WWE Mae Young Classic 2018 - Semi Finals

Toni Storm vs Meiko Satomura

Not a surprise that this match was pretty terrific. Even Satomura’s headlock takeover was a struggle, and their mat exchanges had a real sense that neither wanted to yield. Toni isn’t afraid to lay her stuff in here, with a big boot and nasty kicks, but Meiko is even more brutal, just laying into Storm’s legs with a series of vicious kicks, grounding her. Loved the leg lariat that just sees Satomura flying off the ropes. Like Storm locking Meiko into an STF as soon as she gets an advantage, knowing she needs to wear her down as much as she can. She holds it a long time, and suddenly Satomura is in trouble. Storm really goes for it on this opening, hitting a corner charge and a huge suicide dive, but Satomura plants her with a DDT and hits a flipping kick for two. We get a collection of believable nearfalls from both – Storm Zero from Toni, DVD from Satomura, Scorpion Kick from Satomura – with each feeling like the end. Eventually, Toni reverses another DVD attempt to her second Storm Zero to get the win. Loved this.

Rhea Ripley vs Io Shirai

Huge coming out party for Ripley here, she looked like she belonged with Io, didn’t look outclassed at all. Ripley over-powers Shirai early, rag-dolling her about and hitting some really big shots. Loved her punches to the ribs and kicks. Ripley locking on a stomach claw thrilled me, and she hit a tremendous delayed suplex. Loved the flurry of nasty forearms Io hit to break a body-scissors, needed to look convincing to wear down the larger Ripley. Io hits a sudden rana on a rope running exchange, followed by a suicide dive and a big missile dropkick, that Ripley sells big but also believably. She manages to stumble into place for the dropkick without it looking massively contrived. Rhea hits a great superplex, shows incredible balance on the top rope, but Io escapes a pumphandle and hits the corner knees and the moonsault to win. Really great stuff.

WWE Main Event 02/09/2014

Dolph Ziggler vs Damien Sandow

This is JIP after a Miz TV segment goes awry. I remember these two matching up surprisingly well earlier in the year, and there’s another decent Sandow performance here. He’s got some decent aggression going on, liked his elbows to the neck of a downed Ziggler, as well as stopping him dead with a short back elbow to the face. Sandow does some token arm work before Ziggler comes back with some poor punches, clear air showing between his fists and Sandow’s torso. Sandow tries a figure four, gets kicked off into the turnbuckle, and eats a Zig Zag for the three count in a nice little sequence. Essentially harmless, but unmemorable.

Natalya & Rosa Mendes vs Summer Rae & Layla

God bless Summer Rae, she tries her hardest to make it look like Rosa is doing some damage to her, flying all over for some entry-level armdrags. I think this is the match that was shown on Total Divas where Rosa tried to manufacture a wardrobe malfunction to gain some notoriety, as Layla grabs her by the trunks to prevent her getting in the ring, with the camera suddenly switching angles to avoid showing a full moon. Summer and Layla are a lot of fun on offence, showing some meanness towards Rosa, including an Irish Whip into a neat Summer Rae clothesline. Natalya comes in after a missed Summer legdrop, and runs through her usual offence in a pretty straightforward manner. However, Rosa blind tags back in, and eats a big Layla superkick for the loss. Watchable, almost entirely due to the heel team.

Goldust & Stardust vs Los Matadores

This kind of match is why you sit through the previous stuff, the chance to see 15 minutes of Goldust and the Colons going at it. El Torrito isn’t there, due to a previous post match assault by the Rhodes’, and Los Matadores are suitably aggressive in the opening stages, plastering Stardust. Los Matadores in fact control a lot of the early going on both Rhodes brothers, loved Fernando blocking a sunset flip and stomping on Goldust’s arm to give them a focal point. Ferndando backdrops Diego to the floor onto the Rhodes’, with the heel team unable to get into second gear. Eventually, Stardust pulls Goldust out of the way of a cornersplash to give his team a prolonged advantage. Goldust looks good in control, even dropping a sarcastic “Ole” along the way, before the hot tag to Diego. Looks great coming in too, hitting a neat elbow to the head of Stardust to stun him, before rolling him up for two. Nice top rope cannonball, but Goldust distracts from the apron and Diego turns round into a STO to give them the win. Not quite the tag masterclass you’d hope for, but a nice bit of storytelling with the aggression of the Matadores making them more dominant than usual and controlling of the match.

