On Star Ratings

"I should talk about Star Ratings.[...]I'm one guy, giving my opinion on a match.[...]I give stars cause it's a fun little thing. you read the thing, you look at the star ratings, if a bunch of them are high, you go 'Wow, Bryan really liked this show. I should go see it.'[...]"
-Bryan Alvarez, The Bryan and Vinny Show


So I felt like I needed to make this small aside to post to all of my reviews that involve me giving matches a star rating. Just because I wanna dissolve any idea that I have a high opinion of my taste in wrestling, one that would usually come with thinking people care what I rate a wrestling match.

At the end of the day, I do the Star Ratings on my blog posts for myself. I use the star ratings to track how I felt about certain matches for the benefit of my own memory. So I can compare how I felt about certain matches with other matches, and to see what I subconsciously think about certain wrestlers, teams, or companies. I in no way feel like my word should be taken with any grave seriousness by a wide audience. My Taste is my taste.

Okay this is really short, but maybe I'll come back and revise it some day.

NOAH Kohai 2: The Road to New Sunrise 2020

This review article is part of a series where I Chronicle my attempts to watch all of Pro Wrestling NOAH's 2020 catalogue. The previous article can be found here and the next one chronologically, if I haven't fallen off the reviewing wagon, can be found here. Give them all a read if you want the full context of what I'm talking about.

If you have issues with the fact I use Star Ratings for some of the matches I review here, kindly follow this link for my explanation.

Alright, the biggest show of the year is over with. There's a new singles championship that the entire roster can gun for with the National title, RATELS have control over both of NOAH's Junior titles, and Kongo went 0-2 in their attempt to take over the Heavyweight Division. The next significant show in the timeline, to me, is the New Year's show on January 4th of the cursed year 2020. But that doesn't mean we have nothing to do until then. We have four title matches over the course of three regular shows. On top of that, we have a trio of "Produce" shows run by three of NOAH's factions; RATELS' Showtime, Kongo's DIAMOND, and Sugiura-Gun's All Dogs Gather! (That Exclamation is part of the show name, not reflective of my excitement for the show). 

If I tried to attentively give every match on all of these shows a full blown review I'll probably burn myself out, almost definitely not finish by the time Budokan show gets here. So there's select matches I'll definitely give the full treatment, title matches or important singles matches mostly, but the best I'm probably going to do in between the big shows on my timeline is to glance over and give general feels on the smaller build up shows. I guess, at this point I'm trying to figure out if I can even FINISH before Budokan, I thought the show was on the 21st of February and not the 12th. But the success is in the effort, not the results for this one. Let's get started.

Pro Wrestling NOAH Starting Over, Night 5 November 16th 2019

This was the first show I watched after Aesthetic and I honestly wasn't expecting much, barring the crown jewel match I knew was coming. But, after the first two matches, all three of the 6-man tag matches on the show ended up being really good/ The RATELs/Stinger War was a break neck match which somehow surprised me, Kongo vs Kaito, Marafuji, and Hi69 was a good bounce back performance for Kenoh's unit, and the main event was a great prelude to the National title match coming up between Sugiura and Taniguchi. But the obvious reason anyone would watch this show was-

IPW UK Junior Heavyweight Title [1st Defense]

Atsushi Kotoge (c) (STINGER) vs Daisuke Harada (RATELS)

The Peach Twisters EXPLODE for the...Jesus Christ Daisuke Harada and Atsushi Kotoge have wrestled 34 times. I'm not joking, it's all right here. 

 

Anyway, THIS MATCH RULED. Oh my God this match was so good. It started with Daisuke outmatching Atsushi in the grappling department and keeping on the offense for the opening stretch of the match. Any time Atsushi gained the advantage, it was due to a high risk maneuver or from brawling outside the ring and into the crowd. You can see throughout the whole match that these two men know each other so well; each man at one point went for a splash that was countered with the same knee raising and quick pin, while later in the match each was able to easily avoid or endure the other's sugnature maneuvers. Technical exchanges turned to crowd brawling, which itself turned into an exchange of strikes in the ring. First  Elbows, then slaps, until both men were brought to the ground while the crowd rose to their feet. Finally, Atsushi gained control and almost had Daisuke with a top rope Spanish Fly. This is his one shot and I think he knew it as well. He landed a vicious headbutt on his old friend and a Killswitch for the two count. Desperation set in with some amazing and baffling roll ups from both men. Kotoge's luck ran out, as all luck does against the Young Master, who railed the champion with a knee and rolling elbow, a Katayama German, and finally the infamous top rope Katayama German Suplex for the Three Count. What a Goddamn War.

****

NOAH Kohai: Best of the Best, Battle of Aesthetics

 Happy New Year!

With 2021 coming around the corner, there's a lot of change in my life. I turned 27 a few days ago, just got my MBA from the University at Buffalo, and I'm about to finish buying a condo. With all the shake up in my life, I'm hoping I'll have a lot more time to work on my blog (maybe finally find a good name for it) and watch a lot more wrestling.

I've always called Pro Wrestling NOAH my Soul Mate promotion. Since I started watching it on and off in 2016, I've always felt a connection to it somehow. Maybe I appreciated the story behind it's founding, maybe it's because I like a good underdog story, or maybe (definitely) it's because I followed Katsuhiko Nakajima here from his performance in the 2016 G1 Climax and he immediately won the Heavyweight title at NOAH's next show right after that tournament finished. On the 21st of February, NOAH returns to Budokan hall and I wanna be there...in a metaphorical sense. So I'm planning to take the next month and a half to power through the end of 2019 and all of 2020's shows to get myself ready for the company's return to Budokan. We're starting with their biggest show from 2019 that also had the best name of the year; Battle of Aesthetic.

 

KAZMA SAKAMOTO, El Hijo del Dr. Wager, Jr., and Kinya Okada (Sugiura-Gun) vs Hitoshi Kumano, Mohammed Yone, and Quiet Storm

I wish I could say I payed attention to this match at all, but I used the time this match was on to set up the bones of the review...so Hijo del Dr. Wagner won the match with a Moonsault press that got a lot of hangtime and I miss Hitoshi Kumano.

Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue vs Mitsuo Momota and Tamon Honda

This was a comedy match, mostly between Masao Inoue, Momota, and Honda. The moments that Akitoshi came in resembled more of a match than when Inoue was in, but that's about the best I can say about it. No disrespect meant to the four men, but it just wasn't for me. The best part of the match was watching the 71 year old Mitsuo get a pretty complicated roll-up on Masao.

Hi69, Junta Miyawaki, and Osamu Nishimura vs. Hajime Ohara, NOSAWA Rongai, and Kazushi Sakuraba (Sugiura-Gun)

Miyawaki has a shirt here that says ORANGE RIOT and if I can get my hands on it I would like one. A good, fast paced match that mostly got me excited to be watching more Kazushi Sakuraba in the next few months. Actually, this match had more than a few of my low key favorite NOAH roster members in it, including Junta with his creamsicle gear and Hajime Ohara. Definitely can't wait to watch a whole bunch of Junior Heavyweights having respectful, peaceful matches.

Kazushi won the match for Sugiura-Gun with a heel hook into a Figure Four on Nio Hi69.

Masaaki Mochizuki, Minoru Tanaka, and Super Crazy vs. Atsushi Kotoge, Chris Ridgeway (Stinger), and Eddie Edwards

Another good exhibition of the NOAH Junior Heavyweights, mixed in with some outside talent. I was reminded how much I liked Chris Ridgeway and I'm sorry that I wont be seeing much of him in the next month of my watching. Good finishing scramble that left Super Crazy and Eddie Edwards in the ring together. Eddie used the Tiger Driver and a Shining Wizard to put away Crazy...so mixed message there.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Shuhei Taniguchi

Alright, the show really starts now; Kenta Mother Loving and Respecting Kobashi is in the commentary booth. 

