The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-06-09)
We are into 1989 this week and we say goodbye to watching 2019 wrestling for a while!
#12
Demolition (c) vs The Brain Busters
“WWF World Tag Team Championship”
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event
April 25, 1989, aired on May 27, 1989
I have always enjoyed this type of match, but for some reason, I never really rated it. However, I do think it’s a match people should watch so why wouldn’t I recommend it? This is all story, Demolition dominates for the first half, till Busters regroup. They come back and cheat like crazy to put Smash as a face in peril. After so much cheating, Ax had enough and throws the referee away to get at The Busters and is thus is disqualified. Demolition destroys them and a rematch is booked. Perfect pro-wrestling.
Rating: 7/10
#11
KAIRI, Natsupoi, & Saori Anou (c) vs Giulia, Mai Sakurai, & Thekla
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Flashing Champions
May 27, 2023
This was a fun and exciting Trios match, but the real joy was seeing KAIRI interact with wrestlers I never thought I’d see her interact with. That said, the action was intense and stiff and the Anou-Giulia chemistry is excellent and I want to see more of that in the future!
Rating: 7/10
#10
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Kris Statlander
“IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship”
IWTV The Midwest Mixtape
May 26, 2019
After starting off with some tremendous fun this settled into a really good changing-over-the-guard title match designed to make Statlander look amazing.
Rating: 7/10
#9
Rick Rude vs Tito Santana
WWF
February 11, 1989
I forgot that watching WWF house shows from the 1980s is a big mystery grab bag, you don’t know if you will get a great match or two folks killing time till they get to a bad finish. This one was really good with Rude controlling and Tito doing awesome hope spots then a great comeback. The crowd was heated and this was a blast.
Rating: 7.25/10
#8
Brutus Beefcake vs Randy Savage
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event
July 18, 1989, aired July 29, 1989
This is the best singles match of Beefcake’s career and I have NEVER seen a worker/manager combination that works harder than Savage & Sherri. Savage bumped around like a freak and brought the offense, while Sherri cheated like crazy. Beefcake kind of stood there and threw some lame offense, but had a great connection with the crowd. Going into the commercial break, Savage took a giant backdrop to the floor that was nuts, and in a cool callback he talked to Sherri and got her to go to the back to get someone like he used to get Elizabeth to go to the back to get Hogan Sherri brings out Zeus who interferes costing Beefcake the win and there is a fun angle to set up SummerSlam from there.
Rating: 7.25/10
#7
Akira Hokuto & Chaparita ASARI vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
AJW Japan Grand Prix
August 14, 1995
This was a super fun house show match with brawling all over the arena. Hokuto ups everyone else’s game with her presence.
Rating: 7.25/10
#6
Randy Savage (c) vs Bad News Brown
“WWF World Championship Harlem Street Fight”
WWF
January 16, 1989
A sub-ten-minute brawl that includes chairs and tables that is a blast. Bad News has it won after the referee goes through the table, but he obviously can’t count. A second referee runs in as Savage does a quick roll-up for the win. The match really cements itself as awesome with a wild post-match brawl that clears out the locker room. Frustratingly it looks like this feud was not really continued, as the other matches seem untaped and repeats of this. I’ll look around though.
Rating: 7.75/10
#5
Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano
AJW
April 23, 1989
These two had a lot of tremendous matches in the future, but I wasn’t sure what to expect here. It turns out it was a fast and intense match with Bull being a monster and Hokuto being relentless going for the win.
Rating: 7.75/10
#4
Tam Nakano (c) vs Mina Shirakawa (c)
“World & Wonder of Stardom Double Title Match”
Stardom Flashing Champions
May 27, 2023
The Cosmic Angels collide in a match to unify the main belts in Stardom. Sadly a little disappointing, as the initial brawling on the ramp stuff was just okay before Mina really went for the win that ruled. She went for everything but could not keep Tam down and it felt like we were going for a time-limit draw. Then Tam hulked up and won both belts.
Rating: 8/10
#3
Chigusa Nagayo & Chiyako Nagashima vs Miwa Sato & Shark Tsuchiya
FMW Super Dynamism
August 25, 1995
Nagayo goes after Shark as a follow-up to the Bad Nurse match in GAEA and she brings along one of her trainees with her onto enemy territory. The atmosphere was amazing, and it was a violent great brawl with great use of weapons. Nagayo protecting her rookie, all the while being her badass self made this match.
Rating: 8.25/10
#2
Jushin Liger (c) vs Naoki Sano
“IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship”
NJPW Summer Fight Series
July 13, 1989
This is a great intense sprint filled with amazing spots, like a vertical suplex from the ring to the floor and numerous dives. The opening NJPW Junior matwork is cut short to just go nuts trying to throw everything at each other to win. The finish is a lame double KO, but otherwise, this was really cool to see.
Rating: 8.25/10
#1 “Match of the Week”
The Brain Busters vs The Hart Foundation
WWF SummerSlam
August 28, 1989
I decided to turn on SummerSlam for my first watching of 1989 because it’s been so long and this is the opener and one of the best openers in WWF history. I love this match, it has an amazing crowd and has a real WWF vs NWA dream match feel. Everyone brings their A+ game and it’s about as exciting as a WWF match in 1989 can get!
Rating: 8.5/10
Upcoming!
The 1989 watch continues and the Top 25 Wrestlers of 2019 list is in its final stages.
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat! This Sunday at 4pm EST it’s AJW’s show from 1995-08-30.
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-06-02)
In a week where I watched AEW’s Double or Nothing at the movie theatre and realized I hated wrestling, I found my love again with some other awesome matches as shown below.
#15
Daniel Makabe vs Fred Yehi
Pizza Party Pro Pizza Party Wrestling
April 3, 2019
A WrestleMania weekend match here, back when that was cool. Two great technical wrestlers doing great technical wrestling and good focus from both. You can tell these two treat wrestling like a sport and have watched sports, the way they work just feels more “realistic.”
Rating: 7/10
#14
BLANK & Still Life With Apricots and Pears vs Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy
Beyond Uncharted Territory
June 19, 2019
Cassidy’s ace of North East Indies run is still one of my favourite things in wrestling and I will always enjoy his matches. BLANK is one of those great characters that I’m sad never took off, and Still Life is the future Edith Surreal. This was a really fun comedy tag match, but with a lot of great action too. Cassidy and Taylor doing a run of famous tag team finishers, but in Cassidy’s way was so much fun! More fun than great.
