Relampagos

CMLL 2014/10/14

MATCH RELAMPAGO: Rey Cometa vs. Niebla Roja

Decent exhibition of flying, Cometa was extremely slick and crisp while Roja struggled once or twice, the story they were trying to sell is that Cometa is always one step ahead, faster and more versatile, which pisses Roja off so he reaches to the low blow finish. Sounds good on paper and for the most time, it was good, but the finish should’ve been better in execution and pacing.

**3/4

CMLL 2014/10/7

MATCH RELAMPAGO: Dragon Lee vs. Raziel

Good match that had its problems such as too selective selling at times and Raziel’s far-fetched spot, but all in all, shit was good. Dragon Lee is having a standout year.

***1/4

CMLL 2014/9/16

MATCH RELAMPAGO: Pegasso vs. Virus

Virus doesn’t need more than six minutes to trim a perky high-flyer’s wings.

***3/4

CMLL 2014/9/2

MATCH RELAMPAGO: Dragon Lee vs. Virus

I’m speechless. Well, almost, lol. Virus working with all these young guns is such a delightful watch, now please book them in a title match so I can fap myself closer to death.

****1/4

CMLL 2014/8/19

MATCH RELAMPAGO: Black Panther vs. Arkangel de la Muerte

Black Panther is Blue Panther’s son and is currently in his rookie year, I’ve seen him in few trios with his father and he looks super promising, just like Cachorro. He displayed great talents here, and the fact his opponent was a seasoned veteran Arkangel most certainly didn’t hurt. Damn fine MR with a killer finish.

***1/2

Togo/H. Sato for the KO-D!

DDT God Bless DDT 2010

(2010/11/28)

KO-D Openweight Championship: Dick Togo vs. Hikaru Sato ©

Hikaru Sato is a Pancrase fighter turned pro-wrestler, he’s also Minoru Suzuki’s protégé, which also means he’s a dangerous, dangerous man who knows how to strike bajesus out of you. However, Dick Togo is a standout veteran of the business and if anyone from DDT knows how to handle a merciless shoot style danger, it’s him. Excellent fucking human chess game and I’m yet to find a better Hikaru Sato match.

****1/2

I Want to Clone YOSHI-HASHI for Nefarious Purposes

Road to Destruction 2014

(2014/9/5)

1.      Taichi & El Desperado vs. Alex Shelley & Sho Tanaka

Fun little opener with an obvious fallman. Gotta feeling Taichi and Desperado might become my favorite thing in wrestling soon.

**3/4

2.      Maximo & BUSHI vs. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask

Another fun little match, especially with Maximo in the ring.

**3/4

3.      Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Cpt. New Japan vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Yohei Komatsu

Same story here, fun little 6-man tag with Komatsu getting some exposure, which means Captain is finally not the obvious fallman.

**3/4

4.      Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, TAKA Michinoku) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano, Rocky Romero, Alex Koslov)

Good match, and for some reason, I didn’t expect one, to be frank, don’t know why.

***

5.      Hirooki Goto & Kota Ibushi vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma)

Although the result did not please me because Ibushi did not need the win over poor Honma, at all, this was a good match with the super sweet finishing stretch. The post-match Goto/Makabe brawl was well done.

***1/4

6.      Tetsuya Naito & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA

Good shit, Taguchi/KUSHIDA chemistry looks promising for their upcoming title match.

***1/4

7.      5-on-5 ELIMINATION MATCH: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Gedo) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga)

Weeeell, here we go, you can’t go wrong with CHAOS/BC multi-man tags, this has to be the rivalry of the year. This match was all about YOSHI-HASHI, and might go down as the defining moment of his career, he was the sole survivor here, he scored the victory for his group. Korakuen adores underdogs, this was a perfect place and moment for the first big YOSHI-HASHI victory. Salud!

****

A Fantastic All Japan Event

Summer Action Series 2014

(2014/7/12)

1.      SUSHI & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Big Guns (Zeus & The Bodyguard)

Good match, quite a surprise. Maybe it was SUSHI getting thrown around (hate that fuck), I dunno, but I liked this, Hijikata was rock solid, and Big Guns are a nice duo of muscleheads, bringing the highly Americanized powerhouse style (think Steiner and Goldberg) with them. Nice match with good pacing and everyone played off each other very well.

***1/4

2.      Osamu Nishimura vs. Masanobu Fuchi

Nish is old and Fuchi is 20 years older than him, yet I’m not even slightly surprised they had a borderline great match here. Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Why can’t today’s young wrestlers be like Nish and Fuchi? Why aren’t Nish and Fuchi celebrated all over the world as two undisputed geniuses?

***3/4

3.      Menso~re Oyaji vs. Kotaro Suzuki

Totally mindblowing, I don’t even want to waste too many words on this one, I’ll just say Oyaji overdelivered and deserves an Oscar or two for his impeccable selling here. Different Junior style here, ground-based and punishing instead of being spot heavy.

****1/4

4.      Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Hikaru Sato, Billy Ken Kid vs. Atsushi Aoki, Ultimo Dragon, Super Delfin

By-the-numbers 6-man tag with a swell finish, cool prelude to Sato/Aoki for the Jr. title.

***1/4

5.      Kento Miyahara vs. Suwama

Great match. Watch it, it contains Suwama demolishing Miyahara with heavy smacks, what else do you need? /review. If this happened in the G1, people would lose their shit. /review x2.

****

6.      AJPW World Tag Team Championship: KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Burning Wild (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) ©

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a match like this where I was up and down on it throughout its entire duration, first something awesome happens like Akiyama throwing kitchen sinks at people, then a dull minute or two with Nagai dominating Omori happens, and the match is also long… but then it gets brawly and wild and… REALLY good, and it’s not coming back. Akiyama digging out his inner Tenryu, uh oh!

***3/4

Fantastic show with four good and two great matches.