NJPW DOMINION

Osaka
attendance: 11,832 (sold out)

EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. ROPPONGI 3K (9:29): The Suzuki Gun team retained the Jr. tag titles in this short opening bout. Because the main event went a little over an hour, most of the undercard was kept short. This meant that this wasn't any good. Roppongi did a double over-the-top-rope running flip dive to the floor which was cool. And while I think Desperado sucks, I am looking forward to his mask vs. mask match against Dragon Lee. The problem is that it's pointless, as his mask was pulled and ripped and eventually fell off when he wrestled Lee in the Super Jr.'s tournament last week. His hair was in his face so the view of his ugly mug was somewhat obstructed. **

JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY vs. JAY WHITE & YOSHI-HASHI (7:26): Man, has Jay White disappointed since he returned as "Switchblade," the character one reviewer noted looked unfortunately like a school shooter. This was fine. **

MINORU SUZUKI & ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII & TORU YANO (8:42): When Ishii and Suzuki faced off it was solid gold. The rest was not so much. **1/2

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. TAICHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO (13:46): Taichi looks like an actor playing The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I guess he's supposed to, as he comes out with a mask and lip singing into an unplugged microphone. At least he didn't win. Elgin won Goto's NEVER title. A title that literally means we hope we NEVER see it again. But this was good, as most triple threat matches are. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. EVIL & SANADA (15:03): The Bucks moved up to win the heavyweight tag titles here in their first time trying. The usual ROH fun/silly Bucks were held in check...which meant this was less entertaining than usual. **1/2

CODY, MARTY SCURLL & HANGMAN PAGE vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI, JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & REY MYSTERIO, JR. (11:35): Mysterio looked good even though I don't know why he was here. He's one of the last dudes still wrestling that was around during the Monday Night Wars. Which means he's, like, what, a hundred years old? This was fun. **1/2

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. WILL OSPREAY (20:20): Good, alas, not great. The problem is probably that these two had better matches during the Super Jr.'s tournament which just ended on Monday (this show was on Saturday). Takahashi had to wrestle Kushida on Sunday and then won the tournament on Monday by beating Ishimori. And Ospreay had a hell of match against Flip Gordon on Sunday. So they were probably spent. There match in February was better. This was still good, though. Ospreay did a wild running dive off the stage. And the usual slamming each other sickeningly on their heads occurred. Takahashi won the Jr. title. ***

CHRIS JERICHO vs. TETSUYA NAITO (17:16): This was a wild brawl. They both delivered piledrivers on a ringside announce table that didn't break. Jericho slammed Naito through a table that did break. Jericho was a bit fat and got tired early but he still won the Intercontinental title after he kicked Naito in the balls. I enjoyed this more than Omega/Jericho for some reason. **1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (1:04:50): After each fall there was a two minute time out. So that means that the match went around an hour and nine minutes total with the time outs. Which they had to do, as last year at Dominion they went an hour. As for pure wrestling and spots and everything, it was about as good as their last three. But for drama and payoff, this was certainly their masterpiece. When Omega pinned Okada to win the title finally after an hour after delivering the One Winged Angel, it culminated a two year story line. Okada beat Naito at Dominion two years ago to win the title. That's an 870 day reign, folks. Omega won the G1 two years ago to set up his first title match with Okada at Wrestle Kingdom. He lost, then they had the 60 minute draw. Then Omega beat Okada in the G1. And now this. They were 1-1-1 and now Omega finally wins the title, is up 2-1-1, and Okada's legendary reign is over. Fucking dramatic, right? And to finally win the title for the first time after an hour+ long match. It seemed like he'd never win. After losing a 47 minute match, going to a 60 minute draw, winning a title-less G1 match, then losing the first fall here and then finally, after both men were so spent that a Rainmaker did nothing and Omega still stood, he won, he fucking won. Wow. This was something, so much so that most fans raved that it was the best match they'd ever seen (they seem to do this after every Okada/Omega match). Epic and awesome. Now bring on the Naito/Omega WK main event, please. ****

