X's Reviews/Match Ratings

[X]

Could never get over the fact that they packed three decisions of Benoit vs. Jericho into a little over twelve minutes. Those kind of booking things piss me off irrationally.

Pissed me off too, they kept cutting those guys short around this time, I really don't see why we couldn't have thrown away the Kat-Terri "stinkface" match and added another 5-10 minutes to Benoit/Jericho. Still though, it's fuckin' Benoit and Jericho going at it in their prime, pretty much an instant *** every time atleast.

Mysterio/Swagger did go three falls, did it not? DQ to Rey, tap out to Swagger and pin to Rey?

Wow you're right...weird, swear to God I don't remember seeing Swagger win that second fall, I almost feel like maybe they edited down the match for TV maybe for my station or something, I don't know. I'll have to watch it again but yeah you're right actually, it did go 3 falls.

I have to say that I think Swagger is becoming more like Angle as the weeks pass. Not just character wise and move set but also his ability to put on decent matches with all kinds of performers

Swagger? I would have went with Mysterio there, he's the one who's putting on great matches with a wide variety of performers from his classics with Jericho to his great feud with Punk to his great match with the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble and now his great matches with Swagger. Mysterio is probably one of if not the most consistent guy on the WWE's roster these days in my eyes, even if his knees are shit.

I like Swagger, but am not thrilled with him. Thought his title run was booked poorly and he needs a ton of work on the mic, but atleast he's consistent in the ring. Kid still needs a good deal of seasoning though.

Where can you find the Kawada/Jack match?

Not sure, let me see...here we go:

 

[Барбоса]

Swagger? I would have went with Mysterio there, he's the one who's putting on great matches with a wide variety of performers from his classics with Jericho to his great feud with Punk to his great match with the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble and now his great matches with Swagger. Mysterio is probably one of if not the most consistent guy on the WWE's roster these days in my eyes, even if his knees are shit.

I like Swagger, but am not thrilled with him. Thought his title run was booked poorly and he needs a ton of work on the mic, but atleast he's consistent in the ring. Kid still needs a good deal of seasoning though.

By no means do I think Swagger is the finished article but I do think that he is improving in every area, including his mic work. However, I still think that despite upping the ruthless streak in his character, he still can come off as goofy, particularly with his smile. When he won the title from Jericho I thought that we were going to see a much more serious Jack Swagger, but alas the legs were cut out from under him by shoddy booking.

As Mysterio, I have always enjoyed his ring work and as you say his feuds and matches over the last year have been exemplary. The constant talking about being the underdog is becoming a redundant now though. How many times does it take for someone to overcome the odds before it is no longer an upset that he wins?

 

[Goliath Uterus]

Not sure, let me see...here we go:

Thank you good sir, fantastic sig by the way.

 

[X]

Glad you like Angel, I've become a pretty big mark for Devitt over the last year. So happy to see him getting the push he deserves.

 

[X]

Update time bitches

WWE
9/1/84 Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Steve Lombardi - ***
3/11/89 Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard vs. Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty - ***3/4
7/29/10 MVP vs. Chavo Guerrero - ***

Didn't really watch much WWE this week, outside of a few shows. Random Philly house show from September of '84 with a shockingly fun match between a pre-Brooklyn Brawler Steve Lombardi and Iron Mike Sharpe, before he became a jobber extraordinaire. Fun match with Sharpe working the crowd PERFECTLY as the heel. ALso rated here is the tag team match the Rockers and Brainbusters had on an episode of SNME in March of '89 as well as a match that MVP and Chavo had on Superstars this week which I thought was damn good.

TNA
7/29/10 Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money (Cage) - ***3/4

Not much TNA as usual, just the cage match from Impact this week which was awesome but could've greatly benefited from another 5 minutes or so. Awesome little match though.

ROH
9/20/03 AJ Styles vs. Colt Cabana vs. Chris Sabin vs. Matt Stryker - ***1/2
9/20/03 Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels - ***1/2
10/16/03 Backseat Boyz vs. Izzy/Dixie - ***1/4
10/16/03 CM Punk vs. AJ Styles - ***3/4
10/16/03 Xavier vs. Homicide vs. John Walters vs. Mark Briscoe - ***
10/16/03 Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe - ***
10/25/03 Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer - ***
10/25/03 Alex Shelley/Jimmy Jacobs vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. Don Juan/Fast Eddie vs. Outcast Killaz (Scramble) - ***
10/25/03 Christopher Daniels vs. John Walters - ***1/4
10/25/03 Steve Corino vs. CM Punk - ***1/4
10/25/03 Homicide vs. Samoa Joe (No Holds Barred) - ***1/2
11/1/03 Xavier/Nigel McGuinness vs. John Walters/Tony Mamaluke - ***
11/1/03 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs. Izzy/Dixie - ***1/4
11/1/03 Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer (Fighting Spirit Challenge) - ***3/4
11/1/03 Backseat Boyz vs. Teddy Hart/Jack Evans vs. Carnage Crew vs. The SAT vs. Hydro/Angel (Scramble Cage Match) - ***3/4
11/1/03 Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels vs. CM Punk vs. Steve Corino - ***1/4
11/1/03 Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles - ***3/4
11/28/03 Homicide vs. John Walters - ***1/4
11/28/03 Christopher Daniels vs. Jimmy Rave - ***1/4
11/28/03 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe/AJ Styles - ***1/2
11/28/03 CM Punk vs. Raven (Cage) - ****

Lots more 2003 ROH ratings as I continue to go through their shows one at a time, lots of great wrestling, too much for me to even comment on almost but the best stuff had to be the final Punk-Raven cage match in their feud, great match that put Punk over like a million bucks. Lots of other good wrestling, but nothing too memorable or outstanding. The scramble cage match was great for the short time it had, even if Teddy Hart's antics almost ruined the match and got him kicked out of ROH for the next 7 years, deservedly so. What a fucking asshole that kid is, just hitting 30 foot moonsaults off a cage on people who aren't prepared, hitting spots that aren't planned at all and putting everyone's lives in danger. What a fucking cunt. Still an insanely fun spotfest though.

