666 7/3/2010

Considering that the last time I reviewed a 666 show, the tag title tournament was won by the ring announcer in a ladder match, it probably comes as no surprise to learn that this show has an equally odd ending, this time with the night's earlier participants competing in a sumo tournament. Obviously, I wont bother to review that, suffice to say it ended with Yuko Miyamoto beating the ring announcer (him again!) to pick up the title. The rest of the show was an interesting mix of matches too...

Shinobu vs K666

K666 attacks at the bell, but is soon overpowered, and Shinobu really dominates the opening portions of this match. Even when K666 tries for a token enzuigiri, Shinobu ducks it and locks in an STF. K666 does look a bit better than on the last 666 show I reviewed, with a flip dive to the outside looking decent and a standing corkscrew moonsault is pretty impressive. He locks Shinobu into a crossface variation and I liked the way that later, following a pin attempt by his opponent, he locks it in again whilst Shinobu is plotting his next move. The end sees Shinobu get two from a lariat, so he hits a brainbuster and another lariat for the win. Perfectly acceptable.

Makoto vs Riho

So, when this match started, I noticed Riho looked really young, as in “I’m not even sure this girl is a teenager yet” young. A bit of Googling revealed that she’d have been 13 when this match took place. That probably explains why this match comes across as more of a exhibition than as an athletic contest, which is probably for the best. Makoto seems to work pretty light with her, until a cartwheel into a kneedrop which looks nasty. Makoto locks in a half crab, but Riho makes the ropes and then locks up Makoto in a half crab. She also makes the ropes. Riho misses a top rope stomp and gets rolled up for the win. I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of this match, Riho looked competent, but it’s hard to shake the fact that she’s still a child and I don’t like feeling uneasy when watching wrestling.

Tochiki vs The 101

The language barrier means I’m not able to accurately work out what was going on at the start of this match. Suffice to say, hijinks abounded. Tochiki has a load of hardcore plunder with him, so he quickly sends 101 outside and hits a Sabu-esque chair-assisted dive. The 101 keeps clowning around in a pretty irritating manner, so Tochiki locks him in a camel clutch, and hits a pretty good Samoan drop. It’s probably his best move, because a lot of his stuff looks like he’s moving at 2/3 speed. 101 still has that impressive corkscrew moonsault from the outside, but he misses a twisting splash and appears to land awkwardly on a chair. More difficult comedy as the 101 pulls out a sword and duels with Tochiki, wielding a large bundle of hay. Somehow, the ref gets slashed by the sword and both guys bow down to apologise. Tochiki quickly levels the 101 with a metal tray for the victory. Might have been better paced without the awkward comedy. 

Yuko Miyamoto & Shinobu vs Konaka Pale One & DINASTY

This is easily the best match on the two 666 shows I’ve watched so far, in that it’s a really fun tag match. There’s a fun test-of-strength to start between Miyamoto and Pale One, with KPO showing great flexibility to wrestle mainly from his knees, with his legs crossed over underneath him. His flexibility is very much his gimmick, as a lot of his offence involves him contorting his legs in such a way. Miyamoto and Shinobu work decent heat sections on both DINASTY and KPO. I loved Miyamoto taunting KPO by badly trying to cross his own legs in the ring. Shinobu and Miyamoto both seem to be working pretty snugly, which is nice especially in comparison to DINASTY, who moves well but has offence that doesn’t appear to be very painful (AKA a case of the Zigglers). I love Miyamoto locking a Boston crab on KPO, and Shinobu working the edges of the ring to ensure DINASTY can’t make the save. DINASTY flies really nicely, nailing a beautiful Fosbury Flop to the floor, and hitting a lovely corkscrew splash in the ring for a two count. KPO hits a cross-legged senton for two. The ending run is really fun, with DINASTY resorting to a series of quick roll-ups to try and steal the win. However, Miyamoto levels him with a clothesline, plants him with a German suplex and finally nails a perfect moonsault for the win. Really good match.

The Best of Mark Andrews: Fly Or Die Trying

So, this little gem I picked up last year from Mark Andrews' Big Cartel page, a collection of 5 of his best matches against 5 different opponents. I've always liked Andrews since the first time I saw him live (as mentioned later) and it's no surprise he's gone on to win British Bootcamp II- he combines really crisp, fluid high-flying with an innate charisma and likability, and this collection is a really fun watch.

Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne

The first bout on the disc is from AIW in the US, where the crowd don’t know either guy. Thus, the match is almost like a sampler of what both guys can do. This means it also works well as an opening match on this comp, giving a flavour of what to expect from the following matches. Pete heels it up, giving the crowd the finger early on, and as the bigger guy he bullies Andrews a bit, hitting some nice suplexes and grounding Andrews by working over the arm. I liked the way he did some nasty joint manipulation, showcasing his nastier side. Andrews pops the crowd with a lovely standing 630 senton. Dunne hits his pumphandle DDT for two, before Andrews busts out a lovely flip dive and a springboard rana for two. A reverse rana is followed by a shooting star press for the win. The crowd is totally won over by the end, giving both guys a standing ovation. Really fun match.

