AEW WRESTLE DREAM

Tacoma, Washington

BRIAN CAGE vs. ATLANTIS, JR. (11:00): This was another good AEW PPV. Nothing new there. The end, though, was a total downer. I get why they did it, but the show certainly ended with the viewer sad, which probably isn't the best thing if you just shelled out $50 to watch it on TV or even more to see it live. The crowd for this show was awesome. It reminded me of those hot Chicago and Vegas crowds in the early days of AEW. Because the show was so long, though, the super hot crowd got tired and wasn't as awesome or loud after the Takeshita/Ospreay/Ricochet match. The pre-show was over an hour long, which is kind of ridiculous. Why are these PPV's getting longer when they're now doing more PPV's a year? Shouldn't they be getting shorter? Either way, Brian Cage won the ROH TV title. Funny that Atlantis, Jr. was the champ. He's not even in AEW or ROH. The match was good. Brian Cage hasn't been on TV much lately for whatever reason, though he's fun to watch. Atlantis, Jr. isn't the greatest luchador, but he's adequate. **1/2

ANNA JAY vs. HARLEY CAMERON (8:20): Anna Jay actually went to Stardom to be in their tournament. Is she a better wrestler now? Who knows? You don't really watch her for her wrestling moves. Harley Cameron is the stereotypical bimbo character that Vince McMahon loved to put in bra and panties and mud pit matches. She probably would've been a star in the Attitude Era WWF. Match was okay. *1/2

THE ACCLAIMED vs. MxM COLLECTION (11:25): I was kind of surprised that they put this match on the pre-show. MxM Collection is a new tag team and one of those comedy teams that the WWE loves (or used to, anyway). They're, like, fashion models that pose in their matches. I guess they're mildly amusing. MxM brought out Rico, some old has been wrestler that I don't remember. The crowd loved when Billy Gunn beat him up. **

KYLE O'REILLY & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. THE OUTRUNNERS vs. THE DARK ORDER vs. THE PREMIER ATHLETES (11:30): I don't know why, but The Outrunners are suddenly super over with the live crowds. Their gimmick is basically they're both like Hulk Hogan in the 80's Hulkamania phase. I guess the crowds like being reminded of their childhoods. Or it's just so over-the-top and stupid they've gotten behind it. Who knows? The Dark Order seems halfway out the door in AEW, as they're barely ever used. It's a shame because they were really popular and fun to watch a few years ago. This match was entertaining. **1/2

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (16:29): This was a good match, which was a surprise to be because usually Jay White is a bore. Because 'Swerve' is from Washington and 'Hangman' is his nemesis, they booed the hell out of Adam Page and cheered everything Jay White did. That certainly made the match better than it probably would've been. The ending was great. 'Hangman' went for his Buckshot Lariot but Jay caught him and reversed it into a Blade Runner for the pin. 'Hangman' just won in the main event of the last PPV, so you'd think they wouldn't have him lose clean right away, but I guess Jay's been out with a broken foot so they didn't want to have him lose in his return. ***

MARIAH MAY vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (10:52): Without Toni Storm, Mariah's championship run so far has been kind of flat. This match didn't even really have much of a build and it turned out to be just okay. **

JACK PERRY vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (9:20): This was probably the weakest match on the main card. It was fine but never really heated up in anything fantastic. The end was kind of weird. Shibata had Jack in a chokehold but was laying on the mat on his back and so the ref counted 3 and he lost. I guess they couldn't have Shibata lose clean. After this match, Daniel Garcia ran out to save Shibata. Then MJF came out. Then Adam Cole came out. Adam Cole is a babyface now, which makes no sense as he was the evil, Devil Masked heel last year. The crowd ate up all these returns, though, and MJF was awesome on the mic. **

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. WILL OSPREAY vs. RICOCHET (20:42): If someone named this the best match of the year then I wouldn't have a problem with that. This match was by far the best match of the night. It was wild and the fans were standing on their feet just to witness the spectacle of crazy moves one after the other. One in particular move was phenomenal. Takeshita and Ospreay were running the ropes and Takeshita put his arm out to clothesline Ospreay. Ospreay flipped over Takeshita's arm then jumped off the second rope to deliver an Osscutter on Takeshita. That was just insanely athletic. And this match was filled with crazy moves like that. The ending had Don Callis run in the ring with a screwdriver to attack Ospreay. Kyle Fletcher ran out and turned heel and hit Ospreay with the screwdriver then gave him a Tiger Driver. Takeshita won the International Title. Finally, Takeshita won something. ***1/2

'SWERVE' SEGMENT: 'Swerve' Strickland is from Washington, so he kind of had to be on the show. He came out and then MVP and Shelton Benjamin came out. 'Swerve' said he's sticking with Prince Nana as his manager. Supposedly this is going to set up the debut of Bobby Lashley, who will be with MVP. I mean...they could've just done Lashley's debut here but I guess they didn't want to have 'Swerve' get beat up in his home state. 

HOLOGRAM vs. THE BEAST MORTOS "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH" (16:45): These two seem to always be wrestling on Collision, so it felt kind of out of place on a PPV. They're both entertaining to watch, so I guess they figured they'd put them on a big stage. Tony Khan must love The Beast Mortos, because he's been wrestling on pretty much every TV show all summer while guys like Malakai Black, Ricky Starks, Miro, and countless others seem to rarely show up if ever. This was a typical match you'd see in CMLL. It was fun, but the hot crowd was gone after that Ospreay match. **1/2

DARBY ALLIN vs. BRODY KING (12:27): Supposedly, Darby was supposed to beat Bryan Danielson for the title in the main event of this show. They decided to change that for whatever reason so we got this random match. The match was brutal. Darby tossed Brody King off the top rope onto the steel stairs then did a Coffin Drop from the top rope onto him on the stairs. Brody basically killed Darby for the entire match but Darby ended up winning. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. PRIVATE PARTY (15:49): They had a video package before this match mentioning that Private Party beat The Bucks on Dynamite 5 years ago but haven't done anything since then. It seemed like they were pushing the idea that Private Party are losers now and need a big win to change that. Well, Private Party lost. So what was the point of this? Just to give Private Party a PPV match? That's enough apparently. The match was good but not a typical, great Bucks match. FTR wasn't on the show. Top Flight was sitting at ringside for this match. Maybe Top Flight will be the Bucks' next opponent? I mean...what other tag teams are there? The Outrunners? **1/2

MARK BRISCOE vs. CHRIS JERICHO (15:18): This match was good but I really don't want to see Jericho in a singles match anymore. He's too old to be having great matches anymore. The story here was Jericho is an evil heel and was rubbing it in about Mark's brother being dead. Yep, great storyline! Chris gave Mark the J-Driller, which was Jay Briscoe's finisher. Mark kicked out and eventually delivered his own J-Driller. Mark is fun to watch, so that aspect was entertaining. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (26:52): Darby was supposed to beat Danielson here and thus it would be a changing of the guard since Danielson is retiring from being a full time wrestler (he needs neck surgery but probably will eventually wrestle again). They decided to change that and create a monster heel in Moxley. I guess the idea is to have Moxley and his crew of Pac, Mina Shafir, Claudio, and Wheeler, be akin to WWE's Bloodline. A heel group that rules the company until a babyface hero rises up and finally wins back the title. Darby will apparently be that hero. So what they did was have Moxley not only beat Danielson (in his home state, too) but basically kill him off. The match was good mostly because the crowd was really into every comeback that Bryan got. Mina Shafir interfered a few times. She pulled back the ringside mat and both men eventually got slammed on the concrete, Moxley giving Bryan a Death Rider on the cement at one point. Moxley choked out Danielson to win the title. Wheeler Yuta ran in but turned heel and used a plastic bag to choke out Bryan. Claudio put a chair around Bryan's neck and did a foot stomp on the chair. A few guys ran out to try to stop the carnage. Private Party and Jeff Jarrett came out to try to stop the heels to no avail. Darby ran out but ended up getting beaten up and taped to the ropes to watch Bryan get murdered. Bryan was eventually taken out on a stretcher. What a retirement! Excalibur was crying while announcing this, which wasn't fake. It was a compelling way to end the show. And they wanted to make Moxley a monster heel and they succeeded. He's already had the title I think 3 times, though. He is perhaps the company's biggest star, though, so giving him the title isn't like a bad move. Downbeat ending but it was effective. ***

WWE BAD BLOOD

 Atlanta

CM PUNK vs. DREW McINTYRE “HELL IN A CELL” (31:23): Last week on Wrestling Observer Radio they noted that this show was sold out and the secondary market tickets were all going for really high prices. I guess because the card was pretty good. Well, at least there were two big matches. And the crowd probably went home happy because The Rock made an appearance at the end. There ended up only being one good match on the show and it was this one. The reason that this was the best Hell in a Cell match in years was obvious; both guys were bloody messes. Since the WWE sold to Endeavor, they've used blood on occasion after the WWE never used blood for decades. The reason they stopped using blood after the Attitude Era was so they could get family friendly advertisers on their shows. I guess they don't care about them anymore? While this was a typical HIAC match, the blood made it seem more brutal and more exciting. They used tables, chairs, a wrench, and the ring steps. McIntyre had a bag of something and it would've made the match better if it was thumbtacks but unfortunately it turned out to be friendship bracelet pieces. Yep, we're still not finished with this blood feud being about a friendship bracelet. Still, it was probably the WWE's best match of the year. ***

NIA JAX vs. BAYLEY (14:12): The rest of this show was boring and the crowd was fairly quiet until parts of the main event. In this match, Tiffany Stratton attempted to use her MITB briefcase but Nia saw it and thwarted the attempt. 1/2*

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. FINN BALOR (12:50): This was okay but totally forgettable. Carlito and JD interfered. Remember Edge started The Judgment Day? I think it's time is over. *1/2

GOLDBERG/GUNTHER/SAMI ZAYN SEGMENT: HHH came out to unveil the new Crown Jewel championship (another title? What is this, AEW?). The crowd booed when HHH mentioned Saudi Arabia. Gunther came out because it will be Cody vs. Gunther for this new title. Gunther made fun of Goldberg who was sitting ringside. Goldberg tried to get into the ring but security stopped him. Sami Zayn ran out to beat up Gunther. How old is Goldberg, anyway?

