Wrestling with Work #9 (Impact, ROH, WWE, VADER)

A mixture of old and new today. You might say…it’s time.

Black Taurus & Laredo Kid vs Rich Swann & Sami Callihan (Impact Wrestling BTI 9/28/23)

Utterly competent, appropriate enough for the Impact pre-show. LK and Taurus are always fun to watch, the latter being one of the most underrated competitors going today, in my view. I can’t get enough of Black Taurus on any level and I really wish he’d get more spotlight where I can see him. Swann & Callihan do their thing; I must compliment the clean as hell 450 splash from Swann.

Rating: **3/4

X Division Championship: Chris Sabin (c) vs Alan Angels (Impact Wrestling 9/28/23)

Good to see Angels get this big of an opportunity after, no doubt, the biggest win of his career in Ultimate X. They didn’t have a lot of time to make this a real looker of a match, but both did fine for what this was. Amazing how Sabin can still keep pace with people a decade or two younger than him.

Rating: ***

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Jonathan Gresham (Impact Wrestling 9/28/23)

Cripes, this again? This is the fifth singles match between these two in Impact, not counting singles outside of the company nor multi-man matches involving the two. Look, I like both of these guys, but there’s really not a whole lot more to be said about this. It’s become Impact’s safety match. I figured this was to gas up Bailey en route to fighting Will Ospreay, but Gresham won this one with an admittedly novel subversion, one of the only cases where multiple consecutive pins actually worked. Constant rematches in wrestling annoy me, so I hope we let this one breathe for a long while.

Rating: **3/4

Trinity vs Gisele Shaw (Impact Wrestling 9/28/23)

One of my all-time favorite women’s wrestlers meets a current favorite of mine. I really respect Trinity for doing her own thing in Impact and aiming to help make the “territory,” so I’m glad to see she’s mixing it up with practically everyone she can on the roster. Shaw is so ready-made for a bigger stage, her character work in matches is very good for her experience level and I hope she gets a look in elsewhere soon (no offense to Impact).

Rating: ***

Shane Taylor vs Jimmy Jacobs (ROH on HonorClub 9/28/23)

Had to peep this one for the surprise Jimmy Jacobs cameo. It’s just a squash, Shane bullying around the smaller Jimmy, but it gave me a bit of good nostalgia.

Rating: **1/4

Mercedes Martinez vs Allysin Kay (ROH on HonorClub 9/28/23)

I was hoping for more here, but it’s another ROH squash on an episode full of them, as usual. I’m sure these two can and have had more substantial matches than this.

Rating: **

Rey Mysterio vs Kane (WWE No Mercy 2008)

An unwitting throwback to the first one of these, but funny enough, the lack of stip somehow helps it. Instead of cycling through tired weapon/brawl spots, they go with the tried-and-true big vs little spots, which both guys are far better at getting across. It ends in a DQ and isn’t anything special, but good to know they had something a little better in them.

Rating: **1/2

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow (c) vs The Steiner Brothers (NJPW Masters of Wrestling 6/26/92)

Allow me to indulge in a modern cliche: Big meaty men slappin’ meat. After listening to the newest episode of How2Wrestling and finding out more about The Man They Call, I discovered that this match existed and I absolutely had to see it. O’course, it’s Vader and Bam Bam throwing their weight around, and the early 90’s Steiners hurting their opponents and themselves to even the gap. I don’t have much intelligent to say about it, it’s just a good fuckin’ time.

Rating: ***3/4

Big Van Vader, Cactus Jack, & Mr. Hughes vs Sting & The Steiner Brothers (WCW Main Event 2/9/92)

This was some good old-fashioned TV rasslin’ if I’ve ever seen it. Such a cool sight to see most of these guys in their primes (did Mr. Hughes have a prime?) and have a totally good TV match. Definitely throw this one on if you’ve got 10-15 minutes to kill.

Rating: ***1/4

Until next week!

Wrestling with Work #8 (AEW Dynamite, WWE, HOG)

A bit of a lighter work day today, so not as much time for wrestling.

AEW International Championship: Rey Fenix (c) vs Jeff Jarrett (AEW Dynamite 9/28/23)

My expectations for this were thoroughly set, but the skills of both guys still boosted this a little bit past what I thought it was going to be. Double J is an expert hot-dogger in his middle age and Fenix is still an astounding in-ring performer, so they are a great combination that gets a lot out of what both can offer. Jeff stooges and makes Fenix look good, while Fenix practically kills himself to make Jarrett look on his level. Not mind-blowing, but good fun.

Rating: **3/4

Blind Eliminator: Brian Cage vs Nick Jackson vs Claudio Castagnoli (AEW Dynamite 9/28/23)

The thrown-together nature of this triple threat is certainly unavoidable, but it also means that it didn’t move me a whole lot. There’s a PWG feel to both multi-man matches on this show, and frankly, with the lack of actual wrestling on the show, having two matches work this similarly was a bit much. This at least had the grace of going first, but it just read to me as cool moves until Nick won. Nothing wrong but nothing great.

Rating: ***

Orange Cassidy vs Penta El Zero Miedo vs Matt Jackson vs Austin Gunn (AEW Dynamite 9/28/23)

Again, this was a SoCal-style four-way that saw a lot of big moves at a quick pace. Hard to hate that, sure, but after already seeing one of those, I was a bit burnt out. At least Austin Gunn added a bit of comedy to the proceedings, and most of these guys are varying shades of good, but it never rose above the video game-y encounter it looked to be on paper.