EVOLVE
5/1/10 Louis Lyndon/Flip Kendrick vs. Cheech/Cloudy vs. Zane Silver/Chase Burnett - ***
5/1/10 Jon Moxley vs. Drake Younger - ***
5/1/10 Chris Hero vs. Bobby Fish - ***1/2
5/1/10 Kyle O'Reilly vs. TJP - ***
5/1/10 Jimmy Jacobs vs. Brad Allen - ***
5/1/10 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chuck Taylor - ****

Ratings for the newest EVOLVE show, lots of good stuff on here as the EVOLVE concept continues to result in some great matches with great storytelling, highlights of the night were definitely the Hero-Fish match which told a great story of Hero not taking the underdog Fish seriously and then paying for it, and the main event between Claudio Castagnoli and Chuck Taylor, who I've become a huge fan of over the past few months. This kid just has so much fucking charisma it's obscene, he is a future bonafire STAR in this business mark my words, he's just too damn good on the mic not to be. He and double C had a damn, damn good match that had be toying around with ***3/4 and ****, but in the end I leaned to the **** rating based on how much I liked the guys involved. Really good match, EVOLVE continues to put on excellent main events for their shows. Can't wait to see Danielson in their ring.

CHIKARA
6/26/10 Fire Ant/Soldier Ant vs. Player Uno/Player Dos - ***1/4
6/26/10 Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston - ***1/2
6/26/10 Equinox/Helios/Scott Parker/Shane Matthews vs. Chuck Taylor/Icarus/Vin Gerard/STIGMA - ***1/4

Ratings for the "We Must Eat Michigan's Brain" show from CHIKARA featuring Bryan Danielson's first match on the indies after being fired by the WWE, which is one of the highlights of the year honestly just for the way the crowd pops for him and showers him in neckties, brilliant stuff. He put on a damn good little match with Eddie Kingston as well, nothing classic, but very solid from start to finish, fun stuff. Main event was very fun too. Can't wait to watch their next show which features a Danielson-Tim Donst match that's been getting alot of praise.

ECW
5/14/94 Terry Funk/Arn Anderson vs. Sabu/Bobby Eaton - ***3/4
6/24/94 Cactus Jack vs. Sabu - ***1/4

Ratings for two different ECW shows from '94, only two matches good enough to rate, one of which was a moderately fun hardcore match that Foley and Sabu had, the other was a damn good tag match between Funk and Arn Anderson taking on Sabu and Bobby Eaton, got to love that brief WCW talent exchange, awesome seeing Arn just let loose in an ECW ring. Damn good match that could've been a classic if not for the screwjob finish.

WCW
6/27/87 Ric Flair/Lex Luger vs. Ron Garvin/Jimmy Garvin - ***1/4

Random tag match from an episode of WCW on Saturday in '87, very good stuff from all men involved though.

NOAH
2/17/02 Kenta Kobashi/Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama/Yuji Nagata - ****1/4
2/17/02 Yoshiobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jushin Liger/Wataru Inoue - ***1/2
4/7/02 Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru - ***1/4
5/26/02 Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA - ****
1/13/03 Kenta Kobashi/KENTA vs. Shinjiro Ohtani/Masato Tanaka - ***1/4
12/24/04 Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa - ***1/4
12/24/04 Go Shiozaki/Takuma Sano vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Kotaro Suzuki - ***1/4
6/29/10 Takeshi Morishima vs. Eddie Edwards - ***1/2
6/29/10 Go Shiozaki/KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Jun Akiyama/Yoshinari Ogawa/Masao Inoue - ***1/4

Lots more NOAH ratings including ratings for two matches from a show from a few weeks ago, including a solid Morishima-Edwards match that perfectly executed how to work a Big man vs. small fast man match, absolute textbook perfection in that regard with Edwards trying to use his speed to take down Morishima with one high risk move after another before eventually being put away by Morishima's raw power. Fun stuff. Lots of other random ratings including Kobashi's return match after dealing with cancer, which was fucking awesome despite the fact that the wrong people won the match.

NJPW
7/16/96 Jushin Liger/El Samurai/Norio Honaga vs. Shinjiro Otani/Tatsuhito Takaiwa/Tokimitsu Ishizawa - ***1/4
7/16/96 Shinya Hashimoto/Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami/Shiroh Koshinaka - ***
7/16/96 Kazuo Yamazaki/Takashi Iizuka vs. Masahiro Chono/Hiroyoshi Tenzan - ***
7/17/96 Kazuo Yamazaki/Takashi Iizuka vs. Tatsutoshi Gotoh/Michiyoshi Ohara - ***1/2
7/17/96 Masahiro Chono/Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Hiro Saito vs. Tatsumi Fujinami/Shiroh Koshinaka/Akira Nogami - ***

Ratings for some matches from a 2-day co-promotional event that NJPW held with WCW in 1996. Lots of solid stuff, but nothing great.

SHIMMER
11/6/05 Sara Del Ray vs. Lacey vs. Daizee Haze vs. Mercedes Martinez (Elimination) - ***

Fun elimination match from the main event of the second SHIMMER show.

AJW
5/26/91 Kyoko Inoue/Debbie Malenko vs. Mariko Yoshida/Esther Moreno - ***3/4
5/26/91 Toshiyo Yamada vs. Yumiko Hotta - ***
5/26/91 Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota - ***1/4
5/26/91 Akira Hokuto/Sakie Hasegawa vs. Bull Nakano/Bat Yoshinaga (2/3 Falls) - ****

Ratings from the 5/26/91 Korauken Hall show that All-Japan Women's Pro Wrestling held, great show with some damn good matches, the best of which was the main event with the monsters Bull and Yoshinaga trying to literally destroy their opponents, great show.