WWE Mae Young Classic 2018 Quarter Finals

Meiko Satomura vs Lacey Lane

This was the match it needed to be. Lane is vastly under-powered against Meiko, but is able to use her speed and obvious agility to avoid some big shots early on. Unfortunately, she then refuses a handshake and gets kicked to fuck for her disrespect. Lane misses a kick pretty badly, looked like she was never going to hit Meiko with it, but she does look good evading a flurry of offence and hitting a neat crossbody for two. Ultimately though, Satomura is too good, she kicks the crap out of Lane and gets the pin.

Io Shirai vs Deonna Purrazzo

I thought this was fine, but there’s bits that also didn’t work for me. Shirai lands on her feet from a flying headscissors, as per the first round Brookside match, but it looked less impressive her as Purrazzo barely grazed her with the move. Shirai is quick as can be though, and she ploughs through Purrazzo with a suicide dive, and I loved her rolling through a takedown right into a double stomp. Part of the problem with the match is with the layout – twice Shirai gets locked in Purrazzo’s Fujiwara armbar, and twice Shirai is able to reverse it to a crossface. Escaping Purrazzo’s signature move once was fine, but twice seems a bit of overkill especially as Shirai has to use the injured arm to hold onto the crossface. It doesn’t feel like a match Purrazzo is going to win, and it comes to pass as Shirai hits another overshot moonsault for the win. I really like both, but this was underwhelming.

Tegan Nox vs Rhea Ripley

If that was underwhelming, this was heart-wrenching. As someone who has seen Nox live countless times, from playing T-Bone’s sister in a long-forgotten angle in HOPE to having one of the best intergender matches I’ve ever seen with Chris Brookes in Fight Club Pro last year, I was more invested in her performance this year than anyone elses, especially with her injury keeping her out last year. So for her tournament to end in this fashion was horrible. Bless her for trying to continue after injuring her leg on the suicide dive, and huge kudos to Ripley for maintaining character, not getting lost and carrying on as everything they would have had planned changed. This was a hard watch.

Toni Storm vs Mia Yim

I had high hopes for this, and it ended up being another match that didn’t live up to my expectations. The opening stages just felt like a bunch of strikes from both women, with nothing really linking it all together. I do think Storm had a good performance as things went along though. Kicking Yim in the injured hand looked neat, and she laid in a nasty headbutt. The leg-trapped German suplex she hit looked choice, and I liked that she again went to the bad hand in the finish, as it caused Yim enough pain that she could slip behind and hit a German suplex, followed by a Tiger Driver for the victory. These were all good moments, and the match itself wasn’t bad, it just didn’t feel as important as I’d maybe expected.

WWE Main Event 26/08/2014

Rob Van Dam vs Seth Rollins

This isn’t particularly good, but it ends up being much better than the nightmare that it looks like on paper. The early signs aren’t good, with Van Dam rolling into the world’s slowest dropdown on a rope running exchange, but he hits a great sudden kick in the corner, and a pescado that looks more impactful because of how ungraceful it looks. It’s just RVD hurling his body at Rollins without any concerns about it looking good. Both guys do some token arm work, with both throwing their opponent shoulder first into the corner, though this focus doesn’t get paid off by either guy. RVD gets pushed from the top to the floor, bumping huge, whilst a half-hearted (and very untrue) “This is awesome” chant starts. Rollins chucks RVD into the barricades, but Van Dam reverses an attempt to send him into the timekeeper area, sending Rollins instead, and RVD wins via count out. Functional stuff.

Curtis Axel vs Adam Rose

This was actually pretty decent, almost entirely due to Axel. You’d never build a promotion round the guy, but he’s able to make six minute C-show matches against questionable talent seem interesting. Here, he hits some nice punches, a great boomerang clothesline, and really works in a deep chinlock, making Rose carry his weight, working the hold. Rose hits a decent spinbuster to comeback, as well as a sloppy leaping rana, and Axel fully commits to a missed corner splash to set up the Party Foul for the Rose win.

Los Matadores vs Stardust & Goldust

This will have been filmed before the Raw where the Rhodes’ turned heel on the Usos, so this is ostensibly fought as face-vs-face, with both teams getting hot tags. This is a fun sprint, with a great performance by Goldust running thoughout. He looks terrific as the hot tag after the Matadors control Stardust with some nice double-teams. Goldust hits a great bunch of fired up clotheslines, his lovely scoop slam, and an elbow from the corner, where it feels like he really whips back into his opponents face.  Stardust does a corny exaggerated sell of a chinbreaker to let Diego tag in, and he’s great, full of energy, until he misses a top rope cannonball. A Stardust flatliner gets the win, neat little tag sprint.

