NOAH Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial Night 2014 (06/13/14)

Hitoshi Kumano vs Mitsuhiro Kitamiya
These two put on a good energetic sprint. Kitamiya is in his rookie year and his big moves are limited to a dropkick. Kumano is allowed a wider range of moves and ends the match with a German Suplex Hold.

Genba Hirayanagi vs Kikutaro
This was a comedy match with some decent wrestling found within. Most of Kikutaro's comedy is lost on my due to the language barrier but a large percentage of the fans laughed so it must be a decent gimmick. Hirayanagi had a scary moment where a plancha was slightly mistimed and his head connected with the bottom bar of the guard rail. Genba rolled up Kikutaro after he collapsed presumably from oxygen deprivation.

Daisuke Ikeada vs Masao Inoue
Why did we need a second comedy match in a row. In the midst of their stalling they worked in a couple of decent comedy spots, such as Ikeada irish whipping various people around ringside into Inoue. Overall this was not my type of match especially ending with a Ikeada small package reversal for the pin.

Kenou vs Daisuke Harada vs Taiji Ishimori
I was questioning whether company storylines would be pushed to the side for the memorial show and thankfully that is not the case. On the 5/31 show Kenou attacked Harada after Harada's title defense and that is the driving story in the match. While Ishimori adds a lot of energy and some cool moves to the match, he sticks out as the third wheel taking more floor time than the other two combatants. He had an amazing transition into an Indian Deathlock on one opponent while DDTing the other. This match furthers the Kenou quest for Harada's GHC Junior title by pinning the champion clean as a sheet in the middle of the ring after his sweet suplex. Kenou used the most lackadaisical cover to pin Harada not even hooking the leg. It really looked like he was pinning a jobber on Saturday mornings rather than a champion who you would think would only lose by the skin of his teeth. This match was very entertaining and I am looking forward to the looming Kenou/Harada matchup.

BRAVE (Kotoge, Nakajima & Yone) vs TMDK (Nichols & Haste) & Quiet Storm
As I mentioned in the 5/31 review of the Haste singles match that I knew TMDK were a good tag team and they certainly show it here, working together with impeccable timing. There is one very complex comedy spot with both team members and Yone where Yone manuevers and tricks Haste into clotheslining his partner, which is more along the lines of my type of wrestling comedy compared with the two preceding matches. The more I watch Quiet Storm's power junior stuff the more I like it, my only critique would be to expand the moveset a little. The match was well worked with a nice flow and pace, which makes it an enjoyable match. The Mighty Don't Kneel take the win after one of their nifty double teams. They also take a post match bow to the large Misawa portrait which wins respect with both myself and the live crowd. Recommended if you have 20 minutes of spare time to kill.

Chi Kibou-Gun (Ohara, Taniguchi & Morishima) vs Tenryu, Koshinaka & Ogawa
This was a simple story told well, the younger guys were trying to kill the older team. This broke down to a wild brawl early before settling down to a match. Koshinaka was extremely over and got the biggest pop of the night thus far with his diving hit attack that he hit on everyone as often as he was able. Koshinaka got the pin after a powerbomb. At 64 years old Tenryu took the first heat segment but didn't really do too much overall. Chi Kibou-Gun are great at cheating behind the refs back, even if it feel weird to see so much cheating in Japan. Good match that is worth a look.

No Mercy (Suguira & Takayama) vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Nagata
I knew coming into the match I really liked 3 out of the 4 participants and the fourth, Suguira, I haven't seen a whole lot of to make an educated judgement. This match if full of stiffness and near falls and is great. Sekimoto almost decapitates Suguira with a lariat near the end and the crowd completely buys into the near fall. Suguira takes the match with an Olympic Slam where he almost dumps Sekimoto on his head. Give up watching one of your reality shows for the week and watch this match instead.

Akitoshi Saito vs Naomichi Marufuji
These two put on a pretty good main event really milking the nearfalls at the end. They implored a slow prodding pace with big moves and all in all the match worked for me. Marufuji almost screwed up the finish and had to muscle Saito for the suplex.Marufuji may be growing on me slowly, I am anxiously awaiting his showdown with Nagata for the GHC title. Recommended if a slow prodding pace is not an automatic turnoff. Also note the match is under 20 minutes not the full 30 as the file would indicate.

Final Thoughts
The card from top to bottom isn't great with only the top half far outweighting the bottom half of the card. The No Mercy tag is worth going out of your way to see, the rest is skippable for a casual Puro fan.

NOAH Navigation With Breeze - Night 4 5/31/14

Hitoshi Kumano vs Mitshuhiro Kitamiya

We start with the young boys doing their damnedest to learn the art of pro wrestling. There isn't much here but what is here is entertaining enough. I have no reliable database to tell me who is who without spoiling the rest of the card so they will be judged together instead of on their own merit. My favorite spot in the match has the man in red holding an armbar then transitioning to a backslide. After this spot I put all my money on red and lost it all as black who made red tap out with an octopus hold. Good enough opener.

