AEW REVOLUTION

Jacksonville, FL

DR. BRITT BAKER & MAKI ITOH vs. RIHO & THUNDER ROSA (14:50): This was an entertaining, fun show, although there were two problems with it. The first problem was that, unlike most AEW PPV's, there wasn't a great match on the show. Usually there's at least one match-of-the-year type of a match. This show had some good matches but nothing great. The second problem, and the reason the show ended up being looked at as disappointing, is the terrible, anti-climatic ending. This match was the pre-show match (the pre-show started at 7:30 PM and the show ended at 11:45 PM...yep, way too long). This was fun and fast paced and we got to see the exuberant Maki Itoh debut. She's from Tokyo Joshi-Pro. I actually watched the main event of one of their shows recently and didn't like it at all. Maki Itoh is more of a sports entertainer type than a wrestler, though her charisma is ecstatic. It's kind of too bad either of these 4 weren't a part of the women's title match. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. CHRIS JERICHO & MJF (17:50): By the end of this it turned out to be pretty entertaining with a bunch of near-falls. The Young Bucks did all of their usual high flying, although I kind of wish Jericho was just a manager and didn't wrestle anymore. His dull in-ring ability didn't really work in this type of a match because Young Bucks matches are usually fast paced and thrilling. This wasn't a great match but it was one of the better ones on the show. **1/2

CASINO TAG TEAM ROYALE (REY FENIX) (26:45): The end of this match, with Fenix and Jungle Boy battling it out, was awesome. Maybe they should have just had a Fenix vs. Jungle Boy singles match? Other than that, it was a typical battle royale. **

HIKARU SHIDA vs. RYO MIZUNAMI (15:10): This was okay. Shida is a decent wrestler but she's never in spectacular matches and the crowd isn't really into her so I'm not sure why she's the champ. AEW hasn't really figured out the women's division yet. It's not that they don't have the stars...Riho and Thunder Rosa are both great. The other problem was that nobody even really knows who the hell Ryo Mizunami is. It seems like she just showed up in the company. The crowd, shockingly, was kind of into this match (Jacksonville let over 1,000 fans into the building). Maybe AEW will figure out the women's division one day. **

MIRO & KIP SABIAN vs. ORANGE CASSIDY & CHUCK TAYLOR (7:50): Miro and Kip beat up Cassidy and Taylor backstage before the match then dragged them out to the ring to finish them off. They slammed Chuck Taylor's head through a window backstage but I guess he put his hand up to block it or something because he cut his arm and was bleeding all over everyone during the match. That must've been real glass, which is a surprise since the barbed wire in the main event was fake. There wasn't much to this match, although Orange Cassidy was mildly entertaining even though he didn't get to do much. *1/2

"HANGMAN" ADAM PAGE vs. MATT HARDY (14:40): This wasn't bad but it was just a typical wrestling match without much pop. The Dark Order came out to save Page when he was falling out of the ring and he came back to clothesline Hardy and win. *1/2

SCORPIO SKY vs. CODY RHODES vs. PENTA EL ZERO MIEDO vs. LANCE ARCHER vs. MAX CASTER vs. ETHAN PAGE "LADDER MATCH" (23:15): This match was really good, with the usual bunch of sickening ladder bumps. Penta did a Canadian Destroyer type of a move on Cody on a ladder bridge. Scorpio Sky got tossed out of the ring onto a ladder bridge that broke in half. Cody left for awhile because he was "injured" but returned late. Lance Archer choke slammed everyone at one point. 

Scorpio Sky did a frog splash onto someone on a ladder. Maybe it was Max Caster? I don't even know who that is and I actually watch Dynamite every week. Ethan Page was the surprise 6th entrant. Who is Ethan Page? He was kind of forgettable. Scorpio grabbed the brass ring hanging from the ceiling and won and gets a TNT title shot against Darby Allin on Wednesday. ***