RHEA RIPLEY vs. LIV MORGAN (14:32): They botched the ending to this. That didn't really matter, as it was a bad, boring match anyway. Dominik was suspended in a shark cage. He somehow got the door open and ended up falling out but was hanging by a chain on his ankle. Rhea went over and hit him with a Singapore cane. The ending was supposed to be Raquel Rodriguez returning, helping Liv to win. The problem was that the ref wasn't supposed to see this interference but he did and so just rang the bell for the DQ. Raquel still laid Liv over Rhea for the pin, not realizing the ending was botched and the bell had already rang. Awkward, bad ending. 1/2*

CODY RHODES & ROMAN REIGNS vs. THE BLOODLINE (SOLO SIKOA & JACOB FATU) (25:50): Shockingly, this was Roman's first match since Wrestlemania. Jesus. He has quite the sweet deal. The match was boring. Cody did a top rope splash onto Jacob Fatu on the announce table. That was great. The rest of this didn't feel special, it just felt like a random TV match. After the match The Rock came out and stood there and then left. Okay. At least do something! **

AEW ALL OUT

 Hoffman Estates, Illinois

 

THE ACCLAIMED vs. IRON SAVAGES (8:08): I still don't think it's a good idea doing a PPV right after All In. Last year they did this show a week after All In, so at least this was two weeks later. It's still too close. The show was good, though. I think the first half was better than the second half. While the double main event provided a lot of brutality and shocking moments, both the championship match and the steel cage match were a little too slow and plodding. The pre-show had four matches, all typical matches you might randomly see on a forgettable Rampage show. The Acclaimed seemed to be getting pushed this summer. They were in the “Blood & Guts” match and they got big matches against The Young Bucks and FTR on TV and then a title match at All In. Now they're opening the pre-show against a team I never heard of. I guess the push is over. They probably should just turn them heel. *1/2

DUSTIN RHODES, HOLOGRAM & SAMMY GUEVARA vs. THE PREMIER ATHLETES (ARIYA DAIVARI, JOSH WOODS & TONY NEESE) (9:51): Sammy Guevara seems to still be in the dog house. The crowd chanted for Dustin to get in and popped when he did. Hologram seemed a little more sloppy than usual. Match was entertaining for the most part. **

BANG BANG GANG (AUSTIN GUNN, COLTEN GUNN & JUICE ROBINSON) vs. THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS, EVIL UNO & JOHN SILVER) (7:37): The Dark Order have also kind of been forgotten about. Remember when they sort of a big deal? Or, at least, the crowds liked John Silver? I guess Jay White is still injured. Hopefully he's not out for a long time like a lot of AEW stars that go missing (Ricky Starks, Miro...I could go on). Match was okay. *1/2

THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN, MIKE BENNETT & RODERICK STRONG) vs. ACTION ANRETTI & TOP FLIGHT (DANTE & DARIUS MARTIN) vs. SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS (SHANE TAYLOR & LEE MORIARTY) & THE BEAST MORTOS (10:52): There were a lot of people in this match. I'm not sure why. The Beast Mortos has been given a lot of TV time lately. His match on Collision against Takeshita was really good. This was fun but forgettable. **

MJF vs. DANIEL GARCIA (23:37): They really pushed Daniel Garcia this summer as being a mid-card guy finally ascending to main event status. Unfortunately, he probably should have won this match for that storyline to make sense. Match was kind of slow. MJF hit Garcia in the balls when the ref wasn't looking and quickly pinned him. After the match, Garcia got his revenge and gave him a pile driver from the top rope. MJF didn't need to win here. **

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (WHEELER YUTA & CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI) (15:45): Match was fine but nothing special. This was more or less just a typical TV match. Supposedly they sold out the building for this show, which is actually a great feat considering most AEW shows only get a couple thousand fans if that. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. PAC (20:36): This was the best match on the show. Of course it was. Ospreay looked even better than usual if that's possible. I was thinking they should have let PAC win since he's been kind of sidelined in the mid-card for a long time. The crowd was going nuts for a lot of the crazy, seamless spots they did. I still like Takeshita/Ospreay from earlier this year was better, though. ***1/2

KRIS STATLANDER vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE “CHICAGO STREET FIGHT” (14:57): This match was fantastic. Did they really need a street fight, though? They were already doing a “Lights Out” steel cage match. They actually used light tubes in this match, which AEW rarely does. Willow smashed a stick of tubes taped together over Statlander's head. They did have to do that on the entranceway away from the crowd. Statlander put Willow through the announce table. They crashed through the guardrail by the fans. Statlander speared Willow off the entranceway and down onto two tables. They used thumbtacks. This was nuts and super entertaining. ***1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. MARK BRISCOE (14:59): This was maybe Okada's best match in AEW. Which is probably saying how disappointing his matches so far have been. I think his matches are too slow for AEW, but this had four guys in the ring so it was never totally boring. Takeshita looked awesome, even delivering a better Orange Punch than Cassidy does. Crowd was a little quiet in spots and Briscoe kept trying to hype them up. Okada retained whatever meaningless title he has. **1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. HIKARU SHIDA (16:32): This was probably the weakest match on the main card. It was fine. They wrestled. It wasn't very exciting. Mercedes kept trying to fix her wig and I thought it was going to come off. There were two funny signs in the crowd for this match. One said “Mercedes Phoney” and the other said something like “Mercedes Blowme.” Crude. Mercedes has yet to have a great match in AEW. *1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. JACK PERRY (27:53): This match was kind of slow and boring until the last ten minutes or so. The crowd got into it late with the “Yes!” chants and the near-falls and, of course, the ref bump. The Young Bucks came out to beat up Danielson. Wheeler Yuta and Claudio chased them away. Danielson finally won and then Christian came out to cash in his title shot. Moxley came out to stop this and then Claudio and Wheeler came out. Claudio turned on Danielson by giving him a clothesline. Then Moxley put a plastic bag over Danielson's head to presumably kill him. The crowd chanted, “This is murder!” Wheeler was crying and held back by Claudio. So I guess Moxley, Claudio, and PAC are the new heel group along with Mirina Shafir, who's been hanging out with Moxley. I guess they had nothing else for Marina to do. The refs saved Danielson and the doctors gave him oxygen and stretchered him out. Interesting angle. It's something new having heel Moxley vs. Danielson for the title, so that's good. **1/2

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND “LIGHTS OUT STEEL CAGE MATCH” (31:22): While this match was certainly brutal and disturbing...it was not exciting like their epic “Texas Death Match.” The crowd was also quiet, which made this feel kind of lethargic. Since they were in a steel cage and were just using weapons, it wasn't fast paced or entertaining. There were a few “sick” spots. They both got slammed back first onto a cinderblock. 'Hangman' used a charred piece of wood from the fire (oh, yeah...'Hangman' burned down Swerve's childhood home in what was one of the great moments in AEW history on Dynamite) to try to stab Swerve but Swerve took it to stab 'Hangman.' They used a staple gun. Swerve stapled a picture of his family to 'Hangman's face. The big, shocking finale had 'Hangman' using a syringe needle to stab Swerve in the inside of his mouth then hit him over the head with a chair. The ref called for the bell. 'Hangman' won. I would have liked this more if it was fast paced and exciting with maybe more moves than just them idly walking around the ring seeking weapons in front of a hushed crowd. I can't really say it was disappointing as it was billed as being gruesome and crazy and it delivered on that. 'Hangman' let out a cathartic scream on the entranceway to close the show. Finally he's finished the feud. He won. **

WWE BASH IN BERLIN

Berlin, Germany

CODY RHODES vs. KEVIN OWENS (26:10): The WWE's been having a lot of international shows lately, right? Do they make more money doing those or something? I'd think just flying everyone there would cost a lot. In May they had PPV's in France and Saudi Arabia. Then their June PPV was in Scotland. Now they're in Germany. Maybe this has something to do with pushing their RAW to Netflix deal, which starts in January. Who knows? The crowd in Germany was good but nothing like that raucous Lyon, France crowd. It didn't help that this felt like a forgettable house show. The WWE PPV's have not been that great this year, although the big ones like 'Mania and Summerslam were pretty good. This first match was kind of pointless because who the hell thought Kevin Owens, who's a babyface, anyway, had a chance to win the title? Granted, AEW is having Bryan Danielson defend the title against Jack Perry next week at All Out, and that match seems just as pointless. The work in this match was fine. It was decent. The story had Kevin Owens refusing to “go for the kill” and thus ending up losing. So they made him look pathetic. I'm guessing this means he will turn heel, otherwise, what's the point of making him look like a pathetic loser who doesn't want to win? **

BIANCA BeLAIR & JADE CARGILL vs. THE UNHOLY UNION (ALBA FYRE & ISLA DAWN) (12:02): Bianca and Jade won the tag titles in this match. Bianca used to be a big, main event star, so I'm not entirely sure why she's now suddenly slumming it in the tag team division. Jade doesn't seem to have become the big WWE star they thought she would, although that's kind of their fault for not giving her anything to do and putting her in a tag team. The crowd was mostly silent for this. *1/2

CM PUNK vs. DREW McINTYRE “STRAP MATCH” (19:15): Punk was bleeding a little bit and they still decided to shoehorn the friendship bracelet story into this match. To win you had to touch each corner and they had a confusing red and green light on each corner. Eventually I figured out that the green light was for Punk and Drew's was red. Match was good but nothing spectacular. They really built this feud up into being this blood feud for the ages and then delivered two average matches. **1/2

THE TERROR TWINS (RHEA RIPLEY & DAMIAN PRIEST) vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DOMINIK MYSTERIO & LIV MORGAN) (14:20): They probably should have had the heels win, otherwise the feud is kind of over, right? Nope! They did have Liv attack Rhea on RAW and Rhea was on crutches by the end of the show. The fans really loved the whole Dominik/Rhea dynamic, so I think that was stupid to break them up. This match would have really been better if the men and women could wrestle each other. They did do some of the women doing moves on the men, but God forbid a man hit a woman even though they've done men vs. women in some Japan promotions like DDT and in U.S. indie companies like GCW and PWG. I don't get why they won't do that, as Dominik vs. Rhea would be fucking huge. Match was entertaining. The other Judgment Day members interfered. It was fine. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. RANDY ORTON (34:28): Jesus. 34 minutes? What is this? Pro Wrestling Noah? Because of that epic length, this match was pretty boring. I don't even think Orton delivered an RKO. Orton did put Gunther through the announce table, but did it in the dumbest way possible. He put the stairs next to the table then climbed up and dropped Gunther onto the table. Gunther choked out Orton. The crowd was hot early but got bored. Roman Reigns and the whole Bloodline gang weren't on this show for some reason. Considering that's been the hot angle on TV, it made this show feel kind of weak without them. *

AEW ALL IN

Wembley Stadium, London

ACTION ANDRETTI, KIP SABIAN, KYLE FLETCHER, LIO RUSH, ROCKY ROMERO, TOMMY BILLINGTON & TOP FLIGHT vs. ANTHONY AGOGO, ARIYA DAIVARI, JAY LETHAL, PRIVATE PARTY, SATNAM SINGH & DARK ORDER (11:34): How is AEW making any money paying all these wrestlers? There were over 70 wrestlers on this show. And some of the big AEW stars weren't even there, like Moxley, Takeshita, and Adam Cole. Anyway, this was a great show with a great main event and a lot of big moments. The 50,000+ crowd was awesome. You definitely got your money's worth if you paid to watch it. The only thing fantastic on this pre-show was the return of Jamie Hayter. She was out with an injury at last year's All In, too. What possible injury did she have to be out more than a year? She didn't break her neck or anything. As for this match...it was entertaining though pretty much just a match to get as many wrestlers as possible on the show. Are the Dark Order guys heels? They were on the heel team. AEW hasn't been using them on TV lately for whatever reason. Top Flight and Private Party used to be bigger stars in AEW, now they seem to only be booked on forgettable Rampage matches. The one big star they have been pushing this summer is Kyle Fletcher. He's awesome so it's too bad he got stuck in this. **

TOMOHIRO ISHII & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. KRIS STATLANDER & STOKELY HATHAWAY (8:14): The shocking thing about this match was that Stokely actually looked good when he was wrestling. Ishii pinned him so Willow gets to pick the stipulation for the Statlander/Willow match at All Out in two weeks (they decided not to do a Labor Day weekend PPV this year and moved it back a week). Willow is probably the most over AEW women's wrestler. Maybe they should start giving her bigger matches than this. **

DUSTIN RHODES, KATSUYORI SHIBATA, SAMMY GUEVARA & THE VON ERICHS vs. CAGE OF AGONY & THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (13:08): Sammy was suspended after doing a Shooting Star Press and landing on Jeff Hardy's face. That happened so long ago because Jeff Hardy is in TNA now. You could tell Sammy is trying to get back in Tony Khan's good graces because he was doing top rope flips and dives non-stop, probably trying to look as exciting as possible. Match was fun. **

SARAYA/JAMIE HAYTER: Saraya came out with her family to berate the crowd, saying she won the title here last year and wasn't even booked on the show this year. Jamie Hayter returned to a gigantic pop and laid everyone out. Kind of weird having Hayter's big return be on the pre-show instead of somewhere more prominent on the card, but it was at least in front of her hometown crowd.