Masao Inoue vs Yoshinari Ogawa

The fact that this 8 minute match is clipped to less time than the young boys match should speak volumes on its quality. It seemed like Ogawa wanted to wrestle a straight match and Inoue said "No on my watch" and proceeds to work almost all comedy spots. While I am far from a wrestling snob and enjoy some comedy within wrestling, this was not my taste. Ogawa gains the pin after sitting down on a Inoue sunset flip attempt. Not worth your time.

Kenou & Hajime Ohara vs Katsuhiko Nakajima & Taji Ishimori

Though this match had a lot of energy and contained a lot of moves, I found it lacking direction. What they did here was an entertaining spotfest with plenty of cool moves such as the German Suplex hold that Kenou used on Ishimori where he held him swinging between his legs then lifted Ishimori all the way up and around for the German. Of course they include a couple of Fighting Spirit exchanges of forearms and kicks which are fine in my book, if a little cliche. Kenou pinned Ishimori for the win after an interesting suplex (for lack of a better term). There is very little that completely turns me off in wrestling but if you hate spotfests this might not be the match for you.

Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Kotoge vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Genba Hirayanagi

This match was clipped way down from its 16 minutes and it was still a match Takayama could not save. It is worse than the spotfest, skip it.

Naomichi Marufuji vs Shane Haste

I have heard Marufuji can be lazy when unmotivated and that seemed to be the case here. No one cared about this match including the performers and the crowd. While I understand the big picture story involves Marufuji heading for a future GHC Heavyweight Title match, the story of the match seemed to be that both wrestlers had no specific strategy to win the match so they would just hit moves until something worked. I like what I see from TMDK as a team but the jury is still out on them in singles matches and this may not be a good match to make judgement on Shane. If Marufuji was indeed phoning it in then there is little Haste could have done to make the match meaningful. Marufuji won with a submission hold of which I cannot find a name. This match is not worth your time.

Daisuke Harada © vs Quiet Storm - GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship

In my wildest imaginations would I have thought I would be watching Quiet Storm matches in 2014. The last I had seen of him was in 2002 or 2003 ROH and Storm looks like a completely different wrestler. Quiet Storm is now a mature 30 year old and is gigantic compared to the skinny teenager on those early ROH shows. My 6 year old daughter watched this with me and I tried to sell her on Quiet Storm having muscles but she confirmed he is just fat. Quiet Storm disappointed me by not shouting STORM CRADLE DRIVER once in the match, which I would have popped for. These two work a nice little big/small story with slightly bland offense. Shoulder blocks rule the first half of the match establishing Quiet Storm's size advantage and then transitions to more power moves in the latter half of the match. I was very disappointed in the brainbuster on the concrete floor being sold like any ordinary move. Harada won with a German Suplex that never toyed with the idea that Quiet Storm was difficult to pick up due to his size. Still compared to the previous few matches this was better and worth a view if you have 16 minutes to spare.

Takeshi Morishima & MAYBACH Taniguchi © vs Takashi Sugiura & Masato Tanaka - GHC Tag Team Championship

I like stiff wrestling but I didn't love this. These four put in enough work for a great match but the lack of drama makes the match feel underwhelming. Some of this may have come from all of the Cho Kibou-Gun interference which takes the focus away form the match. Sugiura & Tanaka have some good teamwork and hopefully will have a good reign after ending Taniguchi/Morishima's title run at 126 days.

Final Thoughts
Skip this show unless you have the need to see every NOAH show. The title matches are okay but nothing really stands out up and down the card. Recommended to avoid.

BJW 01/02/14

Takayuki Ueki vs Yuichi Taniguchi
I love the Cagematch.net website because it has all the history you could ask for on virtually every wrestler. When one is not listed you know he is greener than dirt and that is what we have here with Ueki. Everything Ueki does looks bad. I imagine Taniguchi has a hand in training him or is just a veteran showing the young boy how to work in front of a live crowd. Regardless Taniguchi finishes Ukei off with a Northern Lights Suplex and a half crab.

Haisei Yakuza Duo (Hoshino & Inaba) vs Irish Airborne
The BJW crowd loves the flashy moves from the Irish Airborne. I understand all wrestling requires good timing but the Airborne's double team offense is especially dependent on good timing. There were a couple of cases where the timing was off and the moves were less impressive. Haisei Yakuza Duo were given about an even amount of offense but this was a match was about the Airborne showing off their moves. The Crist Brothers finish the match with the double stomp spike tombstone piledriver.

