Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
Living down in Sussex, I probably could go to a few more shows than I actually do, but that would involve regular trips up into London. Thus, if Riptide isn’t running in Brighton, my live wrestling output isn’t what it used to be when I would go up to watch Revolution Pro in Bethnal Green or the occasional PROGRESS show. It is a shame – wrestling enjoyment at time is very much an example of something where life gets in the way. Still, I managed to carve out some time to watch a mixture of old school and new matches that had crossed my path.
Back in 1984, I’ve just watched the Chris Adams heel turn in World Class which I assume is probably accessible on the WWE Network. Having been one of the ‘minions’ of the Von Erichs, a superkick to Kevin Von Erich would spark a huge heel run as Adams joined with Gino Hernandez as ‘The Dynamic Duo’. When you’ve spent a few months with The Missing Link and the Irwins as your main heels after the Fabulous Freebirds left for the WWF, this is marked improvement.
Considering I knew it would be the talk around the proverbial wrestling water cooler this weekend, I also watched the top three matches from Dominion. What I mainly realised is that I just don’t have the attention span to engage with one match that goes 60+ minutes anymore, if I ever did. I was bored and engaged in equal measure. I understand why people loved Okada versus Omega, but it is the type of content I seemingly struggle to get into now. Someone else posited it is due to the lack of tension until the match goes 1-1 – that isn’t a bad argument at all. I enjoyed Ospreay versus Hiromu, but wasn’t a huge fan of Jericho versus Naito in the way some people were.
Included below are two short match reviews of other contests I’ve watched this week as I try and clear my backlog:
When Joey Janela met Pierre Carl Ouellet at GCW’s ‘Tournament of Death 3’ in a non-tournament contest, the engagement and interest is perhaps a little on the perverse side. A case of wondering what spot they are going to do next considering one has no bones about taking ridiculous bumps and the other has a similar work ethic plus is fifty years old. Still, engagement is engagement and that’s the least of what they offered fans as both men tried their best to out stupidly bump the other. A brawl through the crowd in the early going ended up with Janela getting crowd surfed to save him from a fallaway slam off the balcony, whilst PCO would be the first to introduce the hardware as chairs and doors would find their way into the ring. Throughout the contest, the raw strength of PCO was one of narrative hooks as he no-sold three chair shots, broke a piece of plasterboard that was smashed over him in half and then dumped Janela through two doors in quick succession. Janela used a sunset bomb onto some chairs to turn things around, utilising a double foot stomp that caught PCO between a chair and the edge of the apron. The tide turned often as PCO hit a popup powerbomb and Janela retaliated with a superkick to a chair followed by a German suplex and a chair-assisted Swanton bomb. However, PCO looked to be on the verge of winning after a second rope Finlay roll and a moonsault both got two, but Janela turned a package piledriver attempt into a jacknife pin for the three count. There is something beautiful about such a contest ending with a technical wrestling hold for the pinfall.
AR Fox versus LuFisto from Beyond Wrestling’s ‘Solid Gold’ show on the 26th May was my own personal favourite way to incorporate intergender wrestling onto a card: a kick ass face woman versus an insufferable heel man. With the Skulk in tow, there are few heels I enjoy watching more (on the rare occasion I see him) than AR Fox. It is the Skulk who cost LuFisto the control early on with a distraction that allows Fox to hit a single leg dropkick. LuFisto’s work targets the leg of Fox, something she goes back to after he missed a dropkick in the corner and she nailed a hip attack. Indeed, significant portions of the match saw missed offense as LuFisto then missed a cannonball in the corner and Fox missed a Swanton off the top. A smorgasbord of suplexes by LuFisto (including two Germans, a Saito and a Teardrop) scored a two count, as did a springboard ace crusher and Swanton bomb that saw Fox fly over halfway across the ring. What worked best in this contest was how the leg work would pay off eventually; a calf crusher forced Fox into the ropes, an ankle lock saw the Skulk get involved and eventually wiped out by a missed Fox senton over the top rope. Finally, with the Skulk immobilised, LuFisto would take the win with a leglock submission. A popular victory that played off the Skulk involvement and legwork well in that finishing stretch.
By Ciaran James@TheCiaranJames
This was the first week in years that apart from NXT I decided to skip RAW & SDLive, the WWE product for me personally is running dry. The main roster features nothing of interest and the main objective is to still push Roman until we say “okay let’s cheers him”
In contrast to WWE I yesterday morning woke early for NJPW Dominion and enjoyed 4.5 hours of wrestling. This was due to the fact that NJPW still treats wrestling as a sport and with respect, every competitor stood out and was there for a reason. It was a breath of fresh air. It was nice to witness the two year build/culmination of the Kenny Omega story, wonderful storytelling (WWE take note)
Yesterday Pro Wrestling Chaos celebrated their 5th anniversary, CHAO5 was a cracking show packed full of international and homegrown talent. King of Chaos Big Grizzly def Walter in a hard hitting contest, Mark Haskins returned for the second time this year and claimed victory and looked doing it, Chaos and Haskins are a good fit.
At the same event, Eddie Dennis announced his return from injury, he will be fit and healthy to face one time friend, now bitter enemy Alex Steele next month. The Knights of Chaos Tag Titles changed hands as Crazy Teacup (Charlie Sterling/Eddie Ryan) defeated Martin Kirby/Kip Sabian and former champions Mike Bird & Joey Ryan. My review will follow tomorrow 11th June.
Mark Worrall @hoohoowozza
Being understaffed at my place of work, and also needing a bit extra I have been putting in quite a lot of extra hours of late. Of course this means I have less free time at the moment so inevitably my wrestling viewing has decreased of late. However I did manage to find some time to, as always, play catch up alongside watching some recent wrestling too. The Japanese promotion DDT has their own weekly television show that airs on Abema TV, which coincidentally also own the promotion itself. There has been 6/7 episodes so far and last week I watched episode 2! OK so as usual I am playing catch up, however the second episode is quite relevant as the opening two episodes featured a tournament consisting of eight up and coming stars from the DDT promotion, most of which appear on their DNA brand alongside Maki Ito who appears on the Tokyo Joshi brand. As this was a while back I’ll spare any results and details apart from Kota Umeda defeating Mao in the finals. What is unique about this tournament is it is based on a Britain’s got talent style of structure! Yes the wrestlers take part in an eight person knock out tournament, however each match consists of five minute time limits which if reached then goes to a vote where the audience can vote from a phone app for their favourite to progress with the results coming in about five minutes later. Fortunately Umeda won his final match with normal rules as the five minute time limit did not apply in the final!
Yesterday I was also able to watch the New Japan Dominion show in its entirety! A great show from top to bottom with the Young Bucks becoming new tag team champions in a terrific match against holders Evil and Sanada that really had me seeing the Young Bucks as the greatest tag team ever! Michael Elgin also put up an excellent showing and was well deserving as the new Never Open-weight champion. Will Ospreay unfortunately lost his Junior Heavyweight title against Takahashi that was superb with Ospreay not giving a second thought to his body and included an incredible spot that had him leaping from the ramp onto the onlooking Takahashi who seemed miles away from the attacking Brit! Takahashi has had a great week and this victory was well deserved. Enjoyed Jericho defeating Naito, and the beating that Naito took enhanced Jericho’s heel character as Naito selfishly made Jericho look great. The main event itself was a terrific match that was too long for me, however I still enjoyed the match and seeing Omega become the new IWGP champion was great in itself. One thing I noticed was that the main three singles titles – IWGP, Intercontinental and Never openweight all have North Americans has their champions, setting up things nicely for the Cow Palace in San Francisco!