 

This match was brutal but in an amazing way. To give a really short and probably bastardized rundown, Fujita was an Antonio Inoki prospect and three time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. MMA trained and 1st degree Inokism, I wouldn't want to fuck with Fujita. But Taniguchi, it seems, wants to fuck around with Fujita, taking him down early in the match and punting him in the head. The whole match is characterized by long bouts of Taniguchi having control but occasionally losing it to a much stronger and harder hitting Fujita. Shuhei showed amazing spirit here, more than I have ever seen out of him, and while ultimately coming up short got me to think differently of him. If you prefer your wrestling to be hard hitting, I would go out of your way to watch this short but brutal contest.

 

***3/4 This is a weird case. The high rating is for the intense heat from the crowd moreso than the the actual wrestling. If you watch this match on silent the rating drops hard. But as it is, everyone likes a good outsider dick story.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles [6th defense]

Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinari Ogawa (Stinger) (c) vs. Daisuke Harada and Tadasuke (RATELS)

Oh my God RATELs feels so long ago. The story of this match was an easy one. "AYY! Tadasuke! you can't step up to the plate." At least that's the feeling I got from it. It was otherwise a basic tag team match. Daisuke is NOAH's best Junior Heavyweight in my opinion. I'm torn between wanting him to step up and fight heavyweights and maybe go after the National title or be the Ace for NOAH's junior heavyweights. Match ends with a Lariat/German Suplex combo and a...well, it looks like an Eight Second Ride, James Storm's old finisher, so we'll go with that. Tadasuke gets the pin.

**3/4, but the audio got desync'd on my video towards the end so it might be better.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title[2nd Defense]

HAYATA (RATELS) (c) vs. YO-HEY (RATELS)

I know I just gushed about Daisuke in the last match, but I would like to take a hot second to gush about my boy HAYATA. I sincerely believe that if they wanted to, NOAH could build the Junior Heavyweights around HAYATA like they could around Daisuke. Maybe he's a little more flashy than the Young Master, but he's got the look and the crowd behind him and the handsome face...yeah, I think HAYATA is handsome, fight me. Early on in the match, HAYATA hit The Headache as YO-HEY was hanging between the ropes and it was terrifying. Both men bring out some serious high flying offense and high impact good shit in pursuit of the blue and silver belt. I was waiting the whole time for the match to slow down but it never really did. It was a great exchange of two men who each knew the other's moves and thought processes. HAYATA eventually planted YO-HEY with a Thrust Kick, a Headache in the middle of the ring (for a 2 count) before going for a moonsault but getting caught with YO-HEY's knees for another 2 count. YO-HEY kept fighting for kickouts, but after another Headache the match was over.

***3/4

GHC Tag Team Title 

Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura (KONGO)

 First RATELS and now AXIZ. Leave the memories alone, damnit! This is an awesome match up; Brute power from THE TOUGH against the focused technique of AXIZ. The young determination of Yoshiki, the sadism of Nakajima. This match fucking ruled. AXIZ isolating Inamura early for punishment, Nakajima taking joy in humiliating his opponent as he took him apart. Shiozaki got in on the action himself, showing a brutal side we don't often see today (I know it's only been a year but this still holds). The hot tag was eventually made to Masa who came in a house of fighting spirit, vinegar, and fire. He would stay in the rest of the match and get several close falls on both men. The Kongo pair did their best to put AXIZ away, but their raw power and determination couldn't match the skill and focus of their opposition. The match ended the way one would hope, with Nakajima in the ring with his old tag partner and friend, knocking him out with a high roundhouse kick and a Vertical Spike Brainbuster. I can't do this match justice, this is the first match on this show I would highly recommend anyone who's a fan of pro wrestling watch. THIS is NOAH.

****1/2

 

Great Muta vs. Naomichi Marufuji

Alright, I guess we have to cool down from that awesome tag title match we just watched, right?

God bless both these men and bell their knees. They tried but the result of this match was a plodding, gimmick filled match. I love both men (not enough to want Mutoh to win the GHC title at Budokan in a few months( but this wasn't a good match. Quite frankly I don't know how good it could have been. Out of respect to how I feel about Mutoh and how great I know Marufuji's matches normally are, plus what I feel for sure is a match that wasn't structured to be conventionally good, I'll pass on rating this one.Don't watch this one.

GHC National Title Match (vacant)

Takashi Sugiura (Sugiura-Gun) vs. Michael Elgin 

Some one call Big E, cause we're about to have two meat men slapping meat for a Meaty, red strapped title. Great touch in the opening package to show why both men were chosen to be in this crowning match; Sugiura was the losing finalist in the N1 League (missing out on the Main Event tonight) and Michael Elgin killed Marufuji with a Burning Goddamn Hammer at Impact Wrestling's Bound For Glory event the month before. It's rare to see Takashi "Murder Uncle Mk II" Sugiura being the sympathetic wrestler in the match, but for the first part of the match Michael Elgin was able to take it to him hard. When Sugiura got his feet back under him with a big ol' Spear the match became the hard hitting contest I was excited for it to be. In the vein of New Japan's NEVER Title, Big Japan's Strong Divion title, or seemingly any ZERO1 Heavyweight title match, these two men set the pace and the taste that the National Title seemingly promised to give. As the year goes on, we'll see that advertised style be refined and evolve. If you don't like the strike heavy, fighting spirit focused matches of Japanese pro wrestling, this match won't be for you, and that's okay. but if you're all for this kind of wrestling I can't recommend this match enough, An accidentally hilarious exchange saw Elgin his Sugiura with two rolling German Suplexes, shortly before Sugiura got an Ankle Lock. That'd be incidental at best, but Elgin transitioned into a Crossface from being in the Ankle Lock. Which just makes me want to watch Angle/Benoit after this. Not to mention Sugiura going for the Olympic Qualifying Slam a minute later. After failing to put Takashi away with a rocking Lariat and a Post-Bucklebomb Powerbomb, Big Mike went for the Burning Hammer, which you can't do in Misawa's house. His hubris cost him as Sugiura locked in a Guillotine that almost ended that match. The strike exchange at the end of the match lead to two Olympic Qualifying Slams to crown Sugiura the first National Champion.

****1/4 A Hell for Leather (is that how it's said? I dunno) contest that set up the new title extremely well

GHC Heavyweight Title [6th Defense]

Kaito Kiyomiya (c) vs. Kenoh

Okay it was a hell of a struggle to watch this match. I went to go watch this match on Youtube and about ten minutes into the video the audio desyncd. I went onto Dailymotion and found a different version of the match and...okay no Dailymotion's version is way too pixelated on my bigger screen so that one ended up being out, too. Last resort, my hard drive that has this full show on it. Finally, I had a great looking and properly sounded version.

I could watch Kenoh and Kaito feud for the next decade and, hopefully, that seems to be the actual plan. The opening moments of this match were arguably some of the best, with Kenoh belittling Kaito on a rope break that lead to an opening exchange of strikes. The contest was pretty even until Kenoh caught the champion with a rocking DDT on the apron, followed by a scary Double Foot Stomp to the back of Kaito's neck. For the next stretch of the match, Kenoh kept the champion down with submissions and beat downs, letting Kaito only come back with one or two strikes before being smothered once more. Kaito made a proper comeback started with an AMAZING dive from the ring to the floor over the turnbuckle pole onto Kenoh, followed by one of his beautiful top rope dropkicks to the back of Kenoh's head. Shit's on. Both men start going for Tiger Suplexes and Double Foot Stomps, but most miss and the other takes the opportunity to swing the match into their favor off of it. I thought it was over once Kenoh nailed a Dragon Suplex on the apron (Baba help me that was terrifying) but somehow, somehow Kaito managed to kick out. Finally, Kenoh was caught by a trio of dropkicks strait to the face and a par of Tiger Suplexes for the successful defense by Kaito in what was an awesome match that did good by the name of GHC.