Rating: 7/10
#13
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Kyoko Inoue
“WWWD Number One Contender League”
Diana
February 24, 2019
A really fun hoss battle with the youth vs the legend. They were throwing bombs that felt gritty and it’s so amazing how great Kyoko’s stuff looks even this late into her career.
Rating: 7/10
#12
Giulia vs Sareee
Minoru Tanaka Produce Minoru Tanaka Debut 25th Anniversary ~ The Special One Vol. 1
June 18, 2019
This was fun, as they kept it short and were both fighting for the win. It was also a cool mix of talent you normally wouldn’t see square off. Saree was tremendous and all of her offense was really crisp, especially the dropkicks. Some sloppy moments, but overall a pretty damn good undercard match.
Rating: 7/10
#11
AEW International Championship Blackjack Battle Royale
AEW Double or Nothing
May 28, 2023
I wasn’t too into the early stuff, as it was a lot of just ridiculous dives. Although cool, wasn’t my thing. Once the story started to play out and some of the best wrestlers started to be the focus, this was really good. Especially the Orange Cassidy segments and the ending was great!
Rating: 7/10
#10
Hyan vs Masha Slamovich
“Queen of Indies – First Round”
West Coast Pro/PWR Queen of Indies 2023
May 13, 2023
I’ve always loved these two and they put up a banger first-round match here. I was really impressed that Hyan was so good as an underdog babyface. Her hope spots were tremendous. Slamovich remained quite the force and this match is well worth your time.
Rating: 7/10
#9
Sareee vs DASH Chisako
“Sendai Girls World Championship”
Sendai Girls
July 7, 2019
This was more of a sprint title defense with some great strikes. The real stand out here was DASH’s strikes which seemed more impactful than usual. The pace was high which worked because this wasn’t a really long match.
Rating: 7.25/10
#8
Masha Slamovich vs Mio Momono
“Queen of Indies – Finals”
West Coast Pro/PWR Queen of Indies 2023
May 13, 2023
A fitting finale to this tournament and a great little battle that had lots of great strikes, counters, and nearfalls. The power versus speed aspect of this match early on was fun, but the match really took off in the last 1/3 with the run to the finish.
Rating: 7.25/10
#7
Dynamite Kansai vs Hikari Fukuoka
JWP
August 10, 1995
Dynamite Kansai is a real master of controlling a match, and Fukuoka is exciting which made a great mix in front of a hot crowd. A little spot I loved so much was Kasnai doing a leg kick trip. It was so cool. The finishing sequence was a hot run to cap off this nice little match.
Rating: 7.25/10
#6
Nanae Takahashi vs ASUKA
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG Luckiest 2019
March 20, 2019
This was off to the races from the very beginning and held up an exciting pace all match. It was a nice mix of styles with the flying and speed and wildness of ASUKA and the brawling more bomb-throwing style of Nanae. The finishing sequence was good stuff, and ASUKA especially stood out to me.
Rating: 7.75/10
#5
Mayu Iwatani vs Konami
“ROH Women of Honor World Championship”
Stardom New Years Stars 2019
February 24, 2019
Konami’s leg assault was quite great here. This was all about the submissions by Konami and the selling by Mayu. Kind of a nice change of pace on Stardom’s main events, which makes sense as it’s for a ROH Title.
Rating: 7.5/10
#4
Kagetsu vs Konami
Stardom Shining Stars 2019 – Tag 2: Konami’s Homecoming
May 26, 2019
I loved the idea of Kagetsu trying to ruin Konami’s homecoming and starting off the match by trying to outwrestle her. Kagetsu does a great job of making Konami look great, but also being the great badass he is throughout. It’s a 30-minute draw, so it has that disadvantage, but the work was great and the match was compelling throughout.
Rating: 7.75/10
#3
Lyra Valkyria vs Tiffany Stratton
“WWE NXT Women’s Title Tournament Final”
NXT Battleground
May 28, 2023
This was a tremendous match built around Stratton earlier destroying the leg and Valkyria’s selling of it. I loved that Stratton, after causing the damage, moved onto her big offense for the win and how Valkyria had the leg damage affect everything she did, but not in an annoying overblown way. Things like a little hop, or a little touch here. Then she missed her big spin kick finisher. I had never seen these two before, but they both have a lot of potential, especially Valkyria.
Rating: 8/10
#2
STARS (Arisa Hoshiki, Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima, Starlight Kid, & Tam Nakano)
vs
Tokyo Cyber Squad (Hana Kimura, Jungle Kyona, Konami, Ruaka, & Zoe Lucas)
“Elimination Match”
Stardom Goddess o Stars 2019
December 15, 2019
This was a tremendous match built around storytelling and great action. It started off with a lot of fun, the usual big multi-person tag spots, but done so well. They had the lucha star with two in-the-middle doing spots, the five-way joined suplex spot, and one of the best chain corner attack spots I’ve seen. The eliminations of Mayu Iwatani and Hana Kimura were done so well, with great accident spots by their teammates and from there the match was just outstanding. The action and storytelling from the final four were so great and the final two put out a great finishing sequence. I know I have a soft spot for elimination matches, but this was one of the best I’ve seen in forever.
Rating: 8.25/10
“Match of the Week”
Kagetsu vs Tam Nakano
“Cinderella Tournament First Round”
Stardom Cinderella Tournament 2019
April 29, 2019
I love how the short time limit forces everyone in the first round of Cinderella to go all-out sprint and this was a marvelous example. It started with great work on the mat and the quick escalation was awesome. By the end, the crowd was going nuts and so was I as I bit on the German Suplex nearfall. The final moments of Tam holding on trying to get the submission as the time ran out as just awesome!
Rating: 8.25/10
Upcoming!
We are damn close to done with our 2019 watching!
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-26)
A great week of watching, just read below at all the awesome stuff I watched! The 2019 MOTY list is complete, just needs editing, and the top 25 wrestlers of 2019 list is very close!
#16
Mamani Toyota vs Mima Shimoda
“Japan Grand Prix 1995 Red Zone Match”
AJW Japan Grand Prix 1995
July 23, 1995
A fascinating match where if you edited out parts, this would be a 9/10 all-time classic, but with those left in it was really disjointed and jarring. The great moments were unbelievably great though!