BJW
7/26/98 Shadow WX vs. Tomoaki Honma (Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch) - ***1/2
6/17/99 Tomoaki Honma vs. Minoru Fujita - ***1/4
6/20/99 Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Tomoaki Honma (Light Tube Bed of Nails Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch) - ****
8/10/99 Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Shadow WX (Light Tube Barbed Wire Fire Deathmatch) - ***
10/3/99 Tomoaki Honma vs. W*INGER (Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch) - ***1/2

Yep, I'm rating deathmatches from Big Japan now. Don't worry though, I'm extremely hard to please in deathmatches, for me to even consider giving the match *** it needs to be focused on wrestling with the hardcore elements being a bonus and not a crutch, luckily I had a great compilation of matches from when a bunch of the Big Japan rookies decided to put on great wrestling matches with their deathmatches in the late 90s, great stuff here with some great deathmatches that were focused on WRESTLING and built up to the spots perfectly just like a correct deathmatch should, best of which had to be the Yamakawa-Honma deathmatch from 6/20/99, with a tombstone piledriver onto a pile of light-tubes that has to be one of the sickest spots I've ever seen in any promotion. Some great matches on this comp.

Don't worry though, I know a good and a bad deathmatch when I see one, you'll never see a fuckin' Ian Rotten or Necro Butcher deathmatch rated well by me.

CWF
9/1/86 Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (2/3 Falls) - ***3/4

Great 2/3 falls match between Flair and Luger from the 3rd Battle of the Belts event that was held in Florida. Fun stuff.

Memphis
6/22/85 Stan Lane/Steve Keirn vs. Sheepherders - ***

Random fun tag brawl from Memphis.

UWF/Mid-South
12/27/85 Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero vs. Stan Lane/Steve Keirn - ***
1/24/86 Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero vs. Stan Lane/Steve Keirn (Mexican Death Match) - ****1/4
2/28/86 Stan Lane/Steve Keirn vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero (Texas Tornado Cage) - ***1/4

More random Mid-South goodness including an absolutely fucking epic Mexican Death Match that the Guerreros had with the Fabulous Ones in January of '86, great match.

Portland
4/10/82 Ric Flair vs. Brett Wayne Sawyer (2/3 Falls) - ****
10/10/82 Ric Flair vs. Brett Wayne Sawyer (2/3 Falls) - ****1/4
5/14/83 Roddy Piper/Billy Jack Haynes vs. Ric Flair/Rip Oliver - ***
10/20/84 Ric Flair vs. Billy Jack Haynes - ***3/4

Some great stuff from an awesome Flair in Portland comp I received earlier this week, including two GREAT 2/3 falls matches with Brett Sawyer (Buzz' brother) as well as a great match with a young and still totally awesome Billy Jack Haynes. Fun stuff.



Phew! That's it for now. Stay tuned for more ratings, including a bunch of new NOAH, ROH, CHIKARA, and other goodness!

 

[X]

It's that time again, oh yes. Prepare for ratings goodness.

WWE
4/6/81 Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen (Cage) - ***1/2
11/25/85 Terry Funk vs. Mr. Wrestling II - ***1/4
8/8/88 Rougeau Brothers vs. The Rockers - ***3/4
4/2/89 Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard vs. Tito Santana/Rick Martel - ***
4/2/89 Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan - ***3/4
5/27/89 Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman (Cage) - ***1/2
5/27/89 Demolition vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard - ***
5/17/93 Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty - ***3/4
9/21/00 The Rock/Triple H/Undertaker vs. Chris Benoit/Kane/Kurt Angle - ***
9/24/00 Chris Jericho vs. X-Pac - ***
9/24/00 Edge/Christian vs. Hardy Boyz (Cage) - ***3/4
9/24/00 Triple H vs. Kurt Angle (No DQ) - ***1/4
9/24/00 The Rock vs. Chris Benoit vs. Undertaker vs. Kane - ***1/4

Lots of good stuff here, bunch of random 80s house show goodness including a great Rougeaus-Rockers match from August of '88 that would have gotten 4 stars if not for the shoddy ending. Ratings for some good matches from SNME in 1989, as well as ratings here for Unforgiven 2000 which I watched for the first time since watching it live a freakin' decade ago. Some entertaining stuff but nothing truly great, though the Edge/Christian-Hardyz cage match comes close for just sheer absolute fun jam packed into about 13 minutes of awesomeness. Benoit and Rock carried the main event to being above-average as well. Oh and DUH, my bad, forgot to mention ratings for Wrestlemania 5 including the legendary Hogan-Savage main event which I wanted badly to give **** but just couldn't quite do it and *****ed out at ***3/4, great great match from a sports entertainment point of view, though the in ring work was actually quite good.

TNA
8/27/09 Hamada vs. Daffney (No DQ) - ***
8/5/10 Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money (Ultimate X) - ***1/2

Went back and watched Hamada's debut in TNA again, just as fun and perfect of an introduction as I remember against Daffney with a sick moonsault-table spot and a great finish, showing again just how talented the Knockouts division used to be before they decided to start letting all the talent go, pushing the people that couldn't wrestle and burying them all simultaneously somehow. Also rated is the Ultimate X match from last night's Impact, just as fun as you'd expect from these two, this has just been the Summer of the MCMG and Beer Money, they can practically sleepwalk through a great match at this point with eachother. Not their best match-up certainly, but fun stuff.

WCW
3/18/89 Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair - ****1/2
6/14/89 Terry Funk vs. Ricky Steamboat - ****

Rated here for WCW we have the forgotten 1989 Steamboat-Flair match-up, the one that they had in Landover, Maryland on March 18th which was never shown on television or PPV, but was rather taped for local syndication only, it was actually one of TWO matches they had that day as they had another match in Philadelphia that night. This match here though was given SIX stars by Meltzer, though I had to disagree it was that good, I have it rated below all three of their major PPV matches that year, but still, it's fucking Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat in 1989, how could this match not crack ****1/2 easily? Also rated is the Funk-Steamboat match from the sixth Clash of the Champions later that year, a forgotten classic in a year full of unbelievable wrestling in WCW and the NWA.

ECW
7/16/94 Mikey Whipwreck vs. Chad Austin - ***
7/16/94 Shane Douglas vs. Sabu - ***

Rated here are two matches from Heatwave 1994. The Mikey Whipwreck-Chad Austin match wasn't great per se and probably wouldn't have gotten 3 stars from me if it was held in another promotion, but at that time for ECW and for two young kids like that, they did their best and put on a damn entertaining cruiserweight-style match before WCW made it famous. The main event, hilariously and ironicly titled "Who Will Be the FUTURE of Wrestling?" between Sabu and Douglas was a strange match, going back and forth from brilliance to mediocrity, but the whole match together told a nice story and both men worked hard and didn't mess anything up, so I had to give them credit and toss it ***, actually had it rated higher before a very anti-climactic ending hurt it a bit. Still though, funny how those two "Futures of Wrestling" turned out, eh?