Mark Andrews vs Zack Sabre Jr

From Triple X Wrestling. Regular readers (ha!) might remember this was top of the leaderboard in my "Top 10 Matches of 2013" list. However, there is always a disconnect of watching a match in person and watching it on DVD, so I was curious to see how it would hold up. In all honesty, I actually like it more on second viewing. At the time, I’d never seen Andrews wrestle before, but now, having seen him plenty of times, I can really appreciate the little things that he changed up specifically for this match. It starts with Sabre Jr totally schooling Andrews on the mat, viciously working over the arm and even hanging onto the arm from an Andrews armdrag to retain control. Zack throws in some nasty little touches, such as grinding his elbow into Andrews’ eye during a chinlock. Andrews is a great underdog and, after Sabre kicks his legs out during a brief offensive flurry, he realises he has to react as quickly as possible to any opening. Thus when he gets Zack outside the ring, he immediately follows with a big flip dive.  Normally, Andrews plays to the crowd before hitting a standing moonsault, but here he just doesn’t have the time, so hits it straight away and follows it with a swift double stomp. Sabre viciously kicks out Andrews legs on a springboard attempt and hits a vicious kick to the chest. Andrews tries a few kicks of his own, but this just seems to rile Sabre, who decks him with some nasty slaps to the face. 2 Dragon suplexes only get a two count on Andrews. Andrews downs Sabre and tries to put him away quickly with a 450, but Sabre is able to move and ties up both of Andrews’ arm to get the tapout victory. Absolutely love this match. Sabre, as the former champ and longtime ace of the promotion, dominated, but Andrews made the most of his openings and looked tough as nails in surviving the onslaught.

Mark Andrews vs Will Ospreay

This is a first round match from the Progress Natural Progression Series. Both guys are really crisp high-flyers, and pretty evenly match. I dug the initial matwork, before they start to speed things up. Ospreay hits a great dive, sliding under the ropes to barrel Andrews into the crowd. He hits a standing shooting star, before going back to the mat, trying to wear Andrews down. I loved the insane backflip into a tornado DDT by Andrews, really looked like a move that would catch the opponent totally by surprise. Both of them hits nice sequences of moves which flow nicely together, meaning they hit a few big moves in succession for more realistic pinfalls. Ospreay gets a really close fall off a top rope reverse rana, but, even though he lands on his feet on a missed 450, he gets caught by a beautiful springboard rana for the win.  

Mark Andrews vs Jonathan Gresham

Another Triple X bout. I’ve never seen Gresham before, so I was looking forward to this. Though shorter than Andrews, he’s stockier and here plays subtle heel. This lets Andrews work as underdog, which is where he really excels. Gresham takes an early powder from the ring after an Andrews onslaught, and has a noticeably more vicious streak when he comes back in. He whips Andrews into the turnbuckles with real velocity, hits a nasty elbow to Andrews’ face and really snaps him to the mat with a back suplex. Andrews buys himself a little time with a Bubba Bomb, and hits a really cool looking forward roll enzuigiri. They exchange pinfalls, which Gresham ends with a “Fuck you” and a big kick to the head. Andrews fires back with a tornado DDT, which he hits from a totally different angle to the Ospreay match, which gives it a real “from out of nowhere” vibe. Andrews nails the 450 splash, but is too hurt to cover straight away, only getting a two. Gresham plants Andrews with two German suplexes, then hits a deadlift straightjacket version for the pin. Really nicely worked  match, really enjoyed Gresham’s vicious streak.

Mark Andrews vs Paul Robinson

This is the final of the Progress Natural Progression Series. I really liked the fun matwork at the start, as they rolls through a series of armbar reversals. Robinson hit a great spinning headscissors with two full rotations. The commentary mentions Robinson has a kickboxing background to go with his highflying, and he’s got some really nice looking kicks. Robinson shows a more vicious side, clawing at Andrews’ face and hitting an elbow to the spine immediately as Andrews forces a submission break by grabbing the ropes. Nice dive to the outside by Andrews. I really love the fact Andrews has a few moves he hits standing variations of, as it creates a sense of mystery as he builds up to it- in earlier matches we’ve seen a 630 senton, but here he hits a great corkscrew moonsault from the same position. Robinson misses a top rope legdrop, which he gets insane elevation on, but he hits a great twisting top rope rana and spinning kick to the kidneys. Robinson misses a shooting star press, and Andrews hits this awesome top rope moonsault belly-to-belly suplex for the win.

HUSTLE 07/03/04

Kaz Hayashi & Spanky vs Low Ki & Homicide

This is a fun deal, though sadly clipped, which means that it doesn’t get the chance to reach it’s full potential. There was a fun mat exchange between Low Ki and Hayashi, before we clip to Spanky as face-in-peril. This was a good idea, Ki and Homicide looked good as two stiff surly dudes beating up the pretty-boy face. Even when Spanky tags Hayashi in, he’s not safe, as during a melee he gets caught on a flip dive by both guys and powerbombed onto the apron. Hayashi takes both opponents out right after with a dive. Hayashi then gets a nearfall by no-selling the Ki Krusher and hitting Emerald Frosion for 2. Ki has been a bit of a dick in this match, and it ultimately costs his team. Homicide has Spanky in the STF, and Ki stands on the apron to kick at Spanky’s hands as he reaches for the ropes. This lures in Kaz, who takes out Ki then hits an enzuigiri from the apron on Homicide. This not only leaves Homicide prone for a frogsplash, but also means Ki is in no position to make the save, resulting in victory for Kaz and Spanky. Good opener 

Steve Corino vs CW Anderson

This was pretty goofy in places, but was still enjoyable. We get some brawling to start, followed by a comedy bit as Corino tries, and fails, to set up a chair on the ring apron to send Anderson into. Anderson decides to focus on the arm of Corino, ramming it into the ringpost then whacking it with the chair. We clip, and when we return, Corino is still selling the arm. Good lad. Anderson hits him with a lovely looking punch, which the ref reacts to with a standing ten count for Corino. He gets up on 9. Anderson yells for an STO, which ends up being hit on him by Corino. Corino then warms up the band for Sweet Chin Music, which Anderson then amusingly hits on him. Anderson gets a really close two count by reversing a lariat to a spinebuster on a chair, but Corino picks up the win with a suplex. Pretty good fun, Corino in particular was really good at playing up to the crowd, which helped create a fun atmosphere. 

