Dragon Gate's biggest show of the year, streaming on their sub service here , is nearing. This Sunday, the future of one of the best promotions in the world will be highlighted and some major moves are expected. Let's dig in and take a look. CARD & PREDICTIONS -K-Ness, Super Shisa, Shachihoko Machine, Problem Dragon, Draztick Boy vs Kenichiro Arai, Jason Lee, Okuda Keisuke, Dragon Dia, Jimmy This is one of those "get everybody on the card" kind of matches, but dear god does it intrigue me. There might be a bit too much going on here but, if the layout is well done, we could be looking at one of the best openers of the year. I have no idea who's winning but I'll say Super Shisa's crew gets it done. -BXB, Kagetora, Santa Maria vs Horiguchi, Punch, YASSHI vs Hyo, Kota, Yuki Hulk's back Tribe Vanguard are fully looking to get back on track here. I'm not expecting old BxB back, especially after breaking his neck, but this should be largely a
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Matches from G1 Climax Nights 2-4 Find Night 1 here . Night Two 1.Juice vs SHINGO **** 2.Ishii vs Cobb ****1/4 3.Goto vs White **** Night Three 4.Ospreay vs SANADA **** 5.Okada vs Sabre ***3/4 6.Kota vs EVIL ***3/4 7.Tanahashi vs KENTA **** Night Four 8.Ishii vs White ****1/4 Thoughts: The unpredictability factor is at a high right now and the storylines are building nicely. The quality, too, is already at a high and I strongly suggest all of these matches. The wide variety of workers involved is also making the contests separate nicely from themselves, with everything from hoss battles to counter wrestling heavy clashes. Go watch these now!
Match from Sendai Girls 07/07 1.Sendai Title: Sareee(c) vs DASH ***3/4 Thoughts: Sareee continues to impress. I don't get to see her often, especially since she tends to work for tiny promotions that even I don't follow closely, but she pops up on my radar from time to time and everytime delivers the goods. So, when she won the top prize in Sendai, the world's second best joshi fed, I was excited. A fantastic contest against Chihiro, when she won the belt, was a great start. I'm glad they followed up with a DASH defense so soon after, even if it makes me think he run will be short. Anyway, this was a great battle between the two stars with both trading big shots back and forth and was a nice follow up to the Chihiro contest. Check this one out if you get the chance.
They're finally putting these on the AEW channel instead. Good move. A reminder to anyone put off by BTE, but these Road to installments are basically the antithesis of them and serve as a serious look at the behind the scenes of AEW as well as help build some of the plots. Now, this one takes a look at Fight for the Fallen and then continues setting the blocks for Page and Jericho's big contest with a nice promo from the Hangman. We then are given an awesome sitdown interview featuring JR talking to Spears about the big chair shot at Fyter Fest. At the end, we find out that Tully is going to be the manager of the Perfect Ten! This was must see stuff and I encourage all AEW fans to check it out.
1.King of Gate Finals: Ben-K vs Eita *** Thoughts: We've arrived at the finals of this year's tournament, ending in dramatic fashion as Ben-K takes on former teammate, Eita. The Dead or Alive cage match was a launching point to push Ben-K to the main event. King of Gate this year was the next step. They clipped this is a tad and I found the manner in which they did so a bit iffy, but it didn't take much away from the match and it wasn't so much that I couldn't enjoy and rate the contest. While a step down from last week's installment it was still an enjoyable episode. The match was good, the right guy won, and now we can look forward to Kobe! Lower that something I'd normally recommend, go ahead and check this out before the big show since it's a good teaser. Overall Rating: 70/100%
Week of 07/07-07/13 Note that MLW ran a special episode this week and was reviewed separately . Also, I am doing the BTE, AEW Road to, and W1 episodes away from the roundup again. I'm running a bit later than usual for this week due to health issues. 1.Chik Tormenta, Keyra, Tessa vs Faby, Lady Shani, Taya **1/4 AAA Worldwide The AAA women's division can be pretty damn entertaining and joshi levels of good at times, but this just had too poor of a layout and had too much ref bs to be recommendable. We don't need Hijo del Tirantes fucking with Faby AND a run in from Daga in the same match. There's a good outing hidden in here, but I don't think you should have to make time to find it. 2.SMASH Title: Tarik(c) vs Bennett **3/4 SMASH TV Honestly, before the bs finish, this had been a good match. It wasn't at the level they were aiming for, but I was enjoying it decently enough. But yea, the closing minutes were pretty much trash. I get that promotion
Matches: 0a.Umeda vs Keigo ** 0b.BAKURETSU Sisters, Rika vs Unagi, Maki, Yuna *** 1.DISASTER BOX, Nobuhiro vs ALL OUT, Watase ***1/2 2.Umeda, Kouki vs Kazusada, Nakatsu ***1/4 3.Saki vs Yoshiko **3/4 4.DDT Extreme Title, IPPON Tube Death: Akito(c) vs ASUKA ***1/2 5.DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title: Toru(c) vs Ikeda NR 6.DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title, Time Difference Battle Royal NR 7.Hideki vs Naya ***1/4 8.Moonlight Express vs Brookes, Masahiro ***1/2 9.O-40 Title, Weapon Rumble: Sanshiro vs Super Sasadango Machine NR 10.Danshoku vs Shinya NR 11.KO-D Tag Titles: DAMNATION(c) vs Urashima ***3/4 12.KO-D Openweight Title: Endo(c) vs Takeshita ****1/2 Thoughts: DDT has surpassed my expectations this year and finally won me over. I actually signed up for their service to watch this show before realizing they were offering it for free to win over new fans. You can watch it here . Anyway, let's dig in. The opener was a disappointment as Keigo showed little life. I
All Japan has announced the participants for this year's Royal Road Tournament, and it's stacked as expected. Does Kento win another major tournament? Does someone else win and end up taking the Triple Crown strap away from God Miyahara? PARTICIPANTS: Kento Miyahara Joe Doering Jiro Kuroshio Yoshitatsu Naoya Nomura Sam Adonis Dylan James Zeus Suwama Jake Lee Yuma Aoyagi KAI Gianni Valletta Taishi Takizawa Ryoji Sai Shuji Ishikawa
A lot of fun stuff here, once more. I really like these post-show episodes showing us some stuff behind the scenes. The theme for Fight for the Fallen was inspired by the old South Park episode. You know the one . It's Trump's favorite episode. MJF was his normal douchey self here, as was Sammy. The Librarian stuff was ok and I liked Avalon's remarks. I also really liked SCU's little promo. The highlight this week, though, was Page's stuff. The comedy spot with Knox and the behind the scenes look at the attack. All well done. We closed with beef squashing between the Brotherhood and the Bucks. No mail bag this week. Check the video out above if you missed out.