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (PAC, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE PATRIARCHY (CHRISTIAN CAGE, KILLSWITCH & NICK WAYNE) vs. HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, MALAKAI BLACK & BUDDY MATTHEWS) vs. BANG BANG GANG (THE GUNN'S & JUICE ROBINSON) (18:58): This was the PPV opener. Great match. Another typical, crazy, wildly entertaining AEW ladder, tables, and chairs match. Originally, Death Triangle was supposed to be in this match but The Lucha Brothers decided to go to WWE. That meant they had to insert PAC into the BCC for no real reason. I still have no idea why Moxley wasn't on this show. He was last seen in AEW losing the IWGP title to Naito at Forbidden Door. I don't think he's hurt. Maybe Tony Khan just decided to give him July and August off because Moxley had been traveling to Japan a few times in the Spring and was probably burned out. Christian started the match running away and leaving. He returned when everyone was down to attempt to climb a ladder and win. Nick Wayne's mom tried to climb the ladder at one point. Nick Wayne did a running, over the top rope into a Canadian Destroyer onto Malakai through a ringside table. That was a wild spot. Just a bunch of craziness. Really entertaining. The odd team of Claudio, PAC, and Wheeler Yuta are now the Trios champs. PAC is from England and got a big pop when he grabbed the title, so that's the reason they won. ***

MARIAH MAY vs. TONI STORM (15:14): Good match. Mariah, being an evil heel, walked over to her mother at ringside and slapped her. That was kind of a weird spot. I mean...now her mom had to sit there looking forlorn and holding her cheek the whole match. Toni then ran over and hugged Mariah's mom. The crowd was super into Toni Storm. Mariah is from England...so you'd think they could have tried to switch the roles so Mariah would be cheered in her hometown. I guess they realized the fans were never going to boo Toni Storm because, if you remember, her 'Timeless' gimmick started as a heel gimmick but everyone loved it. Toni gave Mariah a piledriver on the stairs and Mariah was bleeding. This was better than the 'bigger' women's match, Britt/Mone. Mariah is now the women's champ. ***

HOOK vs. CHRIS JERICHO (10:14): They had Dyanmite in Cardiff, Wales on Wednesday and also taped Collision after that. On Collision, Hook wrestled Big Bill. I don't know why, but Big Bill got cheered voraciously in that match. It was the funniest thing ever (he's supposed to be a heel...plus nobody in the states cares about him). And I'm not talking just cheered, they were going ape shit for him. So that continued here, with them cheering when Big Bill was beating up Hook (this was an FTW rules match...meaning no rules) and booing when Hook was beating up Big Bill. Eventually, Big Bill got pushed off the apron onto a table with a barbed wire board on top. There were some “please retire” chants for Jericho. He came out singing with his band Fozzy. All of the guys in Fozzy are, like, thirty years younger than Jericho. It's kind of weird. This was probably the weakest match on the show. They brought out a bag of cricket balls and a cricket mallet and used that stuff. Hook wins the FTW title. I would not be surprised if Jericho heads back to WWE. If you remember, Cody left as soon as he started getting booed and now people chant for Jericho to retire. He'd definitely be cheered in WWE. **

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. FTR (13:32): This was entertaining, though nothing particularly special nor on the level of the FTR/Bucks matches from the past. They probably should have just had The Acclaimed vs. The Bucks because they had been pushing that story all summer long. The Bucks looked great. The Acclaimed are probably turning heel...maybe. At one point, Max joined in to do an EVP trigger. The Bucks retain the tag titles. After the match, The Grizzled Young Veterans, who used to be in NXT, came out. They beat up FTR. The GYV actually wrestled on Collision awhile back, so this wasn't, like, a big debut or anything. **1/2

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. JEFF JARRETT vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. KYLE O'REILLY vs. LUCHASAURUS vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. RICOCHET vs. RODERICK STRONG vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. “CASINO GAUNTLET MATCH” (25:57): This was a hell of a lot of fun. The rules for this are that anyone can pin anyone at any time, even before all the wrestlers get in the ring. It started off with Orange Cassidy and Okada. Okada may be a heel, but the crowd here adored him (kind of a running problem with AEW heels, right?). Nigel McGuinness was a surprise entrant, considering he's long retired and is just an announcer these days. The fans loved everything he did and he looked great considering he hasn't wrestled in years. Zack Sabre was another surprise. And Ricochet was the big debut of the night. He did all his top rope flips and looked like a superstar (something he definitely wasn't in WWE). Christian Cage eventually won and gets a title shot. I love Christian but I doubt they'd ever put the title on him. Super entertaining match. ***1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. MJF (25:57): This was excellent...but it wasn't as good as their 59 minute match on Dynamite last month. The ending was a classic, though. The story started in the Ospreay/Danielson match all the way back in April. Will fake injured Danielson with the Tiger Driver and vowed never to do it again. So of course he did it here on MJF and won. The final five minutes or so was as good as pro-wrestling gets. High drama, back and forth kickouts, a hot crowd. Ospreay wins back the International title. I will say, though, when they announced they signed Will Ospreay I figured that he should be in the main event of this show winning the title. Maybe they thought it was too soon, or maybe they figured Danielson might not be around the next time they have a big stadium show and wanted to give him a big title win on a grand stage (they announced tonight that they're doing a stadium show in Brisbane in February and Forbidden Door next August in London...they previously announced All In will be at the Texas Rangers' baseball stadium next July). ***1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. BRITT BAKER (17:19): Britt Baker is rarely if ever in good matches, so it wasn't a big surprise that this was just okay. Mercedes hasn't been in any really good matches, either, since coming to AEW. They did have a good build for this match as they do both present themselves as big time stars. The match just wasn't all that exciting. Mercedes retained the TBS title. **

JACK PERRY vs. DARBY ALLIN “COFFIN MATCH” (10:37): This was watchable but too short to amount to much. Darby came out with thumbtacks glued to his face. Jack Perry brought out a bag of glass and poured it in the ring, causing some “CM Punk” chants. Perry got slammed on the glass. Darby did a running dive and missed Perry and hit the coffin. Perry taped Darby's hands together and tied his feet with a belt and tossed him off the stage on a table. Then he put him in a body bag and dragged him to the coffin, put him in, and won. I was, like, that's it? Well...no. The Young Bucks came out with a can of gasoline and were going to set the coffin with Darby in it on fire. Sting then came out and the place went nuts. The Bucks hit Sting with a chair and he no sold it, then gave The Bucks a double Scorpion Death Drop. That was great stuff. The actual match was just okay. **1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (25:59): Towards the end of this match, they did the story where Danielson was done, he was beaten, and Swerve was just toying with him. Then Swerve would deliver a big move or a finisher and Bryan would miraculously kick out. When these kickouts happened, the stadium popped so loud it brought tears to my eyes. This was high-level, emotional, dramatic stuff. The gimmick was that Bryan would retire if he lost. Nobody believed it. But they had Bryan's wife and kids and ringside, and the story had Bryan fighting to win for his family. They did do a spot that didn't sit well with me, though, which was kind of the point. Bryan was a bloody mess, and so Swerve dragged him over to show his kids their father was bleeding and beaten. The kids were fucking crying! Jesus Christ. And his kids are too young to comprehend that this is, like, fake. I mean...I'm sure they told the kids it's fake, but their brains aren't fully developed. This spot did work, though, because when Bryan started to comeback, you could see his daughter standing up and cheering in the front row. It doesn't get much more emotional than that. 'Hangman' Adam Page ran out during the match but was quickly chased off by security. This caused Swerve to be distracted and Bryan him him with a knee but only got a 2 count. Eventually, finally, Bryan submitted Swerve and won the title. Bryan's family came in the ring (his wife is ex-WWE's Brie Bella, if you, like, don't know) and celebrated. That was just an awesome end to this show. The match itself was good but it was the family drama that really made this a high water mark in wrestling for the year. AEW really delivered, again. And this company is #2 behind WWE? I'm just fucking baffled. ****

WWE SUMMERSLAM

Cleveland

LIV MORGAN vs. RHEA RIPLEY (15:53): This was at the Cleveland Browns football stadium, so it was cool seeing over 50,000 people there. It made the show look like a big deal. They did have the same problem that they had on Night 1 of Wrestlemania though. As soon as it got dark, it looked like they were wrestling in a cave. Is TKO that cheap to not, like, put some lights in the crowd? This show definitely had a lot, if that was your thing. A lot of interference, run-ins, title changes, and storylines. If you wanted great wrestling matches then go watch an AEW show. This was more about everything besides in-ring wrestling, although the LA Knight/Logan Paul and Gunther/Damian Priest had some good wrestling. It was an entertaining show, though, and maybe the best WWE PPV of the year. Not that that's saying much, as I haven't exactly loved any WWE PPV this year. This opener was all about Dominik Mysterio, who wasn't even in the match. Liv Morgan has been after Dominik all summer because Rhea Ripley has been out with an injury. Dominik distracted the ref late in the match to let Liv use a chair in the ring to defeat Rhea and retain her title. After the match, Dominik kissed Liv and they walked out of the arena together. I'm guessing they did this because they want to turn Rhea into a babyface. I think Dominik and Rhea were great together, though, and they'll never have Dominik vs. Rhea because the WWE doesn't do men vs. women (Japan does it, though). The storyline in this was amusing, but the actual wrestling was just okay. **

BRON BREAKER vs. SAMI ZAYN (5:42): These two wrestled at the last PPV, Money in the Bank, and Sami won. That meant it was fairly obvious that Bron was winning the IC title here, otherwise why the hell would they do the match again? This was also a big thing on this PPV: everything that happened was obvious. While usually the obvious ending or idea is the right ending/idea, you do like to see some shocks and surprises. Dominik turning, Finn Balor turning, Roman returning, Gunther winning, Bron winning...everything was obvious and not a surprise to anyone. The other bad part about this match was that it was only 5 minutes long. That was probably to mask Bron's deficiencies. But you can't have a great 5 minute match even though Sami did look great in this and was on fire from the opening bell. It was one of the show's weaker matches. **

LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL (12:04): This was probably the best match of the night. Logan is entertaining and does a lot of big moves, including a top rope moonsault to the floor that looked very precarious. LA Knight gave Logan a top rope suplex that was more like a top rope brain buster. It was mostly all action and the crowd was into it. Logan had a bunch of friends at ringside and one of them gave him brass knuckles. They didn't help, as LA Knight won the U.S. title. The WWE loves having wrestlers lose in their hometowns. They did this with Drew McIntyre in Scotland in June. Logan is from Ohio. He is a heel, but still. Entertaining match. ***

NIA JAX vs. BAYLEY (12:33): This was an okay match. They had Tiffany Stratton run down to the ring in the middle of the match to cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase. Bayley ran over and knocked her off the apron to stop the cash in. This caused Bayley to be distracted and then get destroyed by Nia, who did her middle rope sit down finisher to win the title. Remember the WWE fired Nia Jax a few years ago? Now she's the champ? Makes sense. *1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. CM PUNK (16:58): If you love storylines and chaos, this was one for you. They were having a fairly decent, pedestrian match. This was CM Punk's first televised singles match in WWE since he returned last November. He had a house show match against Dominik and was in the Royal Rumble, but that's it. Punk looked fine. He did all of his patented spots. The storyline here actually involved a friendship bracelet. Maybe they should have done a Friendship Bracelet on a Pole match. Drew had beaten up CM Punk months ago in Chicago and stolen his friendship bracelet. CM Punk took it off Drew during the match and it fell to the mat. Seth Rollins, the special referee, took the bracelet and put it on, apparently to keep it safe. CM Punk saw that Seth had the friendship bracelet on. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm even typing this. This is so fucking stupid! Anyway, CM Punk gave Seth a GTS because Seth had the friendship bracelet on. When Seth woke up, he didn't call for a DQ for some reason even though a wrestler in the match gave him a finishing maneuver. While Seth was knocked out, CM Punk had the match won. Eventually Drew gave CM Punk a Claymore Kick and won the match. I mean...the story of the bracelet was perhaps the stupidest thing ever concocted, especially because this is supposed to be a vicious blood feud between two tough guys that hate eachother. But the match was entertaining at least. CM Punk loses his first singles match. I'm not sure that was the right call. It was after CM Punk screwing Drew out of the title over and over again, but in the big picture, you don't want your big star losing his first singles match in the WWE in, what, 11 years? C'mon! **1/2

