|
Post by punksnotdead on Jan 4, 2018 21:09:27 GMT -5
I thought AJ vs Shane was fine but I thought it was an absolute waste of AJ at Mania. It was probably my third or fourth favorite match on the Mania card.
|
|
|
Post by Triple S: POOR on Jan 4, 2018 21:11:27 GMT -5
I thought AJ vs Shane was fine but I thought it was an absolute waste of AJ at Mania. It was probably my third or fourth favorite match on the Mania card. Other than Aries/Neville, I absolutely hated WrestleMania 33. I thought every match that had any potential fell flat on its face. Including Styles/Shane, Orton/Wyatt and Owens/Jericho.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 4, 2018 21:42:28 GMT -5
I thought AJ vs Shane was fine but I thought it was an absolute waste of AJ at Mania. It was probably my third or fourth favorite match on the Mania card. I would've rather AJ had a better program, but the match totally delivered. Here's what I had for Mania, in order. AJ/Shane - ****1/4 Neville/Aries - **** Ladder Match - ***3/4 Jericho/Owens - ***1/2 Goldberg/Brock - ***1/2 Seth/HHH - **3/4 SD Women's - **1/2 Raw Women's - **1/2 Mixed tag - **1/4 Corbin/Ambrose - **1/4 Reigns/Taker - *1/2 Andre - *1/4 Bray/Orton - * I think I’m the only one that didn’t care for Styles/Shane at all. AJ dropping the title to John, just to drop it to Bray and put Orton over just added to it. AJ should’ve walked into WrestleMania as champion. A mediocre match with Shane in the opener was a horrible consolation prize. While I clearly didn't consider it mediocre, I do agree that AJ should've been champ going into Mania. I'd have saved Cena dethroning him for Mania. It would've given Cena the 16th win on the biggest stage and been a perfect storybook ending to their rivalry. Cena wins in the end, but AJ still holds a 2-1 advantage.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 4, 2018 22:01:33 GMT -5
72. Lucha Underground Championship Career vs. Career Match: Prince Puma [c] vs. Pentagon Dark – Lucha Underground Ultima Lucha Tres 10/18/17
|
| Ultima Lucha Tres was scheduled to end with Prince Puma vs. Johnny Mundo, which was also the main event of the first ever Lucha Underground show. Puma’s career was on the line and he overcame the odds to win his second Lucha Underground Championship. His celebration was cut short by Dario Cueto. He announced that Pentagon Dark was cashing in his Gift of the Gods Title for a shot at Puma. Dario threw in the added twist of both their careers were on the line. Like their Cueto Cup Finals meeting, this was kept short. It went just 8:26, but was packed with non-stop action. Pentagon broke Puma’s arm early on, but a desperate Puma popped it back into place and taped it up to keep going. They had some incredible exchanges before Puma hit the Benadryller. He went for the 630, but Vampiro pulled Pentagon out of the way. Pentagon then won with the Package Piledriver, finally capturing the title that eluded him for so long. The match was a blast but the story was even better. Vampiro and Pentagon had a long history and Vampiro spent this season manipulating Puma, all to turn on him and side with Pentagon in the end. [****¼]
|
*This is the final Lucha Underground Championship match.
|
|
|
Post by King Richius on Jan 4, 2018 22:13:06 GMT -5
I think I’m the only one that didn’t care for Styles/Shane at all. AJ dropping the title to John, just to drop it to Bray and put Orton over just added to it. AJ should’ve walked into WrestleMania as champion. A mediocre match with Shane in the opener was a horrible consolation prize. IMHO opinion, the AJ/Shane match benefits from the "way better than anyone expected" effect, much like Black/Dream at NXT Takeover. I'm not saying either was a bad match because they weren't but when expectations are low and a match exceeds them, a good match suddenly becomes great and a great match suddenly becomes a classic/MOTY candidate.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 4, 2018 23:18:04 GMT -5
71. IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament Quarterfinals: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin – NJPW G1 Special in USA 7/1/17
|
| Their three matches last year got progressively lower scores each time (from **** down to ***¼), with this being their first meeting in 2017. Michael Elgin had never lost to Kenny Omega in a straight singles match. That gave him the mental edge, which he only added to by overwhelming Kenny with his power advantage. After a close countout tease, one that came too early for me to truly buy, they just threw bombs at one another for the rest of the 22:31. Omega threw everything he could at Elgin, while still managing to bump like a madman for him. Elgin delivered an apron German and wild middle rope crucifix bomb to lead to one of the better near falls of the tournament. I loved Omega countering the Elgin Bomb to an inside cradle. It hammered home his desperation to finally beat Elgin. Omega came back with a series of V-Triggers, before winning with the One Winged Angel. This was just what I wanted from these guys. It was wild and, despite the usual NJPW slow start, didn’t have the nonsense limb work segment that leads nowhere. Limb work wasn’t coming into play at the end, so they never went to it. Wise. Tons of action, with Omega making Elgin’s offense look even better than usual. [****¼]
|
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 0:40:12 GMT -5
70. War Games: The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong vs. SAnitY vs. The Undisputed Era – NXT TakeOver: War Games 11/18/17
|
| When it was announced that War Games was coming to a WWE stage for the first time ever, there was a lot of excitement. There was also concern to see if they could pull off the magic of some of the original matches. With the three team format, no roof on the cage and the idea that two men would enter at a time after the first three opened things, it was clearly going to be different. And yet, it worked very well. War Games works as a series of hot tags. Undisputed Era got the men advantage first, which made sense as the heels. I was surprised Authors of Pain came in next to help Roderick Strong, as I thought they’d be the final big blow. Boy, was I wrong. SAnitY joined last and brought weapons into the match. That final segment of the match was ridiculous in the best possible way. I saw a man bleed buckets, creative uses of the two rings, a super German suplex through two tables and a superplex off the top of the cage onto six people in the ring. Adam Cole got the win for his guys with a shining wizard into a chair at 36:32. This didn’t feel that much like War Games, but that didn’t matter. It was violent, never felt long, had wild spots and continued the ongoing stories among the competitors. I wrote all this and still probably didn’t scratch the surface of everything they did. [****¼]
