NJPW WRESTLE GRAND SLAM

 

Tokyo Dome

RAMBO (CHASE OWENS) (35:36): This was a strange show. Originally, New Japan decided to have two shows in baseball stadiums in May for whatever reason. I'm guessing because they could only have 50% capacity because of the pandemic at the regular buildings they were using, their thinking was 50% at a huge building like the Tokyo Dome would mean a lot more people and thus more profit. Well both Grand Slam shows in May were cancelled thanks to the pandemic. Ospreay was supposed to defend his title against Okada at the Tokyo Dome which may have been the greatest wrestling match in the history of pro-wrestling. Ospreay got injured, relinquished his title, and now we're finally getting that Tokyo Dome show two months later (the outside baseball stadium show is now 2 shows and scheduled in September). Things didn't get better for this show, though. The main event was scheduled to be Shingo vs. Ibushi but Ibushi got pneumonia that at first was blamed on his Covid vaccine but then they said it had nothing to do with the vaccine. So the day of this show it was announced that Hiroshi Tanahashi would take his place. Tanahashi was just in the main event on the show yesterday against Kenta, so I'm sure he fucking loved being in another main event right away. The other weird thing about this show was that usually they build a big light stage above the ring and of course an entranceway. They didn't build either. There was no entranceway, the wrestlers just walked out of one of the entrances by the seats. They kept the bright house lights around the top of the Dome on which amplified the fact that there was a sea of empty seats. While they probably got 5 or 10 thousand people, it still looked like the Dome was maybe 80% empty. So the show looked bush league and that didn't help. It was also obviously quiet with all of the empty space, plus fans could only clap, which probably didn't help when Evil came out to beat up Shingo at the end of the show and the fans couldn't boo so the place was just a silent tomb. The first match on the show was the traditional Royal Rumble opener. This was for the King of Pro-Wrestling title, surely wrestling's stupidest title by far. Some of the wrestlers were thrown over the top rope to be eliminated and some, like Kenta and Honma, were handcuffed to the ropes to be eliminated. I guess this was a handcuff match? Who the fuck knows? The match had some big stars like Ishii, Goto, Master Wato, etc., but was a total fucking bore and way too long. Chase Owens won the title. 1/2*

EL PHANTASMO & TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & ROCKY ROMERO (20:56):

Phantasmo and Ishimori retrained the Jr. tag titles, titles I swear disappeared awhile ago. They used to be a big deal back in the day when The Time Splitters and The Young Bucks and Rappongi Vice used to always have great matches for them. I think even Sho and Yo broke up, so these titles are pretty meaningless these days (all four wrestlers in this match are singles wrestlers first and rarely tag team wrestlers). Phantasmo walked the ropes and did a moonsault off the top rope and over the guardrail onto everyone. That was pretty cool. This was a fairly basic, forgettable match, though. **

ROBBIE EAGLES vs. DESPERADO (19:56): Most of this show was a bore and a slog. I'm not sure if it was just the empty building and pandemic-tamed crowd or if the matches were just that dull. Robbie Eagles did win the Jr. title here which was kind of a surprise. Considering wrestlers coming into Japan have to quarantine for 2 weeks first, I'm guessing Eagles is sticking around for awhile since he won. Desperado worked on Eagles leg, which is just about the stupidest thing you can do in terms of entertainment in a high flying match. Um...the fans want to see top rope flips and dives...not a hobbled Eagles unable to walk. Eagles did a 450 splash onto Desperado's ankle. So eventually both guys worked on the other's leg...just double the stupidity. This was pretty monotonous. *1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. JEFF COBB (19:23): Okada won with a rollup schoolboy of all things. Jesus. Would it kill this company to give Jeff Cobb a push? Cobb looked good, although Okada kicked out of his finisher which kind of ruins it being a finisher. Okada had a good match with Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom, but lately his matches have been pretty slow and pretty dull. The final few minutes were kind of dramatic and entertaining, but a lot of this was pretty average. **

ZACK SABRE, JR. & TAICHI vs. TETSUYA NAITO & SANADA (37:58): This match was about the same length as the main event...yet during this match I actually wondered if they were going to do a 60 minute draw. That's how fucking boring this match was. Or maybe that's just how great the main event was (it wasn't that great, though). These two teams just wrestled for the titles two weeks ago and Naito and Sanada won the titles. That match was a yawn-inducing, sleep fest. This wasn't much better. Zack and Taichi won back the titles in this match, which kind of tells you how important and prominent the tag titles are. After twenty minutes of seemingly wrestling in slow motion they all decided to finally start wrestling at a faster clip. Unfortunately, they still had 20 more minutes and so they went back to going slow. There were also a lot of slips, botches, and sloppy maneuvers in this match. Why this match was almost 40 minutes boggles my mind. 1/2*