GUNTHER vs. DAMIAN PRIEST (16:38): This was so hard hitting that I thought I had inadvertently switched to watching the G1 tournament. Gunther's chest was bleeding from Damian's chops and kicks. It would have been nice if that was all there was to this match; a hard hitting, tough, brutal match where the best man wins. Nope! Finn Balor came out of nowhere halfway through this match to start loudly and exuberantly cheering for Damian. That made it fairly obvious he was going to turn on Damian and he did, putting Gunther's foot on the ropes during a pinfall when the ref wasn't looking. Damian saw this on the replay on the big screen, and this caused him to be distracted, leading to Gunther eventually putting him in the sleeper and winning the WWE championship. Damian Priest looked really good in this match. At one point, they were hitting eachother so hard I thought that maybe they were actually mad at eachother. Finn turning seemed kind of ridiculous because we already had another Judgment Day member, Dominik, turn against his own group. They could have, like, done these turns on different shows to make them more impactful. One is a big deal, two is kind of like...well, we already saw it. *** 

CODY RHODES vs. SOLO SIKOA (29:13): The WWE must've been patting themselves on the back for the reaction they got with the Cody/Roman Wrestlemania match these last few months, because this match had basically the same playbook. The Bloodline interferes but out comes another WWE star to save the day! Kevin Owens and Randy Orton came out to help when The Guerrillas of Destiny came into the ring to beat up Cody. This was a no DQ, Bloodline rules match. Jacob Fatu came out and immediately did a top rope, flip dive onto Cody. Jacob also did a top rope slam onto Cody on the announce table. I think Jacob hurt his knee on that move because he sat down and didn't get back up. Finally Roman Reigns' music hit and he came out. He gave Solo a Superman Punch and then a spear and left but stared at Cody in the ring. Cody won with a Crossroads on Solo to retain the title. Roman has been out since Wrestlemania, which is ridiculous. I know his contract is a limited date contract, but he's been out for 4 months. What they should have done is have Roman vs. Cody on this show since they can't really do it again now that Roman is a babyface. Let's face it: nobody on Earth thought Solo was winning the title, but some people might have thought Roman would beat Cody for the title. The match was pretty average for the first half because everyone was just waiting for the interference to start and thus the "real" match to start. All of the interference at least made this watchable. Considering how exciting Jacob Fatu is, I wish they'd put him in a singles match. Solo is a fucking bore. This match and this show delivering pretty much exactly what you expected. So if that's your thing, you were in heaven. **1/2

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 34

Day 1 (A + B Block): Saturday, July 20th from Osaka

(B Block) OLEG BOLTIN vs. REN NARITA (7:37): Even though New Japan has fallen from the highest of highs, I'm still excited that the G1 has started. I'm even more excited because they got rid of the 4 block tournaments of the last 2 years and have gone back to the classic, old school 2 block format. They did change the ending, though, this year. Instead of just the winners of A and B block going to the final, they're doing the top two of each block having a semi-final. I guess we'll see how that works out. There are, obviously, some gigantic names not in this year's G1. Okada's first G1 was in 2012 so it's the first year without him since he went to AEW. Tanahashi's first G1 was in 2007 and he's now the president and too old to be doing this anymore. And this is the first G1 without Ospreay since 2019. Also Ishii isn't in this year's G1 because they traded Takeshita for him and Ishii is in the states on AEW TV this month. So there's a fresh crop of rookies and newbies. They also tried something new by having the first two nights feature every wrestler in both blocks. That probably wasn't the best idea, as it became exhausting just watching this one show. Usually, the G1 is fucking awesome. Sadly, New Japan just isn't as good as it once was and this show proved it. None of the matches were great. Some were good but most were forgettable. And the packed crowd wasn't the best, really only getting into the show during the closing stretch of the Takeshita/Tsuji match. Oleg Boltin came out for this first match wearing a white fur hat. That didn't do him any favors considering he's supposed to be this menacing, muscled strong dude. Narita is in the House of Torture, so his whole gimmick is just cheating and that's dull. Boltin looked solid, Narita sucks. This was just okay. *1/2 

(A Block) CALLUM NEWMAN vs. SHOTA UMINO (9:46): Out of all the rookies, Shota seems to be the most promising one. I kind of figured they would have pushed him a little more after that good 45 minute Ospreay match he had last year. But they really haven't. I guess this was an upset. Callum Newman is decent, though I doubt he'll ever amount to much. Usually when they do these first or second day upsets it's because that wrestler losing will go far in the tournament. So that probably means Shota will at least make a semi-final. **

(B Block) HENARE vs. EL PHANTASMO (9:26): Pretty good match. I'm just so distracted constantly wondering if Henare's face/beard tattoo is real or maybe just some Henna thing that lasts a few months (he had it last month at Dominion, too). I just looked it up and it's real. The funny thing is that it's a tattoo basically around his mouth and along his chin across to his ears in the exact spot a beard would be. It's one of those Samoan things but it looks so fucking stupid. Granted, I said the same thing about Cody Rhodes' tattoo and he's perhaps the biggest star in all of wrestling now. Not that Henare will get there. He also lost his first name. He used to come out as Aaron Henare. Is "Aaron" a typical Samoan name? El Phantasmo looked good here, doing moonsaults off the top and middle ropes. Good while it lasted. **1/2

(A Block) ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (11:11): Zack is the favorite to win the tournament. Considering Naito is the champ, does anyone really want to see Zack vs. Naito main event Wrestle Kingdom? You'll get a preview on Night 2, anyway, as they're wrestling and it's not even the main event (weird). This match was a bore. Great-O-Khan was, apparently, a big time amateur wrestler so of course this was all just dull mat work. When they finall did some suplexes at the end the crowd went wild because they were finally doing something watchable. 1/2*

(B Block) JEFF COBB vs. HIROOKI GOTO (7:24): Short big man match. Cobb looked like his typical beast self. Goto is decent considering he's near retirement at this point (although since this is Japan he'll probably wrestle another 20 years). **1/2

(A Block) JAKE LEE vs. SANADA (4:57): Jake Lee was once the AJPW champion, having memorable matches with Kento Miyahara. Jake Lee went to NOAH and I think he's still there, just going to New Japan for the G1. It's funny, but I didn't realize until this year when Jake Lee was announced to be in the G1 that everyone hates Jake Lee. Meltzer hates him. And I saw a ton of comments online about people hating Jake Lee. I mean...he's average. I don't get the hate, though. He did lose his hilarious Beach Boys mop top mane, though, and now has long hair in a ponytail. He won with a running kick to the face. This was really short. Sanada was the champ and in the main event of Wrestle Kindom this year. Now he's losing in 5 minutes to Jake Lee. Ugh. They should probably fire Sanada, as his ship has sailed. *1/2

(B Block) YUYA UEMURA vs. DAVID FINLAY (16:23): Yuya Uemura should change his name. It's so awkward. Is it his real name? Are, like, all these wrestlers using their real names? I kind of figured they were, but who knows? Yuya is one of the up and coming New Japan stars. He's not exactly spectacular or anything. Shota is really the only one that seems to have some potential. This was an upset because David Finlay is the leader of Bullet Club (yes, they're still doing that) and Gedo is his manager. Crowd kind of got into Yuya winning with the near falls. Match was just okay. Finlay just doesn't have "it." **

(A Block) EVIL vs. GABE KIDD (10:21): Gabe Kidd does a lot of crazy, high flying stuff, so he's definitely one to watch in the G1. He's a pretty tall guy so it's cool seeing him do top rope moonsaults to the floor and everything. They were battling in the crowd and Kidd did a full arena sprint to Evil but Evil just threw a chair at his face. I wonder if Kidd can keep up this pace in the tournament, though. They did all the HOT interference of course. At one point, Dick Togo was strangling Kidd with rope. **1/2

(B Block) KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. YOTA TSUJI (17:12): Well this was by far the best match on the show and honestly I thought it'd be a lot better. Yota Tsuju is so fucking sloppy. I guess that's the reason his push kind of stalled out. If you remember, his debut was facing Sanada for the title in the main event of last year's Dominion. Maybe they realized he's kind of a wildcard and maybe doesn't have his head in the game. At one point they were supposed to do a Spanish Fly off the top rope and Takeshita fell off the ropes twice. Takeshita looked like the greatest wrestler in the world, though. He was definitely the best wrestler on this show. Since he's in AEW, they probably won't put him in the semi-final or final, though. The crowd got really hot towards the end of this match when it finally turned into something spectacular. ***

(A Block) SHINGO TAKAGI vs. TETSUYA NAITO (23:14): Shingo gave Naito a Tiger Driver '98, which was awesome. Shingo is awesome. I'm not sure why he's not the champion of this company. Naito is a shell of his former self. He completely botched a Destino at the end and both guys just fell over. That was sad to watch. Naito is the champ but maybe they shouldn't have put him in this tournament. I haven't watched a ton of his matches this year, but his match against Moxley at Forbidden Door wasn't very good and this match was pretty much just all Shingo. Dude, have a Shingo vs. Takeshita final and I'll be back loving this company. **1/2

A Block Standings:

Kidd 0-1, Evil 1-0, Great-O-Khan 0-1, Lee 1-0, Naito 0-1, Newman 1-0, Sabre, Jr. 1-0, Sanada 0-1, Takagi 1-0, Umino 0-1

B Block Standings:

Boltin 1-0, Cobb 1-0, El Phantasmo 0-1, Goto 0-1, Henare 1-0, Finlay 0-1, Narita 0-1, Takeshita 1-0, Tsuji 0-1, Uemura 1-0

Day 2 (A + B Block): Sunday, July 21st, from Osaka

(A Block) SANADA vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (8:41): Callum Newman does a lot of high flying, spectacular moves. He did a top rope moonsault to the floor, and a few flips from the ropes. And he does a running, flying knee. The problem is that he doesn't look like a wrestler. Or, at least, look like a star. He looks like a random bloke you would see at a bar with his mates. He even wears a gold chain around his neck in the ring. At least since they've cleaned up Sanada (he used to look like a homeless guy with a scruffy sort-of beard and longer hair) he looks like a professional wrestler. Newman looked pretty good as usual and at least near the end they were doing some entertaining back and forth moves that got the crowd into it. **

(B Block) HENARE vs. OLEG BOLTIN (8:05): I was wondering...Henare's tattoo covers his face and nose. It covers the exact part of his face that he has to shave every day. Does shaving over a tattoo every single day, like, affect the tattoo over time? Can you even grow hair over a tattoo? I'm guessing you can. Maybe I should look that up. This match was decent. Boltin does all the big, strong man moves, as does Henare even though he's not really tall or anything. It's funny, but I didn't realize how short Ishii was until he started wrestling guys in AEW and he looked like a dwarf. Maybe Boltin isn't even really tall. I wonder if I visited Japan I would constantly hit my head on the ceiling everywhere. The crowd seemed to get into this match by the end. It did seem the crowd was more alive for this show then yesterday's show, even though you would think a Saturday crowd would be more kinetic than a Sunday one. Who knows what goes on in Japan, though. They have boxing matches on Monday and Tuesday nights for some reason. And these are big time boxing matches, not just random ones. Like the ones with their big star, Naoya Inoue, who's one of the top 5 pound for pound boxers in the whole world. His last fight was on a Monday night. I mean...don't the Japanese have to go to work on Tuesday mornings? Or is their workday later than say, 9-5? I should investigate this. **

