WWE STOMPING GROUNDS

Tacoma, Washington

DREW GULAK vs. AKIRA TOZAWA vs. TONY NESE (11:20): This was the only match on the card I thought would be any good and it turned out to be the best match of the night. A better company would have Tozawa vs. Ricochet in the main event for the title. The WWE is sadly not that company. Gulak ended up winning the 205Live title that Nese had. This was all action and the hot crowd made this even better. There were two particular head bumps that made me wonder if Nese had been watching Naito/Ibushi matches recently. Not a good thing! So Gulak is now the champ of a show nobody watches or cares about. Kind of sad that the best match of the show featured wrestlers relegated to the purgatory of 205Live. ***

BECKY LYNCH vs. LACEY EVANS (11:30): Evans was amusing in the main event later on as the heel referee. Maybe they should just make her Corbin's manager or something, because she can do everything but wrestle. She's a pretty blonde so of course they gave her a push...but this match was a complete bore and Evans just seems flustered and lost amidst the wrestling moves. Charlotte Flair wasn't even on this show. I'd be happy if Lynch faced Charlotte on every PPV until the end of time to be honest. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE NEW DAY (11:05): Good match. Zayn and Owens together are two of the only watchable things on RAW these days. It probably helps that they can both actually wrestle in entertaining matches. The crowd was hot for this (later on they died and started chanting various, random things) and Xavier Woods and Big E. are usually always in fast-paced, fun matches. This was bell to bell non-stop action. ***

RICOCHET vs. SAMOA JOE (12:25): If these two had wrestled four years ago in PWG it might have been the greatest match ever. Hell, if these two wrestled in another company today it would have been better. It was a good match but never turned into anything great. Ricochet, for whatever reason, just seems like a shell of his former self. He still does most of his flips and leaps and jumps and dives but for whatever reason it doesn't connect in the way that Will Ospreay's arsenal of maneuvers does. If you remember that infamous Ospreay/Ricochet match from a few years ago...they were pretty much on par with each other, yet now Ospreay is the best wrestler in the world and Ricochet is perhaps a little better than okay. He did usually excel in multi-man tag matches in New Japan, so maybe he was just never cut out for single matches. Or maybe Joe is just too old these days. The first half was a beat-down bore, then the second half was fairly dramatic. Ricochet won the U.S. title and looked like he just won the lottery. It's not that great of a title, kid. **1/2

DANIEL BRYAN & ROWAN vs. HEAVY MACHINERY (14:25): Good match, thanks mostly to the loud and proud Washington crowd. Bryan was born in Aberdeen, Washington so of course they showered him with approval and cheers and booed the good guys. They even cheered for Rowan. Heavy Machinery are pretty much two fat/fun guys. This wasn't exactly anything special, fresh, or new. But it was watchable. **1/2

BAYLEY vs. ALEXA BLISS (10:35): And here is where the show, which was pretty good up to this point, fell off a cliff. This was perhaps the worst match ever. Well, not really, but it was still awful. Bliss has never been and never will be in a good match ever. Bayley should just go back to NXT and wrestle Sasha Banks, because that's the last time she was ever relevant. This was for the Women's Title, which Bayley retained. This was simply the definition of boring. -No Stars-

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DREW McINTYRE (17:20): This match was also awful...until the last few minutes. The end was somewhat exciting with some near-falls and Shane giving Reigns the coast-to-coast dropkick when the ref was knocked out. These two are just both so fucking dull, lifeless, and mediocre. *

