NJPW DOMINION

Sunday, July 5th, 2015 from Osaka, Japan

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. reDRAGON vs. BARETTA & ROCKY ROMERO (14:30): Great match. More of the same, but more of the same involving The Young Bucks means fast-action and insane high-flying and, of course, comedy. Rocky Romero is amusing as well and Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of reDragon are decent enough wrestlers so this was a fun, exciting match. The Bucks kept the IWGP Jr. Tag titles.
*** (out of ****)

TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI (8:50): So Naito is a heel now. Okay. He non-chalantly walked to the ring, refused to be tagged in at times, and left before having his hand raised after the victory. Honma is a crowd favorite and just a hell of a wrestler. His diving head-butt that never delivers is hilarious. The other team sucks, though, so there wasn't much here. *1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (11:48): Excellent match. Someone should tell Shibata that wrestling is fake. It was mostly just stiff strikes and kicks and holds but it was fucking brutal. In one sequence, Shibata picked up Sakuraba and pulled both of his arms back in a submission hold so Sakuraba had to pull them both to the ropes so he could bite the ropes to end the hold. Wild stuff. ***1/2

KUSHIDA vs. KENNY OMEGA (20:44): The last few minutes were stellar. Kushida is fucking dramatic, right? He could win an Oscar for those facial expressions alone. Omega is a bit better than average but the early part was slow when Omega beat down Kushida for ten minutes so it wasn't all fantastic. Kushida won the NJPW Jr. title here. Good match. ***

TOGI MAKABE vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (17:50): I love Ishii. It's probably because I can't figure out why he's not in a wheelchair by now. He always puts his body on the line. Early on he did a top-rope front-flip to the floor and missed Makabe and landed on his back. Later on he seemed to hurt his shoulder so the ref and ringside doctor looked like they were going to call it off. Ishii is usually in exciting, brutal matches but this one was just brutal. Makabe retained the Never Open Weight title here. *1/2

DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON vs. THE KINGDOM (10:09): Ugh. The only good thing about this feud is the fact that Doc Gallows and Maria have a weird, stalker thing going on. Unfortunately that comedy schtick was barely used and we were left with a dull match. The crowd fell asleep. Gallows and Anderson won the IGWP Tag titles here. *

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TORI YANU (12:32): Yanu is kind of like the R. Truth of NJPW. When he comes out you want to change the channel. He was kind of humorous here as the villain. He constantly grabbed and knocked the ref over then used a steel chair. Tanahashi is one of the greats so he's good with just about anyone but this was mediocre stuff. **

HIROOKI GOTO vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (22:40): Like all NJPW title matches, the final few minutes were awe-inspiring. Nakamura is, really, the best in the business at being weird and quirky but also captivating. Goto is your typical strong brute. Not awesome or anything but a good match. Goto retained the IWGP IC title. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (26:16): Phenomenal match. One of the year's best. They wrestled a few times before but this was their masterpiece by far. The only complaint I have is that AJ didn't win. Wasn't this his first title defense? Early on The Bullet club interfered so the ref banned them from ringside, even going so far as to giving them the "suck it" hand motion. I'm sure red shoes learned that from Earl Hebner. The reason this particular match was so good was because of the back-and-forth and counters at the end. The final flurry was impeccable. I'm not even the biggest Okada fan but they both put on a hell of a show. AJ might be the best wrestler in the world these days so it's sad to see him lose the IWGP Heavyweight title. Just an awesome finish to a great show. ***1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

Columbus, Ohio

RANDY ORTON vs. SHEAMUS vs. KANE vs. ROMAN REIGNS vs. KOFI KINGSTON vs. NEVILLE vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER "MITB LADDER MATCH": Safety first. No one jumped off the top of the ladder. And, really, the only sick move was when Reigns power-bombed Kofi onto a ladder that was resting atop the second rope in the corner. Kofi hit the edge of the ladder and it looked disturbingly painful. Reigns did jump over the top rope and down onto all the men and Reigns power-bombed Kofi over the top rope and down onto all the men...but there weren't any insane ladder jumps or craziness. It was entertaining but not as wild as some previous MITB matches. Reigns was about to win when the lights went out and Bray Wyatt appeared when the lights came back on. Bray tipped the ladder and Reigns fell off. This meant that Reigns lost and Sheamus ended up winning. Neville, the high-flier, did do his big top-rope Red Arrow spin/flip finisher...but I really expected him to do something off the ladder. A bit disappointing but the match was entertaining. **1/2 (out of ****)


