Keiji Muto vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Wrestle Kingdom III 1/4/09

BACKGROUND

Muto won the IWGP title in April of 08 from Nakamura. If I remember correctly, his title reign was very successful for NJPW with higher ratings and attendance rates than usual. One of the greatest of the old guard of NJPW had reclaimed the championship in what would likely be his last reign with IWGP gold. The goal was obvious: create interest in the belt and have him put over someone of the current generation. Tanahashi was the perfect candidate for that. They had wrestled to a draw recently in the previous year's Champion's Carnival, showing that Tanahashi definitely had the power to be on the same level as or possibly even beat Muto.

MATCH

We get the typical basic grappling, maneuvering, and holds you'd expect from the first few minutes of the match. Muto gets out of a head scissor hold and takes a few seconds outside to regroup. When he comes back, he's met with a dragon screw (first of many) and targetting of his moonsault-worn left knee with submissions and strikes. Muto is finally able to counter a dragon screw attempt by attacking Tanahashi with a right knee strike and immediately shoots off his own dragon screw on Tana. He pulls off one more from the apron to the floor and then another on the floor. We get a shining wizard while Tana is against the guardrail. Another dragon screw from Muto, this time with Tanahashi straddled on the guardrail.

There's a ref count and Tanahashi makes it back at 15, selling the knee. Muto attacks him and gets another dragon screw with Tanahashi in the ropes, then yet another. He locks on the figure four until it gets a rope break. We get a knee dropkick contest that ends with a Muto dragon screw. A little while later, there's a dragon screw and figure four again. Muto has been in control for quite awhile now, but Tanahashi gets in the occasional offense, almost all knee attacks from both guys.

From here, the moves are somewhat more varied, but there's still a lot of repetition with dragon screws, low dropkicks, sling blades, and shining wizards. Tanahashi pulls off a cradle german and hits a high fly flow. It takes a lot out of his bad knee and he sells this excellently. There's one sad botch where Muto goes for a springboard low dropkick and completely misses, but Tanahashi falls down anyway. Muto locks on a third figure four with Tanahashi dramatically holding the ref until he can get to the ropes. Tanahashi is able to desperately pull off a frankensteiner pin, which is how Muto was able to beat Nakamura. Tanahashi then gives Muto a neck screw in return for getting the move done to him earlier. Tanahashi is looking good, but can't hold the german suplex pin because of his knee. Excellent selling. He slaps feeling back into it and pulls off a dragon suplex for a nearfall. Tana gets a high fly flow and misses the second and recieves a SHINING WIZARDO. Muto goes up top for the moonsault, but never put Tanahashi in position, so Tanahashi rolls towards him and the moonsault misses. It looked awkward and contrived, but didn't really hurt the match's momentum. The crowd was still into it. Tanahashi finishes off with two high fly flows to become ACE OF THE UNIVERSE!

REVIEW

This one is difficult to rate. It's a good quality match with some definite flaws that bring the score down. The match was very focused with the leg work and selling. The constant move repetition did get old and start to drag the match down, but at least with the dragon screw, it was done with purpose. The overall theme here was Tanahashi being on the same level as established veteran and mentor Muto and the passing of the torch. It succeeded in that for sure. I still had the feeling that the match could have been tweaked to truly make it a classic.

RATING: 8 out of 10

Undertaker vs Triple H, Wrestlemania 17 4/1/01

BACKGROUND

This feud was provoked when Triple H said he had beaten everyone, prompting Undertaker to come out and threaten to make him famous. Triple H attacked him in the back, destroyed his bike, cops arrested Undertaker for smashing up things, etc. Typical wrestling feud stuff. Stephanie McMahon got a restraining order on Taker, so Kane had to do his dirty work. You had a babyface sending his 7 foot 300 pound evil brother to capture a tiny woman who was running for her life. WWE is still that way today and you can thank the Attitude Era for that. Then came one of the most hokey segments ever. Undertaker was trying to convince Commissioner Regal to give him a match with Triple H at Mania, so Kane held up an obviously fake and screaming Steph mannequin on a balcony above, threatening to throw her to her death below if Taker didn't get his match. Awful and embarrassing.

MATCH

Taker and HHH start off brawling, which would set the tone for the rest of the match. There are no holds here. These guys flat out hate each other. Triple H argues with the ref after a nearfall, then soon goes for his trusty sledehammer, which ends up being taken away by the ref. Triple H gets catapulted into the ref and Taker gets a chokeslam and nearfall. Taker then beats up the poor referee just for the hell of it. This was actually an excuse for Taker and Haitch to brawl through the crowd and do whatever else they wanted.

