I was able to fit in a lot of good stuff this week, both from 2007 and 2024! So, let’s not dilly-dally!

*****

Continuing with my 2007 watch to prep my Wrestler of the Year list this week. There were a few candidates I needed to spend some more time with. Starting with Mistico.

I watched Mistico vs Averno from CMLL on January 5, 2007. Mistico had Scott Steiner’s chainmail on during his entrance! To add to the great visuals, the sneak attack and Snake Eyes into the steps looked great, as did Averna going to the ring with the camera catching Mistico rising in the back. This first fall is really nuts! Mistico tries an Asai to Moonsault to the floor and hits double feet to his head, and then Averna hits his weird reverse Michinoku Driver like three times for an easy win. Averno takes it to the outside to start the second fall and does another Snake Eyes, this time going into the guardrail. He then sends in Mistico and Tires to unmask him to huge heat. It ends up being a short fall with a quick and fun comeback by Mistico, as is so common in lucha. There is this weird beeping, like a truck backing up or a battery dying, which is so distracting for a while, but thankfully, it’s only a minute. For the third fall, Averna is afraid to take on Mitsico and only enters the ring to sneak attack him. Mistico’s dives are so spectacular! There are some good nearfalls between the two and some great little moments. Like Misico getting hit by an enzuigiri on the apron and collapsing to the floor. I just put it together that the beeping happens when it’s the referee cam view. Not a great i,dea. At times, it starts to drag, but luckily, someone soon hits a big move to pick things up again. They actually have Averno reach the ropes to break up La Mistica! This leads to Mistico ripping up Averno’s mask to pay him back for earlier. Some more nearfalls until Mistico puts him away. It got a little long in the last fall, but a damn good match. [7/10]

Mistico against Mr. Aguila from June 8, 2007 was the final of the Leyenda de Plata. I still have trouble in my head trying to think that this later Aguila is the same as the Aguila that appeared in the WWF in 1998. They just don’t fit together, you know? Unlike the previous match, this one was not about hate but about wanting to win. No mask ripping, but lots of great wrestling. Mistico repeats the Asai Moonsault into double feet spot, and it’s still spectacular here. It’s great action throughout, and the final fall is full of some great drama and nearfalls, especially the late Magistral by Aguila. I really love crowds during Mistico matches, they LOVE him. A damn good lucha match here! [7.25/10]

I watched Emi Sakura take on Aya Yuuki from a NEO show on April 7, 2007. Sakura looked great in this sub ten minute basic match.

That Sakura match did not hit the spot, so I found a match against Yoshiko Tamura from NEO on May 3, 2007, that looked promising. Now, this ruled! Tamura started as her usual dominant self until Sakura’s energy and speed blitzed her and put her on the defensive and almost took her out. Tamura had to fight back hard before finally putting her down. A real classic match story type. [8.5/10]

I watched my first ever Pro-Wrestling SUN match from January 14, 2007, as Amazing Kong faced Nanae Takahashi in a title for the title match in the main event. Steve Coron is on the outside in a referee shirt. I think in Kong’s corner. He does nothing, even though the match was heated, and went to the floor. Nanae did Spike Dudley’s Acid Drop in this and was able to follow the clothesline over the top with a tope, which was a great section of offense by Takahashi. She really brought it toward Kong and tried to work the arm, which Kong sold really well. Kong was able to counter and go back into crushing mode, giving Takahashi a few hope spots, but in the end, she got hit by a huge senton from the second rope. It was sub ten minutes, but a real blast. [7/10]

I had another Pro-Wrestling SUN (renamed CHICK FIGHTS SUN) show that I skimmed through from October 7, 2007. The opener was Kana vs. Natsuki Taiyo; both were seemingly young in their careers and did some rookie stuff. There was some clipping, but it was nice to see Kana already had the hip attack in her arsenal. Taiyo finished her with a huge power bomb. Fun enough for what it was. I skipped forward to the main event of Azumi Hyuga vs Nanae Takahashi. The graphic on the screen says, “Decide the icon of Chicks!” which is a weird way to describe this dream match. This went 28 minutes, and it felt like it for the first half, but the second half was filled with greatness with the mix of Hyuga’s speed and underdog style vs Nanae’s passion and force. Some true highlights here are Takahashi hitting a verticle suplex off the apron to the floor, where they both go down, and Hyuga hitting a top rope spinning DDT while they were both standing on the top. It had some really good nearfalls, and the finish felt like an end, with Takahashi hitting a muscle buster and turning into a Falcon Arrow for the win. [7.25/10]