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (37:26): The best I can say about this match is that, unlike the previous match, it didn't feel like 37 minutes. The last ten minutes are so were fairly dramatic and there were a lot of suspenseful near falls. The early part was pretty boring, though, and this was not some epic, awesome, classic New Japan main event. I'm not sure even Ibushi and Shingo could have had a great match in this empty Dome with the house lights on but who knows? These two wrestled in January in a main event and Dave Meltzer gave that match 5 stars (on a 5 star scale...although ridiculously he sometimes gives matches 6 stars). I did watch that match but barely remember it, so I'm guessing I didn't think it was that great. Tanahashi can still get the crowd to wake up, as there were a few minutes when the zombie crowd woke up from their slumber. Tanahashi is great and knows what to do and when to do it...but he's obviously a hobbled, shell of his former, great self. So this was probably the best Tanahashi you're going to get these days. Shingo is usually brutal in his hard hitting elbows and clotheslines but he couldn't really do that to an old man so he didn't and the match suffered because of it. This was definitely the best match on the show but in all honesty it was pretty average stuff. **1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

Fort Worth, Texas

THE USO'S vs. DOMINIK & REY MYSTERIO (11:25): This was the first WWE PPV since Wrestlemania with a crowd, and unlike 'Mania, this was a sold out, packed house. That certainly helped, as the atmosphere was off the charts for the main event and the men's ladder match. It also helped that this was the best WWE PPV in years. One of the reasons was that there wasn't any filler; no lame, forgettable non-title matches. And Edge vs. Roman is a big time main event considering Edge rarely wrestles. Add that to the fact we got two ladder matches and this was a great show. Money in the Bank has always been my favorite WWE PPV every year, so I'm glad they picked this one to be the first one to get a packed house post-Covid (granted, Covid cases are sadly rising these days thanks to morons). This match was on the pre-show...and, seriously, this has to be the biggest pre-show match of all time, right? Usually they're something superfluous. The Uso's won the tag titles here in a fantastic match. It was non-stop action. The one ugly factor underneath the surface of this match, though, was that Jimmy Uso recently got arrest for a DUI...his third arrest in the last few years. Usually when something like that happens the person gets suspended or fired or sent to rehab. Nope. He gets rewarded by given the tag titles! Way to go, WWE. And it's not like we're talking one DUI. His second arrest he wasn't driving but was drunk and threatened the cop. Dude obviously needs help. It's kind of sad to see the WWE not doing anything about this. *** (out of ****)

NIKKI A.S.H. vs. ASUKA vs. NAOMI vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. LIV MORGAN vs. ZELINA VEGA vs. NATALYA vs. TAMINA "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (15:45): This was entertaining but not great or anything. The crowd roared for Alexa Bliss early for some reason. Then they cheered for Liv Morgan when she was climbing the ladder. When Nikki won they popped big. Alexa did two supernatural things during this match. The first was she raised her hand up to summon the briefcase down but was thwarted when someone just pushed her over. Then she hypnotized Zelina on the ladder to make Zelina go back down. If she has super powers...why isn't she powerful enough to just easily win the match? Not that I should even attempt to interject logic into Alexa Bliss' stupid gimmick. And where is Bray Wyatt, anyway? She stole his gimmick and now he's been absent since 'Mania. They did not do any crazy ladder bumps in this one. But it was decent. **1/2

AJ STYLES & OMOS vs. THE VIKING RAIDERS (12:55): The final five minutes or so of this were pretty entertaining. The one big, cool move was Omos tossing AJ over the top rope where he flew down onto one of the Raiders to give him a Hurricanrana on the floor. Omos picked up the fat Raider and slammed him which the crowd loved. AJ looked so good in this match it kind of made me sad that he's stuck in a tag team instead of wrestling in main event title matches. AJ and Omos retained the tag titles. This match was advertised a few weeks ago as being on RAW tomorrow night. I was shocked; they were actually advertising matches for RAW weeks ahead of time like AEW does. That sadly didn't happen and I'm not even sure why they changed it. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. KOFI KINGSTON (7:35): This was the one weird, bad match on the show. At first I thought this was going the Lesnar route. The big guy beats down the small, babyface forever and then the babyface makes a comeback and almost wins and the crowd goes ape shit and then the big guy wins. But no! The babyface never got a comeback. Lashley beat the shit out of Kofi and then pinned him. Jesus Christ. Talk about burying Kofi for the rest of time. This kind of baffled me. I guess their idea was to make Lashley out to be a monster, unbeatable heel like they did with Roman Reigns. This after Lashley lost to Xavier Woods on RAW Monday Night. But you can do that by giving Kofi something. Lashley is supposed to wrestle Goldberg at Summerslam. So they destroyed Kofi, a full time WWE employee, to make Goldberg, a once-in-a-blue-moon WWE employee, be the savior. Makes sense! -No Stars-

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. RHEA RIPLEY (16:50): I'm not a fan of Rhea Ripley. I think she always looks awkward in the ring and has no timing or dramatic flair. With that said, the final few minutes of this match were really good. The crowd got really into the near falls and late drama. Flair did a top rope DDT maneuver on Ripley and when Ripley kicked out the crowd jumped to their feet in shock. Flair won the title here which I think was kind of a bad move even though I dislike Ripley's wrestling ability. Flair seems to always be the champ and it's gotten kind of boring. **1/2