Brahman Kai, Brahman Shu & Shinobu vs Madoka & Speed of Sounds (Senga & Oosugi)

I love the Brahman's, they are crazy and eccentric and just pure entertaining. Shinobu I was not impressed with. He lacked any intensity whatsoever and having to see his ass d not help things. Even his partners, as funny as they can be, will get down to business and wrestle when need be. Madoka has a freshly shorn head that is the source of a few comedy spots,and I especially like the riff on the Brahman bowling ball spot. This was most of all a comedy match and the Brahmans ruled here, everyone else either sucked or was overshadowed by Brahman greatness. Did I mention I love me some Brahman?

Street Fight

MASADA & Masaya Takahashi vs Mototsugu Shimizu & Saburo 

MASADA and Shimizu are the stars, their partners do nothing of interest and might as well not even be in the match at all. I question the pointless bloodshed in a throwaway 8 minute midcard match. The ending is incredibly sick with MASADA jamming wooden sticks into Shimizu's head then letting go and they spread out while sticking to his skull. While sick, it is quite the visual that leaves its mark on the viewer. MASADA then goes over the top with brainbusters to drive the sticks in further finally ending the match. Besides the shock ending there is nothing of value here.

Kazuki Hashimoto vs Koji Kanemoto [****1/4]
It is quite an amazing achievement for 47 year old Kanemoto to have a match of quality with this much brutality. These two trade blow for blow and hold for hold the entire 14 minutes. At one point Kanemoto is punching Hashimoto right into his arm before locking in an arm lock. Even if the fad is ten years old the constant reversal of holds ala Angle/Benoit is still a favorite of mine. Koji rolled Hashimoto into a cool looking ankle lock before they started the reversal sequence. The ankle lock Hashimoto tapped to looked to be quite snug. The match had great intensity, brutal moves but needed a hotter ending to really push it over the top. As is it is certainly a match worthy of your time.

Monster Items Death Match; The Battledore

B Fautless Junkie's (Numazawa, Kasai & Takeda) vs Danny Havoc, Ryuji Ito & Yuko Miyamoto

As far as deathmatch six man tags go, this was not good. The match was sorely relying on the visual gimmick of all of the lighttubes attached to the wooden stands in the corner to break when the button was pushed. Sadly not even half the tubes broken when the claws came down. Another fault of the match is that the gimmick the match is based on did not factor into the finish. After the second claw dropped the two that took the bump continued to perform offensive moves in the match. The claw should have been the end of the man (or men) who took that second bump. Thirdly there were at times four wrestlers doing the "I am holding him back" rest hold on the floor while two men fight in the ring. While I understand the focus is supposed to be on the two in the ring, it takes some of the believability out of the match. The wrestlers holding back their opponents are obviously not struggling to do so. Deathmatches can work with drama based off of the gimmick surrounded by intense brawling. This failed on both levels.

Ryuichi Kawakami & Shinya Ishikawa vs Shuji Ishikawa & Yuji Okabayashi

This match is here to spur the Shuji Ishikawa/Ryuchi Kawakami issue which it does well in the post match. The actual match is okay but contains several rest holds that only serve as a time filler. The good in the match were the forarms of which there were plenty. I must mention that Shuji Ishikawa threw one of the weakest Shining Wizards I have ever seen. Okabayashi has great facials showing he is out on his feet. He ends up getting the pin on Shinya Ishikawa after a nice lariat.

BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Title

Tenchi wo Kurau Finals Match

Isami Kodaka© vs Takumi Tsukamoto [***1/4]

I have no idea what the Tenchi wo Kurau is but this is apparently the finals, however there was no trophy or prize that Kodaka won in his victory beside keeping his belt. These two went out and fought a hell of a fight. Kodaka dropped his Diving Double Kneedrop off the top through lighttubes. What made this especially brutal was that this isn't a kneedrop where he would bounce off his opponent, but he planted his knees in Tsukamoto. There was little wrestling save for the token grappling at the beginning of the match, but there were sick spots, ladders and a giant hammer which made the match a lot of fun. Kodaka got the pin with a superkick. 

Overall Thoughts:

An enjoyable first show from Big Japan that produced a legit MOTYC in Hashimoto/Kanemoto and an enjoyable main event. 

Zero1 Happy New Year 01/01/14

Daichi Hashimoto vs. Kohei Sato
Sato is the trainer at the Zero1 dojo and Hashimoto is a young boy with 2 years experience. Hashimoto is also son of Japanese legend Shinya Hashimoto. Sato spends most of the match no selling Hashimoto and giving him plenty of abuse. Somewhere along the line Sato gets busted open but that part was cut out of the match. Sato puts Hashimoto away with his High Angle German Suplex. Not much here unless you like a semi competitive squash.

