Wrestling with Work #28 (AEW Dynamite, Super Jr Tag League, WWE, Impact, ROH, TNA)

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

WWE Tag Team Championships: Cody Rhodes & Goldust (c) vs The Usos vs The Shield (WWE Hell In A Cell 2013)

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!

Wrestling with Work #22 (DPW, Impact, Super Jr. Tag League)

Phew, man, a full schedule thanks to the first 2 nights of the Super Jr. Tag League. I love these little tournaments, especially focused around the junior heavyweight talent. Let’s go!!

Ratings

Knockouts Tag Team Championship: MK Ultra (c) vs Deonna Purrazzo & Tasha Steelz (Impact Wrestling Main Event Mondays 10/23/23)

Rating: **1/2

Worlds Tag Team Championship: Violence Is Forever (c) vs CDK (DPW x Gatoh Move Tokyo Crossover Night 1 4/25/23)

Rating: ***1/2

Intergalactic Jet Setters vs Just 5 Guys (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 1)

Rating: ***1/4

Bullet Club War Dogs vs YOH & MUSASHI (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 1)

Rating: **3/4

Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC vs Titan & BUSHI (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 2)

Rating: ***

Just 5 Guys vs Ichiban Sweet Boys (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 2)

Rating: ***

YOH & MUSASHI vs El Desperado & Master Wato (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 2)

Rating: ***

Bullet Club War Dogs vs Catch 22 (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 2)

Rating: ***1/4

Reviews

Just 5 Guys vs Boltin Oleg & Oskar Leube (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 1)

Wanted to watch this to check in on the two Young Lions, as well as stay abreast of how Yuya is doing back in NJPW. Oleg and Leube are friggin’ huge, so it’s funny to see the lanky Leube tower over the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, while Oleg is a meat castle of a man. I’m still looking for input on the latter, but Leube seems to have a lot of promise for where he is right now. Keep it up, boys!

Rating: **1/2

Ichiban Sweet Boys vs Catch 22 (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 1)

I’m pleased that my boy Robbie Eagles doesn’t have to keep up the team with Tiger Mask, and I’d much rather see the continued development of Kosei Fujita in a setting like this. Right now, Fujita has good fire and snappy offense, so I’m excited to see how the TMDK association will pan out for him over the next year or so. Fun match here, good kick-off to the proceedings; Catch 22 are a great team and always deliver in one way or another.

Rating: ***

The DKC & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Master Wato & El Desperado (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 1)

The Wato/Desperado team is a fun prospect and it seems to have gotten off on the right foot here. Wato is trying to be as friendly as possible to a guy who has said multiple times hates his guts and wants nothing to do with him. If Wato wasn’t already the BOSJ winner, they’d probably be my pick to win, but I’m interested to see how they’ll go with this through line. Hey, it’s a funny bit, and there’s a lot of these shows to fill, so whatever helps ’em!

Rating: ***

World TV Championship: Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs Boltin Oleg (NJPW Super Jr. Tag League 2023 Road to Power Struggle Night 2)

This was a big test for Oleg and, for where he is, I’d say he passed. He’s lucky now, in that the bar for success with Young Lions is so low that, as long as he doesn’t embarrass himself, it’s a win. Not only did he not do that, but he did a good job of holding his own and taking advantage of how much ZSJ gave him here.

Zack bumped like mad for this kid and it helped to emphasize the physical gulf between them. Zack is the noodle man, obviously, but Oleg is a hulk of a Young Lion, not all that far removed from Katsuya Kitamura (RIP). He looks like a jacked-up ogre, so it’s believable that someone of his station would just throw Zack around, and Zack is very generous to do so here. If anything, Zack almost gave him too much, narrowly squeaking out a submission win after getting bodied for 75% of the match.

Oleg has some personality to him along with his presence, so I’ll be watching his development with great interest. Between him and Leube, there’s an abundance of huge white boys that could become something for NJPW before too long.

Rating: ***1/4

I think I’ll be a bit more discerning with my SJTL matches after today, this was a lot to watch in essentially one go. See ya tomorrow!

Wrestling with Work #21 (WWE, AEW, Impact weekend shows)

A big ol’ collection of this weekend’s matches, we’ll see which one ends up being the best…

Ratings

Bryan Danielson vs Andrade El Idolo (AEW Collision 10/21/23)

Rating: ***3/4

X Division Championship: Chris Sabin (c) vs KENTA (Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory 2023)

Rating: ***

Impact Tag Team Championship: The Rascalz (c) vs ABC (Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory 2023)

Rating: ***

Reviews

WWE Women’s Championship: Iyo Sky (c) vs Charlotte Flair (WWE Smackdown 10/20/23)

Personally, I’m a fan of a champion being featured on TV and having consistently good matches. Iyo is certainly not the only person in WWE doing that right now, but when it comes to that company, you can’t take it for granted.

