I think this was on youtube in good quality for a bit and I clipped some parts and then it disappeared the next day, tragically.

My Highlights of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023

Well it's time to open the door again as AEW and NJPW put on another big card PPV

Last year it was perhaps one of the best PPVs of the year, let's see how this one holds up

Spoilers for the Show

Zero Hour

Despy reluctant to participate in Chaos' Best Friendsery, including the hug

As much as I'd have loved it on the main card, it's such a big deal that AEW put Billie Starkz on a PPV show match, for a tournament, against Athena! And she held her ground

Also if you haven't been watching Athena on ROH, fix that she is practically the company's Ace

ELP's LED J A C K E T

It goes understated just how crisp both Stu and ELP are respectively, Stu never got much time because Dark Order are always set to lose while ELP is best known now for his chicanery but they are very good at the wrestling

BUSHI with the Venom half-mask

Hiromu and Cobb had a fun little mini-feud going in their match

Main Card

That fan's reaction from receiving a fistbump from Tanahashi

MJF's 'New Japan is an Indie' on his robes

The callback of using 'Coward' to goad Max against running away

And brothers, sisters and every other pronoun you declare; we ain't in Kansas, and we ain't in Chicago anymore Toto

I have my opinions on Punk, not all of them good, but I also know that AEW right now are sitting on a gold mine with these reactions to ol' CM Trunks

Also appreciate the Kojima lore to validate him being in the Owen, training in the Hart Dungeon is a good feather in your cap to use

The chop sell on the Barricade

For a man who quotes The Thing's catchphrase that's sure a lot of Hulk-isms there, brother

I am just gonna stop here and just win the whole lot of shithousery Punk is doing

Also a Stan Hansen reference in commentary, nice

Since they mentioned All Out I gotta gush about the fact that I got All In tickets, also I am intrigued with how they intend to book 2 PPVs on back to back weeks

Also how fucking lucky are we seeing Shibata in a wrestling ring this past year?

It should be scientifically studied how Garcia got that stupid dance over

Shibata and OC's handshake is meme potential I can see it

Red Shoes chant

JB finally snaps with the heel turn, that was a nasty lariat too

Eddie bringing back the 'Redeem Deez Nuts' shirt

Eddie vs Mox is still THAT FEUD

Claudio's opportunistic heel work was good here with him ducking Eddie, and taking cheap shots in front of Mox - who seems pretty reluctant about that

The Cinnabon Gone Bad being able to floor Ishii with a forearm, he knocked out ISHII, the stone pitbull, the man with no neck, the G1 bane of Kenneth Jerome Omega, and the mans just fucking decked him, I had to rewind just to watch that again like in the best way possible what the fuck?

And Hangman is still the top babyface of the company

I did not expect Eddie to save Mox from the Superkicks, that's muscle memory there

Super surprised that BCC, Shooter and Takeshita lost but it was kinda nice that Ishii got the pin

Excalibur vs Despy when?

Meaty DVD on the apron by Willow

Every time I hear it, I fucking love Elevated, top 10 modern entrance themes

It's been a hot minute since I've seen Ospreay whip out the shooting star while their opponent was on the ropes

I feel like Ospreay licking blood of his bicep was purely for his wife and the Ao3 community

Kenny empowered by the Canadian flag

The rope break unglued the crowd

OWA at 1!

Tiger Driver 91 Fucker Me!

KAZE NI NARE

Sammy has 'Brodie Forever' on his jacket which is nice

Joker Sting!?

You know, I would take a feud between Darby and Suzuki, you've got the daredevil and the man who dares the devil

Jericho 'tag me' Suzuki 'no'

Suzuki with the pose, man does what he wants

They went and got the Final Countdown for Bryan, Mr Tempest is going to the bank for this one

One of these days Okada's just gonna come out wearing Nick Jackson's attire that he's stolen and I wait for that day

Knowing in advance that Bryan fractured his right arm during this match gives me a lot more respect towards how much he did without it

Okada's dropkicks are absolutely picture perfect

Not only did Bryan beat Okada, he submitted Okada! Don't think anyone expected that

Conclusion

There were high expectations going into Forbidden Door, but if anyone tries to tell you that it's a 'two match card' feel free to slap them, because they'd probably jizz over the one Bloodline match per PPV and call it the best thing ever. This PPV had its downsides for sure, a lot of weak finishes - a couple maybe done due to injuries or Sting feeling a little loopy - so it didn't come out to its full potential, but it was still a really good night for wrestling.

I would still say in spite of everything it was still a success, but I also feel like AEW and New Japan need to consider making it a 2-Day event to fit more talent on the show, we still lacked names on AEW's side like FTR, HoB, Acclaimed, BCG (if they wanted to come on I'm not sure how Jay feels about using FD as a loophole), Miro, Ethan, Dark Order, PAC, Keith Lee, TNT Champion Christian I mean Luchasaurus, Wardlow, Samoa Joe, and names on NJPW's side like Bullet Club, GoD, Alex Zayne, Nagata, Team Filthy, Bishamon, Great O Khan, Toru Yano (let Yano and Mox face off you cowards!), Master Wato, and KUSHIDA, and this is not even bringing up all the women we could've used - which frankly, we should try to schedule an All-Women's crossover PPV with Stardom featuring DDT/TJPW, AEW/ROH and maybe even other companies' talents.

But I digress, a lot of match finishes were poor but a lot of the wrestling in matches were enjoyable, I had fun and we set up some new directions and potential rematches down the line.

Match of the Night: This is probably gonna be controversial to some but I felt that the 10 Man Tag was the best of the night. Omega/Ospreay and Okada/Danielson were really good, but they also took time to get going, and I do prefer a high-energy wrestling match to a slower technical bout. Best Attire: Tetsuya Naito, man looks like he stepped out of a masquerade party and since SANADA is just his 'regular guy' persona rather than the cold skull and we had no extended Omega attire he's really the only choice. Best Performance: I want to give it to Eddie for carrying the emotional weight of the 10-man, I also want to give it to Punk for being a proper shithouse to a mixed crowd, I also really want to give it to Danielson for wrestling a clinic with a fractured arm, but I do have to give it to Omega and Ospreay as a tie they wrestled their butts off Spot of the Night: As much as I still love Takeshita decking Ishii, it's Omega kicking out of the OWA at 1

The New Beginning in Osaka preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA - Naito is defending both the IWGP heavyweight and IWGP intercontinental championships.  He became a double champion on January 5, but before he could fully celebrate his big moment at the Tokyo Dome, Kenta blindsided him to ruin everything.  That doesn’t seem so sacrilegious from my perspective as an American fan, but the Japanese fans seem to really really despise Kenta, so I guess it works.

Naito is hardly the first person to hold two major-league championships at the same time, but it feels like it’s been a long time since a double champion put both titles at stake in the same match.  (The last time I clearly remember was Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe at TNA Hard Justice 2007.)  Since New Japan has actually made both titles feel very important, the significance of winning them both at once has not been lost in the storyline.  The question of whether Kenta truly “earned” this opportunity (since he’s coming off losing the NEVER title and was basically rewarded for beating up Naito) keeps coming up.

I’ve been watching these two in the tag matches they’ve had during the current tour, and I’m noticing that the action is pretty dull.  Kenta has really stepped up the mindgames of slowing down the pace to frustrate his opponent and the audience.  The problem is that Jay White (Kenta’s frequent partner and Naito’s last big opponent) does the same general stuff, and Naito is still doing it from back when he was a total heel.  I’m hoping this doesn’t become a slog like Naito vs. White, but signs are not promising.

It wouldn’t be totally ridiculous to put one of the top titles on Kenta.  But giving him both of them, right now, at the expense of Naito’s long-awaited push, coming off of him ruining Naito’s big moment, might be insane.  I can see Naito dropping one of his championships down the line, but if he’s going to lose both of them in a single match, it needs to be a lot bigger than this.  Naito will almost certainly retain.

Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki - Moxley’s IWGP United States title is on the line.  He regained the title on January 4 and successfully defended it on January 5, but then Suzuki suddenly appeared to issue a challenge.  Suzuki went on to pin Moxley on February 1, to cement his right to go after the championship.

On January 15, AEW ran an angle where Chris Jericho “stabbed” Moxley’s right eye, to build to their AEW championship match on February 29.  Moxley has been wearing bandages and/or an eyepatch over his right eye ever since.  For some reason I was surprised he used the eyepatch in his recent New Japan appearances.  I guess that’s because I thought the idea of fighting Minoru Suzuki with only one good eye is suicidal.  I suppose it’s no different than New Japan wrestlers competing with one shoulder heavily taped up.  But Suzuki projects the feel of being a legit fighter, which forces me to think about how Moxley would never be cleared for this fight if it weren’t totally fake.  

Logically, Suzuki should target the eye, get Moxley to the ground, and just grind his knuckle into the eye socket until the referee stops the match and awards him the title.  However, we’ve already seen them face off in a couple of tag matches on this tour, and they’ve mostly just done the same spots they’d do if the eyepatch wasn’t there.  Maybe they’re saving all that psychology for this show.  But I think it’s going to be tough to maintain Suzuki’s credibility as a sadistic shootfighter if he doesn’t at least pretend to shoot on the eye, and then it’d be tough to maintain the credibility of the match if he doesn’t win.  I suppose Moxley could overcome all the odds, but I’ve convinced myself that he shouldn’t.

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryu Lee - This is Takahashi’s first defense of the IWGP junior heavyweight championship since he regained the title on January 4.  Lee, as Dragon Lee in Ring of Honor, is the current ROH television champion, but that title is not at stake.  Interestingly, Takahashi is a member of Los Ingobernables de Japon, an official spinoff of Rush’s stable in CMLL, while Lee is a member of La Faccion Ingobernable, which Rush started in ROH after CMLL fired him.  New Japan has alliances with ROH and CMLL, so I’ve been real curious if/how they acknowledge that.