Rating: 7/10
#15
Hazuki & Kagetsu vs Kaho Kobayashi & Takumi Iroha
Sumire Natsu Produce Forever
December 15, 2019
A fun little tag match with the real highlight of Hazuki and Iroha having amazing chemistry. Kagetsu also brought his evil badass self to add another fun wrinkle to this one. I forgot how fun old Oedi Tai was and this was a great reminder!
Rating: 7/10
#14
Mercedes Mone’ vs Willow Nightingale
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship – Final”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023
A tremendous match with a rushed finish due to an injury. Willow was amazing on top utilizing her power and the crowd was eating it up! This could have been a top match of the year with a comeback from Mercedes and a more exciting finish, it had been building so well up until going to the finishing sequence.
Rating: 7.25/10
#13
Daniel Makabe vs Timothy Thtacher
3-2-1 BATTLE! Wet Hot Seattle Summer 3
July 12, 2019
If you like the worked shoot style with logical progression and amazing technical wrestling, this is the match for you. It’s gritty and intense.
Rating: 7.25/10
#12
Takumi Iroha vs Arisa Nakajima
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG Endless Summer
September 18, 2019
These two are all time world beaters, so although this is a really good match it was disappointing. I’m not sure what was missing, but it didn’t have that usually energy I’d expect from these two. That said, Iroha’s kicks are great, and Nakajima worked smart and I’d recommend this.
Rating: 7.25/10
#11
Arisa Nakajima vs ASUKA
SEAdLINNING Stay Tune
May 29, 2019
A tremendous sub ten minute sprint with great bombs thrown and a lot of intensity. I have no idea what the story was here, but there was a prematch attack and chair shots and some wild dives. It was followed up by a cool post match too.
Rating: 7.5/10
#10
Mercedes Mone’ vs Stephanie Vaquer
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament – Round 1”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023
These two worked at a great pace and it was very hard-hitting. Kind of a perfect match for an early match on a tournament show. They did a great job of keeping Vaquer looking great in a match everyone knew she would lose.
Rating: 7.5/10
#9
Momo Kohgo vs Willow Nightingale
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament – Round 1”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023
I’ve always been a fan of Kohgo, but she rarely gets opportunities like this to deliver and she delivered big time here. She is such a tremendous underdog that she forced the loveable Willow into a heel role here. The hope spots were amazing and when Willow finally beat her away it was a big accomplishment.
Rating: 7.75/10
#8
Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita
vs
Jungle Kyona & Konami
“Goddesses of Stardom Championship”
Stardom World Big Summer In Nagoya
July 15, 2019
A great ending to the story of Jungle trying to overcome her big rivals and won the belts in her hometown. She was really the focus, but Konami added some awesome moments too. It was exciting and stiffly worked with a hot crowd.
Rating: 8/10
#7
Veit Müller vs WALTER
wXw Dead End XVIII
February 15, 2019
This is an indie version of the Gunther-Sheamus matches last year that ruled so hard. Veit is not Sheamus, but he’s tough and rough and comes to fight. His chest is disgusting in the end. WALTER is so good at controlling from on top and beating people up, this is shockingly good.
Rating: 8/10
#6
Kyoko Inoue vs Sakie Hasegawa
“Japan Grand Prix 1995 Blue Zone Match”
AJW Japan Grand Prix 1995
July 23, 1995
The two early DDTs from Kyoko Inoue were just unreal and it started to make the match feel like a squash until Hasegawa made an awesome comeback and they started brawling on the outside. Inoue hit a wild vertical suplex from the apron to the floor! Sakie almost destroyed Kyoko with a variety of head-dropping Exploders, but a comeback from Kyoko lead to a tremendous finish to a great under-ten-minute sprint!
Rating: 8/10
#5
Arisa Hoshiki & Mayu Iwatani vs Hazuki & Kagetsu
Stardom Goddess Of Stars
December 1, 2019
All four were hitting on all cylinders in this match. Kagetsu and Mayu always have excellent chemistry and it shined through here, but I also learned Hazuki and Hoshiki have amazing chemistry as well. They really beat the hell out of each other in this exciting tag.
Rating: 8/10
#4
Arisa Hoshiki vs Hazuki
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom World Big Summer In Tokyo
July 24, 2019
Another tremendous title defense for Hsohiki in 2019. These two have great chemistry and they worked a smart and dramatic match. The kicks, the power moves, the submissions, everything clicked here. I love how desperate Hazuki was to try to finally dethrone Hoshiki.
Rating: 8.5/10
#3
Blue Demon, Jr. vs L.A. Park
IWRG 57. Aniversario De La Arena Naucalpan
December 15, 2019
What a tremendously gritty bloody brawl! Some of the weapons they used were unreal, like Demon squeezing a lime into Park’s cut, or the final segment where a hammer is the main weapon! Usually I’d complain about the evil referee being biased, but after this year’s NHL Playoffs it felt real enough. The interference on top of that brought this down from the Greatest Match Ever candidate, but it’s damn close!
Rating: 8.75/10
#2
Bad Nurse Nakamura vs Chigusa Nagayo
GAEA Hearts On Fight
July 29, 1995
This is the most shocked I have ever been by a match being great. The story of this classic is that Bad Nurse and her second Shark just destroy Chigusa with weapons and brawling bloodying her up until Chigusa calls her out as a chicken and challenges her to wrestle. Nakamura takes up the challenge and argues with Shark leading to her throwing away the weapon and grabbing a headlock. Chigusa makes the comeback and after some tremendous nearfalls wins with a Running Three into a Dominator-type move that looked vicious.
After the match, Chigusa offers to train Nakamura to wrestle and challenge Shark. This match needs to be seen to be believed how great it is.
Rating: 8.75/10
“Match of the Week”
Arisa Hoshiki vs Jungle Kyona
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom X Stardom 2019
August 10, 2019
The Hoshiki great White Belt reign continues with an amazing defense against Jungle Kyona! Jungle comes into this one going for the kill! She spent the first half of the match destroying the leg, trying to limit Hoshiki’s main offensive weapon. It worked for the most part. Jungle brought some amazing offensive with some great power bombs, especially one on the apron, a giant swing, and one of the coolest ankle locks ever. She picked her up mid-ankle lock and bent her in half as well. Hoshiki’s used knees instead of kicks, due to her leg’s damage, and the few times she went for kicks it hurt her, and she could not capitalize on the well-crafted finish. A real classic and a top 100 Greatest Match Ever contender.