|
*This is the final appearance of Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, SAnitY and Roderick Strong.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 9:51:06 GMT -5
69. Number One Contender’s Match: Big R Shimizu vs. Masaaki Mochizuki – Dragon Gate Scandal Gate 9/5/17
|
| Masaaki Mochizuki is one of Dragon Gate’s best ever. Big R Shimizu was arguably their top performer in 2017. During their annual King of Gate tournament, Shimizu beat the champion, YAMATO, in stunning fashion in under four minutes. On this night, they met for a shot at the company’s top title. This opened with Mochizuki taking out Shimizu with a springboard dropkick and the greatness didn’t stop for the 14:48 duration. Mochizuki knew that Shimizu’s Shot Put Slam was a devastating finisher, so he had a plan to attack the arm and take that move away. The arm work was great and sold even better by Shimizu. He had bursts of offense and withstood some of Mochizuki’s vicious array of kicks, but barely had use of his arm. There was a great moment when Mochizuki countered the Shot Put Slam, so Shimizu responded by hitting it with his other arm. He was unable to fully take control, opening the door for Mochizuki to continue his brutal offense. He eventually pulled back on Shimizu’s arm with a great looking submission to earn the shot at the Open the Dream Gate Championship. In contention for the best Dragon Gate match all year and certainly the company’s best singles match of 2017. [****¼]
|
*This is the final appearance of Masaaki Mochizuki.
|
|
|
Post by marino13 on Jan 5, 2018 10:52:38 GMT -5
War Games exceeded my expectations. Hope it remains in NXT for the foreseeable future.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 11:14:36 GMT -5
68. RPW British Heavyweight Championship: Katsuyori Shibata [c] vs. Matt Riddle – RevPro High Stakes 1/21/17
|
| I miss Katsuyori Shibata. This was during his run as British Heavyweight Champion. He faced Matt Riddle in a battle of two bad dudes. Riddle offered a handshake that Shibata declined. Riddle had to earn his respect. This got off to a bit of a slow start as they took to the mat to get a feel for one another. Thanks to their MMA backgrounds, the chain grappling and submission attempts are fantastic. Though it’s a slow start, it’s highly entertaining. Things were turned up a notch when Riddle fired off a series of strikes. Their battle of forearms and kicks was breathtaking. Shibata sold Riddle’s stuff great, at first. Then, he fired up and dismissed Riddle’s stuff in incredible fashion. Shibata was so good at that. They graduated to even heavier blows, like suplexes. Riddle nearly shocked everyone after stealing Shibata’s sleeper and Penalty Kick. That angered Shibata, who showed him how it’s done and made Riddle tap out to his sleeper at 15:10. He got no handshake before the match, but Riddle got a show of respect from Shibata afterwards, having earned it. A terrific match that played to their strengths. [****¼]
|
*This is the final match from High Stakes.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 12:32:54 GMT -5
67. New Japan Cup First Round: Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii – NJPW New Japan Cup 3/12/17
|
| Fresh off his first Wrestle Kingdom main event, Kenny Omega looked to rebound and win the New Japan Cup. A tournament win would earn him another shot at Kazuchika Okada the following month. In his way stood Tomohiro Ishii in a first time ever meeting. Omega looked to take it right to Ishii. That was a mistake, as he got rocked with strikes. A reverse rana outside put the momentum in Omega’s favor and from there, he targeted the shoulder. Things got really crazy when Ishii busted out a goddamn super rana. I didn’t even know what I was watching at that point. They just went into a barrage of great back and forth for the remainder of the match. I got a kick out of seeing Ishii pull out his own V-Trigger. There was a great spot where Ishii fought off the One Winged Angel, so Omega turned it into a massive German suplex. Ishii had the best counter for the One Winged Angel when he turned it into a stunner. He finally used a Brainbuster to win in 29:46 They continued the story of nobody kicking out of Omega’s finish, Ishii sold everything like a champ and the exchanges were wild. It didn’t need to go half an hour, though. [****¼]
|
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 13:45:38 GMT -5
66. Donovan Dijak vs. Keith Lee – PWG Battle of Los Angeles 9/3/17
|
| Two nights prior, these guys teamed as the Monstars. Anyone who loves Space Jam can’t help but love that. I went into this after hearing tons of praise, seeing Dave Meltzer give it five stars, and knowing that they had two bangers earlier in the year in Evolve. These are big lads and they did big lad things. The early spots saw them showcase their athleticism, doing freakish things that shouldn’t be possible given their size. I’m not lying when I say that more than a few spots made me legitimately worry if the ring would break. There were a few spots they didn’t hit cleanly, though it can be excused somewhat because a lot of it had a high difficulty degree. Lee landing on his feet on a monkey flip and Dijak’s springboard corkscrew dives were just some of the standout moments. They both kicked out at one, at different points, to standing ovations. Finally, Lee scored the win after 21:42 to advance to the semi-finals of BOLA. A lot of the appeal of their matches is seeing big dudes do wild crap. Some of that shine wears off after you’ve seen it already, so I do prefer their first Evolve outing, but this was better than their second Evolve match. An absolute spectacle. [****¼]
|
*This is the final match from the Battle of Los Angeles.