Obviously the story here is that this is the first meeting between these two since July 7, 2018, when Takahashi suffered a devastating neck injury from a botched dragon driver by Lee.  Hiromu managed to finish the match and retain the junior title, but he collapsed backstage and spent over a year recovering.  As soon as Takahashi recaptured the title, he requested Lee as his first challenger.

That last encounter in the Cow Palace would have been one of the best matches I’d ever seen, if I didn’t have to deduct points for “wondered if one guy died for a minute.”  Based on their history together, you’d figure Takahashi and Lee will pull out all the stops and have another wild intense flippy match.  Based on how worried everyone has been for the past 19 months, though, you’d expect them to gear down a little, especially against each other.  But it’s pro wrestling, and I’m pretty sure they’re counting on the audience being terrified of another accident, and they’re going to work a close call or two to scare us.  (Here’s a dragon driver spot from 2017, if you want to see the move done correctly, so you’ll know when to be afraid.)

I have mixed feelings on this one, because I’m not sure I want to see these two scare me to death, but they kinda have to do this rematch and I’d like to get it over with.  Assuming all goes well, it should be very good.  It’s just, well, we already know things might not go well.  I kinda have to pick Hiromu to retain, seeing as he already beat this guy with a broken neck.

Jay White vs. SANADA - I’ve forgotten if there was any particular reason these two are fighting.  As I recall Bullet Club faces LIJ on January 6 and White targeted Sanada for some reason. 

White obviously wants back into the heavyweight title picture, but the story is that he’s graciously tabled that so Kenta can chase Naito.  On the other hand, the story with LIJ is that they’re all a bit jealous of Naito winning two titles, and he wants them to keep him on his toes.  (As it happens, Sanada is currently the only man in LIJ without a championship, and there aren’t a lot of titles he can go after without challenging his buddies.)  They haven’t said the winner of this match will be the #1 contender for the winner of Kenta-Naito, but it would not shock me if that happens.

White’s whole deal is that he’s a prick that doesn’t care about having a fun match, and Sanada’s whole deal is that he always looks like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.  So I’m not sure this combination is going to be all that exciting.  If Sanada does all his cool moves and dismantle’s White’s array of heel shenanigans, that’ll be great.  If he just falls for all the shenanigans like every other face (“oh, Gedo is standing on the apron, so I’d better completely ignore Jay while I see what that’s about”), I’m going to get pretty bored.

A win for Sanada would be a big push that would shake up the topcard, so I’m pretty sure Jay wins.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Taichi - We already saw Okada vs. Taichi and Sabre vs. Ospreay earlier in this tour, so this is sort of a last look at those feuds.  (Although Ospreay has already secured a rematch with Sabre at a RevPro show next week.)  I’m sure the announcers will put over what a valiant effort Taichi gave in his loss to Okada, because New Japan is determiend to push him without putting him over anybody.  I’m thinking Okada will just pin Taichi again.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi - These guys are just back from the US tour, where the Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga and Loa) won the IWGP heavyweight tag team title from Robinson and Finlay.  Tanahashi and Ibushi seemed to be trying to get in line for a tag title shot, but things got messed up when Ibushi had to miss the whole US tour.  Ibushi has been suffering from Mallory-Weiss syndrome, and while he could be ready to return for this show, there’s no guarantee of that.  Assuming Ibushi makes it to this match, I can easily see him or Tana pinning one of the tag champs.  Otherwise, they’ll probably just punt and have the other team win.

SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) won the IWGP junior heavyweight title on January 5, but then El Desperado pinned Sho the next day, so his team earned a title match.  The heels worked over Sho’s left knee on February 5 and 6, so that looks to be a major factor going into the match.  This is something like the 300th time these teams have faced one another, and I’m pretty sick of it.  I could see the champs making the heroic babyface comeback to retain, but then again if they dropped the title they’d make sense chasing the junior singles title or the NEVER openweight belt.  The only thing I’m sure of, though, is that they’ll never let this feud die.

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare - Nakanishi is set to retire on a February 22 show, so this is one of his final matches.  Everybody else in this match are guys who regularly team with and/or against Nakanishi in the undercard.  They’ve got all the oldest guys on Nakanishi’s side, so that suggests the other team will get the win.

An Objective All In Review

            AN OBJECTIVE ALL IN REVIEW by Fenix Brown

    This past Saturday we were all treated to what was being called the “Wrestlemania of Independent Wrestling” in a show filled with fun moments for the fans. Many people had high expectations heading into this show and thought that this was a way to show that there is a better product then the WWE. There is a lot of deserving praise being put out about this show, but the show was not without its flaws. Overall I thought the show was solid, but nowhere near being show of the year. Before I get accused of being a “WWE fanboy” in this review I want to explain a couple things. I grew up watching NWA and early WCW in the heyday of the Horseman, Ricky Steamboat, the Rock n Roll Express, Steiners, etc. I love old school wrestling and have evolved into watching just about every product out today. Every week I watch everything from WWE to Impact to Lucha Underground to MLW to NJPW and they all are great and they all have their flaws. Since WWE is the standard that everyone likes to compare things to I am going to review this show with the same standard we expect from that product.

                    PRE SHOW MATCHES

    Unlike most WWE shows the place was packed and the crowd was hot or the preshow. Most preshows feature throw away matches, but at All In had one match considered a throw away and a battle royal to determine who would get a shot at Jay Lethals ROH World Championship. The preshow was a good setup for the main card overall and had a lot of crowd pleasing moments.

         ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS BRISCOE BROTHERS VS SCU

    SCU was the team of Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky and they were over. The crowd obviously followed the Being the Elite series which for most of the show was the set up for many of the matches. This has nothing to do with any of that though. Briscoes who are one of the greatest tag teams of all time on the independent scene probably did not get the heroes welcome they deserved and were the heels in this match. Kazarian picked up the pin fall when he reversed a Doomsday Device into a powerslam for the pin fall. The match was solid but I have a huge problem in one regard. I know this is not an ROH show per say, but ROH financed this show behind the scenes which is well documented, but overlooked. Time after time we see WWE put the tag titles on a pre show and talk about how they don’t care about the tag division. Not only were the tag champs on the pre show, they lost clean in the middle of the ring in a non title match. We would excoriate the WWE for doing the same thing so this hit a nerve. Hopefully this will lead to a championship opportunity for SCU, but even then I don’t think they are winning the belts. While this match was fun and enjoyable I could have done without the tag champs losing clean on a pre show match. Plenty of other teams could have filled this role and lost to SCU.

                BATTLE ROYAL FOR A SHOT AT ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

    Whoever booked his battle royal deserves a ton of credit. Everyone got their moment to shine, and it had a ton of crowd popping moments. The match started with Bully Ray putting the luchador known as Chico on Being the Elite through a table outside the ring. The match then turned into fun moment after fun moment. A slew of dives followed up by a great fake out by Billy Gunn and Tommy Dreamer. Moose then did his “Moose jabs” leading to everyone ganging up him and being the first one eliminated by Marco Stunt, who had a few brief but great moments in the match. Best friends Chuck Taylor and Trent Barretta had their hug broken up by Ethan Page, who in the early going was the dominant heel in the match. Brandon Cutler, who was by far the least impressive in this match then got some offense in, only to be eliminated by Page moments later. Page then almost eliminated both of the Best Friends, who were saved by Rocky Romero, then got some tandem offense and a hug in, which led to them being eliminated by Punishment Martinez. Romero then clotheslined everything in site until Brian Cage took his head off with a clothesline and threw him out. Cheeseburger then hit a Liger palm strikes, and Cage eliminated him as well. Cage and Martinez then had a headscissor exchange which lead to the Hurricane chokeslamming both men in one of the most fun moments of the match. Hurricane and Page then ended up on the apron where Page eliminated Hurricane and hometown boy Colt Cabana took out back. Then it was time for Tommy Dreamer to bring in the plunder hit everyone, until Bully Ray hit him with a trash can and threw him over the top. Then Billy Gunn and Austin Gunn had some exchanges with Martinez and Jimmy Jacobs, where Jacobs hit a five knuckle shuffle and went for a pedigree on Austin, which was broken up by Billy. Jacobs then kissed Billy (Chuck Palumbo must be jealous) which lead to his elimination, followed by Martinez being eliminated by Billy’s son Austin, who by the way looks like a smaller version of his father and sells like him as well. Another hug was broken up, but this time by Bully Ray who eliminated Austin. Billy hit Bully with a Famasser, and then was press slammed by Cage for another elimination. Marco Stunt then hit an insane tilt a whirl, flipping codebreaker on Cage followed up by Bully Ray throwing him over the top. Double clotheslines by Bully Ray and Colt Cabana set the stage for a showdown between the only female in the match, Jordynne Grace and the monstrous Brain Cage. In an impressive feat of strength Grace got Cage on her shoulders, Cage reversed, over head slammed and hit a sick buckle bomb. Cage charged the corner, but missed which led to a power bomb from Grace and then her eliminating The Machine. Grace then had an exchange with Bully Ray and after pushing him off the top rope hit a Whassup headbutt with the aid of Cabana. She then went to toss out the big Bully only to have him reverse the Irish whip and eliminate her. That left just Cabana and Ray in the ring and after a quick exchange, Ray eliminated Cabana. Ray celebrated like he had won, but Chico the luchador he put through the table at the start enter the ring, super kicked him, and pulled of the mask to reveal himself a s Flip Gordon. Gordon threw Ray over the top for the win and the shot at the title later in the night.