They get to the stage equipment area in the crowd and end up climbing up a couple platforms. Triple H hits Taker several times with a chair bending it all to hell before Haitch gets caught with a hand around his neck. Taker chokeslams The Game off the platform. JR says it was concrete below, but it's actually a little platform with a lot of give to it. The spot still looked pretty good and got a nice reaction as well. Taker jumps on top of him with an elbow drop and then drags Haitch back to the ring. The ref is still down. Undertaker grabs the sledgehammer, but gets a low blow before using it. They slug it out with Undertaker eventually getting a tombstone with no ref to count. Taker goes for a last ride with Triple H picking up the sledgehammer on the way up. He nails Taker with it to prevent the move. Really cool and clever spot there. The ref wakes up and Triple H gets a nearfall. Taker is busted open. Triple H backs him in the corner for punches targetting his cut. This gives Taker the perfect opportunity to pick him up for the last ride and win the match.

REVIEW

Simple, fun, and satisfying. There's not anything even close to revolutionary here, but it's solid and well-done for what they were going for. Undertaker wasn't known for good matches at the time, but this delivered. It gets overlooked due to matches that topped it on the card. Still, it's worth checking out and is helped by an excellent crowd.

RATING: 7 out of 10

Tyler Black vs Davey Richards, Death Before Dishonor VIII 6/19/10

BACKGROUND

Tyler Black spent a ridiculously long time chasing the ROH title and finally got it. As with many other wrestlers, the ROH fans started turning against him. Davey Richards was getting more and more respect from them with each match and would become the new golden boy of the company, fans, and the internet. This match is billed as two of the best in the company (and world) wrestling for the belt, nothing overly fancy. Both guys are given interviews about their personal lives and setbacks to build the match. Strategy is vaguely discussed a bit, which I like.

Now for my personal feelings: I view Tyler Black as little more than a wrestler who has high workrate matches with not nearly enough presence. Davey Richards is a Dynamite Kid and Chris Benoit type wrestler who does annoying things at times (like wrestling an entire match as a heel and breaking kayfabe by sucking up to them after it's over). Unlike Black though, he does have something more, it's just used wrong in my opinion. I'm convinced that in a perfect world he would be in an entirely different role. His facial expressions and mannerisms remind me of someone who is mentally ill/deranged, not someone who is trying to overcome a difficult family life and tragedy. Or maybe he just needs to tone it down a bit, but hey, the ROH fans do enjoy it. As it is now, he sometimes comes off as a strange mix of creepy and unintentionally funny when he gets into his INTENSITY MODE.

MATCH

Handshake is denied by Davey in the beginning and there's some hate to start off. They mat wrestle for awhile, all fair and good. There's a good sequence of transitions into surfboards. At one point, Davey gets kicked in the mouth and Cornette brings up something about him possibly losing a tooth. I couldn't quite hear what Dave said when he was angry about this, but it involved the F bomb. If you like the word FUCK, ROH is for you. They go back and forth for several minutes keeping up quite a pace. Davey Richards is definitely the crowd favorite and Tyler gets some harrassment throughout the match. Sometimes it's beyond annoying.

Jim Cornette at one point says that fans in ROH are allowed to express their opinions unlike in other companies. Your fans are annoying, Jim, they deserve to be muzzled. An angry drunk guy yelling FUCK YOU, TYLER and YOU STILL SUCK over and over again is nothing to brag about. The other commentator then bashes HHH for no reason in a lame, outdated attempt to be edgy. I will have to say that I think Cornette helps the commentary here because he's an amusing guy, despite this minor annoyance.

At a certain point, the match becomes focused on big moves and heats up. They get in a Davey dive, tons of moves that would end a normal match, a forearm exchange, frantic pinning sequence, etc. It looked like it was going in the direction of leg targeting with Tyler selling his leg for awhile to set up Davey's submissions. Davey gets a texas cloverleaf and reversed a pele kick into an ankle lock, which was cool. With Black down on the outside, Davey prevents Shane Hagadorn from helping him win because he wants to beat Black fairly. Richards takes a ton of punishment and keeps going. The crowd at one point chants YOU CAN'T BEAT HIM at Black. I understand what they were going for, but it ended up going too overboard for my taste. It really doesn't help that I'm not too much of a fan of either guy. Black finally wins with a wrist clutch God's last gift.

REVIEW

I've seen matches where this is much more of a problem, but the ending stretch of this should have been more concise. This is of course not unique to this particular match, it's an ROH problem. The ROH guys have taken what hurt some of AJPW's major matches and incorporated it to an even higher degree at times. More doesn't equal better and I'm more accepting of it if I have an emotional connection to the wrestlers. I don't here. I got the feeling that the match should have ended earlier. By the time Tyler does his double stomp from the top rope to the apron, I'm more than ready for the match to end. There's nearfall after nearfall and big move after big move, it's tiring even though overall the match never got to the point of being boring. A big deal was made of how much endurance these guys have. While it is impressive how they are able to keep up such a pace, it honestly doesn't mean all that much to me in the grand scheme of things. There were several things I definitely did not like in this match, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am going more into detail on these criticisms than usual because I feel it's necessary for a match that has been rated by many as a 5 star match. There were some neat transitions, overall basic story played out even if I didn't totally buy it, and an enjoyable pace. I'm obviously not the target audience here, but it worked well enough for me to give it a good score. I don't see this as being anywhere near a 10, however.