Mae Young Classic 2018 - Round 2 #2

Zeuxis vs Io Shirai

This was a better showing for Zeuxis than her first round match, she looked nicely aggressive and the equal of Shirai here. Neat fast rope running exchange ends with Zeuxis baseball dropkicking Io off the apron with full force into her shoulder. I liked this, Shirai had steamrolled her way through her first round match, this was she started the match with a disadvantage. Shirai hits a nice handstand knees to the face and a nice suicide dive, but her crossface is easily broken by Zeuxis thanks to the bad wing. Zeuxis misses a moonsault with a nice thud, and her Spanish Fly is reversed to a top rope rana. Overshot moonsault gets the win for Io, and this was nice stuff.

Xia Li vs Deonna Purrazzo

Xia Li is legit, guys. Considering her experience levels, she looks tremendous here. Her first round match had seen her work in some neat kung fu, but here she bumped like a boss, faceplanting on a drop toehold, and nailed some lovely looking moves. Some neat strikes, good legdrops and a really great elbow drop. She also hit a great kick from the second rope. Purrazzo wisely focuses her attack on the arm to set up the armbar, she hits a great divorce court. Li escapes an armbar by rolling though to a cradle for two, but her aggressiveness proves to be her downfall. She kicks Purrazzo from the corner, but dives off the top into an armbar and Purrazzo locks in a Rings of Saturn to get the tap. Really loved this.

Tegan Nox vs Nicole Matthews

The shortest match of the show, and Matthews suffered from wardrobe issues again (despite it being a different outfit, hard not to feel sorry for her). Nox dives right into a forearm from the floor in the opening stages, made it look like she wasn’t expecting it. Matthews hits nasty kicks on the apron, as well as a big clothesline and a neat Northern Lights suplex. Nox hits a vicious headbutt (complete with woozy sell) and a great Wild Boar style cannonball, before the shiniest wizard gets the win. Good little sprint.

Kaitlyn vs Mia Yim

Hey, Mia Yim’s phantom hand injury returns. Despite suffering no ill-effects from chopping the post during her first round match, they’ve seemingly decided to run with it as a story point here. Kaitlyn looked great here, loved her sliding clothesline and her bodyscissors, due to the muscularity of her legs, made it look deadly. Yim starts working Kaitlyn’s leg after a missed baseball slide, and you can see the bruising on the thigh after a bunch of nasty kicks. Yim hits some punches with the “bad hand”, but when she punches the mat, Kaitlyn really goes to work on it, wrenching it backwards in a manner not previously seen on this apparently devastating injury. It looked nasty from Kaitlyn, and actually made it feel like a real disadvantage. Yim hits a shaky Eat Defeat for two, and a great looking Kaitlyn spear also only gets two. Kaitlyn misses a stomp on the hand, and Yim takes her down, locking on a kneebar for the submission. Thought Kaitlyn looked great here, hope it’s not just a brief return.

Pro Wrestling Ontario: Iron Cup - The Unveiling

I love Powerbomb.TV. It's lovely to have access to so many fun looking indies at my fingertips, but the only hard part is selecting which of their vast catalogue of shows to watch at any one time. This show, which feature only guys I'd never heard of, I picked purely because Mrs NotJayTabb and I went to Ontario on holiday this year, and I thought it'd be neat to see what their wrestling scene was like.

Liam Worldwide vs Mark Shaw vs Matthew Grant vs Shane Sabre

The deal here is that there are two elimination four-way matches, with the last two in each match moving onto the semi finals for the Openweight title. Grant is billed as the “Undeniable Underdog”, and he’s a pretty small guy, highlighted by his baggy vest which just hangs off him. In contrast, Shaw is a big bearded burly guy, who looks like a bruiser. Lots to enjoy here, loved Grant hitting a nice flying headscissors on Sabre, and he also eats offence well, crashing into the turnbuckle at full whack. Enjoyed the fun spot where Shaw was trying to hit a sunset flip on Worldwide, who was grabbing the ropes to prevent it, only for Sabre and Grant to hit a slingshot on Shaw, sending his head flying into Worldwide’s crotch. Also dug Sabre hitting a draping DDT on Worldwide, who was hanging off the back of Shaw. The end comes quickly, as Shaw hits a Fisherman Buster on Worldwide and Grant almost immediately rolled up Sabre to leave Shaw and Grant as the last two men standing.