WWE BACKLASH

Newark, NJ

RUBY RIOT vs. BAYLEY (10:10): Remember when Bayley was in good matches and cheered and a star? It seems like that completely vanished once she got called up from NXT. Is it that NXT has loud, hardcore, voracious fans? Or do they just have better writers? Probably all of the above, as Bayley has floundered meaninglessly for a long time and now she's losing to a nobody on the pre-show. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. THE MIZ (20:30): Good match. And not only that, this was light years better than anything else on the show. It was the lone bright spot in a sea of troubles. The problem was that this for RAW's IC title that Rollins has and The Miz was drafted to Smackdown. Smackdown already has the U.S. title so we all knew The Miz wasn't winning. Rollins has been on fire ever since that epic Gauntlet match on RAW before Wrestlemania. There were a ton of near falls (Rollins kicked out of The Miz's finisher twice which was stupid and what's the point of calling it a finisher again?) and the crowd was super hot. ***

NIA JAX vs. ALEXA BLISS (10:20): Ugh. Jax is a boring dinosaur and Bliss just isn't entertaining in the ring. This show pretty much destroyed women's wrestling tonight. Congrats. Jax retained the RAW women's title. 1/2*

JEFF HARDY vs. RANDY ORTON (12:00): So is it 2018 or 2008? Orton and Jeff Hardy would have (and probably did) head lined a show ten or fifteen years ago. Now they're legacy wrestlers, doing their moves and getting scattered pops amidst dull matches. Hardy retained the U.S. title. *

DANIEL BRYAN vs. BIG CASS (7:45): So let's bring back superstar Daniel Bryan to in-ring competition after three years...to feud with Big Cass. Jesus Christ. They've already pretty much killed any momentum he had. And since he's known to get hurt, why not just pull a Lesnar and only have him fight big names on big shows that matter? What the fuck was this? Cass belongs on WWE Main Event, not feuding with one of the companies best wrestlers. *

CARMELLA vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR (10:10): Carmella's cute, sure, and could be a fun manager...but Vince don't do managers so we're stuck watching her wrestle. She's the champ because of the Money in the Bank contract and won here in a roll-up. This was so atrociously bad it wasn't funny. And yet it was still better than Jax/Bliss. 1/2*

AJ STYLES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (21:05): So this ended in a double count-out when both men kicked each other in the balls and couldn't get up at the ref's 10 count. I laughed out loud at how stupid this ending was. It has to be the dumbest ending to a match ever. And they did a double count out last week in Saudi Arabia. What this match did prove was that after seeing them wrestle three times in a month...the magic is gone from their NJPW match. It wasn't bad but it just never turned into anything great. And with that bad ending it only made this a bitter pill to gulp down. **

BRAUN STROWMAN & BOBBY LASHLEY vs. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN (8:40): This was short, pointless, and lame. The big dudes won and did a basic beat down. Owens and Zayn came across as chumps not stars. Lashley is a sloppy as a mud pie. I give up. 1/2*

ROMAN REIGNS vs. SAMOA JOE (18:10): I'm not sure why, but this show was really fucking long. This main event didn't start until 11:05 PM. You can say it's because this was a multi-brand show so they had to show everyone, but there were no tag team title matches nor a 205Live match. Lesnar, the RAW champ, didn't defend, either. I was super happy when they decided to get rid of the Smackdown and RAW only ppv's but now I'm questioning that assessment. This match was totally pointless since Joe is now on Smackdown and Roman is a) on RAW and b) a booed loser. This wasn't even for a title. This late the crowd was tired. The match was boring. This show was just awful. Joe put Roman through a table before the bell rang and that was about the pinnacle of watchability for this. *1/2