I also checked out Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay from the November 9, 2007, WWE SmackDown. The crowd was super hot, which matched how great this match was in the ring. Finlay being larger made him such a great bully, and few are a better babyface than Rey. One spot that really stood out was Mysterio springboarding going for the Rana, but Finlay caught him and turned into a buckle bomb. Fucking fantastic match with Finlay’s work on Mysterio’s back was so great and unique, and the selling was great. The hope spots, comebacks, and nearfalls were all great. I can’t believe they got 18 minutes to put on this awesome match on TV! [8.25/10]

*****

Sheamus vs. Gunther from Raw on May 6, 2024, appeared on YouTube, so I had to check that out.

I’m glad somebody picked up the Fit Finlay vs Steven Regal mantle from 1996. These two beat the living fuck out of each other on free TV. If you like that style, it’s pretty perfect stuff here. It’s also one of those matches where the two have a long history, so there are counters and using each other’s moves. Something else that really helped this match was Gunther’s second taking out Sheamus’ knee behind the referee’s back to add extra heat and an extra pop when he is ejected from ringside. Gunther’s attacks to the knee were good, and the selling by Sheamus was excellent, especially how it affected his offense. His later firey comeback leading to a slow nearfall off the Brogue Kick was really great! It led to a tapout to a single leg crab right after, and it was even better. Great match. [8/10]

This match motivated me to try to catch up with some of my 2024 backlog!

Starting with the Dog Collar Match between Alex Windsor and Dani Luna from RevPro on March 31. This was not the best dog dollar match this year, but it’s fucking awesome, and it’s also bloody and violent! The spot where Dani Luna is near the post, and Windsor goes around her to tie her up with the chain was genius. They did a few more smart uses of the chain. Like using it to hook around the ropes and then wiping Windsor into it to get clotheslined. There is more of that kind of cool stuff throughout that made me think the spirit of Bret Hart still exists today, which is funny because I wrote that, and a second later, Windsor hit a chain-assisted Russian Legsweep! Windsor pulls out a dog metal crate from under the ring, which is something I have never seen before in wrestling. She gets her inside, slams the door into her side, and then dropkicks her while her head is inside the crate. Luna just misses putting Windsor through the create with a DVD for two and then suplexes her onto it. Windsor does a Sharpshooter, too, and wraps the chain around Luna’s neck while in the hold. Yeah, this is a modern day Bret Hart brawl!!!! The finish is fucking great, with a kind of push-off-the-ropes German Suplex followed by a slam by Luna. This ruled! [9/10]

I finally got around to the last two matches on Stardom’s All-Star Grand Queendom from April 27, 2024. Saori Anou vs Hanan for the White Belt felt like Hanan’s coming out party. She belonged in this big title match, which was a pretty good, dramatic, big action match. Anou is great working as an ace heavy favourite, and Hanan is amazing working underneath, so they gelled really well. I would say it goes a bit too long and falls for the many nearfalls trope of a lot of modern wrestling, but it’s definitely worth a watch. [7/10] The Red Belt main event with Maika and Momo Watanabe in Three Stages of Hell is another story. The first fall was a regular affair and had some pretty decent action, but the second fall was some kind of fall count anywhere thing that was kind of off. For me, there is something always odd about gimmick matches in Japan that aren’t deathmatches, like they never really click. Not sure why? By the end, I completely lost focus on this one, sorry Momo and Maika, I still enjoy you both.

