Poll before Joey Janela's Clusterfuck Forever

G1 Climax 31 Night 1 - 9/18/2021; Suzuki v. Gresham Main Events GCW Highest In The Room, Suzuki v. Nick Gage on 10/23/2021; Suzuki/Archer v. Mox/Kingston Moved to Rampage on 9/24/2021, Made Lights Out Match

The 31st edition of G1 Climax began today, with a show you can see now on NJPWWorld. 

G1 Climax 31 (All events on NJPWWorld) - 9/18/2021, Osaka EDION Arena

SHO [Bullet Club] d. Ryohei Oiwa (Snake Bite, 6:08)

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] d. Kota Ibushi (Big Juice, 11:31)

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Great O-Khan [United Empire] d. Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] (Eliminator, 17:45)

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Toru Yano [CHAOS] d. KENTA [Bullet Club] (Whole Roasted KENTA, 11:07)

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] d. Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] (YES! I AM A LONG WAY FROM HOME, 27:05)

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] (Last Of The Dragon, 27:45)

Shingo said that there have only been two previous reigning champions who won G1 Climax, so the 3rd IWGP World Heavyweight Champion should be the 3rd champion to win G1. Here’s hoping! The fact Kota Ibushi lost on Night 1 to freakin’ Yujiro doesn’t inspire me that they aren’t going to have Ibushi win the block now, however. A lot of new finishers, and finisher names, are showing up in this show, including from the newly heel SHO. Great O-Khan gets the win in his debut G1 Climax match, beating fellow debutant Tanga Loa. It’s Toru Yano Season again!

Attendance did not crack 2000 in a 8000-capacity building. Even in these times of lowered attendances due to COVID-19, that is not great. NJPW have some work to do to get interest in their product heightened once more.

Current A Block standings:

O-Khan - 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Sabre - 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Shingo - 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Yano - 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Yujiro - 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Ibushi - 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Ishii - 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Loa - 0pts (0W 0D 1L) KENTA - 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Naito - 0pts (0W 0D 1L)

Last night in LA, Minoru Suzuki defeated Ring of Honor’s Jonathan Gresham in the main event of Game Changer Wrestling’s Highest In The Room event. I don’t know how the match was as I knew I wasn’t going to last until 1am Chicago time to see it, so I’ll catch this later on today on FITE TV (about $15 too). Post-main, however, GCW’s icon Nick Gage (MDK All Fuckin’ Day!) challenged Suzuki for the previously unannounced GCW show on 10/23/2021 in LA, so I’ll add that one to the itinerary. That match could be for the GCW Heavyweight title too, if Gage manages to beat Jon Moxley for the title on 10/9/2021 at GCW’s show in Atlantic City, NJ, that night. [EDIT: It looks like GCW’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7 will happen on 10/22/2021 now as well, so I am SURE Suzuki will be on that, but no official card announcements yet.]

If you are into GCW’s normal deathmatchy fare, they are running a show for free on their YouTube channel, GCW v. FIST Combat, from San Diego, CA, although I can’t seem to find a time for that show. I am going to guess it’ll be 8pm PDT, but check the link later I guess.

On the subject of Suzuki and Moxley, last night on AEW Rampage, it was announced that the tag match between Mox & Eddie Kingston v. Suzuki & Lance Archer that was set for Dynamite on Wednesday, will now be on the special 2-hour Rampage on Friday 9/24/2021. Suzuki is already booked for GCW that night, in NYC (a date I erroneously listed as 10/24 in the subject of last post, oops), but I am thinking this is a taped Rampage, happening after Dynamite Wednesday, as I don’t think even Tony Khan can rent the Arthur Ashe Stadium for two nights. 

The match has also been made a Lights Out match, which means it’s “unofficial and unsanctioned,” and doesn’t go on AEW’s (completely worked) win-loss records. Lights Out matches tend to go a bit more hardcore than most in AEW, and also is rarely used; I think this will only be the third or fourth one in the company’s history. And they’ve all been very good matches so far, especially Thunder Rosa v. Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, earlier this year on Dynamite. It also means this match will be the main event on next week’s edition of AEW Rampage, so hey, that’s cool too!

Tomorrow’s show starts B Block matches for G1 Climax 31, including the 5th meeting between Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Kazuchika Okada in G1 Climax. Later tonight at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on NJPWWorld is the new “season” of NJPW Strong, beginning the cycle of Fighting Spirit Unleashed shows taped back on 8/16/2021 from Long Beach, CA. 

- 9/19/2021, Osaka EDION Arena

Kosei Fujita v. SHO [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 B Block: YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. EVIL [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Jeff Cobb [United Empire] v. Chase Owens [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 B Block: SANADA [Los Ingobernables] v. Tama Tonga [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] v. Taichi [SZKG]

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS]

