WWE NXT Takeover: Phoenix

The War Raiders vs Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong

Loved the big elaborate Viking introduction for the Raiders. This was a really neat opener, the two teams really worked well opposite each other. The Raiders were allowed to look monstrous, often no-selling the Undisputed Era’s offence, but only when it was suitable to do so. They picked the right moments to sell and look vulnerable, and it really helped the believability of the match. The Era were very smart on offence, distracting the Raiders from the apron to gain control and working lots of quick double teams when they had the advantage. Lots of fun spots in this – Rowe slams Hanson onto the Era from the ring apron, and Hanson later takes another big spill to the floor, this time trying big dive with no-one present which causes him to land with a huge splat. The UE work a nice heat section on Rowe after this, as he’s isolated without his partner, and they continue to keep Hanson at bay with a big Strong dropkick on the floor. When Hanson does get in, he’s insanely fun as a hot tag, a big unit in motion. He finds interesting ways to hurl his mass at his opponents. Hanson survives the High-Low and avoids a second with an unlikely cartwheel. The Raiders hit the Viking Fallout to win. Great stuff.

Matt Riddle vs Kassius Ohno

Thought this was excellent stuff. Ohno has a poor win/loss record at the moment in NXT, but he was made to look like a beast here. His stomp to the face of a downed Riddle was a thing of violent beauty. Ohno gets a few nearfalls early, including a neat back elbow to the face. I also loved him breaking a German suplex attempt by stomping the bare feet of Riddle. Ohno also goes for some full bodied offence, putting his weight into a moonsault and a full-on senton. This weight makes it more impressive when Riddle hits a big delayed German suplex, just holding Ohno in the air before slamming him down. The end is pretty neat too, as Ohno decides he’s in over his head and tries for a fistbump from Riddle. Instead, Riddle is incensed, dumping Ohno on his head with a sleeper suplex, before reigning down a flurry of big shots for the tapout.

Ricochet vs Johnny Gargano

There were bits of this I liked and plenty that I didn’t. It was neat to see Gargano ramping up the aggression here, like slipping out of the corner and sending Ricochet face first into the corner, which kickstarted the match after a rather nothingy start. Ricochet countered some of Gargano’s signature offence in interesting ways, sidestepping the slingshot spear to hit a standing moonsault to the back, and catching Gargano on the slingshot DDT attempt and hurling him to the floor. However, the bad bits were really terrible. Ricochet landing on his feet from a top rope rana and looking back smugly at Gargano was physically impressive, but played up stupidly. Gargano eating a reverse rana on the floor, followed by a 450 splash in the ring should have been the finish, kicking out at two is just ridiculous. At least the end was decisive, with Gargano hitting a suplex on the concrete floor, followed by finally hitting the slingshot DDT for the win. Not really my cup of tea.

Shayna Baszler vs Bianca Belair

This, on the other hand, was very much my cup of tea. Just smartly worked, with everything making sense. It starts with Belair downing Baszler with shoulderblocks, highlighting her power advantage, but Baszler very quickly uses her smarts to take over, yanking Belair into the ring post by her hair. This gives Bianca an injured shoulder, and Baszler is like a shark smelling blood. Some nasty limbwork follows, with Baszler torqueing the arm in interesting ways. Belair’s selling is excellent, wincing after hitting a spear and rolling into a cover on her back so she can hook a leg with the good arm. Loved how Belair used her unique weapon of her hair to launch a comeback, slicing Baszler open with a hair whip. We get a ref bump to give Belair the visual pin after the KOD, and some horsewomen interference which she avoids, before her 450 splash attempt sees her caught in the Kirafuda Clutch. Loved Belair powering to her feet, almost breaking the hold before her body fails her and she passes out. Really good match.