BIG E vs. RIDDLE vs. RICOCHET vs. JOHN MORRISON vs. DREW McINTYRE vs. KING NAKAMURA vs. SETH ROLLINS "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (17:40): This match was excellent. It was super entertaining. It was big moves after big moves and the crowd adored it and was in a mouth-frothing frenzy by the end. Early on I was remembering how awesome Ricochet was in that NXT ladder match a few years back when he fell off the ladder only to step on the top rope and then do a flip to the floor onto a bunch of wrestlers. Well he did that again here and it was just as awesome and the crowd went ape shit. Kevin Owens was power bombed over the top rope onto a ladder bridge which was the big, sickening move of the match. Riddle did a bunch of RKO's since he was supposedly taking Orton's spot (Orton is either sick or on vacation, who knows?). Morrison was the star for a lot of this match. He's been a star in a ton of ladder matches over the years, from ones in Impact to Lucha Underground. The one big move Morrison tried (a spinning 450 type of slam onto Owens on a ladder) missed, though. Nakamura didn't do much but the crowd loved when he did a top of the ladder, upside down, hanging armbar. Big E did a top of the ladder slam and then climbed up and won. Great match. ***1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. EDGE (33:10): The WWE rarely has a "big fight" feel to their main events...but they did tonight. The sold out crowd helped, but they've also done a great job at creating a serious, heel champion in Reigns. He's held the title since August and has beaten pretty much everyone. Maybe the WWE is finally learning how to write a long-term storyline? Took 'em long enough. The first half of this match was boring, though. The second half was great. Roman tried a spear and Edge moved and Roman went through the barricade. When he got up, Edge speared him through another barricade. They did the usual WWE hijinks, though, but I actually find the ref-bump-then-outside-interference to be entertaining, so I enjoyed it. The ref was knocked over. The Uso's came out. The Mysterio's beat up The Uso's. Roman broke apart a chair and was going to use one of the steel pieces of the chair. Edge ended up using it on Roman's mouth for a submission hold. Seth Rollins came in and kicked Edge. Eventually the ref woke up, Seth Rollins hit Edge when the ref wasn't looking and Roman ended up winning. The ending kind of sucked, and it made me actually want to see another Edge vs. Roman match with a better, more definitive ending, which they probably will do eventually (Roman is tentatively scheduled to face The Rock at next year's Wrestlemania...so Roman might be champ for a long time). Edge and Rollins battled to the back after the match. Then John Cena came out because he's wrestling Roman at Summerslam, although Cena didn't talk or even point to the title or anything so you wouldn't really have guessed that. So there was a lot going on in this and it made this show feel big time and important and exciting, qualities the WWE has been lacking for a very long time. Good show. I honestly can't even remember the last time the WWE main roster had a show this good. ***

WWE HELL IN A CELL

Tampa, Florida

NATALYA vs. MANDY ROSE (9:45): Mark Henry, who just joined AEW as an announcer, mentioned on some random podcast that he thinks that Vince is about to sell the WWE. His reasons include them selling the WWE Network to NBC/Universal/Comcast and their latest mass firings that included Aleister Black, Braun Strowman, Andrade (Andrade wasn't fired, he wanted to leave so they let him), Lana, The Iconics, Mickie James, and Ruby Riott. The only reason I'd think they weren't selling is because what the hell would Triple H do? Unless there's some stipulation that he stays. I think Stephanie and Shane would leave and Vince is probably ready to retire. Supposedly the WWE had their most profitable year ever last year. Would the company be better creatively if they were sold? Maybe. This show was actually pretty good, but it didn't have any super entertaining matches like New Japan or AEW has, nor has any storylines that are particularly good. And the WWE has had the problem for awhile of having a loaded roster with great wrestlers that they do nothing with. They've always been known to push and feature good looking people instead of talented people. Case in point: Mandy Rose. She's gorgeous but shouldn't be in a wrestling ring. This was a forgettable pre-show match. -No Stars-

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY "HELL IN A CELL" (19:45): Roman Reigns was supposed to defend his title against Mysterio in a Hell in a Cell match on this show. For unknown reasons, they had that match on Smackdown and Roman won. Then on RAW after this show they had Lashley fight Xavier Woods in a Hell in a Cell match. Was it just easier to set up on the cell and leave it there all weekend? Is that why they did it? Because Smackdown, RAW, and this PPV were all in the Yuengling Center in Tampa. Yep, they're still doing shows without fans in the Thunderdome (I guess the Mad Max guys never copyrighted that?). It's kind of weird seeing a PPV in front of no fans when every other sport has packed buildings in this country. But this is the last one, as the next PPV, Money in the Bank, is being held in Texas in a sold out arena. I am curious how the fans will react to a lot of this stuff. I'm certain they will cheer Roman Reigns even though he's a heel. And I bet they boo the hell out of Alexa Bliss and her unwatchable mess of a storyline. They did announce one match for MITB: Kofi Kingston vs. Lashley for the title. And Ricochet is in one of the ladder matches, which is the best idea the WWE has had all year. As for this match...it was entertaining, though nothing special. Belair retained the title. I've said this before, but Bayley as a heel has never worked. They also did a ton of spots where Bianca's hair was tied to things like a chair and the ropes. Bayley pulled out four Singapore canes taped together and did a bridge between the cell and ring and got power bombed onto them. That didn't even look like it hurt. They've really overdone the Hell in a Cell gimmick, haven't they? When was the last great one? I watched a Youtube video that the WWE put out of all the falls off of the cell over the years. They conspicuously didn't show the Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins fall off the cell, probably because Dean is in AEW. They did show when Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler fell off the side of the cell and down onto the announce tables. I don't even remember that match. Alas, no one fell off the cell or even went outside tonight. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. CESARO (16:15): This was the first of 3 Wrestlemania rematches. Unfortunately, none of them were as good as the ones at 'Mania. This was a good match but kind of basic. I'm not even sure why they're wrestling. And it seemed like they built up Cesaro and he had that great match at Backlash against Reigns and now he's just losing to Rollins in a meaningless, mid card match. If it was up to me I'd have Cesaro win the title at Summerslam, which is happening at the new football stadium in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, John Cena is supposed to face Reigns for the title there. And you know he's not winning because he probably has a movie to shoot afterwards. **