2016 Year in Review

It's that time of year again - time for me to rank every UFC card of the year and hand out some year-end awards, because I'm insane. Basically, I try to rank these by sort of context-less fight quality - if I had to show someone one card this year who wasn't really a fan, which would provide the best fight action. So it's pretty much based off pacing and fun action, though there are some considerations for memorable moments or starpower, plus level of technical skill. So, to quote the dearly departed Mike Goldberg, HERE. WE GO. 41) UFC on Fox 18 - January 30, 2016 - Newark, New Jersey - Fox/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Woof. With the legalization of MMA in New York on the horizon, this figured to be UFC's last hurrah in Jersey, at least as sort of their hub in the Northeast, and...well, UFC had already moved onto New York, it seems like. This didn't look to be too great a card on paper, and it pretty much lived down to expectations - nothing here is too awful, but there's also just nothing to really recommend. There's some stuff that did set up things down the line - Jimmie Rivera and Wilson Reis got one-sided wins to establish themselves as contenders in their respective divisions, and Bryan Barberena knocked off golden boy Sage Northcutt to both establish Barberena as a tough out and Northcutt as a product of hype - but it's not like any of those were great fights. The one real sort of amusement is Ryan Bader achieving peak Ryan Bader once again in the main event - Bader has a history of choking in the big fight, and seemingly one win away from a title shot, he decided to shoot for an absolutely terrible takedown against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, stupidly go for a Kimura from the bottom, and then get knocked into unconsciousness in just 86 seconds for his trouble. So, yeah, that was your main event. Just a nothing happening show. Fights to Watch: Honestly, you're fine skipping the event entirely - the best fights are probably currently rising welterweight prospect Randy Brown making his UFC debut over Matt Dwyer, and Rivera's breakout win over Iuri Alcantara, but neither of those were A-plus action. There were also two neat finishes - Alexander Yakovlev surprisingly scored a solid knockout over George Sullivan, and in the co-main, Ben Rothwell shockingly became the first guy to tap out Josh Barnett with some weird guillotine variation he calls the "gogo choke." And then there's the two fights you can watch just for schadenfreude's sake, with Bader failing miserably in the main event and Northcutt getting tapped out. Yep. 40) UFC Fight Night 93 - September 3, 2016 - Hamburg, Germany - UFC Fight Pass Summary: This card happened. UFC's relationship with Germany has always been a strange one - when the company first expanded into Europe, the UK and Germany were the two big markets they targeted, which made sense, at least based off economics. The UK took off, since there was a talent base of guys like Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy, and the media accepted the sports with open arms, while Germany...not so much. The German fight scene is only now really starting to crank out decent fighters, and there was a huge media backlash against the sport, with sensationalist headlines about this being a bloodsport and such, straight of the mid-90's. But UFC's continued to run there despite little fan interest, and I can't really blame them, given that UFC hasn't really tried to give the country a big card - last year's show had a Joanna Jedrzejczyk title defense on top of an absolutely awful card, and this one wasn't much better, with a veteran heavyweight battle between Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski, some top light heavyweights, and then a whole lot of nothing. On the plus side, the Arlovski/Barnett fight wound up being a pretty good multi-round heavyweight fight, and Ryan Bader actually did the starching for one, destroying Ilir Latifi with a knee for a knockout, plus German MMA pioneer Peter Sobotta got a rousing one-sided win over Nicolas Dalby. On the negative side, everything else was completely unmemorable about this card. Fights to Watch: Honestly just the three things I just mentioned - Barnett/Arlovski was fun, and that Bader knockout was brutal. I'm not sure how great a watch the Sobotta fight is, since it's really just a one-sided beating, but it was at least an emotional moment to see a hometown favorite get a big win in surprising fashion. 39) UFC Fight Night 102 - December 9, 2016 - Albany, New York - UFC Fight Pass Summary: This card pretty much lived in infamy as soon as it happened - basically, as part of getting UFC legalizing MMA in New York, they promised so many events per year in the state, so they wound up putting on this extraneous card in Albany. They sort of half-assed put one together, but then proceeded to see most of the interesting stuff on the card fall apart thanks to injuries, so the result was probably the weakest domestic card in UFC history from a marquee standpoint. On the plus side, there was the chance on paper that on such a prospect-heavy card, someone would stand out, but the bad news was that nobody really did throughout the first half of the card, as things kicked off with five straight unimpressive decisions that sort of made your eyes glaze over. Things eventually did pick up a bit, particularly as the main card started - Gian Villante and Saparbek Safarov put on a fun brawl, Corey Anderson steamrolled Sean O'Connell, and freakish heavyweight prospect Francis Ngannou put on another frighteningly impressive performance. And then the main event happened. It was a weak main to begin with, with heavyweights Derrick Lewis and Shamil Abdurakhimov squaring off, and for about eighteen minutes it was just Abdurakhimov stalling, wrestling, and just making it an awful fight so he didn't get killed by Lewis's knockout power. Lewis did eventually catch him, putting him away at the tail end of the fourth round, but the fight sucked and just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Fights to Watch: Tune in starting with Gerald Meerschart's submission over Joe Gigliotti and then get the hell out before the main event. There's some impressive performances - Randy Brown, Anderson, and Ngannou all look good, plus there's a solid fight between Ashley Yoder and Justine Kish, and the highlight is definitely that Villante/Safarov, as while Safarov is a completely trash brawler, Villante has enough defense lapses to make it a fun fight. Just, again, close out of the window before the main event comes on. 38) UFC Fight Night 100 - November 19, 2016 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: You know, it really says something to the consistency of the UFC product that a card this perfectly fine is this low - this was actually the second card of the day, as it started right after a Fight Pass event earlier in the afternoon from Belfast, and it didn't really drag at all. It's just that, well, this card is basically just six and a half hours of perfectly fine fights; nothing was too awful, but nothing's really worth going out of your way to see after the fact. And unlike some of the other cards in this range, the main event doesn't really cap things off, as it's pretty much just Ryan Bader putting a beating on an aged Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Just a bunch of solid fights. And that's okay. Fights to Watch: Honestly, everything on the card is pretty solid. The best fight is probably the co-main, pitting Thomas Almeida against Albert Morales in a bit of an Almeida showcase. Otherwise, it's just sort of letting a bunch of okay fights wash over you while you day drink or something. I don't know. 37) UFC Fight Night 86 - April 10, 2016 - Zagreb, Croatia - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: UFC sure picked a weird time to run Croatia - Mirko Cro Cop had just failed a drug test and fake retired, while the next-closest thing to a native son, Croatian-American Stipe Miocic, was busy challenging for the heavyweight title the next month. So UFC just sort of went with their usual strategy in Europe nowadays, and just threw whatever heavyweights they could find onto the card. The results were fun in places, with some brutal knockouts by Jared Cannonier and Derrick Lewis, plus some lighter-weight fighters, but the event's marred a bit by a fairly unmemorable main event, with Junior dos Santos getting back on track against Ben Rothwell, and the fact that when some of the fights dragged, they really dragged. Fights to Watch: It's a pretty clear delineation - just watch whatever fights ended in a finish. Derrick Lewis, Mairbek Taisumov, and Jared Cannonier all had brutal knockouts of their opponents, and Francis Ngannou put on a breakout performance in beating Curtis Blaydes's eye so badly that the doctor called the fight. And the other two finishes on the night, Alejandro Perez beating Ian Entwistle, and Damian Stasiak beating Filip Pejic, are quick enough sprints - though watching the Pejic loss is a bit depressing, since he was only one of two Croatian fighters on the card and lost rather handily. The decisions are all fairly missable. 36) UFC Fight Night 101 - November 26, 2016 - Melbourne, Australia - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: If it wasn't for the main event, this would be an easy call for the bottom of the list - UFC booked this card to be pretty much reliant on its top two fights, a slated double-header of top middleweights Luke Rockhold and Jacare Souza, plus Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson, but when Rockhold got injured, Aussie favorite Whittaker and Brunson got the main event call, and the rest of the fight was just a mishmash of Australian vets and stuff from the scrapped Manila card a month prior. And while Australian fighters usually bring it, this was not that night, as it sort of a plodding night light on impressive performances (and in fact, just the opposite, as a lot of guys actually underperformed)...at least until we got to the absolutely ridiculous main event. Brunson just decided to go all-out looking for an impressive knockout to get some notice, and just charged at Whittaker throwing bombs the entire fight - sometimes he hit, and almost had Whittaker done, and sometimes Whittaker would play matador and be able to strike back. Anyway, it was an all-action fight before Whittaker put away Brunson for the best win of his career, and that's pretty much the only thing that redeemed this show. Fights to Watch: Again, the Whittaker/Brunson main event is the only real thing of note on the card. Other than that, well, the two debuting Australians, Alex Volkanovski and Tyson Pedro, were the only real impressive performers. Oh, and the continued adventures of "Judo" Dan Kelly, an aging Australian judoka who pretty much only gets by on toughness and dad strength at this point, as he continued his streak of just wading through the offense of more athletic opponents to just beat the piss out of them, in this case Chris Camozzi. His fights aren't really pretty to watch, but Dan Kelly's pretty great, because he somehow keeps pulling this off. 35) UFC Fight Night 87 - May 8, 2016 - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Sort of the companion piece to the Croatia show ranked two spots below it, as UFC also decided to headline a mainland Europe card with a bunch of heavyweights, though, you know, at least in this case they had some Dutch fighters. The top few fights are fun ones - Alistair Overeem, Stefan Struve, and Germaine de Randamie all delivered one-sided knockouts for their home crowd, and Gunnar Nelson was able to get back on track with a win over Albert Tumenov. There's just not a ton going on before then - there's solid individual performances by fighters like Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Kyoji Horiguchi, but nothing you need to go out of your way to watch. Fights to Watch: Again, the top four fights are all fun and quick enough you can pretty much just go with that. Outside of that, the Kyoji Horiguchi/Neil Seery fight that headlined the Fight Pass portion of things was a fun fight that went to a decision, and everyone else is, for the most part, perfectly fine, but skippable. 34) UFC Fight Night 84 - February 27, 2016 - London, England - UFC Fight Pass Summary: Another one fight show, as terrible undercards continue to drag down a lot of these European shows. But that one fight is a doozy, as Michael Bisping got the biggest win of his career - well, for about three months - over former champ and all-time legend Anderson Silva in what was just a big, dumb, glorious battle. Bisping won the balance of the fight, as Silva was and is obviously diminished from his peak, but the Brazilian would show dangerous flashes, including a controversial near-knockout at the very tail end of the third round that just added to the spectacle. A solid capper to a show that was otherwise pretty much a whole bunch of nothing, save Scott Askham's brutal knockout of Chris Dempsey about halfway through the card. Fights to Watch: Really just the main event and that Askham KO are the only things worth watching. Other than that, the first two fights on the card are relatively quick finishes, so I guess you can go ahead and watch that, though, honestly, everything else is pretty skippable. 