The Wrestling Thread

[Ira Gaines]

Chris McDonald, on 22 Oct 2014 - 15:07, said:

It's been announced that Cesaro will take on Ziggler in a best 2 out of 3 falls match at hell in a cell

Niiiiiiice. Has the potential to be absolutely magnificent.

[Waffelz]

Lets hope the first two falls aren't from a standard move and over after two seconds for once.

[Ira Gaines]

Waffelz, on 22 Oct 2014 - 19:08, said:

Lets hope the first two falls aren't from a standard move and over after two seconds for once.

They probably will be. They're usually structured the same way as a normal match. What the 2/3 Falls does allow for is an excuse to give both guys more time than they'd usually get on a PPV.

[Quentin Taranbino]

Has there ever been a 2/3 falls match in WWE that hasn't gone to 1-1

[Ira Gaines]

DavidMcG, on 22 Oct 2014 - 23:09, said:

Has there ever been a 2/3 falls match in WWE that hasn't gone to 1-1

MVP vs. Voldermort.

[Ira Gaines]

Finally got my hands on PWG's Battle of Los Angeles weekend, and this is a review of night one.

TJ Perkins vs. Bobby Fish - BOLA First Round Match

I've never really bought into Bobby Fish as a singles competitor. He's good in the tag team with Kyle O'Reilly called reDRagon. Perkins has always been solid, so I suspect that's how this match will go. Some really smart moves and counters in this match. Especially Bobby Fish who impressed me more than he has in a singles match in some time, and TJ Perkins is always game for some weird shit going on in his matches. Some of the leg work from Bobby Fish was very innovative. Reminded me of Drew McIntyre on the WWE b-shows when he'd break out some weird nasty things to work on a body part. Another smart spot is when Perkins does the Suicide Dive, but only takes a couple of steps, so as to not do as much damage to his leg. When do you EVER see that? Much better match than I expected. Everything was crisp, they didn't burn the crowd out and it remained exciting. The ending is absolutely wonderful as well. ****

Biff Busick vs. Roderick Strong - BOLA First Round Match

This should be nice and hard hitting. Biff Busick is making, I think, his first ever PWG appearance. He's more of a CZW mainstay. So much so that someone starts a CZW chant. This doesn't quite have the fluid movement of the first match, as neither man is anywhere near as fluid as those guys in the ring, but they deliver a nice match, with Strong getting increasingly annoyed by the PWG newcomer refusing to stay out of the match. Busick even starts getting the better of the strike exchanges at times until Strong always takes the cheap way out. The drama wasn't quite there with these two, but the fans stayed with them and the two guys delivered a two sided hard hitting funfest, so fair fucks. ***3/4

Cedric Alexander vs. Trevor Lee - BOLA First Round Match

I am a big fan of both of these guys. Both guys also know each other pretty well. This could be a very good match right here. This was not the match I was expecting or hoping for from these two guys. Everything was just a bit too disjointed, with weird timing all over the place, and a couple of pretty big botches and an out of nowhere finish. Not much to get excited about here at all. **1/2

World's Cutest Tag Team © vs. The Addiction ( Christopher Daniels and Kazarian ) vs. Ricochet and Rich Swann - PWG Tag Team Championships

Multi-team action usually, at the very least, means a quick pace and lots of fun. The Addiction are in full dickhead heel mode which makes much of what they do a lot of fun. Cracking tag team title match actually. All sorts of great action with all six people impressing. ****

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Michael Elgin - BOLA First Round Match

This nearly gets going early but the referee manages to separate them for the introductions. They don't stay separate for long though, and they wrestle like they have a real dislike for each other. This was a hard hitting big move fest which the fans absolutely loved. Me? I liked it. A lot of it seemed a bit contrived and it felt like I had watched the exact same match a million times before. It's still real good fun though. ***3/4

Brian Myers vs. AJ Styles - BOLA First Round Match

Myers is, infact, Curt Hawkins of WWE fame. This match supposedly isn't very good, which doesn't bode very well for the guy, but many guys have got off to a slow start on the indies. Drew Galloway seems to be really settling in after an iffy start for example. Myers carries himself really well, which seems to be something that WWE drills into their guys. AJ Styles is on the form of his life at the moment, and arguably better than he's ever been, so any match involving him comes along with some sort of anticipation these days. Myers has some quality right hands as well. Did Lawler teach him that? Myers really isn't impressive here, and brings the match down a few notches and the botched finish just puts the cherry on top. *1/2