Shinjiro Otani & Satoshi Kojima vs Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes

As Dusty isn’t exactly in his prime here, Dustin works the majority of this match, which is never a bad thing. He spends a lot of the early stages here getting beaten down, as Kojima and Otani lock him into a double Boston crab. I did enjoy Dustin outsmarting Kojima on a strike exchange, letting Kojima rear up for a blow, then droptoeholding him into the ropes. Dustin slingshots Kojima into a Bionic Elbow, before the Rhodes’ lock in stereo figure-fours. Neither Dustin nor Dusty seem that over here, which kinda hurts some spots as Dusty has to really work to get a reaction. Dustin nails a bulldog on Kojima for two, but gets hit with a Koji Cutter which allows the tag to Otani. Otani gets the bootscrapes on Dustin, but gets hit with the Curtain Call for two. Kojima and Dusty brawl outside, and Kojima is able to recover quickest to get back in and level Dustin in the back of the head with a lariat. Otani rolls him up for the win.  

Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii vs Zebra Man & Naohiro Hoshikawa

On the first Hustle show, Zebra Man got a bit of a decent push, beating Ikuto Hidaka in a pretty swift fashion, so it’s surprising that this is a bit of a squash. Not in his favour. Choshu lariats Hoshikawa right at the start, who never really recovers. Ishii hits a big back suplex and Choshu locks in the sharpshooter. Zebra Man is tagged in to a sizable pop, but his offence is pretty milky. Not an accusation you could level at Ishii, who decks him with a lariat and a brain buster. Shrugging off some more questionable offence, Ishii hits another brainbuster and Choshu hits the lariat on Zebra Man for an easy three. 

Sabu, Justin Credible & Mike Awesome vs Kintaro Kanemura, Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

You’d be hard pressed to call this a good match, but it’s pretty fun while it lasts. Awesome looks great early doors throwing big old Kanemura about. There is no tag format in place at the start of the match, with pairings of guys taking it in turn to compete in the ring, whilst the others brawl outside the ring. An Awesome Bomb from the ring apron through a table puts Kanemura out for a while, whilst Sabu puts Tanaka through a table with a big legdrop. This leaves Kuroda alone, and they suddenly go into a proper tag format, purely to build some heat on Kuroda. Awesome breaks a chair over Kuroda’s head. Of course, as soon as Kuroda makes the hot tag to Tanaka, all structure vanishes again and we got back to some big spots. The end sees Credible and Tanaka battle over a tombstone, before Kanemura hits Justin with a kendo stick and Tanaka nails the roaring elbow for the win. Goofy structure aside, this was enjoyable nonsense.

The Predator vs Dan Bobish

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Predator, and he looks in good shape here. Bobish is a big guy, like former WCW jobber Al Greene inflated with helium. Not a particularly good wrestler though, and this match is pretty dull. Bobish chokes Predator on the ropes, then plays up to the crowd, so I’ve no idea if he’s supposed to be face or heel. I did like the big delayed back suplex Predator hit on Bobish, and he gets good height on a leg drop, but there is too much sluggish brawling on display here. Predator gets the win with a top rope kneedrop. 

Mark Coleman & Kevin Randleman vs Shinya Hashimoto & Toshiaki Kawada

Two MMA fighters vs two of the elite guys in Japan. I really want to like Randleman, who has great movement and energy, but a little too much of his offence feels flat, and his opening section with Hashimoto is a little awkward. Coleman doesn’t even have the energy going for him, though his section with Kawada is a little less laboured. Hashimoto has his shoulder heavily taped, and Randleman starts to focus on it, hitting some nasty headbutts to the taped area. Kawada doesn’t have an obviously weak area, so he’s able to look more dominant in the ring, and his Yakuza kick in the corner on Coleman looks great. The match never feels like it’s building to anything though, and the end comes as Randleman hits repeated knees to Hashimoto’s shoulder, forcing the ref to call it off. Not Hashimoto or Kawada’s best day. 

Naoya Ogawa vs Matt Ghaffari, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Dustin Rhodes, Giant Silva & Dan Bobish

This is a handicap match, and there is a crooked ref to further stack the decks against Ogawa. He fares well at first, hitting STO’s on everyone. Bobish is able to put up a little more resisitance before falling to an STO. The heel ref gets “distracted” by events outside the ring, so everyone bar Ghaffari comes in and clobbers away on Ogawa. Silva hits a chokeslam and Ghaffari finally steps in to hit a big splash for the win. Not the best main event I’ve ever seen.

WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII

Way back when I started this blog, it was designed to re-ignite my love of the pro-wrestling, to rediscover why I love it and to start watching new stuff. On this level, it's been a success. Though not updated very often, I've been watching and discovering more wrestling than ever. I've started going to live shows, I'm finally getting into things like lucha and puroresu that I'd only dabbled in before and I'm more open-minded about the world of wrestling than I was before.