Tommaso Ciampa vs Aleister Black

This is one of those matches that is absolutely fine in a vacuum, but suffers from the fact that no-one really believed that Black would win. This can be overcome with the right layout – the Velveteen Dream match had me on the edge of my seat, convinced Dream would win – but here Black spends a good chunk of the bout on the defensive after Ciampa attacks his knee and it never feels like he’s going to win. The offence on the knee was nicely done by Ciampa, really liked the suplex on the floor that sends Black’s legs into the ring steps. There were just nice little touches like Ciampa hanging Black in a tree of woe from the bad leg before pounding him in the corner. Black sells the leg pretty well too, allowing himself the odd flurry of offence, but finding himself contained by what the leg would let him do. Liked the smarts of Ciampa when he gets hit with Black Mass, tumbling to the floor, but just about rolling over onto his stomach to avoid being pinned. As I said, the work is good, but this feels like a match you have on TV to try and build up the show. No drama. The end sees Black trying another Black Mass, but hurting his knee again, leaving him prime for the Fairytale Ending from Ciampa. Overall, this was good enough.

NXT Takeover: WarGames II

Kassius Ohno vs Matt Riddle

So, obviously a full match would have been preferable, but they smartly didn’t promote this as a scheduled match, so you can’t be too disappointed by Riddle knocking Ohno out in 6 seconds. Riddle is a can’t miss star, putting him over strong makes complete sense.

Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler

This went by too quickly, especially given the 2/3 falls stipulation, but what they cram in is really good. Liked the gameplan by Sane to blitz Shayna from the off, not giving her a second to recover. Loved the sliding clothesline against the ropes, before Baszler’s Four Horsewomen comrades attack Sane, allowing Baszler to lock in the Kirifuda Clutch for the first fall. Loved her trying to lock it on again quickly at the start of the second, and her stomping violently on Kairi’s face looked nasty. Sane trying a series of roll-ups and quick pinfalls as she tries to recover makes nice sense and I really liked the insane looking DDT on the apron – it looked like a real gamechanger, made it realistic that Sane could use that as her opening after the beating she’d taken. The insane elbow makes it one fall apiece. Loved Sane now hitting three consecutive spears, with Baszler selling the combined damage to her ribs. We get some fun hoopla outside the ring with Dakota Kai and Io Shirai evening the odds against the Horsewomen, before Baszler counters the insane elbow by rolling Sane into a crucifix to win. Not their best match, but these two match up so well that it’s still really great.

Johnny Gargano vs Aleister Black

I liked a lot of this, but there was definitely a lot of melodramatic overacting that took away from my enjoyment. Gargano ducking and bobbing to avoid Black’s strikes was really cool, especially as it built up the moment that Gargano ducks and eats a big kick to the face as a big moment. Gargano managing to stay one step ahead of Black was really effective, made him look like a smart performer, especially as a lot of this was built up as Black’s revenge. Loved the Gargano tope to a DDT on the floor. But the bad stuff starts creeping up too. The Riddle match had shown how to build someone up as a great striker, but here the “Striking Man from Amsterdam” (piss off Mauro) hit Gargano with a load of strikes, most of which were getting no sold or were having little effect as they roll from one sequence to another. The bits where both guys try luring the other in to hit big moves by emotively yelling at them was terrible, hurt the pacing of the match and added nothing. Gargano getting a roll up by ducking Black Mass was a nice wrinkle, and I dug Black hitting two consecutive Blass Mass to ensure Gargano wouldn’t kick out, but a little bit too much of this was actively bad.

Tommaso Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream

So during the match, I realised who Dream reminds me off. While I can see the comparisons to Rick Rude or Hulk Hogan (which Dream was happy to play up here), I felt like I was watching an androgynous Sting. Tall, in great shape, terrific athlete who, whilst a little green in places, is having good matches and is able to push through by sheer force of personality. Yeah, just like early Sting, and this played out like a great Sting vs crafty heel bout. Dream puts in a great shift here, bumping big when Ciampa shoves him to the floor on a springboard attempt and hitting a big dive on an evasive Ciampa. For his part, Ciampa is really nasty, smashing Dream in the corner with a running knee using his knee brace that Dream sells as a knockout blow. He does horrible stuff like making Dream drool by locking him in a submission, then rubbing the spit in Velveteen’s face just to be a dick. Dream goes for Ciampa’s knee with a figure four around the post and then in the centre of the ring, and though it doesn’t get the win, it gets paid off after Project Ciampa is hit, but the pain to the knee means Ciampa can’t cover right away and Dream is able to kick out. Some really convincing nearfalls, none more so than when Dream hits a rolling DVD on the floor and immediately rolls Ciampa in for a Purple Rainmaker for two. Genuinely believed that was it. An attempt on the ring apron sees Dream crash and burn to the floor. Ciampa hits the draping DDT on the metal grid separating the two Wargames rings, and that’s enough to put Dream down. I very much enjoyed this, thought this was Dream’s best performance to date.

