest, working over the leg of Radke whilst looking uncommitted, but then I realised he was showing his reluctance to hurt Radke. There’s no commentary, so James has to get this story over purely with his facial expressions, and he achieves this, including some fun bits where Radke tries to escape from the mat, only for James to casually down him again. By the end, James realises he’s got to finish it, and swats away an attempted top rope crossbody by Radke, and finishes with a seated senton. Nice bit of storytelling.

Alex Reynolds vs John Silver

As a counterpoint, James has chosen Reynolds’ long time tag partner to face him, and Silver looks fired up. I saw at the start that this match was 17 minutes long, and I had a bit of trepidation. I like both guys, but Reynolds is particular has had a few off matches in my NYWC watching, and I wasn’t sure they could fill the time entertainingly. So, it was a real relief that this was really fun. Reynolds has an entourage of Rick Cataldo, King Mega and Blake Morris, and they wisely work a bit early on where the three get evicted from ringside following some interference, which keeps the rest of the bout from being filled with cheap interference. I liked how both men seemed to know what the other was about to do, part of them knowing each other so well. Silver hits some nice throws during the match, using his diminutive stature to get underneath Reynolds and sending him flying. Both have some nice offensive moments, like Silver blocking a sunset flip by holding the ropes, using them to drag Reynolds into position then hitting a big double stomp. Meanwhile, Reynolds nicely chains a side Russian legsweep into a crossface. Silver has real nice execution on his moves, some nice snap to his uppercuts. The end sees Cataldo coming back out to distract the ref, and I loved the nearfall as Silver takes out the rest of the returning entourage, only to get rolled up for two. Reynolds hits a Stundog Millionaire and locks in another crossface for the tap. Really good stuff.

Beer Belly Bandits (JT Kasin, General Romero & Bo Pritchard) vs Anthony LaCerra, Jesse Vane & Joey Conway

Neat six man tag, thought this was a heap of fun. I’m really high on LaCerra and Vane, think both guys have great athleticism and move really well, coupled with really nice looking offence. Loved the height Vane gets on a pop up dropkick. The heat gets worked on Kasin, with some nice Born & Bred double teams. Loved LaCerra holding a leglock on Kasin to allow Vane to hit a springboard splash, just solid tag team wrestling. First time I’ve seen Conway, and whilst he was notably a step below his partners, he looked fine. LaCerra and Vane hit nice simultaneous kicks on Kasin, and LaCerra looks good chaining moves on Kasin, not giving him time to recover. Pritchard gets the hot tag, moves really well for a big man, but he gets distracted by LaCerra wielding a beer, and a dual superkick to the head finishes him off.

Benson Brothers vs The Rep vs Punk Relics vs Matt Striker & Tinder Tom

Bit of a mess this one. This match would have been improved tenfold if the Striker/Tom team wasn’t a part. Really didn’t like Tom from the start. He looks like a scrawnier Colin Delaney, one of his first acts was to dry hump the mat, then he ends up in some “hilarious” accidental 69 positions with Striker. Even aside from that, the work from the other teams looked a bit sloppy in places, though all three teams also did bits I liked. I just feel like any combination of the three good teams in a 2-on-2 match for the same amount of time would have been better. The Bensons win with CJ flipping Brad into a moonsault on Striker for the win.

Matt Tremont & G-Raver vs Aiden Baal & Mouse

This is a lot of fun. Because Baal is the only credible member of his team, Mouse takes a fun beating at different points in the match. Loved the huge Samoan drop Tremont hits on him, and because Mouse has an appropriate rattiness about him, it’s really entertaining watching him take a beating.. Baal doesn’t do anything fancy on offence, but what he does looks really good. Really solid looking elbow drops. The heat gets worked on G-Raver, with Mouse’s cameo not looking too bad, before G-Raver hits a diving DDT on Baal to make the hot tag. Tremont looks great coming in, battering Mouse before blasting the heels with a great double clothesline. He hits a Death Valley Driver on Mouse ONTO Baal, and G-Raver hits a swanton for three. Really liked this.

Willow Nightingale vs Vanity

This works for the most part. There are some awkward exchanges, a few moments where they almost seem to pause as if to remember what to do next, but there’s also a lot here to like. Willow is really good in the early stages at selling her frustration when Vanity is getting the better of her. Willow messes up Vanity’s hair after an exchange, which felt like a good way of taking control of someone with that moniker. Vanity has some good looking offence, and I like how she controlled her focus on one area, clubbing at the back of Willow. She maintains this control with a decent looking camel clutch. Willow hits a nice spinebuster, not much elevation on it, but it looks like she’s trying to drive Vanity into the mat. The match winning DVD for Nightingale feels like it comes out of nowhere, but on the whole I enjoyed this.