WWE GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

JOHN CENA vs. HHH (15:45): So apparently the WWE got a ton of cash to do this show. That's why this had a Wrestlemania worthy card in the middle of the desert that started at 12 noon on a Friday in Philadelphia. It was at a soccer stadium that fit 60,000 and was somewhat filled (the giant stage took up 1/4 of the place and they only had seating for 1/2 of the floor if that). Saudi Arabia of course is a backwards, religious country that isn't too far apart from Nazi Germany. They treat women like property and slaves, made homosexuality a crime that can get the death penalty, carry out public beheadings, etc. I could go on about how awful this place is. Just in terms of this show, women weren't allowed to wrestle. When they showed a WWE commercial on the big screen that happened to show some of the women wrestlers the country had to later put out an apology. Single men that got tickets had to sit in the nosebleed seats in a special section. Single women weren't allowed. The best seats were reserved for families and the Saudi royal family. So this was like watching the Olympics in Germany when Hitler was the leader. But money talks. And hell, the U.S. politicians still do deals and meet with the Saudi leaders so it's not like the WWE is doing anything shocking. Still, it's tough to support a regime that lives in cave man times. I watched it. I'm part of the problem, I suppose. And this first match set the stage for what was to come; a glorified house show. Sure, these two are stars and did all of their big moves. But it was flat and they didn't go for the home run. 1/2*

CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. KALISTO (10:15): Decent match. Kalisto is great. He did a bunch of crazy moves, like bouncing off the top rope into a Spanish Fly. Cedric retained the 205Live title. **1/2

BRAY WYATT & MATT HARDY vs. CESARO & SHEAMUS (8:50): The Broken...er, Woken Brothers won the tag titles in a bore. 1/2*

JEFF HARDY vs. JINDER MAHAL (6:10): Hardy retained the U.S. title. He did a flip off of the top rope and completely missed Jinder but Jinder saw this and then still fell over. Ugh. Even the announcers failed at trying to cover for him. A mess. 1/2*

THE BLUDGEON BROTHERS vs. THE USO'S (5:05): Another Bludgeon beat down. They've really bludgeoned the entertainment out of this once hot Smackdown tag division. The Uso's got more offense than usual but, shit, it went only five minutes. The Brothers retained the titles. *

SETH ROLLINS vs. THE MIZ vs. FINN BALOR vs. SOMOA JOE "LADDER MATCH" (15:05): This was entertaining but they didn't do any suicidal stuff or noteworthy bumps. Finn was ready to pull down the title when Rollins jumped from the top rope to the ladder, scurried up it, and snatched the title down to retain the IC title. Lame ending. Eh. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (14:25): This was better than there 'Mania match but not by much. The ending was a double count out which sucked. AJ retained the title. Nakamura is better as a heel, anyway. **1/2

THE UNDERTAKER vs. RUSEV "CASKET MATCH" (9:40): Well The Undertaker can barely walk. The crowd cheered him, though, as they did with all of the big names. This was longer than the Cena/'Taker 'Mania match but it was mostly fake punching. 'Taker Tombstoned Aiden English, who I guess is Rusev's manager now? Or his friend? 'Taker couldn't lift Rusev for a Tombstone so they didn't even try that. It was like watching a faded legend. Transit sic gloria. Glory fades. 1/2*

BROCK LESNAR vs. ROMAN REIGNS "CAGE MATCH" (9:15): Everyone hated this. I liked it. It was all big moves and the end at least looked cool. Lesnar tried to climb the cage and had a hard time. Roman's Superman punches looked extra fake as usual. Roman was on the verge of winning, which he never was at 'Mania. His final spear on Lesnar, though, took them both through the cage as the side fell off and they crashed out on the floor. Lesnar's back hit the floor first so he kept the title. Roman, though, rolled off first and his feet touched the floor so he should've won. Who cares? Roman as champ won't work unless he's a heel. ***

THE GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE (BRAUN STROWMAN) (1:17:20): This show was five hours long and this match felt like ten hours. There were fifty guys in this. I never thought it would actually end. Ziggler and Daniel Bryan were out first. Bryan lasted until the third to last. Bruan and Big Cass were the last two. Kurt Angle was in it, Jericho, Hornswoggle, some NXT dudes. All of the big guys were in this like The Great Khali and Mark Henry and some retired Sumo wrestler. Roderick Strong, from NXT, looked the best. Bryan looked good but got beat up and lasted over an hour just to lose. This was so long and SO fucking boring. I felt like being publicly beheaded just watching this. *

WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXXIV

ANDRE THE GIANT BATTLE ROYAL (MATT HARDY) (15:45): This was an excellent Wrestlemania. One of the best ever. That's probably why it was just as long as last year's but didn't feel as long. The indoor crowd helped as they roared with drunken approval for most of the night (the outdoor shows usually are a tad quieter because of the noise escaping). I watched four shows this weekend (there were probably ten or so); Lucha Underground vs. TNA, NXT: Takeover, ROH's Supercard of Honor, and WM. The match of the weekend was the NXT ladder match with Ricochet's debut. That was super entertaining. The second best match of the weekend was probably NXT's main event, Gargano vs. Ciampo. Kenny Omega vs. Cody and Nakamura vs. Styles were a little disappointing. And in this match, a lame, stupid Battle Royal, Matt Hardy won then joined with Bray Wyatt to form a tag team. Eh. *

CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. MUSTAFA ALI (12:20): 205Live had a hell of a tournament this past month to crown a new champ. Unfortunately this final was dull. *

WOMEN'S BATTLE ROYAL (NAOMI) (9:50): Bayley turned on Sasha and tossed her out. That got the crowd hot and bothered. Otherwise this was forgettable. *

SETH ROLLINS vs. THE MIZ vs. FINN BALOR (15:30): Excellent match. Non-stop action, a super hot crowd, tons of near-falls. Perhaps this was the best Miz match ever? Rollins won the IC title from The Miz. ***1/2

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. ASUKA (13:05): Good but, alas, not great. Asuka either sucks or doesn't do anything for me; I can't figure it out. Charlotte was dramatic as hell, working a faux injured shoulder throughout then having to do her submission hold to win with only one arm. **1/2

JINDER MAHAL vs. RANDY ORTON vs. BOBBY ROODE vs. RUSEV (8:15): This sucked. I suppose it's because all four of these dudes are boring. Jinder won the title...I totally forget which one. U.S. title? 1/2*

KURT ANGLE & RONDA ROUSEY vs. TRIPLE H & STEPHANIE McMAHON (20:40): Remember the glory days of the WWE in the late 90's/early 00's? When Linda got out of her wheelchair at WM or 'Stone Cold' drove a beer truck to the ring and the crowd went ape shit? Well this match brought back that feeling. Multiple times during this the crowd was on their feet cheering in a frothing, orgasmic frenzy. It was a spectacle and the match and highlight of the night. Rousey sucks on the mic but she's fierce and awesome in the ring (this was her debut in ring). When she stepped in to face HHH the roof blew off the place. The WWE never does man vs. woman but they did some here and it was wild. Rousey roughed up HHH and Angle put Steph in the Ankle Lock. This reminded me so much of the old Vince vs. Austin matches, back when the WWE was on fire, when it wasn't just a stale, same old bore. This was special. It was the most entertaining 'Mania match in quite some time. It went too long, sure, but it defined the reason we watch this stupid shit in the first place. ***1/2

THE BLUDGEON BROTHERS vs. THE NEW DAY vs. THE USO'S (5:50): The New Day and The Uso's have been having stellar matches since last year. So of course they ruin it by adding the fake hammer wielding tag team that look like rejects from that old Hercules show WGN used to replay constantly. So forget a long, dramatic, exciting match. You're going to get a short, brutal beat-down. This sucked. The BB won the tag titles. As much as I hated The Wyatt family, they really should just go back to doing that. It wasn't that long ago! We know you're just Harper in Rowan wearing D&D outfits. *

THE UNDERTAKER vs. JOHN CENA (2:45): Wow. A three-minute match. Which is better than that God-awful 'Taker/Reigns main event at last year's 'Mania that went almost a half hour. So I shouldn't be complaining. Elias came out first to get beat up by John. Then 'Taker came out, did all his moves (kicked Cena in the head and completely didn't touch him but Cena still fell over as if he did) and won. Considering the only thing worthwhile about the old, hobbling dead man is his cool entrance, I guess this was apt. **