Rating: ***1/2

2 Out of 3 Falls Match: Mistico vs Rocky Romero (AEW Rampage 10/20/23)

Lucha is my biggest blind spot as a wrestling fan, so I’m grateful for any direction towards it that following American wrestling affords me. I ended up getting into NJPW and puroresu at large almost by accident, by finding illegally uploaded shows on YouTube and just filling in the blanks as I went. It’s not an ideal approach, although I did have fun doing it, but now that I’m older and have less free time, I find it harder to do the same for CMLL, AAA, and Lucha history. If nothing else, this match made me do a bit of research about Mistico and CMLL.

I’m certainly happy that Mistico has at least one opportunity here to leave his previous US excursion in the past. This match with Rocky is a fairly good TV match; nothing especially amazing, as far as I could see, but Mistico carried himself well and came across like someone special (helped by his presentation and commentary talking points). Perhaps 2024 will be the year I find out more about wrestling south of the border…

Rating: ***1/4

Memphis Street Fight: Eddie Kingston vs Jeff Jarrett (AEW Collision 10/21/23)

This match has the greatest 5 second stretch of wrestling in 2023: Tony Schiavone refers to Karen Jarrett as “an evil bitch;” Jay Lethal hits a cutter to Kingston off the stage through a table; Tony Schiavone cries, “Holy smokes!” An absolute blast from start to finish.

Rating: ****

AEW World Tag Team Championship: Ricky Starks & Big Bill (c) vs Blackpool Combat Club (AEW Collision 10/21/23)

A really good tag main event that earned its length. Yuta is believable and fiery in the babyface-in-peril role, and you want a heel team like Bill and Rick to talk as much shit as they do. At some point, I thought to myself, “Big Bill is a good tag wrestler, why hasn’t he done that before?” and then had myself a wee little giggle.

Rating: ***3/4

AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs John Silver (AEW Battle of the Belts VIII)

As a former CHIKARA freak, I was always going to watch Fire Ant vs The Shard 2K23. Orange is back to his routine of solid TV defenses, and Silver is always game in these rare singles occasions. The stop-start nature of Dark Order’s involvement in AEW and ROH has worn me out over the past couple of years, and as such, there’s no bigger flatline to my interest than anything they are involved in. Hey, every promotion needs a low-card comedy gimmick, but they don’t even do comedy anymore, so Silver, Reynolds, and Uno have never felt less necessary than right now.

Rating: ***

AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander (c) vs Willow Nightingale (AEW Battle of the Belts VIII)

It speaks to Willow’s career-long character work as the bubbly, uber-positive babyface that seeing her work heel here feels morally wrong, like something no person should see. It sucks that it’s in front of a visibly yawning crowd, as she and Stat have to pull out every big spot to get them even a little into it, so the match seems worse than it actually is. I watch a lot of these matches on mute normally, but you really aren’t missing anything cutting the sound off for this one; if anything, it’s a bit less sad that way.

Rating: ***

Will Ospreay vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey (Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory 2023)

There’s a few wild moves in the back third of this (Speedball with a snappy hurricanrana pin, top-rope fisherman buster, Ospreay’s head-drop move) that nearly pushed this into 4-star territory, but ultimately, this is exactly what it looks like. I will say, I was afraid that this would be a lot more annoying, as both of these guys have their silly tendencies when allowed to go nuts, but this (by their standards) was fairly restrained. Destined to be loved by everyone looking for this sort of moves-based wrestling, and it’s a good one of those, but I certainly don’t have the feeling for this as I do for the Memphis Street Fight.

Rating: ***3/4

Impact World Championship: Alex Shelley (c) vs Josh Alexander (Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory 2023)

The phrase that occurred to me during this match, regarding Josh Alexander, is “frustratingly consistent.” Since he’s ascended to main event status in Impact over the last couple of years, and not dissimilar to what I said about the Ospreay/Speedball match, you always know what you’re getting with Alexander. A really good-not-great match.