Gokiburi Mask #1 vs. Jason Lee
There is absolutely no information on either of these two on Cagematch so I can only assume they are young boys from the dojo. Gokiburi's mask looks like that of an ant. He is a large, slow power wrestler that doesn't do much of note. Jason Lee seems to have a martial arts background and is by far the better of the two on this occasion. At one point Lee hits this Street Fighteresque  combo in the corner which was different. Jason Lee is one I would like to see more from in the future. As a match this is another semi-competitive squash. Gokiburi did very little here, but he is very unhappy and cuts a little promo after the match. Lee is awarded a parchment of some type after the match.

"brother" YASSHI and Ken Tsuyoshi  vs. Yoshikazu Yokoyama and Tank Nagai
Out of the almost ten minute match we get a disjointed 2 or 3 minutes. Sadly the best part is the comedy of Yokoyama/Nagai acting like The Steiner Brothers. YASSHI and Tsuyoshi resolve to using a kendo stick, which backfires. Yokoyama gets the pin after the Death Valley Driver.

Ryouji Sai and Ikuto Hidaka vs. Toru Owashi and Takuya Sugawara
Once again clipped and neither team seemed motivated to put any more than decent wrestling into the match. I don't know who to blame here, the only wrestler I am familiar with is Hidaka and he is awesome. It really felt like an American indy match you would find in a small town like Royston, GA. Hidaka and Sugawara have a little promo battle without mics before they lock horns. The crowd liked the promos at least. Hidaka ends this with Iwami Ginzan and like the entire card so far there is nothing to see here.

Akebono and Yuji Okabayashi vs. Maybach Beta and Tama Williams
While I liked Akebono's Triple Crown title defense a couple days later more than I should have, I did not like Akebono here. The only thing memorable these guys did was the three giant splashes Akebono gave Maybach Beta to end the match.

International Jr. Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Championship
HUB © vs. Mineo Fujita
This match felt like a true indy title match. There were a lot of moves but no sense of direction or story. Both guys are fluid with their moves just could not put the whole thing together and make the match memorable. Fujita is supposed to be a heel yet the fans would cheer him at times. At one point after a ref bump he dropkicks HUB in the balls which garnered the most cheers. HUB wins the bout after what I presume was a Chaos Break and he leaned so far back on the cover I thought we had a double pin. HUB retains the two titles that have been defended together since Sugawara "unified" the belts in 2012.

Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship
James Raideen © vs. Demon Ueda
Before the match there was a video package for Demon Ueda that was complete over the top wrestlecrap. It is a must see if you like that type of thing. Raideen is a New Zealander trained by the Dudley Boys and has the perfect WWE look. He is 6'5 with a chiseled physique and is only 22 years of age. He is everything the WWE looks for in new talent. Zero1 obviously has some trust in him because he is in the midst of the second longest title run in the titles short history. Masato Tanaka holds the record with a 307 day title reign. Raideen wins me over by coming out to one of my favorite wrestling themes of all time, Sting's NWA music. Ueda tries to make this match a brawl but Raideen settles this thing down to a power wrestling match. Raideen has horrible chops for a man his size. The match plays into the backstory of Ueda using mist to score a victory over Raideen in a tag match. Ueda has a great character but his offense did not leave a lasting impression on me. Raideen gets the victory after a High-Angle Powerbomb.

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship
Masato Tanaka and Yusaku Obata  vs. Shinjiro Otani and KAMIKAZE
The NWA Intercontinental Tag Titles date back to 2001 where a young Samoa Joe was one half of the first champions. The previous champs, Akebono and Sekimoto, vacated the championship on 12/30 and this match is to fill the vacancy. The match itself is by far the best match of the night. Three of the four participants can go. Tanaka and Otani bring the slaps, forearms, and of course face washes. The one thing I have been looking for all night is found here, Tanaka and Obata hurt a body part of one of their opponents and they continue working on it. Obata takes the violence well and is very fluid in the ring. KAMIKAZE is just horrible. He slides to a stop on the floor instead of taking the bump into the chairs as planned. Tanaka and Obata have KAMIKAZE on the ropes and there is no way he is coming back yet he gets a fluke backslide on Obata for the pin. I was not happy with this finish but Otani and KAMIKAZE become the 31st NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions.

Overall Thoughts:
I was not a fan of the overall show. Most is pretty lackluster wrestling save the main event which was good enough yet not great enough to go out of your way to see. Thumbs down.