Drew Gulak vs. Kyle O'Reilly - BOLA First Round Match

Gulak is a mainstay of CZW, and is making his PWG debut and is actually quite good, and is a good match for the current PWG champion. These two guys have a very different sort of match, which is one of those sorts of quasi-shoot matches you see now and again. Gulak is a master of that sort of thing and while it ensures you never get a truly great match out of him, it also ensures that you never get a shitter out of him as his style is just so different to what you see normally. The fans weren't really buying Gulak as a winner though, and so they were appreciative of what they were seeing, they weren't invested in the match much of the time and that seemed to hurt it for me. A good fun match this one though. ***3/4

The Young Bucks and Adam Cole vs. Kenny Omega, Chick Taylor and Zack Sabre Jr.

Great to see Sabre not only in PWG, but actually in a main event. And boy, does that guy look the part nowadays. It's a PWG six man with the Bucks involved, so you know PWG, you know the drill. Sabre is loved by the audience as you would expect from someone with that amount of talent. And then after his showcase at the start, the match breaks down into an absolutely mental multi-man match. I firmly believe that The Young Bucks have been the best tag team in the world for the last few years and it's matches like this that make you believe it as they deliver them so consistently. Other great booking moments just sent the match into another level as far as crowd heat goes. It's a mental crazy six man tag that PWG do so well. ****1/2

A fun show this one. There's some real down moments which manage to take it into the lower level of PWG shows, but that says more for PWG as you expect their shows to be spectacular these days. This is merely really good and there's a couple of matches on this show that you really want to see.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Do you think there may be plans in place to turn Orton face? With the way Raw ended and with things not looking good for D.Bryan, plus Roman Reigns sidelined for a spell, they may be looking for someone other than Cena to work with Lesner. A win for Orton on Sunday would set that up nicely. I suppose they could consider giving Ambrose a push against Lesner but I reckon his feud with Seth Rollin's will run for a while yet. Another Cena Vs Lesner match doesn't appeal to me. *yawn*

[Christophe]

Settling down to start on NOAH 'Global League 2014'.....Day 2 has dropped with no sign of Day 1 anywhere. CURSES!

Will make do with 'Great Voyage in Yokohama' for tonight and hope it's rectified before long.

[djchapsticks]

Do you think there may be plans in place to turn Orton face? With the way Raw ended and with things not looking good for D.Bryan, plus Roman Reigns sidelined for a spell, they may be looking for someone other than Cena to work with Lesner. A win for Orton on Sunday would set that up nicely. I suppose they could consider giving Ambrose a push against Lesner but I reckon his feud with Seth Rollin's will run for a while yet. Another Cena Vs Lesner match doesn't appeal to me. *yawn*

Neither does an Orton face run appeal to me. He's dull as dishwater as a face. However, it's WWE and they instantly think that a bit of flash in the pan mainstream exposure (the RKO meme) means Orton will now be over for about the next 18 months as a face and they'll name check the fucking meme at every turn now to show how mainstream they are.

[Christophe]

Finally got my hands on PWG's Battle of Los Angeles weekend, and this is a review of night one.

TJ Perkins vs. Bobby Fish - BOLA First Round Match

I've never really bought into Bobby Fish as a singles competitor. He's good in the tag team with Kyle O'Reilly called reDRagon. Perkins has always been solid, so I suspect that's how this match will go. Some really smart moves and counters in this match. Especially Bobby Fish who impressed me more than he has in a singles match in some time, and TJ Perkins is always game for some weird shit going on in his matches. Some of the leg work from Bobby Fish was very innovative. Reminded me of Drew McIntyre on the WWE b-shows when he'd break out some weird nasty things to work on a body part. Another smart spot is when Perkins does the Suicide Dive, but only takes a couple of steps, so as to not do as much damage to his leg. When do you EVER see that? Much better match than I expected. Everything was crisp, they didn't burn the crowd out and it remained exciting. The ending is absolutely wonderful as well. ****

Biff Busick vs. Roderick Strong - BOLA First Round Match

This should be nice and hard hitting. Biff Busick is making, I think, his first ever PWG appearance. He's more of a CZW mainstay. So much so that someone starts a CZW chant. This doesn't quite have the fluid movement of the first match, as neither man is anywhere near as fluid as those guys in the ring, but they deliver a nice match, with Strong getting increasingly annoyed by the PWG newcomer refusing to stay out of the match. Busick even starts getting the better of the strike exchanges at times until Strong always takes the cheap way out. The drama wasn't quite there with these two, but the fans stayed with them and the two guys delivered a two sided hard hitting funfest, so fair fucks. ***3/4