Pete Dunne, Ricochet & the War Raiders vs The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong)

This match seems to have split opinion online, with maybe two-thirds of comments being against this match for bloat, for bad structure or for not feeling like a real Wargames. For my part, I loved this, and it kept me wide awake at gone 2.30am. Yes, it’s very long, but watching it in real time, I found that I felt it flew by.

I’m going to try and avoid just basic play-by-play here, because they fit so much stuff in here. You can get away with having big bombs not ending the match because there’s lot of guys there to make the save, and you need to hit big moves to put down as many of your opponents as possible in order to leave no-one who can prevent victory. Here, a lot of big stuff was hit, but for the most part it wasn’t kicked out of. Yes, Pete Dunne survived a lengthy chain-and-chair assisted submission, but finding extra reserves in such a big war against your hated enemies feels acceptable. I enjoyed the opening stages of the match, and I think the natural structure of the bout helps keep the match fresh. A new face every few minutes changes the match, with the arrival of members of the face team feeling like a hot tag every time. The tactic of the Undisputed Era to lock Pete Dunne in his cage to allow them to destroy the opposition 4-on-3, then have Dunne at a 4-on-1 disadvantage to dismantle him. The fact that Pete was able to fend them off with weapons, keeping them occupied while his partners recovered, made sense to me and set up the second half of the match well. Yeah, there was a West Side Story-esque bit of nonsense that saw a shaky confined brawl between the two rings, but I was able to enjoy it as a big, dumb spotfest. War Raiders in particular looked great here, maybe the best Hanson has looked in NXT, with his joint powerbomb on Strong/World’s Strongest Slam on O’Reilly being a great power spot. The overly complicated tower of doom spot leading to Ricochet’s double moonsault was a bit hokey, but Pete hitting the Bitter End and Ricochet hitting the 630 on Cole felt like a nice, final, full stop on the bout. I’m an outlier here, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. 

WWE NXT Takeover: Wargames

Kassius Ohno vs Lars Sullivan

Really perfectly worked opener here. The trick with a match like this is letting Ohno get in a lot of offence without making Sullivan look weak, and they basically achieved this by letting Ohno drop a load of big bombs and letting Sullivan be barely affected by them. Sullivan dominated early, hitting some big driving knees to a downed Ohno, and when Ohno does a kip up after a bit of offence, he’s met right away with a huge clothesline. Ohno looked smart on the attack, going for repeated big blows, with big kicks to the face and a series of elbows to the head. The ones to the back of Sullivan’s head looked especially great and seemed to stagger the monster. Ohno repeatedly kicks Lars in the head…and Sullivan kicks out at 1.  Ohno gets to look great for hitting such a barrage (and the execution was important here; Ohno’s shots looked brutal) and Sullivan looks like a beast for surviving. The Freak Accident gets the win for Sullivan.

Aleister Black vs Velveteen Dream

A lot to like here, and one or two bits I didn’t. Loved Dream showing off some Rick Rude style airbrushed tights at the start. The opening matwork was cool, felt like Dream was trying to compete on an even keel with Black to earn respect, but Black was all over the arm like superglue. There was a nice feeling of mind games and one-upsmanship, with both taunting and faking dives. The middle of the match had a few bits I didn’t love – Dream’s striking was of variable quality, with his superkick to Black’s chest being a bit poor. I also hated how twice Dream no-sold kicks to the face from Black, at one point recovering from a kick to immediately hit a DVD, which feels less forgivable when one of the competitors is working a “really good striker” gimmick. The positives are just how well Dream carried himself, came across as a star on a level with Black, who has a real unshakable aura. The spike DDT Dream hit on Black looked absolutely killer. Black picks up the win with Black Mass

