Lucha Underground: S2E4

Season 2, Episode 4

Lucha Underground: S2E3

Season 2, Episode 3

Patrik watches: Some All Japan Houseshow

I'm back! It's been a while but what can I say, a busy work schedule and a killer cold kind of took the wind out of me. But let's get back in the saddle with something special.

Recently, All Japan pro wrestling has started putting up matches from their house shows on their youtube channel. They are single camera and no commentary, but it is a good way for All Japan to earn some extra exposure and kudos from the fans. All Japan are a company that are far from their glory days, drawing nowhere near their old numbers, having plateaued at landing at just around the 1000 people mark for their bigger shows, and at around 5 – to six hundred for a regular road show. Which isn't really that bad if it weren't for the fact that they are All Japan and used to pull massive crowds way back when. That couple with a few key roster members leaving in 2015 made that a rough year for them. And Suwama getting hurt in early 2016 didn't help. But they still put out, in my opinion, some of the best product on the Japanese scene. And 2015 has forced Akiyama into starting to push their younger stars, who are all over like rover with their fans. So while their history and present is a bit grimy, All Japan's future is in my opinion rather bright.

The match I'm going to be talking about today is the semi-main event from their January 10 show, where Jun Akiyama and his new understudy Yuma Aoyagi take on the team of Jake Lee and Kento Miyahara, collectively known as NexTream.

The match

This was a very good match in my opinion. Clocking in at just about 13 minutes in length. Aoyagi was the one taking the majority of the punishment which was logical considering his place on the card compared to the new top star Kento, his partner in crime Jake and company president and legend Akiyama. Kento and Jake have clicked as a tag team very quickly, and Akiyama is the supreme grumpy dad wrestler, rivaling or even surpassing the third generation of New Japan when it comes to grumpiness.

The match had a little bit of everything, outside of the ring brawling, stiff strikes, quasi comedy, mat grappling and top rope spots. Focus of the match was Kento squaring off with Akiyama (this was before Suwama got injured and Kento was set to chase him for the belt, so Akiyama being the former champ was supposed to be a stepping stone for him). And Aoyagi proving that he was on the level of Lee (Lee has recently moved on from being a pure young boy to a proper upper midcarder/midcarder, whilst Aoyagi still has to wear young boy gear and Aoyagi is out to prove himself). Kento Miyahara might be my favorite wrestler right now, and Akiyama is my favorite veteran wrestler going today (Kojima being a close second) so seeing Kento and Akiyama square off is always nice. I dug the finishing stretch with Kento and Aoyagi even if it was obvious that they were not going full hog since it was just a touring show. But it wets the appetite for future encounters down the road on bigger shows.

Rating: Good. Recommended ( 3.5 shurikens)

Until next time!

Guerra de Titanes - Part 2

Lucha Underground: S2E2

Season 2, Episode 2

Guerra de Titanes - Part 1

CMLL 01/26

2016/01/26

This Match Is Why I Adore Pro-Wrestling

CMLL 2016/01/01

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Maximo vs. Kamaitachi

Okay now, just hear me out. I think this was a perfect pro-wrestling match. Holiday spirits, New Year’s Day, big Arena Mexico crowd being 99,99% pro-Maximo, evil Japanese prick with long, trendy hair taking on the super beloved exotico, etc. Everything was there. The match was so simple, and yet it was so fucking amazing. Matter fact, I think it turned out so goddamn awesome mostly because the layout and body of work was so simple and straight-forward. They kept it real. It’s impressive, really, after witnessing Kamaitachi’s crazy berserkfests with Dragon Lee to see him work a totally different match with Maximo here. He picked a legwork as his strategy and it almost paid off. It was definitely paying off for like 90% of first two falls, the other 10% is, you guess, Maximo’s comeback.

Primera and segunda were amazing in its simplicity and I loved both finishes, especially Maximo’s to segunda where he made that amazing midair hook on Kamaitachi’s leg for extra leverage. Crazy! Tachi was excellent at dismantling Maximo’s leg, and needless to say, Maximo sold it like a true student of the game. And then in tercera they managed to go the extra mile without having to make the match too similar to Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi classics, because Maximo was still selling the legwork amazingly well and it made for such a marvelous pace that made the match stand out. Maximo was always reminding us his leg was in big pain, his desperate highspots were truly – desperate. Masterful selling right there, folks. Drama was high-end and the crowd totally old school and unpretentious, everyone and their mothers were rooting for Maximo, except for that Kamaitachi lady mark and two other tourists from Japan. Arena Mexico was going bananas for every little thing Maximo did on offense. In the climax both competitors faked low-blows and I loved it. The finish was great too.

I have to watch and rewatch a lot of stuff from January, but I don’t think anything will top this as my current Match of the Year.

*****