Rating: ***1/4

Willow Nightingale vs Julia Hart (AEW Dynamite 9/28/23)

I’m glad that Julia Hart’s push towards the title scene is occurring at the same time as I’m doing these mini-reviews, because I would be tempted to ignore her matches if I wasn’t writing about them. Nothing against her at all, I’m just used to seeing her squash nobodies on Dark/Dark Elevation, and my brain was ready to settle back into that mode when she started getting key wins this month. However, in actually paying attention, I’m seeing that Hart has improved from where she started and is beginning to become a solid worker in her own right. This wasn’t my favorite recent match of hers, but it’s hard to stink it up with someone as talented as Willow, and they put on a fairly good outing here. I look forward to Hart and Statlander on Sunday.

Rating: **3/4

Kurt Angle vs John Cena (WWE No Mercy 2003)

I talked yesterday about how obvious John Cena’s growth as a performer has been when you look at his early days, which was even more obvious in a meh match like the one he had with Booker T in 2005. Two years earlier, and in the midst of one of several career years, Kurt Angle managed to drag a little something extra out of the rookie Cena, because Kurt Angle is just that good. The key here is that Kurt gives Cena a lot without taking away from himself; he sells big for Cena and takes a lot of his moves, but he makes sure to take time to make himself look every bit the veteran when he’s on offense. Cena’s offense is still fairly basic, but he takes the direction of Angle well and manages to put together a more compelling match because he takes the time to sell and convey emotion. This is certainly not the best match these two would have together, but it’s proof that Cena could be taught and had it in him to improve

Rating: ***1/4

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Matt Cardona (House of Glory High Intensity X)

House show bullshit, can’t believe we wasted a High Fly Flow on this.

Rating: **

Wrestling with Work #7 (NXT, WWE No Mercy)

Digging into the back catalogue of my Watch Later playlist on YouTube with this one…

NXT Global Heritage Invitational Final: Joe Coffey vs Butch (NXT 9/26/23)

As I’ve said before, I was fairly into the NXT-1 in its first outing, but gotta say, this is a fairly underwhelming final. It’s also a bit sad to see how these two, once a main event of NXT UK Takeover, fighting here for the right to a third-tier singles championship. They work fine together and all, I just didn’t find this terribly inspiring, especially considering that Butch was all but guaranteed for the spot.

Rating: ***

NXT North American Championship #1 Contenders Match: Tyler Bate vs Axiom vs Dragon Lee vs Trick Williams (NXT 9/26/23)

It’s a four-way spot-fest, but hey, at least everyone is game for that. I find that these types of matches are a dime a dozen these days, especially if you pay attention to the American indies, so seeing a watered-down WWE version of it can only go so far. This continues the buy-in for Trick Williams, who seems to be decent so far; at very least, he had three good partners to get the most out of him here.

Rating: ***1/4

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Tajiri (c) vs Rey Mysterio (WWE No Mercy 2003)

This was one of the first DVDs I ever purchased when I became a fan in Fall 2003, so I’ve seen this match a fair amount of times. It’s always a treat to see pre-heavyweight WWE Rey Mysterio, as there’s so much high-flying stuff he can pull out at this age that he eventually had to leave behind (for better or worse). 2003 Rey is also such a defined style fighter, so having a hard contrast with the striker Tajiri is a guaranteed good time. Tajiri, previously an underrated babyface, ably plays into his heel role, looking spectacular but in a less flashy way than Rey is allowed to. There’s a quietly amazing part near the end where Tajiri transitions into the Tarantula by scooping Rey up with his legs into the ropes, which blew my mind. This is an ideal WWE cruiserweight match of the time, great at any time.

Rating: ***1/2

WWE United States Championship Best of 5 Series, Match 5: Booker T (c) vs John Cena (WWE No Mercy 2004)

It’s easy to forget, or just not know, how far John Cena has come as a professional wrestler since his initial push. The moniker of Big Match John is something that developed over the years and was a reputation shift that was hard for a lot of older fans (like myself) to jibe with, since he spent so many years as an unquestioned bad wrestler. In the 2000s, was John Cena deserving of the “You Can’t Wrestle” chants? No. Was he especially good? Also no.

This is a very meat-and-potatoes decent wrestling match, which is unfortunately the final match in what is meant to be a heated series. John is fairly fundamentally sound here, but he is sorely lacking in the why behind his moves. He’s got moves, but you can tell that even he isn’t really sure what each one means, or what even the story is. Booker, the veteran, can only do so much with Cena here and doesn’t seem to have much to add, himself. You can tell that modern John Cena would have a much different approach to this, an undoubtedly better one, so I’ve never been more appreciative of his growth as a performer than I am when I see him here.

Rating: **1/2

Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor (WWE No Mercy 2017)

An acceptable, if not exciting, use of 10 minutes. Nothing really wrong, nothing terribly right, nothing much to say.

Rating: ***

The Undertaker vs Mr. Kennedy (WWE No Mercy 2006)

What a dud Kennedy was, huh? He exists now as a fossil of what WWE was looking for in the mid-2000s: Big, loud, (preferably) white guys. They just have to hit the big story beats and it doesn’t matter what they’ve got in between. I’m no fan of Taker, but Kennedy has absolutely zero rizz here. The in-between spaces from spot to spot are vacuous and empty, filled with the most mindless punch-kick offense you can imagine. The Taker singles match was something of a rite of passage in the mid-to-late 2000s and this was one for Kennedy that he seemingly passed at the time, but let’s just be thankful that standards have changed for the better.

Rating: **

World Heavyweight Championship: Batista (c) vs Eddie Guerrero (WWE No Mercy 2005)

There’s a lot of discussion and grousing about storytelling in wrestling; specifically, how certain mainstream performers choose to tell stories with their physicality and facial expressions, and how it can stretch believability if done in a certain manner. In yesterday’s round-up, I mentioned how I find Will Ospreay’s brushes with acting to often be eye-rolling or overwrought, because a lot of his choices are often very obvious or just wildly broad, to the point of looking cartoonish. True, wrestling is a form given to exaggeration, but it’s when you see it done differently that you realize wrestling is not just one thing. It contains as many multitudes as the performers themselves.