KOFI KINGSTON vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (20:00): I'm really not sure what match was worse, this or the Bayley/Bliss one. This match was so God-awful boring. Ziggler showed up out of nowhere last month to wrestle Kofi for the title in Saudi Arabia after being gone for seemingly years. Now they're in a steel cage match that put everyone in the Tacoma Dome to sleep. Yes, Kofi had a great match at 'Mania against Bryan. Perhaps that was a fluke, because he definitely doesn't have the chops to put on great, main event matches. Nobody did anything suicidal off the cage. The finish had Dolph crawling out of the door but Kofi leaped through the ropes over him and landed on the floor to retain his title. Groan. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. BARON CORBIN (18:25): You know this PPV had zero interest when this main event was announced. Everyone hates Corbin except Vince. They've pushed Corbin to the fucking moon for some reason. I'm almost kind of shocked he didn't win the title (they have to save their Lesnar/Rollins Summerslam main event, I suppose). The hatred for Corbin isn't the usual heel heat, though. People don't hate him because he's a bad guy and he mocks the crowd. No, they hate him because he's an awful wrestler and he sucks and why are they pushing him? It's mind boggling. They did save this match from being a dumpster fire by having Corbin pick Lacey Evans to be the special referee. Which meant we got all of the hilarious, heel ref shenanigans. Slow counts and non-counts. Lacey changed the match to a "No Count Out" match when Baron couldn't make the ten count after being put through the announce table. Then Lacey made the match a "No DQ" match when Corbin started beating Seth with a steel chair. Yes, all of that heel ref schtick has been done a million times before but I still found it to be amusing and entertaining. It sure made this match a hell of a lot better than it had any right to be. The crowd chanted, "AEW," "Daniel Bryan," and "boring" during this match, although they got into it by the half way mark and popped big when Becky Lynch finally came out to beat up Lacey (Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch are dating in real life...which the announcers have been telling us constantly for the last few weeks). I was entertained by the second half of this match. Which, for the WWE these days, is a complete and utter shock. "Wait...you were entertained?" I can't believe it either. **1/2

NJPW DOMINION

Osaka

JON MOXLEY vs. SHOTA UMINO (3:52): Moxley, formerly Dean Ambrose in the WWE, is now a free agent and seemingly popping up everywhere cool. He had his first big TV match since leaving the WWE on Wednesday here in Japan against Juice Robinson where he won the U.S. title. He isn't really doing anything different, but he just looks like a caged animal set free. He looks happier, more loose, and the crowds in Japan love him. This was more just a showcase for him since Umino is just a trainee Young Lion dude. Moxley won fairly quickly and announced that he'll be in this year's G1, which, although it's losing Omega, is gaining Moxley, Shingo Takagi, Will Ospreay, and Kenta, who came out with Shibata for some reason to announce his G1 entrance. *1/2

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA (11:14): Kojima was just in Canada and the states wrestling for Ring of Honor. You can pretty much tell how far Ring of Honor has fallen lately that they sent Kojima there instead of someone good like, I don't know, Okada? This was another showcase, since Takagi lost to Ospreay on Wednesday in the Super Jr.'s final and he needed a bounce back. Takagi had been undefeated in New Japan until losing to Ospreay, which kind of took the wind out of his sails and beating Kojima isn't really a help. I will say this, though: that Ospreay/Takagi match was so far the best match of the year. And, honestly, that show on Wednesday was better than this. Which is kind of shocking because Dominion has been one of the year's best wrestling shows of the year the last few years. *

JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & YOSHI-HASHI vs. MINORU SUZUKI & ZACK SABRE, JR. (9:39): The one thing that the WWE does better than NJPW is that on their PPV's they at least have wall to wall big matches, not just random, multi-person filler matches like this. Not that the WWE PPV's are stacked with "big" matches...but at least they attempt to set up stuff beyond crap like this. Liger is apparently retiring soon, probably at next year's Dome, so he seems like he's more energetic and on fire lately. He got in the ring and kicked his partner, Yoshi-Hashi, in the back during the match. Not to turn on him but to motivate him. Uh...okay. 1/2*

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, JUICE ROBINSON & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. JAY WHITE, CHASE OWENS & TAIJI ISHIMORI (9:48): After this match, Tanahashi was doing commentary, which I thought was a good sign that his recent surgery probably didn't go well and he's easing into the sunset. But no! He's apparently fighting Jericho in the future and that's why he was doing commentary. He did have a pretty good match on Wednesday against Jay White. But this was just a nothing match. Juice cut his dreadlocks and looks like a chump...even though I thought his dreadlocks looked fucking stupid. Go figure. *

TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. TAICHI (11:16): Jeff Cobb won the NEVER title at Madison Square Garden in April. Then he lost it to Taichi who lost it to Ishii here. The NEVER title has to be the dumbest title going these days. Oh, wait. The WWE 24/7 title might have that beat. Ishii will probably go down in history as the greatest wrestler to never win the big title. He's too old now. Probably. Taichi sucks and always will no matter how many idiot wrestling writers online change their mind. *1/2

GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY vs. EVIL & SANADA (16:38): So far, this show is fairly awful. Which is a surprise since on Wednesday they had a hell of a show and the Super Jr. tournament was great. I'm not sure why I'm not reviewing Wednesday's show, as I keep talking about it. This match was for the tag team titles. The Guerrillas also have the Ring of Honor tag titles. This was not good at all. I'm not sure I've ever seen a good Guerrillas of Destiny match nor ever will. The Young Bucks couldn't even get a good match out of them. *

WILL OSPREAY vs. DRAGON LEE (20:07): This probably would have been a four star, memorable match...if Will Ospreay hadn't just had the match of the year on Wednesday against Takagi. This was awesome, sure, but it paled in comparison to that epic. As much as I love Dragon Lee, I think it's fairly obvious that the best matches he'll ever be in are the ones against Hiromu. Ospreay won the Jr. title here...which seems pointless as he's apparently a heavyweight now. There was one particular insane move that occurred during this match. Dragon Lee sat Ospreay on the metal, crowd barrier in front of the announcers and then went into the ring, ran the ropes and dove through the middle ropes like a torpedo, hit Ospreay going a million miles a hour and they both toppled over the announce table to the floor, knocking one of the announcers over. It was crazy. These two are nuts. But this is New Japan, where everyone is on the precipice of breaking their neck, so the next match had even bigger nuts wrestling. ***

TETSUYA NAITO vs. KOTA IBUSHI (22:06): Fuck. Do these two want to be paralyzed? Do they have a death wish? I'm not even joking...but if I was someone in charge in New Japan I would never let these two wrestle each other again. Ibushi already broke his neck once years ago and Naito is halfway to life in a wheelchair, but they still continue to up the ante to self destruction. I guess all of this means is that this was an incredible match, their best of the year, and it was by far the most cringeworthy match of the year. I truly couldn't believe what I was seeing during most of this. How these two aren't paralyzed or dead after this is miraculous. There were a thousand DDT's and moves where one or the other landed on their head or neck badly...but the one that everyone will probably be talking about is the gruesome ring apron spot. Naito seemed to be attempting to give Ibushi a belly to belly suplex from the ring apron to the floor. I'm not sure if Ibushi was supposed to land on his feet or really take it but what ended up happening is the side of Ibushi's head hit the edge of the ring and then he fell to the floor. I watched the replay a few times and still have no idea what they were trying to do. It reminded me of that botched Spanish Fly that Ospreay did to Scurll last year on the ring apron. This match was definitely not for the squeamish. But it was also by far the match of the night and the crowd seemed to be into it. This probably should have been the main event. I really hope these two dopes are put in separate G1 sections. I'm not sure I want to see them kill each other for real. I've already seen Shibata's career end and Hiromu break his neck in the last few years and I'm still heartbroken and sad about both of those tragedies. I love New Japan, but sometimes, sometimes you've got to just dial it back. ***1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. CHRIS JERICHO (25:43): Well of course this was boring and it sucked. I haven't been Jericho's biggest fan lately, even though a lot of the wrestling critics online seem to love his matches. Meltzer gave the Jericho/Omega match last year 5 stars and I gave it *1/2. I did like the Jericho/Naito match from this year's Dome...but maybe that was more because Naito is a maniac and the Dome crowd was loud and into it. The crowd during this match was mostly a silent tomb, occasionally chanting, "Okada" and then by the end, "Y2J." Jericho did just wrestle a long, grueling match two weeks ago against Omega. But he didn't look lost or out of it or tired. He looked like his usual, old, fat self and did all of his usual antics. He lost by a roll-up and then beat up Okada post-match with a chair until Tanahashi, who was on commentary, made the save. Considering Tanahashi is more beat up, broken, battered, old, and slow than Jericho...that match isn't exactly going to be a classic. This show was not New Japan at it's greatest, although Ospreay/Lee and Naito/Ibushii were both awesome and memorable. Dominion has had a string of excellent main events lately, so I suppose the party had to end. Remember Okada/Styles? The 60 minute Omega/Okada draw? Last year's 60+ Omega win against Okada? So yeah, this year's main event is kind of lame when compared to those classics. Hopefully Jericho will sail off into the sunset with AEW and get the hell out of this company and soon. Because nobody wants to see a former great star tiredly walk around a ring anymore. *