Stockade, Devon Moore & Terra Calaway vs Bam Sullivan, Jeff Cannonball & Victoria von Black

This is a Doorway to Hell match, which means there are a load of doors in the ring with sharp objects attached to throw your opponents into. The winning team gets the advantage in the forthcoming Psycho Circus match, though I didn’t know this until it was announced after the match. Which is good, because that would have given away who was going to win. With this acting as almost a preview to that match, they don’t give everything away, but the spots we do get are still pretty nasty, no half arsing it here. Moore gets brutally slammed through a door with jagged metal sticking out by Cannonball, but is able to use his speed advantage to evade the big man and in return dropkick Cannonball into a door with sliced up beer cans poking through. There’s no real story, with people fighting on the floor while a member of each team does battle in the ring, but it’s a fun spectacle. Stockade looks great, love how he uses his weight to add to his moves. His bulldog looks like he’s really dragging opponents to the floor, and his Shining Wizard looks deadlier when a man that size is flying at you. More fun spots follow, Sullivan getting backdropped into a door covered in carpet strips and Cannonball crushing Stockade with a full weight cannonball. The women aren’t highlighted much until the finish, where Calaway goes to slam von Black onto light tubes, only for Cannonball to punch her, causing her to fall backwards onto the lights, von Black landing on top for the win. Man, I really can’t wait for the Psycho Circus match.

ECW Hardcore TV #33 23/11/1993

Kevin Sullivan vs Keith Scherer

Basically a violent mugging from Sullivan. He attacks the hapless Scherer before the bell, battering him with weapons outside the ring, then corner-charging him three times and hitting a double stomp for victory.

Tony Stetson & Johnny Hotbody vs JT Smith & the Sandman

Smith is still recovering from his injured knee that was exacerbated by Terry Funk, so Sandman is reluctant to tag him in. The heel team of Stetson and Hotbody are really solid here, tagging and double-teaming quickly as they work over the Sandman. Sandman gets the odd poor looking roll up, but the heels start to focus on his leg. JT manages to tag himself in, still limping, and I loved Hotbody locking on a spinning toehold to ape Smith’s former mentor. Sandman finds himself forced to tag back in, and the end sees a second attempt at a cane shot by Hunter Q Robbins (the first was no sold, probably by accident) give Hotbody and Stetson the win.

Mr Hughes vs Kyle Scherer

Apparently this is the twin brother of Keith from earlier in the show, but the cynic in me thinks this is just jobber recycling. Scherer has some exaggerated selling, throwing air punches after taking a big blow. Hughes dominates and pins with a sidewalk slam.

Tommy Cairo vs Chris Michaels

Worked as a face vs face match. We get the good and very bad of Tommy Cairo in this match, as he hits a nice running elbow in the corner on Michaels, but then a lot of sloppy moves – awkward missed clothesline, poor running dropkick. The less said about his Thesz Press, the better. Michaels looks far better in control, his execution is really crisp in comparison. However, two back suplexes give Cairo the win. Nothing bout.

NOAH Global Tag League 2018 Final - 11/04/2018

Yoshinari Ogawa vs Junta Miyawaka

Clipped version of a match that apparently only goes 5 mins anyway. Ogawa works over the arm of Miyawaka in some fun, torturous ways. Miyawaka comes back with some token basic offence, but Ogawa grabs the arm on at attempted sunset flip and cranks an overhead hammerlock to win.

Akitoshi Saito vs Masao Inoue vs Seiya Morohashi

Another clipped match, but what’s shown is fun. Saito and Inoue pretty much team up on Morohashi, but you can tell Saito has no respect for Inoue and is constantly undermining him. At times he even sabotages the best intentions of Inoue, helping Morohashi avoid a sunset flip by pushing him downward onto Inoue. It feels like Saito knows he can win if he just gets Inoue in the ring alone, and he does, hitting a standing enzuigiri for the victory.

Cody Hall & Kazma Sakamoto vs Maybach Taniguchi & Mitsuya Nagai

I’ve actually seen Sakamoto live, very much a “what’s this guy doing here?” situation, as he fought El Ligero in the first of a back-to-back double bill of shows. Strangely, he only wrestled on one show, you’d have thought that he’d be on both after the expense of flying him into Britain. This kicks off with a brawl that sees all four on the outside. Sakamoto takes a big bump to the floor, which warms him to me, but then takes a really wussy bump hitting a low angle suplex. We clip to a 2-1 situation back in the ring, with Sakamoto nowhere to be seen. Hall looked to have really soft blows at the start of the match, but he really lays his stuff in at this point, discus clothesline looks great. However, he’s overmanned, eating a top rope headbutt from Nagai, a top rope splash from Taniguchi, then Taniguchi hits the weakest move of the match – a kind of waistlock version of the Edgeomatic – for the win.