I am not going to do play by play for every match, but I felt this was one of the better battle royals I have ever seen and packed so much in and highlighted so many performers in the right way. If I had to nitpick the one thing that stuck out was the end. I love Flip Gordon and have seen him grow a lot this year. It did bug me at the end though just because he super kicked Bully Ray and Bully has to stand there and sell while Flip took the mask off. Timing wise it would have been a lot cleaner if he would have eliminated Ray and then took the mask off. The pop would have been just as big if not a little bigger. Otherwise though it accomplished everything it should have. You had classic moments, like the Hurricane choke slamming people. You had new stars like Jordynne Grace (who I was hoping would win because she was fantastic) and Marcus Stunt be exposed to a new audience and shine in their time. The hometown hero Colt Cabana had his moments. The right guy ended up winning in the end, and the crowd was hot the whole time for. If your a fan of battle royals I would say this is a must watch and checked all the boxes you would want. And Dalton Castle was great on commentary.

                THE MAIN SHOW

As we get into the main show the crowd was definitely hot of a great pre show, and probably were a little spent after the battle royal and the show open. That being said the show was solid and the crowd was into most everything. One thing is that I think the crowd was not mic'd up very well, but you could tell they were hot and match the reactions of any WWE show. Some stars were definitely made and some peoples stock increased quite a bit by the end of the night. Now let’s get into the show.

            MJF VS MATT CROSS

Most people found it odd that this unannounced match opened the show. Neither guy is one of the bigger names on the indy scene right now. Cross mainly has been seen on Lucha Underground as Son of Havoc, and MJF has been making some noise as CZW Champion and MLW Middleweight champion, but I wouldn’t call him a star. When you take a couple things into consideration though you can understand why this might have opened. It’s the first time Cody and the Bucks were in charge of putting a show like this together so instead of opening with a marquee match they probably wanted to do a “test run” in case there were any problems with the stream, and from what I hear there was some. Many people had trouble streaming on their T.V. and had to smart cast from their phone instead. I think this was a smart move and gave people time to adapt without missing any key points to the show.

That being said this was a pretty by the numbers match. MJF is an entitled heel with a ground game and a big mouth. Cross is your typical babyface high flyer. Nothing great or terrible about this match and it only went about ten minutes and did what it was supposed to do. Cross won with a shooting star press. I just wish they would have used someone with a little more star power in this role. Cross and MJF are okay but neither is considered a big name. I like both MLW and Lucha but neither has really caught on with this Indy crowd even though I think MLW will i they keep improving. MJF is also the nephew of Rob Feinstein which may be a reason he got this spot. If we are going to hold this show to WWE standards then instead of giving the spot to someone in the good old boys club on the biggest indy ppv of all time maybe there was plenty of other people who were in town for the weekend that could have gotten some exposure without the family connections, just saying.

        CHRISTOPHER DANIELS VS STEPHEN AMELL

Another match with strange placement, at least to me. Before I critique any of this match I want to say that I have a ton of respect for Amell doing this. The guy obviously has a ton of respect and love for the wrestling business and him lending his name to this event definitely brought star power. He is very active on social media and promoted this in a way most celebrities would not. He also is the focus of not just a show, but the center of the DC Universe on the CW network and risked serious injury with some risks he did not have to take. He is also in tremendous shape and you could tell he took time out a very busy schedule to train for this match. So all props to him for that.

With that being said, while this match had some moments it was not a classic by any means. This match was very sloppy, even on Daniels end. Daniels in his prime was a top performer on the indy scene and TNA in its prime, but he is far from that these days. I understand storyline wise why he was in this match, but I am not sure he was the right guy for the job in this particular spot. For a long time Daniels has been either in tag matches or facing very experienced competition that style he wrestles. Amell hit a Van Terminator, and went from the top rope through a table outside the ring so he was willing to bump. Amell also seemed to blow up about halfway through the match and there is no shame in that being that this is not his full time job. Daniels got the win after his second sloppy BME and they shook hands after.

I think there was a couple things that could have been done differently if you are going to bring Amell in like this. First as much as I have been a fan of Daniels over the years he should not have been in this spot. Amell is much larger than him so the babyface-heel dynamic for this particular scenario is way off.If your going to have a smaller heel against a non wrestler he at least has to look mean and intimidating and Daniels is none of those. Secondly Amell was obviously willing to do a little high risk spots so why not just go the whole way and make it a no disqualification match. Even if Daniels was still in the spot at least he could use some foreign objects and such to compensate for the obvious size difference. The match was around ten minutes and that’s about where it should have been, but to me there was not enough near falls on Amell’s side to bring any drama to the match. The only one I can think of is when he reversed Angel’s Wings into a pinning predicament. He also teased hitting Crossroads, but Daniels reversed it, when I think it would have been a great near fall for him to hit it and the crowd would have popped more than they did for the Van Terminator or the table spot. The goal of the match should have been to highlight Daniels strengths and mask Amells weaknesses and I don’t think this match accomplished either. I think the no dq stipulation could have bought more time for Amell to sell and recover, and also lead to some great near falls. There are ways to do these things and Amell would have been receptive to most ideas I believe. Also this was built up as a fight more than a match so just make it a fight. Like I said though, much respect for him even being involved.

      BRITT BAKER VS TESSA BLANCHARD VS MADISON RAYNE VS CHELSEA GREEN

    A lot of people are saying that the Aldis and Cody match is where the night picked up, but to me the ladies match is where the tone of the night really started to change. Two women really stuck out in this match to me. Tessa Blanchard and Chelsea Green really carried the match. Madison Rayne and Britt Baker were good, but a little sloppy at times. Green had a great gimmick going with the split personality she was sharing with her former personality of Laurel Van Ness. Green had an impressive walk out the top rope, she went back and forth between showboat and psycho.  The match started out with a lot of dives to the outside and then there was a constant shift in the ring of action between all the ladies.    

    The match was really a steady stream of action with high spot after, after high spot, sprinkled in with some high impact moves. Madison Rayne is a veteran with a lot of experience and probably hasn’t gotten her proper due for being a part of a Knockouts division that really set the stage for today's women's revolution in the WWE. I am very happy for her being put in this spot as well as being a part of the Mae Young Classic. She did some great underrated work in TNA over the years and has constantly improved. Her look is great now as well. If WWE ends up picking her up I think she will be a great babyface. She may never win a title there but I think she would be a great addition to Smackdown, Raw, or NXT.

    Britt Baker was the least experienced or it seemed that way. She had some solid spots with some great superkicks and a vicious TKO. She has a great look and a great backstory being a former doctor. She has good size and with some seasoning I could see her being added to NXT soon. I am not sure if she is part of the May Young Classic, but I would not be surprised. She is a name to keep an eye on for the next few years to see how she develops.

    The two stars of the match definitely had to be Blanchard and Green though. Green is tall and athletic a all get out. Couple that with the gimmick she had in this match and her ring psychology and selling, she has star written all over her. I hope that the woman's scene continues to improve on the independent circuit because I am pretty sure the WWE would have no idea what to do with her. After her showing here any company would be smart to focus on her more. Tessa Blanchard is just plain awesome. Wherever she ends up she is going to be a star. She has a strong build and is smooth with her movements. Great body control, quick movements, explosive offense, the complete package. The ending of the match was a little confusing where it seemed like Rayne and Baker broke up the pin and the announcers even seemed confused about it. Tenille Dashwood (Emma) was on commentary and she is fantastic as well. The future of women's wrestling is bright with these girls and the likes of Jordynne Grace as well. And if you don’t think this is where the main show picked up, they got the first “this is awesome” chant since the pre show.

      NWA CHAMPION NICK ALDIS VS CODY RHODES

    I am going to catch a lot of slack for some of the things I am going to say about this match because I realize Cody is the Golden Boy of the moment, and it’s well deserved. Cody has a hardcore fan following and is very talented and I am a fan of what he has done in his career and like many thought the WWE didn’t utilize him like they could have. Cody brought a lot of hype into this match for the NWA belt elevating the status of the recently resurrected company, due to his family legacy connected to the belt. He will make a great champion and ambassador for the brand. With hype though comes expectations and while this match had some moments, to me it didn’t live up to the hype.

    The match had a lot of awkwardness to it from the entrance, to the ref intro, and plenty of botches and mismanaged spots in the match. Maybe it’s because I didn’t watch the Ten Pounds of Gold series on Youtube (mainly because Aldis have never been entertaining enough for me to entertain watching weekly 10 to 20 minute videos focusing on him),but I didn’t get what the connections were to the teams accompanying each competitor to ringside. Jeff Jarrett was instrumental in building NWA TNA so I kind of get that, but I would keep him as far away from my product as possible considering the history between him and Billy Corgan with TNA. Tommy Dreamer has some connections with being close to Dusty, and DDP at least was kind of a fringe NWA guy in his early days. I didn’t get Glacier, Davari, Samuel Shaw and the others. I get that they wanted to give it a big fight feel, I just don’t get what some of the connections were. Do I even have to say anything about Earl Hebner’s speech, it was terrible. Another connection to NWA I don’t get. Wouldn’t Charles Robinson or Nick Patrick made more sense. I get what they were going for but it came across a little awkward to me though.

    The awkwardness did not stop there though. A few minutes in could “hit” Aldis with a superkick that clearly came nowhere close to connecting with a good foot distance wise away from hitting, and Aldis sold it. Later on in the match Cody went for an Alabama Slam where he clearly couldn’t get Aldis over and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. The awkward moments continued when Cody tried a springboard crossbody to the outside where Aldis caught him in the jaw. Hebner made his way to check on Cody and they had a short conversation which lead to Hebner throwing up the dreaded X signal. DDP runs back out, no idea why he wasn’t still at ringside when they accompanied him to the ring to begin with. DDP then hit Davari with a Diamond Cutter cause why not and eventually Cody made his way back into the ring bleeding from the top of the head after clearly getting hit in the jaw. Later in the match Cody applied the Figure Four to Aldis and the announcers were saying it was reminiscent of his old man, but when have Dusty ever been associated with the Figure Four Leglock. It’s Ric Flair not Dusty Rhodes people associate that move with.    

