Destruction '14 in Okayama: Three Great Matches

Destruction 2014 in Okayama

(2014/9/23)

1.      Ryusuke Taguchi, Cpt. New Japan, BUSHI vs. Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Maximo

**3/4

2.      Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov)

***1/4

3.      Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, TAKA Michinoku) vs. Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba, Gedo

***

4.      Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma)

**1/2

5.      IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Desperado vs. Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) ©

****

6.      Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii

***1/2

7.      NWA World Tag Team Championship: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) ©

****

8.      NEVER Openweight Championship: YOSHI-HASHI vs. Yujiro Takahashi ©

***3/4

9.      AJ Styles & Doc Gallows vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito

***

10.  Tokyo Dome Heavyweight Title Shot: Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada (G1w)

****

Have no idea why no one raved about the show, it was pretty damn good, great even. Two tag title matches and main event rocked, three awesome matches, plus there was the NEVER title match that was so good, the Ishii tag was swell, there were three other good tags, the opener was perfectly solid, and the only letdown was the Shibata tag, but that was short and hurt nobody. The three great matches I mentioned were all equally awesome, but if I really had to choose the MOTN, then I’d pick the Junior tag, although the veteran NWA tag gave them a run for their money. Main event was another smashing Karl/Okada match, those dudes have scary good chemistry. Okada is just a brutal god of pro-graps at this point, he’s been scoring great matches for the third year in a row now, he just can’t go wrong and turns everything into gold, such a supreme wrestler.

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, then just cherry-pick 5, 7, 8 and main event, you won’t regret it.

Little Bit of New CMLL

CMLL 2014/9/2

Gallo, Fuego, Cachorro vs. Okumura, Kamaitachi, Puma

For some reason, tercera is missing from the video, and now I feel like I could murder someone, because primera and segunda were some good lucha.

N/A

CMLL 2014/9/2

La Mascara vs. Mephisto

Short two caidas, doh of course, but it was for better, as evidenced by tercera where shit was quite unremarkable.

**3/4

CMLL 2014/9/2

Guerreros Laguneros (Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Gran Guerrero) vs. Atlantis, Rush, Valiente

Basic prelude trio to the huge apuesta match, yet the tensions and heat are so high it’s impossible to fuck it up. Strange to see Rush as a rudo in Guadalajara, but whatever. Recently I’ve noticed Valiente is quite a workhorse. When I watch Ultimo Guerrero, I feel bad for not paying closer attention to his career, I feel like I’ve missed some wonderful things, he’s quite great.

***1/2

CMLL 2014/8/18

Campeonato National de Peso Ligero: Espiritu Maligno vs. Electrico ©

Primera was bad, it looked like two wannabe luchadors trying to exchange cool moves, the sloppiness was unacceptable at places. Segunda was just as short as primera, but much better. Tercera was good, there were some big moves and it felt somehow important. The finish was pretty damn nice. So overall, I’d say this was a rock solid match, not bad.

**3/4

CMLL 2014/8/18

Volador Jr., Valiente, Maximo vs. Shocker, Rey Escorpion, Polvora

First of all, this was not balls-to-the-walls, no, it was rather based on Escorpion and Shocker being total dicks, they didn’t care for grace or flash, they were too busy looking like a million bucks by mauling the tecnicos, i.e. Shocker getting tired of Maximo’s gayness and punching him silly, or Escorpion harassing Valiente like a rabid freakin’ badger. Second, Valiente’s and Volador’s comebacks were awesome, both guys have completely grown on me this year. There’s nothing like finding a “hidden” lucha gem on internet.

****

All Japan 8/30: King's Road Lives!

Summer Impact 2014

(2014/8/30)

1.       SUSHI vs. Yohei Nakajima

By far the best SUSHI match I’ve ever seen, strong storytelling and action all around. This current Yohei Nakajima arc is very enjoyable, it’s always fun to witness someone’s road to recognition and growth as a pro-wrestler.

***3/4

2.       Masashi Aoyagi & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Aoyagi is an old karate dude, and considering that even older Fuchi stood on the other side, I thought this match would be somewhat comedy heavy, but no, they worked a “proper” match instead, and I have to say it was such a pleasant surprise, shockingly good, especially with Kanemaru and Hijikata in there.

***

3.       KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Dark Kingdom (KENSO, Mitsuya Nagai, Kengo Mashimo) vs. Team Drift (Shigehiro Irie, Keisuke Ishii, Soma Takao) ©

The DK trio arrived in a huge ass limo, nice touch from KENSO there. The match was fine, done by-the-book with a nice FIP workover on Takao and hot tag on Irie, things were going smashing. But then Mashimo’s turn happened, and it was random as fuck, taking away from the match. In the end, it’s still a good shit but could’ve been borderline great.

***

4.       Zeus & Brother YASSHI vs. Suwama & Hikaru Sato

Decent match, not good. Not that anyone was bad, it’s just that no one stood out, and the lack of heat hurt things. Suwama/Zeus looks like a promising match for down the road.

**3/4

5.       AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki ©

Totally untypical Junior match, especially for modern puro standards. There was a plethora of heavyweight inspired struggle, with shoot style admixtures. Good shit right there, borderline great.

***3/4

6.       AJPW World Tag Team Championship: Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara vs. Burning Wild (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) ©

Words cannot do this justice. Phenomenal tag match with a perfect King’s Road structure, it had a little bit of everything: old grudges, new grudges, a young promising underdog and his rough, painful road to glory, heavy smacks, lethal head-dropping and spine-bending throws, impeccable timing… Glorious stuff, comparable to the good shit from them old days.

****1/2

7.       AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Akebono vs. Joe Doering ©

Akebono’s had three good TC defenses earlier in the year when he was the champion (Omori, Shiozaki, Miyahara), he had to hand over the title due to injury, while Doering is a rock solid tag team wrestler who shocked the promotion recently by beating Suwama in his V1 defense. Naturally and all things considered, there was a beef surrounding the match and it was logical to expect good shit, but unfortunately – they flopped. The match was structured wrong, IMO, instead of a vivid hate fueled brawl they worked a more methodical pace which worked in the previous Akebono title matches mentioned, but the problem here is that Doering is not only the champion, but also a rather large fella himself, so there was no room for an underdog story. Shit was boring, it’s that simple. Technically, they did good, but emotionally? Yikes. There goes another opportunity for Joe to explode as a legit main event performer. The clock is ticking, brother.

bad

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.