NIKKI BELLA vs. PAIGE: Not terrible but the finish was mind-bogglingly stupid. The Bella's switched (Brie was under the ring). Paige pinned Brie. Brie told the ref that she wasn't Nikki (she did this by pulling tissue paper out of her bra and showing the ref her matching hip-bone gun tattoos). So then Nikki pinned Paige (I guess the match was re-started?). Are they even trying anymore with this mess of a division? *1/2

THE BIG SHOW vs. RYBACK: The Miz ran in to cause a No Contest finish. Yeah. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS vs. JOHN CENA: Great match. Perhaps better than their match two week's ago. They did pretty much the same as they did at The Elimination Chamber show. They kicked out of a ton of big moves. They both delivered everything but the kitchen sink. Cena ended up winning with the AA but post-match Owens beat up Cena and power-bombed him on the side of the ring apron. Definitely the match of the night. ***1/2

THE NEW DAY vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS: Yawn. For some reason I hate The Prime Time Players. They're just a sloppy, uneven bore. It's probably because they're rarely pushed or on TV except for when they're in bad comedy sketches backstage. They won the tag titles. And the division was so good this past year. Oh, well. *

SETH ROLLINS vs. DEAN AMBROSE "LADDER MATCH": The match started at 10:18 and went until just before 11:00 PM. Meaning they killed time...lots of time. They wrestled in the ring for ten minutes before the ladder's were even introduced. They also ran around the building for no reason. There were some brutal spots but no Jeff Hardy-type spots that we've kind of gotten used to from these two (their best match will probably always be last August's "cinderblock" match on RAW). Ambrose flipped Rollins over the top rope and Rollins landed on a ladder bridge and the ladder cracked. Rollins power-bombed Ambrose onto a ladder and chairs laying on the floor ringside. Those were the two "big" spots. The match was over thirty-five minutes and thus way too slow. The crowd was mostly silent. They chanted, "We want tables!" for a good portion of it (they never got them). Surprisingly, their match two week's ago at The Elimination Chamber was a better, more dramatic match and that was gimmick-less. I suppose we all figured these two would be leaping off ladder's left and right and going nuts. That didn't happen. The finish was ultra-lame. Both guys grabbed the belt at the top of the ladder and pulled it off and fell to the mat. As they landed, Rollins pulled the title free and thus sort of won. It was good in spots. **

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

Corpus Christi, Texas

THE NEW DAY vs. THE LUCHA DRAGONS vs. TYSON KIDD & CESARO vs. THE ASCENSION vs. LOS MATADORES vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS "ELIMINATION CHAMBER": Sadly, the WWE probably won't be doing these "lesser" chamber matches since both of them didn't turn out all that great. This was the better of the two...but, really, Cesaro and Kalisto of the Dragons are the only two entertaining wrestlers. Kalisto even climbed up to the top of the thing and dropped down. Did it make sense that The New Day had three wrestlers? Or that the Matadores had their midget? Seems unfair. The midget also dropped from the ceiling. I guess it sounds a lot cooler than it was. Good, just not as exciting as it could've would've should've been. **1/2

NIKKI BELLA vs. PAIGE vs. NAOMI: Paige is gorgeous. Maybe she should focus on acting or marrying a billionaire because the Diva division has sucked for years. *1/2

KEVIN OWENS vs. JOHN CENA: Excellent match. Perhaps Cena's best ever? It had a NJPW feel. Big moves one after the other, constant near-falls, high drama. Went on a bit too long, but Owens was incredible  here (perhaps he read my Kevin 'Boring' Owens tweet after that dull Zayn/Owens match months ago). ***1/2

NEVILLE vs. BO DALLAS: Ugh. Neville is already kind of boring. Bo is Bray Wyatt's brother. Huh. 1/2*

RYBACK vs. R-TRUTH vs. SHEAMUS vs. KING BARRETT vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. MARK HENRY "ELIMINATION CHAMBER": Not that good. But look at the cast! The previous chamber matches were helped by featuring the stars of the WWE. This was for the IC title that Daniel Bryan gave up. Henry, R-Truth, and Barrett all suck. Ryback is mostly a bore. Sheamus is only good in Daniel Bryan matches. Ziggler is the only semi-entertaining one. Eh. It was okay. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. DEAN AMBROSE: Good match. The first half was a little dull, but Ambrose is wild and kinetic enough to put on a good show. He cut his teeth for three years in CZW, so without tables, glass, or chairs he's not as entertaining. Still, they put on a good show. Rollins pushed the ref into Ambrose and the ref got KO'd. A new ref came down and Ambrose won the title but it was reversed...Ambrose won but by DQ so no title change. Yeah, super lame. These guys can wrestle each
other forever as far as I'm concerned. **1/2