Kairi Sane vs Nikki Cross vs Peyton Royce vs Ember Moon

Match itself was perfectly fine, but man did they ever pick the wrong winner here. They tried to avoid the main pitfalls of multi-man matches, the way people spend forever on the outside of the ring in a way they wouldn’t in a singles match. Indeed, there was very little in the way of 1-on-1 action. Some of the early spots were really fun too – loved Sane diving from the apron with a forearm on Royce, Moon hitting a low tope through Sane and Royce, followed by Moon splatting Cross with a powerbomb on the floor. Back inside we get a string of nearfalls before Moon wins the title with the Eclipse on Cross and Royce. Having Moon win the title after chasing Asuka for months and losing cleanly (highlighted on commentary pre-match by Nigel) really highlights that the NXT women’s champion only won because Asuka left the brand, making both her and the title look second rate already. Also, whilst she got a decent reaction in her home state of Texas, she’s easily the least over and has the least character of the four women involved. Match was absolutely fine, but it’s a totally underwhelming result.

Drew McIntyre vs Andrade Almas

Absolutely loved this, and it’s the second NXT Takeover in a row that Almas has been half of the match of the night. Loved the use of Zelina Vega in this one, where she’s not just portrayed as a valet or as eye candy, but instead is able to provide brains and to physically interject herself into the match. There’s a lovely early spot where she tries to take McIntyre over with a rana from the apron, but Drew uses his power to block it and puts her back on the apron like a gentleman, only for Almas to try a tope straight away. Drew is able to block it, but it shows the danger Vega can present. McIntyre hurts his shoulder on a ringpost, which gives Almas something to focus on. Loved Drew having to hit one armed hurling suplexes on Almas to protect the arm, as well as using Almas’ momentum to hit two huge overhead belly-to-belly suplexes. Loved Drew again using the power advantage to block a reverse rana, turning it into a facebuster, and the Almas moonsault from the ringpost to the floor looked gorgeous. There’s some really close nearfalls towards the end, with Drew getting two from the FutureShock, Almas looking nailed on to win after hitting a hammerlock DDT following Vega headscissoring Drew into the mat, and a Claymore seeing Vega putting Almas’ foot on the rope for the save. The draping DDT that wins it for Almas spikes Drew to the mat, and is a fitting end for a great bout.

Sanity (Eric Young, Killian Dain & Alexander Wolfe) vs the Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs the Authors of Pain & Roderick Strong

Right, first things first. This isn’t a WarGames match. It’s got some things is common with WarGames, like the double-ring, the staggered team entrances, but it’s not the same thing. I’ve got an overweight one-eyed pug, and she’s got a lot in common with a greyhound (is a dog, has four legs, can physically move), but if I took her down the local dog track for a race, they’d laugh me out of the grounds. By having three teams, and by removing the fact that team members are added individually, you lose that natural rise-and-fall where it feels like a hot tag every time a member of the face team gets in. You lose the tactics and the excitement of discovering which team member will get introduced next. You lose the natural structure that WarGames provides. So whilst this has a lot in common, this isn’t WarGames.

What this ends up being is a perfectly fun Cage of Death match. The opening stages are pretty slow, especially when the Undisputed Era are controlling Young and Strong in the cage, but things pick up a bit when the Authors of Pain are added, and explode when Sanity come in, adding a load of plunder. Really, it’s the Sanity team who shine in this match. EY has a thankless task, being the guy who gets beaten up pretty solidly for the first 8 minutes of the bout, but he’s a solid bumper, has a charismatic presence and, when he does get to go on offence, he’s also  got really nice offence that he fits in at the appropriate time. Loved him saving Wolfe from a O’Reilly cross armbreaker with a picture perfect top rope elbow. Wolfe doesn’t get to shine quite like the tag title win in August, but his top rope German suplex on an AoP member through a table that cuts his head open is nuts. Dain gets an incredible showcase, hitting a Michinoku Driver on Cole onto Fish, hitting a huge top rope cross body and hitting an insane coast-to-coast dropkick onto O’Reilly. Authors of Pain aren’t so impressive, though they get a few nice moments. Hitting Death Valley Driver’s into opposite corners that already have Undisputed Era members in a tree of woe was a nice touch. The Undisputed Era get the least shine, though that may be by design. I’m undecided if Cole wasn’t impressive because he’s supposed to be a coward (loved his snake-like crawl along the top of the cage, attempting to forfeit for his team by escaping – ultimately ending when Roddy suplexes him from the top of the cage onto everyone else) or because he’s not very good (he was easily the least of the opening three-way with Roddy and EY). So, whilst not in any way a WarGames match, it’s a totally enjoyable nonsense spotfest. By the time Cole gets the win, hitting a chair into Young’s face with a running kick, over 35 minutes have passed enjoyably enough.