Of course, the release of the WWE Network in the UK has given me access to a whole history of shows, and this gave me the idea to embark upon a little project. I'm going to rewatch the era of pro-wrestling that started my obsession with the sport, 1992 WCW. Saturday afternoons were spent, without fail, in front of the TV watching Worldwide on ITV, and I thought it would help continue my wrestling/writing journey to watch it again. I'll still be reviewing other stuff as well, but expect a lot of Dangerous Alliance-era WCW over the coming months...

Vader & Mr Hughes vs the Steiner Brothers

This was a whole heap of fun, and following a token bit of Scott Steiner using his mat skills to down Mr Hughes, a big man power-move spot fest. Scotty hits a huge overhead belly-to-belly on Hughes to get the ball rolling, and from that point on its just big hitting move after big hitting move. Rick hitting his own overhead belly-to-belly on Vader was great, as was Vader catching Rick on a dive from the ring and ramming him into the ring post. We don’t really get a face-in-peril section, as Rick soon hits a belly-to-belly on Vader off the top rope. There is a little bit of heat on Scotty until Hughes misses an avalanche and gets planted with a big backdrop. A melee ensues, with Vader accidently clotheslining his partner and Rick hitting the top rope bulldog on Hughes for the win.

Brian Pillman & Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs Tracy Smothers & the Taylor Made Man

Another tag sprint here, albeit with less emphasis on power moves. This is pretty fast paced to start, until Taylor hits a backbreaker on Pillman to stop him in his tracks. All four end up in the ring, with Pillman and Bagwell dropkicking the heels out and nailing them with pescados. Bagwell is still talked up as a rookie, and runs into a Smothers superkick following distraction from Taylor. The heat on Bagwell is brief, and in fact Pillman spends more time in peril, getting double teamed as Bagwell’s inexperience distracts the referee. Pillman takes some big bumps, getting suplex straight out of the ring and getting rammed off the apron into the railings. A hot tag to Bagwell follows almost straight away though, and the end is pretty cool. Bagwell hits a sunset flip on Smothers, but Taylor grabs his partner to stop him going over. Pillman dropkicks Taylor, which sends Smothers over for the three. Fun match. 

Richard Morton vs Johnny B Badd

The announcers play up Badd’s size advantage, so I appreciated Morton using a slightly vicious edge to take control, throwing Badd from the ring and ramming him into the ringpost. Badd is occasionally able to come back by overpowering Morton, so Morton makes his comebacks by cutting Badd off with quick blows to the midsection. The end comes rather abruptly, Badd rolling through a crossbody to win.

Diamond Dallas Page vs PN News

Very quick match. We start with DDP trying (and failing) to slam News, which seems like a terrible plan. News uses his weight well here, hitting two barrel rolls onto Page. A missed elbow gives DDP an opening, but he’s not learnt from his earlier mistake, trying another slam. This times, he gets News up, but collapses under the weight, and News wins with a belly-to-belly and a top rope splash.

Cactus Jack vs Van Hammer

This was really fun, and I’m impressed at how good the much-maligned Hammer looked. In many ways, a match like this played to his strengths, as he only needed to hit a few good looking moves, and the rest of the gaps were filled in my Cactus. Hammer was pretty agile, getting good height on a legdrop and leaping over the top rope from the ramp to hit a clothesline. They tumble outside, and Jack establishes the gimmick early with a quick pinfall attempt. Cactus hits a sunset flip to the floor, typically taking almost all the impact himself. He also lands with a horrible sounding thud when Hammer hiptosses him off the ramp. They brawl to the back and the cameras find them outside near a bullpen, which they end up fighting in. A rather large cowboy is revealed to be Abdullah The Butcher, but his attempt to hit Jack with a shovel fails and he nails Hammer instead, giving Cactus the win. Really fun, energised brawl, probably the best Hammer ever looked.
 

Michael PS Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs Brad Armstrong & Big Josh

This was pretty brief, but man it felt like the Freebirds had their working boots on here. This set off at a fair pace, and even an awkward looking Garvin crossbody felt it like kinda fit. Josh and Armstrong were a decent combo of power and speed, and I’d have liked to have seen more of them as a team without Josh’s lumberjack gimmick. That said, I thought the log roll he did on both Freebirds was a fun spot. Garvin stops Armstrong hitting a suplex and the Birds hit a double DDT behind the refs back for the victory.

Vinnie Vegas vs Thomas Rich

Squash match. Vegas cheapshots Rich to start and hits the snake eyes for the win.

Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko & Bobby Eaton vs Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Ron Simmons

Zbyszko broke Windham’s hand back in November, and Windham is out for revenge. He’s so fired up that he no-sells an Eaton superplex before the faces lock in stereo figure fours. Simmons and Dustin are both equally as fired up, with Simmons looking great clearing the ring and Rhodes hitting a flying clothesline over the top rope to the ramp. Rhodes soon ends up as face-in-peril (albeit briefly), and a referee distraction allows Paul E Dangerously to hit him with his phone. Arn gets two after hitting Dustin with the spinebuster, and again following a nice DDT. The heat on Dustin is pretty brief, and Arn only hits boot trying an ax handle from the top. A melee ensues, during which Windham catches Eaton coming off the top rope with a big punch from his cast-clad hand, and gets the win for the face team. Fun, but felt a bit too rushed. You could easily add another ten minutes to this and have a classic.