AJPW New Years Wars 2014 - Night 2 (01/05/14)

Team Dream Futures (Ishii & Irie) vs Xceed (Aoki & Suzuki) [***3/4]

The more I watch Ishii and especially Irie the more I love these guys. Irie is short and fat and wrestles a fun power junior heavyweight style. About a fourth of the way into the match I started to realize they are going for more than your pedestrian opener and by the end I was hooked on the near falls hoping the DDT visitors would score the upset victory. Team Dream Futures won me over with their apparent finisher which amounts to a GTS onto Irie's mohawk (instead of Ishii's knee). I understand the reason the two teams went to a 20 minute time limit draw. It shows that TDF are on par with Xceed and if given more time in a rematch could win, but I would have loved to see a finish and would have given this four stars if that had been the case. If you have time this is worth a look.

Jon Bolen vs Tyson Dux

This felt like an 8 minute exhibition with no real story to tell from two wrestlers that seem to not be headed anywhere fast in All Japan. Bolen has some interesting power moves and an okay finisher (swinging powerslam) and uses them to dominate Dux in the latter stages of the match. Dux gets the cheap school boy rollup for the apparent upset finish. This was a total letdown from the awesome opener.

KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai vs Osamu Nishimura & Ryuji Hijikata
Dark Kingdom is such a good name, but the team does nothing for me. They really are a poor man's BULLET CLUB with nothing interesting to offer. They cheat yet their opponents Nishimura and Hijikata are just as bland in this match. Common sense would dictate that the faces get a hot tag and at least an attempt at a win but no KENSO ends the match with a running knee completely out of left field. I am not a fan of this.

Hikaru Sato & Ultimo Dragon vs Xceed (Shiozaki & Miyahara)

Forget their partners, Go Shiozaki and Hikaru Sato put on some good work here. They included those little nuances that make wrestling so awesome, like how Shiozaki sells the injured arm off a chop even though he proved to have the better chops earlier in the match. Sato did everything in his power  to rip Shiozaki's arm off with an assist to the crazy lucha submissions of Ultimo Dragon. The match was not spectacular but was solid. Shiozaki claimed the win with a Go Flasher on Sato.

GAORA TV Title

SUSHI© vs Soma Takao

This is SUSHI's first defense of the vacated GAORA TV Title (sixth defense of the title ever by my count) he won in November. SUSHI is the third holder of the title and is in such Hall of Fame company as Seiya Sanada and Renee Dupree. Takao brought some DDT craziness with him to the match but came up a bit short. There was a lot of garbage wrestling here and not much of a story to tell. They did some brawling out side and Takao dropped a pan from the second story on top of SUSHI's head. They did the rollup reversal spot for several two counts and SUSHI ended it with what I assume is the Katsuo no Ipponzuri (Fisherman 's Buster small package).

Burning (Akayama & Kanemaru) & Masao Inoue vs Masanobu Fuchi, Suwama & Taiyo Kea

The notes on the YouTube video note this is Masanobu Fuchi's 60th birthday celebration. The match is worked very smart with everyone getting a rest when Fuchi is in wrestling a slower style and then the match picks up when his partners come in. At one point Fuchi is spike piledriven on the floor and then garners more heat from a simple bodyslam. Fuchi kicks out of an Akayama Exploder and pins Inoue with the third small package. A 26 minute match prominently featuring a 60 year old is never going to be a five star classic but this was harmless fun and a fitting way to honor an AJPW legend.

AJPW Triple Crown Title

Akebono© vs Takao Omori [***]
Akebono is the 47th Triple Crown champion making his second or third defense depending on how you view the 11/24 show against Joe Doering. I thought this was a worthy title fight where firey Omori had a sound strategy to battle the power and sheer bulk of the champ. Omori used the tried and true method of chopping down the big man's legs and had some success in doing so. In the end Akebono was simply too much for the challenger and Omori was put away with the Yokozuna Impact. They had a good story in place and in some ways were successful however the match did not have the impact I would have hoped for.

Overall Thoughts
There isn't a whole lot to go out of your way for here. I am high on the opener and have thumbs in the middle leaning up for the main event. The Fuchi match is a nice moment considering it is his 60th birthday celebration, otherwise leave this card alone.

WWE RAW 01/27/14

Actually watching this live, as I expect to be an important show (or train wreck) that could shape WWE for years to come.

