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!
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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:
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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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