When I think of “acting” or dramatic performance in wrestling, I think of a match like this. In less than 20 minutes, Eddie Guerrero and Batista carry out a story with their bodies that is both subtle and broad, allowing you to both grasp it immediately but also continue to find nuances as you return to it. Here, Eddie and Batista are in the middle of a (tragically unfinished) storyline where Eddie is chumming up to Big Dave before his PPV title match against him. Given that Eddie’s lifelong character, no matter what side he’s on, is that of someone who is deceitful and lies for fun, Eddie clearly can’t be trusted. However, Dave is receptive to Eddie’s out-of-nowhere friendship, to a degree that surprises even Eddie, which is part of a scheme on Batista’s part to get Eddie before Eddie gets him. His acts of friendship put Eddie in goofy WWE comedy situations that serve to embarass and undermine him, as well as inform the audience that Batista is wise to Eddie’s game and is beating him at it.

However, it’s in this match where Eddie’s allegiances become murky. Eddie begins to realize that, maybe, he actually does like Batista.

This beat of the story is played out perfectly here. After a bit of fun and games with each other in the initial moments, Eddie begins to get frustrated at Batista being obviously more physically powerful than him; however, Eddie uses his wiliness and creates an opening by weakening Batista’s lower back, which immobilizes him and allows Eddie to pour on the heat through submissions and limb work. Big Dave is able to come back, but never quite at 100%, further allowing Eddie to take more even footing into the end of the match.

There are two instances where Eddie goes to hit Batista with a chair. The first time, Eddie throws it away while shaking his head, but Batista catches him and angrily questions him. This distraction allows Eddie to begin his control. The second time, Eddie has Batista nearly dead to rights, and brings in the chair during an (unintentional) ref bump to wallop him with…but he can’t do it. Eddie ultimately throws the chair away, which Batista doesn’t even notice, before Dave drops Eddie with a spinebuster (Eddie had the Batista Bomb too well scouted) for the win.

Eddie Guerrero was not exactly a subtle performer, that wasn’t his charm. He exceled at playing a character that was bigger than he was, a persona of either a greasy heel or a beloved cheating babyface that anybody could understand once they saw him. You see that here, especially when Eddie gets the mischievous smile upon realizing that the ref is down. This is the biggest stage in wrestling, and everybody knows what that smile means. It’s not so much acting, as it is a signifier.

However, there are as many moments here where you can see how Eddie is not just performing, but he is doing the work to show where his character is. His jokey front that hides his frustration in the early-going. The slight shake of his head when he tosses the chair away. The muddled emotions on his face when he denies himself the opportunity to cheat. We can only wonder what exactly Eddie was going for here, because we never really got to follow up on the story before Eddie tragically passed away. Is he beginning to like Batista and can’t bring himself to hurt his friend? Is he doubting whether or not he needs to cheat to beat the World Heavyweight Champion? You could make the case for either; like with any good performance, and as a lot of modern wrestlers miss, there’s room for audience interpretation. At the end of the match, Eddie offers Batista a handshake, but when Dave looks away, he can’t resist that same devilish smile. For the first time, even though he lost, Eddie knows something Batista doesn’t, and it could end up costing Batista everything in the future.

There are so few actual wrestling moves and holds in this match, it’s actually kind of wild to break it down. Of course, there doesn’t need to be an excess of big moves or strike exchanges or anything we’re used to today. Eddie and Batista use all of the tools they need to get their story across, and they do it beautifully. This match, although short and not completely crisp (Dave’s acting would also improve from here), is captivating on a minute-to-minute basis. It’s not all Eddie, either. Batista is very likable as the genre-savvy babyface champion and is appropriately sympathetic when on defense. They both also leave a lot left to say, with Batista not winning with his finisher and Eddie missing the crucial final Frog Splash. You can imagine where this story might have gone; it may not have lived up to what people like me have in their heads, but so much work was done here to make you want to turn the page and keep going.

One of Batista’s best matches, if not THE best, and one of my personal favorites. Less is truly more.

Rating: ****1/2

I’m so happy to be able to write about great matches like this. I hope you had a good time, too.

Wrestling with Work #6 (NJPW, WWE, WCW)

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a New Japan show front-to-back, but I got a lot of time to fill today, so might as well go at it. This will also be fun because, for whatever reason, I love writing down titles and names and stuff. Sometimes, the most fun I have with a match in this series is slapping on BOLD and writing names down.

Bullet Club War Dogs vs Kevin Knight & Tiger Mask (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

Yeah, it’s an NJPW undercard tag, but at least I like most of the parts of it. Kevin Knight, in particular, continues to impress athletically.

Rating: **1/2

House of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi) vs Just 5 Guys (SANADA, DOUKI, TAKA Michinoku) (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

I saw EVIL with a belt at the end of this and was like, “Which one does he have again?” He doesn’t, he just stole SANADA’s, but I instantly believed that he was one of the umpteen champions in this company.

Rating: **

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Alex Coughlin, Gabe Kidd, Gedo, Chase Owens) vs Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Hikuleo, El Phantasmo, Jado) (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

At least some of these undercard tags feature younger talent, so while the action doesn’t feel important, it’s at least snappy and feels quicker than it is. Extra 1/4 star for the ELP moonsault, he’s good at those.

Rating: **1/4

CHAOS (Lio Rush, YOH) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI) (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

A quick set-up match for the forthcoming title match, all of these lads are varying shades of acceptable and this is easily the best on the show of these tag matches. Lio and YOH have gelled as a team quite quickly, so it’s not weird anymore to see them doing the 3K spots.