ALEXA BLISS vs. SHAYNA BASZLER (7:00): What happened to Bray Wyatt? He was burned to death then returned and lost at Wrestlemania then disappeared. Alexa Bliss is still weirdly doing her evil-magical-powers gimmick, though, even without Bray around. Alexa controlled Nia Jax telepathically during this match; she made her slap Reginald and then scream. Okay. If Alexa has powers like that, why didn't she just make Shayna lay down and she could pin her? Granted, this gimmick has no logic. They even did a lame segment on RAW a few weeks ago that was reminiscent of Hogan/Warrior back in WCW when Hogan saw Warrior in a mirror. Well this time Shayna was running away from Alexa backstage and she saw Alexa in a mirror. Do they not realize that the Hogan/Warrior stuff in WCW was some of the worst shit ever done in pro-wrestling? I remember Dave Meltzer gave that Hogan/Warrior match a bunch of negative stars. I'm not sure I ever even saw it. What was I doing then? I guess not watching wrestling...I had better things to do. Maybe I should return to doing that. -No Stars-

SAMI ZAYN vs. KEVIN OWENS (12:40): I've said it before, but these two should just wrestle each other on every show until the end of time. They have so much chemistry together and do so many devastating, brutal moves to one another that their matches are always great. This one was good but too short and just as pointless as their 'Mania match. Just once I'd love to see these two wrestle for a title in a main event. Owens looked like he injured his shoulder in this match. He was also acting like he couldn't breathe because someone hit him in the neck on Smackdown and he had to play into the storyline of that. Owens did a Swanton off the apron to Zayn on the floor. They beat the hell out of each other and Zayn had a bloody mouth by the end. I'm kind of shocked that Zayn wasn't fired during the purge but then again Vince probably cracks up at his stupid conspiracy theory gimmick he's doing these days. **1/2

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. RHEA RIPLEY (14:10): This wasn't very good because Rhea isn't a good wrestler and the end was a DQ when Rhea hit Charlotte with the top cover part of the announce table to retain her title. I think they did the DQ because Charlotte is one of their big stars and thus they didn't want her to be pinned. Rhea definitely looks the part of a champion. She's tall and has the Undertaker biker look. But, man, she is just a monotonous mess in the ring. She's not exciting or entertaining. *

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. DREW McINTYRE "HELL IN A CELL" (25:45): This was a pretty good match. I was kind of surprised that Lashley won and retained the title. This means that McIntyre can never challenge Lashley for the title again. I suppose that doesn't matter, as I'm guessing he'll lose the title at Summerslam to somebody. They did a lot with the ring steps. McIntyre slammed Lashley onto them. Lashley then smashed them against McIntyre's head and into the cell. McIntyre's back was all scarred up from hitting the cell. McIntyre lost a MITB qualifying match on RAW to Riddle, so maybe he's in the dog house. It seems like Lashley has gotten better in the ring lately, which is kind of a surprise since he's in his 40's now. Hey, he figured it out. Good for him. **1/2

NXT TAKEOVER: IN YOUR HOUSE

 

Orlando

BRONSON REED & MSK vs. LEGAO DEL FANTASMA (13:40): This was kind of a strange match because the North American title and the tag team titles were on the line. The reason they did this was probably because instead of having Bronson Reed face Santana Escobar for the North American title and thus having 6 matches on the show instead of the usual 5, they just threw them into this match. The problem was that with two guys in this not used to wrestling in tag team matches a lot of it was a little sloppy and a little off. They definitely could have had a 6th match on this show, though, as it was pretty short and a lot of good wrestlers like Ciampa, Kushida, and Finn Balor weren't even on the show. This match was entertaining though nothing great. They did one spot where everyone did a dive over the ropes onto the floor leading to the fat man, Bronson Reed, diving through the ropes onto everyone. This was by far the worst Takeover I've ever seen (there was at least one audience-less Takeover during the pandemic that I didn't bother to watch). I think NXT has suffered in quality ever since they started doing their 2 hour live show to compete against AEW Dynamite. They're kind of in the same boat that the WWE is in with having too much programming now instead of building up Takeover shows with huge matches. Now a lot of those huge matches are just on their weekly TV show, like Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross for the title that was on a month or so ago. **