(A Block) GABE KIDD vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (12:01): Great-O-Khan battled Zack Sabre, Jr. in the crowd yesterday. In this match, they twice went into the crowd. Great-O-Khan is already out of ideas and it's only Day 2. Khan tossed Kidd so hard at one point that Kidd flew threw a barricade and fell into a sea of chairs. That was amusing. They went into the crowd then back into the ring then back into the crowd then back into the ring then they were fighting in the entrance walkway and had to both run to the ring to make the 20 count. Khan gave Kidd a suplex over the top rope and they both fell out of the ring. At least this match held my interest. They have Hiromu Takahashi doing announcing and Kidd went up to him and was yelling at him. Hiromu is not in this tournament. What...are they setting up a match for, like, September? **

(B Block) REN NARITA vs. EL PHANTASMO (14:16): This, shockingly, was a pretty good match and one that had the most heat from the crowd so far on the show. Narita is a member of House of Torture, which tortures the audience with their constant cheating that got old four years ago. When the ref was distracted, Narita hit Phantasmo in the leg with a chair. This caused Phantasmo to work with a bum leg for the whole match. At one point he jumped off the ropes on one leg. The crowd was into this injured wrestler facing adversity to come back and win. The problem was he lost. Oh, well. Still, it was pretty exciting with a good storyline while it lasted. **1/2

(A Block) EVIL vs. JAKE LEE (11:20): Maybe don't schedule two back to back House of Torture matches. The ref saw Evil choking Jake Lee with rope and TV cables multiple times and didn't DQ him for whatever reason. At one point, Evil walked over to Jake Lee holding a t-shirt to choke him with and the ref grabbed it. But Evil also had a rope! So Evil was choking Jake Lee with the rope now. Eventually, Dick Togo threw powder in Jake Lee's face to cause him to get pinned. Do they not have DQ's in New Japan? The cheating is quite absurd in these HOT matches. Jake Lee looked fine. I still can't figure out why the wrestling critics online all hate him. *1/2

(B Block) YUYA UEMURA vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:38): This match was at least pretty fast paced and all action. Neither guy does any kind of high flying. It's all knees and slams. Match was fine, just fairly forgettable. **

(A Block) SHOTA UMINO vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (18:22): Shota apparently is back from a hip injury. The story, so far, in all of his matches seems to be him getting beaten up then rising up to come back. I guess the attempt is to get Shota over with the fans. While he's a good wrestler and doing all the right things, you can tell that he's not there yet in terms of superstar appeal. Wrestling Shingo obviously helps, as this was a good match. **1/2

(A Block) ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TETSUYA NAITO (16:03): Presumably, this match is going to be the main event for Naito's title at Wrestle Kingdom next January. While this was a pretty good match, Naito will definitely have to step up his game to make that match main event worthy. Naito has looked sloppy and kind of out of it in this tournament. Granted, he always looks like that lately. Naito, the IWGP champ, is 0-2 in the tournament. I'm guessing he won't lose again until maybe the semi-finals. Zack did a cool thing after he won when he walked through the crowd towards the camera and held up his belt in front of the camera, the whole arena behind him. That was a really great shot. **1/2

(B Block) YOTA TSUJI vs. DAVID FINLAY (19:50): I was kind of baffled why this was the main event and not Sabre, Jr. vs. Naito. Apparently, this was supposed to be the New Japan Cup final until Finlay got injured. So they're finally doing it. The one thing I will say is that these two definitely have chemistry together. Tsuji is a bit sloppy and all over the place. But he's at least pretty exciting to watch, so that's not really a bad thing. Finlay, probably because this was a main event, looked better than usual. Good match. **1/2

A Block Standings:

Kidd 1-1, Evil 2-0, Great-O-Khan 0-2, Lee 1-1, Naito 0-2, Newman 1-1, Sabre, Jr. 2-0, Sanada 1-1, Takagi 1-1, Umino 1-1

B Block Standings:

Boltin 1-1, Cobb 1-0, El Phantasmo 0-2, Goto 0-2, Henare 2-0, Finlay 0-2, Narita 1-1, Takeshita 1-0, Tsuji 1-1, Uemura 2-0

Day 3 (A + B Block): Tuesday, July 23rd, from Hiroshima

(B Block) KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. JEFF COBB (10:18): Takeshita wrestled on DDT's biggest show of the year, Peter Pan, so he wasn't on the last show. That's why this was the only B Block match tonight. Takeshita is already the star of the tournament but that's not a surprise. He's supposed to be a heel but even the AEW fans were cheering for him to win that ladder match on the Forbidden Door PPV. That's how awesome he is. Takeshita vs. Ospreay from earlier this year is still my favorite match of the year. And while this match was great and all, at 10 minutes, it didn't go long enough to be a classic or anything. ***

(A Block) ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (11:56): Newman is like the poor man's Will Ospreay. He does all of the high flying stuff but is kind of bland. I don't think I've ever seen him before until this tournament. I wonder how long he's even been in New Japan. Zack had Callum in a submission arm bar cradle move and Callum quit. *1/2

(A Block) SHINGO TAKAGI vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (11:05): Great-O-Khan actually looked pretty good in this match, which shocked me. I guess it isn't a big surprise considering he was wrestling one of the best in the world. This was back and forth and a lot of action. Good match. **1/2

(A Block) GABE KIDD vs. SHOTA UMINO (15:56): Gabe Kidd seems to be attempting to channel Conor McGregor. He's like the brash, snotty, cruel, European bully. He beat up Shota and Shota was just laying on the mat for awhile while Gabe walked around like he was a king. Shota eventually did the miraculous comeback and that was dramatic and entertaining. I don't really think the crowd has gotten behind Shota yet, but boy are they trying to push him as a sympathetic, come-from-behind, boot-strapping hero. Gabe Kidd still eventually won, which kind of nullified the hero aspect. **1/2

(A Block) EVIL vs. SANADA (18:06): Evil wanted Sanada to lay down and just get pinned. I guess because Sanada used to be in Los Ingobernables de Japon with Evil way back when. Sanada laid down but then cradled Evil in a schoolboy for a 2 count. Eventually the ref got laid out and Dick Togo came in to beat up Sanada. This was another ridiculous, dull HOT match. *

(A Block) TETSUYA NAITO vs. JAKE LEE (17:05): Naito did so little in this match that for most of it Jake Lee was just walking around playing to the crowd. Lee gave Naito a DDT up by the entrance and Naito had to run down to get into the ring at 19. Naito tried a Destino but Lee kind of just collapsed on him. This was perhaps the worst match of the tournament so far. 1/2*

A Block Standings:

Kidd 2-1, Evil 3-0, Great-O-Khan 0-3, Lee 1-2, Naito 1-2, Newman 1-2, Sabre, Jr. 3-0, Sanada 1-2, Takagi 2-1, Umino 1-2

B Block Standings:

Boltin 1-1, Cobb 1-1, El Phantasmo 0-2, Goto 0-2, Henare 2-0, Finlay 0-2, Narita 1-1, Takeshita 2-0, Tsuji 1-1, Uemura 2-0

Day 4 (B Block): Thursday, July 25th, from Takamatsu, Kagawa

HIROOKI GOTO vs. OLEG BOLTIN (10:17): Yano was wrestling in one of the undercard matches. I was kind of wondering why he wasn't in the G1. I didn't watch a ton of the G1 in the last few years because they changed it to 4 blocks of wrestlers and it just wasn't the same. But it does seem like a lot of the wrestlers I was used to seeing are gone. Like...what happened to Bad Luck Fale? Not that I'm complaining that he's gone. Goto is a standard. Guy looks the same as he did ten years ago. They never really pulled the trigger on him. He was in a G1 final against Omega once, but he lost. Goto and Yoshi-Hashi made my Top 10 matches of the year last year when they wrestled Aussie Open. But probably the last time Goto was in an excellent singles match was against Shibata. That was at Wrestle Kingdom in 2017, so it's been awhile. This match was fairly pedestrian. They did a bunch of power elbows and slams. Boltin always does this gimmick where he picks up his opponent by the waist and shakes him back and forth. One of these days his hands are going to slip and the guy's gonna fall on his head. *1/2

REN NARITA vs. JEFF COBB (12:03): I don't know why, but all the big New Japan stars are in the A Block. No one in the B block has ever held the IWGP championship, yet in the A Block, Naito, Evil and Shingo all have. Jeff Cobb is awesome and all, but Narita is in the House of Torture, so instead of doing cool moves he just tries to cheat in various ways. Lately, Cobb has been doing a surfboard gimmick where he stands on top of his opponent and acts like he's catching a wave. Probably the closest he'll ever come to actually surfing. Match was pretty dull. *1/2

EL PHANTASMO vs. YOTA TSUJI (18:12): Good match. It does seem like the longer these matches go the better they are. Usually. This one had time to heat up into something dramatic and fun to watch. Phantasmo was jumping off the ropes all over the place. He jumped off the top rope over the guardrail onto Tsuji in the crowd. Phantasmo played like his leg was hurt so he was limping around but yet still able to do moonsaults off the second rope. I think Tsuji has looked better since his first match in the G1, so maybe he just needs more and more practice to not look so sloppy. Phantasmo won when they were both rolling around attempting a schoolboy pin and Phantasmo got it. ***

DAVID FINLAY vs. HENARE (16:05): This was another match that was kind of just there. It was fine and wasn't boring or anything, but never really amounted to much. Henare is basically Ishii, which probably explains why Ishii is in AEW this month instead of in the G1. They have Ishii teamed with Orange Cassidy in AEW in a new group with a name I forget. Ishii can still go, so maybe they just figured Henare is already doing the Ishii gimmick, why have two of them? *1/2

YUYA UEMURA vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (23:11): Good main event. They gave them enough time to put on a good show with back-and-forth action and drama. The finish was great. Takeshita went down with I believe a DDT but popped right back up but Uemura came off the ropes with an Osscutter for the pin. I think Takeshita might have learned that in AEW...but Ospreay does that all the time; you take a big move but get right back up and deliver a big move and then both guys fall over and the crowd goes nuts. ***

B Block Standings:

Boltin 1-2, Cobb 1-2, El Phantasmo 1-2, Goto 1-2, Henare 2-1, Finlay 1-2, Narita 2-1, Takeshita 2-1, Tsuji 1-2, Uemura 3-0

Day 5 (A Block): Saturday, July 27th, from Nagasaki

CALLUM NEWMAN vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (12:51): This wasn't a very good show. This was the best match on the show and it wasn't exactly something to go out of your way to see. Newman does all the Ospreay moves, so at least that makes him somewhat exciting. And Shingo is awesome, probably the 3rd best wrestler in the world behind Ospreay and Omega. Newman got the shocking win here. Granted, no one goes undefeated in this tournament, so upsets happen pretty frequently almost to make them moot. **1/2

SANADA vs. GABE KIDD (11:14): Neither of these guys does it for me. Sanada is just dull. Gabe Kidd is a big powerhouse bully type but also kind of dull. They were fighting in the entranceway and Kidd threw Sanada away from the ring then ran into the ring. Sanada had to sprint back to make it at 19. Henare was doing commentary and noted that he couldn't believe Kidd wanted to win that way. Um...because he's a frigging heel! Usually I listen to the Japanese announcers because they're more exciting, but for whatever reason I could only find the English version of this show. El Phantasmo did announcing the other day, too, so I guess they're using the English speaking wrestlers on occasion. Both Phantasmo and Henare were terrible, though, so it probably wasn't a good idea. The main announcer, a big fat dude that replaced Kevin Kelly, is great, though. This match was pretty dull. *

