WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

from The Alamo Dome, San Antonio, TX

MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH (CODY RHODES) (71:42): This was one of the better Royal Rumble matches they've done in the last few years. My only problem was that Sami Zayn wasn't in it and thus didn't win it and thus isn't going to main event Wrestlemania. They threw a bunch of big stars into the middle of this match which helped. Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, and Seth Rollins were all out there in the middle of it. Bobby Lashley eliminated Brock Lesnar. They pushed Domink Mysterio pretty hard, surprisingly, even though his gimmick is still being a goof. The final two were Cody and Gunther and they actually wrestled each other for a long time (probably too long) until Cody finally won. Gunther was the first one in so are they actually giving him a big push? They're, like, two years too late on that one. Better late than never I suppose. Logan Paul and Edge returned. They did a big spot where Edge eliminated Finn Balor and Damian Priest and then beat them up on the way back to the entrance way. Rhea Ripley came out and knocked Edge over and then Edge's wife, Beth Phoenix, came out to slam Rhea Ripley onto the cement. Logan Paul and Ricochet did a cool looking maneuver where they both jumped on opposite top ropes and flew through the air at each other and collided. The only big, old school surprise was Booker T. This was entertaining throughout, and since it went on first the crowd was hot and alive. It's also hilarious seeing Cody cheered so much considering he was booed constantly in AEW the last few months he was there. He never said it, but I think it's pretty obvious that's why he left. ***

BRAY WYATT vs. LA KNIGHT "PITCH BLACK MATCH" (5:06): This match wasn't in complete darkness. It was kind of in a blue light and a bunch of things were neon that stood out like LA Knight's trunks and a Singapore cane. It looked pretty cool but it's not something I ever want to see again. After Bray Wyatt won, they battled back by the entrance where Mr. Howdy, a masked figure in a top hat, jumped off a high stage and missed LA Knight. Then flames shot up from the stage. Okay. I was kind of hoping with Triple H in charge of booking he would have got rid of all this stupid, supernatural bullshit that just comes across as silly. Nope. I was also hoping for a lot of things with Triple H in charge. Like...would WWE PPV's suddenly be as awesome as those old NXT Takeover's? Sadly, no. It was probably a good idea to fire Bray Wyatt when they did. It's looking like an even better idea now. 1/2* 

BIANCA BELAIR vs. ALEXA BLISS (7:33): Bianca Belair retained the title. The crowd was a silent tomb. Nobody cared about this match. It also wasn't any good, which might have been the reason. Mr Howdy showed up on the screen after this match to tell Alexa something. I'm sure Alexa Bliss just loves that she's been sucked back into this murky, ridiculous storyline. 1/2*

WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH (RHEA RIPLEY) (61:08): I loathe that there's two Royal Rumble matches now on this PPV. It's too much! I watched the men's match on Saturday when it happened and then watched the rest of the show on Sunday, so that probably helped. This was not as good as the men's match. There were a few surprises, none worthwhile. Michelle McCool was sitting ringside with her kids and she was a surprise entrant. Nia Jax at #30 was another surprise. There were a few NXT women in it. The final two were Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan. Ripley was hanging off the ropes and then lifted herself up to grab Liv around the neck with her legs and toss her out. That was a unique ending. Doudrop showed up with a new name. Asuka was popular with the crowd and was the 3rd last to be eliminated. While the match was never atrociously boring, it wasn't fantastic or anything. They had a big, 40,000 crowd tonight which was good. Because of that, the stage was miniscule and basically just a small screen and door amidst the crowd. That looked low rent. And it took wrestlers forever to get to the ring. It also seemed like the entrants in both Rumbles came out pretty fast. It still baffles me how the WWE gets these huge crowds and AEW is kind of floundering with smaller crowds when the products are light years apart in terms of quality. I guess it's just because the WWE is older and thus ingrained in people's minds as "the" wrestling show. **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. KEVIN OWENS (19:15): Owens botched a spot on the ropes and slipped and fell. That was one of the more memorable moments of the match, which tells you something. The other memorable moment was Roman slamming the back of Kevin Owen's head onto the ring steps twice which looked fucking brutal. While the match was kind of boring, the post-match was fantastic. First off, we did get a ref bump. We did not get a thousand instances of interference, though, which surprised me. Reigns won fairly easily. After the match, Roman and The Uso's beat up Owens then handcuffed him to the ropes. Roman wanted Sami to hit Owens with a chair. Finally Sami turned on Roman and hit him with a chair. Then everyone beat up Sami except for Jey Uso, who left the ring and walked away. This segment was fantastic. The emotion! The turn! The drama! This has been the best storyline in the WWE since The Summer of Punk, which was in 2011. Ultimately, the storyline will only work if Sami faces Roman for the title and wins. Anything else would be a disappointing finish. Sadly, it looks like we're getting the disappointing finish. Cody won the Rumble, which presumably means it'll be Cody vs. Roman at Wrestlemania. Honestly, I never in a million years thought that the WWE would put a guy like Sami Zayn in the main event of Wrestlemania. The WWE just doesn't push guys like Sami Zayn to the top. The only reason they pushed Daniel Bryan was because the fans turned on them. Considering the next PPV, Elimination Chamber, is in Sami Zayn's hometown, Montreal, it looks like they might do Zayn vs. Roman there. They can't have Zayn win the title, though, because what the fuck is the point of that? You think they'd really have Cody vs. Sami Zayn main event Wrestlemania? And if they'd actually have the guts to do what everyone wants and have Zayn win the title and end Roman's streak...why waste it on a February PPV and not do it on the grand stage? I'm so mad at this company. The Bloodline storyline has been so great and such a ratings boon. And yet...and yet...they're going to ruin the ending. These fucking idiots. It's no wonder I love AEW so much more. The WWE have a perfect, storybook ending to an epic storyline and they're about to completely botch the ending. This might go down as one of the biggest failures in wrestling history. ** for the match. **** for the post match. 