ROH
11/29/03 Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles - ***1/2
11/29/03 Steve Corino vs. Homicide (Barbed Wire Match) - ****
12/27/03 Bryan Danielson vs. Jay Briscoe - ***1/4
12/27/03 Xavier vs. John Walters (Fight Without Honor) - ****
12/27/03 Matt Stryker vs. BJ Whitmer - ***1/4
12/27/03 CM Punk/Colt Cabana vs. Tomoaki Honma/Kazushi Miyamoto - ***
12/27/03 Kaz Hayashi vs. AJ Styles - ***1/4
1/9/04 Christopher Daniels vs. CM Punk vs. AJ Styles vs. John Walters - ***1/2
1/10/04 Matt Stryker vs. Alex Shelley - ***1/4
1/10/04 Chris Sabin vs. Jimmy Jacobs - ***
1/10/04 AJ Styles vs. Homicide - ***1/2
1/10/04 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe/Bryan Danielson - ***1/4
1/10/04 Christopher Daniels/Dan Maff/BJ Whitmer vs. CM Punk/Colt Cabana/Ace Steel - ***1/4
3/27/10 Kenny Omega vs. Rocky Romero - ***
3/27/10 Jerry Lynn vs. Steve Corino (Hardcore) - ***1/4
3/27/10 Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards vs. El Generico/Colt Cabana - ***1/2
3/27/10 Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong - ***1/4
4/23/10 Chris Hero vs. Petey Williams - ***1/4
4/23/10 Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards vs. Jon Davis/Kory Chavis - ***
4/23/10 Roderick Strong vs. El Generico - ***1/2
4/23/10 Tyler Black vs. Kenny King - ***1/4
4/24/10 Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong - ***3/4
4/24/10 Austin Aries/Kenny King vs. Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe - ***
4/24/10 Tyler Black vs. Chris Hero - ***3/4
4/24/10 El Generico/Colt Cabana vs. Kevin Steen/Steve Corino (Street Fight) - ****
5/7/10 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jay Briscoe - ***
5/7/10 Kenny King vs. Colt Cabana - ***
5/7/10 Christopher Daniels vs. Kevin Steen - ***1/4
5/7/10 Tyler Black/Delirious vs. Austin Aries/Rhett Titus - ***
6/19/10 Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards - ****1/2

Fucking MEGA TON BOMBS OF ROH RATINGS! Wow, lets see all the shows with matches rated here...

• War of the Wire 2003
• Final Battle 2003
• ROH/JAPW Collision Course 2004
• The Battle Lines Are Drawn 2004
• Phoenix Rising 2010
• Pick Your Poison 2010
• Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 2 2010
• Civil Warfare 2010

And I've still got Supercard of Honor and the rest of Death Before Dishonor to watch! Amongst all this awesomeness is the main event from Death Before Dishonor, the match up between Davey Richards and Tyler Black that will DEFINITELY be a contender this year for match of the year, ****1/2 with ease, absolutely phenomenal match that I highly recommend to everyone. Also rated are the Corino-Homicide barbed wire match which was bloody fun, as well as an incredibly underrated Fight Without Honor between Xavier and John Walters from Final Battle 2003, the only thing keeping the match from getting ****1/4 was a slightly botched finish, but the match was so god damn good it easily deserved ****, forgotten gem from ROH's early days.

CHIKARA
6/27/10 Amasis/Ophidian vs. Vin Gerard/STIGMA - ***
6/27/10 Bryan Danielson vs. Tim Donst - ***3/4
6/27/10 Claudio Castagnoli/Ares vs. Jimmy "Equinox" Olsen/Helios (2/3 Falls) - ***1/4

Ratings for the Faded Scars and Lines show from 6/27 highlighted by a great match between Bryan Danielson and Tim Donst, who I'm growing to love more and more with each bit of exposure I have to the guy. Reminds me alot of Kurt Angle.

NOAH
12/23/00 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Vader - ***1/4
10/19/01 Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - ***1/2
1/10/03 Yoshinari Ogawa/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - ***
1/10/03 Jun Akiyama/Akitoshi Saito vs. Shinjiro Otani/Masato Tanaka - ***3/4
1/10/03 Mitsuharu Misawa/Masahiro Chono vs. Kenta Kobashi/Akira Taue - ***1/2
7/10/10 KENTA/Eddie Edwards vs. Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi - ***
7/10/10 Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naomichi Marufuji - ****
7/10/10 Go Shiozaki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - ****
7/10/10 Takashi Sugiura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - ****1/4
7/14/10 Jun Akiyama/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takashi Sugiura/Shuhei Taniguchi - ***
7/14/10 Taiji Ishimori/Ricky Marvin vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima/Kento Miyahara - ***1/2

Tons of NOAH ratings, including full ratings for the 7/10 and 7/14 NOAH shows that I discussed in the All Things Puro thread a few days back, lots of great shit highlighted by a sick match between Sugiura and Takayama, some of the stiffest shit I've ever seen in my life. Lots of other good stuff I already discussed in the puro thread. Also rated here is the 1/10/03 Great Voyage supershow.