For some reason, I had AEW Rampage from May 1, 2024, in my queue, so I popped it on. It starts with Kenny Omega dead in the ring from The Elite. Time to start skipping around. Up first were Jay White and Dante Martin. This was a fine little match with White leading things and Martin bringing the flying space. Deonna Purrazzo’s backstage promo had her leaning into her heel character, which is much better. Looking forward to her vs Thunder Rosa. The Rush hype video was fine work, too. Hopefully, they will use him better going forward. I skipped the Jericho and Cass thing, but that was followed by a really cool Swerve promo! Next were Rocky Romero and Kyle O’Reilly, two folks I have liked who had various points in their career. It’s a fine TV match with some good technical stuff and a few bigger moves. This is everything you want in this situation. Nothing to recommend, but it’s a good time. Saraya and Harley Cameron trash talked Mariah May, so fuck them. The main event is Willow Nightingale defending her TBS Title in a Manitoba Massacre match against Skye Blue is probably why it’s on my watchlist. This is basically a falls count anywhere match, and they start off on the floor. I’m going to take off marks as they have the annoying searching under the ring spot for weapons. I really wish people could just use organic weapons and not waste time searching them out. That’s a tiny nitpick, though, as the action here is great. Willow took a freaking flip off the apron, trying to hit Blue, but she moved, so she just crashed through a chair. Skye Blue did get bloody in this, which added to the chaotic nature. Blue brought out the thumbtacks but, of course, failed to use them the first time. Some nice fighting leads to Nightingale hitting a Fisherman Suplex off the top onto Blue through the tacks. The table is then set up and not used right away, so that’s the second time they went to that well this one. Blue is able to move out of the way of a moonsault, and then she goes outside to put a barbed-wire board on the table. They fight over who will kill the other until Nightingale hits the big sit down power bomb through the table. This is damn good fun. [7/10]

I finally got my first glimpse of the new Dream Star Fighting Marigold promotion as Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Mai Sakurai, & MIRAI appeared on NOAH’s Wrestle magic show on May 4, 2024, against Great Sukuya, Nagisa Nozaki, Takumi Iroha, & Miyuki Takase. The Marigold roster and Rossy Ogawa accompany the Margiold team in their new tracksuits. It’s kind of cool to see the whole roster together like this, and damn, did I miss these wrestlers. A showcase was all but fun enough. I want a Utami vs Iroha match, please. Giulia gets the win with the Northern Lights Bomb!

*****

Joshi Night, 4 PM EST on the Discord, continued our trek through 1997. Join us on Sundays for a fun text chat and some great matches watched in contact. Also prep yourself for after we finish 1997, we start the 1980s Joshi Yearbook put together by the amazing Kadaveri.

We start off with three matches AJW from September 21, 1997. The first match saw the GAEA team of KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada against the AJW team of Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi. Momoe is just 17 but definitely shows off her potential. It’s a fine opener with a lot of energy. Up next was Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta. This was pretty meandering and nothing special, although it did pick up near the end. Not Toyota’s best. The final match we watched from this show was a cage match billed as “Violence War” between Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe. Now, this was good enough to make the whole Sunday worth it. Ito was wearing hockey pads, and LCO brought pink and blue chairs in to just destroy them. They also had chains and used them to just murder the first half of the match. After the hot start, it cooled down but definitely picked up with the seconds using fire extinguishers, and then LCO pulled a guardrail into the ring via the chain. Violence War indeed! It was chaotic and one of the better escape the rules cage matches I’ve seen. Ito hit a fucking top rope double foot stomp before escaping! [8.75/10]

We ended the night with two matches from GAEA. First was Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato from October 13, 1997. This was a match I could see people really loving. It was a struggle and a fight over kicks and submissions. Although it was a little too shooty for me. There were some big moves and nearfalls toward the end to bring this up for me. If more shoot fights had DVDs, I would like it better. [7/10] We ended the afternoon with Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato from October 18, 1997, for the AAW Tag Team Championship. This was more to my liking, and Nagashima & Sugar have become a favourite team for me. It was full of energy, great double teams, and great drama. A perfect tag match. [7.25/10]

Sundays are the best days thanks to Joshi Night!

*****

A great week of action! I hope to finally finish my 2007 MOTY list next week, so look for some great matches to discuss here!

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