Rating: **3/4

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii) vs TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr, Bad Dude Tito) (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

This was really fun! They cut a quick pace and got to the good stuff before too long; naturally, 3/4s of these guys have established chemistry, so it was all good. BDT didn’t ruin anything, but I have yet to see what others are seeing in him (he’s fine). Points to Zack for his oversell of an Ishii chop and the cool submission reversal to the Okada over-the-shoulder neckbreaker.

Rating: ***1/4

King of Pro-Wrestling Championship No Time Limit Seconds Handcuffed Match: Taichi (c) vs SHO (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

It’s an House of Torture match, so it was doomed from the start, but I added a bit to the score for two reasons. One, the Kanemaru turn genuinely surprised me; yes, it’s because I don’t care about HoT (or most of Just 5 Guys, honestly), but it meant that I never even thought about anybody changing sides. NJPW rarely pulls out faction changes, so I have to admit, they did get me. Second, at least the dumb bullshit title is with the dumb bullshit faction, so if anything, I hope HoT makes it dumber. Hell, WWE are “missing” a “trick” by not stealing this handcuff match gimmick.

Rating: *3/4

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Bishamon (c) vs TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

YOSHI-HASHI has become a really fucking good tag wrestler. Bishamon is secretly one of the most consistent teams today and has been for the past few years, and you can totally see why here. Goto works well within the duo, but YH has slotted in so well to the role of quietly competent mid-card/tag guy. TMDK, like Aussie Open before them, are a great team to pit against the more ground-based and technical champs, adding a bit of cool moves and sizzle to the affair. The flash pin ending was a good exit door for this one and I hope they run this back again soon.

Rating: ***1/2

Shingo Takagi vs Great O-Khan (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

This is not quite a MEAT match, but it is fun to see these two ram into each other. I’m not aware of much of a story between them so that’s too bad (doesn’t mean there wasn’t one), so this felt more like a good G1 midcard match. Nothing wrong with that.

Rating: ***1/4

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Cobb (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

I’m not a big fan of Naito in-ring, especially as he continues on with an iffy knee, but he can certainly pull it together against the right foe. Cobb, my suplex husband, is that guy here, and it’s the first Naito match in a long while that I actually wholeheartedly like. The key is Cobb and his strengths, especially his literal strength, and how natural he has become as the granite block in the way of our heroes. I love it when he throws dudes around, but his feats work the other way and make Naito seem clever and competent when he uses his abilities (faster, more clever) to overcome him. The end sequence was very good and had some clever reversals. Good stuff!

Rating: ***1/2

IWGP United States (United Kingdom) Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs Yota Tsuji (NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2023)

Will Ospreay, perhaps the most frustrating wrestler today. I saw no end of praise for this match and, while it is the best match on the card, it contains the same elements of a typical Ospreay upper card match that drive me nuts sometimes. What’s more, as the veteran, Ospreay is tasked with leading Tsuji, who is good in his role but is still clearly learning, and enables some really silly ideas. Tsuji is a really entertaining in-ring worker and has charisma, but I’m still not sold on him as a main-eventer like some other are. All he’s got right now is that weird smile, which is losing its interest the more he uses in a match. The action here is fast and crisp, but really suffers from a “That didn’t pin him?” factor; despite being a veteran of the ring, Ospreay still loves to do twice as many moves as he needs to, including a finisher theft sequence that felt unearned. He also has some awful moments of ACTING, including flipping Tsuji the double birds after the latter used Stormbreaker, except that Tsuji couldn’t see him, so it just made Ospreay look dumb. Look, this was an entertaining main event and I’m glad Tsuji got this chance, but there’s too much here to make me really over the moon about it.

Rating: ***3/4

Bronson Reed vs Otis (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/25/23)

A real by-god MEAT match, one I was very excited to see. It was a bit too short and abrupt for me to really get into it, but I got my fun from these two hitting each other. Wrestling is easy.

Rating: **3/4

Tommaso Ciampa vs Ludwig Kaiser (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/25/23)

This felt like a match that could have easily slotted into NXT 5 years ago, which I say positively. Of course, it still contains main-roster silliness around the edges and is very short, so it can only take it so far in my favor.

Rating: **3/4

NXT North American Championship: Dominik Mysterio (c) vs Dragon Lee (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/25/23)

“Dirty” Dom is one of my favorite characters in WWE right now, but for as much as I like him, the kid has a definite ceiling. Dragon Lee is the guy to get a bit more out of him than usual, and he really turns it on here, but it doesn’t rise above being a good TV match (albeit maybe Dom’s best singles match to date).

Rating: ***

Drew McIntyre vs Kofi Kingston (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/25/23)

A match that could have been on Smackdown 15 years ago, and thankfully, there’s still juice left in both these fellas. While Kofi seems as spry as he was in 2009, Drew’s newfound power game is a great contrast. All that’s left is for them to do the damn thing, and hey, they still got it.

Rating: ***

WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) (c) vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/25/23)

Although the seemingly endless Judgment Day main event matches on Raw are the point of contention du jour today, I personally can’t get behind that as it usually leads to very good matches, such as it does here. There’s no trick, it’s just 4 of the best guys in the company wrestling in a very heated manner that suggests that the championship is meaningful to them for a good amount of time. Like I said with Raw’s opening match, wrestling is easy, especially when you see what little it takes to do it well.

Rating: ***1/2

Goldberg vs Diamond Dallas Page (WCW Fall Brawl 1999)

I was excited at first because I thought this was the match from Halloween Havoc 1998, but MAN, it is not that match. Quite the opposite, in fact. Instead of a heated, frantic contest between two beloved guys, it’s a house show face-vs-heel snoozer that feels twice as long as the Halloween Havoc match, despite being shorter. DDP is such a lame, goofy heel in the worst way, acting like he belongs on a regional territory show. Goldberg has a couple of good faces and throws, but this was bad (thankfully short, though).