    Aldis hit another awkward looking move in the form of a piledriver and then ascended to the top rope. Brandi then got into the ring to plead with Aldis not to drop the elbow on him. Aldis delivered the elbow and Brandi shielded her husband which lead to Aldis delivering a brutal elbow drop to her spine. Rhodes recovered and hit a Disaster Kick followed by a Crossroads which probably should have been the finish, but we all know finishers don’t matter anymore so the match continues. After some brief exchanges Cody goes for a backdrop, Aldis counters with a sunset flip where Cody sits out and gets the pin fall in a nod to the Bret Hart-Davey Boy Smith finish from Summerslam years ago.

    I know I was very critical of this match and I understand that fans were into this match and that the moment of Cody becoming NWA champion is a big deal. Still in all fairness this match had the same problem many of the matches wrestling overall has. It created moments that will look great 5 second  clips instead of worrying more about solid execution throughout the match. I understand Cody was obviously very busy putting this show together and could not practice some of the things that probably needed to be practiced but details matter. Being the face of something brings pressure and expectations and while it’s very nice in the end things ended up how they were supposed to the path to get there was very bumpy. This was Aldis’s most high profile match, but really did nothing for him. If one of WWE’s top star was in this match it would have been excoriated. For all the Roman Reigns hate that is out there and shots taken by the Bullet Club, there is no way a performance like that would have been acceptable on any level.

        CHICAGO STREET FIGHT- JOEY JANELA VS HANGMAN PAGE

    The Hangman and the Bad Boy put on the most brutal and entertaining match overall of the night. I know Cody and the Bucks said that the Bullet Club will all make their next move together, but I think Page is a fool if he doesn’t give the WWE a shot. Standing 6 feet 5 inches with a great look and solid in the ring the sky could be the limit for him. If he could work out a deal to skip NXT and head to the main roster he could be a main event player in a short amount of time. Also seeing Janela in only limited exposure until now, I was impressed with his showing. Janela has a willingness to do some crazy bumps and it stared of the bat with a pump handle fallaway slam into a chair in the ring. Janela has great facial expressions and looked like a mad man when he played to the crowd after a flying senton into the crowd. Janela had his status as one of indy wrestling top draws rise after this and his spring break outings should see an increase in exposure after this.

    Penelope Ford who seconded Janela to the ring also had some moments in the match where she got involved to aid the smaller Janela and help him gain momentum back. The match was silly in some spots, in a good way, with the involvement of an actual Cracker Barrel from one of the sponsors. The barrel was used to prop a ladder between the guardrail and the ring for an insane burning hammer delivered by Page. This was one of the points Ford got involved and escaped strikes by Page with backflips a matrix, then delivered a stunner where Page sold it like the Rock sold Stone Cold’s version. The match fell outside the ring again involving tables and dives, until it made it to rampway that led to a scary looking bump for Janela of the stage missing one of the two tables set up and barely hitting one.

    The match finally made its way back to the ring where Page hit his finish only to have Ford break it up. This is the start of a little more silliness began, but I had no problem with this part. If you watched Being the Elite, which was the theme of the night, you know that Hangman “killed” Joey Ryan in a storyline. Ford brought a bag in the ring that contained Page’s talking boots (yes, talking boots) and Page superkicked Ford, picked up the boots which he sold as talking to him, and walked right into a Janela superkick for a near fall. At this point Janela brought a ladder and a table in the ring which all led to Page hitting Janela with the phone he killed Ryan with and delivering an insane Right of Passage of the ladder through a table for the win. If this wasn’t match of the night it was damn close. It really topped everything before it and hit all the spots you want in a hardcore match both storytelling wise and spot wise, so kudos to both for a great performance.

    Then came the most controversial point of the evening, Joey Ryan’s resurrection. A video appeared on the screen of Ryan laying dead in his bed only to pan down and show him getting fully erect under the sheets. Then in Undertaker fashion a slew of men dressed as penises came to the ramp and Joey Ryan appeared to a huge reaction. Ryan made his way to the ring in typical form, lathered himself up, put a lollipop in his pants only to take it back out, put it in Page’s mouth and superkick him. The “penis druids” then carried Page to the back.

    The match itself was great. I am going to sound like a curmudgeony old man, but I hated what happened after. I get that wrestling has its silliness and goofiness sometimes and I can suspend disbelief to a certain degree, but I fall on the Jim Cornette side of the Joey Ryan thing. In the same night, on the same show, where we are supposed to be elevating an old school belt like the NWA title back to prominence you put this on the show. You can’t have it both ways. You either want to be taken serious as a professional wrestling product or you want to be a silly carnival sideshow.  I have no problem with having some fun in wrestling and I can point out many times I had enjoyed certain things that has been done over the years by many companies that were silly, but still treated the line a little where you could suspend disbelief to a degree and buy in. This is not one of those times. Cornette is right when he says things like this hurt the business because it does. Wrestling falls into this crowd reaction trap where they believe if the crowd reacts it’s okay. I can point out many times in not just wrestling, but sports and entertainment of crowds reacting just for the sake, yet no one would agree that the behavior is acceptable. The problem with the Joey Ryan penis stuff is this. I remember when it started trending on Youtube when he first started doing it. Shortly after Youtube demonetized wrestling content for being to vulgar and it was no coincidence that it came after the Joey Ryan penisplex. I am not saying he was the total reason, but it was a big reason. Many companies were doing well of making money off their Youtube views and that single handedly killed many smaller companies, due to the large amount of lost revenue. The worst part is that Joey could still do a similar gimmick of having this indestructible penis where people try to low blow him only to hurt themselves and just that little change would make it okay.

    Anyone saying this is no big deal is wrong and let me explain to you exactly why. Cody and the Bucks did a terrific job of getting major sponsors for the event. Cracker Barrel and TGIFriday’s are no doubt major corporations who could be involved in future events if they believe this is a product that can eventually be sold to the general public as something the whole family can watch because they market themselves as family friendly companies. Another thing we know is that in corporations the higher executives usually have no idea who or what they are actually sponsoring so when one of the higher ups get a whiff of their product being involved in basically softcore porn of on man grabbing another’s penis in middle of the ring and getting suplexed by it and then follow it up by men dressed in penis costumes how likely do you think they will be willing to sponsor something like this again. I am not just talking about the Bullet Club stuff either, I am talking independent wrestling overall. There is a reason Sinclair Broadcasting does not put Ryan’s gimmick on television. It is very hard for wrestling to get advertiser revenue and stuff like this is one of the major reasons why. For all of you that enjoyed it good for you, glad you enjoyed. Joey Ryan will continue to make a lot for money for himself of this gimmick as well until it eventually grows tired and the well runs dry. For every defender of Joey in this gimmick though I hope you understand that the more you cheer this and get it over, the more you hurt the chances of anyone truly being able to set up to any form of long term competition for the WWE not just here but worldwide. And yes it is a big deal when you put it on a show that has been labeled “Indy Wrestlemania”. WWE would have not only lost sponsors, but would have had a huge public backlash for the same type of behavior.

           ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL VS FLIP GORDON

    In another match that is getting a lot of online love is the match between Flip Gordon and “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal. Lethal was accompanied to the ring by “The Genius” Lanny Poffo and somehow Brandi Rhodes miraculously recovered from the devastating elbow delivered by Nick Aldis earlier and even had time for a costume change. This match did have it’s fun moments and again if you followed Being the Elite somethings made more sense then if you never watched it. In the series, Brandi has been rooting for Flip to get on the All In show despite Cody’s objections and Lethal has been going in and out of his Black Machismo character when you hit him on a certain point of the shoulder. I can see why the fan base enjoyed this match. Flip Gordon is a great underdog babyface and I was also a fan of Lethals Black Machismo character and Flair impressions from his TNA days.

    Some of the highlights centered more around callbacks to classic WWE moments then actual in ring action. It started with Lethal giving the Mega Powers handshake to Poffo and Flip. Lethal then went outside the ring to bring Brandi to his corner thinking she was Miss Elizabeth. Then later in the ring he hoisted Brandi on his shoulder in another callback to a classic moment. This lead to Brandi hitting the spot on the shoulder that reverted Lethal to being normal Lethal. This meant the match switched gears to more of the typical indy style match with the two trading moves back and forth for two counts.

    Later in the match Poffo chopped Lethal on the shoulder leading to the reemergence of Black Machismo who dropped 3 top rope elbow drops on Gordon. Gordon kicked out at 2 and “Hulked Up” delivering a big boot and began a flurry of offense by Flip. Eventually Lethal hit a top rope cutter followed by his Lethal Injection for the win. The match was fun and enjoyable in some parts, but overall was a comedy match for the most part. I can see why it’s getting all the online love, but I do have some problems with it overall.