WWE PAYBACK

Baltimore

SHEAMUS vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (12:20): Crimson mask! Dolph bled legit at the end. About the only cool thing in this match. *1/2

THE NEW DAY vs. TYSON KIDD & CESARO "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (12:40): Figured it'd be better...and longer. Xavier Woods got the pin even though he wasn't in the match (Kofi and Big E. were). Cesaro tried to pick up Big E. at one point and couldn't lift him. Awkward. Entertaining but they've had better matches. **1/2

BRAY WYATT vs. RYBACK (15:36): Better than I (or anyone) expected. Still not that good. Ryback did a Tanahashi-esque top-rope splash which was new. **

JOHN CENA vs. RUSEV "I QUIT MATCH" (27:58): I liked this. They basically walked around the arena finding things to hit the other with. Rusev was tossed onto the fireworks display by the entrance and some pyrotechnics went off. Rusev put Cena through a table and onto a metal guardrail. The finale had Rusev taking down the top rope in the ring but Cena used it to help him cinch on a lame STF submission hold. Rusev yelled something in Russian and Lana ran in saying, "He quits!" **1/2

NAOMI & TAMINA vs. THE BELLA TWINS (6:13): Don't get me started on the women's division.

WADE BARRETT vs. NEVILLE (7:22): Barrett got counted out because he just decided to leave. Okay. Neville then pulled him back in for the Red Arrow. Not good. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. ROMAN REIGNS vs. DEAN AMBROSE vs. RANDY ORTON (23:52): Great main event. The first half was so-so but it heated up when The Shield reunited to put Orton through the announce table. Then they turned on Rollins and and laid him on the Spanish announce table then slammed Kane down onto Rollins and the table. It didn't break so they did it again and it broke. J & J Security and Kane were practically in the match so it was quite the clusterfuck. Rollins won with a pedigree.
***

WWE EXTREME RULES

Rosemont, Illinois

NEVILLE vs. BAD NEWS BARRETT: This was on the pre-show. Daniel Bryan is hurt so his IC title match against Barrett was scrapped. So we got the RVD-esque Neville, fresh from NXT. Neville is awesome...but why his name changed from Adrian Neville to Neville is beyond me. Neville had good matches in NXT but in the WWE he's all spots and nothing else. Meaning you'll get sick of him. **

DEAN AMBROSE vs. LUKE HARPER "CHICAGO STREET FIGHT": They brawled backstage, got into a car, and drove away. After the tag team match they came back and used a bunch of steel chairs in the ring. I thought it'd be better. And why not show what they did on the streets of Chicago? *1/2

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. SHEAMUS "KISS MY ARSE": Sheamus lost but beat up Ziggler and forced him to kiss his ass. You know Vince "Kiss My Ass Club" McMahon came up with this stipulation. Surprisingly the post-match shenanigans were a hell of a lot more fun than the match itself. *1/2

THE NEW DAY vs. TYSON KIDD & CESARO: Good match. A lot of back-and-forth, non-stop action. The tag team division has produced some good matches in the last year. **1/2

JOHN CENA vs. RUSEV "RUSSIAN CHAIN MATCH": Ugh. What a dumb gimmick. Chained together at the wrist, they have to tag all four corners to win. Meaning...no rope running, no action, no excitement. And next month's "I Quit" match with these two means four straight ppv matches for them. Mercy! 1/2*

NIKKI BELLA vs. NAOMI: Okay. The women's division is a bore and needs all the help it can get...yet this was a stipulation-less match. Sigh. I didn't watch it.

 ROMAN REIGNS vs. THE BIG SHOW "LAST MAN STANDING": This was the match of the night. Really. No, I'm not joking. The reason was simple: they broke like seven tables. The finish had Big Show standing on top of the announce table. Roman lept up and speared him and they both crashed through the Spanish announce table. Then Roman flipped the announce table on top of The Big Show and won. Entertaining stuff. Albeit, this is what you have to do when you're not good wrestlers. **1/2

SETH ROLLINS vs. RANDY ORTON "CAGE MATCH": These two had a mediocre match at Wrestlemania so of course they get the coveted main event this month. Makes sense! Totally. With the title on the line it at least made things more suspenseful. And of course, J & J Security and Kane interfered and there was controversy (Rollins used the RKO to win but it was banned). The melee at the end was cool (and a WWE tradition these days in main events) but no one jumped off the cage. It was mediocre. **

WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXXI

From Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California

TYSON KIDD & CESARO vs. THE NEW DAY vs. LOS MATADORES vs. THE USOS: This year's Wrestlemania got good reviews across the board...but I'm not sure is says a lot when the best match of the entire show was the first one on the pre-show (and, really, since there were two matches on the pre-show and it started at 6 PM and the whole show ended at exactly 11 PM...that means it was five hours long and way too long). I can't even describe everything that happened in this match...only that everyone was all over the place and it was a fucking spectacle. It didn't have any drama in terms of meaningful titles or big stars or anything but in terms of wrestling this was the most exciting and entertaining match on the show. Really. ***1/2 (out of ****)

THE ANDRE THE GIANT MEMORIAL BATTLE ROYAL (THE BIG SHOW): This got good at the end when Mizdow turned on The Miz and tossed him out of the ring...leading to The Big Show eliminating him. Huh? The crowd loves Mizdow...so why not give him a fucking victory? Jesus. And, sadly, it only got worse because Triple H also won for no good reason. **1/2

DANIEL BRYAN vs. WADE BARRETT vs. R-TRUTH vs. DEAN AMBROSE vs. LUKE HARPER vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. STARDUST "LADDER MATCH": This was entertaining and had the right ending. There weren't a lot of crazy ladder moves but it was still thrilling. The big spot had Harper power-bombing Ambrose over the top-rope and onto a ladder bridge at ringside. The ladder cracked in half and Ambrose folded up like a pretzel and hit his head hard, so much so that he left the match (he did wrestle on RAW...so I guess he's okay). Bryan wins the IC title here. Last year he was in the main event winning the main title. Eh. Don't get me started. ***

RANDY ORTON vs. SETH ROLLINS: This was a basic match but the finish was amazing. Rollins went for the Curb Stomp and Orton lifted up his head which threw Rollins into the air and Orton got up and RKO'd him in mid-air then pinned him. A finish for the ages. Too bad the rest of the match wasn't as good. And Rollins, who lost, ended up the WWE Champion. Okay... **

TRIPLE H vs. STING: It wasn't all that great...until DX (Road Dogg, X-Pac, and Billy Gunn) came out. Then the NWO (Hogan, Hall, and Nash) came out. The two factions traded fake punches. HHH brought out a sledgehammer. Sting broke the hammer in two with his bat. HHH pinned Sting. Then they shook hands. This just reminded me of why CM Punk quit the company. If you remember, he quit after The Royal Rumble last year and apparently he was scheduled to face HHH at last year's Wrestlemania. HHH is obvious an ego-maniac. It seems like he always schedules himself to win or face opponents that are popular just, apparently, to make himself look better. So I guess it wasn't a surprise that he won here. It's just baffling. Sting might never wrestle again. So why not give him one last big moment? Jesus. **1/2

AJ LEE & PAIGE vs. THE BELLA TWINS: Fairly dull. The Diva's division is just a fucking quagmire of despair. It can't be hard. NXT and Impact figured it out. *

JOHN CENA vs. RUSEV: The entrance was cool...Rusev came out in a tank. The match? Not so cool. They had a better match last month. Cena wins the U.S. title. Groan. *1/2

THE ROCK & RONDA ROUSEY vs. TRIPLE H & STEPHANIE MCMAHON: This segment was cool but went on way too long. Like, forever. HHH and Steph came out for no good reason and then The Rock came out and started talking but mostly just paused to listen to the crowd. Then Stephanie said that The Rock would never hit a woman so The Rock went to ringside where UFC Women's Champion Ronda Rousey was standing. The Rock and Rousey entered the ring and eventually The Rock fake punched HHH and Rousey flipped HHH to the ground (takedown!) and Rousey put Steph in a lame arm bar and that was it. The Rock did do SNL on Saturday Night so perhaps he was jet-lagged. He didn't say a lot and the segment dragged but, yeah, it was cool to see Rousey there.