XIA LU vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ (7:40): This was terribly boring. Xia Lu was given this super racist samurai gimmick that is just cringe inducing. She came out with a straw hat on and wielding a sword. They really didn't do much in this match besides present a stale, basic, wrestling match that the fairly dead crowd didn't give a shit about. -No Stars-

LA KNIGHT vs. CAMERON GRIMES "LADDER MATCH" (19:30): This was the best match on the show and that isn't really saying a lot. Ted Dibiase was sitting at ringside because above the ladder was the Million Dollar belt. They even had one ladder that was gold. They did some brutal ladder spots. The big finale had Grimes falling off the big ladder onto a ladder bridge on the entrance ramp. Knight was tossed over the top rope onto a ladder bridge at ringside. Grimes is amusing whereas Knight seems to just be a forgettable, muscled heel. This at least held my interest. **1/2

RAQUEL GONZALEZ vs. EMBER MOON (12:40): It probably doesn't help that the two big NXT champions are not exciting or good wrestlers. Gonzalez and Kross are champs because they're big and tall. I can't really see any other reason. During the match, Moon's friend/partner, Shotzi Blackheart ran out to beat up Gonzalez's friend/partner, Dakota Kai. Those two are so much more exciting and entertaining in the ring that I was wishing I was just watching them wrestle instead. There was literally nothing memorable about this match besides the outside interference spots with Shotzi and Dakota. 1/2*

KARRION KROSS vs. PETE DUNNE vs. JOHNNY GARGANO vs. ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O'REILLY (26:15): Everyone on the internet didn't like the idea of this match but I thought it would be great. Four of these wrestlers are awesome and some of the best wrestlers in the world. The internet was right, though, as this didn't turn out that great. The problem a lot of people had was that it felt like by having a 5 way for the title it meant that NXT was just out of ideas and not even trying. The real problem turned out to be having 5 guys in the ring just didn't work at all. There were a lot of moves but no cohesion, no built up drama. There couldn't be, as it was just a mess of guys all over the place. Even the guys that laid out this match know that Kross sucks because twice he was taken out leaving the other 4 to wrestle each other. Kross was thrown through the door that was part of the entrance set and then onto the announce table later on. Kross ended up winning by choking out O'Reilly. This wasn't a bad match, it just felt like more a TV main event type of thing than a big PPV main event. Having a singles match wouldn't have been any better, though, because Kross isn't a very good wrestler and his matches are usually boring. Vince will fucking love him and push him to the moon on the main roster, though, simply because he's big and tall and has muscles. In a perfect world he'll go to RAW tomorrow night and maybe just lose the NXT title in one last match down the road and leave NXT forever. **

NJPW DOMINION

Osaka

BULLET CLUB (CHASE OWENS, EL PHANTASMO, EVIL, TAIJI ISHIMORI & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI) vs. CHAOS (HIROOKI GOTO, SHO, TOMOHIRO ISHII & YOSHI HASHI) & HIROSHI TANAHASHI (11:50): This show, like last year's Dominion, was kind of thrown together at the last second. Usually it's there 2nd biggest show of the year, and they tried, but it ended up being fairly underwhelming but not entirely their fault given the circumstances. Japan is mostly shut down because of Covid-19. NJPW was supposed to have two stadium shows in May that were cancelled; one at the Yokohama baseball stadium and one at the Tokyo Dome. Japan instituted a month long closure of most things and I guess some things are starting to open up there again since this did have fans in the building, albeit socially distant, masked, and they weren't allowed to cheer or boo, just clap. While the May shutdown was in affect, Will Ospreay relinquished the title because of a neck injury. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Ospreay vs. Okada for the title was supposed to the Tokyo Dome main event at the end of May. It also didn't help that a bunch of wrestlers like El Desperado and Okada got Covid-19. They wrestled on this show so they've recovered. Amidst all of the doom and gloom they had a major show to put on. It was supposed to be on Sunday but Osaka recommended that nothing go on during weekends for whatever reason so they moved the show to Monday. It's kind of hard to fathom that this country is supposed to have the Olympics next month. But this show proved that a show can still go on. It only had 5 matches and of course they had to have some typical, superfluous New Japan multi-man tag matches like this one. This match was entertaining and had a ton of action, though, which was good. By the end there were different wrestlers just jumping in and out of the ring and delivering big moves back and forth at a frenetic pace. The Bullet Club beat up all the good guys after the match and left them lying around the ring. **1/2

LOS IGNOBERABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, SANADA & TETSUYA NAITO) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (DOUKI, TAICHI & ZACK SABRE, JR.) (11:31): This was okay and fairly forgettable. It did set up a Dangerous Trekkers (Taichi & Sabre) vs. Naito & Sanada tag team title match down the road. That should be a lot of fun. Douki did a through the ropes dive. Zack Sabre was pinned and then was angry so he pinned the ref and told his partners to count. **