Rating: 9/10
Upcoming!
I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. The 2019 Match of the Year list will be released next week. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup has the best stuff from AJW August 13-14, 1995, FMW August 25, 1995, and JWP August 29, 1995.
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-19)
Some serious 2019 progress! I believe I should have my match of the year list for 2019 up next week, and the top 25 wrestlers of 2019 are a few weeks off!
#11
Rush vs Tracy Williams
ROH Road To G1 Supercard
March 31, 2019
An opener full of two wrestlers trying to stiff each other. Rush has such an amazing presence and Williams does a decent job matching the intensity.
Rating: 7/10
#10
Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs Rie Tamada & Yumiko Hotta
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995
A fun tag with lots of great spots. Double Inoue was especially tremendous and they hit a super cool finish where Takako did a chokeslam as Kyoko came off the top for extra force!
Rating: 7.25/10
#9
Buddy Murphy vs Roman Reigns
WWE SmackDown
August 13, 2019
I’m a sucker for a big star vs a “rookie” on TV and this delivered. Buddy was on fire and working really stiff, while Reigns gave him everything he could to make Buddy look legit, while still having Reigns go over. Perfect TV match.
Rating: 7.25/10
#8
Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera vs Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tsukushi
“International Ribbon Tag Team Championship”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1004 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019
November 3, 2019
An exciting tag match with lots of cool stuff, a great pace, and nearfalls. Although a tad sloppy, it was a blast to watch!
Rating: 7.5/10
#7
A-Kid vs Jonathan Gresham
“Quarter-Finals”
PWG Battle of Los Angeles
September 22, 2019
This had tremendous technical wrestling mixed in with some amazing flying spots with an absolutely tremendous finish, however, the PWG’esque of it took it down a notch. There is just something about PWG that taints everything for my enjoyment. With that being said, still a great match.
Rating: 7.75/10
#6
Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita, & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito, Mariko Yoshida, & Reggie Bennett
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995
I loved the early going of this as Bennett was a real force, but it was all about the showcase of LCO being back together. It really picked up as Hokuto bleed a huge gusher and there was a really good dive segment. Lots of excitement and a damn good match!
Rating: 8/10
#5
Daniel Makabe vs Jonathan Gresham
3-2-1 BATTLE! BattleMania 2019
April 19, 2019
Two all-time great technical wrestlers having a technical battle in front of a rowdy crowd is great wrestling. I loved both focused on a different body part, and I really loved when Makabe realized he was outmatched, he resorted to cheating. It leads to Gresham being a great underdog leading to a great finish!
Rating: 8/10
#4
Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki
“Dress Up Wild Fight”
JWP
July 9, 1995
This was a match of two minds for me. On the one hand it’s everything I want. They brawled into the balcony, and they destroyed the ring. They destroyed each other with parts of the broken ring! It was awesome. Heck, Kansai even taped a wrench to her leg to make her kicks more deadly.
However, it’s 36 minutes long and that really takes it down, because it led to down moments.
Rating: 8/10
#3
Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong
“WWWA World Championship”
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995
The prematch staredown was so awesome, they completely tuned everything else out and it started the story well as the bell rang, Kong went back to her corner to be immediately sneak attacked by Toyota. From there the match started off slow but was intense. Kong’s missile dropkick was really devastating. The last half of the match of going for finishers and dramatic kick outs was awesome.
Rating: 8.5/10
#2
El Barbaro Cavernario vs Mistico
“2/3 Falls”
CMLL Super Viernes
May 24, 2019
This match is kind of ridiculous, but I loved it. The first two falls are all Cavernario kicking ass, including a great segment on the floor where he used the guardrail and whipped Mistico with wires. The 2nd Fall ends with Cavernario ripping off Mistico’s mask to be DQ’ed, after Mistico finally made a comeback. The final fall was unreal. Mistico was flying all over the place with such speed and grace it was unbelievable. Cavernario held his own and did awesome stuff like grabbing Mistico’s legs and swinging his head-first into the guardrail. It was exciting and it wasn’t ruined by silly kick outs since most of the big stuff hit on the floor. The finish was dramatic and this is a match I think most of you will enjoy.
Rating: 8.5/10
“Match of the Week”
Jacob Fatu vs LA Park
“MLW World Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match”
MLW Saturday Night SuperFight
November 2, 2019
A wild bloody violent LA Park brawl with an amazingly athletic Jacob Fatu. These two were out there for war and it was everything you could ever want plus it had fire! It does start a little slow, but soon enough Park is bleeding so bad everything from there is compelling and a real epic.
Rating: 8.75/10
Upcoming!
I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:
- Kyoko Inoue vs Sakie Hasegawa, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-23
- Manami Toyota vs Mima Shimoda, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-23
- Bad Nurse Nakamura vs Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA, 1995-07-29
- Sakie Hasegawa vs Tomoko Watanabe, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-31
- Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-31
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-12)
I got back on track for watching this week and hammered out a lot of 2019! The Stardom pay-per-view dropped today, so I only got to watch the few biggest matches.
#16
Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU
JWP
June 16, 1995
This was a really fun tag match with the team of Fukuoaka & KAORU bringing the flying, Devil bringing the power, and Ozaki bringing the violence. A lot of great nearfalls and the moment after Ozaki wins and Devil is just flipping off the losers is awesome!
Rating: 7.25/10
#15
AZM vs Mei Seira
“High Speed Championship”
Stardom Fukuoka Goddess Legend ~Sweet Stardom~
May 4, 2023
The first part of the match felt like a generic defense for AZM, but halfway through she started to focus on Mei’s arm and it got really good.The High Speed counters while someone is entering through the ropes always pop me. The finish worked really well for me and I am excited for the eventual rematch.
Rating: 7.25/10
#14
Shayna Baszler vs Bianca Belair vs Io Shirai vs Kairi Sane
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT TakeOver: New York
April 5, 2019
Although it has the usual problems of four-way matches, this was a lot of fun. All of the interactions between Shirai and KAIRI were awesome, from teaming up at the start to trying to win at the end. Belair was not quite the elite worker she is now, but she really showed her potential, and that double KOD she did was ridiculous! Baszler is such a great badass when booked so well! The finishing sequence ruled too.