Rating: *3/4

WWE Championship: John Cena (c) vs Randy Orton (WWE Unforgiven 2007)

Orton: *gets his ass beat and loses title opportunity on a DQ because Cena was mad he punted his dad*

WWE writers: “Masterful gambit, sir”

Rating: **1/2

See you tomorrow!

Wrestling with Work #5 (WWE/AEW weekend shows)

Bit of a lighter work Monday, so I’ll be doing my catch-up of the Friday and Saturday shows from North America (I’ll be watching NJPW tomorrow).

WWE Women’s Championship: IYO Sky (c) vs Asuka (WWE Smackdown 9/23/23)

Two of my all-time favorite wrestlers going at it here, but given the stage they’re on, it can only be so good. This is a top-of-the-hour TV match bisected by a commercial and intended to build toward a PPV, so the pace is much quicker than I’d prefer and it features your standard WWE gaga of interference and whatnot. I’d really like to see these two in a 20-minute featured PPV match, but this is likely as close as I’ll get. It’s still pretty good; Asuka remains one of the best workers in the whole company.

Rating: ***1/4

Luchasaurus & Christian Cage vs Sting & Darby Allin (AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/23)

The talkback on the first half of Rampage Grand Slam didn’t exactly make it sound like a barnburner, but I had time on my hands, so I decided to start from the beginning. This was a decent formula tag featuring a guy on an all-time run (Christian) and the guy who looks good getting killed (Darby). I prefer my Sting tags to be No DQ, but the man likely only has so much time left active, so seeing him at all beats not seeing him. Not much to say here, did its thing.

Rating: ***

Kris Statlander, HOOK, & Orange Cassidy vs Anna Jay, Angelo Parker, & Matt Menard (AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/23)

Again, a perfectly fine TV thing to keep the three babyfaces refreshed in the mind.

Rating: ***

Best Friends vs The Kingdom vs The Righteous vs The Hardys (AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/23)

Unlike the tags following it, quite a bit more chaotic and, therefore, messier. One of those matches you just let wash over you until it’s all done with. I continue to find it a bit odd that The Kingdom cannot seem to buy an important win; I’m sure their time is coming with the current tag title run, but just kinda funny to see this seemingly celebrated and important tag team lose all the time.

Rating: **1/2

Julia Hart vs Skye Blue (AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/23)

I actually dug this! I don’t mean to sound surprised, but it’s one of the tossed-off women’s matches on AEW programming of last week, so I wasn’t expecting much. These two clearly came in with some ideas they wanted to try, and I thought most of them were pretty cool (ie. the dueling hats, Julia’s spider superplex). I’d like to see this again after both have gotten a bit more seasoning, as it seems they’re a good fit for each other.

Rating: **3/4

ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Mogul Embassy (c) vs The Hung Bucks (AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/23)

A fairly fun PWG-style multi-man. There was a natural part in this where the Elite could have lost and not really looked the worse for it, but okay, your 6-man belts are on a team that I’m not confident will ever defend on the actual television show as Mogul Embassy has been doing. Shrug.

Rating: ***

TNT Championship: Luchasaurus (c) vs Christian Cage vs Darby Allin (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

Christian Cage’s singles run of his career continues, as he becomes the actual TNT Champion. I have enjoyed the way that he and ‘Saurus have played the gag of Christian pretending he is champion, but I like the beat of the latter seemingly remembering he’s the champion much more. Putting the belt on Christian is the move to keep this going and not keep hammering the punchline into the ground; with both companies, I always fear a good story being dragged out too long, so it’s rare to see one end and be like, “That was exactly the amount of time that needed.” Darby Allin getting killed is always fun on multiple levels.

Rating: ***1/4

Rob Van Dam & HOOK vs Angelo Parker & Matt Menard (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

Decent little shellacking here. RVD can still hit his spots and is over, so cool, man, whatever. I’m still waiting for HOOK to actually start going somewhere, as the FTW Title continues to resemble an anchor around his waist.

Rating: **3/4

Julia Hart vs Kiera Hogan (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

Not quite a patch on the Skye Blue match, since this was a last-minute recovery for a Willow Nightingale injury. Nothing really wrong with it, but I’m sure I’ve seen this exact sub-5 minute match on AEW Dark in the last year or so.

Rating: **1/4

Andrade El Idolo vs Jay White (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

Very solid pro wrestling right here. It’s good to see that Collision is still a show where guys who can excel in longform matches have a space to do so if the mood strikes them. I really have to give it to Bullet Club Gold for going from an act that I thought would be a millstone around Jay’s neck to becoming a sneakily entertaining faction, with the others being funny and annoying heel backup. These two have such complementary styles to one another, but it felt like a bit was held back for a rematch down the road, which I hope I get to see.

Rating: ***1/2

AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR (c) vs The WorkHorsemen (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

I saw a lot of people really bigging this one up and, yeah, it’s pretty kick-ass, but it’s just too short to really move me all that much. WorkHorsemen certainly deserve more of a look in than ROH can afford them and I hope this match helped to turn some heads. For what it was, it was a fast and explosive TV match, just nothing much more than that.

Rating: ***

Texas Death Match: Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Starks (AEW Collision 9/24/23)

After putting on my current MOTY contender at All Out, Ricky and Dragon come together for a match that didn’t click with me as much, but is still just so damn good for what it is. Working with Danielson continues to pay off for Ricky, who has looked so natural against established names like Dragon and Punk. It’s all to benefit him in the long run, but the issue isn’t being forced; Ricky is ready, and it’s only a matter of time. The final visual of Dragon pointing at Ricky while blood spills from the latter’s mouth is a motherfucker of a visual, capping off an appropriately violent and rugged match. GOAT behavior.

Rating: ****

See y’all tomorrow!

Wrestling with Work #4 (Impact, ROH, STARDOM)

It’s a busy Friday for me, but never too busy for wrestling. I hope you have a good weekend ahead of you. Here we go.

ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs Nick Wayne (ROH on HonorClub 9/21/23)

It does me good to see Shibata dust this fool. I’m learning to overcome my bias against Nick Wayne (mixed feelings on underage wrestlers/grossly over-hyped/Ospreay tendencies) and I am hopeful that his position in AEW will afford him valuable experience as he figures himself out. It certainly worked on me to see him ape the Shibata corner dropkick and pose, so points for making me want to see him be killed.

Rating: ***

Mercedes Martinez vs Trish Adora (ROH on HonorClub 9/21/23)

Checking in on two strong talents here. Mercedes is still so good and it’s too bad that injury and ROH being what it is never set her up for greater heights. Adora is at least getting more looks in, along with the association with the Infantry getting her more TV time, so I’m looking forward to a breakout opportunity from her. A fine squash.

Rating: **1/2

ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) vs Angelina Love (ROH on HonorClub 9/21/23)

Certainly a curiosity, especially as Love has appearances on two “competing” programs on the same night. It at least differentiated itself from other Athena micro-matches in that Love tried to out-heel her, as the ongoing minion storyline with Billie Starkz continues to play out. I’m happy that Athena has something going on besides roughing up jobbers on the weekly, but it still feels like she’s being kept in check on the least-important TK show.

Rating: **1/2

El Hijo Del Vikingo, Gravity, & Metalik vs Spanish Announce Project & Tony Nese (ROH on HonorClub 9/21/23)

A fun enough Dark/Dark Elevation-style comedy tag. I know we have hours to fill up here and guys to justify the contracts of, but having Vikingo in on this feels a tiny bit insulting for him.

Rating: **1/4

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Mogul Embassy (c) vs The Infantry & Willie Mack (ROH on HonorClub 9/21/23)

I decided to check this one out hoping for a fun and frivolous six-man sprint, which this kinda was, I guess. Some disparate parts in this based on my personal feelings: I like Willie Mack a lot and he’s still a fun and explosive wrestler; I want to like Gates of Agony more than I actually do, but I keep hoping for them to improve with time; Brian Cage is Brian Cage, take that as you will; The Infantry is a nothing-burger of a tag team that do absolutely nothing for me. This had its moments but won’t be remembered.

Rating: **1/2

Ultimate X: Ace Austin vs Zachary Wentz vs Rich Swann vs Alan Angels vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Samuray del Sol (Impact Wrestling 1000 9/21/23)

I feel like Ultimate X has lost its luster by now. It’s still never a bad thing to put a bunch of your fastest and most dynamic wrestlers in one match, but it’s rare that Ultimate X truly impresses or leaves much on your memory. Like WWE’s annual match types, you just let the pretty moves wash over you and have an okay time. Good for Alan Angels.

Rating: **3/4

Dirty Dango vs Jake Something (Impact Wrestling 1000 9/21/23)

This was purely for the nostalgia of the Fox Box. Nothing match for Something.

Rating: **

Team Canada & America’s Most Wanted vs The Design, Kenny King, & Sheldon Jean (Impact Wrestling 1000 9/21/23)

One of Impact 1000’s pure nostalgia-bait matches. This one didn’t really get me there because we’ve already had the novelty of AMW reuniting fairly recently, so there wasn’t much ground left to tread in seeing them wrestle again. Very nice to see Chris Harris back in the ring, but also lacking in substance.

Rating: **

Josh Alexander vs Trey Miguel (Impact Wrestling 1000 9/21/23)

An archetypical GLM (Good Little Match). Alexander and Miguel work well together and do their best with the time and trajectories they have, but it can’t/isn’t meant to reach the heights these two can have against one another. A perfectly acceptable 10 minute match.

Rating: ***

Knockouts 10-Woman Tag (Impact Wrestling 1000 9/21/23)

The more successful nostalgia tag of this episode. Unlike AMW, it actually is more of a novelty to see Gail Kim and Awesome Kong hit their spots, the former of whom is still quite impressive. Not to bag on Kong, she can still hit her spots and give her trademark expressions, so she’s good for it as long as her opponents are. Everyone else held up their end; special shout-out to my girl Gisele Shaw for her great over-the-top fear sell of Kong. Glad we can celebrate a women’s division as openly as we can with TNA/Impact.

Rating: ***

NJPW Strong Women’s Championship: Giulia (c) vs Risa Sera (STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 – 5 STAR Special in Hiroshima)

STARDOM upper card matches are usually a base level of acceptable, as this one was, but a couple of things were off about it. Seeing Risa Sera for the first time, there were a couple of things I liked about her (facial expressions, the Kryptonite Krunch through the table), but she and Giulia had their momentum severely halted in the back half by a botch. From that point on, a fine-to-good match was nearly ruined outright, as both seemed especially awkward around each other before the match ended a few minutes later. A shame for a match that started out good.

Rating: ***1/4

Wrestling with Work #3 (AEW Dynamite, WWE, TNA, STARDOM, AJPW)

Phew, a full docket today! Scroll down for the previous entries, we’re hitting a lot of stops today, so let’s not waste time.

Title vs Title: Claudio Castagnoli [ROH] vs Eddie Kingston [NJPWS] (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/23)

A feel-good win for an all-time struggler. Due to the time limitations and the story they went with, it’s not as good as their main event earlier this year, but the sheer feel-goodery of it is undeniable. Kawada telling Eddie to win with a powerbomb is the kind of wrestling LORE that I have a lot of time for.

Rating: ***1/2

Chris Jericho vs Sammy Guevara (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/23)

Messy, but had a moment or two of promise. Sammy is an impressive athlete, but still has so much trouble making any of his matches stick in memory, while Jericho is practically washed, looking embarrassing here in a couple of parts. They clearly wanted this to be something, but I felt nothing watching this aside from a couple of snickers.