SHOTA UMINO vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (15:07): For some reason, the camera followed Shota entering the building and then walking to the ring. Then Shota gave high-fives to like every single person in the crowd. They're really pushing this guy on the fans, right? That's probably going to backfire. The WWE tried pushing Roman Reigns down the fan's throats and that didn't turn out well until they finally gave up and turned him heel. Shota also cut his hair and dyed it blonde. I wonder if he did that because Cody Rhodes has dyed blonde hair. He should start doing the One Winged Angel as a finisher now, too. The match was okay, nothing special. Great-O-Khan is adequate and that's about the best I can say about him. Shota is probably the best all around of the new guys, but he's still not there yet. *1/2

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. JAKE LEE (17:47): I noted earlier that every wrestling critic/reviewer online seems to hate Jake Lee. I couldn't figure it out...but now I do. I haven't seen Jake Lee wrestle in years. The last few times were when he was in excellent main event title matches against Kento Miyahara in All Japan. Alas, that was years ago. Plus, Jake Lee isn't wrestling greats like prime Miyahara in the G1. This match was just a slog. Jake Lee seems to just walk around and play to the crowd and occasionally knee his opponent in the gut. This just didn't work. * 

EVIL vs. TETSUYA NAITO (15:11): I don't know what was worse about 2020, the Pandemic or the birth of the House of Torture. I suppose at least all this interference masks how boring a wrestler Evil is. At one point, Red Shoes wouldn't even count a pin because Evil was cheating. Um...why not just call a DQ? Every member of House of Torture came out to interfere. Bushi also came out to help Naito. Bushi spit black mist. Takahashi spit whiskey. Finally Naito overcame the interference to pin Evil after a Destino but Evil kicked out at 2, which deflated the crowd. Naito went for a second Destino but Evil countered it and delivered an Everything is Evil finisher and won. So Naito, the IWGP champ, has already lost 3 times in this tournament and Evil is undefeated. *

A Block Standings:

Kidd 2-2, Evil 4-0, Great-O-Khan 0-4, Lee 1-3, Naito 1-3, Newman 2-2, Sabre, Jr. 4-0, Sanada 2-2, Takagi 2-2, Umino 2-2

Day 6 (B Block): Sunday, July 28th, from Fukuoka

OLEG BOLTIN vs. EL PHANTASMO (12:17): Phantasmo has been one of the more entertaining wrestlers in the tournament. That's probably mostly due to all the cool flips off the ropes he does. He's fun to watch, though. Boltin does all the big power moves but he's still pretty dull and forgettable. Match was decent. **

JEFF COBB vs. YUYA UEMURA (12:30): Uemura is having a hell of a tournament. Maybe I just haven't seen him a lot, but he definitely excels in the classic New Japan tradition of starting slow and then heating up by the end and turning his matches dramatic and exciting in the closing stretch. Cobb has also been great in this tournament, so this was the best match on this show, which was probably the worst G1 show thus far. **1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. HENARE (13:19): While there was some good action and stiff shots and everything in this match, these two just didn't really seem to gel together. The pacing or something was a bit off. I'd say it was because these two probably never wrestled each other, but I don't think Takeshita has wrestled anyone in this tournament before, either. **

DAVID FINLAY vs. REN NARITA (11:01): I know everyone seems to loathe Jake Lee, but I think Narita has been the worst wrestler in the G1. He's a young guy so you'd think he'd, like, be fast and exciting and do some cool moves. Nope. All he does is try to cheat and give his opponents low blows or hit them with his stick. I mean...there has to be a good wrestler in there, right? Why else is he in New Japan? Finlay is pretty bland, so this match was nothing special. 1/2*

HIROOKI GOTO vs. YOTA TSUJI (17:37): This was a re-match of the New Japan Cup final that Tsuji won. I didn't watch that match, but I hope it was better than this. Goto at least moves around fast and doesn't just walk slowly around like Jake Lee and Naito have been doing in the G1. But Goto just isn't very exciting. Tsuji is like the Jeckyll and Hyde of New Japan. One night he'll be looking spectacular and having a great match and another night he'll just be in something utterly forgettable like this. It wasn't terrible but it was just a standard wrestling match. *1/2

B Block Standings:

Boltin 2-2, Cobb 2-2, El Phantasmo 1-3, Goto 2-2, Henare 2-2, Finlay 2-2, Narita 2-2, Takeshita 3-1, Tsuji 1-3, Uemura 3-1

Day 7 (A Block): Monday, July 29th, from Fukuoka

EVIL vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (9:08): In my opinion, this was the best show of the tournament so far because we got 2 really good matches. This wasn't one of them. Evil won and is undefeated. That means, sadly, he'll probably end up in one of the semi-finals. At least Evil actually does some moves in the ring besides the cheating like Narita. Newman did all his running and high flying so that was at least watchable. **

GREAT-O-KHAN vs. JAKE LEE (11:19): Shockingly, the last few minutes of this were pretty entertaining when they were both delivering moves and reversals back and forth. Jake Lee always seems to spend half of his matches just walking around. I kind of like the babyface Jake Lee better. I always badmouth Great-O-Khan and have for years but he has been a little bit better in this tournament so far. Great-O-Khan did his claw to the head move on Lee then slammed him for the pin. **

SHOTA UMINO vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (19:59): This match was really good. Usually these longer matches are better because they give them time to actually heat up and deliver high drama. Umino has looked good in this tournament. I can definitely see him being in title main events in the near future. Zack will probably be champion eventually so this will be a good future feud. These two worked well together. This was Zack's first loss in the tournament. ***

GABE KIDD vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (13:50): This was the best match of the tournament so far. The reason was obvious: they started the match going full speed so it was exciting from the first second. They ran at each other when the bell rang and Kidd gave Shingo a running kick to the face. They eventually traded elbows, slaps, and suplexes on eachother's heads. The first half was probably better than the second half but it was just brutal and all action and fantastic. ***1/2

TETSUYA NAITO vs. SANADA (17:45): These two wrestled in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year. That match turned out better than I expected. I do remember the crowd being super hot for that match. They weren't super hot for this match, although they did get into it by the end. It started slow but the final few minutes were dramatic. Naito gave Sanada a Destino but Sanada kicked out. Then Naito gave Sanada another Destino and won. Naito has not looked that great in this tournament. I said the same thing last year and then he woke up in his Ospreay G1 match and delivered a match of the year. Is there anyone in the A block that can wake up the old, great Naito? **

A Block Standings:

Kidd 3-2, Evil 5-0, Great-O-Khan 1-4, Lee 1-4, Naito 2-3, Newman 2-3, Sabre, Jr. 4-1, Sanada 2-3, Takagi 2-3, Umino 3-2

Day 8 (B Block): Wednesday, July 31st, from Yamaguchi

YOTA TSUJI vs. OLEG BOLTIN (10:12): This show was pretty forgettable. Nothing was terrible or unwatchable. Most of the matches were decent to good. It's just that none of the matches were awesome or anything. When Tsuji returned from Mexico last year, there was promise there that he'd be the new, big star. That obviously didn't pan out. I think, honestly, he's just lazy. He reminds me of tennis player Nick Kyrgios, a guy that has a ton of talent but doesn't really seem to care that much about the sport. I was listening to the Japanese announcers for this show and they were going crazy at the end of this match. I don't know what they were saying but it certainly wasn't that good. I probably should have listened to the English commentary because Gabe Kidd was one of the announcers and he was probably hilarious. **

HENARE vs. YUYA UEMURA (15:33): These two had a great kicking and slapping back-and-forth moment in the middle of the match that lasted a few minutes and was great. This was probably the best match of the night. Good action, hard hitting. ***

JEFF COBB vs. EL PHANTASMO (11:13): They did the requisite big guy beating down the smaller guy for awhile, then Phantasmo came back and they went toe-to-toe until the end. This was entertaining, with Cobb doing the big power moves and Phantasmo doing all the flips off the ropes. Phantasmo jumped off the ropes and gave Cobb and rolling DDT that was cool. **1/2

REN NARITA vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:17): Narita used a chair early in the match, then, shockingly, they actually wrestled for awhile. Eventually the ref got knocked out and Narita picked up his stick. But Goto picked up some stupid looking sword/metal rod staff thingamajig and they both faced off like they were having a swordfight. I suppose that made this a bit more intriguing than the usual Narita match, which blows. Narita gave Goto a low blow. There was interference in the last match, too, so I'm probably confusing what happened when, but Goto pretty much lost because of cheating. *1/2

DAVID FINLAY vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (18:23): Takeshita woke the crowd up when he piled chairs on top of Finlay outside then jumped over the top rope to do a Senton Bomb on Finlay and the chairs. When Finaly finally made the 20 count, Takeshita did a Frog Splash off the top rope. I'm sure the executives in charge of New Japan are watching Takeshita and thinking: damn, we gotta sign this motherfucker! Red Shoes got knocked out towards the end and Takeshita had the pin without a ref. Finlay used his shillelagh stick and hit Takeshita over the head. At one point, Gedo was grabbing Red Shoes and not letting him get back in the ring. One problem in this match was that there were a few botched and sloppy spots. Takeshita tried to do a headscissors flip on Finlay but Finlay kind of just fell over. And Takeshita attempted a power bomb at one point and fell over before he could do it. It wasn't spectacular or anything but it was entertaining. **1/2

B Block Standings:

Boltin 2-3, Cobb 3-2, El Phantasmo 1-4, Goto 2-3, Henare 3-2, Finlay 3-2, Narita 3-2, Takeshita 3-2, Tsuji 2-3, Uemura 3-2

Day 9 (A Block): Saturday, August 3rd, from Suita, Osaka

JAKE LEE vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (11:15): This was pretty much just a one match show. This G1 has been a bit rare in that classic, epic matches haven't really come out of nowhere with some of the lesser stars and lesser matches. The only one that comes to mind so far is the Shingo/Kidd match, but that also featured Shingo, the best wrestler in the tournament, so I'm not sure that counts. This G1 hasn't had a 30 minute draw yet, either. The last few years when the tournament had 4 blocks they had a 20 minute time limit. Not like I want to see Jake Lee vs. Callum Newman go 30 minutes. At least Newman does some high flying stuff. He did a top rope moonsault to the floor that was cool. Jake Lee's heel persona is more just being cocky and walking around the ring instead of, like, doing moves or wrestling. It was pretty forgettable. *1/2

GREAT-O-KHAN vs. EVIL (16:21): It seems like Great-O-Khan's go-to in this tournament is to head into the crowd. This was Evil's first loss in the tournament, which, unfortunately, probably means this will set up a re-match nobody wants to see on one of the future shows. This was not good. 1/2*

TETSUYA NAITO vs. GABE KIDD (14:08): They played this match out like Gabe Kidd was this big, unstoppable monster when in reality he's some mid-card dude I never heard of until this tournament. When Naito won, he escaped out of the ring and acted like it was a shock he had won. Um...isn't he supposed to be the IWGP champion? Kidd beat Naito down for a lot of the match. They also went into the crowd, at one point Naito tossing Kidd into the empty seats after people scattered. I guess they're just trying to build up Kidd but, you know, if they wanted to do that why not have him win? *1/2

SANADA vs. SHOTA UMINO (15:58): Shota tried but Sanada is a bore. I will admit that the last few minutes were kind of exciting when they picked up the pace and tried to attempt something exciting and dramatic. Everyone online ranted about how the crowd at this show sucked and was quiet but, c'mon, none of these matches were worth cheering for or caring about. *1/2

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (16:13): I don't know if this was the greatest match of all time or if the show was so bad that this just felt like it. But this match was fantastic. Both guys are awesome of course and they definitely work well together. It was hard hitting, as at one point Zack was just slapping Shingo in the face with both hands back and forth. The only problem, really, was that it was a bit too short to be any sort of classic, match-of-the-year. Since this was the main event they probably should have made it longer than 16 minutes. ***1/2