Eric Rosecroft vs Corey Stone vs BMD vs Jake O’Reilly

Another fun fourway, thought all four guys seemed – at worst – decent. This started amusingly, as Stone decides to charge BMD, and runs right into a clothesline and a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. O’Reilly is working an angry Irish gimmick, and he seems to be a fun little powerhouse wrestler, and his kneedrops to Rosecroft look nasty. He also works a fun variation on the Arn Anderson ducked punch DDT, in this case hitting a piledriver on Rosecroft for a three count. Stone tries to challenge O’Reilly, who sets up the piledriver again, only for BMD to nail him with a flying kick to send himself and the hapless Stone through to the semi finals.

Steve Brown vs Taylor Kay Deen

Brown is a huge bulky guy with the nickname “Bonecrusher”, whilst Kay Deen is a lean cruiserweight, so you have in your mind a template for how you hope this match will be fought. They pretty much keep to this, which makes for a neat match, as power-vs-speed, cat-and-mouse is a hard formula to mess up. Kay Deen takes the fight to Brown right away, hitting big kicks in the corner, thwarting Brown’s comebacks by evading him, nailing a nice running knee, but ultimately getting caught with a uranage from the corner. Brown keeps it simple on offence, with kicks and elbows grounding Kay Deen. Brown goes for the back after reversing a sunset flip attempt into an Irish Curse, then bends Kay Deen’s spine over his knee. Loved Kay Deen using his relative flexibility to kick Brown in the head from this position to make his comeback. Nice diving knees from the top gets him two, but Brown catches a second top rope dive and nails a Baldo Bomb for the win. Really effective match, put both men over. The post match sees Brown demanding a five count from the ref, not getting it, and continuing his assault to ultimately get the decision reversed in one of those pointless “the face won, but obviously not really” results.

Mark Shaw vs Corey Stone

Squash match to make Shaw look dominant and fresher going into the final. Stone gets token offence but Shaw flattens him and pins him after a Fisherman Buster.

BMD vs Matthew Grant

Both guys impressed in the first round, and this was maybe the match of the card. BMD has a size advantage over Grant, who gets in the odd underdog flurry. BMD catches a crossbody with a nice stomachbuster, but Grant gets to hit a big codebreaker, sending BMD to the floor, and follows it up with a top rope dive. A frogsplash gets two, but a second codebreaker is blocked and smoothly transitioned into a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. BMD seems firmly in control, but he missed an impressive looking 450 splash, and Grant cradles him for the victory.

Nick Watts vs JT Kirk

This was ok, but had a few clunky moments. Loved Watts pulling up Kirk’s t-shirt over his head as if for chops, then just punching him unsighted in the face. Watts grinds a knee into the back of a seated Kirk, then grabs his face by the jaw to yank his head back. So that’s all good. Less good was Kirk’s comeback, not because it was necessarily badly executed (though his face first suplex was a bit sloppy), but it took this match that felt like a Watts showcase and put him on the defensive for a reasonable period of time. The match had started after Watts had come out to confront an injured Justin Sane, clearly to build up to a match between the two, then he’s suddenly on the defensive against a guy he’s easily dominated. Watts blocks a Sliced Bread attempt, and nails a massive DDT for the win. I still came out of this wanting to see more Watts.

Mark Shaw vs Matthew Grant

This was short, but effective, paying off the story from throughout the show. Shaw, fresher and stronger, just beasts Grant. Lovely show of strength as he deadlifts Grant from the mat and nails a fallaway slam. He hits a Death Valley Driver, but picks up Grant at two. A big DDT also sees him picking up Grant at two. Finally, Shaw goes for a Fisherman Buster, but Grant escapes and rolls him up for the win and the title. Grant, the underdog, cradling and rolling up his way through the night to the title kinda works for him, taking advantage of the breaks when they came to him and capitalising on the complacency of his opponents. Fitting end to the show

WWE Super-Showdown 2018

Having this big WWE show take place in Australia was lovely for me, living in the UK. I got up at a reasonable time on Saturday, made some toast and a brew, and could just settle down to watch some wrestling. Lots of people called this a glorified house-show, which may not be inaccurate, but house-shows are generally great, just solid no-nonsense wrestling, so I was looking forward to this show. The end result was a show that wasn't groundbreaking, but was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

The Bar vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)

Perfectly decent opener, solidly entertaining stuff. The New Day put forward their quickest team, and they spend the opening stages showing nice flowing teamwork until both get caught on dives by the Bar, and rammed into ringposts. Sheamus nicely stops the 10 Beats halfway through to stop the crowd singing along in a neat heat-gathering spot. Woods gets a nice flurry when he comes in off the tag, but rushes straight into an Irish Curse from Sheamus, which looked great. The Bar have some neat power spots, including Sheamus throwing Woods into a Cesaro uppercut. A Cesaro sharpshooter looks to have things won for the Bar, but Kofi saves and a fun Kofi top rope stomp onto a Woods backcracker gets the pin on Cesaro. Good stuff.

Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair

Both show some nice aggression early on, with Lynch yanking Flair from the ring by her arm (Charlotte splats on the floor, nasty bump). Loved Becky’s tilt-a-whirl into an armbar, with her cruelly torqueing back Charlotte’s fingers. This obviously is to set up the DisArmHer, but Charlotte does less work to set up for the Figure 8. She does a little – at one point stomping Becky’s leg when it’s stuck on the middle rope – but not very much, feels like it’s just being done to pay lipservice to her finisher. Flair’s spear looks like it folds Becky in half, prompting her to try and leave with the title, but Charlotte stops this with a second huge spear. The Figure 8 gets locked in, but Becky hits her in the leg with the title for the DQ. Disappointing finish aside, this was decent.

John Cena & Bobby Lashley vs Elias & Kevin Owens

Obviously, a lot of the post-match talk has revolved around Cena’s sensible dad hair and the fact he wasn’t allowed to bump because of a film he’s shooting, but I thought that kinda helped the match, made the build up to his hot tag feel greater. Lashley taking most of the heat is awkward, because he’s still not over enough to draw any sympathy from the audience, but I thought he was good here (really odd looking Thesz Press aside). He takes offence big here, bumping nastily through the ropes from a missed spear and taking a full-on Owens frog splash. Owens and Elias make a nice team, and Cena’s finally getting tagged in got a good reaction. Cena basically played the hits, finishing with the AA and his ludicrous new backfist finisher. Enjoyed this.

Billie Kay & Peyton Royce vs Asuka & Naomi

The Iiconics didn’t get as big a pop as I thought they would. This was brief, but harmless. The Iiconics are a bit patchy in ring, but Asuka and Naomi made a fun team, and there were a few neat moments. Loved Kay trying to hurt Naomi by catching a boot and throwing her to the floor, only for Naomi to land in a perfect splits, and this was paid off by Billie trying the same moments later with less impressive results. Asuka hits a weak looking German suplex on Kay after a brief Iiconics heat section, and Naomi hits a great split legged moonsault on Royce, before the pin is stopped. Kay drops Naomi facefirst on the apron, and a running knee from Royce gets the victory.

AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe

Remember when Joe fought Roman on PPV, and people claimed that Joe was being forced to work at a ponderous pace to get heel heat vs Reigns? I wonder what the excuse here was, because this was pretty plodding. It started well, both showing their aggression by fighting in the aisle and AJ quickly recovering from being thrown over an announce table to get right back into the ring. But this match goes over twenty minutes, and there’s not enough to this to keep it interesting. For a no DQ match, this is pretty pedestrian, with Joe walking through his offence at a glacial pace, though AJ tries his best to bump it into a more interesting bout. He takes a Joe standing elbow hard, bumps 360 degrees on a clothesline and takes a hard looking uranage onto a chair. AJ throwing Joe through a table looks awkward though, a really messy landing. Joe sells a leg injury from this point, and Styles zones in on it. Liked the springboard 450 he hit directly to Joe’s leg. Joe’s Kokina Clutch suplex is pretty wild looking too. Joe’s leg gives in on a muscle buster attempt, but he locks in the Kokina Clutch again, only for AJ to (clumsily) reverse it to the Calf Crusher for the tap out win. Like the fact Joe was near the ropes for this, but the No DQ stip meant that it did him no good. Other than that, this was disappointing.

The Riott Squad vs The Bella Twins & Ronda Rousey

This was a perfectly fine trios match. The early stages seemed to be setting up a “Bellas vs Ronda” scenario, as the Bellas only tagged each other and Ronda was left on the sidelines. This didn’t really play into the match though. There’s a brief Brie vs Liv section that I can’t imagine was the pairing anyone wanted to see in this match, before Nikki becomes face in peril. Lovely running knee to the face by Sarah Logan. Hot tag is made to Ronda, and she’s a great hot tag. Big judo throws to Morgan and Logan, some big strikes to Sarah and, though Liv saves Logan from an armbar attempt, Ronda soon locks them both into a double armbar for the immediate tap.