EL DESPERADO vs. YOH (23:40): This match, for El Desperado's IWGP Jr. title, was supposed to happen in April but El Desperado and a bunch of others in the company got Covid-19. These two definitely worked hard but the match was probably a bit too long and this deadly silent crowd did not help this match at all. Desperado had a fantastic match against Hiromu last year where he took his mask off. Not only did everyone see his face but the announcers said his name. Why he's back wrestling with a mask is beyond me. It reminds me of how Rey Mysterio lost his mask twenty years ago but these days still wears it. The whole juniors division in New Japan just hasn't been the same since all the greats like The Young Bucks, Kushida, Ricochet, and Rappongi Vice left. **

KOTA IBUSHI vs. JEFF COBB (14:54): This was a really good match and the best match on the show. Ibushi has said that he was injured on Night #1 of Wrestle Kingdom and that's why eventually he lost the title to Ospreay. For whatever it's worth, Ibushi looked better here than he has all year and was doing a lot of top rope high flying that he hadn't been doing recently. He did a top rope moonsault to the floor and a top rope Hurricanrana. Cobb was great as usual. These two definitely have good chemistry together, and this was better than their match in the G1 last year. They did a ton of near falls here and Cobb did Ibushi's patented knee to the face that shocked the announcers. Why is it such a big deal when wrestlers do their opponent's finisher? It happened in the main event when Shingo gave Okada a Rainmaker and the announcers were shouting like they just saw Bigfoot. ***

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (36:00): I guess I'm in the minority, since everyone seemed to love this match. I thought this was boring. They definitely did everything they both usually do. Shingo's elbows to Okada's head, though, seemed kind of tamer than usual, maybe because Okada's recovering from Covid-19. And the high drama that's usually the reason New Japan main event title matches are so great was absent here. I'm guessing because the sparse, only clapping crowd was fairly quiet. Maybe I'm just spoiled because AEW just had a PPV in front of a packed, rowdy, ferocious crowd that made pedestrian matches seem like matches of the year. This was for the IWGP championship that Ospreay relinquished. New Japan just randomly put two guys into this match for the title. No tournament, no reasoning. I guess because Shingo lost to Ospreay so he was the #2 contender and Okada beat Ospreay at the Dome in January. Shingo winning the title is great as he's awesome, but it felt like his win was a bit superfluous since he didn't beat the champion and won in a quiet building on a Monday. It also doesn't help that since last July, Evil, Naito, Ibushi, Ospreay, and now Shingo have been champ. They're kind of making the title meaningless these days. There wasn't much that was memorable about this match. Okada did his patented dropkick. Okada applied his sleeper hold twice. Shingo did a Rainmaker that shocked the announcers. The near falls were never that exciting because did it really even matter who won this match? It was just kind of handing them the belt for no reason. There was some action by the end but it never built to anything super exciting. I was pretty disappointed in this match. **

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

 Jacksonville

SERENA DEEB vs. RIHO (14:05): I remember reviewing AEW's first PPV, Double or Nothing, and mentioning that it was a great show mostly because of the "crowd for the ages." Well at least for half of this PPV, this was once again a crowd for the ages. The reason is that this was the first AEW show with a full house since the pandemic started. And this loud, raucous crowd definitely sounded like they'd been cooped up in the house for a year. Some noted that this match was the best pre-show match they'd ever seen and pretty much everyone raved about it. It was mostly a basic match but the crowd was so loud and it was such a party atmosphere that it elevated this match. Deeb retained the NWA women's title...and no, I have no idea why the NWA champion is on this show. Riho was in Japan during most of the pandemic so it was nice to see her back because the crowds love her and she's super entertaining to watch. **1/2 (out of ****)

ADAM PAGE vs. BRIAN CAGE (12:00): This was two guys just beating the shit out of each other, which is a good thing. When Taz's crew came out to help Cage win he waved them off but ended up losing. I'm guessing Cage will turn into a good guy and feud with Taz's stable. Unfortunately, when Taz's stable comes on TV I want to change the channel. I think one flaw with AEW is that there are way too many groups. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. JON MOXLEY & EDDIE KINGSTON (21:00): This was fantastic. Of course it was, though, because the Bucks always deliver on PPV. The insane crowd definitely helped. The Bucks are heels now, so they did a bunch of heel things like use a hairspray can to spray Moxley in the eyes. The Bucks also did a bunch of other wrestler's moves like Hogan's leg drop and Roman Reign's "ooh-ahh" spear. By the end of this, the Bucks just destroyed Moxley and Kingston. They gave them multiple face kicks and finally did four double knees to the head on Moxley for the win. This was super entertaining and wild and a hell of a lot of fun. ***1/2

CASINO BATTLE ROYALE (JUNGLE BOY) (23:30): The boisterous crowd peaked when Jungle Boy won this battle royale. It was more or less a typical battle royale; entertaining, mostly forgettable. Lio Rush was the surprise entrant here, and he looked amazing and the crowd ate up everything he did. The final two were Christian and Jungle Boy. The crowd reached a fever pitch during this and popped like they'd just won the lottery when Jungle Boy won. Jungle Boy stood on the second rope to bask in the adoration and Marko Stunt ran out and hugged him and it was awesome. **1/2