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. BRIAN CAGE & RICKY STARKS "STREET FIGHT" (13:40): Before this match, Christian came out to announce that he signed an AEW contract. The Big Show is also in AEW now. So AEW is becoming the WWE Legends show now. Christian looked good in this year's Royal Rumble. Do I really want to see him wrestling in AEW, though? Not really. And do I really want to see Sting wrestling? Not really. This was a "cinematic" taped match. I'm not the biggest fan of these for whatever reason. I think the only one I ever enjoyed was that first Matt Hardy TNA Deletion match because it was funny. This was the opposite of funny. It was in an old abandoned warehouse. It was dark, gothic, creepy. It started with Sting driving in a pickup truck in a city and Darby on a skateboard holding onto the back of the truck. The one big move in this was Darby jumping out of a window and onto Brian Cage who was on a stage that collapsed down through the floor. That was kind of cool. Darby also got tossed through a standing plate glass window. Sting used his bat. They all threw each other into walls. I guess it was watchable, though just your usual "cinematic" match. **1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. JON MOXLEY "EXPLODING BARBED WIRE DEATH MATCH" (25:15): Unfortunately, the ending to this match ruined not only the match but the entire show. First off, the exploding barbed wire ropes were a pretty cool visual. I was kind of surprised how well that looked. It did not look as cool as the exploding barbed wire in those old Onita matches, but it was pretty close (those old ones had sparks and smoke...tonight there was only the pop and the smoke). They had three sides of the ring wrapped in barbed wire around the ropes (alas, this was not a no-rope, barbed wire match...plus the barbed wire wasn't real barbed wire...it wasn't sharp and you could tell because it didn't cut anyone). They had two barbed wire boards in the ring. On the floor they had three barbed wire boards that were supposedly landmines. They only fell on one of those (Moxley gave Omega a DDT from the apron onto one of those). The landmine explosion was kind of weak. Later on, when Gallows and Anderson came out to interfere, Omega hit Moxley with an exploding, barbed wire bat. That looked awesome. Onita's been using one of those for the last few years. The bat actually produced a pop, sparks, and smoke and looked tremendous. So for awhile it was pretty cool and even though they weren't doing much wrestling moves and it wasn't Omega/Okada great or anything, it was working. I was actually kind of surprised. One particular unique move was when Omega delivered the One Winged Angel for the pin (nobody has ever kicked out of this) and Moxley touched the ropes with his foot to trigger a blast and avoid the pin fall. Omega finally pinned Moxley after Gallows and Anderson came out to interfere. The three of them then handcuffed Moxley and left him in the ring for the 30:00 exploding ring finale. There was a countdown. They did the old Onita savior gimmick and Eddie Kingston came out, tried to get Moxley out of the ring, ran out of time and so he just laid on top of Moxley to shield him from the blast. Then the countdown ended and the ring exploded...or, was supposed to explode. They had sparklers shoot out of all four ring posts which looked ultra lame and puny. And they set off the landmine explosions on the floor which were not really that big or anything, just roman candle type of fire and smoke shooting up fireworks. Moxley and Kingston played like they were dead and paramedics came out even though the crowd was booing and the exploding ring was groan-inducingly bad. Some wondered if maybe the pyro malfunctioned or something but I think in this day and age, with fire marshals and laws (unlike dangerous 1990's Japan), they probably couldn't actually do anything much more than that. Either way, the end was fucking awful and really ruined this show. If they had just done the exploding barbed wire ropes and the exploding barbed wire bat this match might've been 4 stars. Because all of that was great. It was shocking, really, to actually see them pull all of that stuff off. If you don't know, no major U.S. wrestling company has done an exploding barbed wire match. CZW did it once outside in Jersey in front of maybe 100 people. I remember ECW doing a landmine match that was super weak. So I am glad they tried it and most of it came off really well. The exploding ring matches in Japan haven't really been that impressive, either, though. Hell, even the infamous Terry Funk/Mick Foley exploding ring match ended with a dull explosion that made Mick Foley quickly come up with a new ending by pulling a ladder out from under the ring and improvising. I think the key is the smoke. You can pretend like it's a big explosion if there's a wall of smoke. Sparklers shooting out of the ring posts just came across as bush league. It was, by far, the worst thing AEW has ever done. And it's a shame because the match was visually very cool and violent and the crowd loved it before the lame duck ending. Will they ever do one of these again? Or is this type of a match forgotten? Even Japan doesn't do them anymore. I used to have a VHS tape called "The Best of Onita Vol. 1-3." I bought it online in the late 90's and loved it. Onita and Terry Funk and Hayabusa and Tarzan Goto with exploding barbed wire ropes and exploding rings and stadium crowds of 30,000 cheering them on. That was all in the early to mid 90's. Maybe it's best to leave things in the past. Or, as Faulkner famously wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." I say do it again someday and get it right. They learned their lesson. And you'll never learn anything from never failing. ***

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida

JOHN MORRISON vs. ELIAS vs. MUSTAFA ALI vs. RICOCHET (7:10): This was the pre-show match. The winner would be added to the U.S. title match. Keith Lee was supposed to be in the U.S. title match but is out for either an injury or because his fiancee had the coronavirus. The WWE keeps coronovirus infections super secret sometimes for unknown reasons. When McIntyre had it, they had to admit it because it put the Goldberg match in jeopardy. When AJ Styles had it they never said anything until months later AJ mentioned it on a podcast. As for this match...it was a typical, superfluous pre-show match. Every time I see Ricochet in a match in WWE I just cringe. He could have been a fucking mega star if they didn't have their head up their ass. I guess I'll just have to go watch old NJPW matches with him and cry myself to sleep next time I forget how great he is. Ricochet looked good, as usual, although the WWE has neutered him like they did with Keith Lee. Why do they care if he does suicidal shit? That's what made him. Eh. This was at least fairly entertaining, although Mustafa Ali's Retrobution group is the silliest thing that's supposed to be serious that I've witnessed in some time. And what happened to Elias? The coronavirus really destroyed his career...because without a live crowd to heckle his songs he's absolutely nothing. **1/2