Cedric Alexander vs Buddy Murphy

Murphy is the hometown boy here, and gets a great reaction. This is a fantastic sprint, the career resurgence of Buddy Murphy has been one of the joys of 2018 WWE. Murphy hits an insane dive right from the start, and the pace doesn’t really slow from there. Both hit big spots: Cedric times a superkick perfectly and I loved Murphy constantly trying to climb to the top only for Cedric to use this momentum to hit a top rope Michinoku Driver. Cedric also hits his own big dive. For his part, Buddy gets two on a lovely sitout powerbomb (with a slightly sloppy cover, which fits the story of him being too overexcited in his hometown). There’s a neat sequence where Murphy keeps kicking out of some big moves successively, taking a standing Spanish Fly and a huge Lumbar Check. The pop on the kickout is huge. Cedric tries springboarding into the ring, takes a big knee to the face on landing, and the pumphandle driver gets the victory for Murphy. Huge pop for that, felt like a real feel good moment, and the match was really choice.

The Shield vs Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler

Loved the face masks that the Shield wore to the ring, looked totally badass. This breaks down really early and Rollins gets isolated as the face-in-peril after an early Shield Bomb is thwarted. Of note Ziggler’s first move of the match is the shitty backslap DDT, and we get maybe too much Ziggler vs Rollins in the ring for my taste. I did like that Ziggler’s shit talking led to him doing something feckless shortly afterwards. Strowman misses a crap looking top rope splash and Ambrose gets the hot tag. Loved Ambrose bringing out something new, hitting a fallaway slam on Ziggler. We get a tantalising Reigns vs McIntyre section that made me want to see that singles match even more. Roman muscling up Drew for a one armed powerbomb was really neat. The Shield Bomb is thwarted by Strowman plowing through the lot of them with a big spear. Roman accidentally hits Ambrose with a Superman Punch to continue the hinted dissension, and this led to the big turning point of the match, as Rollins and Reigns are left alone in the centre of the ring with the heels surrounding them. Ambrose gets on the fourth side, hinting that he may attack them too, only to take out Strowman with a suicide dive. Lovely spot where Strowman looks to be about the charge through Ambrose on the floor, but Reigns takes Strowman out with a PERFECTLY timed spear through the barricade. Back inside, Ambrose hits Ziggler with Dirty Deeds to win. Good stuff here.

Daniel Bryan vs The Miz

I’ll be honest, I only kept half an eye on this match as I was making a (shit) omelette. Luckily, this was brief, so I didn’t miss too much. I do love Bryan getting the pin super quickly by locking Miz in a small package. Keeps the Miz looking strong, shows off Bryan as talented wrestler who can win at any time, and created a nice sudden finish.

Triple H vs The Undertaker

I’ve seen this match taking a lot of abuse on line, and I can see why. It’s very long. Too long. Neither guy is in good shape, with Taker looking exhausted on several occasions, and there’s a load of smoke’n’mirrors horseshit to cover up the limitations of both men. However, I didn’t hate this. I’ve never been a big fan of either guy, and I hated their last two WrestleMania matches, but I also had no expectations going into this. For two men with a combined age of basically 100, who are only out there to give a marquee match-up to this supershow, this was ok. I enjoyed Shawn Michaels’ role in this, sneakily running interference and setting up props for use in the match (with a painfully slow Kane easily kept at bay). The fighting outside is fine, bar the blown back bodydrop Undertaker tries on HHH, with admittedly a lot Taker dragging round HHH by the head, and I enjoyed HHH putting Kane through a table by hitting an elbow drop from the apron. The ref bump where Taker punches him out doesn’t make much sense, given the match is No DQ anyway, and Taker bumps embarrassingly for a Pedigree. HHH crushing Taker’s throat by placing a chair around it and stomping it looked nasty, and Kane making the save by pulling the ref out was really well timed. The supporting hoopla includes a load of chairshots, HHH getting out the sledgehammer and spots where Michaels and HHH save each other from tombstones, before a final Pedigree eventually puts Undertaker down. Not a classic match, probably not even a good match, but for trashy nonsense with two veteran wrestlers past their prime, it was still watchable.

World of Sport Wrestling #3 11/08/2018

Grado vs Sha Samuels

Interesting how quickly Grado has fallen from the champion to being a comedy character. It’s arguably a role he’s better suited to, but it’s still a stark fall in just two weeks. Here’s he’s wearing a suit to show Stu Bennett that he can be a corporate champion. Samuels controls from the start, hurling Grado into the barricades. Grado finally gets a comeback by reversing a piledriver attempt on the ramp. Grado fires up, taking of his suit, and nailing Sha with the Dusty elbows. Corner splash and a cannonball both look good, and Grado catches Samuels with a diving cutter for the win. Pretty short, and the “corporate Grado” storyline was barely explored, but this was fine.