-Triple H and Stephanie are out and do not get two words out of their mouths before YES! chants were starting. Both Steph and HHH had rebuttals to the crowd. Daniel Byan is out and people are going insane. I am a HUGE Daniel Bryan mark so this is welcomed for sure. He sarcastically asks the crowd to stop the YES and Daniel Bryan chants and BOTH chants start. He says his match was a great moment in Royal Rumble history but the biggest disappointment was not being in the Rumble. The Authority says they did not want to put Daniel's health in jeopardy, to which they counter with Daniel is only thinking about Daniel. Steph asks if everyone was here just to see him and the biggest YES chant I have ever heard breaks out. This is a great segment and I think we the fans have either been worked or the fans at the Rumble changed everything. Daniel Bryan says he wants in the Elimination Chamber match (where it was announced the title would be up for grabs). He tells Triple H neither should leave the ring until he gets what he wants. Triple H brings in The Shield to punish Daniel Bryan. Shaemus and John Cena come down to even the odds and Shaemus gets the bigger pop of the two. The three faces stand in the ring as the "victors"

Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs The Real Americans

This was pretty good because of the Americans as opposed to their opponents. Some of the Mysterio spots seemed very contrieved, especially the 619. Biggest moment in the match was having Zeb slap Swagger to motivate him to do better. Hopefully this will not signal the impending end of this fun team. The Real Americans win with the Nutralizer on Sin Cara.

-Bad News Barrett has some bad news. We get a match with The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler in the Battle of Cleveland. He is glad it is not the Battle for Cleveland because both would be losers as Cleveland is a town of losers.

Fandango vs R-Truth

This was just a match with R-Turth getting the win. No idea why this was here though I could see a Summer Rae split from Fandango. Emma was in the audience here too. #EMMAlution

-Brad Maddox announces the arrival of WWE Champion Randy Orton. He whines about having to defend the title in the Elimination Chamber match. Batista comes out and there is a great sign in the crowd 'Batista Please Leave'. A big Daniel Bryan chant breaks out. Batista does not care who the champion is, he will walk out of Wrestlemania the champion. This brings out Brock Lesnar. Heyman informs Maddox that Lesnar's patience is running thin. The Authority has his patience running thin and "suggests" a title match with Orton. He also suggests a #1 contenders match with Batista. Heyman demands an answer tonight or else.

The Battle of Cleveland

Dolph Ziggler vs The Miz

Both are out in Cleveland pro teams jerseys and legit seem excited to be in this match. They have a pretty good match while the announcers run down Cleveland. Ziggler wins with the zig zag for the pin. Not a bad match, standard midcard affair.

Ryback & Curtis Axel vs The Usos
The Usos have another good RAW match. They are a high energy team that would be great babyface champions. Ryback had a spot where he missed a spear and went into the post and looked to hurt his shoulder legit, but he continued the match. His sell was complete over the top if it were not a real injury. He came back in ate two superkicks and a splash giving the Usos the pin.

Kofi Kingston vs Alberto Del Rio
Whoever thought giving this match almost 20 minutes should be shot. The crowd turned on the match before the commercial break and they went a full segment afterwards. The normals spots like the Boom Drop did not get near the response as in years (months?) past. The crowd chanted for JBL and Jerry Lawler and the loudest pops of the night were when the announcers acknowledged the crowd. Del Rio won after his superkick to the head to mercifully put the WWE Universe out of its misery.

WWE Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outlaws © vs Brothers Rhodes
I was thinking this match was missing something about the time Lesnar came out to destroy anyone in the ring. The Outlaws bailed leaving Brothers Rhodes to get destroyed with a chair by Lesnar. Heyman says this is what The Authority gets for not giving his what he wants. The match was going along fine and would have been close to great with a hot ending. There was a lot of talking in the ring which made the match fun, especially from the Road Dog. Hope these two teams get a legit rematch with a good ending.

The Bellas & The Funkadactyles vs AJ Lee, Tamina, Aksana & Alicia Fox
 As Divas matches go this wasn't horrible. At one point diva matches were the absolute worst thing on RAW but this week we had Kingston/Del Rio! Naomi pinned the Divas champion AJ Lee with the rear view.

-The new WWE Hall of Fame inductee is......JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS!! I approve of this. His best promos were as a heel, best ring work was as a face. Great performer though.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match
John Cena, Shaemus & Daniel Bryan vs The Shield [***3/4]
 This was an amazing match with a horrible finish. John Cena was the face in peril for a long while, but when Bryan got the hot tag the place came unglued. Big moment at the end when Cena had Reigns in the STF and Reigns broke it. Sadly this is the moment the Wyatts came out and attacked the face team sending them to the Chamber by DQ. The Shield was rightfully pissed as they did not even factor into the decision.

Overall Thoughts: There was a lot of wrestling on tonight's RAW which isn't a bad thing unless you get a 20 minute Kingston/Del Rio match. I am glad we as fans were worked and there are plans for Daniel Bryan even if they do not progress as fast as we the fan base would want. The show was not as much of a train wreck as I originally thought but at least it wasn't a clunker and there was some good stuff on the show. Worth watching.

AJPW New Years Wars 2014 - Night 1 (01/02/14)

Kotaro Suzuki & Masao Inoue vs Osamu Nishimura & Ryuji Hijikata

The match is rediculously clipped so there is not much to comment on. Kotaro Suzuki looked pretty good. He had some nice junior moves like a 619 attempt and he sold the leg from being in the figure four.