THE UNDERTAKER vs. BRAY WYATT: There were a lot of reasons why this match didn't work. The biggest was that The Streak is over. The other reason is that The Undertaker is too old to be doing this. Add Bray Wyatt, a mediocre wrestler, to the mix and you get a bad, boring, lame match. It wasn't awful. They did the usual kick-out-of-each other's-finishers ending which was the only time it was semi-watchable. And The Undertaker's entrance is always cool...but, yeah, it's time to retire, dude. *1/2

BROCK LESNAR vs. ROMAN REIGNS (vs. SETH ROLLINS): Reigns isn't a very good wrestler. This is fairly obvious to everyone since they didn't have him do a lot here. What we got was a 75% beat down by Brock followed by a miraculous comeback followed by a Seth Rollins MITB cash in and victory. This makes sense. If Brock won then there probably wouldn't be a PPV main event for the title until Summerslam. If Reigns won then who would he face next month for the title? Orton is a good guy and Rollins had the MITB contract so nothing would make sense. So the smart choice was to give Rollins the title and he'll probably feud with Reigns while Lesnar sits at home collecting money. For what it's worth, this was a very good main event at the end. The middle of it, a one-sided beat-down, was fairly dull but the wild finish was stellar and the opening minute brawl was fun. It's a little too bad Rollins cashed in because the back-and-forth drama at the end was pretty exciting stuff (there isn't anything quite like the final 5 minute flurry of a big title main event) and it would have been nice to see a clean finish. Good ending nonetheless, though. ***

WWE FASTLANE

Memphis

Wow. WWE's first ever Fastlane ppv. Hopefully it'll be the last. A bad, meaningless title. I miss the Elimination Chamber. And this show was on at the exact same time as the Oscar's. I guess they figure dumb wrestling fans don't watch the Oscar's. Either way, what I did was watch the first match live at 8 (the Oscar's, which turned out dreadfully dull, didn't start until 8:30). Then I watched the rest of the show Monday night (and of course I watched the main event first on Monday...it was the only match anyone cared about). It's 16 degrees right now. That has no correlation on anything...except perhaps an Inferno match would've spiced up this show...a bit?

SETH ROLLINS & KANE & THE BIG SHOW vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & ERICK ROWAN & RYBACK (13:01): Kind of just a same-old TV caliber match...except Orton returned post-match to chase Rollins out of the building. *1/2 (out of ****)

GOLDUST vs. STARDUST (8:55): The ref didn't even touch his hand to the mat for the "3" but it ended anyway. A botch? I'm not complaining...this match wasn't going anywhere. The crowd was lifeless for this, too, which didn't help. *1/2

THE USO'S vs. CESARO & TYSON KIDD (9:33): Cesaro has really been fucked over, eh? Remember when he was slowly becoming a big singles star? Jeez. I thought this would be better, as The Uso's at least usually entertain. It was just okay. And Cesaro just looks like he doesn't want to be there. *1/2

HHH & STING: A confrontation! And some fake punching and a Scorpion Death Drop. Sting is too old to still be wrestling. Someone tell him.

NIKKI BELLA vs. PAIGE (5:34): Paige is so gorgeous I'd rather just see her stand in the ring. This was another atrocious "Diva's" match. Why the WWE can't figure out how to make women's wrestling exciting outside of NXT is beyond me. 1/2*

BAD NEWS BARRETT vs. DEAN AMBROSE (7:58): Ambrose reminds of of vintage The Sandman. He's wild, loose, crazy. Sadly, he's stuck fighting boring Barrett. The end was a DQ because Ambrose kept punching Barrett in the corner. Huh? *1/2

BRAY WYATT: The Undertaker's robed figures with torches came out with a casket but Bray Wyatt was in it. Okay...

RUSEV vs. JOHN CENA (18:42): Good match. Rusev kicked Cena in the balls when the ref wasn't looking and it helped him win (Rusev is undefeated). What was good on this whole show was the matches were back and forth instead of the usual WWE protocol of having a beat down followed by a miraculous recovery. **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DANIEL BRYAN (20:10): Good match. Definitely Reigns' best singles match thus far. He still isn't there yet. Will he ever be? Bryan is on another level. He looked as good as he's ever looked. The crowd didn't boo Reigns as much but they still cheered more for Bryan. A Lesnar/Bryan match would be a masterpiece. I just hope we see it someday. The finish had Bryan ready to deliver his flying knee when Reigns speared him for the clean finish. **1/2

So Wrestlemania has:

Sting vs. HHH
Wyatt vs. Undertaker
Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler
Reigns vs. Lesnar
Orton vs. Rollins

Not a bad card, but not as good as it could be. Ziggler and Bryan should steal the show...albeit the match is meaningless. The Undertaker and Sting are too old to be wrestling so those matches won't work. Reigns/Lesnar will be obviously mediocre. And Orton/Rollins has dull written all over it.
I guess we'll see. Please surprise me.