CODY RHODES vs. ANTHONY OGOGO (10:55): It was kind of obvious that the party atmosphere would diminish and the crowd would get tired. These AEW PPV's are long, at four hours, and so the crowd was quiet during this match. It didn't help that this was a bore. Anthony Ogogo was apparently a boxer in the Olympics. I'm not sure why he never went pro. He hasn't wrestled much, so he didn't exactly blow the doors off the place. Cody won. Yawn. 1/2*

MIRO vs. LANCE ARCHER (9:50): This definitely did remind me of a Lance Archer G1 match, as the Wrestling Observer reviewer noted. It was two big guys slugging it out and delivering back and forth power moves. Miro won with his submission hold to retain the TNT title. They might have to change that name, as come next year Dynamite is moving to TBS. **1/2

BRITT BAKER vs. HIKARU SHIDA (17:20): The crowd got back into the show big time to root on Britt Baker late in this match. This was just an okay match, as neither is all that exciting in the ring for whatever reason. The last few minutes were great, though, as the crowd cheered everything Baker did and roared with approval when Shida tapped out to her mouth claw submission. Baker won the title and when she was walking to the back, Tony Schiavone left the announce table and walked over and gave her a hug and whispered something in her ear. That was such a touching moment. You can tell a company is doing something right when you well up with tears of joy when someone wins a title. **

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. ETHAN PAGE & SCORPIO SKY (12:30): The crowd was also very loud when Sting did anything in this match. Shockingly, Sting even did a stage dive off the poker chips onto Page and Sky. That was insane. Sting is in his 60's. So while there wasn't really much to this match, hearing the crowd pop for Sting and Sting doing all of his trademark moves was fun to see. **1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. PAC vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (27:00): Early on I was like, man, I thought this match would be better. But by the end of this, when all three were just back and forth delivering devastating maneuvers to one another and every near fall got massive gasps from the audience, this turned into a phenomenal match. I would have rather seen a Pac/Omega singles match...but the reason they shoehorned Cassidy into this match is because he's a crowd favorite and they knew with a full house it would be better with him in it. There were so many great near falls in this match. And the last ten minutes were just non-stop, crazy action. The big problem with this match is that they really played out Omega being a heel. Don Callis pulled the ref out of the ring when Cassidy was about to win. Omega knocked out the ref. Omega hit PAC with all of his belts when the ref was out. After Cassidy almost won, Omega reversed it and pinned him with a quick small package. So the end was a bit anticlimactic...but this match was awesome and by far the best AEW championship PPV match so far. ***1/2

THE INNER CIRCLE vs. THE PINNACLE "STADIUM STAMPEDE" (31:30): When they announced that this match was going to be another Stadium Stampede match...I was a little surprised. The whole reason they did this last year is because Double or Nothing had zero fans in the building and they needed something special to close the show. Why would they go and have a match in an empty football arena when they have a packed crowd in Daily's Place? Well my fears were right. The match didn't really work, although they did go to Daily's Place at the end and Samy Guevera pinned Shawn Spears in the ring in Daily's Place. There were some entertaining things in this match, but most of it was kind of boring. When MJF and Jericho were brawling in the football offices, they came across new Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer. He handed Jericho a laptop to hit MJF with. Then, when Jericho threw MJF through a table, Urban Meyer said, "Holy shit." That was amusing. FTR and Ortiz and Santana battled in a backstage club where Konan was the DJ. Wardlow and Jake Hager brawled backstage in a kitchen area and meat freezer. Samy and Spears battled in a room filled with chairs. Spears ran for his life from motorcycles and a golf cart. The Inner Circle also made their entrance by repelling down the scoreboard. They mostly didn't even fight on the football field, it was mainly backstage stuff. Eventually, Jericho and MJF ended up in the upper deck of Daily's Place where Jericho put a bloody MJF through a table. Samy and Spears wrestled in the ring at Daily's Place for awhile until Samy pinned him and The Inner Circle won. Then the IC got in the ring and the whole crowd sang Jericho's theme song together and it was a great way to end the show. ** 

WRESTLEMANIA BACKLASH

Tampa

SHEAMUS vs. RICOCHET (7:10): A couple years ago, Ricochet faced Will Ospreay in the NJPW Super Jr.'s tournament. The match was basically just a bunch of gymnastic flips and was awesome to some of us and shockingly obtuse to some old school fans. I was thinking of that match because those were two exciting up and comers and everyone was talking about them and you thought they'd end up huge, popular stars eventually. Will Ospreay is the New Japan champion and just had the match of the year in the main event of Dontakau night 2 against Shingo Takagi. It was a 45 minute epic and Ospreay is pretty much undoubtedly the best wrestler in the world. So what happened to the other dude that was in that memorable BOSJ match? Well...Ricochet is losing to Sheamus on the pre-show of a random WWE PPV. It's kind of sad, really, because Ricochet was just as good as Ospreay on the night back then. The WWE hasn't done anything with Ricochet. Why they haven't is one of the world's great mysteries. Another sad fact is that Ricochet is still exciting and still does most of his high flying acrobatics. Ospreay of course learned over the years to add to his arsenal by competing with the world's best and given the opportunities to thrive and grow and learn. This was actually a good match, although forgotten, forgettable. I'll never forgive the WWE for chewing up and spitting out Ricochet like he's day old meat. **1/2