****1/4

Was every match on this show a homerun? Not exactly, but every match I expected to be great at the very least met my expectations.I'm really looking forward to watching more of the shows as I carve my way through 2020. I'm really hoping you join me, and that I've convinced at least SOMEONE to watch Pro Wrestling NOAH off this review. Next time, before I watch the New Sunrise show that kicked off NOAH's 2020, I'm going to be taking a look at the handful of shows the company ran in 2019 and give selected recommendations from those shows. Keep a lookout for those!

Thanks for reading! I'm glad that I can turn my passion for wrestling into something that so many people enjoy. If you want to get regular updates on when I release more reviews, you can follow me at Twitter at @LSWayne21. Big shoutout to Hisame, the one woman workhorse translating NOAH news and interviews. You can catch her updates, translations, and overall charm at her Twitter here.
See you down the Road.

On the Rocky Road to NOAH: The Best of Budokan Hall, Disc One

Yo fuck the Corona Virus, and fuck the mentally and emotionally sapping world we live in right now. It made me not want to watch the art I love for months.

Alright, now that the sorry sap part of the blog post is out of the way, Wrestling!

So I've been sitting on this 3 disc set for a while now, but recently I purchased (Beyer help me) Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs for the years 2001-2014, because I have mania and the rum I was drinking determined that my mania was for NOAH that night.

I'm...I have imposter syndrome, I think. Like with Pro Wrestling NOAH, I feel like I haven't earned the right to be a NOAH fan, somehow. This didn't happen with New Japan, I think because I came into that company with a wave of other new fans, so it was a very mutual feeling of discovery and it made me feel comfortable coming in. But with NOAH I don't get that. It's not that the fandom hasn't been welcoming. In fact, everyone I've interacted with has been incredibly helpful and friendly when it comes to getting invested in the emerald brand. But I feel like...I dunno, I don't Deserve to be a fan somehow. Cause the company and it's fans have been through a lot the last twenty years, and here I am just kinda like a tourist with a camera around his neck and a Hawaiian shirt.

So, what to do?

Walk the King's Road up to the Ark, I guess. As I wait for the Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs to come in, I'm gonna go through this DVD of a VHS rip, and try to...absorb? the power of 90's All Japan, so that I can be ready for a decade and change of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Join me, won't you?

9.3.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams [5th Defense]
Start as you mean to go on, I guess. I really didn't want to go into this review like "KING'S ROAD IS THE SUPERIOR STYLE OF PRO WRESTLING AND MY EYES ARE OPEN" because I try not to be a hyperbolic guy (just manic). But...like I watched this match and I was blown away. It was so simple, but they got so much out of the crowd, who was WILD. Even through the background noise of this being a VHS rip, I could tell how amazingly alive the crowd was. There was one true moment of 'Heat' and it came when Dr Death pressed Misawa and dropped him sternum first into the ringpost. The crowd went nuts and it just stoked the fire. I don't wanna do a play by play, but at the same time I also really cant. It was all about momentum in this match. Doc would have control, Misawa would try and fight back, Doc would get it again. I loved it. My favorite moment of the match was when Williams went for the Oklahoma Stampede multiple times and Misawa kept slipping out each time, but never truly gaining an advantage. The match ended when, having gotten the momentum for just a moment, Misawa nailed the Tiger Driver, two massive elbows that still weren't putting the gaijin down, and hit a second Tiger Driver for the pin. I NOW GET MISAWA HYPE
****1/4

9.3.1993
All Japan Tag Team Championships
Holy Demon Army (Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada) vs. Stan Hansen and Ted DiBiase [3rd Defense]
So as I've said above, my experience with 90s All Japan is extremely limited. But I'd always felt a very soul bound attraction towards Toshiaki Kawada. I can't tell you why really; maybe it's his loyalty to All Japan when NOAH was formed, maybe it's the black and gold aesthetic, maybe I just really, REALLY like Taichi and that affection transfers over to his teacher. But after this match, I can tell Kawada is going to be one of my favorites on this DVD set. He's just a bottle of piss and vinegar fueled by wanting to be the best and I can appreciate the hell out of that.

There's really not much to tell about this match beyond that. Stan and Ted are big motherfucking gaijin who wanna take the tag titles. Kawada cannot abide by this insult and takes every opportunity he can to fight the two men. By all rights, Taue comes off as the level headed one in this tag team. Heat's on Kawada forever before Taue makes the tag. Taue runs wild but eventually he gets shut down, while Kawada gets thrown out of the ring. DiBiase hits Akira with an atomic drop and Stan bops him right after with a Lariat for the pin. Stan then goes outside just to fucking murder Kawada with a Lariat as well. To quote Bane, "That was Unnecessary." Not great, but it endeared Toshiaki to me.
***1/2

Joined in Progress
THAT Misawa/Kawada match
This DVD has the last twenty odd minutes of the June 3rd 1994 Misawa/Kawada Triple Crown match. I've never seen this match but I knew the legendary status of it, obviously. I'm not going to review what I saw, because I don't want to disrespect the match by reviewing part of it. But what I saw made my brain explode like I was attacked by a Scanner. I'll probably go back to this one day on this site.

7.29.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada [4th Defense]
I don't get why this DVD is going out of order, but I don't mind too much.
First off, Toshiaki Kawada's entrance robe/jacket

I Just want it for Around the House

You can tell this is definitely not the first time these two have fought. They each have easy counters for each other's strikes and holds; Misawa puts his guard up for every other enzugiri, Kawada has a block for the Elbow, etc. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't take many notes for this one. I think watching the end of the June 3rd match blew me up emotionally and showed me how much they can do. One thing I've written multiple times that I should bring up is that all of Misawa's finishing level moves are awesome. The Elbow can be sudden, and the Tiger Driver/Suplex can be switched around based on the opponent he's applying them too. Too heavy to hit the Tiger Driver? Tiger Suplex. Keeps slipping out of the Tiger Suplex? Tiger Driver. I love it.
What I don't love is Kawada getting donked on his neck twice on really, really scary German Suplexes. By the time Misawa brought him back up for the Tiger Suplex, he was out on his feet. Pinfall in an extremely good match that I haven't really talked all too much about. I, once again, blame the previous matches rabid excitement for the dulling of my expectations.
****1/4

Man, I hope the final match on this disc can wake me up and get my spirits high again.

8.31.1993
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi
 OH MAN I NEEDED THIS. If you've never seen this match, I linked the match above. go watch it now, this post will definitely be here when you come back.
You could tell right away from the immediate hyper aggressive lockup that this match was going to be meaty. I was pumped. Surprisingly, Kenta took over early, working him over for the first stretch of the match. It was weird, mostly because I was expecting Steve Williams to at least try and steamroll Kobashi.

But then.

Kobashi was beating on Dr. Death and he starts...kinda running in place. Kenta pummels him again, Dr. Death is dancing more.
He's firing up.
You made him angry.
You. Dumb. Motherfucker.
Steve Williams is fucking done with this bullshit now. He picked up Kobashi in a press slam and dropped him outside the ring. Not slammed him outside of the ring. The mad bastard faced away from the ring ropes and just let his opponent fall from the press. I was amazed and terrified, knowing I would never want to make Steve Williams angry. I have the words "Steve, no, please stop" written twice in a row.
It was about this time, when the match boiled down to the two men trying to hit each other as hard as they could, running corner to corner, that this thought came to my mind.