Hikaru Sato vs Kento Miyahara
Sato has an MMA background and uses a ground attack with some kicks, while Miyahara on the other hand is more of a typical junior wrestler. Sato seemed to be leaning towards a ground based offense of grapevining the leg. He controlled the first portion before Miyahara exploded with some forearms.  Miyahara's nice strikes, killing Sato on the floor with a DDT, and muscling up Sato for a suplex were all impressive. First time seeing either man wrestle and Miyahara performance was more impactful, though I would certainly like to see what Sato can do given a little more time and offense which his offense is more suited for.

Jon Bolen, SUSHI & Tyson Dux vs Team Dream Futures (Ishii, Irie & Takao)
Bolen and Dux are well traveled gaijin from PA and NB respecively. Both do relatively nothing in the match. The one highspot from the duo was a swinging powerslam from Bolen. Irie and his green mohawk was the most impressive wrestler of the match. When he tagged in he was a house of fire straight through to the end.

Go Shiozaki vs KENSO
KENSO is apart of Dark Kingdom while Shiozaki rolls with Xceed. This match was more middle of the road for me. I do not believe KENSO, who has two tag title reigns in his decade plus career, will beat a former GHC heavyweight champion. KENSO brought an Americanized feel to the match by doing some brawling in the crowd and especially throwing the referee over the top rope. This is the first AJPW show I have seen in a year so it is quite possible that Dark Kingdom is a poor mans Bullet Club. KENSO is a scrappy fighter but poses little threat to Shiozaki who finishes the match with the Go Flasher.

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title

Ultimo Dragon© vs Atsushi Aoki [***]

At the end of 2013 the 47 year old Ultimo Dragon won the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight title from Kanemaru and this is his first defense. Aoki is a NOAH transplant and spends a large part of the match working in the arm of Dragon. My favorite piece of armwork is the Kamura after a pin attempt, which if done with supreme intensity, can be very effective. Sadly intensity is the main element missing from this match and drags the match from great to good. I appreciate Dragon selling the arm well after the match was over but he did little to move the match any higher. The ending was La Magistral cradle which was reversed twice, and thanks to the WWE I have completely soured on any finish involving a roll up. I was hoping for a lot more but sadly this is not worth going out of your way to see.

Akebono, Suwama & Taiyo Kea vs Burning & Takao Omori

I really like the phrase 'They had a match' Bryan Alvarez uses when reviewing wrestling describing a match that was neither good nor bad yet nothing particularly stood out. The little Kanemaru, though heel, is able to draw some sympathy from me for having to tangle with his three oversized opponents. Suwama hit a lariat on Kanemaru that turned him inside out. Good booking rears its ugly head in the ending where Omori, who is challenging for the Triple Crown title the next night, pins the champion Akebono. Omori sold this as a big accomplishment and sells me on their match to come.

17 Man Battle Royal

This event could have easily been called 'Night of Omori' as he takes the win in the main event too. I expected the Battle Royal to be a comedic playground for Fuchi and in some ways it was and I was very disappointed when he was eliminated. Eliminations come can come by pinfall and a lot of the early portion of the match was everyone standing around until two competitors were prone in a submission or pinning combination then they all covered both for the double elimination. There was a fun moment near the end where Omori went to make a handshake alliance with SUSHI, but SUSHI made the alliance with the other four men in the match as they all turned again Omori. The final two were SUSHI and Omori. I almost lost it when SUSHI got a close near fall but Omori finishes SUSHI in short order to complete a super push towards the title match tomorrow night.

WWE Monday Night RAW 01/20/14

-The Authority come out to introduce Batista, but Orton comes out pissed. Stephanie lights into him for attacking John Cena's father when the most eyes were on the WWE. Steph threatens to fire him if he cannot come under control and respect the rules of the WWE. Orton whines about being put in the rematch with Cena and the return of Lesnar and Batista. The Authority believes in Orton but they believe he has lost faith in himself. Triple H is giving Orton chances to right some wrongs by facing Kofi Kingston and showing where Cena will come into the arena, but he will have to do it along. Now this whole thing has taken place while chants of Batista have broken out, when his music finally hits the crowd erupts. Batista kisses the ring and gives everyone a hug because everyone (even The Authority) is happy Batista is back except Randy Orton. Batista is back to headline Wrestlemania, Randy Orton is not happy.

Cody Rhodes, Goldust & Big E Langston vs The Shield

It is not possible for the Brothers Rhodes and Shield to have a bad match, throw in Big E and this was fantastic. Cohere were some neat moments in this match like Cody holding Rollins in a high hanging vertical Suplex position before face planting him into the mat. Big E had a moment where he was breaking out Ultimate Warrior moves. Roman nailed Cody with a vicious right cross in mid air on his second disaster kick attempt, after the first kick sent Reigns into a daze. The Shield won with Seth Rollins curb stomp. This is a TV MOTY canidate, great stuff!