RoH Invades Japan Vol 1

This is a compilation I bought years ago from IVP Videos, which features a load of matches with Ring of Honor alumni wrestling in Japan. I bought it because it felt like a nice way to ease me into Japanese wrestling, which was a weak point of mine at the time, but I hardly ever watched it. I think it's still for sale on the site, though it's now called USA Invades Japan (even though two matches feature no American wrestlers), and it's well worth a pick-up

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi

Pretty much a non-stop tag match that opens with typical tag formula, but has all broken down by the end. I liked the way the Aries & Strong team had differing roles, with Strong played up as the muscle and Aries the daredevil. Their teamwork early on is really fluid, all quick tags and double teams as they work over Doi. Aries, in turn, is soon isolated by Doi and Yoshino, with a high-speed corner cannonball from Doi looking brutal. It’s after the hot-tag to Strong that things break down, and the concept of having to tag in-and-out is forgotten. It’s one of those things that you have to accept as a condition of the style (this being a Dragon Gate match), even though on a personal level traditional tag formula is one of my favourite things. As a high-speed spotfest, the rest of the match does deliver and is pretty exciting in the final stages. Some really nice spots here – loved Roddy hitting a Northern Lights suplex that throws Yoshino onto Doi and I loved the way that the corner train run by Yoshino, Doi and their entourage was TOO successful, as Aries collapses to the mat before Doi gets to him, in turn leaving Doi open to Strong and his entourage running in on him. A missile dropkick/powerbomb combo by Aries & Strong seems to fold up Doi, who looks legit hurt – his kick out from the following pinfall looks more like Roddy just getting off him. Aries eats a fireman’s carry slam on the top of his head, before Yoshino accidentally gets a face full of powder from his teammate, and takes a Strong backbreaker and a match winning Aries 450.

Rocky Romero vs Mushiking Terry

There’s a moment 4 minutes into this match where I realise it’s already terrible and isn’t going to get any better. It’s when the two guys start exchanging German suplexes where the person receiving the move is on his feet before the guy giving it, before both go down from a simultaneous head kick. It marks it straight away as one of those matches where moves happen but none of them matter. It’s especially galling when Romero had done some respectable arm-work on Terry – kicking out the arm on a handstand into the ropes, locking on a cross-armbreaker – that is undermined by these suplexes. Romero does keep going back to the armbreaker, but drops it in the second half of the bout and Terry doesn’t sell any of it anyway. There are a few nice moments here, as I liked a tornillo Terry hit, and I enjoyed Romero breaking a suplex attempt with a knee to the head whilst in the air only for Terry to grab the knee on a second reversal to hit a fisherman buster. Ultimately though, this is just moves, culminating with Terry winning with a top rope hiptoss.

Bryan Danielson vs KENTA

Hey, this is much better. Not entirely surprising. Loved Danielson’s performance throughout this, really feels like a match he’s in complete control off. Early on the two exchange strikes, and Danielson counters KENTA’s forearms with these amazing looking European uppercuts. Danielson controls the matwork, really feeling like he’s wearing KENTA down. Especially loved him grinding his knuckles into the kidneys to gain control of the arms for a surfboard. Not to say KENTA is totally a passenger in this, as his comebacks are nicely timed and feel believable. His kicks all connect with a satisfying thud. It’s just that Danielson feels like an elite performer throughout, like he’s the one driving the direction of that contest. Loved Danielson meeting a top rope stomp with a big boot to the face from the mat, one of the few times that counter has ever looked good. The bridge on Danielson’s German suplex is terrific, showing amazing neck strength. The ending portion sees both guys upping the tempo to try and finally put the other away. A huge top rope back suplex from Danielson sees him just…holding…KENTA…in..the..air, before they crash to the mat, and him wearing KENTA down for Cattle Mutilation with elbows to the head looked great. In the end, KENTA is able to fire back with one last kick combo, hit the GTS and barely escape with the win. Great match.