This was like any New Japan NEVER Openweight title match. Two beefy men hitting each other with their beef and the crowd is going wild. This might get me in trouble with the All Japan fanbase but I don't care, I say it like it is. I'm not saying that it's inherently better than the Misawa/Kawada matches, but it's something that feels familiar, which to me makes it some shade of evergreen.

Kobashi hit a moonsault (and it was fucking beautiful by the way) for a two from the referee and this audience is screaming. He worked over Dr. Death a little more before going for a second moonsault, but this time Williams got the knees up to collapse an Orange Rib cage. Doctor Bomb attempt lead to a really weird moment of Kenta...falling back first...on Williams? He got a two count but that didn't end the match. No, there was a worse fate to suffer for young (27) Kobashi.

Earlier in the match, Kobashi had countered a football tackle by putting Steve Williams in a sleeper hold, leading to a tense period where Williams might have been choked out. Kenta tried this again, but Steve wasn't a fool, he kept his momentum from running to gloriously get in position for the first of three brutal, amazing Backdrop Drivers. It was so amazing, I had to make a gif of it.

That's horrifying. But Kobashi is healthy and well today so I'll continue to watch this on repeat.
Two more Backdrop Drivers end it. I'm gassed.I need a cigar.
*****

Well, that was the end of Disc One. I can't see how the rest of these matches can get any better, but I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised

Otaku Kohai: Failing to Summerize my Feelings for Cowboy Bebop

It's a very odd feeling, being overwhelmed with emotions from a piece of media.

Usually for me it's melancholy. It happened to me once I finished the books My Antonia and The Things They Carried. When I finished Tales of Symphonia for the first time I felt it, knowing that the story and the characters I grew to love was over (until Dawn of The New World happened, but that's for another time). I'm feeling it now, less than 48 hours after finishing Cowboy Bebop. I'm left feeling almost haunted by the ghost of this show, that was born and made it's bones when I was 5.

I watched the first handful of episodes when my friend grabbed me in my senior year of college, looked me in the eyes, and said "We're watching Bebop tonight." I knew Bebop existed, but never got around to watching it. After those few episodes that night, I went into hibernation until a few months ago, when I found the show again on Hulu. I powered through half then and finished the back half in the last week. Ever since I finished it, I've been sitting in a daze, mulling over what I just experienced. I hoped that writing put how I felt about the show would help and it did. Is it coherent? Maybe not, but I wanna share it with you anyway, in the hope that if you've never watched this show to give it a chance.

The World
Cowboy Bebop takes place on our Earth...well, sometimes our Earth, but always in our solar system. It takes place in the near future (nearer now in 2020 compared to when the show came out in 1998), across various planets and moons in the solar system. It's a dirty, wild west kind of colonization with pockets of civilized life here and there. But that's not to say that every town feels like the American West. There are several full cities we see in the show, along with the before mentioned ghost town style settlements and near rustic Asian style towns. Everything feels natural to what the future expansion of our race would look like, if a little optimistic on our advancements in space travel.

Plot
The year is 2071, and bounty hunters Spike Spiegl and Jet Black are just trying to make it through the solar system. They do the job, then they get...paid...look there's gonna be a LOT of Firefly references for this and the next two anime I'm planning to watch, so buckle up. Along the way they collect three more members for their Ragtag crew; con Artist Faye Valentine, Eccentric Tech Genius Edward Wong, and Best Boy Corgi Ein.

If you watch the first 6 episodes you'll get everything you'll need to understand the pace, tone, and important bits. One of those six is the first of five truly "important" episodes for the main story of the show, with Spike and his history in the forefront. But I'd argue that the "main story" isn't the reason you watch Cowboy Bebop. You watch for the filler episodes in between. The slice of life, quarry of the day stories that let you see a bit more of the main character's personalities. We're watching them on a journey, which is framed and presented to us as a series of quests (many of which they fail at. I think the team successfully bags 3 bounties in the entire show.) In these episodes we see how every character approaches their problems. Through this, we can see more of what makes these characters who they are, or what happened in their pasts to make them this way. Spike, Jet, and Faye don't just have skeletons in their closet, their closets are catacombs. Except for Edward; she's is the outlier in the main cast, not having a horrid past or actions or hobbies she uses to cope. In this, she easily becomes the most genuine member of the crew that isn't the dog.

The Music between Notes

I had always heard that the most memorable aspect of Cowboy Bebop was the music and the people who had told me that weren't wrong. While the music itself is great and can be listened to on it's own  (I can't stop listening to Real Folk Blues and Space Lion), the beauty comes from how the music is used. Fight scenes are set in beat to the music playing. Characters are always walking and driving in step with music. Much like Baby Driver, it feels like the show's driven by the jazz and blues that plays, as opposed to the music accenting the show. Without the music, the show is a skeleton, both aesthetically and emotionally. This was the first time that I ever intentionally let the credits of a show roll, just to listen to Real Folk Blues again. I can't understand the lyrics, but in a way I don't have to. The importance of the piece comes in the contrast from Tank!, the intro that I also let play all 26 times. Tank! promises a romp through a wacky sci-fi world, paralleling how our protagonists outwardly project their personalities. Real Folk Blues, then, is the reflection of their cores; the losses and pain they feel. Beyond being good pieces on their own, like how the music is used in the show, the intro and outro of the show reflect the overarching theme of the show, the pain and demons we feel every day (Real Folk) and what we do to compensate and carry on daily (Tank!)

Conclusion
 I can't recommend Cowboy Bebop just as an anime to anime fans. I would sincerely recommend this show to anyone who wants to watch a show with great characters, soundtrack, and action. I'm so glad that I watched it and honestly want to go back and watch it again right now, But, I need to move forward with my progress through this wacky world called anime. Next time you read an edition of Otaku Kohai, we'll still be in the 90s and still in space. Not sure which show yet, but that's where we'll end up.

KAI-GO GO NOAH Rangers (Kaito Kiyomiya, Volume 2)

[Hi! This is the second of a three part series of my look at Pro Wrestling NOAH's current Heavyweight Champion and all around good boy Kaito Kiyomiya. The first part is here, it focuses on some of the matches he had when he was still a Young Boy, along with the first big singles matches he had upon his return from his learning excursion. Definitely suggest you read that article first, checking out the matches you want to, before coming back to this entry. Thanks!]

Where we last left our hero, he was...well Kaito was getting his ass kicked. Coming back from excursion didn't bode well for Kaito, even with a handful of multi man victories and one singles victory against Andrew Everett. But, now under the tutelage of Go Shiozaki, a man some guy on Cagematch says "has an air of royal arrogance about him and in that sense he reminds me of Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z" which is fucking poetic, maybe the young man will finally find his way and do better for himself. But the Global Tag League is no play-date for soft men, the competition is tough, a title shot awaits at the end of this road. Will the newly forged team of KAI-GO make it to the finals?


With Go Shiozaki vs. Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue, NOAH Global Tag League Night 1, 3.18.18
I had to look up what a "Dark Agents" was finally. I now have a...vaguely general idea. The answer is "It's Akitoshi and the lads defending Christmas". If anyone who works for or with Pro Wrestling NOAH somehow reads this, first off why? Secondly, Bring back the Great Happy Christmas Championship.

Anyway, Kaito and Go took the majority of the offense in this contest. I hate to say it, but they didn't seem to sweat their opponents here. Kaito started off handily out wrestling Saito, before letting Go come in to chop a motherfucker or two. Barring the laziest Total Elimination I've ever seen, nothing special actually came out of the Dark Agent camp (Note: I'm not trying to be overly critical of the Dark Agents here, but it was a clothesline and a calf kick. Saito may as well have been giving Inoue emotional support for all his kick did to bring Kiyomiya down). A few minutes later, Kiyomiya rolled up Masao with an O'Connor with a Bridge for the pin.
**1/2 (Despite how low I'm rating this, it was a pretty fun watch. If you only have 10 minutes on your hands I would actually recommend this.)