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 17

Tokyo

BOLTIN OLEG vs. RYOHEI OIWA (3:00): I haven't watched that much of New Japan lately, mostly because Japan seems to think the pandemic is still going on and it's tough to watch shows in empty buildings with crowds still wearing masks and not allowed to cheer. This was a good show, though, as Wrestle Kingdom usually is. Thank Kenny Omega for this show being the best New Japan show in a very long time. It also helped that they decided to only have one night instead of two, as they had been doing the last few years. I'm not entirely sure who these two wrestlers were in this opening, 3 minute draw match. Boltin Oleg was probably a college/Olympic wrestler from the look of him. Why they did a 3 minute match is beyond me. -No Stars-

GREAT O'KHAN, SHINGO TAKAGI, SHO & TORU YANO NJPW KING OF PRO-WRESTLING TITLE 2023 RIGHT TO CHALLENGE BATTLE ROYAL (30:37): This was the traditional Rambo match. Shockingly there were big stars in this, from Ishii to Shingo to Evil to El Phantasmo. Seriously, why wasn't Shingo in a singles match on this show? He was in the main event of night 1 in last year's WK. Now he's relegated to the frigging opening Rambo match? And Ishii? Sigh. Really tragic he's going to retire without ever being IWGP champ. This match was a typical battle royal. The final four wrestlers won and got to be in a match for the coveted KOPW title on New Year's Dash. Shingo won that match. *1/2

SATOSHI KOJIMA, TOGI MAKABE & YUJI NAGATA vs. MINORU SUZUKI, TATSUMI FUJINAMI & TIGER MASK (9:10): This was the legends match. I bet Suzuki was mad he was in this because he's not exactly a retired, has-been like the others. Considering I didn't watch New Japan when guys like Fujinami were on top, I really have no idea how big these guys were so didn't really care about old guys lumbering around. 1/2*

CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) vs. LIO RUSH & YOH (10:29): This match was fantastic. It was all action, all at break-neck speed. Akira and TJP retained the Jr. tag titles. It's funny seeing Lio Rush wrestling considering he's retired a few times already. He was in AEW for a very short time until he bad mouthed Tony Khan on Twitter and then disappeared. I've always loved this division, but it is a bit bittersweet watching matches in this division now because I remember the glory days when The Young Bucks, The Time Splitters, Ricochet, and Rappongi Vice were in those incredible matches all the time. ***

KAIRI vs. TAM NAKANO (5:47): This was for the new, NJPW women's title. I'm not sure what the point of this title is considering New Japan and Stardom are both owned by the same company. Why not just put a Stardom title match on this show? The big deal was that after Kairi (who was in WWE for a while a few years back) won, Sasha Banks came out (she's Mercedes Mone now). She looked fantastic. She'll face Kairi for the title in San Jose in February at a NJPW PPV. This actual match was way too short and not exactly good. *