A Block Standings:

Kidd 3-3, Evil 5-1, Great-O-Khan 2-4, Lee 2-4, Naito 3-3, Newman 2-4, Sabre, Jr. 4-2, Sanada 3-3, Takagi 3-3, Umino 3-3

Day 10 (B Block): Sunday, August 4th, from Nagoya

DAVID FINLAY vs. OLEG BOLTIN (12:46): They had a good, lively crowd at this show, which is probably why the wrestlers seemed to at least try, unlike yesterday's show. They had 3,205 at this show and 1,711 at yesterday's show. Nagoya is a bigger city, though, and this was in a bigger building. I don't really know if New Japan is successful or profitable these days, although I do know they've been struggling since the pandemic. Japan has a lot of wrestling promotions, and I'm not sure when the last time one went out of business. Marigold, a new women's wrestling promotion that took some of Stardom's stars and staff with them just started last month. And then there's the smaller promotions like Dragon Gate and Big Japan that have been chugging along for years even though I haven't heard anything about them in years. It obviously doesn't help that AEW was created and a bunch of New Japan's stars left to go there. Gedo, New Japan's head booker and on-screen heel manager, used to be Okada's manager, then he turned on Okada and was Jay White's manager. You know who ever he starts managing will be pushed, and he's now David Finlay's manager. I'm not exactly sure what Gedo sees in Finlay, though, as he's pretty monotonous. Finlay is a perfectly fine wrestler but I've yet to ever see him in any kind of classic match. Finlay tossed Boltin over the guardrail early on and Boltin hit the announcer's table. That's pretty much all that was memorable in this. The crowd did come alive and the announcers were going crazy during the final few minutes. It was fine. **  

EL PHANTASMO vs. YUYA UEMURA (14:24): I will give El Phantasmo this: he's trying his heart out in his G1 matches. He did a running dive through the ropes and hit Uemura so hard they both hit the guardrail and Phantasmo almost toppled over Uemura. It was one of those Dragon Lee or Darby Allin type of full-speed missile dives. Then Phantasmo threw Uemura into the ring and did a top rope Senton Bomb on Uemura. Then he did a second rope moonsault ala Hayabusa and Sabu onto Uemura. So there was some good action in this match. **1/2 

JEFF COBB vs. HENARE (12:45): Even though this was a good, entertaining, hard hitting bout, I kind of expected this to be a lot better because it's one of those tough guy matches and I figured it would be a brutal epic. Henare did the greatest Shining Wizard on Cobb in the corner at one point. It was so flawless and made such a great sound. Good match. **1/2

HIROOKI GOTO vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (14:20): This was the match of the night and one of the best matches of the tournament. This match is what the G1 is all about, and in the glory years it seemed like almost every G1 match had this same kinetic energy and high drama. The crowd was super hot, there were a ton of big moves and exciting near falls. This was just fantastic. Shockingly, Goto was probably the star in this match. He did an awesome flip slam off the top rope onto Takeshita. Takeshita did his sick, cradle slam on Goto on Goto's head then followed it up with a pull-away, over-the-top slam. The one problem was there was a late near-fall that was obviously 3 but Takeshita maybe kicked out too late so it kind of deflated the crowd a bit. Then Goto pinned Takeshita right after that anyway so it seemed like the ref probably should have just said it was 3 anyway and ended it there. ***1/2

YOTA TSUJI vs. REN NARITA (20:13): This was the main event? In what universe is Narita vs. Tsuji the biggest match on the show? This definitely suffered because they had to follow such a great match, but they didn't do any favors wrestling a slow match for like 15 minutes. Red Shoes got knocked out late and the crowd finally woke up. Narita grabbed his stick to hit Tsuji with but missed. Narita hit Tsuji with a low blow. Tsuji did an over-the-top-rope dive that was cool, but other than that, this match was fairly dull. Right now, Jeff Cobb and David Finlay are tied in 1st place, with Uemura, Goto, Henare, Narita, and Takeshita all tied in 2nd place. The rest are tied in 3rd, so no one is really running away with the B Block so far and no one is completely out of it yet. Considering Finlay is being pushed as a big deal, he'll probably end up making the semi-finals. 1/2*

B Block Standings:

Boltin 2-4, Cobb 4-2, El Phantasmo 2-4, Goto 3-3, Henare 3-3, Finlay 4-2, Narita 3-3, Takeshita 3-3, Tsuji 3-3, Uemura 3-3

Day 11 (A Block): Tuesday, August 6th, from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

GREAT-O-KHAN vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (8:17): Good show tonight, mostly thanks to the hot crowd at Korakuen Hall. It’s too bad they can’t do every show there. This match was actually good. It was fast paced and all action. The show tonight was only 2 hours and 19 minutes and I didn’t even watch the 

4 non-G1 matches. **1/2

JAKE LEE vs. GABE KIDD (4:53): Jake Lee came out holding two plastic cups of something, presumably alcohol (maybe Sakai?). It’s because both of these guys are in Bullet Club. That didn’t matter, as Gabe immediately started beating up Jake Lee and said, “Welcome to War Dogs, mother fucker!” or something. He then hit Jake Lee in the head with a chair. They also brought out a table and Jake Lee eventually tossed Gabe against it while it was leaning against the guardrail. Kidd didn’t make the 20 count at one point and lost. Then they just gave each other the Bullet Club finger gesture, so I guess they’re okay now. This was at least one of the more entertaining Jake Lee matches in the tournament. **1/2

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. EVIL (0:19): Evil came out of the curtain with Zack in a headlock to start the match. Then Dick Togo threw powder in Zack’s eyes. Evil tried to pin Zack four times but Zack cradled him for a quick 3 count. Zack then ran around the building with Evil and Togo chasing him. This was like a Three Stooges or something. The crowd loved it, though. I keep waiting for there to be a 30 minute draw in this tournament but they’re doing the opposite. This was at least amusing. **

TETSUYA NAITO vs. SHOTA UMINO (14:48): Pretty good match, although at one point they were both laying on the mat with Shota in a submission hold for awhile and I was wondering if this might be the elusive 30 minute draw. Nope. Good closing stretch with a bunch of near falls and reversals. **1/2

SANADA vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (19:55): This was a good match and the type of dramatic, exciting G1 match the crowd goes crazy for that we haven’t seen too much of this year. I mean…Shingo was in it, so I guess it’s not that surprising. Sanada was really good in this, too, though. He’s been a total bore so far in the G1 so that was nice to see. The final 5 minutes or so were excellent. Sanada did 2 moonsaults and the 2nd one landed. Shingo did a Made in Japan and got a 2 count. By the end the crowd was in a frenzy and the near falls were note-perfect. Definitely one of the better matches in the G1. ***1/2

A Block Standings:

Kidd 3-4, Evil 5-2, Great-O-Khan 3-4, Lee 3-4, Naito 4-3, Newman 2-5, Sabre, Jr. 5-2, Sanada 4-3, Takagi 3-4, Umino 3-4

Day 12 (B Block): Wednesday, August 7th, from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

JEFF COBB vs. OLEG BOLTIN (10:14): These first two matches were awesome. This Korakuen crowd was going nuts for these first two matches, like they were the main event of Wrestlemania or something. I guess the crowds here seem so much louder because it’s a small building, or maybe the wrestlers just try harder because it’s Tokyo and a bigger deal. This match was just two big guys picking each other up and slamming each other. Cobb did Boltin’s move where he picked up Boltin and kind of heaved him from one side to the other. Then Cobb said, “It’s my fucking move.” Then Boltin did the move and the crowd went ape shit. I mean…picking up Cobb like he’s a sack of potatoes is pretty impressive. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. ***1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. EL PHANTASMO (17:22): This was the match of the tournament. This was just fantastic. ELP did a suicide dive onto Takeshita through the ropes, then did a moonsault off the top rope into Takeshita in the crowd, then did a top rope Senton Bomb then a second rope moonsault. Jesus. He did this in his last match, too, but this hot crowd made it better. Takeshita brought a table at ringside and they teased the spot for awhile, eventually Takeshita gave ELP a package piledriver through the table. ELP’s back was bleeding from the broken table. They did a bunch of near falls and finally Takeshita won with the Blue Thunderbomb. This was excellent. ****

YOTA TSUJI vs. HENARE (15:38): Well, good luck following that last match. They certainly tried hard, even though the super hot crowd was quiet for most of this. It was definitely all action and back and forth moves so there was that. **

REN NARITA vs. YUYA UEMURA (11:42): This was kind of dull. Narita laid Uemura’s leg on the ropes and kicked it, so Uemura was grabbing his “injured” knee throughout. That didn’t prevent him from doing flying jump kicks and top rope dives, though. Kanemaru interfered, pushing Uemura off the top rope and trying to spit whiskey in his face (he missed). Uemura looked good. *1/2

HIROOKI GOTO vs. DAVID FINLAY (17:51): This heated up into a fairly exciting match. The crowd really got into it rooting for Goto. At one point, Finlay took the mat off the floor at ringside but Goto ended up slamming Finlay on the hard wood floor. Goto won with his elbow drop onto his knee move, whatever that’s called. Good action and drama in the last five minutes or so. Jeff Cobb is in the lead at 5-2, with Finlay, Takeshita, Narita, and Goto all tied in second. It kind of looks like Boltin and ELP aren’t making the semi-final. Too bad, because ELP is one of the best so far in the tournament. **1/2

B Block Standings:

Boltin 2-5, Cobb 5-2, El Phantasmo 2-5, Goto 4-3, Henare 3-4, Finlay 4-3, Narita 4-3, Takeshita 4-3, Tsuji 4-3, Uemura 3-4

Day 13 (A Block): Thursday, August 8th, from Yokohama

TETSUYA NAITO vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (5:55): Pretty dull show tonight, although the Zack Sabre vs. Gabe Kidd match was good. We’re not in Korakuen Hall anymore so the crowd is pretty quiet and the arena is dark. Newman attacked Naito before he could take his 5 minutes to undress. Newman tried a top rope moonsault to the floor but missed, then jumped off the guardrail and missed. This was too short to amount to much. All of the matches this year have been pretty short. There’s only been 3 matches over 20 minutes. 1/2*

GREAT-O-KHAN vs. SANADA (11:11): This was another forgettable match. Usually, Great-O-Khan immediately goes out into the crowd. Nobody wrestled out in the crowd tonight. Maybe Yokohama has some law against that. *

JAKE LEE vs. SHOTA UMINO (16:01): Jake Lee walked around slowly for most of this match but finally started running around and doing things in the last few minutes. You’d think they’d be pushing some of these young guys like Uemura and Shota but they’re not for whatever reason. *

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. GABE KIDD (16:22): This was the only good match on the show. They both slapped each other like fifty times. At one point, Gabe kneeled down Indian style to start a slap battle (Kidd eventually just started biting Zack’s head). Gabe then told the camera that he does this better than Shibata. Um…Shibata isn’t even in NJPW anymore. Unless they’re set to wrestle on some U.S. show in the future. They do have a New Japan show in D.C. at the end of August. Anyway, Zack choked out Kidd and thus gets a spot in the semifinal. ***

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. EVIL (16:57): Red Shoes got knocked out twice in this match. So…if that’s your cup of tea, you probably loved this. Kanemaru interfered but came in wearing a Bushi mask for some reason. I mean…if you’re already interfering, what’s the point of trying to trick Shingo? Just hit him from behind. Hiromu and the real Bushi came in to save Shingo. Dick Togo jumped off the top rope to give Shingo a chop to the balls. Shingo looked good but it was all just ridiculous interference instead of any kind of great, exciting match. Evil has lost his last 3 matches after winning his first 5. He’s still tied in 2nd with Naito. Zack has already locked up a semifinal. Having semifinals seems kind of superfluous since everyone in the block is wrestling everyone. Unless they do two A vs. B block semifinals. I just wish they had kept it the same as the classic format. Why fuck with the G1? It’s a great tournament for a reason. I don’t know why these last few years they keep monkeying with it. *1/2