    I am a fan of both men, but to me this match didn’t make sense in a couple of ways. I am a fan of Jay Lethal, but he should not be ROH Champion right now. I thought Cody was going to have the belt leading into this and thought if you really wanted to bring more prestige to the NWA title a champion vs champion match would have added a little more. Lethal has no where near the momentum when he was the leading heel in the House of Truth, and with Flip being such a lovable underdog babyface if he was going to face someone for the ROH title it should have been either against a larger heel, or a heel whose skill set is a little dirty and based on getting heat from the crowd. Much like the NWA title match there will be moments that translate well to a video package, but on television to a casual viewer would have fell a little flat. Couple that with the fact that this is by far ROH’s biggest stage today and you presented your champion as a comedy character and both guys are very diminutive in size. That is what your presenting as the top tier talent in your company. Add to that the preshow loss of your tag team champions in the middle of the ring clean and to me ROH came across really weak on this card to a casual viewer watching ROH product for the first time. Do I even have to bring up the fact that the one prominent black talent on the card had a moment where a white man who impersonated Hulk Hogan beat him up. I know that’s a little nit picky, but the lack of black talent on the show when you have guys like Shane Strickland, AR Fox, and Dezmond Xavier on the scene and you have the one black talent on the main show getting beat up by a guy impersonating the most notorious wrestler as far as racism goes right now was not very smart. Just saying.

            IWGP CHAMPION KENNY OMEGA VS PENTAGON JR

    The next match was what many pegged as the dream of the night. The action began fast and furious after some initial taunting. Pentagon has built a reputation on a brutal style and here is showed right from the start with a vicious kick to Omega’s abdomen. Pentagon dominated the early past of the match with a mix kicks, chops and dives. Pentagon may have the best chops in the business. He has a great look and a vicious style that fits his persona. Every move he makes has evil intentions behind it whether it’s a kick to the hamstring, chop to the chest,  or his variety of backbreakers and piledrivers.

Again and again Omega would try to regain momentum with Pentagon having as answer most of the time. Kenny hit a V-trigger to the back of Pentagons head and setup for a superplex. Pentagon countered with led to a double foot stomp. Omega regained momentum shortly after and hit a couple V-triggers to try and set up the One Winged Angel. Pentagon slipped out and hit a high impact pumphandle driver for a near fall. Eventually both men ended up on the ring apron where Pentagon hit a package piledriver on the apron, which is the hardest part of the ring if you haven’t heard Pentagon got a near fall and after a few more exchanges Omega hit Pentagon with a package piledriver of his own for a near fall. Kenny again went for his finish and Pentagon slipped out and “broke his arm”. Yet another package piledriver by Pentagon lead to a near fall due to a lackadaisical cover. Kenny eventually hits a V- trigger which led to him taking control and hitting the One Winged Angel for the win. After the match the lights went out and Chris Jericho appeared dressed as Pentagon and attacked Omega with a Codebreker and told Kenny he would see him on the Jericho cruise.

    While the match was great, fast paced, and had lots of high impact maneuvers, I did feel it was a little rushed going about 15 minutes. Also, the underselling of Pentagons finisher was a little bothersome to me. The One Winged Angel seems to be about the only move left in wrestling that people stay down for and it’s a little ridiculous. Jericho’s appearance was good, I stopped being surprised by Jericho showing up years ago. Still I don’t mind the promo for the cruise because if your going to sell tickets to it, it’s going to be to this crowd. Good match and nowhere near some of the classics Kenny had in the past, it was what it was. A non title dream match where the champion still went over. I think you could’ve probably added 5 more minutes to this match, but at this point I think time restraints definitely played a part in this match.

        KAZUCHIKA OKADA VS MARTY SCURLL

Another match that seems to have gotten a lot of praise is the match between the Rainmaker and the Villain. The story being told is that there was no way Scurll could beat Okada because Okada is a heavyweight and Scurll is in the NJPW junior heavyweight division. The match went about 20 minutes and the early part told the story of Marty trying to do some power moves, yet not being able to pull them off due to his lack of size. Scurll actually had control of the match in the early part despite his lack of size. Honestly though the first half of the match kind of dragged on, mostly because Scurll would do a move and pose, again and again. Obviously Scurll was the underdog and trying to feed off the crowd for energy, but the crowd was solidly behind him regardless and I think a little less posing and a little more urgency would have helped in the first half of the match.

     That being said this was the typical Okada match with a slow build to a furious, hard hitting pace near the end. The match was very good overall despite the slow start. Scurll would have control for a few moments and Scurll would counter and regain momentum time and time again. Cyrus made a great comparison on commentary saying that Okada much like Bret Hart had a moveset you know was coming but was so good there was nothing you could do about it.

    The match started to slowly gain momentum when Scurll reversed a suplex into a brainbuster and then went for a piledriver, yet again posing for way too long, which caused it to be reversed into an Irish Curse neckbreaker variation by Okada for a near fall. Okada climber the top rope and Scurll hit a superplex. There was an exchange of rollups for some near falls which lead to Scurll hitting a monsterous powerbomb for a near fall. Okada was able to regain control with a running shotgun dropkick and op rope shotgun dropkick. Okada tried to put things away with a Tombstone piledriver which Scurll countered into a swinging DDT. Scurll then tried a Tombstone of his own and couldn’t hold up Okada which led to him finally landing the Tombstone.

    The final 5 minutes is where this match really shined. In my favorite spot of the match Okada followed up the Tombstone by setting up for the Rainmaker lariat. In the setup up while Scurll was in the straightjacket position Okada made the hand gesture of 205 which in the Being the Elite series he kept telling Marty that’s where he should be. While he was holding his fingers in the five position Scurll grabbed his middle finger to set up for his famous finger break spot. Okada’s facial reaction to this was priceless and meme worthy. Scurll hit the finger break and then after taking time to recover came off the ropes running into a dropkick by Okada who throws one of the best in the business. Again Okada went for the Rainmaker and Scurll countered into the crossface chickenwing which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Okada got to his feet and fell back onto Scurll momentarily breaking the hold only to have Scurll lock it in again. Okada escaped and went for a Tombstone again. Marty slipped out the back door and pushed Okada into the referee.

As soon as this happened Scurl went to his corner and grabbed his umbrella. Okada ducked the swing and set up for a Rainmaker and when he spun Scurll into position, Scurll countered by opening the umbrella. He then stuck Okada in the head very hard with it and hit a very stiff Rainmaker of his own in which was probably the best false finish of the night as I thought that would be it. Posing again cost Scurll as he setup for the crossface chickenwing and Okada reversed into a Rainmaker giving him time to recover.Okada got to his feet and hit Scurll with a couple forearms which lead to Marty firing up and spitting in Okada face and slapping him. Okada grabbed Scurll by the throat and Scurll went for another finger break spot but this time Okada reversed it into a discus Rainmaker and followed up with another for the pin.

Regardless of what I said about the slow start and posing this match was great in the end. Everytime I watch Okada he impresses me, and Scurll had a great outing regardless of the constant posing. The match was in contention for match of the night with Page/Janela and Omega/Pentagon depending on your taste. One thing that is overlooked when talking about Okada is his facial reactions and body language in the ring. It’s something that’s really hard to teach and Okada is great at knowing how to act in certain key moments in a match to give it that little something extra to put it over. As for Scurll though great this will probably be the biggest match he ever has in his career. I like Scurll sometimes and other times he comes across silly and as a comedy act. He had some great matches with Will Offspray in the past and I am not saying he never will again, but when it comes to the Bullet Club I feel like eventually he will be the odd man out. Also, if you’re going to call yourself the Villain I feel like maybe the gimmick should be a little more vicious and conniving as opposed to silly tactics. That being said great showing by both men.

YOUNG BUCKS AND KOTA IBUSHI VS REY MYSTERIO, BANDIDO, AND FENIX

Finally we reach the main event of the evening with a 6 man tag “dream match”. Bandido was the only participant I was not really familiar with, but everyone else has been pretty well established over the past few years. Some might have not been familiar with Fenix and if you’re not he is the brother of Pentagon Jr. and he is tremendous. My review for this match will be pretty short because it was definitely in fast forward as time restraints only gave the 6 men about 10 minutes to work with. It actually kind of fit the lucha style though because if you have ever watched the trios matches in Mexico they are super fast paced with everyone getting their stuff in at an insane pace.

That’s pretty much what this match ended up being. Play by play and a match breakdown is not really necessary as it’s one of those matches you just have to watch to keep up with all that happens. Not that it was one of the greatest matches of all time, or even the night, but it was short and fun. Some highlights included the first time seeing Kota Ibushi and Mysterio together in the ring for the first time. Mysterio had a really cool Wolverine costume on. Also Rey looked fantastic. I know there is a lot of talk of him going back to WWE full time, but I think at this point of his career I would rather see him on a lighter schedule in big spots. Rey has a well documented injury history and a full time schedule anywhere might not be the best idea. He looked fantastic here and more akin to his prime then the end of his WWE run. He is a special attraction and should be treated and paid as such.

The match was fun but unfortunately didn't get the time it needed for guys like Fenix and Bandido to show a whole lot. I personally haven’t seen to much on Bandido and he had some impressive spots. The time crunch really hurt Fenix though. The WWE has been looking for a successor to Mysterio for a long time and I believe Fenix may be the closest thing we get. In the end though the Bucks and Ibushi get the win with a Meltzer Driver with 3 seconds left to end the show

                OVERALL THOUGHTS

I guess a lot of what people thought of the show depended on your expectations going in and how you felt it was presented. If you took it as a one off indy show with no real meaning and purpose then you probably thought it was a great show. If you thought it was a love letter to the pro wrestling indy scene, you probably thought it was a great show. If you are a obsessive Bullet Club fan and follow the Being the Elite series you probably thought this was a great show as well. On the other hand, if you felt like this show was promoted as the alternative for WWE but better matches, booking and quality of storytelling you were probably a little disappointed.

I am not saying this was a bad show by any means. It was a solid show with some fun parts that gave some exposure to some new stars. In the short time overall on the show the women were given I thought Jordynne Grace, Tessa Blanchard and Chelsea Green all had great showing. The pre show battle royal was great and the right guy won. In fact in most of the matches the right guy won. Okada/Scurll, Omega/Pentagon, Page/Janela and the 6 man tag were all good matches that either told a great story or were action packed. It was overall a solid show with some fun moments stacked in between.    