BISHAMON (HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. FTR (10:10): This was a good match. FTR is always in good matches, so that's not a surprise. Goto and Yoshi-Hashi won the tag titles. FTR is on quite the losing streak. They lost the Ring of Honor titles to the Briscoe's. They lost the AAA titles to Dragon Lee and Dralistico (which made no sense, considering Dragon Lee is going to NXT). They even lost to the Gun Club on Dynamite and failed at winning the AEW titles against The Acclaimed. Oh, well. Match was still very good. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. REN NARITA (10:32): I was watching this match thinking that, man, New Japan is fucked because all of their young wrestlers that will eventually be taking over from Okada and Naito and Tanahashi all suck. Then Shota Umino wrestled later and I remembered that he's awesome. Ren Narita is no Shota Umino, though. Sabre, Jr. won the TV title or whatever the hell this new title is called. This company had too many titles before, now they're adding this title and a women's title? Jesus Christ. They have more titles than AEW. This match was forgettable. Shingo and Ishii didn't get a singles match but Ren Narita did? What is the world coming to? *1/2

TAMA TONGA vs. KARL ANDERSON (9:36): Karl Anderson is in WWE so it was pretty obvious he was losing the NEVER title here. This match was kind of stale, though Anderson did more in this match that he's done in the last 6 months in WWE. Tama Tonga's outfit is so stupid looking and he looks like a clown. I can't take him serious in that red, latex, Superman suit. *1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, KEIJI MUTO & SHOTA UMINO vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, SANADA & TETSUYA NAITO) (9:20): This match was part of the Muto farewell tour. He can barely stand or walk so it's kind of sad to see him wrestling. He actually wrestled a few days before this in the main event on a NOAH show against Nakamura. I haven't seen that match yet, though don't really want to. Muto climbed to the top rope and one point and Tanahashi talked him down. Why did they even bother doing that spot? It just made him look pathetic. Was it supposed to be comical? The one shining spot in this match was Shota Umino. He tore the house down at Forbidden Door last year and I can definitely see him being in the main event of a future WK. *1/2

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. EL DESPERADO vs. MASTER WATO (16:43): Hiromu won the Jr. title again. Yawn. He hasn't been that exciting for awhile now. Maybe put him in the heavyweight division? Master Wato hasn't lived up to his potential. Desperado is great but I'd have rather seen a singles match between any of these guys than a 4 way. Match wasn't bad, but wasn't memorable or anything. **

KENNY OMEGA vs. WILL OSPREAY (34:38): This was one of those matches that you kind of figured would never live up to the hype. It did. This will be hard to top for best match of 2023. This was fucking insane. It reminded me of those classic Naito/Ibushi matches from years ago where they looked like they were attempting to paralyze each other on purpose. This started slow but then turned into a brutal bloodbath. Omega laid a table onto Ospreay out on the floor then jumped off the apron onto the table, putting a big hole into it. Omega took off the padding in one corner. The big spot was both men standing on the top rope and Omega giving Ospreay a DDT down onto the exposed turnbuckle. This elicited gasps from the audience. This was one of the most gruesome and shocking moves I've seen in a long time. Ospreay was busted open. Kenny then smashed Ospreay's head into the broken table, smearing blood across it. At one point, Ospreay was on Kenny's shoulders and it seemed that Ospreay would counter this but no, Omega lifted him up and Ospreay fell back onto the exposed turnbuckle. That was a clever idea, to go back to the gruesome, exposed turnbuckle spot. Omega was destroying Ospreay at this point. Ospreay was a bloody mess. When Ospreay tried to climb the ropes he slipped off, acting the part of a wounded, shell of a man. That was great. Ospreay got a come back and they traded big moves and extremely painful looking shots. This was just a super violent, crazy, hard hitting afair. It was next level stuff. You really don't see drama and brutality like this very often. The one thing I liked was that instead of doing the typical, dramatic kick out right before 3, both guys would just move their shoulder slowly up to save themselves. That was unique. Another great moment in a match filled to the brim with them was Omega giving Ospreay a running knee to the head and Ospreay falling out of the ring from the impact. Omega finally won the U.S. title with a One-Winged Angel. This was epic and awesome and truly unforgettable. ****

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. JAY WHITE (33:03): I didn't expect much from this match. The crowd was super into the Omega/Ospreay match, obviously, so these two had a tough time trying to follow that anyway. This was probably better than the last few times these two wrestled. The first half was a bore but the second half was fairly entertaining with a lot of near falls and reversals and kick outs. Okada won the title with a Rainmaker. It was pretty basic and pretty standard but I think everyone knew this was never going to be a four star masterpiece or anything. Shingo came out after the match to challenge Okada. Seriously, how does he get a title shot? He was in the fucking opening Rambo match! Hopefully Shingo wins the title because Jesus Christ we're all sick of Okada as champion. **1/2