NJPW
6/5/80 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki - ***
9/25/80 Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen - ***1/4
9/30/80 Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen - ***1/2
12/10/80 Antonio Inoki/Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen/Hulk Hogan - ***3/4
6/5/93 Eddie Guerrero vs. Lightning Kid - ***1/4

Random New Japan ratings, mostly coming from an excellent 8 Disc Best of Stan Hansen in Japan set I've been watching this week, lots of good stuff including the awesome Real World Tag Legue finals from 1980 pitting Inoki and Backlund against Hansen and the Hulkster himself, good shit with Hogan showing some of that wrestling skill he had before he went to the WWE and worked the same match for 20 years. Also a very fun match between Eddie Guerrero and Sean Waltman (The Lighting Kid) in the 1993 Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

AJPW
7/4/10 Shuji Kondo/BUSHI/Hiroshi Yamato vs. MAZADA/Minoru Tanaka/Hate (Hair vs. Hair) - ***
7/4/10 Minoru Suzuki vs. Masayuki Kono - ***1/2

Ratings for the 7/4 All Japan show, really fun six man hair vs. hair match with the usual junior heavyweight suspects, who continue to make All Japan watchable these days. Suzuki and Kono actually had a fairly good main event though that told a very nice story with excellent psychology on Suzuki's part, showing his trademark MMA and shootfighting background with some insanely painful looking leg submissions that really affected Kono's ability to use his speed against Suzuki. Fun match, one of the better All Japan main events I've seen this entire year.

FREEDOMS
6/21/10 Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Mammoth Sasaki - ***1/4

Very random Japanese indy show I watched featuring the return of Mammoth Sasaki against DDT regular Sekimoto, fun stuff carried mostly by Sekimoto who seems to just get better and better with age. Also on this show was a fairly entertaining hardcore "dream match" between Jun Kasai and the Necro Butcher, absolute garbge psychology and wrestling-wise, but entertaining in a sick kind of way. I mean if you're going to have a psychology-free spotfest, atleast make the spots fun and they did. Obviously nothing worth even *** though.

Dragon Gate
7/11/10 Naruki Doi/PAC vs. Dragon Kid/Ryo Saito vs. Cyber Kong/KAGETORA vs. NOSAWA Rongai/TOZAWA Kengai (Elimination) - ****1/4
7/11/10 K-ness/Susumu Yokosuka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki/Don Fuji - ***1/4
7/11/10 BxB Hulk vs. Shingo Tagaki (Hair vs. Hair) - ****
7/11/10 YAMATO vs. Masato Yoshino - ***3/4

Ratings for the AWESOME 7/11 huge supershow that Dragon Gate had in Kobe which was just great from start to finish, including a jaw-droppingly entertaining four tag team elimination match, a fun tag title defense for K-ness and Yokosuka, a fantastic Hair vs. Hair match between BxB Hulk and Shingo, and a great main event between YAMATO and Masato Yoshino. Just awesomeness all around, can't recommend this show enough if you get the chance to see it, EXCELLENT show here from Dragon Gate, I forgot how fucking great they can be at times.

IWA-MS
2/3/01 Jerry Lynn vs. Colt Cabana - ***
2/17/01 Jerry Lynn vs. Suicide Kid - ***3/4

Few random Jerry Lynn matches from IWA-MS in 2001, both of which he carried to very good matches with a young Colt Cabana and the indy favorite Suicide Kid. Fun stuff.

CZW
5/19/01 W*INGER vs. Minoru Fujita - ***

Pretty fun junior heavyweight match between two of Big Japan's junior aces in W*INGER and Fujita. Yeah, I know CZW sucks, but they have had some great matches in their juniors division over the years.


Phew! That's it for now. Enjoi.

 

[jmt225]

Great shit as always, X. Two things:

1. Outside of his return bout against Marufuji, I haven't watched any of KENTA since his return... how's he looking to you?

2. I thought it would be fun and add a little more to the thread if every now and then I pop up and ask you to give a prediction of what rating you will give to an upcoming match. It'll just be interesting to see if it lives up to your expectations or not.

So, with that said... first match, appropriately, Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn at Hardcore Justice. Let's hear it.

 

[X]

Great shit as always, X. Two things:

1. Outside of his return bout against Marufuji, I haven't watched any of KENTA since his return... how's he looking to you?

He looks good. I mean, he's never going to be as insanely good as he was from like 02-08 again, but he's still one of the best juniors in the world. He was able to hit his trademark stuff all without much effort and looked good in the ring all around man, really did. Has some weird new music though, makes me miss TI. The match up he had with Eddie Edwards against Devitt and Taguchi was underwhelming because you'd expect fucking greatness out of those four, but KENTA still got some good work in as did everyone else and it was good enough to crack *** for me. They didn't give them enough time though.

2. I thought it would be fun and add a little more to the thread if every now and then I pop up and ask you to give a prediction of what rating you will give to an upcoming match. It'll just be interesting to see if it lives up to your expectations or not.

So, with that said... first match, appropriately, Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn at Hardcore Justice. Let's hear it.

Oh man, I wish there was an icon of a schoolgirl squealing in delight because that's the only appropriate one I could place here to convey how much I'm looking forward to that match, when I saw Lynn at the end of Impact last night I was ecstatic. Lynn is a god damn machine and is still just as good in the ring as he was five or ten years ago, he's like an ageless wrestling machine, I love that bastard. RVD has shown he can still go in TNA when he's matched up with the right people, and considering these two haven't had a big match with eachother in about 10 years and that it's the main event of this ECW reunion show...man I've got great expectations as you can tell, I'm expecting those two to tear the house down and justify this entire hackneyed ECW revival thing TNA is doing. One of my all time favorite feuds was RVD-Lynn, so this match has me more excited than probably any other wrestling match in 2010 thus far, apart from maybe Taker-HBK II.

As for rating...I don't know, I'm hoping for a **** affair.

Yeah dude...can't wait. I get the feeling the rest of the show will be abysmal, but the main event is all I'm focusing on and I can't wait. I read 2 Cold Scorpio is apparently going to be at the show as well, curious to see what shape he's in these days, always a mark for 2 Gold Scorpio.

