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.