33) UFC 197 - April 23, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Oh, what could've been. Sort of the forgotten would-be big even of 2016, this was supposed to be the big Jones/Cormier card (well, for the first time), but with Cormier pulling out with a knee injury, we instead got all-time great Jon Jones in sort of a rusty sparring match against an overmatched Ovince St. Preux. The whole event just has sort of a flat feel, although there are some solid performances - Demetrious Johnson was finally able to just be in a co-main event showcase and ran through Henry Cejudo, plus this is where we got Yair Rodriguez's beautiful flying switch kick knockout of Andre Fili. Overall, though, a great percentage of the card is just decent, but missable. Fights to Watch: The Johnson fight might be the main thing to see, if only to see the best fighter in the world absolutely style on a top contender like few others can. Again, the Rodriguez knockout is awesome, as is Walt Harris's knockout of highly touted heavyweight prospect Cody East, if only for the schadenfreude thanks to East's history of domestic violence. The fight between Danny Roberts and Dominique Steele is also a fun one, even though others seemed to be higher on it than I was. 32) UFC 200 - July 9, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: So...UFC 200 kind of sucked, didn't it? It just seemed flat at the time, but it hasn't really aged well at all with the benefit of even six months of hindsight; looking back, especially after Ronda Rousey's recent media blackout, it seems kind of absurd they pulled the Conor McGregor/Nate Diaz rematch from this card, especially since this card really could've needed an epic main event. Though, in UFC's defense, Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier 2 did look like a suitable replacement, though Jones infamously got pulled from the card days before over what, huh, really did just wind up being tainted dick pills, huh. So, with UFC's first two plans falling apart, the main event wound up being Amanda Nunes running through Miesha Tate, who almost missed the weigh-ins herself, which would've scrapped that fight - and Nunes being the main event winner of UFC's most anticipated card in years (given what a landmark UFC 100 was) is no less weird even after she's beaten Rousey. So the big hook for the show wound up being Brock Lesnar coming back, with was most notable for him not being drug tested in the leadup to the fight, until he was, then him failing said drug tests and just making a whole shitshow of the thing as he took the money and run. So that fight was just fifteen minutes of wrestling, which followed fifteen minutes of wrestler as Cormier just took down surprising late replacement Anderson Silva...man, UFC 200 was just a weird-ass show, even with distance, though now that weirdness no longer masks over the fact that just nothing happened. Even what figured to be a sure bet for best action fight on the card, between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, instead wound up being a one-sided virtuoso performance by Aldo. Honestly, based off action, I could probably rank this even lower, but the early prelims had some quick finishes and there's something to be said for seeing a bunch of the highest level fighters in the sport, even if a lot of them didn't really do a whole hell of a lot. Fights to Watch: As far as the main card, I'd only recommend the opener, with Cain Velasquez blowing through Travis Browne in a reminder of how scary Velasquez can be when he's actually healthy, though it's also a reminder of how Velasquez is never actually healthy. Nunes blowing through Tate is also a fine enough watch that doesn't take long, and the rest of the top nine fights are just a whole bunch of unmemorable decisions. The first three fights on Fight Pass are worth watching, too, since you get three relatively quick knockouts - if I had to pick one, I'd have to pick Joe Lauzon's win over Diego Sanchez, since it might be the only time we see Sanchez's legendary chin get cracked so badly that the referee is actually forced to stop things. 31) UFC on Fox 20 - July 23, 2016 - Chicago, Illinois - Fox/UFC Fight Pass Summary: A fairly nothing Fox card, though it did feature one of many examples of UFC's plans going horribly wrong in 2016, as Holly Holm was pretty much given a showcase bout against Valentina Shevchenko in the main event, only for it to turn out that Shevchenko's a much better MMA fighter at this point in the game, and pretty much piece the former champ up en route to a win. Oh well. Past that, just a whole lot of fine stuff - Edson Barboza piecing up Gilbert Melendez, Francis Ngannou getting a showcase knockout, Eddie Wineland getting a big comeback win - but nothing too essential. Just a fine show that breezes by, and in this case, only have eleven fights is a bit of a blessing when it comes to this ranking. Fights to Watch: The best fight on the card was rather easily a deep undercard bout between Jason Knight and Jim Alers, as Knight rebounded from a nothing UFC debut to show off his full "Hick Diaz" repertoire en route to an action-heavy decision win. The two quick finishes to kick off the Fox card - Francis Ngannou over Bojan Mihajlovic and Felice Herrig over Kailin Curran - aren't really amazing or anything, but they're quick. Nothing on the card is too awful, but it's hard to recommend anything else - Eddie Wineland's comeback win over Frankie Saenz is solid, as are the top two fights on the card, but those are skippable unless you have a vested interest in the names involved. 30) UFC Fight Night 96 - October 1, 2016 - Portland, Oregon - Fox Sports 1/Fox Sports 2/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Appropriately enough, given it was in Portland, this FS1 card was most notable for just being a weird one. Three Brazilian fighters missed weight - John Lineker, Alex Oliveira, and Hacran Dias - and that played into one of the weirder co-main events of the year, between Oliveira and Will Brooks, as Oliveira just used his extra size to ragdoll Brooks and then make things chippy both before and after the fight, apparently thanks to some comments Brooks made after Oliveira missed weight. Anyway, this is a show with some clear highs - the main event between Lineker and John Dodson was awesome, and Mexico's Brandon Moreno making a late-notice debut and scoring a submission win over Louis Smolka was one of the more memorable upsets of the year - but there's just swaths of this card that are boring, so it's sort of hard to recommend watching the whole thing through. Fights to Watch: The Lineker/Dodson fight is the clear one to watch, since it's five rounds of two of the hardest hitters at bantamweight squaring off in a fascinating cat and mouse game, as the speedier, but more explosive Dodson just tries to stick and move against the more opportunistic Lineker. After that, the only fights you really need to see are Moreno's win over Smolka, and the charming post-fight interview that follows, and Nate Marquardt starching Tamdan McCrory for a pretty brutal knockout. There's some other solid fights on the card - Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos against Keita Nakamura, and Ion Cutelaba against Jonathan Wilson, among others - but there's also a lot of stinkers, so I'd say to just watch those three good fights and get out. 29) UFC Fight Night 92 - August 6, 2016 - Salt Lake City, Utah - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: A tale of two cards. If you jumbled the order of these fights around, this might actually be a much, much higher card, but after a pretty great undercard, this one fell off a cliff until the main event, as a pretty boring five fight stretch just killed all momentum until the headliner between Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres, which was more kung fu action movie than MMA fight, took place. It's kind of funny, too - on paper, the main card looked like a gimme as far as delivering six fights of good action, but instead we kicked things off with six pretty good fights, and then we all stared into the yawning void and wondered where our lives had gone wrong as decision after decision happened. But yeah, good main event. Fights to Watch: Well, start at the beginning and stop before you hit the main card, basically. After a fun bout between debuting heavyweights Justin Ledet and Chase Sherman, the Fight Pass headliner was probably the best fight on paper on the card, and wound up being the best one in practice, as Cub Swanson and Tatsuya Kawajiri had a pretty fun back and forth war. After that, we got three straight impressive knockouts (including Marcin Tybura's ridiculous head kick knockout of Viktor Pesta), and a pretty fun fight between hometown hero Court McGee and Dominique Steele. And then, five fights of crap, although the fight pitting the lanky Maryna Moroz against the short and squat Danielle Taylor was a bit of a weird shitshow. Anyway, from the main card, only watch the main event, as Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres basically just had a fight that looked more like a martial arts exhibition in places, as both gave into their propensity for ridiculously flashy single strikes. Fun stuff, though. 28) UFC Fight Night 88 - May 29, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: A perfectly fine card that never really dragged, buoyed by an excellent top two fights. The main event saw Cody Garbrandt knock out Thomas Almeida in a battle of undefeated prospects for what would be the first big win of the future bantamweight champ's career, and that came after a solid bout that saw Jeremy Stephens spoil the featherweight debut of former bantamweight champ Renan Barao. The middle is a little bit eh - a close fight between Lorenz Larkin and Jorge Masvidal is probably the best - but the show also kicks off with a bang, as we get a bloody heavyweight brawl between Adam Milstead and Chris De La Rocha, a big upset in a fun back and forth fight between Bryan Caraway and Aljamain Sterling, plus some brutal finishes by Jake Collier and Erik Koch. A perfectly fine show that portended some things to come, and a solid watch. Fights to Watch: Watch the first four fights, and skip to the last two is pretty much the way to go. Everything's more or less outlined above - the fun heavyweight brawl, the solid Caraway/Sterling fight, two finishes, and then go to the top two fights on the card for the best fight on the show and the best finish. 27) UFC Fight Night 95 - September 24, 2016 - Brasilia, Brazil - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Another in a run of perfectly fine FS1 cards (truth be told, this year there was very little separation between a lot of these cards in the lower half of this list), this one was the Cyborg show, as the Invicta featherweight champ drew a big rating despite fighting a complete unknown in Lina Lansberg. It was a one-sided beating - though Lansberg did manage to survive into the second round - and it capped a solid enough show with a few highlights, like Eric Spicely's upset win over Thiago Santos (the biggest per betting odds in UFC this year) and a fun brawl between Erick Silva and Luan Chagas. Again, yet another FS1 card where half the action is pretty fun, half is fairly forgettable, and there's a bunch of fun finishes throughout. Fights to Watch: The best overall fight on the card is that undercard bout between Silva and Chagas, as both guys pretty much care about offense first, with defense and strategy as afterthoughts. As far as other stuff, the most interesting is all relatively quick finishes - Vicente Luque scored an absolutely brutal knockout of Hector Urbina, and the back to back submissions by Godofredo Pepey and Eric Spicely to kick off the main card are solid ones. The Spicely one is especially neat to watch, with the knowledge now that he was pretty much only on the roster because the paperwork to cut him got forgotten admist the UFC purchase, and he was only thrown out there to loose. Whoops. Plus the Cyborg/Lansberg fight is fun, if only to see Cyborg do her thing, and if you're sick in the head, the Francisco Trinaldo/Paul Felder fight features one of the more brutal cuts in recent memory, so have at. 26) UFC Fight Night 83 - February 21, 2016 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Looking back, this is one of the dumber UFC main events of 2016, as Donald Cerrone and Alex Oliveira faced off pretty much only to do "Cowboy" versus "Cowboy". It was a one-sided Cerrone win, but it capped off a solid card that was low on starpower, but high on action, as seven of the thirteen bouts ended in finishes, and some of the others provided some pretty good action. A forgettable card, honestly, since performances by guys like Cerrone and Cody Garbrandt would get overshadowed later in the year, but a fun one, and hey, nothing really sucked on the card, which is sometimes half the battle. Fights to Watch: The four finishes on the main card are all worth watching, especially since they're quick affairs - plus you get stuff like Cerrone showing off his rarely-seen submission flashes, a solid Garbrandt knockout, and Chris Camozzi absolutely wrecking a past his prime Joe Riggs. Really all the bouts save the opener between Anthony Hamilton and Shamil Abdurakhimov and the Nathan Coy/Jonavin Webb fight are worth watching, but there's some other fun stuff - Oluwale Bamgbose's knockout and bizarre interview afterwards, plus the back and forth scrap turned bloodbath between Lauren Murphy and Kelly Faszholz, which was probably the best fight of the night. And Ashlee Evans-Smith and Marion Reneau may have had the best matchup of the year in terms of entrance music, with Evans-Smith coming out to riot grrrl classic "Rebel Girl" by Bikini Kill and Reneau, inexplicably, coming out to "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. 25) UFC Fight Night 82 - February 6, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: UFC sort of made chicken salad out of chicken shit here, as this was initially supposed to be a pretty thin UFC 196 show, but after the slated heavyweight title rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez fell apart, we found up getting a pretty solid FS1 card headlined by Stephen Thompson pretty much running through Johny Hendricks. Amusingly, that was the only fight from the slated pay-per-view main card that really delivered, as the rest of the top four bouts were all fairly blase affairs, but the undercard brought it - we got a fun comeback from veteran Mike Pyle against Sean Spencer, some vicious finishes thanks to guys like Misha Cirkunov and Diego Rivas, and the debut of Mickey Gall during the Fight Pass portion of things, as UFC set the whole CM Punk fiasco officially into motion. Fights to Watch: Most of the card is pretty watchable, save the second- and third-to-last fights on the card, as Roy Nelson/Jared Rosholt was as awful as every Rosholt fight is, and Ovince St. Preux against Rafael Feijao was just St. Preux getting injured early and still managing to dominate a flat Feijao in a sloppy fight. And skip the Josh Burkman/K.J. Noons fights too. Otherwise, there's a bunch of solid stuff - Diego Rivas scores a beautiful flying knee knockout over Noad Lahat, Justin Scoggins has a breakout performance over Ray Borg, Derrick Lewis does Derrick Lewis things, the fun Spencer fight, Thompson's breakout performance in the main event...all in all a pretty fun card, if only the top few fights hadn't been where it started to drag. 24) UFC Fight Night 94 - September 17, 2016 - Hidalgo, Texas - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: I'm still not really sure why UFC chose to run tiny Hidalgo, Texas, outside of its proximity to Mexico, but it wound up being a pretty fun card, even if it sort of got lost in one of those UFC overload periods where there was seemingly a FS1 card every week. The top three fights on the card all delivered - Michael Johnson starched Dustin Poirier in pretty quick fashion, Derek Brunson did the same to Uriah Hall (although that was a bit more controversial, though I don't blame the fight for being stopped since Hall dropped like a sack of potatoes), and Evan Dunham put on the best fight of the night against the debuting Rick Glenn. Add in the absolutely ridiculous Chas Skelly/Maximo Blanco fight, and an undercard full of Mexican fighters that pretty much always bring the action, and this is probably one of the more underrated outings of the year. Fights to Watch: Really, all of it's watchable, save the back to back decisions of Islam Makhachev over Chris Wade and Roan Carneiro over Kenny Robertson, both of which were fairly nothing happening. The two quick knockouts to top off the card are both solid, and that Skelly/Blanco fight is just one of the crazier things you'll see, as both guys decided to throw running flying kicks at each other to start the fight, winding up with Skelly somehow immediately choking out Blanco with a D'Arce. And really, everything else on the card save those two fights I mentioned is solid, with either a good finish or a solid performance. 