DANIEL BRYAN vs. JEY USO vs. KEVIN OWENS vs. KING CORBIN vs. SAMI ZAYN vs. CESARO "ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH" (34:20): This show is kind of a bad remembrance of things past. The last live show I watched with a sold out crowd and people in the stands without masks was last year's Elimination Chamber in Philly in March. A week after that, the whole world was shut down and, unfortunately, things aren't much better a whole year later, even with a vaccine. I remember writing a review of that show and mentioning Japan doing pro-wrestling shows in empty buildings and hoping that it doesn't happen here. The good news is that this show was a lot better than that forgettable show. I guess I'm just used to watching sports now with no fans, fake crowd noise, or sparse crowds with masks on. The Australian Open just ended today, and the men's final had a decent size, rowdy crowd...so I guess in some corners of the Earth things are getting better. And the WWE's "Thunderdome" setup is actually pretty watchable, surprisingly. This was a really good match, very entertaining, with a bunch of good wrestlers (except Corbin) doing good work. Watching Daniel Bryan and Cesaro start out wrestling each other just made me wish this company was smarter and the main event of this show would've just been those two in a 30 minute title match. Bryan won...but winning this was punishment since you had to face Roman Reigns for the title immediately after. ***

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DANIEL BRYAN (1:32): I guess the only reason they did this was so Edge could come in and spear Reigns to set up their Wrestlemania match. Otherwise, what the fuck was the point to humiliate Bryan after delivering him a big win and some momentum? Bryan did put Reigns in a Cross Face briefly, but then Reigns just pounded him and choked him out. 1/2*

MATT RIDDLE vs. BOBBY LASHLEY vs. JOHN MORRISON (8:40): I guess I should be surprised that a genuinely great indie wrestler actually came out of NXT and is on the main roster getting a decent push. Most go to the main roster to die, but here's Matt Riddle (now only referred to as "Riddle" for some unknown, stupid reason) winning the U.S. title (he's also a pretty big mainstay star on RAW these days). I'm not that surprised, though, because I know why he hasn't been destroyed like Ricochet. Vince loves dumb comedy and Matt Riddle's low-IQ "bro" gimmick is pure, dumb comedy bliss. This match certainly would have been better if Keith Lee was in it, although Morrison, even at his old age, looked fantastic with all of his flips and dives. **1/2

NIA JAX & SHAYNA BASZLER vs. SASHA BANKS & BIANCA BELAIR (9:35): Lacey Evans was supposed to face Asuka for the title but Lacey is pregnant in real life. They gave her the great storyline on RAW of getting pregnant by Ric Flair. Okay. Hopefully she doesn't give birth to a hand. So this match seemingly was thrown on a show with, realistically, only four matches (it went 2.5 hours...though they'll make that up in April when Wrestlemania is two nights and probably 16 hours long). It didn't even make sense, really, since Banks and Belair are on Smackdown and Baszler and Jax are on RAW. Jax and Baszler retained the tag team titles. Reggie, who's another comedy character, gave Sasha Banks a champagne bottle to hit Jax over the head with but the ref saw it and Jax used that distraction to slam Banks and pin her. *1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. AJ STYLES vs. JEFF HARDY vs. RANDY ORTON vs. SHEAMUS vs. KOFI KINGSTON "ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH" (31:10): Good match. The Elimination Chamber has always been one of my favorite WWE PPV's. I guess because it's unique and never boring. AJ looked on fire tonight. He was jumping off the top rope so many times that I was reminiscing to his glory days in New Japan. Fuck...take me back; that G1 semi-final verse Tanahashi? That Okada title match at Dominion? The Nakamura Wrestle Kingdom last match? The Suzuki G1 match of the year? Swoon. I kind of wish AJ actually tried this hard more often. The big thing in this match was when AJ's personal bodyguard ripped the plastic wall off the outside of AJ's chamber so he could escape and enter the ring before his time to enter occurred. That was dumb but I guess something new. Jeff Hardy did a Swanton and a flip off of the top of one of the pods. McIntyre pinned AJ to win and retain his title. ***

THE MIZ vs. DREW McINTYRE (0:30): After the Elimination Chamber match, Bobby Lashley came out and beat up McIntyre. Then The Miz came out and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and pinned McIntyre fairly quickly to win the title. Groan. The Miz is the champ? Really? They do know it's 2021, right? And The Miz is a joke? Not that he ever wasn't a joke...but I remember when he cashed in a MITB contract to win the title on RAW years and years ago it was pretty cool. Now it's just embarrassing. I get that there's another PPV before Wrestlemania...but you kind of don't want to change titles this close to Wrestlemania. Drew didn't have an opponent for Wrestlemania yet so I guess it's not that bad. Still...the end of this show closing with The Miz as champ just made me want to never watch the WWE again. Even worse is that The Miz cashed in his contract already at TLC in December and failed. Remember? Then on RAW is some stupid storyline he got the briefcase back. I actually watched that episode of RAW and still don't remember why he got his briefcase back. This fucking company. 1/2*