Cedric Alexander vs. Trevor Lee - BOLA First Round Match

I am a big fan of both of these guys. Both guys also know each other pretty well. This could be a very good match right here. This was not the match I was expecting or hoping for from these two guys. Everything was just a bit too disjointed, with weird timing all over the place, and a couple of pretty big botches and an out of nowhere finish. Not much to get excited about here at all. **1/2

World's Cutest Tag Team © vs. The Addiction ( Christopher Daniels and Kazarian ) vs. Ricochet and Rich Swann - PWG Tag Team Championships

Multi-team action usually, at the very least, means a quick pace and lots of fun. The Addiction are in full dickhead heel mode which makes much of what they do a lot of fun. Cracking tag team title match actually. All sorts of great action with all six people impressing. ****

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Michael Elgin - BOLA First Round Match

This nearly gets going early but the referee manages to separate them for the introductions. They don't stay separate for long though, and they wrestle like they have a real dislike for each other. This was a hard hitting big move fest which the fans absolutely loved. Me? I liked it. A lot of it seemed a bit contrived and it felt like I had watched the exact same match a million times before. It's still real good fun though. ***3/4

Brian Myers vs. AJ Styles - BOLA First Round Match

Myers is, infact, Curt Hawkins of WWE fame. This match supposedly isn't very good, which doesn't bode very well for the guy, but many guys have got off to a slow start on the indies. Drew Galloway seems to be really settling in after an iffy start for example. Myers carries himself really well, which seems to be something that WWE drills into their guys. AJ Styles is on the form of his life at the moment, and arguably better than he's ever been, so any match involving him comes along with some sort of anticipation these days. Myers has some quality right hands as well. Did Lawler teach him that? Myers really isn't impressive here, and brings the match down a few notches and the botched finish just puts the cherry on top. *1/2

Drew Gulak vs. Kyle O'Reilly - BOLA First Round Match

Gulak is a mainstay of CZW, and is making his PWG debut and is actually quite good, and is a good match for the current PWG champion. These two guys have a very different sort of match, which is one of those sorts of quasi-shoot matches you see now and again. Gulak is a master of that sort of thing and while it ensures you never get a truly great match out of him, it also ensures that you never get a shitter out of him as his style is just so different to what you see normally. The fans weren't really buying Gulak as a winner though, and so they were appreciative of what they were seeing, they weren't invested in the match much of the time and that seemed to hurt it for me. A good fun match this one though. ***3/4

The Young Bucks and Adam Cole vs. Kenny Omega, Chick Taylor and Zack Sabre Jr.

Great to see Sabre not only in PWG, but actually in a main event. And boy, does that guy look the part nowadays. It's a PWG six man with the Bucks involved, so you know PWG, you know the drill. Sabre is loved by the audience as you would expect from someone with that amount of talent. And then after his showcase at the start, the match breaks down into an absolutely mental multi-man match. I firmly believe that The Young Bucks have been the best tag team in the world for the last few years and it's matches like this that make you believe it as they deliver them so consistently. Other great booking moments just sent the match into another level as far as crowd heat goes. It's a mental crazy six man tag that PWG do so well. ****1/2

A fun show this one. There's some real down moments which manage to take it into the lower level of PWG shows, but that says more for PWG as you expect their shows to be spectacular these days. This is merely really good and there's a couple of matches on this show that you really want to see.

Good stuff. Either you're really generous or this is must-see.

[Ira Gaines]

I tend to be generous with the nutty style of PWG to be fair. I've seen the opening match rated lower pretty much everywhere else. I loved the fluidity of it though. It just flows really well and I was sucked right in. I might have overrated Lee/Alexander. That was pretty average stuff. If you like the PWG way of doing things, you'll like this show.

Working through night two, and it's more consistent in that it doesn't have a Myers/Styles or Lee/Alexander to drag things down.

[Big River]

Do you think there may be plans in place to turn Orton face? With the way Raw ended and with things not looking good for D.Bryan, plus Roman Reigns sidelined for a spell, they may be looking for someone other than Cena to work with Lesner. A win for Orton on Sunday would set that up nicely. I suppose they could consider giving Ambrose a push against Lesner but I reckon his feud with Seth Rollin's will run for a while yet. Another Cena Vs Lesner match doesn't appeal to me. *yawn*

I reckon that's exactly what's going to happen. They'll have Orton turn then have him face Lesnar, and they'll tease a cash in from Rollins or something but Lesnar will win again. Haven't watched in a while but by all accounts Orton has been a dull as f**k heel so a face turn might not be that bad.