A Block Standings:

Kidd 3-5, Evil 5-3, Great-O-Khan 4-4, Lee 4-4, Naito 5-3, Newman 2-6, Sabre, Jr. 6-2, Sanada 4-4, Takagi 4-4, Umino 3-5

Day 14 (A Block): Saturday, August 10th, from Sendai

OLEG BOLTIN vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (12:07): I didn’t realize that the top 3 wrestlers in each block make the semifinals. #2 faces #3 and then that winner faces #1 and then that winner goes to the final. That means Boltin, Henare, Phantasmo and Tsuji are eliminated. The rest still have a shot, except for Uemura who was injured tonight and had to leave the tournament. This show was average stuff. Nothing was terrible but nothing was excellent. This was the best match. Takeshita did his running, top rope flip dive to the floor. Boltin gave Takeshita multiple German supple ex and one put Takeshita right on his head. Takeshita kicked out at 1 at one point late and the one announcer acted like he was having a heart attack. I love these Japanese announcers. **1/2

REN NARITA vs. HENARE (13:15): Narita is tied in first place with Cobb and Finlay. Tells you all you need to know about B Block’s star power. Although, the B Block has been more exciting for the most part. At one point, the ref slapped Henare by accident and Henare got mad, pointed at him, then went after him. The refs are a fucking joke in this company. They probably don’t have unions in Japan. Narita then shoved Henare into the ref who got knocked out. Narita used his stick to hit Henare’s leg at one point. This was mediocre. *1/2

EL PHANTASMO vs. HIROOKI GOTO (13:06): Phantasmo was leaping all over the place so this was at least entertaining. They did a finale where they both kept rolling each other up for 2 counts until finally ELP got a 3. **1/2

DAVID FINLAY vs. JEFF COBB (11:42): This was really too short to amount to much. Finlay tossed Cobb through one of the guardrails that opened and Cobb fell into the 2nd guardrail. Why do they need 2 guardrails between the audience and wrestling ring? This isn’t a circus with lions or something. Match was okay. Finlay really doesn’t do much for me. *1/2

YUYA UEMURA vs. YOTA TSUJI (16:15): Uemura injured his arm in this match. I thought at first he was just playing it up because in his last match he wrestled with a hurt knee, but no, he was legit injured and is out of the tournament. Maybe that’s why this match was fairly dull. The crowd wasn’t into it, either. Tsuji has been a bust in this tournament. He tries but his matches just aren’t exciting. Uemura obviously wasn’t that hurt because he still finished the match and won. There’s only 1 show left of the B Block before the semifinals. Hopefully Takeshita makes it, because he’s been by far the MVP of this block. *1/2

B Block Standings:

Boltin 3-5, Cobb 5-3, El Phantasmo 3-5, Goto 4-4, Henare 3-5, Finlay 5-3, Narita 5-3, Takeshita 4-4,  Tsuji 4-4, Uemura 4-4

Day 15 (A Block): Monday, August 12th, from Nagaoka

GABE KIDD vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (6:52): This was the final night of the A Block. Zack Sabre won the block at 7-2. There were four wrestlers tied for 2nd: Naito, Great-O-Khan, Shingo, and Evil. Because of a tie, they have to go to tiebreaks and see who beat each other. Naito was 0-3 against the others. Great-O-Khan was 1-2. Shingo was 3-0. Evil was 1-2. Great-O-Khan beat Evil, though. That means Zack ended up #1, Shingo #3, and Great-O-Khan #3. So we’re going to get Shingo vs. Great-O-Khan and the winner of that faces Zack. They couldn’t make this more complicated, right? Kind of sad that Great-O-Khan made the quarterfinals. Who the fuck wants to see him wrestle again? I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh, as I gave Great-O-Khan and Shingo’s first match 2.5 stars and said it was “a good match.” As for this show? Not great. This match was short. Gabe called Callum a “wannabe Ospreay” before the match, which is what we’re all thinking anyway. This was at least not boring. **

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SANADA (15:44): This was the best match on the show. Sanada isn’t the greatest but for whatever reason he works well with Zack. There were a lot of reversals as usual and Sanada kept up with Zack. Very entertaining. ***

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. JAKE LEE (13:50): Jake Lee hasn’t been the greatest in this tournament but Shingo willed a decent performance out of him. Early on it was dull when Jake beat down Shingo. Eventually things heated up and there were flashes of the better Jake Lee from AJPW. **1/2

SHOTA UMINO vs. EVIL (19:45): This match took outside interference to absurd lengths. The story was that Shota would overcome countless attacks and interference and finally come out on top, thus becoming a true star by eliminating Evil from the tournament. Every member of House of Torture interfered. Two refs were knocked out until finally Red Shoes came out. Hiroshi Tanahashi ran out to make a save (he hobbled around like a cripple and it was extremely sad). Before the match even started, Dick Togo and Evil grabbed the ring announcer and made him read a piece of paper saying that Shota was quitting and Evil was the winner. This was just ridiculous. I will admit, though, it was so ludicrous it was at least watchable. **

GREAT-O-KHAN vs. TETSUYA NAITO (18:58): This was a boring match. Khan got the surprise win after kicking out of a Destino and then giving Naito two slams. Naito, the IWGP champ, is eliminated. That’s kind of a surprise. *

A Block Standings:

Kidd 4-5, Evil 5-4, Great-O-Khan 5-4, Lee 4-5, Naito 5-4, Newman 2-7, Sabre, Jr. 7-2, Sanada 4-5, Takagi 5-4, Umino 4-5

Day 16 (B Block): Wednesday, August 14th, from Hamamatsu

OLEG BOLTIN vs. YUYA UEMURA (forfeit): Uemura was injured on the last show so had to forfeit this match. 

HENARE vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:46): This was the final night of B Block. David Finlay won the block. Cobb, Takeshita, Narita, and Tsuji were all tied for 2nd. We go to the tiebreak! Cobb was 0-3 against the others. Takeshita was 3-0. Narita was 1-2. Tsuji was 2-1. That means Tsuji will face Takeshita and that winner will face Finlay. I gave the first Tsuji/Takeshita match 3 stars. It is good that Takeshita made the quarterfinals, as he’s been the best wrestler in this block. Would have rather seen an ELP/Takeshita rematch, but oh well. Tonight was deadly dull. They were in a big building that was maybe 40% full. For being one of the oldest dudes still wrestling in New Japan, Goto has been pretty great in this tournament. It probably helped his career that he never did any top rope dives. This was basic stuff but, honestly, perhaps the best match on the show. **

DAVID FINLAY vs. EL PHANTASMO (12:30): ELP did a top rope moonsault onto Finlay and then gave him a face down slam and a piledriver and he was, of course, going to win but Gedo pulled the ref out of the ring. Eventually Finlay hit Phantasmo with his shillelagh when the ref wasn’t looking and won. I don’t like how NJPW is pushing Finlay because he’s pretty average. *1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. REN NARITA (16:47): Evil and Dick Togo came out to interfere. After the last show’s ridiculous amount of HOT interference, did we really need to see those two again? Takeshita was beaten down early so he was just laying around and the match was dull. Finally, Takeshita did some offense and the final few minutes were decent. *1/2

YOTA TSUJI vs. JEFF COBB (11:37): Hmmm…an 11 minute main event. Kind of lame. Tsuji had to win or he’d be eliminated. Tsuji did seem to be a lot more entertaining/exciting in this match than he usually is. I think these two just mesh well. Would’ve liked to see a bit more length and drama since this was the main event, though. **

B Block Standings:

Boltin 4-5, Cobb 5-4, El Phantasmo 3-6, Goto 4-5, Henare 4-5, Finlay 6-3, Narita 5-4, Takeshita 5-4,  Tsuji 5-4, Uemura 4-5

Day 17 (Quarterfinals): Thursday, August 15th, from Chiba

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (20:50): I don’t remember the first Shingo/Khan match at all, but I did give it 2.5 stars and called it “good.” This rematch was just okay. While the crowd wasn’t dead or anything, it was small enough in a big, cavernous building that it certainly didn’t help. Because they were going longer than usual (their first match was 11 minutes), the first half was a slog. Shingo was just laying around and Great-O-Khan was beating on him. Finally they picked up the pace and the second half was better. Khan is still doing those stupid chops to his opponent’s shoulders, and he makes a stupid scream/yelp when he does it. Usually it’s just dumb, but here, in a silent building, it came across as farcical. At least Shingo won. **

YOTA TSUJI vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (21:30): I didn’t figure Takeshita would win here because he’s not even in New Japan. Why would they have someone from outside the company go far in this tournament? Granted, he made the quarterfinals. But he should have. He worked his ass off in this tournament. Tsuji has been a disappointment. He’s not bad, just isn’t a great, all around wrestler that can produce a classic. Takeshita threw some chairs on Tsuji outside the ring and then did an over the top rope flip into a Senton Bomb on Tsuji. I thought their first match was better, but they might have been because of this small crowd. So we move on to the semi-finals, which will feature Tsuji vs. Finlay and Shingo vs. Zack. We at least know one of them will be great. **1/2

Day 18 (Semifinals): Saturday, August 17th, from Ryogoku in Tokyo

YOTA TSUJI vs. DAVID FINLAY (28:05): Shockingly, I thought this was the better of the two semifinals. Unlike the rest of the G1, these semifinals got enough time to develop into something good. The big spot was Finlay giving Tsuji a powerbomb through two tables at ringside (one broke). But I think the reason I liked this match was because these two work well together. I even mentioned them having good chemistry in their first match, which Tsuji also won. I expected Tsuji to win because they weren’t going to have two non-Japanese wrestlers in the final and I figured Zack was winning the next match. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (27:38): I do realize this match went 27 minutes, but it seemed like it was just heating up when it was over. I liked their first match better, although I did complain that it was too short at 16 minutes. Maybe these two should just go do a 45 minute match or something. I’ll be happy then. **1/2

Day 19 (Final): Sunday, August 18th, from Ryogoku in Tokyo

ZACK SABRE, JR, vs. YOTA TSUJI (31:04): Zack was the favorite to win and he did. There was one surprise, as Zack said after the match that he wants his title shot at the King of Pro-Wrestling show in October. I honestly didn’t know you could do that. I thought the whole point of the G1 was to get into the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. Maybe that means Naito is so beat up they don’t want him in the main event of the biggest show of the year. Or maybe Naito will beat Zack in October and they’ll do a rematch. Who knows? It is telling that Naito didn’t even make the quarterfinals and lost to Shingo, Zack, Evil, and Great-O-Khan. He’s supposed to be the company’s champ but they made him look like a fucking loser. They did at least push one of the new guys by giving Tsuji a loss in the final. Umino and Uemura had a better G1 than Tsuji, though, in terms of consistent match quality. Tsuji looked better in this match and in the semifinal, but that’s probably because he had more time to work with. The first half of this match was a slog, though, but eventually it turned into something dramatic and exciting. Zack put Tsuji in some sort of pretzel submisssion, bending his arms, head, and legs until Tsuji submitted. This turned out to be one of the better matches in the tournament, a G1 that I thought was pretty underwhelming. After the match, Zack did his interview in Japanese, which surprised me. Hell, he even learned your language. Give him the title already. ***

Final Stats:

**** matches: 1

***1/2 matches: 5

*** matches: 11

**1/2 matches: 25

** matches: 20

*1/2 matches: 20

* matches: 6

1/2* matches: 6