NXT VENGEANCE DAY

Orlando, Florida

DAKOTA KAI & RAQUEL GONZALEZ vs. EMBER MOON & SHOTZI BLACKHEART (17:40): Remember that great PPV during the WWF's heyday that was on Valentine's Day and so they called it St. Valentine's Day Massacre? It had a steel cage match with Vince vs. 'Stone Cold' and a Last Man Standing match with The Rock vs. Mankind for the title. Well they never used that title for a PPV ever again. I suppose tonight was the closest, as this show was also on Valentine's Day and they called this Vengeance Day. Maybe because that PPV was so awesome that I always wished they would use that title again. They probably won't, thanks to a lot of terrible things that have happened since then, most notably the Parkland school shooting that took place on Valentine's Day a few years ago. Either way, this is a NXT Takeover show and they're usually always great. The card for this show wasn't too spectacular and they're still stuck in the Performance Center without a packed crowd of fans. This was an entertaining show and was good but not great. Shockingly, this first match was probably the best of the night. This was the finals of the women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. And, no, Dusty Rhodes was not famous or well known for being in a tag team. What tag team was he even in and who was his partner? Before my time, anyway. But the winner of this match would be the first ever NXT women's tag team champion. This is a fairly ridiculous title considering NXT has either zero or very few women's tag teams. Everyone in this match was just singles wrestlers stuck together in a random team. The team that won was the weak team, though, so I'm not sure why they won. Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart are much more exciting and fun to watch. Shotzi could become a huge star in the WWE if they play their cards right (they won't). She reminds me of Hiromu Takahashi, which is obviously a great thing. She's got the colored hair and does a bunch of suicidal, off-kilter dives that portend a broken neck in her future. She's a total fucking blast to watch, though. This match was a lot of fun and fast paced and exciting. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez are kind of stale, though, so I'd really rather never see them wrestle any other team. ***

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. KUSHIDA (24:51): I was kind of starting to wonder what the heck happened to Kushida because he's been in NXT for two years and I don't think he's ever been on a Takeover show. This was a dream match...if the year was 2018. Kushida was awesome but even in his last year in New Japan he had lost a step with age. Gargano is still fantastic but the match they did here was kind of odd. This was basically a submissions match. They didn't do any high flying or big moves, really. They did mat wrestling and grappling and Kushida put Gargano in his Hover Board arm lock maybe fifty times. You would think a match filled to the brim with submissions and mat work would be dull, but these two are such superior wrestlers that it was actually fast paced and watchable. I do think they could have had a better match if they decided to not to a college wrestling type of a match. Oh, well. Gargano retained the NXT North American title. Gargano has been in NXT for like five years. Will he ever be called up to the main roster? NXT used to be a developmental division but the champ is Finn Balor so who the fuck knows what's going on here. **1/2

MSK vs. GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS (18:26): This was the finals of the men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. I don't watch a lot of NXT but I do watch most of the main events on TV and at least know what's going on. With that said, I've never seen either of these teams before. Maybe that's why I didn't think there was much to this match. MSK is pretty exciting, though, and they remind me of AEW's Private Party. They do a lot of top rope flips and out of the ring dives. The last few minutes were pretty exciting but the end seemed to abruptly come out of nowhere and I think the finals of a tournament probably deserved more high drama. **

IO SHIRAI vs. TONI STORM vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ (12:13): Io Shirai is dating NJPW's Evil. Because both are boring wrestlers, I'm just assuming they dictate to each other late at night in bed the layouts of their matches. Granted, because of the pandemic they probably only Skype these days, if they're even still a thing. I already made a Skype sex joke the last time I reviewed a Takeover so I'm not doing it again. The funny thing is that Io Shirai does a lot of high flying and yet her matches are still boring. She even climbed up the light rigging tower and jumped off of it during this match. She was a huge star in Japan...maybe she just doesn't have the talent in NXT to work with and showcase her skills. Toni Storm and Mercedes Martinez are pretty forgettable. I long for the days when the NXT women's title matches were some of the best wrestling matches on TV (thank Sasha and Bayley for that). Shirai retained the title. This was just okay. **

FINN BALOR vs. PETE DUNNE (25:24): I understand why Finn Balor went back to NXT. They wanted to compete against AEW so they threw a semi-big star onto NXT. I don't understand why he's still on NXT, though. It's not like the ratings would plummet if he wasn't on the show. And why did they make him the champ? Isn't the whole point of NXT to make new stars? Well they should have given Pete Dunne the title here. He's one of the WWE's best wrestlers. I think Walter is probably #1. Gargano, Dunne, and Adam Cole could probably duke it out for #2. Ricochet would be in the mix but they've totally destroyed him. Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles would probably in the mix as well if they were in NXT, but unfortunately they're on the main roster where dreams die. This match was really good by the end but the first half was kind of methodical and so-so. Finn Balor was fantastic in New Japan when he was Prince Devitt...but that was like ten years ago. He's kind of matured into a solid, fairly decent nuts and bolts wrestler. He doesn't have that wild excitement he once contained, though. Dunne is excellent and really should quit this company and go wrestle in Japan or somewhere where his brutality would shine. Can you imagine Pete Dunne vs. Go Shiozaki? Tomohiro Ishii? Pete Dunne vs. Shibata is like my ultimate desert island fantasy match that will never happen. So this match was good but not great. Dunne worked on Balor's fingers. He broke them them stepped on them. The horror! Balor took out Dunne's mouth guard and then kicked him in the face. I guess if you like hard battering then you would have enjoyed this. After the match, Dunne's British goons came out to beat up Balor then Adam Cole and The Undisputed Era came out to save him. That didn't last long, as Adam Cole super kicked Balor and then super kicked O'Reilly for no apparent reason. I suppose this will lead to Balor and O'Reilly teaming up to fight Adam Cole and Roderick Strong...or something. The biggest letdown for me was when Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong came out. But...they were in the fucking building and so they could have wrestled on this show and they didn't? What the hell, NXT? You didn't put 3 of your top guys in matches? Instead we had to sit through matches with losers like Raquel Gonzalez and Mercedes Martinez? And where was Velvet Dream? Did the WWE finally punish him for sending dick pics to underage boys? So the next Takeover show looks to have Finn Balor vs. Adam Cole for the title. Which should be pretty good. Better than Wrestlemania, anyway, which features the legendary main event of Edge vs. Roman Reigns. Ugh. **1/2