RATING: 7 out of 10

Jumbo, Taue, Fuchi vs Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi 10/19/90

90s AJPW is my favorite era of wrestling, flaws and all. I'm fine with admitting that I have a strong bias towards AJPW, as long as it's understood that I feel this way because of personal attachment to the product and not because it's what a "true" wrestling fan/smark is supposed to enjoy. This match was during the Jumbo vs Misawa feud, a month after the match where Jumbo got his singles revenge against Misawa. Being part of an excellent feud filled with top notch matches already gives this match a good aura about it. The match would live up to it.

Kobashi and Taue start it off. Taue kicks innocent Kawada in the corner, which would set off their hatred that builds throughout the match. Moving forward, Kawada tries to suplex Taue on the floor, but he ends up being the one suplexed. This causes Team Jumbo to target Kawada's back until Kawada is able to pull off some kicks and tag in Misawa. Kawada gets his revenge by dragging Taue off and suplexing him on the floor as well, still selling the back a bit. This match had body part targeting and great selling all around. I love moments when Kobashi and Kawada get the uppper hand on Jumbo. There's always a good pop from the crowd when that happens. The crowd in general is wonderful and very into the match. Fuchi contributes nicely here. He's determined to bust Kobashi's face up to prove himself among the bigger wrestlers and ends up making Kobashi's nose bleed. I showed a non-fan this match and he said that Fuchi reminded him of a feisty high school gym teacher determined to assert himself against a student. Perfect characterization.

Kobashi, being by far the least experienced and established of Misawa's crew, finds himself in trouble and desperately needing to make a tag. The crowd is eager for him to succeed and there's some teasing and nearfalls along the way. He finally gets a backdrop on Taue and tags in Kawada. Kawada's pissed and kicks away! Soon after, Misawa and Jumbo meet as the legal men. Misawa's sole purpose in life is to elbow the hell out of Jumbo! From there on we get a few tags from Jumbo's team and Kobashi in for the rest of the match. It's also to the point where the men who aren't legal are fighting and trying to prevent a big move or pinfall against their team. Kobashi gets a good amount of offense in against Fuchi and Jumbo with the crowd loving every second of it, but eventually gets finished off by a Jumbo backdrop. Kobashi is made to look like a million bucks. Everyone looked amazing in their roles. Kobashi and Taue had amazingly debuted only a couple years before this match.

Everything in this match was well-executed and exciting. The pace, to me, is near perfect for this type of match. It moves fast enough to the point it stays exciting the entire time without becoming convoluted. That's one problem I have with multi-man matches sometimes, after a certain point it doesn't matter who is on which team, it's all about moves and spots. This match never had that problem. It has a ton of focus on individual feuds and there's always drama lurking around the corner because of this. There's also a feeling of excitement when a wrestler gets tagged in and gets to take it to his rival. There is no tournament win or title on the line here, but instead the continuation of a great feud with tons of mini-stories and other forms of goodness running throughout to make it a meaningful classic. Such is life in early 90s All Japan

RATING: 9.5 out of 10

Yuji Nagata vs Minoru Suzuki, Wrestle Kingdom V 1/4/11

Charisma, these guys have it. I've seen and enjoyed three of their previous matches that took place over the span of several years. The most recent being at Wrestle Kingdom I, my favorite match on that card. Two of the matches ended in ref stoppage from submissions, the other a pinfall from a Suzuki slap. As far as I can tell, the hatred has a lot to do with both being total badasses and Suzuki being a dick. Always good fun! After losing their 03 match, Suzuki slaps Nagata and spits on him. It seems these guys were born to hate each other. The opening video package shows pictures from the late 80s when they were just getting started. Neat.

The match opens with a slap and kick skirmish. Suzuki goes after Nagata's leg for awhile, but that is dropped after Nagata shakes it off for good when he goes back on offense. Nagata targets Suzuki's arm after an armbreaker and focuses on it from then on, which would eventually lead to Suzuki's downfall. Match enders in their previous matches, Nagata's armbar and Suzuki's sleeper, are not effective at ending this one. Towards the end, Suzuki has difficulty getting the sleeper locked on due to previous armwork. Nice touch. He gets knocked loopy when the failed sleeper leads to two Nagata backdrops. We get a nearfall, then another backdrop that allows Nagata to win.