Martin Kirby vs Joe Hendry

This is a result of Kirby walking out on a tag team tournament match, leaving Hendry to take a beating. Bennett helpfully points out that Hendry should be much angrier, as he comes to the ring singing and smiling. Kirby bumps about early, stooging about by challenging (and losing to) Commonwealth games wrestler Hendry to a mat battle, before taking over with a dropkick. Kirby is lovely to watch in the ring, hitting a nice running backbreaker and a big spinebuster. Kirby misses the crabwalk elbow, and Hendry rolls through a crossbody with a fallaway slam in a really nice sequence. Kirby lands on his feet on a second attempt and nails a nice enzuigiri. Kirby feigns an injury after a Hendry ankle lock and gets the sneaky win with his foot on the ropes. This was good stuff.

BT Gunn & Stevie Boy vs Brad Slayer & CJ Banks

Nice to see the team of Gunn and Stevie wearing matching gear and facepaint to look more like a unit. Slightly odd to see Banks, who’s been firmly aligned with Rampage and Sha Samuels, here teaming with a guy we’ve not seen before. You’d think Banks and Samuels would be the more obvious team. The face team function really well here, lots of quick fluid tags and nice double-teaming. We get a brief heat worked on Stevie Boy, with Slayer looking a little basic on offence. He seems far more comfortable taking moves, as the faces quickly fire back. Gunn and Stevie nail a diving elbow Doomsday Device on Slayer for the win. Mainly a showcase for the faces, who looked terrific.

Gabriel Kidd vs Crater

This is Kidd’s “big opportunity” for winning the ladder match the previous week – 36 stone of Crater. Love Bennett’s big grin as the match is announced. This is one of those stupid angles where we’re supposed to feel outraged that the heel GM has forced a wrestler to face another wrestler, which is basically his job. I mean, Kidd won the ladder match the previous week, he’s not some feckless jobber, he’s already proven himself to be at least a competent wrestler. Alex Shane describing this as “the most disgusting act he’s ever seen from a wrestling executive” just rings hollow. Plus, Kidd does get a little offence – he nails some elbows to start and gets to break free of a Crater bear hug. He’s not getting destroyed, he’s just not as good as Crater. Crater nails an avalanche, a chokeslam and a splash to win.

Rampage vs Justin Sysum

This was pretty good stuff, felt like a big deal. Sysum is a big boy, but he’s also pretty agile, which gives him some openings here. Rampage hits him with some meaty blows, but Sysum backflips out of the corner and nails a nice high backdrop and a side slam. Rampage takes control after CJ Banks pushes Sysum off the top rope, and Rampage plants him with a big uranage. He continues the back offence, with some blows to the small of the back and a spinebuster. Sysum looks good on his comeback, nailing a big overhead suplex, before sending them both to the floor with a clothesline. However, CJ Banks is under the ring and he holds onto Sysum’s leg, causing him to get counted out. You knew that Sysum wouldn’t dethrone the champion so early, so the ending gives the story a reason to continue whilst keeping Sysum strong. Enjoyed this

Mae Young Classic 2018 - Round 2 #1

Toni Storm vs Hiroyo Matsumoto

So this episode kicks off with a cracker of a match. Loved the opening, evenly worked matwork being paid off by Matsumoto heeling it up by booting Storm in the stomach from a handshake. From there, Matsumoto controls Storm, breaking her down with a lovely missile dropkick and focusing on the back. Toni gets a lovely snap German suplex and a corner charge, but after both ladies build up momentum by running the ropes, it’s Matsumoto who takes advantage with a massive clothesline. Hiroyo hits the Vader Bomb kneedrop and shows great strength by muscling Storm up for the Rock Drop, but Toni makes the ropes. Matsumoto hits a pair of vicious clotheslines, but showboats too much, allowing Toni to reverse a third into a bridging cradle for three. Storm ate a lot of punishment here, so it made sense that her win would have to come from a reversal, and Matsumoto’s hubris came back to haunt her.

Rhea Ripley vs Kacy Catanzaro

There were bits of this I really dug, mainly the bits where Ripley’s raw power let her muscle Catanzaro around, but I’m still unconvinced by Kacy’s offence. I liked Rhea having enough awareness not to fully sell a glancing flying headscissors, stumbling but not going over. Kacy getting a small package when Ripley was too nonchalant going for a suplex made sense, looked like she really caught Ripley unaware. Ripley hits a neat low dropkick to Catanzaro’s face as she sits up and a great delayed vertical suplex, walking her around the ring. Rhea whips Catanzaro off the mat, through her legs, to lock in a neat cloverleaf variation. Kacy gets a small run off offence, fun tilt-a-whirl DDT and a nice twisting plancha, but her botching a springboard dropkick and just repeating the spot is a bit iffy. Ripley plants her with a sitout powerbomb for the win.