Sting & Ricky Steamboat vs Steve Austin & Rick Rude

The decision to have a lot of the upper-card revolve around the Dangerous Alliance really helped with the match quality in this time period for WCW. I love Steamboat trying a few quick roll-ups early on to look for the quick victory. Rude wants a piece of Sting, so slaps him to lure him into the ring. Sting has a gameplan here to work over Rude’s back, and him and Steamboat trade Camel Clutches on Rude, taking a page from the Alliance playbook by pretending to tag behind the referee’s back. Commentator Jesse Ventura is livid at this. The Alliance briefly take over on Sting after a low blow by Rude, but he swiftly makes the tag to Steamboat, who is in like a house on fire. Things break down as Rude nails Steamboat whilst he pins Austin following a victory roll, but the faces are able to pick up the win, Sting nailing a crossbody from the top as Austin holds Steamboat, with both men controversially covering the future Stone Cold for the three. Another match that was too short, but was fun.

WWE Survivor Series 2014

I recently wrote another review of this show, which was a little more accessible to non-fans, for www.strangethingsarehappening.com, which you may want to check out if you feel like reading TWO reviews of this show. This is the more nerdy version.

Fandango vs Justin Gabriel
As a Johnny Curtis fan, I really like the aggressive edge to the "new and improved" Fandango. His back suplex onto the apron looked suitably nasty. Gabriel got really impressive height on a springboard moonsault, just a shame only his hands made any connection with Fandango. This was brief, but pretty great from Curtis, nailing Gabriel with a big clothesline, the falcon arrow and the Last Dance to pick up the win.

The Usos vs The Miz & Damien Mizdow vs Los Matadores vs Goldust & Stardust
Mizdow is easily the most over person in this match. I enjoyed Los Matadores in the opening, all quick tags and goofy fun matwork. I love the fact that heels in the match soon realised thet can get great heat by not tagging in Mizdow, even his own partner. I loved Mizdow finally getting in, and Goldust blind tagging him right away. I liked the logic of the Dust brothers, as defending champs, working the heat section just between themselves, not risking getting blind tagged by opponents. Fun series of tombstone reversals between Stardust and a matador leads to a swank looking tornado DDT by the matador. The Usos get in and offer a lot of superkicks, but not much else. There was a really great dive series, featuring both Usos, Stardust, El Torito and finally the Matadores before Mizdow brilliantly blind tagged himself in to get the winning pinfall on Goldust. Hot opener.

Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae & Layla vs Natalya, Naomi, Emma & Alicia Fox
Despite being a heel, Paige gets the second biggest chant from the crowd. The biggest chant goes to Mizdow, who is way more entertaining than this awful match. Naomi sets the tone early with a shitty crossbody, before Cameron obviously sympathises with her former Funkadactyl colleague by hitting a super-bad bulldog on Natalya. Cameron is soon pinned with a roll-up by Naomi, yet somehow removing the worst wrestler from the match doesn't improve it's quality. Normally, the announcers ignoring a match would really annoy me, but here listening to Michael Cole reminise about the Mean Street Posse is preferable to watching the match. Fox pins Layla following a backbreaker. This just goes on for ages and goes nowhere. The only fun part is watching Paige despairing about her awful team-mates, openly calling Summer an idiot. Summer taps to the Emmalock and we get a briefly watchable "Paige vs the world" section, before Naomi pins her. The crowd goes mild. It's unbelievable that they looked at this face team of utter no-marks and decided to have all four of them survive. To be honest, the sooner they release all the non-Paige participants in this bout and promote the NXT girls, the better. Most of this was WEW bad.

Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt
This was a big leap forward in match quality. Really enjoyed the brawling in this one, felt like two guys who really wanted to hurt each other. Ambrose's diving forearm from the apron looked great. Wyatt stamping on Ambrose's hand, a body part he ended up not working on, just made him look really sadistic. Wyatt's big senton was fantastic, he gets great height on it, and I loved Wyatt emphasising his bulk for once by standing like a brick wall in the face of an attempted Ambrose crossbody. I liked the fact Wyatt was able to reverse the rebound lariat after watching Ambrose go through the set-up for it, but later turned his back when throwing Dean through the ropes, and thus got hit by THAT attempt instead. Ambrose hitting a diving elbow when his opponent was still standing really works for his character. The DQ ending was a bit of a copout, but I really liked that Wyatt passed Dean the chair to use on him, and rather than putting the chair aside, Ambrose waffled him with it, then battered him with tables, ladders and a heap of chairs.

Slater Gator vs Adam Rose & the Bunny
Brief fluff that continued the Rose/Bunny split that was never really resolved. Slater Gator don't normally spend too long on offense, so it was fun to see some nice power moves by Titus on Rose before the hot tag to the bunny, who pinned Slater after a second rope dropkick.

AJ Lee vs Nikki Bella
Eh, nothing to this. Brie kisses AJ, Nikki hits the Rack Attack and wins. Still, better than the other divas match.