Kaito, The Agumon (Kaito Kiyomiya, Volume 1)

So I really like Pro Wrestling, but I haven't been watching a lot for it lately. Blame Grad School, blame work, blame the pit of despair and self loathing depression's sunken me into (but mostly that last one), but I just kinda stopped after the G1 this year. So I want to try and kick my ass into watching it again. So instead of trying and failing to cover big shows...I'm just gonna watch wrestling. Sometimes it'll be a single wrestler, other times a string of title defenses, and sometimes I'm just gonna watch random matches during the week. Fuck it, I don't have a format anymore.

Ask literally anyone who I'm friends with or have talked to for more than 5 minutes at a wrestling show, they'll tell you I love Pro Wrestling Noah. I don't know why. Maybe I like the little guys. Maybe it's the fanatical fan-base. I got in just as Suzuki-Gun and New Japan's booking influence was heading out, so a lot of my opinions on the company are skewed compared to contemporary fans. I never knew KENTA in NOAH, or Morishima, Kobashi, or Akiyama. I call Takashi Sugiura and Naomichi Marufuji "Uncle". I consider Junta Miyawaki, Yosiki Inamura, and Kinya Okada my Young Boy class (and occasionally think of myself as being in that class. If you tell me you've never even briefly fantasized about being a wrestler, you're lying). So I'm hoping to use my new style to watch literally as much NOAH as I can, as well as some good 90s All Japan to kind of grasp where NOAH's roots came from.

So, Kaito. I...I don't know how I feel about Kaito. My emotions are mixed. There's something about him I don't like, but everyone else loves him so I find myself grudgingly biting my tongue. I guess I'm hoping to use this and future entries on my blog to suss out what it is I don't like about him. So thanks for coming with me on this journey, for the three of you who didn't violently close the tab to this blog.

Vs. Minoru Suzuki, Great Voyage in Yokohama Vol. 2,10.26.16
Look at Kaito here. So tiny, so full of hope.

Suzuki's gonna crush him like an orange.

This match is from the first whole NOAH show I ever watched, the same show where Katsuyori Shibata and Go Shiozaki went 20+ minutes and Katsuhiko Nakajima won the GHC Heavyweight championship (Put a Big Ol' pin in this match, we'll be coming back to it and the following title reign one day.) I remember liking the whole card, but besides the two above mentioned matches, Suzuki vs. Kaito was the match I remembered the most vividly. Probably because I love any time Minoru (rocking his old theme here) takes apart Young Boys on a whim. The same proved true in this match, but Kaito honestly got more offense in than most trainees usually do against Suzuki. After a flurry of offense and trying his hardest to stand up to The King, Suzuki brutalized him with strikes for a good 30 second stretch, which includes Kaito being stood back up to take more by Suzuki more than. A great mauling.
**1/2

A Summary of what I've been reading on DC Universe the Past Few Weeks

I just wanted to read more Tim Drake material and somehow I got swept up in multiple multi-run arcs.

That's the gist of what happened a few weeks ago. After I immediately binged the first two seasons of Young Justice (And got my heart fucking shattered for my trouble) on DC Universe, I started planning on what I wanted to read from their immense catalogue of comics. After a brief foray into the original Suicide Squad run, recommended to me by a friend (thanks Brian! Watching the Squad fight white nationalists in the 1980s was fucking great), I turned to the part of DC I wanted to know the most.

 I fucking love the Bat Family. Not Bruce, really. No offense to him, but I like his kids more.

Dick I love cause he's the eldest, the acrobat, the Titan's leader

Barbara I love cause she's intelligent, has er hands in the system at all times

Jason I love because of his riteous fury and his deep core desire to just be wanted

Damian

And then there was Tim. I knew like...next to nothing about Tim a few weeks ago. I knew he was the third Robin...aaaaand really that's all. He was partially the driving force behind my project to read as much Bat Family stuff as possible.

(Fun aside. In my research for this post and the project in general, the "Bat Family" consists of anyone who works in a semi-regular occurrence with the Batman, not just the Robins and Batgirls/women)

I needed to figure out where I was starting. There's 80 years of Batman to cover and my knowledge of the Bat only reaches about as far as the original DCAU goes. Tim Drake starred in his own series that started in 1993 and ran until 2009 so I figured that'd be a good backbone to start with. I figured I'd pick up Nightwing and Birds of Prey as I went along. I never planned to actually read any Batman this whole time if we're being honest. I just wanted to read the stories of the people around him...

The 90s weren't gonna let me do that. Not by a long shot.

Apparently the taste du jour of the 90s Batman was that everything needs to be part of a goddamn crossover event. From Robin Issue one to where I've stopped today on issue 32, I've read four separate multi-comic run arcs that had me darting all across the fucking website trying to follow the story. I only really stopped cause my friend Brian of Suicide Squad fame wanted to possibly catch up to me and join me in my escapades. So I wanted to take the respite in my crossover journeys to start logging exactly what I've read and continue to talk about what I'm reading. So, this is definitely gonna be a more informal rant than my future posts cause I'm going real quick off the top of my head, but...I hope you enjoy my ramblings here? This is more posterity than me thinking anyone will read this. But in case you're reading this in the future, this is where I started.

G1 Climax 29, B Block Session 2: The Middle Nights

We're two thirds of the way there, and I'm starting to feel the heat. Reviewing 5 really good singles matches every other odd day sounds really great at first, until you try putting that shit in practice. While I don't think it's gonna burn me out like the effort to watch every G1 match last year did, I'm definitely going to need a week or so away from wrestling after this year's tournament wraps up. If you wanna read my thoughts on the first three nights, you can find them here. But, for now, let's get going or I'll never get finished.

G1 Climax Night 8, 7.24.19

Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano (CHAOS)
Juice Robinson had, at the time, the best match with Yano in the G1 (this wouldn't last). Yano tried to ply his usual tricks, but Juice countered most by just bull rushing through. Pulp Friction put Yano away.
**1/4

Hirooki Goto (CHAOS) vs. Taichi (Suzuki-Gun)


Easily the best match these two have had, out of the three. Taichi tried getting into Goto's mind early by attacking one of the LA Dojo Young Lions, which Goto did not appreciate. The last minute was very good, with Taichi trying to use his mic stand, Goto thwarting it, then landing a Mexican Foul and a Gedo Clutch for the pin. Wish I had more to say, but this was better than I'm making it sound.
 ***1/2

G1 Climax 29, B Block Session 1: The First Three Nights

We are one third of the way through the tournament and it's been...really solid?

I've heard people call it the best tournament of all time. Which is a stretch, especially since last year's G1 was so amazing. I think a lot of people are using last year's G1 as the benchmark to make this claim so...that's a victory for 2018. Anyway, I decided there was no way that I was reviewing both blocks. So I picked B-block due to who was in it and the matches that excited me. I did a preview to the Block you can find here, but now we have to start looking at the tournament itself. Which is below. Let's fucking start this good shit.

G1 Climax Night 2, 7.13.19

Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
This was a weird pick to open the B Block, but in the end it turned out to be a really good, back and forth match. These two have never had a singles match together as far as I know, but what they got from a cold open was actually above anything I could have expected. The crowd was wild and getting really into both men at the finish. Juice picks up the surprise win here with the Pulp Friction after the Left Hand of God.
***1/4

G1 Climax 29: B Block Preview!

Like Andy Williams said, 'It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year'...

Fuck, man. It's the G1 Climax! It's basically the reason I haven't watched any wrestling in a month, and why I probably won't be watching much for the month after it's over. Can't let yourself get burned out. I'm covering the B Block alone here because it's the block that I'll be following in it's entirely this year. If you want to see someone's opinions on A Block, go check out my co-blogger Justin's A Block preview here. Probably 5 people will read this blog and I'm loaded on craft beer. Let's fucking break this down.