DANIEL BRYAN & SHANE McMAHON vs. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN (15:25): Shane was in the hospital supposedly for diverticulitus last week...so he didn't jump off the stage or anything cool (he did do a coast to coast Van Terminator minus the chair/trashcan). And Bryan was awesome, albeit his in ring return here was overshadowed by his in ring wrestling bit on Smackdown a few weeks ago, anyway. And fuck, I really wanted them to never clear him so he would've joined New Japan in the Fall. Sigh. Bryan and Shane won. It was truly basic stuff but the crowd was hot. **1/2

NIA JAX vs. ALEXA BLISS (10:15): Ugh. Alexa sucks but Nia as champ isn't any better. Jax threw Bliss around like a rag doll early. Seriously, you will never see either of these women in a good match. 1/2*

AJ STYLES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (20:20): Kind of mediocre. It wasn't terrible. It's just that in NJPW two years ago they had a masterpiece of a match so the anticipation was high. Nakamura has officially only been in one good match since joining the WWE and it was his first one against Zayn. Maybe since then he's toned it down and gravitated toward vanilla waters since that's the WWE style. Either way, this never heated up or turned great. Nakamura turned heel but still lost. **1/2

BRAUN STROWMAN & NICHOLAS vs. CESARO & SHEAMUS (4:00): Strowman's partner was a surprise. Would it be Hulk Hogan? Nope. He announced that he would pick a fan out of the crowd to be his partner and ended up picking a ten year old kid named Nicholas (who turned out to be one of the ref's sons). When Strowman tagged in Nicholas to face Cesaro the crowd roared. Nick didn't do anything, though, and just tagged back in Strowman. This entertained the hell out of me and the crowd loved it. Maybe someone watched the old Kenny Omega vs. the 11 year old girl match from DDT on Youtube and thought it was worth replicating (in that match, though, the kid did moves and took bumps...it was pretty ridiculous). Anyway, your new tag champs are Strowman and some random child. **1/2

BROCK LESNAR vs. ROMAN REIGNS (15:55): The crowd chanted, "This is awful!" They also were more into watching a beach ball being hit around in the crowd. Yes, the hardcore fans hate Reigns...although it seemed tonight instead of booing they just didn't care...at all...because he was there. Didn't even care enough to boo loud (although there were some boo's and some cheers). The surprise was that Reigns lost. Him winning the title seemed a given. He kicked out of a bunch of F5's which the crowd rolled their eyes at. He also bled like a stuck pig. This was a good, brutal bout...until the end when it was a boring destruction and finally Reigns lost. **1/2

WWE FASTLANE

Columbus, OH

BREEZANGO & TYE DILLINGER vs. CHAD GABLE, MOJO RAWLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN (7:25): If Gable was in Ring of Honor, he'd probably be having four star matches. Alas, he's on another pre-show match that occurred four hours ago that I've already forgotten. Wait! I remember Fandango put on wrestling head gear before going in against Gable. That was somewhat amusing. There really isn't any other wrestling company on earth with the high number of great stars underutilized. 'Tis a shame. *

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA vs. RUSEV (14:50): Nakamura still hasn't been in a good match since his excellent NXT debut against Zayn. He is facing Styles at 'Mania so perhaps this will change (the last time Styles and Nakamura wrestled, in NJPW, I mentioned that the last ten minutes of their match was the greatest wrestling you will ever see in your life). The end of this was at least fairly fast and entertaining. Rusev has always sucked, though, and that ain't changing. *1/2

RANDY ORTON vs. BOBBY ROODE (19:15): What happens when you put the WWE's two most boring wrestlers in a match? This happens! These two are so often in dull matches that I can clearly recall the last time they were in great matches. Roode had a super bloody weapons brawl at a TNA Bound for Glory against James Storm that was superb. And Orton had a stellar, never-ending feud and great series of matches with Christian a long time ago (obviously, as Christian's been retired for years). Orton won the coveted U.S. title here. This wasn't awful. Just pedestrian. Jinder Mahal showed up after to beat up Orton. *