This match was exactly what I wanted and expected from it. No more, no less. I added .5 points to my original score because I was so thoroughly entertained. And of course, the real reasons to watch this match... they slap the piss out of each other and we get insane facial expressions.

RATING: 8 out of 10

Hulk Hogan vs The Rock, Wrestlemania 18 3/17/02

There was a smile on my face throughout the entire match. I can't say that for many other matches. I'd like to forget about everything that built up to the match. Angles involving a wrestler being hit by a moving vehicle tend to be incredibly stupid and this one was no different. Thankfully, that nonsense played no role in the actual match. Rock and Hogan finally going one-on-one was what mattered, not the lame and soon-to-be-forgotten storyline that set it up.

Hogan is purely in Hollywood mode in the beginning and we get his usual heel nastiness, but the crowd absolutely loves it. I expected a split crowd before this match happened, but no, these fans were overwhelmingly on Hulk's side. Everything he did was cheered and they mostly disapproved of Rock when he went on offense. It's obvious that this match was planned out a certain way and turned out differently due to the crowd, which in most other matches would be to its detriment. Not here. The reaction to Hogan hulking up after the rock bottom in particular was amazing and Rock's facial expressions were also great. Hogan's leg drop is a finisher that has never been impressive, but I liked it here. Rock oversells it by lunging his lower body into the air higher than most other wrestlers would have. The finish was appropriate even though I wish a rock bottom had finished off Hogan instead of the people's elbow, which I never viewed as a true finisher. Not too big of a deal because by that time Rock had hit two rock bottoms in a row, definitely enough to finish off Hogan.

This was two of the top stars in wrestling history at Wrestlemania in front of one of the hottest crowds imaginable. It delivered, more than I expected, even though the match itself would not have been nearly as good without the crowd and charisma/status of the two wrestlers. There wasn't much substance to the actual match; this was all about the atmosphere. The greatest example of a crowd turning a mere good match into something epic. The fact that it was a dream match that lived up to expectations made it even better.

It's been nearly 10 years since 2002. If I watched through everything again, I'm not sure that I'd feel exactly the same way I did back then. However, I've always had a strong opinion of how things should have gone after this match. I wish Hogan had gone into badass Hollywood mode rather than full-on red and yellow babyface. That got old quickly, something that is bound to happen when an old star makes a comeback that lasts for longer than needed. Everything was worth it due to this match, though. Must watch for any fan of mainstream American wrestling.

RATING: 8.5 out of 10

Match Rating Scale

0-1: Miserable. Two guys who having little or no training try to put on a match. Very rare in legit promotions.

2-3: Bad. Lower scores in this range will feature botches or overall sloppy match execution. Possibly so boring or meaningless that it's near unwatchable.

4: Underwhelming or slightly flawed. Something disappointing happens to keep it from being average. Could be because it's too short, too long, or feels like it's missing something it needed to be average.

5: Average. Exactly what God intended for 5 on a scale of 10 to mean. This match is watchable, but you probably wouldn't care to see it more than once. Unoffensive, routine match.

6: Slightly above average. Something a little more special was put into this in comparison to a 5 match, but not much. Think decent TV or midcard match.

7: Good. Typical IWGP title matches in recent years. Solidly above average, but not amazing. Worth watching again.

8: Excellent. Falls short of masterpiece, but is still highly recommended. Most of the best matches in a year will receive this rating.

9-10: Must see. I am reluctant to give scores this high, especially 10s. My 10 list will be much shorter than Meltzer's 5 star list guaranteed.

HOW I REVIEW:

Like any wrestling fan, I have wrestler and company preferences. I'll certainly be biased towards my favorites simply because I like watching them. How much I personally enjoy the match is most important. Factors that can influence my enjoyment:

• History and Expectations. How does the match compare to similar ones that came before it or around the same time? This could be applied to the company it takes place in, style, or individual wrestlers. Massively important. Future matches may also apply as a factor here.
• Crowd reaction. The expectations for this will be different based on the company and possibly venue.
• Match Structure, Execution, and Story. This will count for a lot when it's strongly effective or unique in a way that makes sense. At the same time, I'm not too strict here, depending on individual cases. I'm not going to disregard a match based solely on a couple botches.
• Interest. How well would the match keep my attention if I wasn't forced to pay attention because I'm reviewing it? Pacing will have a lot to do with this.

The scores I give will not be based on some sort of universal workrate/psychology scale. There are different styles of wrestling as with movies. I wouldn't try to compare Airplane! to The Godfather in quality. Different styles, companies, and wrestlers will have differing expectations and that will factor hugely into the scores. It's possible on my rating scale for a Misawa vs Kawada match to be rated a 7 and for a Hulk Hogan match to be given a 9. At the same time, there are styles I greatly prefer and you can generally expect much higher scores for these types of matches.