Rating: 7.25/10
#13
Maya Yukihi vs Tsukasa Fujimoto
“ICExInfinity Championship Match”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #974 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019 III
August 3, 2019
I am generally not a fan of a 30-minute draw and for the first 3/4 this match was a fine solid match, but the last quarter was awesome and more than made up for it. I love Yukihi’s offense and Fujimoto just has a great way of working that I am not sure how to describe. She fits into matches.
Rating: 7.5/10
#12
Ayako Sato vs Haruka Umesaki
“World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana World Championship”
Diana
April 29, 2019
A tremendous title match that felt like a big changing of the guard. The young underdog Umesaki did a great job fighting from underneath and getting in good hope spots, leading to their eventual comeback. Sato is great at working on top.
Rating: 7.5/10
#11
Command Bolshoi vs Hana Kimura
Command Bolshoi Produce Pure Princess
March 15, 2019
A really good battle with Bolshoi pulling out another new submission hold I had never seen before. Kimura looked like such a star, especially while working on top. Bolshoi is so giving and this was a great match to have a month before her retirement on a show she produced.
Rating: 7.5/10
#10
Miyuki Takase vs Tae Honma
“AWG Title Tournament Semi-Final”
AWG Act In Osaka
November 3, 2019
This is an awesome display of two wrestlers going all out to advance in a tournament for a title. The forearm exchanges were one of the stiffest and best I have ever seen. I like Honma’s strategy of trying to go for the arm since she can’t outstrike Takase. The finish was very well done.
Rating: 7.5/10
#9
Kyoko Inoue vs Unagi Sayaka
Diana
April 29, 2023
I may be biased on this one, but I thought this match was awesome. Unagi was really laying in her kicks, and Inoue fought back with some stiff lariats. They had two awesome segments in the crowd which really ramped up the heat. Down the stretch, there were some great near falls, which I bought on.
Rating: 7.5/10
#8
Sareee vs Tsukasa Fujimoto
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #992 ~ Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium III
September 14, 2019
This was everything you could want from these two. It was filled with stiff strikes and crushing suplexes. The match kept building up and had a lot of great nearfalls and vicious suplexes and it lead up to a good finish. A perfect undercard Joshi match to steal a show.
Rating: 8/10
#7
Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes
WWE Backlash
May 6, 2023
A fascinating match very laid out. It was a tremendous brawl with a really great finish. Brock was very bloody. 8 minutes is the perfect length of time for a Brock match.
Rating: 8/10
#6
Mio Momono vs Takumi Iroha
Marvelous
November 3, 2019
I loved the story of this match where it seemed like Iroha wasn’t taking Momono seriously, until too late. The crowd was wild and Momono was on fire to prove herself against Iroha who was just killing her with her offense. The powerbomb Iroha hit right before the time expired was so nasty!
Rating: 8.5/10
#5
Candice LeRae vs Io Shirai
NXT TakeOver: Toronto 2019
August 10, 2019
This was tremendous with Shirai as the vicious heel in her more cocky Stardom but more evil form. Candice was a worthy underdog, who took all of Shirai’s vicious offense from her moonsault to an Avalanche Spanish Fly. LeRae brought her own ridiculous offense with a tope DDT and a reverse hurrancanrana. It built to a good finish with everyone playing their roles till the end.
Rating: 8.5/10
#4
Arisa Nakajima vs Nanae Takahashi
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Title Hair vs Hair Match”
SEAdLINNNG Dynamic Show Case! ~ Kawasaki Monogatari
November 2, 2019
A great match that weirdly didn’t hit my expectations. I did love Nakajima going after Takahashi’s arm and that limiting Takahashi’s offense throughout the match. The intensity and the violence were there and it was dramatic on the nearfalls with the title and hair on the line. The issue was the kick outs felt like they were going into the epic territory too much, they didn’t fit well into the match. Outside of that, really great and hard to deny.
Raring: 8.75/10
#3
Mina Shirakawa vs Natsupoi
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Fukuoka Goddess Legend ~Sweet Stardom~
May 4, 2023
“Mina is not the White Belt Champion that we wanted, but Mina is the White Belt Champion that we needed.”
What a great change of pace from Kamitani’s title reign, as Mina brings the psychology, emotion, and drama back to the White Belt! Natsupoi upped her game too, bringing pure violence in her strikes and her selling of Mina’s leg attacks was awesome. Mina’s leg attacking legs every big match is great and she does it with such great variety that I love it. Mina mixes in the big moves and nearfalls to put this over the top.
Rating: 8.75/10
#2
Bianca Belair vs IYO SKY
“WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE Backlash
May 6, 2023
These two have had awesome chemistry in the past and that continues here. I loved Shirai’s work on Belair’s arm and Belair’s selling of it throughout especially the one-armed gorilla press of all things. Both played their strengths so well and the crowd was so into it on Shirai’s side! From the finish tease of the finisher to the outside interference is all-time territory. The finish is good and this is an easy MOTY contender. They better do a rematch.
Rating: 8.75/10
“Match of the Week”
Chigusa Nagayo vs Dynamite Kansai
JWP
June 16, 1995
This was a smartly worked war! The first segment was Nagayo and Kasnai trying for a knockout or a submission to really prove who was tougher. When they couldn’t do that, we got a lot of great nearfalls. The teases of the Aavalance Niagra Driver were great, and well thrown into this match. Everything in this was a great struggle to prove who was more badass.
Rating: 8.75/10
Watch Party!
I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:
- Double Inoue vs Rie Tamada & Yumiko Hotta, AJW, 1995-06-27
- Akira Hokuto & LCO vs Kaoru Ito, Mariko Yoshida, & Reggie Bennett, AJW, 1995-06-27
- Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota, WWWA Singles Title, AJW, 1995-06-27
- Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki, Dress Up Wild Fight, JWP, 1995-07-09
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-05)
The strike is over, tentatively, as of Thursday. It’s a weird range of stuff this week, but very good matches from all over!