23) UFC on Fox 21 - August 27, 2016 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Fox/UFC Fight Pass Summary: I don't really know why this show existed - UFC decided to add another Fox card to the slate with pretty much no notice, and then struggled to find enough fights to fill it out, but despite a complete lack of any name value on the undercard, it wound up being a fun show that breezes buy at just ten fights. After some prelims that were perfectly fine, despite, again, no name value - as much as I love Sam Alvey, he probably shouldn't be in the featured prelim of any card of note - the Fox card proper wound up delivering, giving us a pretty good Jim Miller/Joe Lauzon rematch, Paige VanZant kicking Bec Rawlings's head in, Anthony Pettis's debut (and, well, only fight) at featherweight in a fun one, and then Demian Maia showing the power of jiu jitsu by running through Carlos Condit. So, a solid, breezy affair, and nothing really sucked. Woo. Fights to Watch: You could probably just watch the main card - Pettis/Oliveira and Miller/Lauzon are both really good fights, plus you get what'll probably wind up being the best finish of Paige VanZant's career as well as Demian Maia putting on a BJJ clinic in the main event. But most of the undercard is solid, save the opening decision between Jeremy Kennedy and Alessandro Ricci - Felipe Silva and Chad Laprise both scored quick, brutal knockouts, plus the whole undercard caps off with the joy that is a Sam Alvey post-fight interview. 22) UFC Fight Night 89 - June 18, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - Fox Sports 1/Fox Sports 2/UFC Fight Pass Summary: It took a while to get going, but UFC's debut in Ottawa wound up being a good one. It's kind of amusing, given all the technical analysis that goes on, and the amount of skill involved, when we get a fight like the best one on this card, as former hockey enforcer Steve Bosse and former football player Sean O'Connell just went out there and tore things up with a ridiculous three round brawl because, at the end of the day, we're pretty much all here for the violence. And that fight buoys a solid main card, with a Stephen Thompson/Rory MacDonald main event that may not be everyone's jam, plus standout performances from Donald Cerrone, Olivier Aubin-Mercier, and Joanne Calderwood. Add in some other solid stuff - Krzysztof Jotko's starching of Tamdan McCrory and a fun comeback by Joe Soto over Chris Beal - and it's a good card, although the Bosse/O'Connell fight pretty much moves this up a few spots by itself. Fights to Watch: Bosse/O'Connell is the fight, though you can really just skip the Fight Pass prelims and watch the rest and be alright, save a pretty nothing Jason Saggo/Leandro Silva fight. The Thompson/MacDonald affair is mostly a tense fight high on technique and low on action that may not be for everyone, but Donald Cerrone has his breakthrough performance at welterweight, Joanne Calderwood scored a brutal KO in a fight marred by a bunch of wardrobe issues that Valerie Letourneau was having, and the FS2 prelims are full of action. And hell, maybe even dip into the Fight Pass prelims for a bit, as the opening bout between Ali Bagautinov and Geane Herrera was a pretty fun affair as well. If you're a bit of masochist, the Elias Theodorou/Sam Alvey fight might be worth a bit of a watch, if only for Alvey's counter-attacking style being taken to the extreme with a frankly impressive dedication to inaction. 21) UFC Fight Night 99 - November 19, 2016 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - UFC Fight Pass Summary: Sort of a nothing show on paper, this was a solid example of one of those hidden gem cards - thirteen fights, no name value, but all of them more or less pretty solid for a show that provided a bunch of action and flew by thanks to the pacing on Fight Pass. The main event was a sort of thrown-together rematch that saw Gegard Mousasi quickly avenge a loss against Uriah Hall, and it capped off a whole bunch of good stuff - impressive debuts by UFC's first two Welsh fighters, and a pretty great moment with adopted Irishman and Conor McGregor teammate Artem Lobov, in sort of the hometown hero role, getting the biggest win of his career over Teruto Ishihara. Nothing'll really knock your socks off, but it's about five hours of really good action that rarely lags and just breezes on by. Fights to Watch: I'd say the only thing to go out of your way to skip would be the Amanda Cooper/Anna Elmose fight, otherwise everything else ranges from solid to pretty good. The most fun on the night is probably the opener, as Abdul Razak Alhassan and Charlie Ward just decided to throw bombs at each other until one of them went down, but there's a ton of other good stuff. UFC's first two fighters from Wales, Brett Johns, and Jack Marshman, each had impressive debuts - Johns in a virtuoso performance over Kwan Ho Kwak, while Marshman had a fun come-from-behind victory over Magnus Cedenblad. Plus we got some sweet submission work by Zak Cummings, heavyweight prospect Justin Ledet looking good, plus some showing out by Kyoji Horiguchi, Kevin Lee, and Mousasi in the main event. And then there's the Lobov fight - for all the flack that Lobov, sometimes rightfully, gets for only being in UFC thanks to his connections with McGregor, this was a career-best performance and it was really a pretty great scene, with the crowd, as well as McGregor in the front row, rooting him on and giving him a showcase moment in his adopted homeland. Sentimental stuff. 20) The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale - July 8, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: There was some solid action on the undercard (and some that, well, wasn't), but this is pretty much a one-fight show as far as this ranking is concerned, and that'd be the main event strawweight title fight between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha. McGregor/Diaz was almost surely the feud of the year, but Jedrzejczyk/Gadelha was probably the best based off of the pure hate the two seem to have for each other, and it just built and built over the course of a pretty solid TUF season. As soon as taping wrapped, the two had to be separated from each other at a press conference, and even after putting on one of the better fights of the year, it seems the rivalry is far from over - the two still seem to be at odds, and given that Gadelha is pretty clearly the second-best strawweight (and maybe female fighter, period) in the world, there's probably still a few more chapters to come. So yeah, the main event is great, plus there's some other solid performances, mostly in the form of a few quick knockouts by rising fighters like Doo Ho Choi and Joaquim Silva. Fights to Watch: Jedrzejczyk/Gadelha is the fight to watch, and as far as other stuff on the card, if it ends in a finish, it's probably worth seeing. Doo Ho Choi and Joaquim Silva both score brutal first-round knockouts, and Tatiana Suarez's win over Amanda Cooper is worth watching, if only because Suarez has the potential to be a future star at strawweight. Avoid the FS1 prelims, as there's pretty much a whole lot of nothing, but there's some fun weirdness at other points of the show - Jingliang Li's post-fight interview is something, as his charisma shines through even in Chinese as he starts shouting out Harley-Davidson, and there's some fun stuff in the Andrew Sanchez/Khalil Rountree fight. The fight is a whole bunch of nothing, since Sanchez exploits Rountree's complete lack of takedown defense and plays it safe, but there's some amusement to be had as Rountree, in the middle of being taken down once again, telling his mom, who is the front row, to stop yelling at him to get up. 19) UFC on Fox 19 - April 16, 2016 - Tampa, Florida - Fox/UFC Fight Pass Summary: This card is probably most remembered for all the stuff that fell through - Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson were supposed to square off before Machida was flagged by USADA, and Glover Teixeira, himself a replacement for Shogun Rua, wound up facing Rashad Evans in the main event after Tony Ferguson pulled out of the slated main event against Khabib Nurmagomedov - but it wound up being one of the better cards in the mold of having no one standout fight, but just a ton of really good action that breezed on by. The main event was actually probably a bit depressing, as Evans should looked shopworn as Teixeira more or less ran through him, but it capped off a night of solid action from top to bottom. Fights to Watch: Really, outside of Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira out-wrestling Oluwale Bamgbose, you can just sit back and watch the whole show. As far as highlights, I'm actually a fan of the pretty fun brawl between Raquel Pennington and Bethe Correia, as Pennington continued to improve and Correia remains a bit underrated thanks to her notoriety as sort of a punchline. Michael Chiesa's submission of Beneil Dariush is pretty amazing given Dariush's BJJ bonafides, and there's also some fun to be had in watching John Dodson absolutely run through Manny Gamburyan in his return to a full-time bantamweight. Santiago Ponzinibbio against Court McGee is a fun brawl, Khabib Nurmagomedov's return against Darrell Horcher is a solid watch, and the Rose Namajunas/Tecia Torres co-main event is a fun, razor-close fight - just a bunch of good stuff on this card. 18) UFC on Fox 22 - December 17, 2016 - Sacramento, California - Fox/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Pretty much the best card you'll find that's fairly decision-heavy, as pretty much all the fights provided pretty good action, and the main card was sort of the platonic ideal of a Fox show, with a focus on stories and personalities, even though the results of the big fights probably didn't go the way UFC management had hoped. The card was pretty much built around Paige VanZant thanks to her "Dancing With The Stars" notoriety, and instead of a showcase win over Michelle Waterson, Waterson instead submitted her so easily that it was probably the most damaging loss to VanZant's career, though, thankfully for management, Waterson is fairly marketable herself. And that came after the weirdness that was the Sage Northcutt/Mickey Gall co-main event, as CM Punk-killer Gall finally beat someone who has had a MMA fight before, and Northcutt finally showed a little bit of attitude. We also got Urijah Faber's retirement fight, which was a bit anti-climactic since he just went out and dominated Brad Pickett for fifteen minutes - as good an ending to a career as any, I suppose - and a bunch of solid action up and down the card. Fights to Watch: For the reasons listed above, watch the whole main card, since it also includes a pretty solid performance by Alan Jouban over Mike Perry. As far as the rest of the card, the one-two punch of Leslie Smith/Irene Aldana and Josh Emmett/Scott Holtzman were both pretty awesome fights, and after taking a while to get going, the later rounds of the Alex Morono/James Moontasri fight were pretty fun too. Scottish prospect Paul Craig also had a solid debut over Henrique da Silva, and Eddie Wineland continued his comeback with a sweet knockout of Takeya Mizugaki. Just skip the Aliev/Velickovic, Covington/Barberena, and Hirota/Miller fights, and everything's a pretty fun time. 17) The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale - December 3, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: The decision not to use that much talent off this season of TUF was pretty odd, given that it provided the best fights on the show in years, but UFC still came through with a pretty fun card built around Demetrious Johnson's biggest test in a while in Tim Elliott. Admittedly, for Johnson, being challenged means he lost the first round and then cruised to a victory, but it was still a fun fight that was a hell of a lot closer than anyone else thought it would be. And that came after a really fun fight between top flyweight contenders Joseph Benavidez and Henry Cejudo, a fun brawl between Jared Cannonier and Ion Cutelaba, and a resurgent performance by Sara McMann. Yet another really fun show that pretty much delivered action one fight after the other. (Well, except for one notable exception...) Fights to Watch: Well, I guess we might as well start with the weirdest fight of the year, Ryan Hall against Gray Maynard. I loved it and cackled wildly, as Hall just decided to refuse to engage completely, keeping Maynard at bay with kicks, and then whenever things got close, dropping to his back and daring Maynard to grapple, but I could understand why people hated it. I just love thinking outside the box and wierd MMA. In more traditional action, Johnson/Elliott is probably one of the better Mighty Mouse fights to watch, just to see him adjust, Cejudo/Benavidez is some solid technical fighting, while Cannonier/Cutelaba brings the action. Rob Font and Sara McMann also had career-best performances, and hell, pretty much every fight on the card is at least watchable. 