Rating: **1/2

AEW International Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs Rey Fenix (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/23)

Now, Moxley’s concussion issue likely colored how this match unfolded, so I’m not judging this matchup solely on this one outing. That said, I felt like these two didn’t really gel in the way you’d want them to, leading to spots that felt repeated and disjointed. There’s still some fun parts here and there, but an ill first step to what I assume will be a rematch down the road.

Rating: **3/4

AEW Women’s World Championship: Saraya (c) vs Toni Storm (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/23)

Easily Saraya’s best singles match since returning. Toni is on an all-time run with her Norma Desmond character, and it thankfully translates to her ring work, giving her matches some needed extra spice. The Storm Zero near-fall was really good.

Rating: ***

AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs Samoa Joe (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/23)

Samoa fucking Joe. MJF is no slouch from an in-ring perspective, but Joe feeling himself while kicking his ass was just sublime. The eyes rolling in the back of his head or him yelling in triumph filled my soul. It also felt very good, as a light MJF hater, to see him get his ass absolutely kicked. His “heel” tactics worked for me, as did the finish. This was just a great piece of pro wrestling, a PPV-caliber TV main event.

Rating: ****

Smackdown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair vs Natalya (WWE Hell in a Cell 2017)

These two always work quite well together. I found it interesting to see Charlotte really committing as best she can to a limb work match; while she puts a respectable effort into selling the leg throughout, she can’t quite adapt herself to it in the way a smart babyface might. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a failing, she’s cocky and proud even as a babyface, but continuing to use the damaged leg makes her look a bit dumb. By the time the DQ finish happened, I was interested to see more.

Rating: ***1/2

Full Metal Mayhem: Bully Ray vs Jeff Hardy (TNA Impact 5/11/13)

I should have known what I was getting into with this. I thought I’d throw it on to see if this was perhaps fun or maybe with a few cool spots, but nah, this is a waste of time. Both these guys are still wrestling a decade later, despite being varying degrees of past-it here. A lot of boring, pedestrian “extreme” spots, lowlighted by this all-time bad sell from Bubba: https://imgur.com/jXk1Iem

Rating: *3/4

NJPW Strong Women’s Championship: Giulia (c) vs Yuu (STARDOM X STARDOM 2023 ~Osaka Summer Team~)

Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of STARDOM, but I’m always open to watching a match from them, as their talent pool is strong. Here, I was pleased to see a physical mismatch with Giulia taking on Yuu, the latter of whom might be my new favorite wrestler. Yuu appropriately shrugged off Giulia’s offense and looked cool as hell doing it; it was a bit hard to buy Giulia coming back and winning, but it was a good ride all the same.

Rating: ***1/2

IWGP Women’s Championship: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs Utami Hayashishita (STARDOM X STARDOM 2023 ~Osaka Summer Team~)

This was very good, albeit it’s somewhat indictative of the things that make it hard for me to invest in a STARDOM main event match. Both women are very capable and hit some real whopper moves throughout while cutting a quick pace, but a lot of times, the matches feel like moves on top of moves with not much connecting them. I also got a bit tired of Iwatani’s dead-fish selling in the back half. Hayashishita has really impressed me in nearly every facet this year and I’m pleased to see her get this spot.

Rating: ***3/4

Hiromu Takahashi vs RISING Hayato (AJPW Giant Series 2023 9/3/23)

A decent one-off akin to a Best of the Super Juniors mid-tournament main event. I’ve seen Hayato once or twice before this, he seems decent but I didn’t get much of an impression off of him here. So weird to see Hiromu assume an elder statesman role in a match like this, I think of him as eternally 21 years old.

Rating: ***

Wrestling with Work #2 (NXT, WWE, Women’s Wrestling Army)

I almost didn’t publish the first one of these, but I’m glad I did. Check that one out for a more full explanation for what this is. Otherwise, here goes for today.

Tyler Bate vs Butch (NXT 9/19/23)

It’s these two together, so you’re getting a high floor to start with. We’re past the point of the days where they’d throw everything at each other to leave an impact on a larger audience, so there’s fewer daring spots, but the clipped time on a modern NXT broadcast means there’s fewer indulgences as well. They wrestle quickly and with some nods to their past matches (Bate notably one of the only to kick out of Butch’s finish). It’s not as good as you’ve seen, but it’s hard for them to be anything less than enjoyable.

Rating: ***1/2

Nathan Frazer vs Joe Coffey vs Duke Hudson (NXT 9/19/23)

The Global Heritage Invitational (or the NXT-1, as I call it) has been a fun spice to add to current NXT, and I’ve enjoyed the matches from it in the same way I have fun with the block matches in Best of the Super Juniors. Of these three, Hudson is the only one that doesn’t really hang, so covering him up with Coffey and Frazer helps. Frazer is still very quick and athletically impressive, but I’m sure a common coaching point for him is to slow down and let things breathe. This is a GLM (Good Little Match).

Rating: ***

Street Fight: Triple H vs Umaga (WWE Cyber Sunday 2007)

The skills of a great big man (RIP Umaga) are met by the cognitive dissonance of The Ass-Kicker. Umaga bumps and sells his ass off for Triple H here (in fairness, Triple H’s selling is fairly good, too) in service to babyface Triple H, which I find objectionable (the sound of people earnestly chanting “Triple H” will be the cries that welcome me into Hell). There’s no universe in which I wouldn’t want Umaga to win here, but he and H come together to put on the kind of plunder match you want from WWE. A bit of weapons, some big spots, and some really solid work underneath it.

Rating: ***1/4

I Quit Match: John Cena vs Batista (WWE Over The Limit 2010)

One of the reasons that I was enthused to do this was because WWE constantly uploads matches from their back catalogue, usually a lot of recent-ish stuff, and I wanted to see about giving main events like this one a fair shake upon re-watch. Alas, the combination of Batista and John Cena in a blockbuster-style WWE plunder match is not a thrilling one, with a lot of walk-and-brawl, underwhelming OMG moments, and constant stopping to ask JOHN CENA if he quits. Very boring and with a lot of dead space.