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida

NIA JAX & SHAYNA BASZLER vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR & ASUKA (10:30): This was the pre-show match and it went on a little after 6:30 PM and the show ended a little before 11 PM. The show was a little over 4 hours long. Thankfully, the show was entertaining and none of the matches were awful, but I'd still rather see a shorter show. It probably didn't help that 24 minutes elapsed between the end of the women's Rumble match and the Roman Reigns match when all they did was have the panel talk, the 24/7 title change hands, and a bunch of commercials aired. The big story in this match was that Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler won the tag team titles thanks to interference by Ric Flair and Lacey Evans. As stupid as that storyline is, it's probably the most entertaining RAW storyline. Plus, Ric Flair looks like he's having the time of his life getting to hang with a pretty, young blonde. Why four singles wrestlers are randomly in tag teams vying for the title is beyond me. One of the only pure women's tag team that I can think of that the WWE had was The Iconics and they broke them up. Oh, well. *1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. GOLDBERG (2:30): This match was a bit longer than 2 and a 1/2 minutes because they did a bunch before the bell rang like Goldberg spearing McIntyre through the barrier wall thing at ringside. This was, as expected, short with all big moves. Both men kicked out of the other's finisher. Eventually McIntyre won after a Claymore kick. I'm not entirely sure what the point of this match was, especially since it wasn't the main event or co-main event, but it was entertaining. **1/2

SASHA BANKS vs. CARMELLA (10:25): Most people blame the WWE's nosedive in quality in the last twenty years to bad writing. John Cena was probably the last big star the company produced, but good writing should kind of make stars, right? But I think the one reason the WWE isn't as good anymore is because they split the brands. If they only had RAW and only one set of women's, tag team, and men's championships, I think the quality wouldn't be so diluted and the product would shine and they wouldn't be stuck having to fill airtime and thus letting losers be on TV. So instead of having this match, we'd have gotten Sasha vs. Asuka for the only women's title, which would have been a superior match. This wasn't terrible or anything, just kind of mediocre. Carmella did a through the ropes dive to the floor and pretty much went right past Sasha and landed on her face. That amused me. *1/2

WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (BIANCA BELAIR) (58:50): Bianca Belair won the Rumble. Really? I couldn't even tell you if she's on RAW or Smackdown. I vaguely remember her being on NXT. She's memorable because of her epic long pony tail braid that she swings around like a rope. I kind of think they had her win because they knew they'd get heat from having an old man, Edge, win the men's Rumble instead of properly giving that to a fresh face that needs a boost or even a regular roster dude. So now you fuckers can't complain because they gave Bianca Belair a shot in the arm. After the match she gave an interview where she legit cried and could barely talk. Jeez...is winning the Royal Rumble that emotional and that big of a deal? It's not by the way, if you were wondering. At least not these days. This match wasn't very good, although it held my interest at least. They pushed Rhea Ripley, although she got tossed out last. Charlotte laughed after getting eliminated which made little sense. There were a few older wrestlers that were surprise entrants, like Tori Wilson. At least the winner was surprising, as the whole match was just okay. **

ROMAN REIGNS vs. KEVIN OWENS "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH" (24:54): This was a good match but they botched part of the ending and the finish was poor. Both men climbed up into the stands where all the video screens of people at home are. Reigns threw Owens off of the stands and through a table. Then they went outside the Thunderdome into the baseball stadium area. This was visually very cool, as you could see the cavernous, empty stadium and it made a really interesting backdrop. There's no baseball field, it's just a black floor. I guess they just throw an astroturf rug over it when baseball starts. Reigns hit Owens with a golf cart, so I guess somebody loved the AEW Sami golf cart spot. Owens put Reigns through two tables out there in the stadium. Owens climbed up a forklift and did a Senton bomb onto Reigns and a table which was the highlight. Then came the botch. Owens handcuffed Reigns to a post and Reigns couldn't stand up to make the 10 count so Reigns pushed the ref into the post and knocked him out. The problem was that another ref came out and started to count. Paul Heyman had the keys to the handcuffs and couldn't get them uncuffed so the ref just stopped counting at 5 because the finish wasn't for Reigns to lose. Ugh. That looked terrible. I hope they try to explain that on Smackdown. Finally, Heyman got Reigns out of the handcuffs and he put Owens in a sleeper hold and Owens couldn't get up for the 10 count. Good match with a bad finish. These two are always in good hardcore matches. I'm wondering who will face Reigns for the title at 'Mania. There are still 2 PPV's before 'Mania, though, which kind of makes the winners of the Rumble matches go to 'Mania a stupid thing. Will we see another Lesnar/Reigns match? Edge/Reigns? I'm trying to think who's a babyface on Smackdown. There's Daniel Bryan. Who else? AJ's a heel. Kevin Owens already lost to Reigns like ten times. They should totally fly Walter in from Germany. He's a heel but who cares, he's the WWE's best wrestler. ***

MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (EDGE) (58:30): This was entertaining but not really a great Rumble or anything. Edge won which is weird considering he's an old man and not a regular. Edge entered at #1. There were some surprises like Kane, who looked fat, Hurricane Helms, Carlito, and Christian. Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman came back after both being out for awhile. #2 was Orton and so Edge and Orton battled outside the ring for awhile until Edge hit Orton's leg with a chair and Orton went to the back. So of course Orton came back out at the end to surprise Edge but Edge tossed him out to win. Rollins and Strowman were out there at the end. Matt Riddle lasted until the end, too. Ricochet was in there but didn't do too much. Mysterio and his son were both in it. The only NXT guy was Damian Priest, who looked decent. AJ's tall bodyguard guy kept helping him from being eliminated. Christian looked like a million bucks. Where the hell has he been hiding? So who will Edge face at 'Mania? 'Mania is 2 nights this year. It's going to be at Tampa's football stadium so there will be some fans. Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns are the two champions. I guess Edge vs. Reigns makes the most sense. Is that a big match? Does anyone want to see that? No and no. And so it goes. **1/2

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 15

Tokyo Dome

NIGHT ONE:

Attendance: 12,689

YANO, BAD LUCK FALE, CHASE OWENS & BUSHI "RAMBO MATCH" (33:40): Tokyo supposedly put a new order into effect last week saying that you can't have more than 5,000 in a building for any event because the Coronavirus is getting worse over there. I'm not sure how New Japan got around that, because they had 12 thousand people in the Dome. They did say that tickets wouldn't be sold at the door. And Night 1 of last year's Dome show had 40 thousand in attendance. While I like watching the Japanese shows better because they at least have bigger crowds than wrestling shows in the U.S., having a sparse crowd that can't yell or boo or cheer in a cavernous building came across pretty weak tonight. Most of the matches sounded like they were wrestling in front of a silent crowd, which made some matches (like Ospreay/Okada) seem not as good as they probably were. I guess I can't complain too much, as they actually still had a show with all of the big matches intact. And this was a really good show, albeit not at the high level some of the great Dome shows of the last five or so years have been. This was the dark Royal Rumble match with twenty or so guys. The highlight was when Ishii and Suzuki came out early and beat the hell out of each other. The final four wrestlers are going to wrestle for Yano's King of Pro-Wrestling title on Night 2. That title is almost as dumb as WWE's 24/7 title which, shockingly, still exists. This was fun but obviously way too long. ** (out of ****)

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. EL PHANTASMO (17:46): While these two did all of their big moves and they were both flipping and diving all over the place...it weirdly felt slow and kind of stale. The problem seemed to be that they would do one big move and then lay there and then do another big move and then lay around again. There was no cohesion or drama in this at all. I will say that El Phantasmo's top rope walk to the middle of the ring ropes into a moonsault to the floor was incredible. I was watching this show on a site that had a chat room and after the match everyone was lambasting Phantasmo for whatever reason. I actually really like him and while this match was good it just wasn't as the level you want to see a Hiromu match. Hopefully Hiromu vs. Ishimori on Night 2 will be better. **1/2

GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. & TAICHI (19:18): This match was great, surprisingly because I don't like the Tongans, I think Zack is mostly boring and I usually loathe Taichi. Taichi did have a good G1, though, and in this match, Zack was on fire, running all over the place and wrestling like his life depended on it. Zack wrestled like this was a big show, which it was, so maybe he should have mentioned this to Kenta and Great-O-Khan who both wrestled like this was just some random house show. This match was mostly all action. It had a ton of near-falls and saves. And while I bashed the show for seemingly having a dead crowd, the crowd loved this for whatever reason. The Guerrillas won the tag titles here. ***

KENTA vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA (14:12): This match was for the coveted U.S. title contract in a briefcase that Kenta has. The reason it wasn't for the actual U.S. title is because Jon Moxley has it and I guess doesn't want to go to Japan during a pandemic. Moxley did have a pre-match video where he mentioned something about being the boogeyman. Funny how the actual Boogeyman was on RAW tonight during Legends night. Coincidence? Juice Robinson was supposed to face Kenta but he broke the orbital bone in his face. Would Kenta vs. Juice have been better? Considering either match would have had Kenta, the answer is "no." Kenta fucking sucks. He's more boring than paint drying. Kojima is 50 years old and he had more spark. This was pretty forgettable. 1/2*

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. GREAT-O-KHAN (17:13): I think it's about time to give up on the Great-O-Khan experiment. He's only been back in NJPW since October but he's already teamed with Ospreay, wrestled Okada, and now is in a match with Tanahashi. How much more can they fucking give this guy? And he's proved NOTHING. He's seriously the worst. His offense of lame chops is silly. Tanahashi is one of the greatest ever and even he couldn't wrangle a decent match out of this stiff. Where do you possibly go with this guy? I say put him in a tag team and relegate him to the low undercard forever and forget about him. 1/2*