16) UFC Fight Night 98 - November 5, 2016 - Mexico City, Mexico - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: UFC didn't really screw around with this card in Mexico City, loading it up pretty well despite it ostensibly only being a TUF Latin America finale, and it paid off, as pretty much every fight brought some solid action, despite concerns about the elevation in Mexico City slowing fighters down. Things capped off with an excellent five-round fight between Tony Ferguson and Rafael dos Anjos that ostensibly crowned Ferguson as top lightweight contender before Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor happened, and really, it was just excellent performances up and down the card, whether it be top contenders or just local favorites who live up to the increasingly apparent stereotype of Mexican fighters as aggressive overachievers who care little about defense. Fights to Watch: The main event's one to watch, with Ferguson getting the win over dos Anjos in close, but clear fashion in a back-and-forth fight. The Fight Pass prelims are skippable, but after that you can pretty much recommend everything - Douglas D'Silva and Henry Briones spark off a fun brawl, and Joe Soto gets the rare heel hook submission in pretty impressive fashion. Plus you get top prospect Alexa Grasso's showcase UFC debut, a pretty fun and quick TUF Latin America finale, a solid comeback win by Ricardo Lamas, and most surprising of all, a suddenly vintage Diego Sanchez prospect over highly touted newcomer Marcin Held. Just a bunch of really fun fights. 15) UFC 201 - July 30, 2016 - Atlanta, Georgia - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 2/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Sort of a sneaky fun show here, as this really felt like a hangover from the crazy UFC 200 weekend, but instead delivered some pretty fun action, even if the sudden end of Robbie Lawler's excellent reign as welterweight champ was a bit of a downer to end on. Just a bunch of really good action here - the co-main between Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Rose Namajunas was fun, Jake Ellenberger got a career-saving KO, and even the worst fight on the main card, the flyweight opener between Ryan Benoit and Fredy Serrano, sort of made up for it with sheer weirdness, as both guys have unorthodox, if limited, games. Add in some brutal knockouts in the prelims, and this is a solid watch pretty much the whole way through. Fights to Watch: The Michael Graves/Bojan Velickovic draw is the only fight I'd really recommend skipping, although the Jorge Masvidal/Ross Pearson fight is a bit hard to watch as Pearson gets obviously concussed. Of the other four undercard fights, three are over in the first round and the other might be the best knockout on the show, with Nikita Krylov head kicking Ed Herman, so that's all stuff you should watch. And again, the main card's really good - you get three really fun decisions of varying degrees of skill and two more quick finishes, so all in all it's a pretty easy watch. 14) UFC 207 - December 30, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: It drags in spots, but this is a card pretty much buoyed by its top two fights, as Amanda Nunes sends Ronda Rousey's career completely off the rails in shockingly quick and brutal fashion, and Cody Garbrandt has one of the more amazing breakout performances you'll ever see in completely dominating Dominick Cruz at his own game for five rounds en route to a bantamweight title win. Other than that, the action's pretty much solid save a fairly brutal Dong Hyun Kim/Tarec Saffiedine fight, you get some solid finishes earlier in the card, and the whole thing just sort of flies by at just ten fights. Fights to Watch: Again, the top two are what you need to go out of your way to see, since the Nunes/Rousey fight is a historic blowout and Garbrandt/Cruz is just some amazing technical wizardry. Other than that, Alex Garcia's absolutely brutal knockout of Mike Pyle is the only thing you should really seek out, but again, the whole card sort of breezes by. 13) UFC Fight Night 85 - March 19, 2016 - Brisbane, Australia - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: When UFC runs cards in Australia, the fights usually bring it more often than not, as Australian fighters are often offensively-minded and the crowds usually bring it. And this one was pretty much the ideal, as after a bit of a slow start, we just got action fight after action fight. Mark Hunt obliterated Frank Mir in the main event, which came after an absolutely insane fight between Neil Magny and Hector Lombard where each guy seemingly finished the fight multiple times, and that came after two huge comeback wins from local favorites at varying ends of the aging curve, Aussie prodigy Jake Matthews and four-time Olympic judoka Dan Kelly. Add in some other solid action in the fights before it, and the fact that at worst, some of the fights were skippable rather than actively bad, and this was yet another solid watch of a card from down under. Fights to Watch: Really, just skip the first three fights, since they're probably the worst three on the card, and lay back and watch from there - the worst thing on the main card is probably the Bec Rawlings/Seohee Ham fight, and even that's a solid scrap. Plus you get to see the joy that is Rin Nakai, who's just so freaking weird in terms of her fighting style and, well, everything around her, in her last UFC fight against Leslie Smith. Everything else is either quick, brutal finishes or ridiculous comebacks late in fights, so it's really just an excellent watch. 12) UFC 195 - January 2, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Well, 2016 got off to a hell of a start in UFC. With a lot of top guys on the shelf after loading up December of 2015, UFC just decided to put together an all-action card, with welterweight warriors extraordinaire Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit along with a bunch of other finishers. And after a slow start, things pretty much popped off as expected, with some dynamic finishes, a fun Albert Tumenov/Lorenz Larkin bout, and, oh yeah, Lawler/Condit itself, which was probably the most epic war in a Robbie Lawler title reign that seemed filled with epic wars and was immediately one of the best fights of the year. That fight was good enough that, honestly, all a card had to do was not suck to get this high a ranking, and most of the fights brought it, so here we are. Fights to Watch: Skip the first six fights and just start with Michael McDonald's beautiful escape to a submission over Masanori Kanehara, then sit back and watch a fun main card. Abel Trujillo and Brian Ortega both get solid submissions, Tumenov/Larkin is a solid striking match, Stipe Miocic punches his ticket to a heavyweight title shot (and also punches Andrei Arlovski's fight), and then you get the Lawler/Condit war. Great stuff, and one of a few examples this year where UFC shows they can still throw an excellent action card together when they feel like it. 11) UFC 203 - September 10, 2016 - Cleveland, Ohio - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: With only ten fights, this wound up being a really fun show that moved quickly, led by a big hometown moment for Cleveland native Stipe Miocic, who was able to defend his heavyweight title in a crazy main event over Alistair Overeem. It was just a back and forth round of big heavyweight dumbness, which capped off a weird few fights - the co-main saw Fabricio Werdum pretty much go out of his way to dick around en route to a win over Travis Browne after Browne called timeout due to a dislocated finger (which you, uh, can't do), and that fight came after CM Punk/Mickey Gall, which was...well, it sure was something. Add in a solid win by Jimmie Rivera over Urijah Faber in the fight that finally knocked Faber out of title contention, and Jessica Andrade establishing herself as a strawweight contender with a win over Joanne Calderwood, and you have a really solid main card. And the undercard was fine enough, too, giving us some solid finishes as well as a weird and ugly Bethe Correia/Jessica Eye fight. Fights to Watch: Really, you just need to watch the main card - you'll get some solid fights, some weird moments that only happen in MMA, and whatever the hell the CM Punk fight was. It's all good action, and pretty much the platonic ideal of a mid-tier UFC card, and given that it's half the show, well, there you go. 10) UFC 204 - October 8, 2016 - Manchester, England - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: This card was much maligned when it was announced, since the main event, with Michael Bisping defending his middleweight title against Dan Henderson, was more Michael Bisping Revenge Fantasy Camp than actual title match, but the card wound up being pretty great, with a bunch of finishes and moving at a brisk pace, given that UFC chose to run it from 11 PM to about 5 AM local time in order to accommodate North American viewers. Really, after a pretty blah opening fight, it was all action fight after action fight, with nine straight finishes leading into that Bisping/Henderson championship tilt, which saw Bisping win a decision, although he came close to once again getting knocked the hell out by Henderson a few times. Just some fun stuff, and given the rankings of some other events on this list, it showed that when UFC bothers to load up a European card, the results can be quite fun. Fights to Watch: Just skip the Santos/Martins fight that starts things off and take it from there, honestly. Perry/Roberts is a ridiculous back and forth brawl, then it's just a whole bunch of quick finishes and standout performances until that main event, which is a ridiculous bit of high-stakes drama in between two veterans. Just watch (almost) all of it. 9) UFC Fight Night 90 - July 7, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - UFC Fight Pass Summary: It's a funny one this, as with all the hype around UFC 200 weekend, the best card wound up being this one, the Fight Pass card on Thursday, which also provided the best moment, Eddie Alvarez's upset title win over Rafael dos Anjos. It was one of a few times this year where someone who had spent their years working their way up the moment scored a huge title upset in an emotional moment, and it capped off what was just an excellent show that provided all action. The first five fights all ended via submission, all the decisions were pretty fun in one way or another, just a really solid action card topped off by one of the most memorable upsets of the year. Fights to Watch: The whole thing, honestly. The only real skippable fight is the co-main between Derrick Lewis and Roy Nelson, but even that has its moments of absurdity, like Lewis pretty much deadlifting Nelson off of him at one point in order to get off the mat. Alvarez's win over dos Anjos is an all-time moment, and really, everything else is good - Jouban/Muhammad may be the best fight of the night, and Birchak/Lopes and Makdessi/Baghdad are both solid back-and-forth fights. And everything besides that has a pretty impressive finish. Just a really great action show. 8) UFC 198 - May 14, 2016 - Curitiba, Brazil - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: This really felt like the end of an era in Brazilian MMA, as with the exception of Anderson Silva, who was pulled from the show a few days prior with appendicitis, you had pretty much every major legend in Brazilian MMA here for one of UFC's few major stadium shows. And they got a hell of a card, even if the end result didn't go nearly as planned, with hometown hero and heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum getting stopped in the first round by Stipe Miocic. Other than that, it was pretty much a good night for Brazilian legends - Vitor Belfort lost, but it was to countryman Jacare Souze, and guys like Demian Maia, Shogun Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira all turned back the clock to various degrees (well, Maia's always been awesome) to score victories. Add in the UFC debut of Cris Cyborg, and one of the more underrated great fights of the year between Francisco Trinaldo and Yancy Medeiros, and if this was sort of the big sendoff to this generation of elite Brazilian fighters, it was a hell of a way to go out. Fights to Watch: This is another one where you can just watch the whole card - when one of the more boring fights is between consistent action fighters John Lineker and Rob Font, you know you're doing something right. Trinaldo/Medeiros is the easy best fight on the card, but there's a bunch of good stuff - Nogueira's win against Patrick Cummins was a pleasant surprise, and Demian Maia got to put on another BJJ clinic against Matt Brown. The Cyborg debut is fun, Jacare beating up Vitor is fun in its own right, and Miocic's knockout of Werdum is a good one, even if the Curitiba faithful probably wouldn't agree. 7) UFC Fight Night 81 - January 17, 2016 - Boston, Massachusetts - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Well, it was a fun tradition while it lasted, as UFC ran Boston over Martin Luther King weekend for two straight years - the first, in 2015, gave us Conor McGregor taking over the city and getting a win over Dennis Siver, and this one saw what really is one of the more ridiculous personal achievements in recent sports history, as Dominick Cruz basically came back from four and a half years on the shelf and came back, looking as good as ever, to beat T.J. Dillashaw for the bantamweight title in a technical masterpiece. And while the rest of the main card lagged just a bit - Eddie Alvarez's win over Anthony Pettis was probably the safest performance of his career - the undercard more than made up for it, with seven out of nine finishes and a really fun decision between local products Charles Rosa and Kyle Bochniak. Just a bunch of really good action, capped off by one of the highest-level fights you'll find. Fights to Watch: The opener between Francimar Barroso and Elvis Mutapcic is the only thing I'd say to skip, though you can also do without that Alvarez/Pettis co-main event. The rest of the undercard was pretty much all action - Rosa/Bochniak was a fun brawl, plus you get some fun finishes like Ed Herman destroying Tim Boetsch with a knee and Patrick Cote embracing his Canadian roots and basically going all hockey fight on Ben Saunders. And even the main card isn't so bad - Francisco Trinaldo had an impressive performance over Ross Pearson, and there's just the weird shitshow that is Travis Browne repeatedly poking Matt Mitrione in the eye and getting away for it as Mitrione's face goes all elephant man. And then there's that main event, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but is just an amazing example of how technical the sport can be at the top. 6) UFC 196 - March 5, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Dominick Cruz's comeback was the first big thing of 2016 in UFC, but this was the night the year went completely off the rails and basically told us that things would be very different going forward. This was initially supposed to be McGregor challenging for Rafael dos Anjos's lightweight title, but with dos Anjos getting hurt about two weeks beforehand, UFC went ahead and put McGregor against Nate Diaz in a (theoretically) one-off welterweight fight, setting a precedent that