On the downside though there left a lot to be desired. In the end it was an average show at best. It was sold to me to have lots of surprises and should have been everything a WWE pay per view was not, but there was some glaringly similar faults in the show. First was the match placements. If this was your first time watching anything like this and the first 2 matches you see on the pay per view are MJF vs Matt Cross and Stephen Amell vs Christopher Daniels you might have tuned out right away. I think opening with the 6 man tag would have been better closing the show with it. New viewers to the product would have been familiar with Rey Mysterio and the action provided would have set the tone for what should have been for the rest of the night. MJF and Matt Cross could have been cut from the show, but I guess when your a family member of someone in the business you get a spot over someone more deserving. Does that sound familiar.

Also for a show that was supposed to be the alternative to WWE there was more reference to WWE moments than anything else. With the NWA title being elevated tonight it would have been nice to see more nods to that then a Road Warrior Animal appearance, a figure four leglock, and Cody having his hair blond and bleeding. Aldis/Cody and Amell/Daniels were both very sloppy matches that could have been much better. ROH who had a piece in financing this show did themselves no favors with their tag champs losing clean on the preshow, and their world champion being promoted as a joke match. Jericho and Flip Gordon were supposed to be the big surprises of the night, but if you followed anything over the last few months you were not surprised at all, and the Joey Ryan stuff is just bad for business.

    For everything good I can find to say I can find 2 or 3 flaws. The product didn’t really feel all that different from a WWE show. The quality should have been at least that of an NXT show with a very similar fan and talent base. In the end outside of Cody winning the NWA title the matches meant nothing and though there were some solid matches none of them come close to a match of the year candidate. I have to point out a few more things as well. Sami Callihan though controversial was definitely one of the bigger indie names to rise to prominence this year and should have maybe been included on the card. I also would have enjoyed if there was more of an African American presence on the main card. There are plenty of black wrestlers who could have had a spot. Tama Tonga and the firing squad could’ve made a surprise appearance that would have been more shocking than another Jericho appearance. And disappointingly, even though I am not his biggest fan a CM Punk appearance in Chicago would have been huge yet he was nowhere to be found.

In the end All In was an average show at the highest level with some good moments that will look great in a video package, but a lot of flaws that will prevent it from coming anywhere close to one of the top WWE or NJPW shows this year. To be honest I expected a lot more because it was promoted as a lot more. In the end wrestling is wrestling and the more things change the more they stay the same.

Show Review: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Night One

Lowell, Massachusetts: The Flowering City! Kerouac Town! Home to the second-largest population of Cambodians in the United States, and more abandoned textile mills than you can shake a stick at! 

Let’s see how this momentous clash of companies shook out:

What: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Tour, Night One

Where: Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts

When: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Who: I’ve seen crowd counts that put attendance between 1,200 and 1,500, and that sounds right to me. If it wasn’t a sellout, it was close. The place was packed to the rafters, and fully two-thirds of the people in attendance were wearing Bullet Club t-shirts. I went there after visiting multiple notable graves (one haunted), an abandoned mill turned into a kind of weirdo shopping mall, an abandoned mill turned into a national historic site, and a park named after Jack Kerouac where drunks were sleeping on the ground at 4 p.m., which is pretty appropriate when you consider that Kerouac drank himself to death.

Dark Match: Brad Hollister and Justin “Hammer” Tunis vs. The Dawgs

Hollister and Tunis are locals; I have seen them many times. Nice to see them getting a dark match. The Dawgs are new to me. I guess it’s Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara. Did you ever collect baseball cards? You know how the cards for all the bench players were grouped under the pejorative rubric “commons,” as in, “That pack of cards I bought was a bust, nothing but commons”? I kind of thing of Rhett Titus as a good example of that in wrestling. Not bad, not sensational, does the job he needs to do, but doesn’t really linger in the memory. This was a totally conventional tag team wrestling match. The crowd stirred briefly, after Hollister delivered a picture-perfect suplex. The Dawgs won. The cosmic wheel turns on.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

The Briscoe Brothers vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Flip Gordon

I haven’t been following ROH, but I guess the Briscoes are heels right now? They were lustily booed. Jay looked fantastic with his hair all matted and long and some kind of necklace of primitive fetishes around his neck. He looked like a chiseled, angry Dr. John who instead of learning to play the piano started a voodoo-based crime syndicate. I forget how much I like the Briscoes, but they are among my favorites. Holy cow, Flip Gordon is over with this crowd. Huge pop and “Flip! Flip! Flip!” chants. Liger, obviously, also gets a huge ovation. This match is entirely about Flip befuddling the enraged Briscoe cavemen with his arsenal of acrobatic dodges and counters. Liger comes in as a hot tag, but doesn’t really do anything spectacular. He doesn’t have to, my God, he’s Jushin Liger. He’s earned his elder statesman tag team apron-dweller spot. This match was a lot of fun. Not a sprint, but a condensed version of classic tag team wrestling, with some distinctive flourishes. The Briscoes wrestled like heels, denying the crowd anything spectacular (their post-tag tandem offense basically consisted of Mark holding Flip while Jay kicked him repeatedly) until the finish. I don’t know how to describe it, but it looked to be like a Razor’s Edge off the top into a cutter. It was nuts. Flip took the pin. I should note here that I had a terrible seat and couldn’t see three quarters of the ring, so I stood up against the back wall for most of the night. 

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

Deonna Purrazzo and Skylar vs Tennille Dashwood and Sumie Sakai

I want you to notice something here, something that would prove to be the theme of the evening: tag team wrestling. Our third match, and third tag team match, was a Women of Honor showcase for four babyfaces, which is always something of a heat vacuum. The crowd likes all these women. It was Skylar’s ROH debut; about two years ago, I was there when she had her first-ever wrestling match. It’s crazy to think how much progress she’s made. She’s still a little green, though, and the other three are obviously a category above her at the moment. Not much of a story here beyond Deonna occasionally walking up to the brink of being a heel, although I don’t know if that’s deliberate or if that’s just part of our bleak, nihilistic world now. The jury’s still out on whether Tennille is another example of WWE totally missing the boat on someone; she’s good in the ring, she has undeniable charisma, but she hasn’t developed a character beyond Person Who Wrestles And Occasionally Shouts “It’s All About Me.” When you think about it, this was kind of her problem in the WWE. She pins Skylar. After the match, Kelly Klein runs out to beat on Purrazzo and the two of them have a pull-apart. I noticed that Northeast Wrestling tag team stalwarts Adrenaline Rush were among the black-shirted security guards. Lots of familiar faces tonight!

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

At this point, Dalton Castle comes out. He’s billed for a title defense against Matt Taven. There’s a brief “Rusev Day” chant for some reason, which, smdh. A segment of this crowd also chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Brandi Rhodes when she walked out before the show. I’m not sure how to characterize the ROH audience. There are too many of them to just be the indie wrestling diehards, but there are no casual fans among them either. It’s a weird group. 

Anyway, Castle cuts a meandering promo saying that he’s injured and can’t wrestle, although he’s not vacating the title. Matt Taven’s mom stands up and boos the shit out of him at this point, and good for her. Castle says he’s going to treat us to brunch instead. It’s past 8 p.m., but that’s probably still brunchtime in parts of Brooklyn. The Boys come out and throw croissants to the crowd. You call this brunch? Not even a damn mimosa?

The Kingdom vs. Coast to Coast

Matt Taven comes out with fellow Kingdomites TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia and cuts a promo calling Dalton Castle “a babyback bitch.” Taven’s grandfather, a dignified elder gentleman with a walker and an oxygen tank, is at ringside. I wonder what he thinks of hearing his grandson use that language. Maybe he taught it to Taven. Maybe he thought, “I’ve never been more proud. Especially because Dalton Castle is truly a babyback bitch.” 

Has any wrestling faction had a stranger evolution than The Kingdom? Remember when it was Matt Hardy, Adam Cole, Michael Bennett, and Maria Kanellis? And then Hardy left, and Taven joined, and they would do the Four Horsemen hand gesture? And now it’s Taven and Taven’s Friends? Don’t get me wrong, I like TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia fine, it’s just they’re not exactly Matt Hardy and Adam Cole. 

But they are here tonight, and they are wrestling, and so far we are 4 for 4 on tag team matches. I don’t know who Coast to Coast are. They are, like Rhett Titus, the wrestling equivalent of commons, at least to me. This match is fine. There are some shenanigans when Horror Man Marseglia pulls Coast to Coast and the referee under the ring and some red balloons come out, a la “It.” But then the guys just get out and run back into the ring. Commit to this gimmick, ROH: have them be bloody, mangled corpses (I mean, kayfabe-wise). 

The Kingdom lose this match due to interference from SoCal Uncensored, and so we have a six-man tag match later tonight, because of course we do.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

Bully Ray vs. Cheeseburger

BULLY RAY IS BACK IN ACTION IN LOWELL! That’s WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray to you, pal. His entrance video keeps flashing the words “Hell’s Kitchen,” but he grew up in Queens. Why not claim Queens, Bully Ray? Hell’s Kitchen these days is not exactly a terrifying place; it’s full of Wall Street finance industry dickheads. It’s not even Hell’s Kitchen anymore, they call it “Clinton” now. O for the days when the Irish mob would shoot out your kneecaps on West 44th Street! 

This is a squash, with Bully Ray delivering an uncontested succession of power bombs to Cheeseburger, much to the displeasure of the crowd. Bully Ray leaves the ring to glare menacingly at some fans - THAT’S HOW THEY DO IT IN HELL’S KITCHEN, ER, CLINTON - and is counted out. Cheeseburger wins! Unfortunately, this means more power bombs.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, this would be the only singles match of the night.