I think Lesnars next 2 opponents will be Orton and Batista. Both were involved in the title picture in recent memory so it makes sense.

[Ira Gaines]

Big River, on 24 Oct 2014 - 00:18, said:

I reckon that's exactly what's going to happen. They'll have Orton turn then have him face Lesnar, and they'll tease a cash in from Rollins or something but Lesnar will win again. Haven't watched in a while but by all accounts Orton has been a dull as f**k heel so a face turn might not be that bad.

Orton has been Orton. He's inconsistent no matter if he's a heel or face.

[JamieStevenson]

I've been really enjoying Orton lately but then they have to go and ruin it by putting him against Cena again. Can't be bothered with that match at all.

[Ira Gaines]

Sitting in the Paisley Lagoon right now waiting for SWA. And I need to note that Tommy End is a total beast.

[Christophe]

Just looking at the card. Gallagher v Rampage should be innarrestin.

[Ira Gaines]

Hi I'll post thoughts and results in this post.

Big Damo and Celtic Arrow beat Mr Byers and Joe Hendry. Fun pre show fare here, with Byers taking some nasty shit from both guys.

Jack Gallagher vs Rampage Brown up first. Rampage wins a really good opener with the piledriver. Good pace to it.

Dicky Divers vs Kenny Williams is up next. Williams wins with a swinging DDT in a fine match. Better than the opener.

Adam Shame and Eric Canyon vs Grado and Solar up next. Fun tag with Team Grado winning.

Mikey Whiplash vs Tommy End now. Oaft. Whiplash wins with a lariat. Fucking stunning match.

Next up, Muay Tasche vs The Forgotten for the tag team titles. Muay Tasche win! Overbooked fun and games. Really good.

Lewis Girvan vs Noam Dar up next. Noam wins with the spinning backslide in an okay match.

Nikki Storm vs Leah Von Dutch is up next. Nikki wins an okay match. Two in a row for okay matches. Consistency.

Main event with Joe Coffey vs Dave Mastiff. Coffey beat Mastiff in a two sided hard hitting battle to end a good show.

Edited October 24, 2014 by NewDomDom

[Christophe]

Finally watched NOAH Great Voyage in Yokohama. The last stop before the 2014 Global League tournament. These larger NOAH shows seem to be attracting well, about 3,500 in.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hitoshi Kumano vs. Mitsuhiro Kitamiya

Originally this was a tag match with Yoshinari Ogawa also involved, injury changes this to a triple threat. I have a lot of love for the remaining guys. Sadly, NOAH don't have much time for them here, giving them 4 mins. Kumano and Kitamiya run to the ring, which means the time consists of a ZSJ entrance, some roll-ups and an armbar to Kumano for the finish by ZSJ. **

Akitoshi Saito and Genba Hirayanagi (No Mercy) vs. Pesadilla and Quiet Storm

The next few matches are 'Passage to Global League' matches, highlighting wrestlers who will take part in the upcoming round-robin. Hirayanagi has inherited the No Mercy leadership from KENTA. He performs leadership duties with a crowd rousing promo, but it's all worth nowt as Storm, who huffs like the big bad wolf just entering the ring, takes the win, going over Genba with his '50cm Lariat' (which is just the lariat, while bragging about his bicep size in the name) **

Maybach Taniguchi and Takeshi Morishima (Cho Kibou-gun) vs. TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima)

I'll try not to come over as a NJPW mark who automatically categorises all that TenCozy pull off here as brilliant and all that CKG do as deplorable but pretty much everything here that attempts to rouse fans into reacting comes by the way of TenCozy and everything that tries to break things match apart into a clumsy shitfest is Morishima and mainly Taniguchi. The ending comes when Taniguchi uses his forked metal pole on Kojima for the best part of a minute before the referee calls for the bell and we are all put out of our misery **1/4

Mohammed Yone and Katsuhiko Nakajima (BRAVE) vs. Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi

The crowd hate Nagata here but that's ok, his recent tendency to fight as an invader heel figure explains that and whilst the by-association booing Nakanishi gets seems absolutely ridiculous considering the absurd beauty of the man, it's fair enough here in the NOAH universe i guess. Nagata is last year's Global League winner and successfully defended his GHC title against Yone, so this is his return to his scene of victory. No disrespect to anyone wrestling below this on the card, however the poor opening efforts are soon a distant memory when Nakajima and Nagata start attempting to waste one another with their signature stinging kicks. It's not exactly smooth but is hotly contested by the 4. You really sense they all really want to lay bombs on one another. Nagata picks up the win for NJPW with a Backdrop Hold on his old adversary Yone ***1/4

Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori (BRAVE) © vs. Hajime Ohara and Kenou (Cho Kibou-gun)

GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - The recent tournament winners take on the champions. Until that win, the heels were somewhat luckless, with neither managing to capture any singles titles or win many meaningful victories, normally to be seen filling the role of Cho Kibou-gun jobbers. In the opposite corner are two stalwarts of a entertaining stable comprising of mainly likeable tough guys who always seem to come out on top. The BRAVE guys are both also excellent wrestlers who probably work better as singles, but the reign as tag-title holders has worked well. It's a solid story that should allow this bout the chance to breath. This doesn't really happen though, NOAH don't work the style of NJPW and DG so in their junior tag matches you won't see that degree of turny-all-over-the-ring wrestling. If you're of the kind of old school mentality who believe that you are here to watch wrestling and not trampolining then you might enjoy this. I would say wrestling has room for bits of everything. Ishimori hurts his leg (SHOOT) and the focus of their opponents is set, beating him mercilessly in a match that starts and stalls and starts, stalls, starts, stalls, over and over. Like all of Kenou's bouts really. The heels get the win and take the belts ***1/4

Daisuke Harada vs. Super Crazy

GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - Not sure Crazy should be eligible for a junior title here given his weight, also in my mind he was relatively old when he was delighting ECW audiences in the late 90s performing dives with that grin permanently etched his coupon, so lord knows how old he is now. While time hasn't done much to aid his aerial prowess, he can work a legit decent 15 minutes with an accomplished grappler. Harada is certainly that. For all the outlandish plaudits you can throw at him, Harada plays a boring character here (well not so much boring but more like the consumate pro against Crazy's OTT, cult hero veteran). It gives a good character twist where we have no real heel, so the audience are free to cheer whichever they prefer. This reminds me of Dean Malenko trying to work WWE main events around 2004. Surprisingly the majority of running gets done here by Crazy, who keeps pace lively and shows Harada thing or two about keeping the crowd alive. The champion is a smart though and despite a late onslaught of Crazy's trio of moonsaults (first and second turnbuckle hit, top missed), Harada hits the Katayama German Suplex Hold, and his fifth successful defence is secure. Zack Sabre Jr. comes out and challenges for Harada for the next title shot, Harada accepts and THE DREAM MATCH IS MADE! ***1/2

Dangan Yankees (Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura) © vs. The Mighty Don't Kneel (Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls)

GHC TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - Sadly the same result here as the Great Voyage Tokyo show with these two, with TMDK losing, would like to have had a title change here. The Young Bucks have the artistic edge on any tag team of 2014 debate, but there's a lot to be said about the Dangans sheer cruelty in the ring that encourages me to strongly put them forward for such honours. It's good that Dangans aren't just veterans rolling out the same old move-set over and over, but try to elevate to new awesomeness and have a ball at the same time. TMDK are not outdone here though, previously I'd always prefered Haste and had him down as a certain target for NJPW/WWE at some point but Nicholls impresses me more here. Excellent work. ****

Naomichi Marufuji © vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

GHC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - Sekimoto has kind of lumbered his way along in his rare NOAH showings so far, defeating Taniguchi via DQ (even my gran has DQ win on Taniguchi on her CV) and getting a pin on a nothing show very late in the day in multi-man action featuring Marufuji. Slow start, nothing to note in the early exchanges bar Marufuji attempting the apron Shiranui but Sekimoto fights him off, backdropping the champion on the outside for the first big UHHHHHH all night. When the match gets going it's great; Sekimoto hits his Delayed German Suplex, a real thing of beauty, a brutal move in slow motion. Only thing here is you know Sekimoto isn't winning the title by any stretch of the imagination. The finish is a anti-climax against the brutality of Sekimoto, the win comes more or less out of nothing, Marufuji winning with sort of a Boma Ye variation after hardly any offence. Afterwards Marufuji promos and says that he will take the Global League, obviously the champ is going to say that. ***3/4

Overall: first half fine, second half of title bouts ranging between quite good and very good.

Onwards to Global League now...

Edited October 25, 2014 by Christophe

[Ira Gaines]

Haste and Nicholls appear to have come on leaps and bounds. Which is good.

[Ira Gaines]

Go into Walkabout for a look at the fitba and wind up going to a Fierce Females show. Night has taken a turn for the better.