Personally, I prefer the type of match that Alexander has to those out of Ospreay, for example, but I always end up expecting more from Alexander’s performance when I really shouldn’t. His match here with Shelley is full of fluid sequences, it escalates believably, and is ultimately satisfying, but I never end up feeling all that pulled in. Alexander is a great wrestler (as is Shelley), but this was another case of an Alexander match capping at “very good.” Consistency in a performer is great and it is totally working for Josh Alexander, I just need to remind myself to not expect more than that from him.

Rating: ***3/4

The Super Jr. Tag League has already begun, so get ready to see a lot of that in here starting tomorrow. Until then!

Wrestling with Work #20 (Impact, ROH, WWE Evolution, Funk vs Hart)

A few catch-up items before a big weekend, plus a very interesting item from the ol’ Watch Later list.

Ratings

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Samuray Del Sol (Impact Wrestling 10/19/23)

Rating: ***1/4

Gravity vs Angelico (ROH on HonorClub 10/19/23)

Rating: ***

Komander vs Metalik (ROH on HonorClub 10/19/23)

Rating: **3/4

Gates of Agony vs The WorkHorsemen vs Action Andretti & Darius Martin (ROH on HonorClub 10/19/23)

Rating: **1/2

Trish Stratus & Lita vs Mickie James & Alicia Fox (WWE Evolution)

Rating: **1/4

Reviews

No DQ Match: Crazzy Steve vs Black Taurus (Impact Wrestling 10/19/23)

Here’s a case of someone I want to like, and someone I want to be elsewhere. I’m actually a pretty good fan of Impact Wrestling since last year, I’ve really enjoyed the wrestling it’s put on and how it’s picked itself up from the floor to become a solid, steady promotion.

There are still some guys who have been there through the tough times, including Crazzy Steve, who is the person I wish I liked more. I think his aesthetic is really interesting, I like the horror references he’s worked into his gear and look, but I have a hard time getting into what he’s doing. I think it’s the common problem where mainstream wrestling can only go so far; as much as he wants to be a horror movie villain, you know he’s not gonna kill anybody or get too bloody, so much like The Fiend character, it’s hard to really suspend disbelief with what he does. He’s also terminally fine as a wrestler, never rising above acceptable.

Frequently rising above acceptable, and directly into my heart, is Black Taurus. Taurus has impressed me from the first time I saw him a few years ago, from basically every aspect of his game. He’s an exciting wrestler who’s fun to watch, his look is awesome, and I enjoy him practically any time I see him. As much as I like Impact, it is still a relatively minor stage in American wrestling, and Taurus is someone that I feel could really turn a lot of heads if only more people saw him. I’m certainly not privy to any backstage or political reasoning why Taurus has not shown up on AEW when many other luchadors have, but I would just love for him to get a great run somewhere that isn’t Impact, as they seem to only want him at a very specific, limited capacity.

Rating: **3/4

No DQ Match: Terry Funk vs Bret Hart (Terry Funk Presents Wrestle Fest: 50 Years Of Funk)

This one is a real vibes-based gem. It’s a curiosity of its time, with ECW’s Terry Funk facing the WWF Champion Bret Hart in a show featuring talent from both shows. Even better, the version I’m watching is recorded on a good-not-great consumer-grade camera, so the whole thing has a yellowed visual that gives it an archival feel when watching it. The mechanics of the match aren’t super impressive to me, but it’s just an interesting collision of two of the all-time greats, gathered together to celebrate Terry Funk, in some of the same footage that you would see later in Beyond The Mat.

Rating: ***1/2

Have a good weekend!

Wrestling with Work #16 (Impact, WWE, Goldberg, Inoki vs Vader)

A slight bit of Impact catch-up, and then it’s all throwbacks today. Links are attached to the titles!

Alan Angels vs Laredo Kid (Impact Wrestling BTI 10/12/23)

Rating: ***

Rey Mysterio vs Finlay (WWE No Mercy 2007)

Rating: ***1/4

Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov (WWE Worlds Collide 2020)

Rating: ***1/4

No Holds Barred Match: Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus (WWE Fastlane 2021)

Rating: **3/4

The Wyatt Family vs The Usos & Sheamus (WWE Smackdown 5/2/14)

Rating: ***

Goldberg vs Satoshi Kojima (AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle 2nd 8/30/02)

Rating: **1/4

Goldberg vs Taiyo Kea (AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle 3rd 8/31/02)

This and the above match are in the same YouTube video put up by the AJPW YouTube channel, and are Goldberg’s only two matches in the promotion, taking place between his WCW and first WWE runs. There’s really not much to them, beyond the novelty of seeing Goldberg be Goldberg in front of a hot Japanese crowd. It is kind of funny that AJPW so willingly let two of their guys be sacrificed on the Goldberg altar, but it provides contrasts to the Goldberg match I talk about below.