Seth Rollins, Rusev, Luke Harper, Mark Henry & Kane vs John Cena, the Big Show, Erick Rowan, Ryback & Dolph Ziggler
So, the start of this is pretty fun, I did chuckle at Triple H psyching up Mark Henry, only for him to run straight into a knockout blow from Big Show for the first elimination. I'd rsther have seen Kane go first, but hey ho. Ryback looks really good running wild on everyone, especially nailing a spinebuster on Rusev, which makes his early elimination also seem odd. Harper and Rusev destroying Ziggler is pretty great, loved the big spinning slam from Harper. There's a fun dives spot involving Rollins and Ziggler, before Rusev is eliminated after hurling himself through the Spanish announce table. It was a predictable way to eliminate him, but the execution was terrific. The Rowan/Harper stand off gets a big reaction from the crowd, before Harper eliminates his former team-mate with a huge clothesline. I like the fact that the Big Show turn actually makes sense here - he looks at his two team-mates, sees Cena down and Ziggler barely conscious and makes the best decision he can to keep his job. This of course sees him knock Cena out for the pin and then get himself counted out. This leaves Ziggler against three men, and really is where the match loses any remaining credibility. I can just about buy Ziggler getting one last run of momentum and pinning Kane with the Zig Zag. I struggle to accept him kicking out of a monstrous looking Liger bomb and then being able to roll-up Harper for the elimination. However, one thing that gets totally overlooked in all the hoopla of Sting coming out is the fact that Ziggler hitting Rollins with the least threatening finishing move in the whole WWE somehow knocks Rollins out for nearly seven minutes. I've seen referees recover from real finishers quicker than the "future of the WWE" recovered from being lightly pulled to the mat. Aside from that quibble, it's a fun main event match.

Pro Wrestling Chaos 6: To Crown A King

Pro Wrestling Chaos are a company who run shows down in the Bristol area, and have a roster that features quite a few of my favourite British wrestlers. Seeing as how I live a good 2 hours+ from Bristol, I decided the easiest way to check them out would be by DVD instead. This show is based around a four-man tournament to crown the King of Chaos champion, and is a really fun show from start to finish.

 

JD Knight vs Dave Mercy

This is the first semi-final tournament match. Given that I've only seen him before as an amusingly perverted heel, the one thing I wasn’t expecting is to see Dave Mercy as a fired-up, white-meat babyface. It really suits him too, he looked really good at working over Knight in the early going. Knight takes over after snapping Mercy’s neck over the top rope and starts grounding Mercy. His covers looks pretty nonchalant, which allows Mercy to make a comeback with a flurry of blows and a swank looking Northern Lights suplex. Knight hits a chokebomb, which only gets two, and he seems frustrated at this, going outside to grab the ringbell. The ref stops him, but it turns out to be a distraction, as Knight instead nailed Mercy with a wrench from his tights to get the win. Or so it seemed, as the ref raises his hand before he has a chance to hide the wrench, which leads to it’s discovery. The ref restarts the match, and Mercy hits a quick RKO to win. Fun opener.

 

Mike Bird vs Wild Boar

I really like both guys, so I had high expectations for this one. Boar is working face here, and it’s nice to see that he’s still plenty vicious on the mat in this role, working the fingers of Bird. I liked Boar’s punches in the corner, pummelling Bird to the ground, then picking him up to deliver more punches. There was a lovely little sequence to change the momentum, as Bird avoids a charge, and rolls Boar up with a schoolboy, then hits a double-stomp right away. Bird starts slapping Boar around the head, which seems a foolish thing to do to rile up his opponent, but then he brilliantly follows it up by running the ropes at the same time as Boar to hit a big clothesline from the side, which looked great. Boar’s corner senton looks great as ever, but Bird picks up the win with another big clothesline and a cradle piledriver. Really great match.

Dick Morgan, Alex Steele & Eddie Dennis vs The Doomsday Killers (Gideon, KillBane & Ian Williams)

This starts off as a singles match between Gideon and Morgan, before Williams attacks Morgan from behind. This leads to Steele and Dennis making the save and proposing this six-man tag. I quite like the initial structure of this match where, despite an initial flurry of offence by the faces, the Doomsday Killers are able to take over following a big Gideon kick to Morgan, capitalising on his still being groggy from the pre-match assault. I thought Gideon looked terrific in this match, with just nasty, vicious looking blows that looked convincingly painful. I also dug his offence on Steele following a hot tag, with him holding Steele in a standing chokehold which he then turned into an overhead butterfly suplex, which looked ace. Things break down after another hot tag to Dennis, and things get a little sloppy until they head to a hot end sequence. A big series of dives by Steele, Williams and Gideon culminates in a big flip dive by Dennis. The action returns to the ring with a series of moves, before Morgan finishes Williams off with a Northern Lights suplex, which he rolls through with into a brainbuster. Decent match, really made me want to see more of Gideon.

Big Grizzly vs Rampage Brown

The box has this match down as “Steve Griffiths vs Rampage Brown”, but it wasn’t until I got to the menu screen that I realised “Steve Griffith” is blog favourite Big Grizzly, and this became a match I was super excited to see. This was a really good big man bout, with a fun story. Rampage Brown is a big bruiser of a man, but for once he’s out-sized by his opponent. Rampage tries a couple of shoulderblocks without shifting Grizzly, and Grizzly meets him with a running knee as he hits the ropes for the third try. They trade some big blows on the outside of the ring, and back inside Rampage tries to pick up Grizzly onto his shoulders with no joy. This is teased a few times in the match, and I like that, strong as Rampage is, he isn’t able to just lift Grizzly on the first try. Grizzly can move for a guy his size, and I really like the way that he uses this size as a weapon, smashing into Rampage like a demolition ball with a running shoulderblock. Grizzly gets a two count off a big sideslam, before Rampage hits a big lariat and finally hoists Griz onto his shoulders for a running Samoan drop, which gives him the victory. Loved this.