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. WILL OSPREAY (35:14): This was really good...but not as good as their G1 match...and that match wasn't as good as last year's G1 match. They seem to be devolving. Ospreay seemed to be more into doing a long, rough, dramatic classic...when all we really want is a super fast, action packed, high flying spectacle. Sure you can do the high drama stuff...but we don't want a whole match of that. Ospreay didn't do much of his high flying...which is kind of why he's one of the best wrestlers in the world. Okada actually did a top rope flip to the floor...while Ospreay only did a top rope Spanish Fly and an AJ Styles flying forearm. I'm not sure I like Ospreay as a heel. So far it hasn't entirely worked in his favor. You kind of want to cheer the dude doing all of the crazy flips and dives. This kind of reminded me of Ospreay's last Dome match...the one against Ibushi. The expectations were so sky high that even though it was good it was never going to achieve the level of greatness expected. This was really, really good...but I thought it would have reached best of all time level. Which is unrealistic...but look who's in the match. You expect masterpieces with these two. And this was a little bit short of that. *** 

KOTA IBUSHI vs. TETSUYA NAITO (31:18): This was a good match but not as good as some of their crazy 2019 matches where they seemingly tried to paralyze each other. This wasn't really a safe match, it just wasn't as sickening as some of their previous matches. Probably the only devastating move was when Ibushi gave Naito a Hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. The end was also a little bit of a disappointment. Ibushi just won after a knee to the face. Ibushi won the title here, which is awesome, but considering he has to face Jay White on Night 2, the victory after all of these years seems a little less cathartic and joyous. Naito's title run, unfortunately, will probably be seen as a disappointment. The pandemic hurt it, but Gedo's booking did as well, making him lose and regain the title to Evil, one of the most boring wrestlers on the planet, in a series of 3 terrible matches. And, really, does anyone want to see an Ibushi vs. Jay White match? Ever? Nope. ***

NIGHT TWO

Attendance: 7,801

TORU YANO vs. BAD LUCK FALE vs. CHASE OWENS vs. BUSHI (7:43): Surprisingly, I thought that Night 2 was better than Night 1. That's a surprise since Ospreay, Tanahashi, Naito, Okada, Suzuki, and Ishii were only on Night 1. The attendance was lower tonight and the card wasn't that great...but tonight had the 2 best matches of WK15. I really hope they get rid of the 2 night deal, as it takes away from the big, one main event that past shows have had. This show certainly didn't start on the right foot. What the fuck was the point of this match? This could have had Ishii and Suzuki. Hell, Honma would've made this more entertaining. I still don't even comprehend the King of Pro-Wrestling title. What is the point of it, anyway? When it was first announced it was supposed to be a gimmick title...meaning every match would be a Falls Count Anywhere or a No DQ or something. Well that's seemingly gone out the window. Yano won. Nothing of note happened. Eh. 1/2*

EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. MASTER WATO & RYSUKE TAGUCHI (13:20): El Desperado wrestled Hiromu in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament last month. Hiromu ripped at Desperado's mask and eventually Desperado just took it off and wrestled without it for the last few minutes. Even the announcers mentioned the name of the guy under the mask. So he comes in here with his mask back on like nothing happened. Huh? Whatever. This match wasn't very good. Master Wato did some interesting big moves, although he still is sloppy and off the mark a lot of the time. Kanemaru sucks. This just never really amounted to much. Desperado and Kanemaru remain the Jr. tag team champs. This just reminds me of the glory days of the Jr. tag division...when The Young Bucks, Sho and Yo, Ricochet, The Time Splitters, and Rappongi Vice were tearing the house down at all of these big shows. Who was Ricochet's partner back then? Did it matter? *1/2

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. JEFF COBB (21:11): This was the best match so far of both nights. What a great match. These two wrestled in the G1 last year and it was a good match but nothing special. Tonight they brought the big guns. This was brutal, dramatic, fast paced. I have no idea why Shingo isn't in the main event picture. He looked as good as anyone in the company tonight as he usually does. Cobb looked great as well. This was just big moves, big elbows, big slams. It was awesome. ***1/2 

SANADA vs. EVIL (23:40): This was at least entertaining. Sanada looked spectacular tonight...which is good since he came out and the end of the show to challenge Ibushi for the title. Dick Togo got knocked off the apron and through a table. For some reason Evil threw Sanada so hard into the fence barricade at ringside that it knocked the announcer at the table behind it out of his seat and the table fell on him. It was funny because this happened twice. Is this a new feud? Evil vs. the announcer? It cracked me up, anyway. Sanada did a bunch of moonsaults. Evil didn't do much of anything. There was a ref bump or perhaps multiple ref bumps...these Evil matches have so many ref bumps it can get confusing. This was not great or anything but certainly one of the better Evil matches you'll see. **1/2

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI (25:31): What can I say? This match wasn't very good. Hiromu's match on Night 1 wasn't that good either. Even the crowd was pretty silent for most of this. I'm not sure what went wrong, as these two had a great match last summer at the baseball stadium show. Maybe this just went too long. They both did everything they usually do but the high drama was absent for whatever reason. Hiromu won the Jr. title here. **