RHEA RIPLEY vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. ASUKA (15:20): Charlotte wasn't at Wrestlemania. She was taken off TV supposedly because a doctor thought she was pregnant (she wasn't). Then she might have had the corona virus. I think she was just sidelined because her husband (Andrade) asked for his WWE release and got it and they wanted to secretly punish her. Either way, she's back. Not wrestling at Wrestlemania probably isn't a big deal for her because she's one of the few WWE wrestlers that make over a million bucks a year. With Flair gone they gave Rhea Ripley the title at 'Mania. Rhea Ripley has the look of a star (she's tall, menacing, fierce) but she's a dull wrestler and it's kind of hard to tell if she's supposed to be a heel or a face. They seemed to make this a three way so Charlotte could lose without getting pinned. That ended up not really making sense since on RAW the next night, Asuka pinned Charlotte in a singles match. Baffling! But that's par for the course in the WWE. Nothing ultimately makes sense. Did I mention yet that this show had a match with zombies? Jesus, that should have been the first thing I wrote about this show. This was a good match but fairly pedestrian. The show was actually a pretty good one, at least for WWE standards. Charlotte did her top rope moonsault. Ripley pinned Asuka. Typical fare. **1/2

REY MYSTERIO & DOMINIK MYSTERIO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & ROBERT ROODE (17:00):

This match only went 17 minutes but it felt like it went 30. That's never a good thing. Dominik was beat up backstage earlier in the show so Rey went out to do the match himself. Of course a crippled, hobbling Dominik came out eventually and they ended up winning the tag titles. The early part of this match when just Rey was there was exciting. Then by the end there was some drama...but in between this just seemed to go on for ages and ages. Rey Mysterio has to be the last of the Monday Night War wrestlers still around and wrestling, isn't he? It's shocking since he's still actually a really good wrestler. I remember he faced Psychosis in ECW and they were body slamming each other on cars in the ECW Arena parking lot back in the mid 90's. How old is this dude? Like 50? **

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. THE MIZ "ZOMBIE LUMBERJACK MATCH" (7:00): Well this match will go down in the history books as one of the stupidest things the WWE has ever done. And that's saying something. This was a lumberjack match...but the lumberjacks were zombies. They didn't even mention this before the PPV. The reason they did this was to promote the Netflix zombie movie that has Dave Batista in it, Army of the Dead. The huge problem is that they did the match like the zombies were actually real zombies. So when The Miz lost, the zombies came in and attacked him, presumably eating him and killing him. So he's dead. Or a zombie. Who in the WWE thought that this was a good idea? Yes, we know wrestling is fake, but there's a limit. The WWE seems to forget this by burning The Fiend to death, having Braun Strowman be tossed off a building to his death, Sami Zayn crushed to death in a trash compactor. It's ridiculous. How can you take anything serious when zombies are killing off wrestlers who just show up the next night perfectly fine? They might have been able to salvage this if they played it off as a joke and the announcers had a good time with it. Maybe. But they played it off as it being a serious match with real zombies. What the fuck? I can't believe I actually watch this shit. -No Stars-

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY (16:05): I mentioned that I didn't think Bianca Belair was that good of a wrestler...and then she had a great match with Sasha at 'Mania. Sasha is awesome, though, so that probably helped. This match was a bore. Bayley as a heel has never worked. Eh. *

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. BRAUN STROWMAN vs. DREW McINTYRE (14:15): This match was fantastic. It was all big moves, all action. They broke the announce table. Lashley retained the title by pinning Braun. ***

ROMAN REIGNS vs. CESARO (27:35): This match was exactly what I've always wanted from a WWE PPV main event and never get. A championship match. No gimmicks. No ref bumps. No outside interference. A long match. Near falls. Drama. Why do they never do this? Because it was great. The only thing that could have made this better is if Cesaro won and there were fans in the building to cheer his win. After Vince told 'Stone Cold' on that podcast that Cesaro just doesn't have "it"...the boy is finally wrestling for the title. It's kind of crazy that this happened. After Vince said that a few years ago, I'm surprised Cesaro didn't quit. Cesaro has always been one of the WWE's better wrestlers, it's just too bad it took them this long to realize that. Remember that great Sami Zayn/Cesaro match on the first NXT Takeover show? That was 7 or 8 years ago and was probably the last time Cesaro was in a big singles match and given the time to breath and show his strengths. The best thing they did was to give Cesaro multiple moments of near-winning which heightened the drama. It seems like most Roman Reigns matches these days use the Brock Lesnar playbook: beatdown, short failed comeback by loser babyface, more beatdown and victory. But this match was more 50/50, which was great. After the match, Jey Uso came out to beat up Cesaro which ruined everything the match had achieved. So at least for one night, the WWE delivered a NJPW-esque main event. Which was shocking...and spectacular. ***