The Best Show of 2022: AEW REVOLUTION

 

    I called this "a show for the ages" and "phenomenal" and "perhaps AEW's best PPV ever." That's high praise, considering every AEW PPV is usually great. Revolution was stacked wall to wall with fantastic matches. Shockingly, the one match that everyone will remember from this show, the blood soaked dog collar match between MJF and CM Punk, was one of the weaker matches on the card. That's how great this show was! I said "you will never see a more exciting and action packed match in your life" about The Young Bucks vs. ReDragon vs. Jurassic Express match. The House of Black vs. PAC, Penta & Redbeard was "fantastic." Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Jericho was "great." The 6-way ladder match with Powerhouse Hobbs, Wardlow, Christian, Ricky Starks, Keith Lee, and Orange Cassidy was "a hell of a lot of fun." The Darby Allin, Sting, and Sammy Guevera vs. Andrade, Matt Hardy, and Isiah Kassidy match was "insane." And the main event between Adam Page and Adam Cole "was action packed and back and forth and dramatic and exciting and everything you want out of a main event." Sure, there were a few bad or boring matches, like all 3 women's matches, but for the most part, this was a wildy entertaining night of wrestling. I still remember after the Bryan Danielson vs. Moxley match when William Regal came out to make his AEW debut and the crowd went fucking ape shit. What an angle when Regal slapped them both to set up one of AEW's most ingenious groups, The Blackpool Combat Club. This AEW PPV would be hard to top in any year.

The Best Wrestler of 2022: WILL OSPREAY

  

   Kenny Omega was injured for most of the year, then suspended for two months, so this award was fairly easy to figure out. Will Ospreay was the best wrestler of 2022 by a long shot. He wrestled seemingly everywhere, from NJPW to AEW to GCW to RevPro. He kicked off the year in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom's Night 2 against Okada and had a hell of a match. In RevPro he had a super dramatic, super engrossing battle against Michael Oku. In the G1 he had spectacular matches against Shingo, Naito, El Phantasmo, and Okada. In AEW he had a phenomenal match against Orange Cassidy at Forbidden Door, then finally appeared on Dynamite where he teamed with Aussie Open to have excellent matches with Death Triangle and The Elite. In GCW he had a great match against the rising star Nick Wayne. It seemed that Ospreay was wrestling somewhere in the world every weekend, and every Monday his match was always the talk of the wrestling world. Since he's matured, he isn't just a crazy, high flyer. He's figured out what works and what doesn't in a match and has excelled at storytelling as much as every crisp, note-perfect maneuver he delivers. Every time you see a Will Ospreay match you know that you will be entertained and you know that you're in for something special, something rare, something you don't see every day. 

The Best Match of 2022: THE ELITE vs. DEATH TRIANGLE "AEW FULL GEAR" 11/19

 

   There wasn't an obvious match of the year candidate in 2022, but that didn't mean it was very, very difficult to whittle this list to only ten matches. I actually had to cut some amazing matches, like Will Ospreay's awesome matches in the G1 with Shingo Takagi and Tetsuya Naito. Gone was also that great Young Bucks/Lucha Brothers match on Rampage in The Bucks' hometown. And that Brock Lesnar 5 way match on Day 1 was pretty awesome, not to mention the two other FTR/Briscoe's matches in Ring of Honor. What I'm trying to say is, 2022 was a spectacular year for great matches. But my favorite match was The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega versus Death Triangle (Pac & The Lucha Bros) from AEW's Full Gear. It was so spectacular they turned it into a Best of 7 series. Yes, it was non-stop action, wild moves, and featured a live crowd in an orgiastic frenzy. But the big reason it was special was because it was the first time Omega and The Bucks were back in AEW since their two month suspension for getting in a fight with CM Punk. It was a glorious return. This was wrestling entertainment at its pinnacle. 

Other Notable Matches:

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay    NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16    1/5

Bryan Danielson vs. 'Hangman' Adam Page    AEW Dynamite    1/5

The Young Bucks vs. ReDragon vs. Jurassic Express    AEW Revolution    3/6

FTR vs. The Briscoe's    ROH Supercard of Honor    4/1

Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay    AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door    6/26

Will Ospreay vs. Kazuchika Okada    NJPW G-1 Climax 32 Finals    8/18

Gunther vs. Sheamus    WWE Clash at the Castle    9/3

The Acclaimed vs. Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland    AEW All Out    9/4

Jun Kusai vs. El Desperado    JTO Taka Michinoku Debut 30th Anniversary    9/12