#9
WALTER vs Pete Dunne
“WWE United Kingdom Championship”
NXT UK
April 19, 2019, airing May 22
The match is what you would expect from these two. Stiff violence. It had a really nice beat-down segment by WALTER on the floor, and a pretty hot comeback by Dunne afterward. After that, it was going for too epic a match then had an old school seconds distract and attack finish. A good match, but could have been better.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purrazzo
“Impact Knockouts World Championship”
Impact Wrestling Rebellion 2023
April 16, 2023
The classic power vs technique match up in the main event. They worked it really well and it was a worthwhile main event. I could watch Purrazzo pick apart bigger wrestlers all day.
Rating: 7.5/10
#7
Maya Yukihi vs Giulia
“ICExInfinity Championship”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #962 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019 II
May 25, 2019
A young and upcoming Giulia vs the Ice Ribbon ace in a big title match. It’s weird to see after my previous experience with these two and a role-reversal title match from earlier this year in Stardom.
Giulia is a little green here, but you can see the violence these two have in 2023 all the way back here in 2019. It kept escalating toward a violent finish and a really awesome match.
Rating: 7.75/10
#6
Aja Kong & Yuu vs Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata
Sendai Girls Women’s Pro Wrestling Big Show In Niigata
June 8, 2019
This was a pretty good tag match. Kong and Yuu worked like The Colossal Connection, only with Kong being a lot more mobile than 1990 Andre the Giant. Kong and Satomura still have amazing chemistry from their past and they really lead the finishing sequence to be very exciting.
Rating: 7.75/10
#5
Momo Watanabe vs Tam Nakano
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom 8th Anniversary
January 14, 2019
It’s fun going back and watching a match from four years ago where Tam is trying to prove she’s worthy of the White Belt! That story was told really well and the kicks from both were deadly. Tam is such a great storyteller and Momo is such a beast. As awesome as this was, it’s amazing how much both have improved since then.
Rating: 8/10
#4
KAORU & Sonoko Kato vs Michiko Nagashima & Miki Handa
GAEA Second Battle Story
May 14, 1995
For the second GAEA show they come back with another crazy violent tag team brawl. This time with way less star power, but they made up for it with more flying. The blood really kicked the match up to another gear and I loved all the chair and kendo stick shots. Usually, those can come off as lame or overdone, but they really worked here.
Rating: 8/10
#3
Takumi Iroha vs Unagai Sayaka
Marvelous 7th Anniversary
May 3, 2023
What an excellent match and one of the best in Unagi Sayaka’s career. Her indie run has been awesome, but this was the biggest match she had facing the best wrestler she’s faced on a big show, and boy did she deliver. Her offense looked really mean and it was a great heat segment she had on Iroha. Iroha looks great as always and they built up a match that was a very worthy big dream match.
Rating: 8.25/10
#2
Nanae Takahashi vs Takumi Iroha
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG Stay Tune 2019
May 29, 2019
These two are truly a great match-up for each other. Both throw bombs and stiff shots and can really escalate things to an exciting finish and that is exactly what we get here. Everything hit and Takahashi was really on her game.
Rating: 8.25/10
“Match of the Week”
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Sareee
“Sendai Girls World & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana World Championship”
Sendai Girls Women’s Pro Wrestling Big Show In Niigata
June 8, 2019
It would be hard to pick better underdog vs dominant badass competitors for a big unification title match than this. I loved how they worked this with Hashimoto just dominating early and Sareee trying to battle back. At first, Sareee tried speed and technique, but when that didn’t work she resorted to vicious headbutts and German suplexes and just came head-on to Hashimoto. The finishing stretch was great and this match was intense and dramatic. A must-watch!
Rating: 8.75/10
Watch Party!
I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching, hopefully, Stardom and a lot more 2019! Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:
- Bolshoi Kid vs Cutie Suzuki, JWP, 1995-06-16
- Candy Okutsu vs Hiromi Yagi vs Hiromi Sugo, Triangle Rules, JWP, 1995-06-16
- Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU, JWP, 1995-06-16
- Chigusa Nagayo vs Dynamite Kansai, JWP, 1995-06-16
- Meiko Satomura vs Toshie Uematsu, GAEA, 1995-06-18
- Bomber Hikari & Sumio Toyoma vs Hiromi Yagi & Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA, 1995-06-18
- Chigusa Nagayo vs Devil Masami, GAEA, 1995-06-18
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom Edition, 2023-04-28)
I didn’t expect this, but being on the picket line all day has not put me in a great headspace to watch much wrestling, therefore this will essentially be a Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom review, plus one other match from our weekly Joshi Night watches.
I want to briefly touch on the matches from the show I didn’t rate. From the pre-show, there were two fun matches, but they were not good enough for the spreadsheet. The Yokohama Rumble was the classic get-everyone-onto-the-show deal but with fun moments. Especially nice to see Momoe Nakanishi again! The Oedi Tai vs Gaijin tag was also fun, with Mariah May really looking like she’s a future star.
The only match that didn’t make the list from the main show was the Goddess of Stardom Championship match. It sounds like there was some politics and they didn’t want to work together. It had a lot of potential, but it wasn’t happening. I will really miss Nanae & Yuu as champions!
#9
Fuwa-chan & Hazuki vs Miyu Amasaki & Utami Hayashishita
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
If you are not aware, Fuwa-chan is a massive celebrity in Japan. So much so, that this match aired on National Television.
What makes it even more wild is that Fuwa-chan is such a natural. If you had no idea, you probably couldn’t even tell who was the celebrity in this match. She looked great and made an awesome team with Hazuki. Utami is the right person to be across from her, as she is the natural star of Stardom and looked great. That lariat spot has millions of views already. A fun match.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Prominence (Hiragi Kurumi, Risa Sera, & Suzu Suzuki)
vs
REstart (KAIRI, Natsupoi, & Saori Anou)
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
Saori Anou is pretty new to me, but she looks great, especially with the exchanges with Suzuki and the finishing sequence. It will be sad to see Prominence leave, but it looks like Suzuki will be staying which is amazing news. With REstart winning the belts, I do wonder how many shows KAIRI will be appearing on, because she looked great as always in this one!
Rating: 7/10
#7
AZM & Mei Suruga vs Mei Seira & Starlight Kid
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
Seeing Mei Seira, formerly Mei Hoshizuki, return and look so great brought me so much joy. All four of these people rule and they had an amazing High Speed match to open the show. Perfect booking. I can’t wait to see Seira in Stardom full-time and take over the High Speed division!