 

[X]

Ratings for TNA HardCORE Justice 2010 PPV from last night, which I just finished watching:

TNA
8/8/10 Guido Maritato/Tony Lukes/Tracey Smothers vs. Kid Kash/Simon Diamond/Johnny Swinger - *1/2
8/8/10 Too Cold Scorpio vs. CW Anderson - **3/4
8/8/10 PJ Polaco vs. Stevie Richards - **1/4
8/8/10 Rhino vs. Al Snow vs. Brother Runt - *3/4
8/8/10 Axl Rotten/Kahoneys vs. Brother Ray/Brother Devon (South Philadelphia Street Fight) - **
8/8/10 Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer - **
8/8/10 Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - ***

Rather bad for the most part. I was shocked at how good the short Scorpio-Anderson match was. Most everything else was trash, though a few matches were actually rather entertaining from a comedic aspect, I don't know how you couldn't laugh at the freakin' lightsaber battle in the street fight, or New Jack calling JB his bitch. Semi-entertaining show that featured mostly awful wrestling, but I thought the main event delivered for exactly what it was supposed to be. Finish was a bit poor, but it was a fairly entertaining spotfest with both men hitting their trademark moves without much sloppiness. Van Dam actually looked more motivated in there than he has during most of his TNA run, looked alot more crisp and agile in the ring last night.

Major update coming later tonight.

 

[X]

Big update times.

WWE
2/17/86 Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation - ****
12/17/88 Tito Santana vs. Greg Valentine - ****3/4
7/29/89 Randy Savage vs. Brutus Beefcake - ***
7/29/89 Demolition vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard (2/3 Falls) - ***1/4
8/28/89 Hart Foundation vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard - ****
8/28/89 Tito Santana/The Rockers vs. Rick Martel/Rougeau Brothers - ***1/4
8/28/89 Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior - ***3/4
9/25/00 Hardy Boyz vs. Edge/Christian (Ladder) - ***3/4
9/25/00 The Rock vs. Chris Benoit - ***
9/28/00 The Rock/Triple H vs. Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit - ***
8/5/10 Evan Bourne vs. Zach Ryder - ***1/2
8/10/10 Kaval/Percy Watson/Lucky Cannon vs. Michael McGillicutty/Alex Riley/Husky Harris - ***

Lots of good stuf including Killer Bees-Hart Foundation goodness from '86 and a simply phenomenal match between Greg Valentine and Tito Santana that went to a 20 minute time limit, which is literally the only thing keeping me from giving that match five stars. One of my all time favorite feuds there, Santana-Valentine, such great matches. Also rated here are some SNME matches, ratings for Summerslam 1989 as well as for the debut episode of Raw on TNN in September of 2000 featuring a really fun forgotten ladder match with the Hardyz and Edge and Christian. Also rated here is a match that Evan Bourne and Zach Ryder had on Superstars last week, which I thought was probably the best match I've ever seen on Superstars, awesome awesome shit. Six man tag from NXT was fun as well, the rookies are coming along.

ROH
1/29/04 Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs - ***1/2
1/29/04 CM Punk vs. Homicide - ***1/4
1/29/04 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe/Jerry Lynn - ***1/2
2/14/04 Doug Williams vs. CM Punk - ***
2/14/04 AJ Styles vs. Matt Stryker - ***
2/14/04 Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer - ***3/4
2/14/04 CM Punk vs. AJ Styles - ***3/4
3/13/04 Amazing Red vs. Jack Evans vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Teddy Hart - ***
3/13/04 Jerry Lynn vs. Nigel McGuinness - ***
3/13/04 AJ Styles vs. CM Punk - ****
3/13/04 Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe (Cage) - ****1/2
3/13/04 Carnage Crew vs. Special K (Scramble Cage) - ***
5/8/10 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs. Kenny King/Rhett Titus - ***
5/8/10 Amazing Kong vs. Sara Del Ray - ***
5/8/10 Christopher Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards - ***1/2
5/8/10 Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana (34th Street Deathmatch) - ***1/4
5/8/10 Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Sabin/Alex Shelley - ****1/2
5/8/10 Tyler Black vs. Roderick Strong - ****
6/19/10 El Generico vs. Kevin Steen - ****
6/19/10 Christopher Daniels vs. Kenny Omega - ***1/2
6/19/10 Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (No DQ) - ****1/4

LOTS of ROH ratings. Ratings for a few shows from early 2004 as well as ratings for this past May's Supercard of Honor as well as ratings for the rest of Death Before Dishonor, as I had only rated the Tyler Black-Davey Richards main event previously (which I gave ****1/2). So much good shit to talk about here, but the best was undoubtedly the Kings of Wrestling-MCMG tag match from Supercard of Honor. HOL-EE-FUUUUCCCKKK is all I can say, that match was cruising towards fuckin' five star territory until the BULLSHIT DQ finish with the Briscoes that they were forced to do by TNA. Still, the 20+ minutes of wrestling they put together was simply the best tag team wrestling I've seen in years, and that includes the awesome MCMG-Beer Money series thus far, I mean that 20 minutes of wrestling flew by in what felt like five minutes it was so fast paced, action packed and exciting. Seriously, stop what your doing and go watch that fucking match, bullshit finish aside it's absolutely STELLAR. Kings of Wrestling and the Briscoes also had a GREAT bloody No DQ match at Death Before Dishonor that will go down as probably one of the bloodiest matches in ROH history, but with great wrestling and even better brawling. Yeah, ROH is on a fuckin' roll lately.

TNA
8/7/02 Sonny Siaki/Jimmy Yang/Jorge Estrada vs. Amazing Red/The SAT - ***1/4
8/7/02 AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Low Ki - ****
8/14/02 Low Ki vs. Sonny Siaki vs. Jimmy Yang vs. Jorge Estrada - ***
8/14/02 AJ Styles/Jerry Lynn vs. Jeff Jarrett/Ron Killings - ***
8/8/10 Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - ***
8/12/10 Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles - ***3/4
8/12/10 Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns (2/3 Falls) - ****
8/12/10 Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss - ***

Ratings for a few episodes of TNA's weekly PPV in August of 2002 as well as ratings for HardCORE Justice and last night's Whole F'n Show episode of Impact. Sabu-RVD was good for what it was, but oh my god Impact last night blew that PPV away by a million fucking thousand degrees. Angle and Styles put on 10 minutes of perfection for an opener, Beer Money and MCMG had one of their very best matches to date in a classic 2/3 falls match, and RVD and Abyss put on a surprisingly entertaining and well executed hardcore match that actually didn't make me want to vomit through my eyeballs like most Abyss matches tend to make me want to do.

See TNA? The fuck do you need those old ECW guys for when you have all that talent of your own blowing their shit completely out of the water on free television?