"Death Rider"
Jon Moxely
Age: 33
Pro Debut:2004
G1s: 1
Title History: 1x IWGP US heavyweight Champion (Current), 1x WWE Champion, 3x WWE Intercontinental Champion, 1x WWE US Champion, 2x WWE RAW Tag Team Champion, 2x CZW World Heavyweight Champion
Adopted Shota Umino as his son at Dominion this year.
Man, Jon's doing fucking great for himself. I hope he makes it through this tournament unscathed, With Ishii and Cobb in this block, I'm hoping Mox doesn't get dumped on his pretty face too much. As much as I'm looking forward to the singles matches he'll be in, I'm just as excited to see him in the opening tag matches with his new son Shota Umino. Hopefull he can give Shota the edge he needs to one day fight Kaito Kiyomiya and beat him.

"The Flamboyant"
Juice Robinson
Age: 30
Pro Debut:2008
G1s: 3
Title History: 2x IWGP US Heavyweight Champion
Somehow went from too much dread to not enough dread in like two years
Well, Juice has certainly been loose since the last G1. After a run that could be considered "meh" he lost and regained and lost his US title again. I wish I could be more excited for him, but if this year isn't a shot in his arm via major pickups over Naito, Moxley, or Ishii, I don't know what to tell you about him.

Pro Wrestling NOAH Presents: Global Junior Tag League, Night One

Well, it's been a while. Don't really have an excuse, but I'm here now, and I'm gonna be reviewing what I can. So, starting off this fourth(?) run of trying to review wrestling is the first night of Pro Wrestling NOAH's Global Junior Tag League. The downside is that the actual tournament matches on the card tonight were outdone by the semi-main and main event 6-mans that followed them. There is an upside, though, in that this was a perfect show that a non-fan of NOAH could jump in on. What do I mean by that? Hopefully once you've heard me talk about this card you'll see why.

Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue and Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Mitsuya Nagai and 50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone and Quiet Storm)
I think the best thing I can say about this match is that it was inoffensive. There was nothing in this match that would cause someone to not keep watching the show, but I also wouldn't highly recommend it to anyone. It's the opener, what're you gonna do. Taniguchi eventually got the submission on Quiet Storm with some kind of Hammerlock Camel Clutch.
**

Tadasuke (RATELS) vs. Yoshiki Inamura (Kongoh)
Yoshiki is, or was, one of the local Young Boys in NOAHand he's only been here for less than a year. Although he's now in Kongoh (more on these glorious bastards later) I don't know whether his graduation was official or not. Here he squared off against Tadasuke of RATELS, who I've always subconciously classified as "the other RATEL" between him and his three stablemates. Inamura had a really fun match with Yuji Hino at the finals of the Tag League in early MAy I suggest you try and find, but this match turned out to be alright. Yoshiki landed an Oklahoma Stampede, getting brownie points from me, and went for what looked like a copy of Yuji Hino's FUCKING BOMB, which I will henceforth refer to as the GODDAMN BOMB if it becomes a regular thing. Tadasuke got out of the attempted plagiarism and after some quick pin attempts he nailed the rookie in the back with an elbow and got the pin with some kind of clutch. A neat match that did a good job at showcasing Inamura, even in loss.
**1/2

Archive Dive: G1 2006/ Wrestle Kingdom 1

No one tells you how unstable it is trying to review wrestling...or reviewing anything, probably.

There's a lot of lows, with time crunches to be the first one to talk about a show, being able to see exactly how many people aren't reading your reviews, and I still don't think I've recovered from last summer when I tried to watch all of the G1 and it shut my brain down for a week. But there's highs. Seeing the people that are reading some of the reviews of a relatively nobody never-done is astounding and it's been nice to share my thoughts on wrestling with the world at large. So how do I work around the parts of doing a wrestling blog I don't like while still doing it? New Japan World and ROH's Honorclub have huge libraries that, while not complete, have a lot of matches that people probably don't know about. Combine that with my want to get as much of my money's worth out of the subscriptions as possible, and I was struck with inspiration.

An Epiphany.

No time limits, no pressure. Most of Falcon Arrow Emporium is going to be focused around diving into these backlogs, wading through them like Zhang Liao in a Dynasty Warriors game, and finding what's good, what's great, and what's worth $10 a month for. There'll still probably be reviews of modern stuff scattered around (NOAH, ZERO-1, Anything else that might really interest me) and I still want to do a monthly Top TV match list. But as for New Japan and ROH? I'll get to modern stuff when I get to it.

Doing my research for this project (Read: After watching New Japan's CHAOS history video), originally I was going to start with dissolution of Great Bash Heel in April of 2009. But then I started digging a little father (Read: going to the GBH Wikipedia article), I found out the roots of Great Bash start coincidentally a few months before the original Wrestle Kingdom. Review every Wrestle Kingdom? Sounds fucking mad right? Well I'm that kind of fucking mad, so let's do this. ROH will come along when we get to it in the timeline as set by Honorclubs limits (2011). so let's go back in time, to August of 2006. The G1 was two blocks of 5. Liger was in one of the blocks (it did not go well for him, 1-4) and the stage is set for the finals. Satoshi Kojima, who at the time was part of All Japan Pro Wrestling's roster, taking on New Japan's Hiroyoshi Tenzan. The 3rd Generation explodes!...for the 3rd time since Kojima left New Japan.

8.13.2006
G1 Finals
Satoshi Kojima vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tenzan looks incredibly trim here, which is either due to him gaining bulk over the years or black being a truly slimming color. This little under half hour match was something interesting to watch 13 years later. the biggest profile match I've seen out of either man here came from their NEVER Title shots against Shibata in 2016. The two were very evenly matched throughout the contest, with Kojima occasionally taking advantage using underhanded means. nothing as glaring as a low blow,  small things like taking a little longer to break when Tenzan reached the ropes, or "accidentally" raking his opponents eyes in an attempt to escape a hold. Tenzan made up for what his opponent was doing by using his sheer power advantage over him. He would win most of the strike exchanges, and capitalized with moves off the top rope more than Kojima did. Satoshi tried to take a count out victory by first DDTing Tenzan on the apron, then Lariating him over the ropes as he got back in the first time. As the match goes on, it's fun to spot the wrestlers surrounding the ring, like Makabe and his clearly fried yellow hair or the sphere that is Nakanishi. As the match picked up, Tenzan started busting out bigger and harder moves, leading to the anaconda Vice from him for the first time in the match. Kojima had applied it earlier but both times the Vicee reached the ropes to escape. Kojima hits a Koji Cutter out of a blocked Lariat, which is a new one for me, before going for another Lariat and being caught for a slam leading to the Anaconda Vice, which everyone thought would be the end. Kojima raked eyes out of it, before leading into two flesh crashing Lariats that should have been it for New Japan's chances. But, after kicking out, tenzan decided something needed to be done about all this, and proceeded to chop the ever loving piss out of Kojima's arm. After he nearly took his opponents arm off like a Buzz Lightyear action figure, Tenzan executed a pair of perfect Big Man Moonsaults, and two Tenzan Tombstone Drivers for the pin.
***1/2

1.4.2007
3, Koraku 1-chrome, Bunkyo, Tokyo Japan
The Home of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Yomiuri Giants
42,000 seats
The Big Egg
The Motherfucking Dome.

I just wanted another excuse to do that intro. Let's get into the undercard.