Rating: 7.75/10
#6
Himeka vs Maika
“Himeka’s Retirement Match”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
A very emotional and hard-hitting match for Himeka’s retirement. I loved the ending of taking previous retirement matches and improving upon them. I hope we get a Maika push out of this, but it’s sad to see Himeka go.
Rating: 8/10
#5
Mercedes Mone’ vs Mayu Iwatani
“IWGP Women’s Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
I did love this match, but they clearly have a much better match in them for the future as they were saving things. Mone’ is an all-time great seller. Iwatani hit all kinds of levels of viciousness, especially with her kicks. It was kept short, but very exciting and gave a different element to the card.
Rating: 8.5/10
#4
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Syuri
“Knockout or Submission”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
A classic wrestler vs kickboxer in a brutal Inokism battle. This was a stiff war.
Rating: 8.5/10
#2
Saya Kamitani vs Mina Shirakawa
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
The growth of Shirakawa over the last few years has been shocking. I have to admit she was getting decent at some point a few years back, but then she got injured. She came back from injury and was never the same and was kind of bad. She slowly got okay again, but just okay with some highlights. Back in November, her face got broken by Kamitani’s Phoenix Splash, and upon returning Shirakawa just felt different and like a star. Also note, Kamitani would not do the Phoenix Splash anymore until this match, after struggling with that choice. Not only because of the previous injury but because Shirakawa had destroyed her leg with amazing legwork.
The comeback from there and the finishing sequence was great and what a wonderful story with Shirakawa winning the White Belt! Easily the best match of her career too.
Rating: 9/10
#2
Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue
“WWWA World Championship”
AJW G*Top 2nd
May 7, 1995
I had never seen this very famous hour-long draw before, so I was very hyped for this to appear at my weekly Joshi Nigh watch party and it turns out it was worth the wait.
The pace they worked for an hour is really unmatched. They both have unreal movesets all in full display here. For about 40 minutes this match ruled and was headed to the greatest of all-time territory. Then they just kind of stopped, wandered around, and try to figure out how to kill time, until the ten minutes remaining announcement. Then the match kind of ruled again. That makes it really hard to rate, but overall a classic.
Rating: 9/10
“Match of the Week”
Giulia vs Tam Nakano
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
This may be my favourite feud of all time now. It’s gone on for years and has had many classics and this one may have been my favourite of the bunch. It did feel the most violent as their hatred had grown and grown over time. I loved that they saw red and didn’t even try to wrestle at the start before they realized they had a title to win. The snapmare from the top to the table looked so vicious, I was dying! By the end, they both tried everything, before the Steiner Screwdriver by Tam finished Giulia off.
Years of Stardom booking long reigns really made Tam’s victory feel special and since Tam is my favourite, this was a very joyful moment for me!
Rating: 9.25/10
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom was their largest show with over six thousand in attendance. It also may have been the best! Having all five titles change hands was a cool choice, and breaks up the pattern of changes Stardom sometimes falls into. What a great time to be a fan or to hop on board!
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-04-21)
A huge week for me in terms of stuff outside wrestling. I am officially on strike and the NHL Playoffs started. My free time to watch wrestling was pretty dead this week, so enjoy a very shortened version this week.
#3
Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano
NJPW/WCW Collision In Korea
April 29, 1995
I kind of love showcase matches, especially fun sprints and this is it. It’s a 9-minute match that is worked like a 9-minute match. What really stood out in this match was the flawless transitions. For example, Hokuto hits a huge move, so Nakano rolls to the floor to recover, which immediately turns into a Hokuto dive to the floor. The finish was great too.
Rating: 7/10
#2
Meiko Satomura vs Sareee
Sendai Girls
April 16, 2019
A ridiculously stiff match between two wrestlers who know how to kick! The story was great too of the legend being overcome by the young sensation.
Rating: 8.25/10
“Match of the Week”
Momo Watanabe vs Jungle Kyona
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom World In Nagoya
March 3, 2019
A lot of drama here as Kyona was in her hometown and Watanabe was going for the record number of defences. It was built around Kyona coming closer and closer to winning the title, but just coming up short against the hard-hitting Watanabe. The nearfalls and drama were great!
Rating: 8.5/10
Another fun week of watching, but let’s get excited for next week! We will be covering Stardom’s largest show ever with two potential greatest matches ever on it! Let’s go!
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-04-14)
I was on vacation for the early part of the week in Montreal, so it’s a light week again.
#7
AZM vs Hazuki
“Cinderella Tournament 2023 First Round Match”
Stardom Cinderella Tournament 2023
March 26, 2023
This is the perfect high speed Cinderella match. They went full speed trying to do quick roll-ups and pins, then had a long extended period on the apron trying to throw each other off with so many nearfalls. They hit a perfect draw going to the floor at the same time. This is everything you want in this tournament.
Rating: 7/10
#6
Arisa Hoshiki vs Konami
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Year End Climax 2019
December 24, 2019
Hoshiki is such an amazing babyface and Konami worked so great from on top in this one. All of the hope spots by Hoshiki were really tremendous and I loved how Konami only really falters because she tried to kick Hoshiki. Nobody out-kicks Hoshiki!
Rating: 8/10
#5
Shayna Baszler vs Rhea Ripley
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT TV
December 18, 2019
A classic story here of the crafty badass veteran champion finally getting their due against the badass upstart. Ripley proves too much early on for Baszler, so her underlings come around and interfere and injure Rhea’s arm before being removed. Baszler takes advantage, but just can’t put her away. The final Ripley comeback and win is so well done and felt like a massive changing of the guard. Perfect booking.
Rating: 8.25/10
#4
Giulia vs Hana Kimura
Stardom Year End Climax 2019
December 24, 2019
It was an absolute joy to see Kimura again and this match reminded me how awesome she was. They went flat-out trying to dethrone each other, including great brawling and intensity. It was really emotional and personal!
Rating: 8.25/10
#3
Tatsumi Fujinami vs Genichiro Tenryu
NJPW Battle Formation In Tokyo Dome
April 29, 1996
Fujinami is someone I always hear is a top GWE contender, but I never saw it. Probably due to limited watching or focusing on the wrong matches, so I wanted to check him out against someone I do love.