NJPW
4/17/81 Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen - ***
5/1/81 Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen - ***1/2
6/4/81 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki - ***1/4
12/8/81 Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Stan Hansen/Roland Bock - ***
12/10/81 Stan Hansen/Dick Murdoch vs. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami - ***
2/15/92 Shinya Hashimoto/Akira Nogami vs. Pegasus Kid/Brad Armstrong - ***
3/14/96 Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Satoshi Kojima - ***
3/14/96 Jushin Liger/Wild Pegasus/El Samurai/Gran Hamada vs. Koji Kanemoto/shinjiro Ohtani/TAKA Michinoku/Tokimitsu Ishizawa (2/3 Falls) - ****1/2
1/4/97 Great Muta vs. Kensuke Sasaki - ***3/4
7/19/10 Koji Kanemoto/El Samurai vs. Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi - ***1/4
7/19/10 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Takashi Iizuka (Deep Sleep to Lose Match) - ****
7/19/10 Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - ***1/4
8/6/10 Prince Devitt vs. Strong Man - ***
8/6/10 Go Shiozaki vs. Yujiro Takahashi - ***
8/6/10 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Karl Anderson - ***1/4
8/6/10 Togi Makabe vs. Tetsuya Naito - ***
8/6/10 Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - ****

SO MUCH NEW JAPAN! Old 80s shit, 90s greatness (including an epic 8 man 2/3 falls match with the eight greatest junior heavyweight workers on the planet at the time) and ratings for the 7/19 show and for the first day of this year's G1 Climax tournament on 8/6 which I went into detail on in the "All Things Puroresu" thread in the ROH/Indy/International section. 7/19 show was pretty great as well with Tanahashi-Iizuka in the awesome "deep sleep to lose" match, which for those that don't know is a match where the only way to win is to either knock your opponent unconscious or make him pass out, awesome little match followed by a very good main event title defense from Makabe against Nakamura, who's been on fire lately. Worth checking out for the two main events. Definitely check out Naga-Nakamura from the first day of the G1 as well.

Coming up soon....MORE NEW JAPAN! AKA the rest of this year's G1 tournament. Get ready bitches.

ECW
8/13/94 Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio - ***1/4
8/27/94 Shane Douglas vs. 2 Cold Scorpio - ***
9/19/99 Lance Storm vs. Jerry Lynn - ****1/4
9/19/99 Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy vs. Little Guido - ***3/4
9/19/99 Justin Credible vs. Sabu - ***1/4
9/19/99 Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka vs. Taz - ***3/4
9/19/99 Rob Van Dam vs. Balls Mahoney - ***1/4

Speaking of ECW, went back and watched a bunch of the original shit these last few weeks. Ratings here for a few good matches from the summer of 1994 as well as ratings for the 1999 PPV Anarchy Rulz, which is likely ECW's greatest PPV ever next to Heatwave '98 in my eyes, featuring an amazing opener with Storm and Lynn, a super fun three way with Tajiri, Guido, & Super Crazy, as well as a fun spotfest with Sabu and Justin Credible, another classic Awesome/Tanaka confrontation/match, and a surprisingly good main event with Balls Mahoney of all people. I remember KB shitting on the fact that Mahoney was main eventing an ECW PPV, but fuck it if he and RVD didn't work their asses off for the short time they had to make Balls look like a legitimate threat to the TV title. Just a great, great PPV from start to finish.

NOAH
6/24/01 Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Juventud Guerrera - ***
9/6/08 KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki - ***1/4
7/25/09 Kota Ibushi/Atsushi Aoki vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki - ****
12/6/09 Naomichi Marufuji vs. Atsushi Aoki - ****3/4

Not a whole lot of NOAH, but great stuff. Best of which was a Marufuji-Aoki match from last December that blew my fuckin' mind with how on fire both guys were for the entirety of the match, tag another five minutes and a better ending on it and we're talking five star territory again here. Where the fuck has THIS Marufuji been in 2010? Because all I've seen of 'Fuji in 2010 thus far is his ass being carried to great matches.

AJPW
AJPW
2/4/82 Stan Hansen vs. Giant Baba - ***1/2
9/11/82 Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen - ***1/2
12/13/82 Terry Funk/Dory Funk Jr vs. Bruiser Brody/Stan Hansen - ****

Some random matches from a Stan Hansen in Japan comp I continue to watch, lots of good stuff with Baba, Brody, and the Funks.

Mid-South/UWF
3/22/85 Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan (No DQ Loser Leaves Town Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole Tuxedo Cage Match) - ****1/4
11/6/85 Ric Flair vs. Ted DiBiase - ***1/2

Yes, you did read those stipulations correctly on the DiBiase-Duggan match. It's fucking AWESOME, and is generally regarded as one of the very best matches and moments in Mid-South history, and I'd be hard pressed to disagree. Awesome shit and Duggan bleeds like a stuck pig, we're talking fuckin' Muta-level blade job here in 1985, I could not believe the amount of blood that Duggan lost, not for the squeamish I must say as that has to rank as one of the top five bladejobs I've ever seen in my entire life. Also rated is another bloody but awesome Flair-DiBiase match that unfortunately was only about 10 minutes, but it was a great 10 minutes. God I love Mid-South.

CZW
5/19/01 Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe - ****1/4

More proof that CZW isn't just about garbage wrestling, fucking amazing match between the two Briscoes here from the very first Best of the Best tournament in 2001. Possibly the best match these two have ever had together, and they've had some classics together (helps that they've probably been practicing these great matches together in their backyards since they were eight years old). Definitely a must-see match.



And we're done here for now. There's a bunch of great match ratings there for you guys to chew on or argue with me if you want.

 

[Ty Burna]

I saw you watched the Styles and Matt Stryker match. I really wish Stryker was still around as he was actually very good in the ring. Excellent match there between Styles and Stryker. Punk vs. Homicide is one of my favorites as far as Punk's ROH matches are concerned. Overall I'd give the Punk/Homicide match just a little more like a *** 3/4 but that's really just splitting ends. ROH really was on a roll back in 2004 and now in 2010. Which makes it even worse that Black is now leaving ROH once he's finally got his footing as World Champ.