NATALYA & CARMELLA vs. BECKY LYNCH & NAOMI (8:55): Lynch should be feuding with Charlotte. Lynch is the real deal. Or is she? Since they haven't pushed her or given her a meaty story line ever I kind of forget. I think she was great on NXT. Anyway, this was a pointless, stupid, forgotten black hole of a match. But these days are over! This is the last B-show PPV. It took them a year and a half this time to figure it out but after Wrestlemania every PPV will have both RAW and Smackdown folks. -No Stars-

THE USO'S vs. THE NEW DAY (9:00): Great match...until it was interrupted by The Wyatt Family dressed as He-Man characters (they're The Bludgeon Brothers now...which is just as dumb a gimmick as it sounds). **

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. RUBY RIOTT (13:45): Riott is as green as fresh grass. So this didn't entirely work. Flair did a moonsault off of the ringside barrier. That was cool. *1/2

JOHN CENA vs. BARON CORBIN vs. SAMI ZAYN vs. KEVIN OWENS vs. AJ STYLES vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (21:55): Excellent match. Fast paced. Pin fall break-ups. Table breaks. Interference. It was awesome. Pointless, as everyone knew AJ would win and retain the title, but still excitingly alive. Zayn and Owens ended up turning on one another. Owens super kicked Shane, who was sitting at ringside. Shane then broke up an Owens pin fall and then a Zayn pin fall. Not sure what this means...as Shane already faced Owens in the Hell in a Cell. Wait...another Hell in a Cell! Or have Zayn vs. Shane. Or a three-way. Or, who fucking cares? Zayn is one of the WWE's best singles wrestlers (perhaps the best). He should be having glorious singles matches with real, famous competitors. Lame show...but this main event was a good end. ***1/2

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

Las Vegas

LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON vs. BO DALLAS & CURTIS AXEL (8:50): This was the last RAW only ppv. Which means the brand-split failed again and we won't be seeing filler crap like this on ppv anymore. Can you believe that Bo Dallas was once the NXT champ? Hard to bo-lieve. And Gallows and Anderson are big dudes and have been in the WWE for, what, two years? And they have yet to give them any sort of push or storyline? At least fucking try. -No Stars-

ALEXA BLISS vs. BAYLEY vs. MANDY ROSE vs. MICKIE JAMES vs. SASHA BANKS vs. SONYA DEVILLE "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (29:35): Bliss is an awful and boring wrestler but she did at least leap off the top of a pod to do a cross-body slam on one of the other girls. This was the first women's elimination chamber match. I still find it amusing that in Germany they don't use the EC name because I guess it reminds them of the Nazi death camps. This match was just okay...but it did lead to Banks turning on Bayley which means we'll get another Banks v. Bayley match. They had some legendary bouts in NXT. Bliss retained. No surprises tonight. **

CESARO & SHEAMUS vs. TITUS O'NEIL & APOLLO (10:05): They took away Apollo's last name, Crews, because Florida had a school shooter last week named Cruz that killed 17 people. Now he's just Apollo. I really doubt the name Cruz will someday be like Hitler or Manson and never used. After all, our country has so many mass shootings that some guy shot and killed 26 people last Fall in a Texas church and I don't even remember his name. Do you? Since I'm not talking about wrestling you can assume correctly that this match was forgettable. 1/2*

ASUKA vs. NIA JAX (8:15): Asuka has only been in one entertaining/awesome match and that was on RAW against Banks. So why do people rave about her? Nia is a sloppy wrestler so this was pretty awful. 1/2*

MATT HARDY vs. BRAY WYATT (9:55): Remember how stupid but fun the 'Broken' Matt gimmick was? I can't fathom why they're doing it half-assed in the WWE. I honestly didn't even watch this.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. BRAUN STROWMAN vs. ELIAS vs. FINN BALOR vs. JOHN CENA vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. THE MIZ "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (40:15): Well it's Roman again. And the Vegas crowd heavily booed him. Roman's been in the WM main event the last two years, so this'll be three straight. He did face Lesnar and lost two years ago there but it was a good match. I'd much rather see a non-Lesnar WM main event at this point. Especially because Roman will win and get booed and who wants to see more of that? This match was entertaining but too fucking long. The show didn't end until around 11:20 PM. There were no highlights. A much better match happened on RAW last week. They had all of these guys in a gauntlet match that almost went two hours. That was unique. This was same-old. Finn looked the most impressive but, you know, he's "too small" for Vince. Elias shouldn't have been in there. Braun pinned everyone then lost to Roman. Seth did a frog splash off the top of the pod. The final half was good but this was not a very good show. **1/2