Tenryu was the evil invader and Fujinami was the hometown defender between these two legends at the Tokyo Dome, so the canvas they had to paint on was already awesome. They both did those roles well. Tenryu is so great as a smug bastard and he blooded Fujinami up so bad catching one o his dives. He also had an all-time cut-off spot as Fujinami was trying a hope spot of comeback punches, only for Tenryu to violently shove his broken bloody nose to cut it off!
This isn’t about Tenryu though, let’s look at Fujinami. He had great energy as a babyface fighting from underneath. The fire was there and I enjoyed him trying to overcome Tenryu. I found the Dragon Sleeper out of nowhere only to let it go to miss a diving move an odd moment late in the match, but it led to an amazing finishing sequence by Tenryu, so it’s okay.
All in all, I can see some potential for greatness in Fujinami, I’ll give him more shots.
Rating: 8.25/10
#2
Kagetsu vs Mayu Iwatani
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Year End Climax 2019
December 24, 2019
Their chemistry is off the charts! It was a perfect contrast of a great heel and a great babyface. The drama and charisma on display were something else as this kept escalating and escalating towards an amazing finishing sequence. All of the mists by Kagetsu, missed or not, were tremendous. The flying foot stomp from the balcony to the floor was a wild spot during the early outside of the ring brawling segment. That segment was great, but the match did get better. A great moment and a GREAT German Suplex finish. Amazing match.
Rating: 8.75/10
“Fan Favourite”
Fire & Ice vs The Steiner Brothers
WCW The Great American Bash
June 16, 1996
From the discord, see how to join at the end of the article to join in on the fun and give future suggestions.
I haven’t seen this match in years and not since I realized Scott “Flash” Norton is one of my absolute favourites! This feud had a number of matches in a short period that are all super fun because they are ideal opponents. Steiners always look best when they are facing physically imposing folks. Norton is best against a challenge and Ice Train is along for the ride.
The match is really at its best when Norton is in the ring, as Ice Train is just okay. Norton is such a force in this for the Steiners to overcome, which they did with a messed up-looking Frankensteiner at the end. If you love big tough dudes throwing each other around this is the match for you!
Rating: 7.25/10
“Match of the Week”
Mercedes Mone’ vs AZM vs Hazuki
“IWGP Women’s Champion Three Wayy Match”
NJPW Sakura Genesis 2023
April 8, 2023
If there was any doubt that Mercedes could work a High Speed match, that doubt is gone. They started with a great High Speed match but continued on to a tremendous three-way match. All of the usual pitfalls of these matches were gone. If someone would sit on the outside, then when someone got Irish whipped they turned it into a tope onto them. If they would try a tower of doom spot, it would be countered or come out of nowhere. It was tremendous! They interworked all of their offence so well, including such a beautiful finish where AZM went for her finish on Hazuki, but midway through Mercedes caught her hitting her finish. I loved this!
Rating: 8.75/10
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week: WrestleMania Edition (2023-04-07)
It’s WrestleMania weekend, but I didn’t watch as much as in the past. I am not into the Indies as much as I was in 2019. Plus this week is ending early, as I am travelling this weekend.
#9
Brock Lesnar vs Omos
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023
Brock sold extremely well and Omos looked great throwing Brock around the ring. I probably would had liked this a lot more if Brock didn’t seemingly overcome Omos so easily in the end.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Ai Houzan vs Unagi Sayaka
Marvelous
March 26, 2023
Houzan came to fight, but Unagi was having none of her. Ungai’s stomp kicks seemed even more vicious in this one. I guess her size came into play. I thought underdog Unagi was the best, but maybe pissed-off overdog Unagi is better?
Rating: 7/10
#7
Emi Sakura vs Hikaru Shida
Gatoh Move Gtmv #3 ~ Cute Cheat Day
September 10, 2019
A really fun match where Shida was the badass heel here beating down Sakura for most of the match and mocking her. Emi gets some good hope spots until it gets a very exciting finishing stretch.
Rating: 7/10
#6
Athena vs Yuka Sakazaki
“ROH Women’s World Championship”
ROH Supercard of Honor
March 31, 2023
I’ve always been a fan of Athena and it’s very nice to see her getting a bigger push. Too bad the crowd sucked, because this was a fun match. Athena was a steamroller and Sakazaki did a good job of trying to overcome that, but ultimately falling short.
Rating: 7/10
#5
Becky Lynch, Lita, & Trish Stratus vs Bayley, Dakota Kai, & IYO SKY
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023
This match is filled with some of my favourite wrestlers ever, so it’s just nice to see. It starts slow with an okay face in peril segment with Lita, but once Trish comes in for the hot tag this match rules! It kind of breaks down and is filled with a lot of excitement and some great dives, including Io Shira’s moonsault! It all comes down tho the two main current stars as it should be for a definitive finish!
Rating: 7/10
#4
Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley
“WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023
A match that built from a slow start to upping itself all along the way until it had a great finish. It was so very physical and intense, even drawing blood. Charlotte not being able to put Rhea away was a tremendous moment, as was Rhea ending it!
Rating: 8.5/10
#3
The Usos vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023
Although this match should had been the perfect end to Roman Reigns’ title reign, at least it was the perfect end to the reign of the Usos.
One of the best face in peril segments ever in WWE history on Uso, let to a great hot tag for Owens. We got a bueatufl teams stare down, and then the very satisfying Sami Zayn victory. A rare perfect ending for the WWE.
Rating: 8.75/10
#2
Bianca Belair vs Asuka
“WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023
Belair’s etrance was one of, if not the best, in WWE history. She may be the best big match wrestler in the WWE and her WrestleMania career is kind of unreal and she added to that here.
Belair has some of the greatest power moves ever, it’s really unreal. Asuka was so awesome in her evil way, always trying to count everything with a submission, but the power was hard to contend with. The whole apron segment was amazing, but nothing tops the finish. Bianca just powering out of the armbar into the KOD was a great WrestleMania moment!
Rating: 8.75/10
“Match of the Week”
Gunther vs Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus
“WWE Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023
This was a straight forward stiff war. By the end, everyone had red chests and Sheamus’ was bleeding. Usually the “drama” of the Triple Threat matches bug me, but here taking a breather after all those beatings made sense. Gunther continues to look like the most unbeatable badass in the WWE.
Rating: 8.75/10
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