El Samurai, Masanobu Fuchi, and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Akira Raijin, Kikutaro, and Nobutaka Araya
Ryusuke Taguchi looks like he wishes he were literally anywhere other than this match. Kikutro was Back Suplexed, DDT's, and Dodon'd to be pinned at the end of this short, bizarre match.
*, only because of Taguchi's bitchin' pants

Gedo and Jado vs. MAZADA and NOSAWA Rongai (Tokyo Gurentai)
An okay contest. Jado and Gedo are really good asa tag team and it showed here. Going to be honest when I say that I had no idea who NOSAWA and MAZADA were before this match and I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see them again in the future. Superbomb from the top rope followed by a frog splash by Gedo for the pin.
**

Buchanan, D-Lo Brown and Travis Tomko vs. Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano (Great Bash Heels)
THE ATTITUDE ERA IS INVADING.
AND THEY BROUGHT A HIRED GUN FROM TNA WITH THEM.

D'lo Brown and Tomohiro Ishii were in the ring at the same time here, which is something right out of a custom Fire Pro Wrestling Promotion. Entertained by the time capsule that is the GBH team, knowing what directions Ishii and Yano will take in the future, and how uninspired they really were in the ring here. Match ends when Buchanan is hit in the back with a chair and Lariated by Makabe. Only seek out as a curiosity, not if you're looking for a good match
* 1/2

Suwama, TARU (Voodoo Murders), Giant Bernard, and RO'Z  vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Naofumi Yamamoto, Riki Choshu and Takashi Iizuka
The Chosu coalition was winning early, until they decided to tag Naofumi (now YoshiTatsu) in, who was promptly and immediately taken advantage of. During the beatdown of Yamamoto, we got a shot of the commentators, including my new favorite picture of the week; Yoshihiro Takayama in a Hawaiin shirt, looking as unimpressed as anyone who's ever been on commentary.

I feel you, man. This undercard has been a slog.

I thought this would be another match on the pile of skippables until Nakanishi tagged in and started going nuts. I get why this man was IWGP Heavyweight Champion now. He out the Rack on TARU, and when Suwama tried to save his friend, Manabu chucked the Fuck from his shoulders ONTO THE CHARGING SUWAMA. All this before Racking (Read: Olympic Slammed) RO'Z, who I want to remind you was about 300 pounds. A fucking Monster, was Monster Morning here. Unfortunately, someone decided to tag Yamamoto back in, who Suwama killed with a Bridging Backdrop Driver. Catch the last five minutes of this one.
**1/4

Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru, Milano Collection AT (CTU), Shuji Kondo and YASSHI (Voodoo Murders) vs. Kaz Hayashi, Koji Kanemoto, TAKA Michinoku, Tiger Mask and Wataru Inoue
Fuck's Sake. No.
i'm sorry if this comes off as unprofessional, but I'm a Lab Technician not Dave Meltzer, so excuse me if this one isnt as deep as it could be. But I knew a grand total of three of the men who started this match. Two of them wear masks, and TAKA is an ageless demi-god who hasn't changed since 1997. I know many of these men, just by name, were staples of Junior Heavyweight action in their times, but their times were not my times. You want to send me Minoru or Wataru Inoue matches, be my guest. But here, it was just "Liger and four bodies" against "Tiger Mask, TAKA, and three bodies". Tiger Mask won by Tiger Suplexing a man who I think was YASSHI.

Oh wait, I figured out Milano Collection based on the Paradise Lock. So...Yeah, thanks for that SANADA.
**

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toshiaki Kawada
Okay, Undercard over. Let's get serious with a fucking serious match.

There was a definite feel in the air between these two men. Shinsuke came in looking like he had something to prove, Kawada had another body to put in the ground. This was the greatest story in wrestling of the young upstart and the confident veteran.

Fuck. Yes.






Kawada was definitely easily the more powerful man in the ring this night, but Shinsuke was willing to cut whatever corners he could to win this match. Holding on after rope breaks, taking every shot that was open to him, nothing was held back. And then, Shinsuke slapped Kawada, and Kawada proceeded to beat the fuck out of this young man. At that moment, not 5 minutes in, the future multi time IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion was on the fast track to losing this match. Despite his best efforts, trying hard to power through being dumped on his head, and cinching in armbars multiple times, it was all for naught by the end. A sick powerbomb from Kawada got a one count. A Brainbuster got a two. Shinsuke, going for what I could only assume was the only thing he could think to try, went for Kawada's legs and cracked himself against his foe's knee. Twice, somehow, it wasn't his best night. That put Nakamura out for the three. Not the greatest match on the show, or either man's best, but it was still very good.
***1/4

Triple Crown Championship [2nd Defense]
Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Yuji Nagata
I never thought I'd enjoy watching Uncle Murder and Uncle Justice fighting each other, or at least as much as I did here. I just see them as two completely different entities who, in todays New Japan, just wouldn't meet in a full blown contest. But not even two minutes in they decide to slap the piss into each other, and it's on from that point. Suzuki took over early, taking Nagata outside and busting him open with a chair against the post. Unfortunately, this only managed, once Yuji busted Minoru up himself, to invigorate the challenger. For maybe the third time in my watching history, Suzuki is on the ropes and getting kicked down at every step for the better part of the match. He'd start a comeback here and there, including a sweet reversal from an exploder and hitting the Gotch piledriver at one point in the match, but Nagata seemed to have his number the whole time. Yuji had the title won, Suzuki was dead to rights, wasn't coming back. But he got the cover, the ref counts 1, counts 2, and New Japan's challenger lifted the champions shoulder up. Because it was apparently time to go to school. That one opportunity, like any time in a Minoru Suzuki match, was all it took to doom Nagata. Minoru fired up with strikes after this insult, stopped a backdrop, and locked in a Rear Naked Choke for the win. Hopefully I haven't understressed how awesome this match was. Definitely paired well with the previous match.
***1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Championship [3rd Defense]
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Taiyo Kea

Look at that fucking beauty of a belt.

Having never seen Taiyo before, I was very impressed by his athleticism. I almost was admiring how good he was, until he NAILED TANAHASHI WITH A LANDSLIDE ON EXPOSED CONCRETRE. HOW DARE YOU USE A COUSIN OF THE FALCON ARROW IN SUCH A TERRIFYING WAY. I'd Gif it, but I don't want New Japan taking my blog down before it even gets too far off the ground. Taiyo took over most of the match from here, just annihilating Tanahashi in the ring. Using a great combination of strength and athleticism to take apart the defending champion. Tana showed some bursts of life, but each time he tried to capitalize on a mistake, he was shut down and the beating continued. Kea hoisted Tanahashi into the Fireman's position to finish him off, when Hiroshi slipped behind him and started to fire back. With this renewed energy, the fight became very back and forth, each man gaining advantage when he could and trying to end the match. Taiyo's last big moves came in the form of a Saito suplex and a Sleeper slam that dumped the champion right on his head. Yeowch. A normal man would be defeated by this, but even 12 years ago Tanahashi was not a normal man. He fought long enough to catch Kea with a Strait Jacket German, a Dragon Suplex, and finally putting Taiyo away with the High Fly Flow. A great match.
***3/4

Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono
Mutoh immediately cleaned house with Shining wizards.

This Month on The Online, January 2019

Wrestling in America right now is fucking awesome.

I know that that seems kind of moronic to say, but to me it's true. I've been so buried in New Japan for the past few years, I haven't really been paying attention to the American companies. I knew Impact was not only still alive, but doing good, that ROH was recently signing like a dozen new, major stars, and that a company named Major League Wrestling vaguely existed. well, with a new year came a new interest in getting away from New Japan. At least in terms of being my entire focus. I've wanted to do articles like this ever since I started Falcon Arrow Emporium, and I'm glad I finally got to do it starting in 2019. A few things to have in mind as you read my Top 10.