Jushin Liger, Jack Evans, Matt Sydal & BxB Hulk vs Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Kevin Steen & Magnitude Kishiwada

This was a whole bundle of fun, and it’s interesting to pick out little running stories throughout the match. Loved how, amongst a lot of lithe high-fliers, Kishiwada and Steen stand out as two lads happy to hurl their relative bulk onto their prone opponents, with flipping sentons and flipping legdrops landing with satisfying thuds. Also, it’s fun to see Liger getting bigger reactions from a shoulderblock battle with Kishiwada than most of these guys get from some impressive acrobatics. Evans bumps like a trooper in the match, with my favourite moment seeing him go up top to go for a 630, only for Kishiwada to hurl a chair at him from off camera, sending him to the floor. The camera work is terrific, as we only see the chair flying from nowhere sending Evans flying. Some lovely looking moves in the match too, with everything Sydal does looking really crisp. Evans hits a nutty backflip into a stomp in the corner on Doi that looks terrific. The end run is really fun, as Yoshino eats a face full of powder by accident, before Liger brainbusters him and Sydal gets the pin with a shooting star press. Really fun.

Nigel McGuinness & Doug Williams vs Takeshi Rikio & Kishin Kawabata

Bit of a short match here, but it’s fun while it lasts. The Brits get overpowered at first by the larger Rikio and Kawabata, so switch their tactics accordingly. Liked them doing the WoS equivalent of the Garvin Stomp, circling Kawabata’s body and each wrenching a limb for a 4 count, then moving onto the next one. Rikio feels like the big issue they have to contend with in the match, as he’s pretty dominant in there. Love the big cross body he uses to plough through Nigel. However, Kawabata accidentally hits him with a lariat, and the Brits manage to isolate him, Williams nailing Chaos Theory to win. Good, but would have benefited from another 5 minutes.

The Briscoe Brothers vs Kotato Suzuki & Ricky Marvin

In contrast, this could do with being 5 minutes shorter. There’s a lot in this I really liked, with some early sequences looking great. Loved the insane top rope reverse rana that Marvin hits on Jay Briscoe, and Marvin running the length of the ramp to hit a baseball slide dropkick into the ring on Jay, whilst Suzuki holds him in a Camel Clutch, looked terrific. It’s just that the pacing feels off – Suzuki is already taking 2.9 pinfalls 10 minutes into the match, and it’s a bout that goes 26m. This means that the Briscoes go from nearly having the match won to suddenly just working holds on Suzuki, instead of trying to finish him off. More annoyingly, the hot tag to Marvin comes from nowhere, with no build up. At this point, the match really starts losing it’s tag structure, and all four guys are getting hit with big bombs with not much lasting effect. Jay Briscoe takes a tombstone piledriver, and he’s back on the apron taking a tag inside 30 seconds. Later on, he gets hit with a spinning tombstone and they don’t even bother with a pinfall. Meanwhile, the Briscoes run a huge series of big bombs on Suzuki, all for 2.9 counts that he seems to recover from pretty quickly. In the end, Mark Briscoe is isolated and hit with a double-team Widow’s Peak that finally ends this one, and it’s just a shame that by the end I’m just glad it’s over rather than feeling exhilarated from a hot match.

Chris Hero & Doug Williams vs Ippei Ota & Mohammed Yone

Williams and Hero come off as the great tag team we never got. Really felt like they compliment each other here – both look terrific as they work over the more inexperienced Ota, but in different ways. Williams is just solid, nothing flashy, but everything looks like it connects and feels effective. Hero also has offence that looks good, but he’s adding a bit more flash, like a backward roll into a senton or taking Ota over with a flipping cravate. They don’t have it so easy when Yone is in the ring, working him as a peer, but it’s Ota they try and keep in the ring. Ota does get to hit a long airplane spin into a Samoan drop on Hero that gets a nice reaction, but he’s ultimately the weak link in his team. As Williams keeps Yone occupied outside the ring, Hero nails a huge big boot and the Hero’s Welcome to win. Good stuff here.