basically threw all their promotional rules out the window and fully established that it's stars, not titles or rankings, that take precedence when it comes to matchmaking. And then things got really nuts when, after a fun back and forth round and a half, Diaz wound up tapping out McGregor for the huge upset, temporarily setting fire to McGregor's aura as unbeatable champ, cashing in on years of persona-building with one of the best post-fight interviews of all time, and just upending a few different divisions as well as UFC's direction as a whole. Just...ridiculous, seismic stuff from the moment it was announced until the end of the fight, a reminder of how crazy and unpredictable this sport can be, and the fact that the fight was great made it all the better. And that was after another crazy result in the co-main, as Holly Holm decided to cash in on a title defense rather than wait for Ronda Rousey, and after winning most of four rounds, got taken down and choked unconscious by Miesha Tate. Whoops. While that temporarily hurt the idea of a Rousey/Holm title rematch, the thought at the time was that this might have been a blessing in disguise, allowing for both a huge Rousey/Holm rematch and a huge Rousey/Tate title fight, but, well, none of that went exactly as planned either. And while the rest of the main card was fairly unmemorable, the undercard had its highlights - the final nails in the coffin for the prospect status of Brandon Thatch and Erick Silva, the latter of which lost via brutal knockout, and the debut on the main stage for Teruto Ishihara, who knocked out Julian Erosa to open the show and told us all exactly how much he loves his...women. Fights to Watch: The main card drags a bit leading up to the two title fights, but you can just watch the whole thing, if only to see Amanda Nunes look mortal and see for yourself if you thought Tom Lawlor was robbed against Corey Anderson. Honestly, even the bulk of the women's title fight drags a bit, as it's either Holm picking apart Tate at a distance or Tate outclassing Holm on the ground, though the final takedown and submission was one of the highlights of the year. Past that, everything's pretty excellent, with the Nordine Taleb knockout and Ishihara's interview among the best things outside of the main event, which is still just a ridiculous scene. 5) UFC 205 - November 12, 2016 - New York, New York - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: It's still weird to type "New York, New York", even though it's finally happened - after years of trying, MMA finally got legalized in New York, and UFC didn't really mess around when stacking this card up - even though it lost two big fights (Kelvin Gastelum/Donald Cerrone and Rashad Evans/Tim Kennedy) the week of, what was left over was still the best collection of talent on any UFC card pretty much ever. It didn't have the one amazing fight to put things over the top, though Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson fighting to a draw in the welterweight title fight was close, but few events have really felt this epic, and the historic nature of the main event, Conor McGregor becoming the first concurrent two-division champ in UFC history, fit right into that atmosphere. This was really the event UFC 200 should've been - three title fights, the two already mentioned plus an excellent tilt between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Yoel Romero's vicious knee on Chris Weidman, and Khabib Nurmagomedov's dominant performance both in the cage and on the mic - this was just a card filled with huge moments and, amazingly, the level of debut that was actually worth the wait when it came to Madison Square Garden: Fights to Watch: This is another one where you can just watch the whole thing, although the first two fights and the Miesha Tate/Raquel Pennington fight are skippable (the latter thanks to Tate's flat performance, somewhat explained by her retiring in the cage afterwards.) Past that, it's all big fights and big moments, as even the FS1 prelims featured two knockouts, a vintage Frankie Edgar performance to get a comeback win over Jeremy Stephens, and one of my favorite moments of the year, as Khabib Nurmagomedov laid an insanely vicious beat down on Michael Johnson before turning all of MSG against him by calling out McGregor and calling him a chicken. And then the main card has that absolutely brutal flying knee knockout by Romero, three title fights that all live up to the hype in various manners - it's really something that should be experienced, since again, in terms of talent, it's probably the best UFC card of all time. 4) UFC 202 - August 20, 2016 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: The biggest UFC pay-per-view of all time, at least when it comes to getting people's money. After the insanity of McGregor/Diaz I, things only built, with McGregor publicly feuding with the company before finally getting his rematch, and things exploding into a can-throwing incident at a press conference that captured everyone's imagination. And thankfully, the card delivered, particularly the McGregor/Diaz rematch, as the Irishman completely retooled his game, so this time around wound up being an epic five-round war that, when combined with the scale, should rightfully go down as one of the biggest UFC fights of all time. And that followed five fights of pure violence, as we got five straight knockouts, including Anthony Johnson starching Glover Teixeira in just thirteen seconds, Cody Garbrandt punching his ticket to a title shot over Takeya Mizugaki, and even less memorable things like Tim Means bloodying up and dominating newcomer Sabah Homasi. Add in some lower-card fights that ranged from perfectly fine to pretty good, and this show amazingly lived up to the hype, given the amount of hype. Fights to Watch: The back-to-back fights of Artem Lobov/Chris Avila and Raquel Pennington/Elizabeth Phillips are skippable - Pennington/Phillips is just an ugly slog, while Lobov/Avila only existed because of each guy's connection to the main eventers and just wasn't a UFC-level fight, but everything else is worth watching. Everything else ends in a finish except for the main event, and given that the main event is probably the biggest fight in UFC history, well, watch that too. 3) UFC Fight Night 91 - July 13, 2016 - Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: One of the fun parts about watching an unhealthy amount of UFC is that, at least once a year, one of these random FS1 shows will just pop off and give the world a whole bunch of ridiculous action. Last year it was the Henderson/Boetsch card from New Orleans, and this time around, it was this card from Sioux Falls, South Dakota of all places, which took place four days after UFC 200 weekend and then proceeded to top almost everything from those three cards. The main event of John Lineker/Michael McDonald and the co-main of Tony Ferguson taking on the debuting Lando Vannata is pretty much the best double-header you'll see at the top of a UFC card, as the main was a ridiculous spring and Vannata turned out to give Ferguson a way bigger challenge than anyone expected. Add in a bunch of other finishes and fun action, and this is pretty much the best case for when you're tuning into a TV card, and a fun, relatively quick watch. Fights to Watch: This is another one where you can just watch the whole thing, but the Chookagian/Murphy and Holtzman/Pfister fights can be skipped if need be, and even the Omielanczuk/Oleinik fight, even though I sort of liked its weird, trashy heavyweight grappling. Past that it's all action - Rani Yahya against Matthew Lopez is a great grappling-based contest, Sam Alvey busts out a sweet ten-fingered guillotine against Eric Spicely, Louis Smolka against Ben Nguyen is a fun sprint, and then those awesome top two fights - this was a good one. Well, obviously, given the ranking. 2) UFC 206 - December 10, 2016 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: Well, that all worked out. What looked to be a huge show in Toronto was looking like a bit of a disaster heading into it - there were rumors swirling of a GSP comeback fight that never materialized, and the slated main between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson fell apart after a Cormier injury, so what was left was Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway squaring off for a more or less fake interim featherweight belt, and some solid action fights. And, well, despite the lack of starpower, things coalesced to give us one of the best pay-per-views in UFC history. Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi put on one of the craziest back-and-forth fights in UFC history, that got followed up by another awesome fight between Donald Cerrone and Matt Brown, and by then, the crowd was so spoiled that they were even booing a pretty fun main event. Add in two solid fights to open the main card, some good prospect performances on the undercard, including a beautiful wheel kick knockout by Lando Vannata on John Makdessi, and you have, well, one of the best cards of the year. Fights to Watch: The Rustam Khabilov/Jason Saggo fight is skippable, and the Valerie Letourneau/Viviane Pereira fight is aggressively bad (a rarity on a card this good), but other than that, watch everything. The Vannata KO is the clear highlight of the prelims, and the main event is just five fights ranging from pretty good to some of the most awesome violence you'll ever see. 1) UFC 199 - June 4, 2016 - Los Angeles, California - Pay-Per-View/Fox Sports 1/UFC Fight Pass Summary: It's kind of funny. With all the looking forward to UFC 200, the joke was that nobody wanted to be the guy on UFC 199, because you'd be just missing out on that big payday. And, well, UFC 200 wound up being sort of a fiasco, and UFC 199 wound up being MMA at its best, with some of the best fights of the year, a bunch of ridiculous violence, a ton of emotion, and just a lot of the weird starmaking stuff that happens when the sport is at its peak. Things got off to the best start I can remember in years, as a half-full LA Forum witnessed Polo Reyes and "The Other" Dong Hyun Kim wage a ridiculous war at about 3:15 local time, as each guy just threw bombs at the other and worried about defense later. From there, we got a bit of a cooldown period, but once it was on to FS1, the action picked back up - Alex Caceres had a resurgent performance against Cole Miller, and then we got three brutal knockouts that would portend what was to come. Jesus, this pay-per-view card - Dustin Poirier starched Bobby Green in a fun scrap to kick things off, and then we got a hugely emotional moment, with Temecula native and MMA legend Dan Henderson getting the last win of his career at age 45, scoring a huge upset over Hector Lombard with an absolutely brutal elbow upside the head. It figured to be Henderson's retirement fight, but, well, after the main event, things changed a bit. From there, we got a Max Holloway/Ricardo Lamas fight that got crazy near the end, as Holloway decided to forget about his lead in the fight and just decide to throw down, the last fight in the trilogy between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber (who teased retirement after the fight himself), and then one of the most memorable upsets in MMA history in the main event. Michael Bisping had fallen just short of a title shot for years, and his win over Anderson Silva in London a few months prior looked to be sort of his reward for a solid career as probably the best UFC fighter to never fight for the title. But an injury to Chris Weidman opened up a spot here, and Bisping was the best guy available, despite getting run through by Luke Rockhold about eighteen months prior. I didn't really see how Bisping had a chance, and I don't believe I was alone, given Rockhold's physical advantages and Bisping's lack of fight-ending ability, but the British MMA pioneer went out and did the damn thing, scoring one of the unlikeliest knockouts you'll see and taking home the belt in the first round. Just ridiculous drama, and an all-time great MMA moment, with Bisping celebrating with his family inside the cage, and going out of his way to try, for once, not to be an asshole. And hell, even the outside the cage stuff on this show was great - this was the night where UFC announced Brock Lesnar's comeback, as well as the signing of the Nate Diaz/Conor McGregor rematch (complete with Diaz in attendance, getting one of the biggest cheers of the night). Just a massive, wonderful show Fights to Watch: You can skip the rest of the Fight Pass prelims after the Reyes/Kim fight (though you may just need the time to recover), and then after that, it's all awesome. An awesome show. Awesome. Submission of the Year: 1) Miesha Tate vs. Holly Holm - UFC 196/March 5 2) Ben Rothwell vs. Josh Barnett - UFC on Fox 18/January 30 3) Michael McDonald vs. Masanori Kanehara - UFC 195/January 2 4) Michael Chiesa vs. Beneil Dariush - UFC on Fox 19/April 16 5) Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor - UFC 196/March 5 6) Zak Cummings vs. Alexander Yakovlev - UFC Fight Night 99/November 19 7) Gilbert Burns vs. Lukasz Sajewski - UFC Fight Night 90/July 7 8) Francis Ngannou vs. Anthony Hamilton - UFC Fight Night 102/December 9 9) Iuri Alcantara vs. Brad Pickett - UFC 204/October 8 10) Randy Brown vs. Erick Montano - UFC Fight Night 94/September 17 Knockout of the Year: 1) Lando Vannata vs. John Makdessi - UFC 206/December 10 2) Dan Henderson vs. Hector Lombard - UFC 199/June 4 3) Yair Rodriguez vs. Andre Fili - UFC 197/April 23 4) Stipe Miocic vs. Fabricio Werdum - UFC 198/May 14 5) Scott Askham vs. Chris Dempsey - UFC Fight Night 84/February 27 6) Beneil Dariush vs. James Vick - UFC 199/June 4 7) Marcin Tybura vs. Viktor Pesta - UFC Fight Night 92/August 6 8) Nikita Krylov vs. Ed Herman - UFC 201/July 30 9) Alberto Mina vs. Mike Pyle - UFC Fight Night 90/July 7 10) Donald Cerrone vs. Matt Brown - UFC 206/December 10 Fight of the Year: 1) Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit - UFC 195/January 2 2) Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi - UFC 206/December 10 3) Polo Reyes vs. Dong Hyun Kim - UFC 199/June 4 4) Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz - UFC 202/August 20 5) Dominick Cruz vs. T.J. Dillashaw - UFC Fight Night 81/January 17 6) Steve Bosse vs. Sean O'Connell - UFC Fight Night 89/June 18 7) Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Claudia Gadelha - The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale/July 8 8) Tony Ferguson vs. Lando Vannata - UFC Fight Night 91/July 13 9) Donald Cerrone vs. Matt Brown - UFC 206/December 10 10) John Lineker vs. Michael McDonald - UFC Fight Night 91/July 13

Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 9: Jon Moxley vs Alex Coughlin — A Tony D Joint

Jon Moxley at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 9 — photo by @Tarratastic

Road to Power Struggle Night 3 - 10/26/2021; Official Statement on Kota Ibushi Injuries; Suzuki’s Tour of America Ends

The tour continued today, with a show you can see now on NJPWWorld. A title match topped the bill today.

- 10/26/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi (SANADA > Nagata, O’Connor Bridge, 9:58)

EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Master Wato (Yujiro > Wato, Pimp Juice, 11:27)

Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare [United Empire] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Tomoaki Honma (Henare > Honma, Streets Of Rage, 10:15)

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe d. KENTA & Gedo [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Gedo, DQ, 9:20)

Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (Loa > Kojima, Apeshit, 11:34)

Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] d. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Sabre > BUSHI, Zack Driver, 11:28)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship: Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] & Tiger Mask IV d. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] © (Eagles > Kanemaru, Ron Miller Special, 20:30) - Despy/Kanemaru fail their 1st defense - Flying Tiger are the 68th champions

Well that’s a bit of a surprise! Robbie Eagles is now a junior double-champion, the second we’ve had in NJPW this year, neither of which was Hiromu Takahashi, shockingly. Eagles will face the other one, El Desperado, at Power Struggle. This is also the first time Tiger Mask IV has held these titles since he & Jushin Thunder Liger briefly held them from 6/16/2012 - 7/22/2012; also shockingly, this is only the second time Tiger Mask IV has been the junior tag champion. You wouldn’t think. One wonders if Ryusuke Taguchi will scare up a partner (maybe Master Wato again) and challenge to try to be the 69th champion, again.

The heels all made statements today in the final streamed run-ups to Power Struggle (no other shows will be streamed on this tour). KENTA even went and stole the IWGP US title from Tanahashi again for good measure.

NJPW released an official statement on the injury status of Kota Ibushi:

On October 21’s G1 final, Kota Ibushi suffered an injury in the ring that led to the match being stopped. After treatment from ringside medical staff, he was taken for a thorough evaluation.

The evaluation revealed a right anterior dislocation of the shoulder, and joint lip damage. Recovery is expected to take two months.

Further updates will be provided as to Ibushi’s return when more information is available.

We apologise for any concern caused, and join fans in wishing Ibushi the very best in his recovery.

As I said before, when Naoki Sugabayashi said this was the case, a dislocated shoulder sucks badly, but could have been far worse. I will also reiterate that I hope NJPW don’t try to rush Ibushi back for Wrestle Kingdom 16. They say “two months” which technically is before Jaunary 4, but also, he needs to rest and fully recuperate before returning to full-time ring action.

We all knew it was going to be over sometime. As of this morning, Minoru Suzuki is travelling back home to Japan, after being here in the USA since the beginning of September, kicking off his tour with a shock appearance at AEW All Out, and it pretty well went from there. 

His final weekend in the USA began near Fargo, ND, as Suzuki beat Dominic Garrini in Timebomb Pro. I’ve still not been able to watch this show yet, but I’ve heard the entire show was a thrill, and you can see it on IWTV on-demand.

Friday and Saturday were spent in LA, in Game Changer Wrestling. Suzuki main evented both nights, first submitting Chris Dickinson at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7. Other NJPW talents were on this show too: Yuya Uemura tapped to Davey Richards, whilst Team Filthy members “Filthy” Tom Lawlor and JR Kratos both won their matches, Lawlor submitting Alex Coughlin, whilst Kratos beat Calvin Tankman by TKO. Clark Connors got the only win over Team Filthy, tapping out Royce Isaacs. Rocky Romero even did commentary on this show.

Saturday was GCW War Ready, which saw Suzuki take on deathmatch king Nick Gage, in a wild brawl that went all over the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Suzuki would win here as well, but the final words that night were from Gage. What was said, I don’t know, because FITE TV nonsensically cut the feed in the middle of the promo, so no MDK All Fuckin Day that time. Sunday and Monday was spent in Las Vegas, as Suzuki took part in the Impact Wrestling TV tapings there. I’ve not seen any results there yet, but I’m sure we’ll see them soon enough.

There are some matches yet to be shown on NJPW Strong, so we have those to look forward to. There is still a batch of matches I’ve not seen yet (from WrestleMax, PWX and Glory Pro). I wish this was the tape trading era still because this would be a hot seller on that market. Maybe I’ll work on getting a compilation of the matches he had here in the States in some fashion, probably a Google Drive or something.

Whatever the case, this was a special, special time, and I’m sorry to see it end. We all should be so lucky that this happened, especially during a pandemic that’s still not quite abated yet. Hope he makes it back home safe and sound, and we see him back in NJPW soon too.

The tour continues tomorrow, but as I noted, we’re done with any streamed shows from this batch of shows until Power Struggle on 11/6/2021.

- 10/27/2021, Ibaraki Lily Arena Mito

Kosei Fujita v. SHO [Bullet Club]

Togi Makabe, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato v. Robbie Eagles [CHAOS], Tiger Mask IV & Ryohei Oiwa

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo [Bullet Club]

Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Yuji Nagata v. Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare [United Empire]

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma v. KENTA & Gedo [Bullet Club]

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club]

Shingo Takagi, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG]

Naito Suffers Knee Injury, Out of G1 Climax 31; Suzuki Officially Added To GCW Bloodsport 7 10/22/2021; Bullet Club Beats FinJuice Again at Impact Victory Road; Shooter, Yota, Ospreay at RevPro High Stakes 2021, Aussie Open Joins United Empire

Bad news regarding G1 Climax: It has been reported that Tetsuya Naito suffered a left knee injury (MCL and meniscus) during his opening match Saturday against Zack Sabre Jr. There is no timetable for his return, so he will be forfeiting the rest of his A Block matches, with the rest of his opponents getting a free 2pts because of this. The cards will be altered, with Yuji Nagata, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi and Satoshi Kojima all stepping in to wrestle Naito’s opponents those nights in non-tournament matches. If you ask me they could have just put Kojima in to give him one last G1 Climax, but I don’t book New Japan Pro Wrestling so what do I know.

This will also make Naito the first person with 0pts in G1 Climax since Tomoaki Honma in G1 Climax 24 back in 2014, although Honma wrestled all his matches, whereas Naito had to forfeit after one round. So maybe not really the same thing.

As predicted, Minoru Suzuki has been officially added to the card for GCW’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7 event. No opponent has been announced for this as yet. Suzuki was in the first two Bloodsport branded events (the first one under the name of *spits* Matt Riddle), and was due to face Chris Dickinson at Barnett’s Bloodsport 3 during Mania Weekend 2020 before the pandemic put paid to that.

So with that, here’s the updated Suzuki indie itinerary.

- 9/22/2021, All Elite Wrestling, Dynamite: Grand Slam, Arthur Ashe Arena, Queens, NYC, NY (Airing 9/24/2021 on AEW Rampage on TNT)

Lights Out Match: Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston v. Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki

- 9/24/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, Get Lost A Lot, Melrose Ballroom, NYC, NY (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. Homicide

- 9/25/2021, New Japan of America, Autumn Attack Night 1 (NJPW Strong taping), Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, TX

Fred Rosser v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

- 9/26/2021, New Japan of America, Autumn Attack Night 2 (NJPW Strong taping), Curtis Culwell Center, Garland TX

Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] & Lance Archer [AEW] v. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy]

- 10/1/2021, WrestleMax, Episode VI, Affton Elks Lodge, St. Louis, MO

Minoru Suzuki v. Calvin Tankman

- 10/2/2021, Premiere Wrestling Xperience, All Hail The King, Cabarrus Arena, Concord, NC

Minoru Suzuki v. Anthony Henry

- 10/3/2021, Glory Pro, Little Ring of Horrors, South Broadway Athletic Club, St. Louis, MO

Minoru Suzuki v. Davey Richards

- 10/5/2021, NJPW Toukon Shop Online Meet & Greet

- 10/8/2021, West Coast Pro Wrestling, No Leaf Clover (3rd Anniversary Show), The State Room, San Francisco, CA (IWTV)

Minoru Suzuki v. Daniel Garcia

- 10/10/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, The Aftermath, The Showboat, Atlantic City, NJ (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. Joey Janela

- 10/17/2021, New Japan of America, New Japan Showdown 2021 Night 1 (NJPW Strong taping), 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA

Chris Dickinson [ROH] v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

- 10/18/2021, New Japan of America, New Japan Showdown 2021 Night 2 (NJPW Strong taping), 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA

TBA

- 10/21/2021, TimeBomb Pro, Violence is Forever, Tak Music Venue, Dilworth, MN

Minoru Suzuki v. Dominic Garrini

- 10/22/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7, Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. TBA

- 10/23/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, War Ready, Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (FITE)

Nick Gage v. Minoru Suzuki

In other news, Saturday was Impact’s Victory Road PPV, which among other matches, had the Bullet Club tandem of Chris Bey & Hikuleo once again getting the better of FinJuice in a tag team match, continuing that feud as we head into Sunday’s NJPW Strong tapings with the rubber Texas Bullrope Match between Juice v. Hikuleo. Also on the show, NJPW Strong guest Josh Alexander decided to utilize “Option C” with regard to the X Division title, whereby he vacates that title in order to challenge Christian Cage for the Impact World Title. That will happen at the forthcoming Bound For Glory event.