|
|
|
Post by BSR on Jan 5, 2018 14:11:27 GMT -5
Matt riddle sucks as a person.
|
|
|
Post by A-Rob on Jan 5, 2018 14:18:48 GMT -5
Loved Riddle vs. Shibata, it wish it could happen again but sadly it won't.
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 14:52:04 GMT -5
65. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – NJPW G1 Climax 7/17/17
|
| Two names were announced for the G1 Climax that added intrigue. One was the returning Kota Ibushi and the other was Zack Sabre Jr., in his first G1. His G1 debut itself was even bigger, facing Intercontinental Champion and ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi. The daunting task didn’t matter to the brash Brit. For 17:18, he picked Tanahashi apart. Since Tanahashi came in with his arm taped, Sabre made it his target and attacked it mercilessly. The stuff he did looked like it came with relative ease, which was a brilliant way to establish him with unfamiliar fans. This was the guy who could come in and treat the seven-time IWGP Champion like a chump. Tanahashi got something going early, but stopped to taunt and Sabre caught him in another submission. He was just in the driver’s seat from the get go. Tanahashi’s comeback saw him work the leg, as expected. He hit High Fly Flow, but Sabre got his knees up on the second. He trapped Tanahashi in another submission, ripped off his arm tape and made the ace tap out in his G1 debut. It was the perfect way to book Sabre on his first show. There was excellent limb work and top notch selling. The rematch for the IC Title wasn’t as good, but we’ll always have this. [****¼]
|
|
|
|
Post by TheSystem 1.5 on Jan 5, 2018 15:08:33 GMT -5
War Games exceeded my expectations. Hope it remains in NXT for the foreseeable future. Killian ate a key
|
|
|
Post by marino13 on Jan 5, 2018 15:20:21 GMT -5
War Games exceeded my expectations. Hope it remains in NXT for the foreseeable future. Killian ate a key He did! He Really did!!
|
|
|
Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2018 16:52:35 GMT -5
64. JML vs. The South Pacific Power Trip – PROGRESS: Orlando 3/31/17
|
| The South Pacific Power Trip have been a highlight on any show they’re on. JML consists of Sami Callihan and Shane Strickland. I love Strickland, Banks and Cooper, while Callihan has been the best I’ve ever seen him as Jeremiah Crane in Lucha Underground this year. This was not for tag team traditionalists. It was a wild 13:12 sprint, featuring big spots and tons of action. I don’t think there was a “legal” man at any point. Everyone got in dives, there was brawling around the ring and stiff kicks throughout. Some of the best spots saw JML hitting a sick double stomp/powerbomb combo and an exchange of kicks involving everyone that came off great. The highlight saw Strickland hit a spider German on Cooper as he hit a superplex on Sami, with Banks coming off instantly after to take him out with a coast to coast dropkick. Incredible action. Banks and Cooper won with an elevated spike DDT, capping arguably the craziest match of WrestleMania weekend. SPPT is one of the best teams in the world because of their versatility and matches like this showed why. [****¼]
|
*This is the final appearance of Sami Callihan. *It is the final match from PROGRESS: Orlando.
|
|
|
Post by marino13 on Jan 5, 2018 17:32:16 GMT -5
I've heard about Sami Callihan for years. And I was excited for him to debut with NXT. And to be honest, he never really impressed me while there. Now I hear good things again, so maybe it was just an oil & water sort of thing.
|
|
Deleted
Joined on: Apr 25, 2024 11:28:06 GMT -5
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2018 18:06:29 GMT -5
Shane Strickland is the best, And I'm not saying that just cause he's a local boy.
|
|