Takeshi Morishima vs KENTA     

This is a really great ten minute fight. Basically, KENTA goes into this with a gameplan to beat the shit out of Morishima as quickly as possible, knowing that Morishima has the size and power advantage. Morishima gets in a few blows, but KENTA nails 4 or 5 kicks for every one punch. KENTA goes for broke on the outside, hitting a huge springboard double stomp to the outside. Loved Morishima’s guttural yells after that, makes it feel like KENTA has him. GTS only gets two, and a massive Morishima clothesline changes the entire outlook of the match. A backdrop suplex only gets two, but KENTA is down now, and Morishima just mauls him in the corner like an angry bear. KENTA has enough energy to escape pinfalls, but not enough to make a comeback and Morishima keeps hitting backdrop suplexes until KENTA can’t kick out any more. Really great sprint.

CZW Apocalypse 2004

Ah, my beloved 2004 CZW. Why I love you, I'm still not quite sure...

CKNY vs Blackout
This is Cory Kastle and Niles Young vs Sabian and Joker of the Blackout. CKNY are accompanied by Jude, but Ruckus just beats him to the back. This is a perfectly acceptable little opener, with some nice quick movements to start, ending with stereo dives by CKNY. I like the nastier side of Blackout here, with Sabian holding Young's long hair whilst kicking him in the spine, or Joker grinding his wrist tape into Young's face. Young gets the hot tag after Joker misses a diving headbutt. CKNY are a fine pretty boy face tagteam, though sadly in the worst possible promotion for a team like that to get cheers. Blackout manager Robbie Mireno stops Young on the top rope to prevent a double team Killswitch, and Blackout finish Kastle with the Joker Driver and a senton. Solid stuff.

Rick Feinberg vs Jon Dahmer
Even though Feinberg seems to have have toned down the gay stereotypes of his gimmick, you still know he's got no chance here. Dahmer offers to lie down for him to start, but kicks out at two and just destroys Feinberg. There is a brief Feinberg comeback, but he gets caught with a powerbomb from the top rope and Dahmer finishes with the Move of 1000 Maniacs.

DJ Hyde vs Jude
Bit of a size difference here. I love Hyde reversing a Jude choke into a big Northern Lights suplex. Jude botches something on the outside, so nails Hyde with a chairshot to the head before overshooting on a top rope moonsault. Aside from that, it's pretty much all Hyde, as he nails a nutty German suplex and a Blue Thunder Driver for the easy win. Hyde looked pretty great here.

Ruckus vs Derek Frazier
I always say this about Frazier, but his haircut was terrible. He does put in a good showing here though, with a nice agressive streak. He takes it to Ruckus early with some nasty looking strikes and a few throws to the guardrails. Ruckus' offence is a bit more pony, with some milky kicks and a shitty looking moonsault from the apron. Only a flipping neckbreaker from Ruckus looks especially hurty. The end sees Sabian put Ruckus' foot on the rope following some more vicious Frazier kicks, and Joker shoulderblocks Frazier to the torso, leaving him prone to a half Nelson driver for a Ruckus win.

Nick Berk vs Emil Sitochi
Sitochi wisely understands the crowd he is wrestling for and hits an early tope to win over the fans. Berk is a bit more solidly built, so his offence looks pretty good on Sitochi. Love his hiptoss into a backbreaker, and his big lariat looks great. I only saw a few Sitochi matches on his 2004 US tour, and he always came across as a smooth performer. He has some swanky armdrag variations and a few fun snapmares too - not a phrase you often get to say. Sitochi misses a missile dropkick and Berk locks in the Texas 2K2 for the tap. Fun little match.

Alex Shelley vs Roderick Strong vs Dan Maff vs B-Boy
This is an elimination match to become number one contender to the Iron Man title. Only 2 guys are allowed in at once, which gives a fun bit of psychology, where it makes sense for guys to not be tagging into the match. Strong is soon stooging for some Maff chops, which establishes the big man as the powerhouse of the match. The match soon ends up like a tag match, with Strong and Shelley teaming up against Maff and B-Boy. This works by giving it a face-in-peril section, as S&S take over on B-Boy. It soon, predictably, breaks down to all four guys in the ring, and B-Boy hits a Shining Wizard on Strong to eliminate him. Maff's size and power advantage lets him dominate again, but Shelley is able to reverse a burning hammer into Shell-Shock for three. B-Boy and Shelley exchange some near falls, before Shelley locks in the Border City Stretch. B-Boy manages to reverse this to his own stretch variation for a tapout.