Hitoshi Kumano vs YO-HEY

YO-HEY is instantly annoying to look at. He looks like he should be running some wacky YouTube channel where he pranks unsuspecting members of the public, who just want to go on with their day without a colourfully haired idiot making life more difficult. He’s not much offensively, hitting a few decent kicks but not much else. Kumano seems really great though. Loved him hitting an STO into a back-breaker, then focusing on the back for the rest of the match. Nasty clubbing blows to the back, catching YO-HEY in mid air for another backbreaker, then hitting a vicious looking straightjacket into a backbreaker that really feels like the end. Sadly, YO-HEY gets the win with a pair of knees to the face from nowhere, but Kumano feels like a guy I want to see more off.

Minoru Tanaka vs Tadasuke

Disappointingly clipped quite a few times, in really obvious places that totally change the momentum of the match. One guy will get hit with a move, only for him to be on his feet with his opponent on the mat within a second. What we do get looks pretty good. Tanaka uses the upper thigh of Tadasuke as his focus, hitting dropkicks just above the knee and using a swift kick when he needs to regain control. Tadasuke hits a pair of huge clotheslines, at one point covering Tanaka so excitedly that he pulls his shoulders off the mat. Tadasuke picks up Tanaka in a torture rack, but Tanaka slips free and locks in a leglock for the win.

Hajime Ohara vs HAYATA

Ohara and HAYATA are tag partners to Kumano and YO-HEY respectively, and Ohara seems to be having an easier time of it that his partner did. He controls HAYATA pretty easily on the mat, including a nice Boston crab variation. HAYATA tried a handspring elbow that didn’t have enough reach on it, basically forcing Ohara to walk into the move after HAYATA was clearly about to fall short. His strikes are also a bit weak looking, so it’s lucky that Ohara picks up the slack for the match. Like Kumano, he has a nice assortment of back breakers, hitting ones from a full Nelson and from over his shoulder. He gets the win with a half crab, be interested in seeing more of his team with Kumano.

Hi69 vs Daisuke Harada

Haven’t seen a Hi69 match in about 15 years. Really liked how this started, Hi69 hitting a tope before Haruda is even in the ring, nailing a running kick inside for two, then immediately trying a second for another two, before Haruda rolls outside to catch his readjust. They have a fun brawl outside, Haruda hitting a suplex onto a pile of chairs on the floor before he even gets a chance to take off his hoodie. Back inside, Haruda manages to look more in control, one step ahead of Hi69, who is forced to resort to quick pin attempts to sneak a win. Liked Harada hitting a cradle neckbreaker onto his knee. The tide turns with a ref bump, that allows Hi69 to bring a table into the mix, hitting a big splash from the top to the floor through it. Back inside, a top rope splash only gets two, the ref still recovering, but a high angle Michinoku Driver gives Hi69 the win.

Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya & Quiet Storm vs Atsushi Kotege, Mohammed Yone & Naomichi Marufuji

So this is a pretty fun little six man. Quiet Storm seems to have properly bulked out since I last saw him a decade ago, and somehow this makes him look even shorter. He’s matched in the meathead caveman stakes though by Kitamiya, a burly looking beast who isn’t opposed to hitting a backfist against the ropes. Nakajima and Marufuji manage to have a strike exchange that’s pretty fun, with Nakajima proving himself to be a bit smarter by using kicks, wearing down Marufuji a lot quicker than Marufuji is doing to him with strikes. The kicks are really thudding too, looked really great. Yone and Kotege kind of highlight how good it was by having a far less interesting one moments later. Kitamiya catches a Kotege crossbody and turns it into a Samoan Drop, which looks great. Everything breaks down and Kotege hits Storm with a series of weak kicks and the Killswitch for the victory. Fun stuff.

Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kenou & Takashi Sugiura

This is the final of the Global Tag League, and I’ll be honest, this didn’t work for me. Just felt like far too much of the match was given to excessive non-selling of moves or needlessly overlong strike exchanges. I understand that this is part of the house style, but when Sugiura can catch a charging Shiozaki flush in the face with a knee, only for Shiozaki to wave it off like nothing happened, it doesn’t feel entertaining. Despite this, there were bits I liked, mainly from the Kenou/Shuiura team. Shugiura is a powerful looking bull of a man, with some nice looking strikes (when sold), and I did enjoy him ending one of many chop exchanges by just slugging Shiozaki in the face. He also hit a delayed vertical suplex from the second rope, which looked terrific, and his clotheslines all looked like they’d take a man’s head off. Kenou, for his part, had nice movement, hit some nice kicks from interesting positions and seemed like he was trying to make a struggle of the match. When Kiyomiya tried for a Tiger suplex, Kenou refused to give up his arm, forcing Kiyomiya to really work for it. Kiyomiya had some very non-hurty looking offence, but he seemed harmless enough. The end sequence is pretty hot, with guys coming in at the last moment to break nearfalls, before Shiozaki finishes Kenou with a clothesline, but as a whole there isn’t much substance.