Rating: N/A

Roppongi 3K vs. Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody Rhodes

Ring of Honor is really hot right now, maybe the hottest it’s ever been. They just had their largest show ever in New Orleans, and they’re comfortably drawing 1,000+ houses every night. It feels weird, though, like it’s borrowed glamour. It’s all from the Bullet Club/New Japan stuff, and although I realize there’s overlap, it doesn’t feel like a lot of the excitement is Ring of Honor excitement. The ROH stalwarts, guys like the Briscoes and Jay Lethal, feel like afterthoughts right now, as angles are booked around plot twists in “Being the Elite” and buildings are full of fans in New Japan shirts. 

Still, the fervor is undeniable, and the roof practically lifts off the place for the Bullet Club Threesome, although there is definitely a smattering of “You suck!” judgments hurled at Cody. 

This is basically like an NBA All-Star Game; no one is playing defense, no one is really taking it seriously, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It doesn’t mean anything and no one is going to be talking about this match in 10 years or 5 years or even two weeks, but at the moment, for the day that’s in it, it’s fine. Everyone does his thing, Roppongi 3K get a lot of offense in, “Being the Elite” plotlines are advanced when Marty accidentally kicks that guy in the bear costume and gets berated by Cody. 

Bullet Club win, because that’s what the crowd came to see. Too sweet! Woop woop! Too sweet! Woop woop!

Incidentally, I’m reading the book “The People Who Eat Darkness,” which centers on the disappearance of a woman who was a nightclub host in Roppongi, so suddenly Rocky Romero’s team name seems sinister to me.

Rating: Three Kerouacs.

INTERMISSION

Before the show, there was a meet and greet session. We waited in a big long line inside the venue and people got really excited when first Naito, and then the Bullet Club, walked by to get to their tables. Lots of too-sweeting. Less excitement for Daniels and Kazarian, who weren’t part of the official meet and greet but who brought their own table to sell things. That’s how you do business, folks. Always bring your own table to shows, so you don’t have to put up with ROH’s red tape.

In order to get your picture taken, you had to buy a ticket, like when you go to a carnival or fair or something, and then present that ticket to the wrestler, who I guess would hand them all in at the end of the night in exchange for money. I was near the front of the line, so I bought a ticket for Naito. It worked out really well. I assumed the line for his table would be way too long, but because of Sinclair Broadcasting’s ruthless bureaucratic efficiency, I got to meet Mr. Tranquilo. 

Also, I want to doff my cap to whoever programs the music to play at ROH events. Cock Sparrer’s “Because You’re Young” sounds phenomenal over a real PA system, and how often do you hear Cock Sparrer songs in public?

EVIL, SANADA, and Naito vs. Silas Young, the Beer City Bruiser, and Brian Milonas

Crowd goes nuts for Los Ingobernables de Japon, of course. Naito gets a crazy ovation and sustained chant of “NAITO! NAITO! NAITO!” That’s how you can tell an ROH crowd isn’t just indie diehards; unlike indie crowds, ROH crowds can keep a chant going. I always want to call Silas Young either Paul Silas or Silas Marner. The Beer City Bruiser is like a real-life version of parody Wrestling Twitter account Jumpin Jim Grabowski, and Milonas is a New England guy. Lots of heat on Milonas, both from people who have seen him at shows before (the indie diehards) and people who scream at him for being fat (the ROH fans proper). 

This has the same NBA All Star vibe as the previous match, except Silas, Bruiser, and Milonas are not exactly all stars. Perfectly fine, perfectly good mid carders, but there’s a lot of star power on the other side of the ring. Milonas stops Naito from doing the Tranquilo pose and gets maybe the loudest heel reaction of the night. This match is what it is. It’s fun to see the NJPW guys, even doing like 20 percent of their normal repertoire. LIJ win, naturally.

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

Jay Lethal vs. Jay White vs. Chuck Taylor

Taylor was a last-minute addition to the card and gets a crazily enthusiastic welcome. They avoid the usual trap of triple threat matches - one guy takes a powder outside the ring while a standard one-on-one happens - by essentially making this a handicap match, with Taylor and Knife Pervert Jay White teaming up against Lethal. This was my favorite match of the night. It told a reasonable story, the wrestlers are all compelling and played to their strengths (Lethal as heroic babyface, Taylor as chaotic neutral comedian, White as creepy weirdo), and there was decent action all around. Instead of kicking out of each other’s finishers, they would simply tease the finish, have the crowd react, and then have the intended victim escape at the last second. Very effective. Jay Lethal hits Lethal Injection on Knife Pervert and is about to win when Taylor swoops in with an inside cradle to pick up the win. Genuine surprise and a huge pop from the crowd.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship Match: SoCal Uncensored (c) vs. The Kingdom

Having already seen TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia wrestle a full match, I was not jazzed for this bout. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are freaks of nature, though, and always find a way to deliver. Daniels in particular still manages to wrestle the way he did 10 or even 15 years ago, which is absolutely insane when you think about it. A lot of decent stuff here, although I admit I was not in the right mood for it. The Kingdom win in a mild upset and we have new six-man tag team champions. Taven celebrates at ringside with his grandfather, with nary a babyback bitch in sight. 

Rating: Three Kerouacs

The Young Bucks vs. Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI

The first time I saw the Young Bucks in person was a little over three years ago. They seemed absurdly popular then, and it’s amazing to think how much bigger they’ve gotten since. At this point, it sort of doesn’t matter what they do, the spectacle is the whole point of the event, so credit to them for still working hard to put together a wrestling match. This is very much NBA All Star territory, but more like one of those games where one absurdly competitive weirdo like Kobe Bryant decides he’s going to play really hard, and is countered by a similarly competitive weirdo on the opposite. This seesawed between “hey we’re havin’ a blast here” and “can you top this, you babyback bitch.” Lots of crazy stuff happening here, some near falls that actually felt like near falls, and the Bucks winning with the Meltzer Driver, sending the Bullet Club shirted masses home happy.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs 

#MeToo and the Disgruntled's Real World Champ Part 4

Damn, it has been a tough week. Joe Madden may have over thought the Cubs last two games. "Venom" is a so bad it is good movie which leads me to fear the fate of the Sony franchises. I seem to be getting ahead of my blogs by one week, hence I may be working too much.

And then you have the all but certain demise of the country with the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation. How do you tell a happily married man who takes you to sporting event and respects his Nike-boycotting wife that there is no way I want to stand for a flag that represents a dead country. But I respect the man, so I should not embarrass him despite his wife has said that we cannot fault powerful men for abusing their power, unless they were communist revolutionaries.

I never got away with anything growing up. Being too honest has plagued me. Striving for decency deters me from a negative path. The point is, if I screwed up, I paid, and have always paid. If we have learned anything from the Me Too Movement, is that everybody should answer for their indiscretions. It is not vengeance, it is a means to encourage protecting those whose safety is the target of those in power.

Thus, I am pondering if I should make this rant relevant to the current theme of the blog by exploring the incidents of sexual assault and harassment that I have experienced from my time in professional wrestling. You could call it hazing bullshit, but the fact of the matter is if I broke these guys faces, I risked never being booked again by that promotion. What really hurts is that the promotion never used me again. To their credit, I was booked and wisely ended up being a healthy scratch on my last trip to Southern Wisconsin for a last minute appearance by Silas Young, so at least the promotion remembered me.

It was 14 years ago. I was victimized. You cannot hold it against me if I was bumped from the card for someone less prestigious that The Last Real Man in Professional Wrestling (do not hold the gimmick against him). The culprits and facilitators are remembered, especially those who boasted about it. The stories were something I laughed off with the guys in the business like it was just a permanent marker stunt on my face, but when normal people ask for crazy and obscene stories from the business, you realize that the ones that come to immediate mind demonstrate behavior that is not acceptable. You realize that you were abused and you feel you can only blame yourself since you still want to be a part of the business. You cannot blame the sport.

But, these guys (for the most part) are friends and a couple of them have kids. There is a slim chance their life could be ruined since I am already wrestling's persona non grata south of I-80. Why be afraid of going national? Should I wait till I hear about their next job opportunity? I have not killed their present, but why do I feel like I have paid for their constant happiness I have perceived?

I suppose I should just be happy not having post traumatic stress in regards to this issue, or am I just now showing that I suffer from these stunts? Time does not heel all wounds. If this would have been realized when I was in therapy in regards to abusive relationships and and failing to prevent a gas station suicide, perhaps the Supreme Court fulfilling the wills of sex offenders for the next 20 years would not leave me considering snuffing myself (I really needed a better therapist, so probably not).

Hopefully, Ronan Farrow gets wind of this blog and helps me decide if I will name names. Provided that we get over the mess of me being a Woody Allen apologist of course. Time wears away, it does not heal. So I guess the moral is not to wound in the first place.

With that said, I would like to apologize to "Lauren" at Big Al's in Peoria (2015) if I was too handsy to begin with. It was me testing boundaries, and regardless if I stopped when told, I did wrong to begin with.

I gotta at least answer for my indiscretions, before I get this blog back on track. If only I could hold off on the posting till WWE's Evolution for the sake of cultural relevance. But, releasing this a week later may be too much time from when I wrote this.

Anyhow this blog has all the stuff marks want in bold, so the intro and transition do not matter to anyone besides me I suppose. More reason to try and be brave about abuse and the regret that people may have givien a shit about me if my struggles were more relatable than just being in my head.

Pardon the dark tone. It makes me hope a lot of the visitors just paged down to The Disgruntled's Real World Champion content.