Taynara Conti vs Lacey Lane

I’m totally becoming a believer in Conti, thought she was excellent here. She’s believably cruel in her actions, loved her getting Lane off the ropes by a pair of nasty kicks to the hands. Lane has some flash, but Conti provided the meat of this match, with a big judo throw and a slam from the corner both looking great. Conti goes for the judo throw sideslam that won her the last match, but Lane reverses to a crucifix bomb for the win. This was brief, but fun.

Meiko Satomura vs Mercedes Martinez

This match had the potential to be excellent, and it massively achieved it and then some. Both women are portrayed pretty evenly, as two veterans and two of the top seeds in the tournament. Satomura sets the bar early, with a nice kick combo polished off with a big legsweep. Martinez slaps Satomura, before laying into her with a series of big strikes and a flurry of elbows to the head. At one point Satomura gets fired up and looks to be mounting a comeback, only for Martinez to crotch her on the top ropes and nail a swinging neckbreaker. Loved how Satomura’s comeback was worked, as she caught Mercedes unaware with an armbar, giving her the opening to then lay into her with some kicks. A pair of nasty looking DDTs followed, but Martinez blocks a Pele kick to nail a Fisherman Buster. This only gets a two count, and Martinez tries to lock in a surfboard. However, Satomura breaks it, and kicks Martinez as she tries to get up. The Scorpion Kick finishes it moments later. Really great hard-hitting stuff, with Satomura being just a little too quick and focused for Martinez.

WWE Mae Young Classic 2018 #4

Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Rachel Evers

Evers was one half of the worst match at last year’s Mae Young Classic, but thankfully this was a much better bout. The opening was fun, establishing this as a meeting of two powerhouses, as they jostle on a tie up and exchange clotheslines that don’t knock the other over. Matsumoto is terrific throughout, slipping quickly through the ropes to hit a necksnap and nailing a big, thudding missile dropkick. Her corner charge and Vader Bomb kneedrop looked absolutely vicious. Evers sold effectively, but some of her offence still looked bad. Her powerbomb had minimal height, an overly complex spinning legdrop from the corner was ill-advised and you only really notice how good Randy Orton makes the RKO look when you see someone else perform the same move badly. Her senton did look great, so that’s a plus. In the end though, Matsumoto powers her up with a deadlift powerbomb, before the Rock Drop gives her the victory. Good hard-hitting stuff.

Jessie Elaban vs Taynara Conti

Elaban’s gimmick seems pretty terrible, the latest wrestler who “just want to have fun”. It’s going to be interesting to see her on the main roster where, like on an episode of EastEnders, they like nothing more than putting happy-go-lucky character through demoralising hardships. Elaban nails Conti with a vicious looking back elbow, and is clearly a solid athlete, but this is very much Conti’s match. Her armwork looked plain nasty, wrenching a wristlock at a nasty angle. Conti scraping the ring rope between Elaban’s fingers looked horrible, just a cruel move to hit. Jessie gets a few low elevation dropkicks to comeback, but Conti hits a judo throw into a sideslam to win.

Isla Dawn vs Nicole Matthews

This was ok, though not without issues. Matthews made the mistake of debuting new gear here, which by her own Twitter admission wasn’t a good idea. She ends up spending a fair bit of time hitching up her trousers, which is distracting. Both hit some nice moves, though the match felt clunkily put together. Dawn hits a nice double stomp, Matthews viciously kicks Dawn as she’s stuck in the ropes and I dug her catching a boot and spinning her opponent into a back elbow. The end sees Matthews hit a big clotheslines to the gut, and a Liontamer gets the tap. Hopefully Matthews will shine more in round two.

Io Shirai vs Xia Brookside

Really well put together match, which let Brookside look good despite losing in less than four minutes. Xia takes the match to Shirai early, but Io lands on her feet on a flying headscissors and catching a Brookside forearm into a crossface. Just smoothly done, makes Xia look spirited but Shirai just that much better. Brookside eats running knees in the corner nicely, before a Shirai moonsault, with Io’s legs crashing into Brookside’s stomach, gets the three. A nice taster of what Shirai has to offer.