@twf87
I started off this week by attending Fighting Spirit Unleashed, the New Japan show in Long Beach. As I mentioned in my review, the show was a fun live experience, and overall decent quality. The US title match still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, and the triple threat match between Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Cody announced for King of Pro Wrestling doesn’t really appeal to me. However, the undercard was a lot of fun, the tag team championship match delivered, and the main event was solid.
I also caught up with the Mae Young Classic, which saw the highly anticipated second round matches between Toni Storm and Hiroyo Matsumoto, and Meiko Satomura and Mercedes Martinez. Toni vs Hiroyo was solid, although it seemed like Hiroyo didn’t exactly know how to deal with a crowd that was vocally behind her opponent. Nonetheless, she had a good showing in defeat, a victory that Storm herself managed to snatch from the jaws of defeat. Meiko vs Mercedes was hands down a fantastic match by two veteran wrestlers. This was one of the best matches I’ve seen this year, with nothing wasted, and even though I knew the result in advance I was hooked to the action. Mercedes came close to victory with a fisherman buster but Meiko finally won after a fantastic looking Scorpio Rising. Meiko has really shone in the MYC so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing how far she will go in the tournament.
@LauraNMauro
Another brief week of wrestling (blame university) but the Mae Young Classic continues to impress. Toni Storm and Hiroyo Matsumoto was hard-hitting and well paced, and good fun even if it did feel like a foregone conclusion that Storm was going to win. Kacy Catanzaro is incredibly impressive for someone so green – watching her come back from a botch to repeat the move showcases a confidence and determination that’ll stand her in good stead in the future – and I’m confident she absolutely has a future in wrestling. The match of the night, though, was Meiko Satomura vs Mercedes Martinez. I had high expectations for this one and was not remotely disappointed – and while Meiko has rightly been praised for her ability, I think Martinez deserves to share the credit for what has to be one of my matches of the year. Proof positive that women’s wrestling can be every bit as impressive and enjoyable as men’s wrestling, and also that women’s wrestling has been in rude health outside of WWE’s narrow purview for quite some time. I don’t expect that Meiko will win – I foresee Toni Storm and Rhea Ripley pipping her to the post – but it’s been a huge privilege to watch her wrestle on a WWE stage.
@TheCiaranJames
This week has mainly consisted of researching for my next two pieces of work for the site. The first is my look at the failures of WWE and the huge progression being made by Dragon Pro Wrestling.
I also now have a huge interest in the joke that is WWE, the weekly podcasts from PWTorch solidify my decision not to watch the product. I followed the build to the main event at Super Show Down, which consisted of four veteran performers with a combined age of 4,123 (haha) also on the Torch this week, Sam Roberts was a guest on the Thursday flagship. I must say that I’ve never laughed as much when listening to Sam, he’s tries so hard not to come across as a WWE fanboy, unfortunately for him he fails every time. Plus his suggestion that Seth is better off aligned with Roman and not pursuing his own career is an outrageous statement.
UFC 229 which took place last night was all kinds of fun, the main event plus the post match brawl was crazy. I’d also like to point out that Connor is ready made for Indy’s, this man needs to ditch the fight game and follow Matt Riddle’s footsteps into the world of wrestling.
I’m have a busy October events wise, so expect my reviews to follow as always. The first will be from Pro Wrestling Chaos next weekend, which is being headlined by Big Grizzly defending against Dick Riley
My week began catching up with the previous week’s DDT Korakuen show Road to Ryogoku that was a really entertaining show. The main event inevitably set up the main event for the upcoming Peter Pan show on October 21st which is one of DDT’s two annual big shows and a show that had been moved to this date from August due to renovation work to Sumu hall. Current K-od openweight champion Meiko Satumora unfortunately lost her title in a three-way match that involved former champions Shigehiro Irie and Danshoku Dino with the latter eliminating Irie then pinning Satumora to regain the title he had lost to Satumora on a Maji Manji show in August. This title victory sets up Danshoku Dino defending the title against the King of DDT winner Daisuke Sasaki on the Peter Pan show.
DDT also announced the upcoming round robin tournament the D King Grand Prix which begins on November 30th and runs through the month of December. This follows the success of the inaugural tournament back in January which was won by Shuji Ishikawa.
Last Sunday saw New Japan Wrestling hosting another show on the United States mainland. This time around with a title ‘Fighting Spirit’ saw the Long Beach Pyramid awash with empty seats that were visible on camera as just over three thousand fans turned up to watch a show that in my opinion was very good. The tag title match between The Young Bucks and GOD was excellent with Haku standing ringside watching his boys win their fourth IWGP tag team title. Cody also adding another title to his waist as he captured the IWGP US title to add to the NWA title he already possesses with the chance of a third belt as he challenges for the IWGP Heavyweight belt at King of Pro Wrestling this week. As for the main event, well some gave the match five stars, for me though a botched DDT from Omega on Ishii put pay to that in what was a terrific match, but five stars? Not for me. Monday 8th sees the KOPW show.
A rare occurrence for me is keeping up to date with weekly shows, however the Mae Young Classic rolled into the second round and me along with it too as the matches started to get much better with Toni Storm overcoming the excellent Hiroyo Matsumoto who added so much to this tournament and it would have been great to see her continue, but Toni is one of the tournament favourites so I guess I saw that coming. Matsumoto in my opinion had the two best matches so far, and if her job was to put over her opponents and make them look strong, then she successfully filled her role. Rhea Ripley and Lacey Lane also advanced to the Quarter Finals and joining them was Meiko Satomura who defeated Mercedes Martinez in a terrific match that saw this week’s episode end in style.
Meiko has been all over the world and all over the wrestling news, she is winning title after title in male dominated promotions and surely has to be a consideration for wrestler of the year after a terrific 2018, so far! Feedback appreciated on this one.