NJPW THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA

YUJI NAGATA vs. KATSUYA KITAMURA (10:58): Somebody test Kitamura for steroids, like, today. He's a muscled hulk. And for no good reason he's amidst a 7-match challenge/series against random opponents. This reminds me of the WWE's stupid Cesaro vs. Sheamus 7 match series a few years ago. If you're going to do something like this, do it with wrestlers we care about. Nagata at least is semi-entertaining. And Kitamura is amusing to look at and ponder what drugs he's taking. **

EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. RAPPONGI 3K (10:22): The lame, boring Suzuki Gun team won the Jr. tag titles tonight from Sho and Yoh, who just won them two weeks ago from The Young Bucks (who were wrestling in the states for ROH this weekend). When Sho and Yoh burst on the scene in the Fall I thought they were going to be awesome. They're young, they fly, what could go wrong? Well they're so-so. I don't really know what it is but they're only a tad better than pedestrian. This was fast paced at least. **

RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, KUSHIDA, MICHAEL ELGIN & TOGI MAKABE vs. TAKA MICHINOKU, TAICHI, TAKASHI IIZUKA & MINORU SUZUKI (11:52): I guess Elgin wasn't fired yet. Maybe Japan hasn't had the #MeToo movement. I don't even know what he did. Something about sexual text messages in Michigan. He did apologize and quit his wrestling promotion in the states. As for this match...it was fast, fun, superfluous. **

TORU YANO, TOMOHIRO ISHII & JAY WHITE vs. DAVID FINLAY, JUICE ROBINSON & TOA HENARE (7:33): Jesus. Ishii is one of NJPW's best wrestlers but is never in singles matches anymore. Worse, he's super serious and tough as nails but lately has been teaming with the clown, Yano. This wasn't bad, just another forgettable New Japan multi-tag match. **

BUSHI vs. GEDO (10:07): There were more singles matches on this show than I've ever seen on a NJPW show. That's a good thing...except this was one of them. Gedo is the head writer/booker. He should have booked a better match! Bushi sucks, anyway, even when wrestling awesome dudes like Kushida. 1/2*

TETSUYA NAITO vs. YOSHI-HASHI (16:46): Good match. Shocking, because Yoshi-Hoshi blows. But he apparently knows this (maybe he reads his Twitter replies) so he attacked Naito on Naito's way out and it went full-bore throughout. Good stuff but I feel bad for Naito. He should be champ and he's stuck wrestling Yoshi-Hashi and next Taichi. ***

WILL OSPREAY vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI (20:05): This should have been at Wrestle Kingdom. It wasn't (for no good reason), but we at least got it here. This was by far the best match so far this year and another Ospreay classic and Takahashi classic. But of course it was. They started going 100 M.P.H. and then it slowed for a bit then picked up when they both did insane moves dropping each other on their heads and kicking out of everything. Takahashi countered Ospreay's finisher twice with his own 'Stone Cold' Stunner and then a snap suplex. Takahashi also delivered his should-be-illegal over the top rope power-bomb to the floor on Ospreay. This was just nuts and dramatic as hell. Ospreay retained the Jr. title and is surprisingly facing Okada next month for the title. ***1/2

HIROOKI GOTO vs. EVIL (20:19): Goto retained the NEVER title in a slow, very dull match. 1/2*

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. SANADA (32:12): This was too slow paced. Sanada does high-flying like a moonsault and flips over the top rope to the floor but his matches aren't fast paced enough. And I never thought he'd win the title, not after they refused to give it to Omega or Naito. Probably ten minutes of this match had Sanada holding Okada on the mat in an arm bar. Yawn. The end had some good drama and near-falls but on the whole this was only a little better than average. The hot crowd definitely helped.
**1/2