Chris Masters vs Jeckel

Masters is quite a regular on these shores nowadays, and it’s fun to see how he matches up with different opponents, and if he works a heel or face. Here, he was working as a face, which involved him overpowering Jeckel, until receiving a poke to the eye. He managed to catch Jeckel on a pescado attempt, but ended up getting rammed into the ring post. Jeckel looks to be a decent size, just not as big as Masters, so it made sense for him to use these little shortcuts. Jeckel heeled it up a storm when in control, with chokes and boot scrapes to wear down Masters. Jeckel gets a bit too over confident and spends ages going for a top rope legdrop, which he somewhat inevitably misses, and Masters gets him with a lovely Sky High powerbomb. Masters locks in the Masterlock, but Jeckel pulls the ref to him to hide him giving Masters a low blow, which allows Jeckel to pick up the cheap roll up victory. This was fun.

Mike Bird vs Dave Mercy

This is the final of the King of Chaos title tournament, and the other wrestlers comes out onto the stage to watch the match, which is a nice touch. I liked Bird pre-bell trying to wind up Mercy and get under his skin, which leads to Mercy attacking him with a flourish at the bell. They brawl outside  the ring and through the crowd to the stage, before getting back to the ring, where Mercy misses a top rope splash. Bird takes over, and hits a really cool looking running legdrop in the corner. Mercy tries firing back with some really great looking punches, but telegraphs one which gives Bird time to block it. Bird misses a top rope moonsault, giving Mercy enough time to get his second wind, hitting a Northern Lights suplex and a Michinoku Driver for two. Bird is able to hit a fucking Dragon suplex on Mercy, which sends him from the ring, and Bird follows him out with two suicide dives onto the dazed Mercy. Bird is fully in the ascendancy here, but is caught diving into the ring by a RKO from Mercy, and only getting his foot on the ropes prevents Bird getting pinned. They battle on the top rope, and Bird tries for a top rope cradle piledriver (which it really looked like he was going to hit) before Mercy breaks free. This does lead to a really great end sequence. They fight on the ring apron, and Bird DOES get to hit the cradle piledriver on the ring apron. Mercy is pretty much out, but does just about get back into the ring before the 10 count…only for Bird to immediately hit another cradle piledriver for the clean victory. Really loved this,  both guys managed to look stronger coming out than going in, which is surely the aim of matches like this.

Osaka Pro 2004 Super J Cup

Naomichi Marufuji vs Jun Kasai
This is the first of four first-round matches in the Super J cup tournament. I quite like what little I've seen of Kasai before, so this should be interesting. He looks pretty good here, and is quite dominant at first, nailing some DDT's and getting two from a top rope splash. I also loved him hitting a low blow then quickly spinning Marufuju around to disorient him before getting two off a backslide. They work at quite a fast pace, both trying for rollups to get the swift win - sensible in a tournament setting, before Marufuji gets Sliced Bread for the win.

Goa vs Garuda
I have seen one Gaurda match before and zero Goa matches, so going into this blind. Garuda has a great look and hits a nice suicide dive early, so I've taken to him already. Goa is stockier and goes to the chinlock pretty swiftly into his offensive run. Not too sure about the flow of this match: Garuda breaks out of a sharpshooter and within 30 seconds is hitting a plancha on Goa, which seems too quick a transition. Falcon Arrow gets two for Garuda. Goa hit some power offense, including a Jackhammer for two, but Garuda ducks a Shining Wizard and gets the win following a rana. Their work was decent enough, but the match needed a bit better structure.

Wataru Inoue vs Kazuya Yuasa
These two face off before the introductions, so hopefully we'll see a bit of fire here. Yuasa wins the ensuing strike exchange with a nice big clothesline. Another strike exchange, which is one of my least favourite things in wrestling, follows. Inoue takes over with a largely pointless bit of matwork, before Yuasa suckers him in outside the ring and nails him with a dropkick as he dives from the apron. I like that a lot of Yuasa's offence involves some beefy blows, with uppercuts and clotheslines hurting Inoue. Yuasa does annoy me by twice going to an anklelock, despite having used no offence on Inoue's leg before. After a deathlock doesn't work, he doesn't go back to it either. After avoiding another Yuasa clothesline, Inoue locks in an Octopus Stretch for the win. This wasn't great.

Takehiro Murahama vs Taichi Ishikari
Ishikari goes on offence quickly here, levelling Murahama with dropkicks and a big German suplex for two. Again, makes sense to go for the quick win in a tournament. Murahama seems to be a bit of a striker, so he nails some stiff blows to take over. I get the impression he's the more favoured of the two, as Ishikari seems to go to quick offensice flurries when he gets an opening, as if he doesn't want to risk Murahama recovering. When he does hesitate, Murahama kicks him in the head to take over. Murahama seems confident on offence, blitzing Ishikari with kicks and, despite a few desperation roll ups by his opponent, quickly wins with a brainbuster. Really enjoyed this, told a good story of the overmatched guy trying to sneak a win against the odds.

Ofune vs Apple Miyuki
Joshi match here to break up the tournament matches. This really isn't very good and there is something quite annoying about Ofune. They run through a bunch of basic offence, though Miyuki at least shows fire with some stomps in the corner, and I did enjoy one submission hold she did from the corner. A guilotene choke gets the win for Ofune.

