With this edition, I’ve decided that I’m going to put a pause on Wrestling with Work for now. I started this to get some reps in with wrestling writing, and I feel that I’ve both done that, and am risking lesser returns by continuing to crank out reviews on a near-daily basis. I may return to the format again when I feel like it, but for now, thanks a lot for reading these.
Ratings
Bullet Club War Dogs vs Ichiban Sweet Boys (NJPW Super Jr Tag League Road To Power Struggle 2023 Night 9)
Rating: **3/4
Intergalactic Jet Setters vs Catch 22 (NJPW Super Jr Tag League Road To Power Struggle 2023 Night 9)
Rating: ***1/4
Rating: ***
The Righteous vs Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal (ROH on HonorClub 11/2/23)
Rating: **1/2
Angelico vs Metalik vs Slim J vs Gringo Loco (ROH on HonorClub 11/2/23)
Rating: ***
Dalton Castle, The Boys, & Gravity vs The WorkHorsemen, Cole Karter & Griff Garrison (ROH on HonorClub 11/2/23)
Rating: **1/2
Reviews
AEW Women’s World Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Willow Nightingale (AEW Dynamite 11/1/23)
You’re going to get a certain level of quality from these two and it certainly showed through here. Granted, Shida sometimes moves in slow-motion, but Willow is so good at selling and making her stuff look good that it almost makes up for deficiencies on her opponent’s end. I think they could do a little better, but I’m hardly unhappy with what I got here.
Rating: ***1/4
AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs Claudio Castagnoli (AEW Dynamite 11/1/23)
Now, this is a case where I feel like there was a bit held back, or perhaps my expectations were too high. These two are familiar with each other from the CHIKARA days (a quiet running theme with Orange lately) and have worked very well together, with Claudio being the base to end all bases for Cassidy’s offense. I’m not sure what exactly didn’t click for me this time around, but I had a harder time getting into this than I thought I would at the outset. Claudio is not necessarily the most compelling wrestler on control, especially without much of a story going into this, so I think it was a bit lacking in terms of investment. They pull out some very fun sequences, but I still think these two have a bit better in them for each other.
Rating: ***1/2
Barbed Wire Massacre: Sabu vs Abyss (TNA Turning Point 2005)
Damn, this rocked. There was a long time where I thought Sabu was one of my least-favorite wrestlers, because I hated that he botched all the time and, frankly, took what he could do for granted. I’m leaving that part of myself behind in later years, and I’m doing my best to appreciate what Sabu did, rather than scrutinize what he didn’t do. To this end, Sabu is an absolute maniac in this match, and Abyss isn’t far behind.
One thing that TNA/Impact is underrated in is the type of violent matches they put on. In a wrestling world where WWE offers the safer, family-friendly version of hardcore (and before AEW started dipping its toe into the freak shit on live TV), TNA was bringing the violence in a way that the mainstream North American viewer wasn’t getting. Yes, CZW was bringing all this and more, along with IWA-MS and other deathmatch organizations, but on for-real PPV, Sabu getting front-suplexed onto barbed wire or Abyss getting sandwiched between barbed wire-covered boards was something you weren’t necessarily going to see. Sabu takes some really painful-looking tangles into the wire and Abyss, bless him, is a bump freak that was willing to do so much to get himself and his opponent over. This would ultimately prove to be his downfall and unfortunate calling card, but here in 2005, it looks sick as hell. This is a great, violent fight and deserves to be better remembered.
Shout-out to Abyss’ cool gloves, I wish he had worn those more.
Rating: ***3/4
Falls Count Anywhere Match: Kurt Angle vs Abyss (TNA Turning Point 2008)
Once everyone realized Abyss would take heinous bumps in any and every match, it became a bit eye-rolling to see him put through a table/tacks/glass yet again. However, I can’t deny that the guy was still really good in this environment, and when you have a chameleon like Kurt Angle in the mix, it ends up being pretty damn good.
Angle and Abyss have a big slug-out that sees both of them refusing to stay down, one that features some all-timer bumps from Angle (ie. the infamous Perc Angle running senton off the stage), including an almighty top-rope moonsault onto a chair to Abyss in the center of the ring. It’s not the neatest match in the world, and the crowd brawling takes it down a bit (at least the crowd is rabid), but it’s too much fun to not rate highly.
Rating: ***1/2
TNA World Tag Team Championship: Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs Team 3D (TNA Turning Point 2010)
This is way better than I expected it to be! I remembered this as the match that directly leads to Team 3D splitting up, as the Guns kick out of the 3D and Bubba turns on Devon because of it, but man, this match actually kicks ass.
I can hardly believe I’m being so complementary to this era of Team 3D, as they are both so big and slow, usually content to fuck around in garbage brawls. Here, though, they turn it the hell up to match the Guns, and it totally works. It’s funny, because both teams are kinda playing both heel and babyface; they both get hot tags, and it’s hard to know exactly where the allegiances lie. The Guns play up as heels but are naturally likable against the larger Dudleyz, who do all their old crowd-pleaser spots as well as control segments. It’s a sensical way to approach this, as both teams are popular, and the story is both 3D going for their next tag titles, and the Guns surviving an uber-established team.
Survive, they do, as the Guns get their asses kicked but also get to kick out of a 3D, which is treated as a huge deal. I also noticed that both Bubba and Devon do singles variations of a couple of their team moves (Bubba hits a cutter to a rebounding Gun, Devon hits a top-rope headbutt) that you could interpret as foreshadowing their singles runs. Either way, this was so good in a way that I kind of can’t believe, and you should definitely check it out.
Rating: ****
Motor City Machine Guns vs Eric Young & Josh Alexander (Impact Wrestling 11/2/23)
A perfectly solid tag match marred by poor production value. Impact in 2023 normally looks quite good, visually, but something about the cameras and lighting that they used here made it just a bit more physically difficult for me to keep my eyes on. Safe to say that I won’t exactly be prioritizing the UK shows.
Rating: ***1/4
ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) vs Mercedes Martinez (ROH on HonorClub 11/2/23)
Athena still bringing it, even in the Negative Zone. Her and Mercedes brought a believable roughness to their match that I always appreciate seeing, and although the interference finish isn’t great, it at least leaves Mercedes with a back door to come back at some point. Athena’s case for WOTY continues to grow…
Rating: ***1/2
I have a new project in the works that I’ll be putting together an introduction for soon. Until then, go watch some wrestling!
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