 

[Барбоса]

Saw Marufuji vs. Aoki recently too. Wasn't quite as hot for it as you were but it was still good.

I definitely agree that another 5 mins was needed. It just seemed to be taking off before it ended rather abruptly.

About to settle in to watch Marufuji vs Misawa for GHC title

 

[X]

I saw you watched the Styles and Matt Stryker match. I really wish Stryker was still around as he was actually very good in the ring. Excellent match there between Styles and Stryker.

It would have been so much better if both Stryker and Styles didn't completely no-sell their previous injuries, that really pissed me off and hurt the match quite a bit in my eyes.

Punk vs. Homicide is one of my favorites as far as Punk's ROH matches are concerned. Overall I'd give the Punk/Homicide match just a little more like a *** 3/4 but that's really just splitting ends. ROH really was on a roll back in 2004 and now in 2010. Which makes it even worse that Black is now leaving ROH once he's finally got his footing as World Champ.

The Punk-Homicide match was good, but it was nothing extraordinary to me because I've seen them wrestle the same match with each other and other people 7000 times before and I've seen it wrestled better. Still a damn good match, but it's like one of a million damn good matches with those two so it wasn't anywhere near **** territory in my eyes.

Saw Marufuji vs. Aoki recently too. Wasn't quite as hot for it as you were but it was still good.

I definitely agree that another 5 mins was needed. It just seemed to be taking off before it ended rather abruptly.

I loved it, just was nonstop action from bell to bell with both men working their tails off and not stopping to rest. One of the better Marufuji matches I've seen in awhile.

About to settle in to watch Marufuji vs Misawa for GHC title

Those two worked well together, but I would have loved to have seen a Misawa from ten years earlier still in his prime taking on 'Fuji instead of old-man Misawa in NOAH in the 2000s. Oh well.

 

[Thriller Ant]

Is that 8 man tag from New Japan on Dailymotion? Or what show is it from? It seems completely orgasmic

 

[X]

Is that 8 man tag from New Japan on Dailymotion? Or what show is it from? It seems completely orgasmic

I'll send you a PM in a minute.

 

[The Crock]

X, you're the guy that I think knows the most about indy wrestling... so in your opinion; what is the greatest ROH match in the last 2 years?

 

[X]

Wow thanks for the compliment Crock, appreciated. As for what I think is the best ROH match of the last 2 years? Hmmm, give me a minute to think on that one. There's a bunch of shows from 2008 that I missed and never picked up so I wouldn't stand by these picks 100% when push comes to shove, but the first match that comes to mind would be KENTA vs. Nigel McGuinness from the Seventh Anniversary Show in '09. Dream match that lived up to it's potential with phenomenal in-ring work and some of the absolute best psychology and selling I've ever seen in a wrestling ring on the part of Nigel. Amazing match that I had rated at ****3/4.

Like I said though, there's a ton of shows from '08 and '09 that I still haven't gotten around to seeing, so my answer to that question could definitely change at any time. Nigel-KENTA just pops to my mind first, I just remember being blown away by that match when first seeing it.

 

[X]

Ratings for WWE Summerslam 2010:

8/15/10 Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston - **3/4
8/15/10 Alicia Fox vs. Melina - *
8/15/10 Big Show vs. CM Punk/Joey Mercury/Luke Gallows - **1/4
8/15/10 Sheamus vs. Randy Orton - *3/4
8/15/10 Kane vs. Rey Mysterio - **1/4
8/15/10 John Cena/Edge/Chris Jericho/R-Truth/John Morrison/Bret Hart/Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett/Justin Gabriel/David Otunga/Michael Tarver/Skip Sheffield/Heath Slater/Darren Young (Elimination) - ****


Terrible PPV until the main event, which was awesome.

 

[gd]

Quite harsh

 

[X]

The undercard was just atrocious, every match was a miscue in some way. Kofi-Ziggler was good until the BS DQ ending, the divas match was it's normal awfulness, Punk and the SES are buried (again) by the Big Show, Sheamus and Orton put on a match that was somehow even more boring than their Royal Rumble match (with ANOTHER DQ ending), and then Kane and Mysterio put on a half-assed Smackdown main event and called it a world title match when it was just an excuse to bring back 'Taker or the 12 millionth Taker-Kane feud. Thank God for the great main event or that would have likely been the worst PPV I've seen from the WWE in years.

 

[gd]

The Sheamus/Orton match was surely better than the one at RR. I actually thought the undercard was average, at least.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I don't understand people not liking Sheamus vs. Orton. I thought it was a solid match that made Sheamus look powerful and made Orton look like a dangerous challenger thus doing its job. I will say that I wasn't a fan of the ending.

 

[The_Misson]

I have to agree with X i didnt like most of the PPV except for the Main event which was GREAT! Also X could you help me find some great, Great Muta matches i've kinda been watching a lot of his matches lately and wanted to know if you knew of some really cool ones!

 

[gd]

The first ten minutes or so were atrocious. The latter part wasnt't that bad though. I don't mind the DQ ending either.

 

[X]

I don't get how anyone could have enjoyed it from an objective standpoint. The only part of the match that was the least bit exciting or entertaining was the last few minutes when they both finally picked up the pace from the unbelievably slow and boring pace they had been using in that match.

I really don't get how anyone could have enjoyed that match. 10 minutes of absolutely boring wrestling with Orton working his usual snail's pace and Sheamus seemingly working even slower, trading head locks before Orton starts putting on his usual sequence of moves we see on Raw every single week, followed by Orton kicking out of everything Sheamus could give him until Sheamus decides to get a chair and get DQed. How does Sheamus at all look good from that? He looks like shit, he threw his best moves at Orton and he couldn't put him away and had to AGAIN resort to the DQ finish to keep his belt. Literally nothing has changed in the 8 months since their last match, Sheamus still can't buy a clean win over anyone besides jobbers and Orton still does absolutely nothing to warrant the pops he gets.

Just a terrible match that wasn't exciting, made neither man look particularly good, or really accomplish anything whatsoever out of killing 10+ minutes and continuing this terrible feud.