-Daniel Bryan is out to say he had a plan when he joined the Wyatt's and has exposed them. Bryan then says he and Bray Wyatt have signed for a match at the Royal Rumble. Bray shows up on screen with another creepy promo telling Bryan to kiss his mother because all the pain he will feel is his fault for being a traitor.

Fandango vs Xavier Woods

These two have a completely pointless match that Fandango won in about a minute with a top rope leg drop. The only thing this seemingly did was to foreshadow a possible Emma/Summer Rae/Fandango feud as she is shown in the crowd with her #EMMAtaining sign following the Fandango win.

-The always amazing Brad Maddox is in his office with Kane taking credit for bringing Batista back. Steph excuses Maddox and verbally blasts Kane for chokeslamming CM Punk last Friday on Smackdown. She knew promoting him was a risk but he needs to get ahold of himself. He can no longer put his hands on wrestlers and needs to apologize to CM Punk, to which Kane was not happy about.

-Kane is out to apologize to Punk. Punk claims he cannot hear so Kane repeats himself in a slow condescending manner. Punk hears his apology then apologizes himself with FORARMS TO THE FACE!! Maddox stops Kane from retaliating as Punk will have an official match with one of the the New Age Outlaws.

CM Punk vs 'The One' Billy Gunn

Instead of calling Billy Gunn 'Mr A' Michael Cole should call him 'The One' which was his moniker as a singles wrestler. Punk and Gunn go out and have a good TV match. It is amazing how good Billy Gunn is, he may have aged but his game hasn't. The NAO are in a perfect position at this point in their careers. They are fun to watch and are competent in the ring, that is all I ask. Punk jumping the announce table to attack Road Dog mid match got a huge reaction. Punk gets the victory with the GTS.

-Maddox comes out but Kane interferes and says Punk is the #1 entrant into the Rumble. I love The Authority storyline. Kane is finally getting how to get back at an enemy in a corporate setting, not by force but by making life difficult for him. In return Punk garners much sympathy making him a better babyface.

-The old Scott Keith jokes work here: Brock Lesnar IS HERE, and Brock Lesnar IS WALKING!!

Rey Mysterio Jr vs Alberto Del Rio

At one point in this match I thought it was the end of Rey, Del Rio was just destroying him top to bottom. Maybe it is a credit to both men in this match but while Rey's comeback wasn't what I call epic, it came from being farther down than normal. He already came into the match with an injured arm and there was a little attention put on it. Del Rio blocked a 619 and Mysterio kicked out of a pin after a superkick. These two know each other so well, but Rey makes a mistake off the top and Del Rio counters to the cross armbreaker and that was that. Pretty good match between these two.

-Batista comes out post match and powerbombs Del Rio who has been talking about Batista in weeks leading up to tonight's show.

-Big Show comes out and makes fun of Paul Heyman before the Lesnar confrontation. Brock comes ringside but motions that Show isn't worth it and walks to the back laughing. Lesnar comes back and has the nose to nose showdown with Show. They put over Show's size and strength in that Brock cannot manhandle him like other opponents. Show tosses him out with ease which stuns and angers Brock who throws a tantrum and grabs a chair to which Show steps on to end that attempt. They jaw back and forth as Lesnar backs down the ramp. This match has a fantastic build with something we have not seen with the new Lesnar. He has never been put in a situation where he is not the biggest or strongest in the ring. Should be an interesting fight Sunday.

AJ Lee & Tamina vs The Funadactyles

Naomi is tagged in and has some fantastic offense but eats a boot from Tamina. AJ is tagged in and immediately rolled up for the pin. Horrible finish, just lacks creativity and the WWE does it all the time.

The Usos vs The Wyatt Family

The Usos and Wyatts wrestle this big slobberknocker of a match. It was a pretty good brawl nothing more. Daniel Bryan runs interference while the Usos roll up Harper for the win.

Randy Orton vs Kofi Kingston
Kofi comes into this with a little confidence from last week's win and a drive from comments that his win was a fluke. Kingston was a house of fire until crafty Orton took over on the outside. John Cena arrives right at 11pm which must mean he is apart of the crew taking down the ring or he would have shown up during the actual show. Orton has a choice of being Kingston or fighting Cena and he takes Cena giving Kofi the DQ win.

-Post match Cena and Orton fight into the crowd with Orton ultimately jumping into a waiting SUV and escaping any more damage from a fight he was obviously losing.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a good show with a great match, a pretty good match and segments that built towards the Royal Rumble. That is all I ask of a wrestling show.