Tomohiro Ishii, MEN'S Teioh & MIKAMI vs Kintaro Kanemura, Azteca & Big Boss MA-G-MA
Kanemura has some bandaging on his neck, which is pretty distracting. I remember liking the one MIKAMI match I saw previously, and he's pretty slick here too. Both teams having a big powerhouse (Ishii and Kanemura) adds a fun element as their face-off leads to everything breaking down outside the ring. Back in, MIKAMI gets picked out, including taking a stepladder to the nuts from Kanemura. MA-G-MA gets great air hurling him across the ring with a butterfly suplex. The heat section on MIKAMI sees him getting pummelled by his three bigger opponents before the leads to Ishii clearing house like a beast. Huge superplex on Kanamura is impressive. We head into a hot finishing sequence, with MIKAMI taking top rope splashes from Azteca and MA-G-MA, which his partners break up on the pin, and Ishii kills Azteca with a snap powerbomb, also for two. The end sees Azteca hit in quick succession by a Miracle Ecstasy Bomb by Teioh, a swanton from a ladder by MIKAMI and finally a brainbuster by Ishii to finish him off. Great fun match here. Of note, the ref kept curiously jumping in the ring, like he was stomping ants. Very odd.

Ebessan vs Kuishinbo Kamen
Man, it takes these two forever to get to the ring. This is, as you'll know if you've heard of these two, a comedy match. This appears to be some kind of title defence by Ebessan. They run few a few of the usual comedy routines, wrestling in slo-mo, wrestling that turns into a dance routine etc. However, some wrestling does sneak through and it does end up being something resembling a match. I thought Ebessan hit a lovely Sky Twister Press, as did Kamen, who picked up the win with his.

Garuda vs Naomichi Marufuji
I liked Garuda, after a little bit of token matwork, just going "fuck it" and hitting a huge tope about a minute into the match. Garuda goes back to the matwork to ground Marufuji, but Marufuji is slightly quicker on the mat and takes over there. They end up outside, where Garuda seems more comfortable, hitting a decent Asai moonsault. Things really heat up from there, and the final few minutes, though maybe a bit too back-and-forth, were a lot of fun. Garuda hit a swank Dragon suplex for a very close two. He misses a 450 splash, but in turn avoids Sliced Bread from Marufuji, who instead quickly locks in a Majistral cradle for the win. Fun semi-final.

Takehiro Murahama vs Wataru Inoue
This was a fun match. Murahama spent a good proportion of this bout kicking Inoue to fuck, with some lightning fast kicks too much for the New Japan man. I especially liked Murahama teasing one type of kick, then nailing a different one when Inoue tried to block. Inoue's offence didn't seem convincing, despite him being given an even share of the bout, though a cross legged brainbuster looked pretty good. There was a great spot, where Inoue tried to block a top rope superplex by repeatedly hitting Murahama, who would just about hold on to the top rope, before eventually hitting the suplerplex. Murahama gets two from a brutal looking kick flurry, and shortly after wins with a brainbuster.

TAKA Michinoku & Shiryu vs Billy Ken Kid & Tigers Mask
This is a pretty fun tag match, largely due to the heeling of TAKA and Shiryu. They work over Billy Ken Kid to start, and do little annoying things like gouging at his face and trying to undo his mask. Just little dick moves. Shiryu in particular levels some stiff blows on Kid. We see a little friction in the heel team after some "face ducks and move hits partner instead" , but they manage to stay on the same page to work Kid over. TAKA keeps going to a crossface on BKK, which he'll repeat throughout the match. The hot tag to Tigers Mask sees some nice stereo dives by the faces. Tigers Mask gets a two count from a Tiger suplex, but Kid misses a 450 splash, before more stereo dives, this time from the heel team. The heel friction shows up again as Shiryu hits TAKA by accident with a leg lariat. TAKA tries to lock in another crossface on BKK, but it's not locked on properly and Kid rolls him up in a crucifix for the victory.

HEAT, KENTA & CIMA vs Jushin Liger, Jinsei Shinzeki & Super Delfin
Interesting battle of the three younger stars against the more established veterans. The youth clear the ring to start, and start working over Delfin, clearly seeing him as the weak link of the team. I loved HEAT just nailing Delfin with repeated dropkicks in the corner. Liger gets tagged in, and gets a surfboard on CIMA, and I just love Shinzeki coming in to stand guard, preventing CIMA's partners saving him with a magnificent grumpy look on his face. Liger is also magnificently surly in the match, seeing an attempt to break a pin coming, and immediately standing up and giving a non-too-subtle "up yours" gesture. Things start to break down, and the young guns hit a series of dives each. Shinzeki hitting the ropewalk on CIMA and KENTA at the same time is pretty swank. The end sequence is an exciting series of moves, but Delfin gets isolated trying the Delfin Clutch on CIMA and, after getting kicked to fuck, he gets hit with Schwein by CIMA for the win. This was a lot of fun.

Naomichi Marufuji vs Takehiro Murahama
The tournament final, and it's not the two most exciting guys in there (but then my personal choice of Garuda vs Kasai wouldn't have gone down too well). Unfortunately, whilst this is ok, these two seem to have a few communication issues, which makes this look a little sloppy. Curiously, given that I've found Marufuji the weaker half of his two earlier matches and have generally enjoyed Murahama in this tournament, it was Marufuji who impressed more here. I liked his gameplan of focusing on the legs of Murahama to remove his striking game, even if Murahama seemed unwilling to sell the damage as soon as it was his turn on offence. Marufuji even busted out the old Bret Hart ringpost figure four. They tease a superplex to the floor, but instead Murahama takes a nice bump to the floor before kicking the leaping Marufuji in mid air, which looked good. In the ring, Murahama gets two off a brainbuster, before Marufuji also gets two from Sliced Bread #2. The end sees Marufuji hit Sliced Bread again, this time from the top rope, to pick up the victory. This had a few good moments, but didn't really come together well.