66th Real World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champion John Cena (2) - 5/11/2001 to 7/17/11

Edge had forfeited the Big Gold Belt due to a career-ending injury. Christian and Randy Orton's battle for that belt was full of stipulations and swaps to please the fans who thought it was ridiculous for Christian to only have a two-day reign after succeeding the man he broke in to the business with.

Davey Richards aloofness toward Ring of Honor and wrestling in general always left a bad taste in mouth, and until Kevin Steen came into the title picture, his challengers, like him, lacked personality to match their in ring talent. If you thing that in ring ability trumps personality, then you would be ignoring the wrestler of the summer.

67th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champ CM Punk (1) - 7/17/11 to 8/14/11

68th World Heavyweight Champion - NWA's Adam Pearce - 8/14/11 to 4/8/2012

Before "All In" there was "Seven Levels of Hate," the story of two wrestlers (Pearce and Colt Cabana) wanting to do right by the business. That has never been WWE's prerogative. Fearing a drop in ratings, WWE had Alberto Del Rio cash in Money in the Bank on Punk so that he could drop the belt to Cena. Realizing it did nothing for the long term, Cena would drop the belt back to Del Rio. Del Rio would then drop the belt to Punk and avoid making THEIR star look bad by losing to his rival thrice.

69th World Heavyweight Champion - NWA's Colt Cabana - 4/8/12 to 7/21/12

70th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champ CM Punk (2) - 7/21/12 to 1/27/2013

It is tempting to give the belt to ROH's Kevin Steen since he was the headliner during Richard's reign without even wrestling. Him winning the title proved his importance to the business. But, WWE has gone out of their way to make us forget the 434-day reign of the predecessor to Steen. In the end, NWA fell from relevance not committing to Pearce and Cabana efforts to elevate their title. WWE chose stock over substance having Punk drop the title to a part-timer in the Rock.

71st World Heavyweight Champion - ROH's Kevin Steen - 1/27/13 to 4/5/13

Just because WWE chose their stock, does not mean I have to.

72nd World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champ The Rock (5) - 4/5/13 to 4/7/13

And then indie wrestling shoots itself in the foot. Jay Briscoe had the resume to be ROH Champion, but in what were progressive times, he was not meant for the REAL champ title. This reign brought us the personalized world title belt featuring Confederate battle flags. The injury that ended his reign may have been legitimate (Wikipedia says no), but I think his babyfaced character's pro-gun, anti-marriage equality tweet during his championship was the reason his reign did not make the two-month mark.

73rd World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champ John Cena (3) - 4/7/13 to 8/13/13

74th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champ Daniel Bryan (2) - 8/13/13

75th World Heavyweight Champion - World Heavyweight Champ Alberto Del Rio - 8/13/13 to 10/27/13

Randy Orton had cashed in Money it the Bank to start the "brilliant" storyline for Daniel Bryan's Wrestlemania moment. I still believe this narrative was not going to happen until Punk left and the Bootista backlash occurred. Alberto Del Rio's reigns with the Big Gold Belt had everything. He beat the Big Show as a babyface. The break in his reign was a raw deal with a Money in the Bank cash in, so he became a vengeful heel to regain it.

76th World Heavyweight Champion - World Heavyweight Champ John Cena (4) - 10/27/13 to 12/15/13

The original formatting of this blog post actually allowed me to conclude this list. But with the title and the downer nature of the intro, I think it is best to conclude this with my next post. This blog's title may get more eyes on it, and the feedback to make the post more fun. Or more insightful if the focus will be on the intro. If I want to get the most out of my writing, gotta make it so it encourages more.

G1 Climax B Block finals preview

This show airs Saturday, August 12 at 5:30am Eastern, don’cha dare miss it!

Kazuchika Okada (13 pts) vs. Kenny Omega (12 pts) - Everyone but these two is mathematically eliminated from winning B block, so whichever of them ends up with the most points goes to the finals on 8/13.  Okada is the IWGP heavyweight champion and Omega is the US champion, but neither title is on the line.

If Omega wins, he beats Okada 14-13.  If Okada wins, Okada wins the block 15-12.  If the match goes to the 30-minute time limit, neither man wins the match but Okada wins the block 14-13.  If it’s a double count-out, Okada wins 13-12.  So Omega has to beat Okada, and he has to do it inside of half an hour.  Keep in mind, these two have never even had a one-on-one match that went less than 46 minutes.

This is the third in a series that began at Wrestle Kingdom 11, with a main event so good that Dave Meltzer gave it six stars.  The rematch at Dominion 6.11 went to a 60-minute draw and arguably topped the first one.  Dave gave the second match 6¼, which tells me a) he knows these two have broken his ratings system and b) he’s expecting them to put on an even better match any day now.  If Omega can finally win this time, the series will be 1-1-1, and the stage will be set for a tiebreaking fourth encounter at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

Both guys have been killing it throughout the G1, racking up wins while delivering performances that make it feel like they could lose at any moment.  It’s tough to pick favorites, but I think Okada vs. Suzuki was a war that set the stage for this by taking Okada to the limit.  Okada is a machine, but there’s a clear subtext to his matches where it’s wearing him down, like Batman in “Knightfall.”  He needs to keep the pace in this match slow and let the clock work for him, but Kenny’s smart enough to counter that with faster offense than in the past.

It feels inevitable that Omega has to finally get his big win--when the title’s not at stake, ironically--but I’ve thought that twice before.  It’s tempting to think this is the part of “Knightfall” where Bane finally just annihilates Batman, but it may just be the part earlier on where Batman is tired as hell but fucks up the Joker anyway.

EVIL (10 pts) vs. Satoshi Kojima (2 pts) - Evil has had a breakout run in this year’s tournament, highlighted by a win over Okada that puts him in line for a title shot someday.  Kojima is playing the role of “aging legend who can barely hang with the top wrestlers in the world anymore,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if he announces next year that the 2018 tournament will be his last.  There are clearly big things in store for Evil and I don’t think a pity job for Kojima is one of them, so look for Evil to finish in third place.

Minoru Suzuki (9 pts) vs. Toru Yano (6 pts) - Suzuki’s NEVER title is not on the line.  I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks.  Yano’s role in the tournament is always to spice things up with bullshit comedy matches, and in that sense I think he’s outdone himself this year.  In a month of four-star matches, you need the occasional one-star affair where Yano just ties Juice Robinson’s hair to the guardrail or where Yano seems genuinely afraid that Tama Tonga is an actual ghost.  But his toughest test will be Suzuki, the ultimate ancient badass that nobody wants to mess with.  But Suzuki isn’t unstoppable like the Undertaker--he does jobs here and there that somehow never erode his credibility.  So there’s a slim chance for Yano to pull off some shenanigans.  I’m not picking him to win, but it could happen!

SANADA (8 pts) vs. Tama Tonga (6 pts) - Tonga got a lot of publicity from doing a shoot-y promo right before the G1, acting like they need to clear out the old guys and push non-Japanese (such as himself) harder.  I figured that would look kind of weak if he didn’t do really well in the tournament--well, he didn’t do well and it looks hella weak.  I mean, Sanada’s not doing that much better but he hasn’t been out there raising expectations, y’know?  Anyway, these two are fast as hell and agile as shit so this should be interesting.  I’m thinking Sanada wins.

Michael Elgin (8 pts) vs. Juice Robinson (6 pts) - Elgin is great and all, but he’s mostly been “just there” for this year.  He didn’t get many wins but at least he scored victories over Omega and Suzuki to set up two possible title shots.  Juice, on the other hand, has the story of this being his debut in the G1, and although 6 points isn’t great it’s better than I was expecting from him.  It means a whole lot more for Robinson to have a win over Omega than it does for Elgin, and I think people are going to be more into Juice’s journey.  Of course, the other dimension of Juice’s story arc has been selling his knee for four weeks, so that puts a tempting target in front of a very painful-looking opponent.  Elgin will probably win, but I bet Juice gets a little moment with the crowd afterwards.

Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & David Finlay - Naito and Tana went to war the night before this show, and now there’s nothing left to do but this throwaway six-man tag match.  If you’re Naito you’d want to take it easy in advance of tomorrow night, but if you’re Tanahashi you’ve got nothing to lose making him work for it.  It’d be pretty stupid to have Naito lose right now, so count on LIJ to get the job done.

Cody Rhodes & Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Bad Luck Fale & Hangman Page vs. Hanson & Raymond Rowe & Ricochet & Ryusuke Taguchi & Katsuya Kitamura - More or less the same ten-man tag as the 8/11 show, except with Chase Owens swapped out for Fale and Michael Elgin swapped out for Kitamura, the world’s hunkiest jobber.  Not sure which side gets the better of that proposition.  Kitamura is destined for big things but for now he’s a Young Lion, and they put over the established stars.  So I figure Bullet Club wins.

Yuji Nagata & Togi Makabe vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Takashi Iizuka - I heard Iizuka was sidelined with an injury, but I guess he’s back now.  Interestingly, Iizuka betrayed the non-aligned New Japan babyfaces (including Nagata) to join GBH (the old faction Makabe still proudly represents), and then betrayed them to join Suzuki-gun.  So that’s neat.  Hopefully Nagata will get a win, but I could also see them saving that for the 8/13 show.

Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens - It’s three big wheels in CHAOS who were in the G1 versus three back-end guys from Bullet Club who couldn’t even get in the tournament.  So I’d have the Chaos guys win.

KUSHIDA & Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask & Hirai Kawato vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Kushida is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion and the ROH TV champion, and hasn’t been around throughout the G1 tour, so it’ll be nice to have him back.  Taichi and company are basically the Suzuki-gun B-team, so expect a lot of brawling outside the ring that amounts to no particular advantage.  If anybody’s going to lose the fall here it’s bound to be Kawato, so I guess the heels win.