On Sunday, RevPro in the UK held their High Stakes 2021 event, that saw Shota Umino defeat Dan Moloney, as well as Yota Tsuji beat Mark Haskins in 21:45, which turned out to be the 3rd longest match on the show, and definitely the longest match Yota Tsuji has ever wrestled.

Will Ospreay retained the Undisputed British Heavyweight title by defeating British Heavyweight champion Ricky Knight Jr. (there’s something there with RevPro acquiring some promotions and grandfathering in their champions, or something). I’d still like to know how Will Ospreay is able to go back and forth between the UK and the USA right now. Post-main, Ospreay continued to beat down Knight, which brought out Shooter for the save. Ospreay and RevPro tag team the Young Guns continued to beat down Shooter, until RevPro tag team champions Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) came out.... and also attacked Shooter, whilst Ospreay then turned on the Young Guns. With that, Aussie Open have now joined the United Empire, and it’s a good chance one of Aussie Open will be Ospreay’s mystery partner in Texas this Sunday.

New Japan Cup 2021 Night 2 - 3/6/2021; NJPW Strong Episode 29 - 3/5/2021

The opening rounds of the New Japan Cup continued today, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. Today is the “true” 49th anniversary of New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the show today was indeed held at the old home of Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium. It should be noted, that the state of emergency in Tokyo has been extended now to 3/21/2021, so this could affect upcoming cards, with matches possibly being removed. The next shows in Tokyo are on 3/15 and 3/16/2021, and those cards are not fully announced as yet. I don’t believe any other shows will be affected by the extension, but we will see.

- 3/6/2021, Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium (NJPWWorld)

Jay White, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] d. Toa Henare, David Finlay Jr. & Yuya Uemura (Ishimori > Uemura, Bloody Cross, 9:38)

Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb [United Empire] d. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Cobb > BUSHI, Tour Of The Islands, 10:55)

New Japan Cup 2021 1st Round: Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] d. Tomoaki Honma (Gotch Style Piledriver, 14:54)

New Japan Cup 2021 1st Round: KENTA [Bullet Club] d. Juice Robinson (Game Over, 17:17)

New Japan Cup 2021 1st Round: Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] (Last Of The Dragon, 23:58)

Shingo, who is definitely trying to be my NJPW Wrestler of the Year for the 3rd year running, gets a huge win over Kazuchika Okada. Which, given what we’re hearing about Okada and possibly having slipped discs in his back, maybe is a good thing, so he can kinda rest and get that taken care of. KENTA beats a very court-jester-tighted Juice Robinson (no more Blues Brothers look!) in the match that should have happened at WK15 but for Juice’s injury. No surprise at all that Suzuki bested Honma. Now on 3/13/2021, Suzuki will face KENTA, which, oh my. Also, Shingo advances to face Hirooki Goto that same day.

Last night’s episode of NJPW Strong was the beginning of the Road to Strong Style Evolved. Which, given they started the year with a Road To for an event that never happened, I’m not entirely sure what this will lead into. We also began qualifiers for the New Japan Cup USA 2021 on this show, as well as the return of several of the Young Lions who’ve been out for some time.

Karl Fredericks & Alex Coughlin d. Clark Connors & Kevin Knight (Fredericks > Knight, Manifest Destiny, 12:48)

New Japan Cup USA 2021 Qualifier: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor [Team Filthy] d. The DKC (Penalty Kick, 9:13)

New Japan Cup USA 2021 Qualifier: Lio Rush [FREE] d. Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Inside Cradle, )

Lio Rush and Tom Lawlor advance to the New Japan Cup USA 2021, which I am sure we’ll hear when that will be shown soon. Alex Coughlin returned to the NJPW Strong tapings, after being out for most of the existence of this show. He was at the two recent Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport shows in GCW, however, so his return was only a matter of time. 

Next week promises more qualifiers, including Fred Rosser v. Team Filthy’s JR Kratos.

The next New Japan Cup tour show is tomorrow, continuing the first-round matches.

- 3/7/2021, Yamanashi Aimesse (NJPWWorld)

Yota Tsuji v. Yuya Uemura

Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toa Henare, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi v. EVIL, Jay White, KENTA & Dick Togo [Bullet Club]

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & SHO [CHAOS] v. Shingo Takagi, SANADA, Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

New Japan Cup 2021 1st Round: Gabriel Kidd v. Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG]

New Japan Cup 2021 1st Round: Hiroyoshi Tenzan v. Will Ospreay [United Empire]

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 73 on PWOM Podcast Network

Super J-Cup 2019 Night 1 - 8/22/2019; Jon Moxley Has MRSA In Elbow, Missing AEW All Out, Probably Won’t Make Destruction Tour; Many Special Jushin Liger Matches on NJPWWorld Now; Tonight’s NJPW on AXS

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 56 on Pro Wrestling Only

Hey, this is about a day late, and sorry for that; with the Super J-Cup show being on the West Coast, it wasn’t ending til near midnight my time, and yesterday, something came up and wasn’t able to get to my PC all day. Sorry.

In any event, Thursday was the first night of the 2019 edition of Super J-Cup. 9 matches total, 8 of which were the first round. This show is still not posted anywhere, so can’t speak to any quality, etc.

Super J-Cup 2019 - 8/22/2019, Temple Theater, Tacoma, WA

Jushin Thunder Liger & Karl Fredericks d. Shota Umino & Ren Narita (Fredericks > Narita, Boston Crab, 7:30)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: Soberano Jr. [CMLL] d. Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Tornillo, 11:04)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: TJP [FREE] d. Clark Connors (Pinoy Stretch, 11:56)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: Caristico [CMLL] d. BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Top Rope Spanish Fly, 10:08)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: Ryusuke Taguchi d. Jonathan Gresham [ROH] (Inside Cradle, 12:59)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] d. Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] (Schoolboy, 12:17)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: Dragon Lee [CMLL] d. YOH [CHAOS] (Desnucadora, 18:51)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: SHO [CHAOS] d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Shock Arrow, 17:06)

Super J-Cup 2019 First Round: Will Ospreay [CHAOS] d. Amazing Red [FREE] (Stormbreaker, 28:19)

If there are any surprises in this, it is that all three CMLL luchadores made it through to the next round, and SHO beating Ishimori. The latter is to set up an inevitable IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team match more than anything. There was no way TJP was going to lose. There was no way Amazing Red was going to win. El Phantasmo wins this round of the grudge feud with Robbie Eagles.

The card for tonight’s quarterfinals show in San Francisco will be posted at the end of the post.

Jon Moxley tweeted out yesterday the above, stating he has MRSA (staph infection) in his elbow, which will prevent his wrestling against Kenny Omega at AEW’s All Out PPV event on 8/31/2019 right in my backyard (I won’t be going). He went on to further say:

I apologize to all involved, most importantly the fans. I am incredibly frustrated and pissed off. I'll have surgery this week to remove the bursa sac in my elbow and be done with it for good. Should be a quick recovery so I will be 100% for AEW Wednesday nights on TNT.  

Still, I expect All out to be an amazing ppv and hope all the fans out there looking for an alternative tune in. You will be blown away by AEW and be excited to be a wrestling fan. I'm looking forward to watching as a fan myself

A bursa sac removal takes approximately 3-4 weeks to heal up, generally, before being able to use that elbow again. Moxley also tweeted at former NJPW on AXS commentator Josh Barnett lamenting the match the two were due to have on 9/16/2019 at the GCW Presents Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport II event, so safe assumption that match will also not be happening. As of right now, no lineups for the Destruction cycle of shows have been announced, but the timeline for recovery makes it unlikely we will see Moxley on that tour. AEW on TNT is supposed to start on 10/2/2019; King of Pro Wrestling is on 10/14/2019 from Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, so we may be waiting until then to see Mox in the NJPW ring once more.

NJPWWorld has a treat for fans wanting to see more of Jushin Thunder Liger before his retirement. First off, they have posted what is, unbelievably, Liger’s  debut in Pro Wrestling Zero-1, the promotion founded by former Three Musketeer, the late Shinya Hashimoto, only this past July, on 7/28/2019 in Tokyo Korakuen Hall (I missed this happening due to all the move shenanigans). In this, Liger teams with his old pal The Great Sasuke, against two former NJPW junior heavyweight legends from the days of yore, Shinjiro Otani (the main man in Zero-1 since Hashimoto’s passing in 2005) and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. 

The service has also posted Liger’s farewell match to Arena Mexico, from 7/19/2019 at CMLL’s  Viernes Espectacular, where there was a farewell ceremony, as well as a 4-corners “Relevos CMLL” match with Liger facing off against Caristico, Negro Casas & Ultimo Guerrero. In addition, the bout from the next night, at Lucha Libre Real in Arena Coliseo, featuring Liger against 10 different luchadores, then the winners of a Battle Royale of those 10 (yes, winners, plural), are posted as well. Some fun matches to watch, perhaps, as we wait for the Super J-Cup to come. (These matches are region-locked if you are in Mexico, sadly)

Tonight’s episode of NJPW on AXS wraps up their coverage of G1 Climax 29, with the showing of the Finals between Kota Ibushi v. Jay White, from Tokyo Nippon Budokan on 8/12/2019. Also advertised is the tag match between Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. Show starts at 9pm EDT / 8m CDT. 

There is not a new episode next week, considering a) Labor Day Weekend b) AEW’s All Out would be direct competition c) no new post-G1 material yet. They are showing Okada v. Chris Jericho from Dominion in June, if that interests you.

Here is tonight’s lineup for the second night of Super J-Cup, from San Francisco:

- 8/24/2019, SFSU Student Life Events Center, San Francisco, CA

Jonathan Gresham [ROH] v. Alex Coughlin

Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] v. Clark Connors

Shota Umino v. BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

Ren Narita & Karl Fredericks v. Taiji Ishimori & Gedo [Bullet Club]

Jushin Thunder Liger & Amazing Red [FREE] v. Rocky Romero & YOH [CHAOS]

Super J-Cup 2019 Quarterfinal: Caristico [CMLL] v. Soberano Jr. [CMLL]

Super J-Cup 2019 Quarterfinal: TJP [FREE] v. El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]

Super J-Cup 2019 Quarterfinal: Ryusuke Taguchi v. Dragon Lee [CMLL]

Super J-Cup 2019 Quarterfinal: Will Ospreay [CHAOS] v. SHO [CHAOS]

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 56 on Pro Wrestling Only