GQ vs Chris Cash
These two trained together, so they should be able to work well. It's a ladder match, but with pinfall rules. There are some slightly milky strikes by both guys, but also some really sick bumps. There is a sick running powerbomb to the turnbuckles by GQ and then a few nasty powebombs onto a ladder. I did enjoy the way they teased and built up a splash mountain onto a ladder as a big spot. A load of chairs get set up outside the ring, leading to a top rope superplex to the floor. Cash only gets two from a top rope Cash Flow, but he hits a second, sloppier version from a ladder onto another ladder for the win. This is probably the best GQ match I've seen, even if large parts of this were sloppy or didn't really work properly (a bit near the end sees Cash and GQ seemingly make up before GQ nails a superkick, to minimal reaction). The big bumps were suitably horrific looking and both guys get a strong crowd reaction at the end, so you have to say it did a job.

Brad Bradley vs BJ Whitmer
This is a first round match in CZW's Extreme Strong Style tournament. Fans don't really seem into this match, and a Bradley chinlock does nothing to win them over. Aside from a typically awful strike exchange in the middle (hate them!), there is nothing particularly strong style about this match, as Whitmer pretty much grounds Bradley by working the left knee. It's all logical and tells a good story, but it's pretty dull to watch. Indeed, it's Bradley who excels, clubbing Whitmer frantically to try and get a breakon a legbar. Bradley shows more guts than brains by hobbling his way to a plancha on Whitmer. The end is quite cool, with Whitmer going for the exploder, Bradley trying to break it and Whitmer hitting him in the face THEN hitting the exploder to win. Nothing wrong with this match, but it is pretty dull.

Chris Hero vs Jimmy Rave
This is for Rave's Iron Man title, which has a twenty minute limit. This...isn't as good as I was hoping it would be. I like both guys, but this is a bit of a mess. The first half of this has some goofy, but fun, matwork, and I did love some of Hero's fakeout work. Stuff like going for an eyepoke off a roaring elbow, or going for a figure four before just stomping on Rave instead. But a lot of this is just Hero (the heel) making Rave (the face champ) look like a total chump. A sequence of Hero locking on various cravates requires Rave to just stand there like a berk whilst Hero contorts around him. The second half of the match is just them exchanging finishers with both the Hangman's Clutch and the Dusk to Dawn Crossface getting ropebreaks, and Rave's running knee and the Hero's Welcome both getting two counts. With both guys having killed all their finishers, Hero gets a fall off a backslide, where both guys are clearly in the ropes. I did like Rave going for desperation rollups, knowing there is only a minute left, but then Hero runs to the back. Rather than waiting and taking the countout to tie the falls, Rave runs into the back with him as the time runs out and both guys are counted out. This means Hero is the new champ, but what a disappointing way to get there.

The Messiah, Adam Flash & Sabu vs Nick Gage, the Wifebeater & Trent Acid
This is an elimination tables match. Big brawl starts things off, and this is pretty fun to start, though you can see Messiah having to slow down his offence to allow Wifebeater to keep up. It's also useful to have heel manager Dewey Donovan involved, as he can set up weapons for the heels to allow the match to flow better. He sets up a few chairs in the ring, ready for Flash to superplex Gage onto them in a fun spot. Acid and Sabu work quite a fun section in ring together, especially for two guys who can be pretty sloppy. Messiah sunset flips Wifebeater through a ringside table, but this is somehow deemed a double elimination as Messiah also went through the table. Gage must be a total idiot, as he learns nothing from this and piledrives Flash through a table, which again eliminates both men. So, please note, if you go through the table with your opponent, you seem to be eliminated too, even if it's clearly your attacking move. Sabu and Acid face off for a bit, before the Messiah returns to help Sabu (clearly Acid's partners couldn't be arsed) and Sabu crashes Acid through a table and is declared the winner, despite the fact that he clearly went through the table with Acid. These rules make no fucking sense and ruined a potentially decent match.