1) I'm new to this format, so if I seem jumbled and disjointed in my recaps, that's why. I'm much more used to reviewing full shows. Hopefully I'll get better as I continue this.
2) I'm only watching ROH, Impact, and MLW right now, because those are easy for me to watch and easy for me to get into with the familiar faces and convenient methods of watching. I might watch more companies in the future, but for now these are the only groups I'll be watching.
3) This is my opinion, the way every wrestling fan has an opinion. My taste isn't yours or the next readers. I'm just letting people know what matches I recommend from the given month, this isn't me trying to make a definite list of final quality.

Got it? Cool, let's get going.

10) Rich Swann vs. El Hijo de Vikingo
Impact Wrestling, 1.25.19
Taking the lowest spot this month is a match featuring a wrestler who was instantly made in my eyes. Before watching this episode of Impact, I had no idea who El Hijo de Vikingo (SON OF THE FUCKING VIKING) was. After this match I think I need to find more of him. He was pretty good here and he has a look that speaks to me on a styles clashing level. This was also the first match of the Impacts that took place in Mexico, and this crowd was just alive. Rich Swann was dominant for most of it, breaking down with Vikingo trying everything he had in the end, before Rich 450'd him from the middle rope, which was like 4 feet in the air.

9) Moose vs. Brian Cage
Impact Wrestling, 1.18.19
If you like Hoss Fights, this was your big match of the month. Moose probably shattered his hand chopping the ring post outside at some point, based on the noise it made. It effected him through the whole match, but he was still able to hold control for most of it. But Cage is, in fact, a fucking Machine, and he was able to come back and nail Moose (who is 6'5" and almost 300 lbs.) with a Drill Claw (Which is the Steiner Screwdriver, so Jesus Christ). Low on the list but I still heavily enjoyed it.

8) The Rascalz vs. The Lucha Bros.
Impact Wrestling, 1.11.19
I didn't really know who the Rascalz were before I started watching wrestling this month, but they've really started impressing me, despite the Rufio/Lost Boys thing they do all the damn time. Not much to talk about here, just a wild, 800 moves at 70 miles an hour. Lucha Bros. are awesome, and I hope they get those fat AEW checks for a long time.

7) Dragon Lee vs. Rich Swann
Major League Wrestling, 1.12.19
Major League wrestling breaks Impact's hold on this month's top ten with a real great opener from a few weeks ago. What starts as an even contest of sportsmanship is turned quickly by Swann as he takes the liberties he saws fit to steal. Dragon Lee came back from it though, and eventually pinned his opponent after a Suplex into a powerbomb that has a name I don't trust myself to type properly. Fun match, places higher than 8 by the virtue of Swann taking over for most and Dragon making a good show of coming back.

6)Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack
Impact Wrestling, 1.11.19
A rematch from the Pay-Per-View the previous Sunday. Sami and Willie fought for a series of roll ups towards the end, before Sami went for a Piledriver that Mack countered for a roll-up pinfall. Better than the match from the previous night in my mind, both of these men could step up and be contenders for the Heavyweight title in Impact, or any other company, whenever they really wanted to. Not as Hoss a Hoss fight as Number 9, but a better match than Moose and Cage by virtue of the final minutes in the ring.

5) Low Ki vs. Fred Yehi for the MLW Heavyweight Championship
Major League Wrestling, 1.12.19
The first MLW match on the list and the first title match. Low Ki is some kind of next level when it comes to presentation, if this past month of MLW has shown me anything. This title defense came on the same show as Tommy Dreamer and Brian Pillman caning each other (more on that later) and kind of came out of nowhere to me. It was a great, tense match that had the definite air of a heavyweight title match. Unfortunately, Fred Yehi was definitely not as ready for Low Ki as he needed to be to even survive. Despite being kicked around for a good part of the match, Fred managed to try and take it to the champion, but it proved futile a lot of the time. Low Ki seemed 2 steps ahead of him at most points. Ki caught Fred on the top rope, threw him down, and Double Foot Stomped him. Would have liked to see it go longer, but what we got was still good.

4) Tracey Williams vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.
Ring of Honor, 1.11.19
I fucking love technical wrestling, and I'm going to be very bias at times on these lists. But I believe even beyond my bias this was a fantastic match. I really can't go into detail with a match like this because I'd just be going " And then Zack put him in a hold, then Tracey escaped and put him in a hold, then Zack tried escaping and-" yeah you get it. Match ends with Zack locking in...
Hold on, lemme find the proper name...

"Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness"

...Wait, all these wacky submissions have names?


3) Brian Pillman, Jr. vs Tommy Dreamer, Singapore Cane Match
Major League Wrestling, 1.12.19
Told you this one was coming back.
 Let me make it public right now. I love Brian Pillman, Jr. I love him as much as a heterosexual man can love another heterosexual pro wrestler he may never actually meet. I wasn't a wrestling fan while his father was still alive, but I'm a fan for this glorious fucker. I'm not one for no-DQ style matches, especially halfway through a feud, but this one was great. All you needed was both men's promos before the match to grasp the general feel of the match. Brian came out in like 4 layers of clothing that were ceremoniously stripped as the match went on. I didn't think I'd be a hyped for the match as a whole as I ended up being, I've been weary of Tommy for a while now. But I'm glad I was proven wrong. Pillman won with a Strait Jacket Neckbreaker after going back and forth with Tommy with the canes and various other plunder. This match is on Youtube for free,GWN or Honorclub needed. Go fucking watch it.

2) Johnny Impact vs. Killer Kross, Street Fight
Impact Wrestling, 1.11.19

Taking the silver medal this month is not, in fact, the Impact Heavyweight title match from the end of the month. Rather, its Johnny Impact and Killer Kross' Street Fight from a few weeks prior. If there's one wrestler I'm really hot on since watching Impact again, it's Kross. I demand a Low Ki and Killer Kross match with UWFi rules. We need this on the next Jericho Cruise. This fight was great in showcasing Johnny as the big dog in house (even though he fucked Cage over at Homecoming) and Kross came out as a dominant force that could take the title, really at any time he wanted to. They fought outside for a long time, they had a lot of good exchanges in the ring, copious plunder was introduced, and none of it really felt out of place. Impact almost had Kross, before Moose of #9 fame ran in to distract the champion long enough to give Kross the time to hook in a Rear Naked Choke. I loved this match, and I almost put it as number one. But, after watching this match and the eventual number one, I couldn't make that choice.

1) So Cal Uncensored vs. The Briscoes for the ROH Tag team Championships
Ring of Honor, 1.11.19

When I first watched this match, I kind of knew that this wouldn't be topped. All action, all hype, completely ROH Tag title style. The fans ate it up the entire way through. It started hot and heavy with SCU giving no fucks throwing chairs in the ring. Briscoes, not liking to take any kind of shit without throwing some themselves, responded in kind with weapons. SCU tried everything to get their tag titles back within the scope of the rules, and several times it looked like they were going to get their belts back. But the Briscoes persisted, as they do, eliminating Scorpio Sky from the equation with a Jay Driller, leaving Frankie alone to fight off the champions. He put a great fight, getting up when most people really would've chosen to stay down, but was finally planted with a Powerbomb/Neckbreaker combination for the pin. It wasn't the biggest technical showcase, or maybe the match with the biggest personal issue, or involving my favorite wrestlers, but this match had the air of a war, and the crowd was insane and fueled on bloodshed and violence the whole way.


Thanks for reading! I'm glad that I can turn my passion for wrestling into something that so many people enjoy. If you want to get regular updates on when I release more reviews, or want to read me randomly yell about wrestling as I watch it, you can follow me at Twitter at @LSWayne21. And if you're still looking for your fix on wrestling, check out Enuffa.com, where I got my start in reviewing and still contribute from time to time.
All of Impact Wrestling's shows are archived on Global Wrestling Network 
All of Major Leage Wrestling's shows are archived on Youtube 
All of Ring of Honor's shows are archived on ROH's website.