Rating: **1/4

Sheamus vs John Cena vs Edge vs Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho vs Wade Barrett (WWE Night of Champions 2010)

This era of WWE production is beginning to feel as dated as the 90’s New Gen stuff already does. It’s entirely too clean and lacking in edges, which brings back feelings I had at the time of resentment toward seeing nearly all these guys in a main event slot. It’s a goulash approach to a main event and ends up feeling video-gamey, in that there’s a lot of moves but not a lot of psychology. Barrett definitely didn’t have it, and him being here is a weird historical curio.

Rating: **1/2

Queen Aminata vs Skye Blue (Women’s Wrestling Army Episode #33)

These two are currently in the arc of their careers where they need more reps to build up experience, and WWA is apparently a Maria Kanellis venture, so this is a good way to help that along. You can call it “character-building” for them to have a main event match in front of a quiet crowd in a church basement, but it definitely saps from any energy they bring to this. It’s pretty good, one they can keep coming back to and tweaking or adding to as the years go by, because it’s a fairly plain local-indy main event as is, albeit with an out-of-nowhere time limit finish, which drew the same reaction from me and the crowd.

Rating: ***

Wrestling with Work #1

I have a unique kind of job. I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but it involves me sitting at a computer for long periods of time. In the beginning, getting used to the work I do took up a lot of my brain, and I had to really concentrate to make sure I was doing a good job. Now, 3 years later, I’ve achieved a level of aptitude with what I do where I find it hard to pay attention to what has become my typical Monday-to-Friday grind. This happens with any job I get after a while; having ADHD, it becomes near-impossible for me to not be constantly doing at least two things at one time, so at some point, I started watching wrestling while on the job (on mute) to help me keep attention.

This is now a weekday ritual for me: Gather up all the matches from the previous night’s wrestling shows, as well as some other streaming matches I’ve been saving up, and let them be my visual background noise while I plug away. This is how I end up watching the majority of my wrestling content in a week, so I figured, instead of letting it all wash over me, why not see what I retain from this activity while keeping my writing and analysis sharp?

This ongoing series of posts will be micro-reviews of the matches I watch in the run of a day. They won’t be all-encompassing or in very great detail, I’ll just leave a few thoughts, as well as links to the matches when applicable.

Kofi Kingston vs Ivar (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/19/23)

I saw a lot of people raving about this after it happened. It’s a good little TV match, that’s about it. Yes, Kofi is still quite good and spry at 42 and Ivar slots well into the strength vs speed template here, but it doesn’t have the build or time to be anything great. 2023 Raw is great for Good Little Matches, of which this is one.

Rating: ***

Drew McIntyre vs Jey Uso (WWE Monday Night Raw 9/19/23)

Eh, this was fine. This one made the main event thanks to the Judgment Day backdrop behind it, but otherwise, this felt like a “top of 2nd hour” match. I’ve fairly enjoyed the recent spate of Judgment Day 6-man tags, so this felt like a creative and interest-based step down, as Jey and Drew are only okay together.

Rating: **3/4

Bayley vs Charlotte Flair (WWE Clash of Champions 2019)

A very quick match, so not a lot to sink one’s teeth into, but I appreciate that you can feel in the performances of both Charlotte and Bayley that they want to end this quick, especially Bayley.

Rating: **1/4

Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix (WWE Hell in a Cell 2010)

Beth leads Kelly to surely one of her best matches. Kelly’s offense was never good and she never was allowed to have much of a character, a real shame because she is really putting her whole effort into selling for Beth. For her part, Beth excels at being nasty to someone she can easily dominate and she has a great presence throughout this. Pleasantly surprised!

Rating: **3/4

No Holds Barred: Rey Mysterio vs Kane (WWE Cyber Sunday 2008)

Thankfully only 10 minutes long, washed Kane and pre-stem cells Rey commit slow, awkward violence against each other. Towards the end, Rey started selling his knee, which I thought was neat at first, but then I remembered Kane had been attacking his back all match, so I think that was just ol’ Rey’s actual knee pain in 2008.

Rating: *3/4

Brock Lesnar vs John Cena (WWE Smackdown 9/19/2003)

A really fun squash match for this first-ever encounter between two giants of the WWE’s modern landscape. Although Cena is the more experienced one by a couple of years, Brock looks so natural eating him alive here. Cena’s selling is a bit over-the-top, but works to put over the otherworldly strength and physicality of Brock. 2003 heel Lesnar also gets in some great mat grappling; I popped every time he did the bridging pin.

Rating: **1/2

Rey Mysterio vs JBL (WWE No Mercy 2005)

In contrast to the Kane clunker, JBL and a still-fairly-spritely Rey dust off an old classic with this one. Bradshaw is still in the thick of his new character direction and is so easy to hate with his bullying offense and smarmy, self-congratulatory actions. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s a greatly effective story and does exactly what it needs to.

Rating: ***

No Holds Barred: Kane vs Bray Wyatt (WWE Backlash 2016)

Remember the first NHB match above? Add nearly a decade and sub out one of the greatest high-flyers of all time for…not that (RIP Bray), and you get a lesser product. Wyatt’s explosivity is practically the only positive I have here, and his running senton through the table is cool.

Rating: *1/2

Mickie James vs Tasha Steelz (Impact Wrestling Sacrifice 2022)

I’m not terribly familiar with Tasha Steelz yet, but she acquitted herself well against the ageless Mickie James here. I never got super into this one but it was all fairly well done. The match starts very quick and I figured Mickie would eventually lose her long-sleeved, tasseled top to get into serious fight mode, but she never did and I thought that was weird.

Rating: **3/4