Make not mistake, neither the Kojima match nor the Kea match are “great,” but they’re exactly what you want out of Goldberg: Short, explosive, and kick-ass.

Rating: **

World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H (c) vs Goldberg (WWE Unforgiven 2003)

You know whose matches are not short, explosive, or kick-ass? Triple H. Ditto Goldberg in 2003, but the point I’m making here is that there’s a right and a wrong way to plug in a guy like Goldberg. WWE got there eventually, kicking ans screaming after a goddamn decade, but before then, they did everything they could to fit the square peg in the round hole and it’s just kind of embarassing.

I started watching wrestling in 2003, and even then, I knew that Goldberg was special. He has a kind of charisma that you can never quite dampen and that goes beyond bad booking (for the most part) but, looking back on his initial fed run, it really is a great big missed opportunity; thankfully, one they corrected eventually. This match, arguably the biggest of Goldberg’s career at that point, is a good example why. Triple H is at the end of the infamous Reign of Terror here, a time when he went over on several potential main-event talents in lengthy matches varying in quality, in a seeming throwback to the NWA Champions of his youth like Ric Flair and Harley Race. You can see the fingerprints of this style in matches like this, where he wrestles very slowly and deliberately with flourishes of his idols (the standing knee drop, the Flair bump over the ropes), but he does so in a rigid manner that is meant to get him over more than his opponents.

Granted, this is not entirely the fault of Triple H (only mostly), as the directive seems to have been to mold Goldberg to the WWE style, rather than adapt the WWE style around him. What this means is that Goldberg frequently wrestles longer matches than he should, matches that involve him being a babyface-in-peril and selling for the heel, neither of which are his strengths. Is Goldberg a limited performer? Yes, but when you let him do what he does best, not many can do it better. People want to see Goldberg unequivocally kick ass and win, which WWE were never going to let a WCW guy do this soon after the end of the Monday Night War.

This leaves us with a match that, to me, isn’t an outright stinker, but is indicative of the problems in both guy’s approaches at this time. Triple H is not Ric Flair, and Goldberg is not not-Goldberg.

Rating: **1/2

2-Out-of-3-Falls Killer Impact Match: Frankie Kazarian vs Eddie Edwards (Impact Wrestling 10/12/23)

This is the Impact version of 3 Stages of Hell; I think this is the first time they’ve used this title? The order is normal match/submission match/Last Man Standing. Kudos to Impact’s production team for a baseball innings-style graphic on who has the lead.

This has been a fairly lengthy feud so I wouldn’t say that it didn’t deserve the time it got (nearly 30 minutes), but it didn’t totally earn that time, for me. The hardcore elements were pretty good, kudos to Kaz for blading the chest, and certainly seem better after watching limp-ass modern WWE hardcore matches. I wasn’t into this the whole way through, though, and it began to feel bloated by the LMS fall, a match-type that gives itself to bloat more often than not. Although I compared it positively to WWE, the length of the match and the insistence that this feud has been Heated and Personal smacks of fed mindset. Pretty good, but we don’t need to coddle Impact by pretending this was great.

Rating: ***1/4

Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) vs Jason Jordan (WWE No Mercy 2017)

More than almost anyone, I wish Jason Jordan could wrestle again. Year after year, it becomes more and more heartbreaking that this athletic kid with so much explosivity and potential never got to make the most of his talents. That’s all I wanted to say.

Rating: ***

Antonio Inoki vs Big Van Vader (NJPW Wrestling World 1996)

This is part of a years-long Inoki retirement tour where he fought old rivals from years past, including the man who beat him in his first match in NJPW, Vader. Inoki is a considerable blind spot for me so this didn’t quite hit the way I’m sure it’s meant to but, man, it is really something.

What I loved about this is how much it felt like a fight. I’ll spare you the tired complaint about “wrestling today,” but seeing two guys this physically different approach each other and look like they are trying to hurt each other is unambiguously cool and good. Both guys get some nasty head gashes in this and we get some all-timer spots (the Vader German suplex, the successful Vader moonsault) that are still remembered today. I’d say you don’t really need to know the history of either guy to enjoy this, but it does help at least a little. At the end of the day, it’s two of the toughest guys in the country looking like they’re trying to kill each other, and that’s all you need sometimes.

Rating: ****

I might soon take the plunge on Wrestle Universe based on the talkback about Fuminori Abe vs Takuya Nomura. You’ll hear about it if I do.

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 #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 #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