KOTA IBUSHI vs. JAY WHITE (48:05): I didn't want to see this match. I doubt anyone did. Jay White hasn't exactly set the world on fire in his matches of late. Plus, these two just wrestled in November at a big show and it was decent but nothing great. Tonight, though, the Wrestling Observer reviewer, Ethan Renner, noted that Jay had "the match of his life." He's not wrong. I usually find Jay White's matches boring and this match was boring for the first half but Jay White went into another gear in the second half and this turned into an excellent match and a worthy Wrestle Kingdom main event. It probably helped that this was the longest New Japan match in 2 and a half years (Okada and Omega went over an hour in June of 2018). There was a point in this where Jay was so tired and beaten down that he laid in the ring and motioned for Ibushi to just pin him. Ibushi refused and just slapped him. They traded big moves back and forth. Ibushi did all of his crazy, high flying spots, including a perfect Phoenix Splash. Gedo pulled the ref out of the ring after the Phoenix Splash and Ibushi's attempted pin. Ibushi kicked out of the Switchblade finish which was probably a first. Jay did a series of devastating fisherman suplexes that put Ibushi right on the top of his head multiple times. Ibushi finally won after a few knees to the face. These two just put everything and more into this match...and while we've seen Ibushi do this before, we've never seen Jay White reach this pinnacle. This wasn't a perfect match, as the first half was pretty dull (at least when Jay White was on offense), but by the end this was high drama and as good as it gets. After the match, Sanada came out to challenge Ibushi for the title. And in the post-match press conference, Jay White mentioned something about "ending this" which perhaps means a face turn. While a small crowd didn't help either night and all in all this WK didn't reach the epic highs of past years, notably 2016, this final match was excellent and a great way to end the event. ***1/2

BEST WRESTLER OF 2020: WILL OSPREAY

 

    It's pretty tough to name anyone best wrestler of 2020 since some promotions, like Ring of Honor, barely even had any shows. And while wrestlers in Japan were wrestling in front of fans for half of the year, wrestlers in Mexico, most of the U.S., and in the UK, were stuck trying to make it work in empty arenas. But with all of these obstacles, the cream rises to the top. Without all of the bells and whistles, you can more easily tell who's fantastic and who isn't. I've heard Jon Moxley, Go Shiozaki, and Drew McIntyre's names being thrown out as Best Wrestler of 2020. Those three were champions that were in the limelight most of the year and in all of the big main events, so that's understandable that people might consider them. I had my own 3 picks though; Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Will Ospreay. Granted, The Young Bucks would be Best Tag Team...but I don't waste my time on that category. Omega had an outstanding year. He had a good 30 minute Iron Man match against PAC, he was in the best match of the year teaming with Adam Page against The Young Bucks, he was in the Stadium Stampede mele, he had a spectacular match against Page, a good match in Mexico against Laredo Kid, and won the AEW title in a good match against Moxley. Unfortunately, Omega wasn't in Japan wrestling the greats, so his year obviously didn't match those high water mark of excellence years of his past. The Young Bucks were in 2 of the best matches of the year plus the Stampede plus pretty much every match they're in is entertaining. But there was one wrestler that just seems to be ascending to an unmatched peak year after year, and that's Will Ospreay. He didn't even wrestle from March to September. But when he entered that ring for his first match in the G1, your eyes couldn't look away. He looked as incredible as ever, and in the G1 he had good matches with just about everyone, even fucking Taichi. His matches against Shingo Takagi and Okada in the G1 were awesome and epic. And he kicked off the year with good matches against Hiromu Takahashi and against Zack Sabre, Jr. He even had one of the better empty arena matches of the year against his girlfriend, Bea Priestley. When he first started in wrestling he was a "spot monkey." And now, years later, he's crafting his game to include everything at its apex; great storytelling, great selling, great drama. All of his big, spectacular moves look seamless. His ringwork is truly a work of art. And he, of course, does the best looking flips and dives than pretty much anyone in the game. It wasn't a perfect year for just about anything, but Will Ospreay didn't miss a fucking beat.

BEST SHOW OF 2020: "NXT TAKEOVER: PORTLAND" February 16th

 

     There were only 2 months of shows in 2020 pre-pandemic, so of course the best show of the year was probably going to be one that happened in January or February. While we did mostly get used to watching wrestling with sparse crowds, no crowds, and no crowds with piped in crowd noise, those shows did suffer without a raucous crowd. One show that might be considered being a best of the year show amidst the pandemic was the AEW Brodie Lee tribute show, which was awesome, but kind of hard to watch at how sad it was. There was also one G1 show, Day 13, that some might consider the best show of the year. It was a great show, with Cobb/Ishii, Taichi/Ospreay, Ibushi/Suzuki, and Okada/Takagi all being good matches. Wrestle Kingdom, which is always at least one of if not the best show of the year, was split into 2 nights in 2020 and kind of suffered as a result. But there was one show that stood out. NXT usually always has great Takeover shows, and their show in Portland in February, in front of a packed, frenzied crowd, was spectacular. Dave Meltzer noted after the show on his podcast that it was one of the best WWE shows ever. Ever. Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic had an awesome, big-move-after-big-move, spot-fest of a match that had the crowd frothing at the mouth and on their feet. Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne faced Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish for the tag titles in a spectacular, match of the year contender that was all action and drama. The main event was an epic with Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa for the title. And even the two women's matches were at least entertaining; Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox in a Street Fight and Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair for the women's title. Every match was good to great, and it was seemingly non-stop high drama, devastating moves, near-falls, and a crowd roaring with approval for 3 hours. A truly legendary show.