Hello, everyone. Every year since I started PWD , I've ran award polls for the middle of the year as well as the end of the year. We've arrived at this year's mid-year section and spent the last two weeks voting on seven categories. Let's take a look at the results: 1.Best Match: Dustin vs Cody My Pick: Dustin vs Cody Honorable Mention: SHINGO vs Ospreay 2.Best Male Wrestler: Ospreay My Pick: Ospreay Honorable Mention: WALTER 3.Best Team: LAX My Pick: Lucha Bros Honorable Mention: AXIZ, Lucha Bros 4.Best Female Wrestler: Tessa My Pick: Momo Honorable Mention: Hoshiki, Storm 5.Best Promotion: New Japan My Pick: NJPW Honorable Mention: NOAH 6.Best Special Event: Double or Nothing My Pick: Double or Nothing/TakeOver: New York Honorable Mention: TakeOver: New York 7.Best Weekly Series: Impact Wrestling My Pick: WWE 205Live/DG Cutting Edge Honorable Mention: NXT Thanks to all who participated.
1.DISASTER BOX vs New Wrestling Aidoru vs Brookes, Watase vs Gota, Yamato vs Sanshiro, Kuragaki NR Thoughts: Fuck it, I'm not much for comedy wrestling but DDT is winning me over not only with their main events but also with their other stuff. The pool show was far better than it had any right to be, so let's see if a show with elephants walking around does the same. A large section in the early potion saw the workers playing goalie against an elephant. It rained a tad. Basically, this is a large portion of the DDT roster doing random spots in the dirt and around a zoo. It led to some unique situations. I mean, where else will you see Chris Brookes dunked into a wheelbarrow of elephant shit? This wasn't as fun as the pool show and is the ultimate niche of a niche style show, but I was at least entertained and that's what matters most. My face is swollen up and I'm in pain and it helped distract me, plus my kids loved it. No rating will be given for obvious
Matches: 0a. Avalon vs Kiss ** 0b.Shoko, Bea vs Baker, Riho **3/4 1. MJF, Spears, Guevara vs Darby, Havoc, Janela ***1/2 2.Brandi vs Allie ** 3.Dark Order vs A Boy & His Dinosaur vs Gueros del Cielo ***1/2 4.Page vs Kip *** 5.SCU vs Lucha Bros ***1/2 6.Omega vs CIMA **** 7.The Brotherhood vs The Young Bucks ***1/2 Thoughts: I didn't get to see this as quickly as I wanted due to the technical difficulties I ran into on B/R. I saw several different types of issues others complained about during the show. I'll just say that I hope it's a fluke as most of this stuff had been non-existent on the first two. The preshow was ok, but I voiced my opinion on Twitter recently that they are misusing the Buy In and I stand by that. Apparently, JR does, too. The first match there was decent but nothing major. The Librarian gimmick is getting the wrong kind of heat. Worth noting, especially after living there recently, that the "reading sucks" chant was very fi
Matches 1.Briggs vs Greene *** 2.Maluta vs Stallion vs Wolf vs Bravado ***1/4 3.Henry vs Ruas ***1/4 4.No DQ: Shotzi vs Lauren ***1/2 5.Corino vs Babatunde ** 6.EVOLVE Tag Titles: Unwanted(c) vs Skulk ***3/4 7.Riddle vs Gulak ****1/4 8.EVOLVE, WWN Titles: Theory(EVOLVE) vs Drake(WWN) ***3/4 9.NXT Title: Cole(c) vs Tozawa *** Thoughts: In celebration of 10 years, EVOLVE is airing on the WWE Network with this one. I actually signed up for a free trial to see this. It's been a long time since I've been a subscriber and it won't last past the 30 days but let's take a look and see what we have here. I dig the opening video package. I actually watched this before AEW because I was having issues with B/R last night. I've seen the show now, but the review will be up in a few hours after I take care of myself for a bit. I'm dealing with a bad tooth infection and face swelling so I didn't sleep much last night. I don't sleep much in general, though,
For those who missed the news, Paco Alonso, the owner of CMLL, passed away last week. Now, he was largely a private man who's reputation is stuff of literal legend in lucha circles. I hope his family is doing as well as they can in this trying time. Rumors of who was replacing him spread quickly, but the most likely was always going to be his daughter, Sofia. She has basically been the public face of the promotion for a while now anyway, so it made sense. For crude context, think of Vince and Steph in WWE and you have an idea. Now imagine if Vince DIDN"T love the spotlight and Steph was a lot less involved on screen and you're even closer. Sure enough, Sofia has been named the new head of the company though it's worth noting there are some rumors that she might be the public face of CMLL while others are holding (at least some of) the reigns behind the scenes. I actually doubt that, but it was worth noting. I know it sucks to get a job this way, but I wish her n