It's Been 6 Years

Around the World, Vol. 1

Wrestling World 2004

(2004/1/4)

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yuji Nagata

Oh no,  shit boy, this is some scary ass helter-skelter, very minimalistic match where all they do is bleeding like pigs while beating bajesus out of each other. The match is only 13 minutes long and looks like a fucking CSI murder scene. Seriously, this has to be a top contender for the juiciest slugfest ever. Nagata is a well known barbarian who had his share of messy bloodbaths, but it’s kind of rare to see Kensuke leaving his powerhouse comfort zone to wrestle a match like this, this is the meanest Kensuke ever, he’s here to kill poor Nagata. Just the perfect brawl with amazing ending, so raw and gritty, manliness everywhere.

*****

G1 Climax 2004

(2004/8/8)

Block B: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki

Considering the fact Big Tak suffered a stroke after the match, it’s kind of hard to watch this, but waddaya gonna do, eh… This one had no blood, but instead it was in-your-face style with a plethora of bomb throwing and spine shattering drops. Ryogoku Sumo Hall went nuts for this match, especially in the crazy good finishing run, fuck me, that was magnificent. Two super tough bruisers going HAM at each other for 15 minutes, best shit ever.

****3/4

Wrestling World 2005

(2005/1/4)

Takashi Iizuka vs. Minoru Suzuki

Oh look, back when Iizuka wasn’t an immobile botchy lunatic. Solid match but nothing to write home about, MiSu did his stuff, Iizuka did nothing and there you go, at least they didn’t overstay their welcome, which is quite a plus in my book.

**3/4

Remembering Eddie Guerrero

Yep, it's that day of the year.

WWE No Way Out 2004

(2004/2/15)

WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar ©

I’m still amazed they let them do this kind of a match on a WWE PPV main event, 30 minutes long, with careful, defensive and deep wrestling that put all its stocks into slow build and payoff. This was brilliant and is up there with the greatest WWE matches of the 00s, right up there with Levesque/Foley (Street Fight), Angle/Austin (SummerSlam), Umaga/Cena (LMS) and very few others, this is a total five star match. As the match was going on you could see Eddie is a far bigger threat to Lesnar than previously thought, and even though Bork kept powering out his way from Eddie’s offense, it was Eddie who controlled the pacing, it was Eddie who gained a more meaningful advantage by targeting Lesnar’s knee relentlessly which slowed Lesnar down so he had to rely on sleeper holds. Excellent big title match and a defining moment for Eddie Guerrero, even the overbooking with the ref bump, the belt and Goldberg was well done, didn’t mind it at all because it made sense. Of course Tazz and Cole sucked on commentary but what else is new?

*****

Power Struggle Is Tomorrow, Needed to Get My Homework Done

Road to Shibata/Nakamura V:

- G1 Climax 2003 (8/10) ****1/2 

- Summer Struggle 2004 (7/4) ***3/4 

- G1 Climax 2004 (8/8) ****1/2 

- G1 Climax 2014 (7/21) ***3/4