Impressions on Wrestling

2017... a crazy year. Not my favorite year in terms of world happenings, but a hell of a year for wrestling. There was an obscene amount of great matches last year. We also had some juicy news stories. I have decided to do a mini awards celebration for this incredible year. Please note that I do miss a lot of wrestling every year due to the sheer amount of content. These awards are voted on by one person, who happens to be me.  So this is a very biased list based on my opinions. There will be a mix of positive and negative awards, which will hopefully keep it fresh. Alright... all of the introductions are out of the way. Let's get to it!!! First up... Best Promotion New Japan Pro Wresting This is an easy pick for me to make. The in-ring quality of NJPW was off the charts in 2017. It started off with an amazing show in Wrestle Kingdom 11 and had some amazing shows along the way, like the G1 and Dominion. We had two amazing trilogies with Okada/Omega and Naito/Ta...

Last night's PPV was an important one for Ring of Honor.  Reports had been running about the unhappiness in the locker room, and that people wanted to jump off the ship.  They had been bringing in talent from New Japan for a while now, but the shows felt without any weight.  This how did not have that issue by show end. I am going to break down a few highlights from the undercard before I get to the big finish... War Machine vs. The Briscoes was a lot of fun.  Good brawling and near falls aplenty.  Kudos to these teams for putting on a show that provided a spark to the lower end of the card. Naito vs. O'Reilly was a fun match, although it suffered from the ending being obvious to the live crowd. Okada and Moose vs.  Tanahashi and Mike Elgin was a very good match.  I liked the flow of the match and Moose came out looking strong, which is good for ROH Bobby Fish beating Ishii was unexpected and appreciated by this viewer.  Good match tha...

Wow! What a show!  This was one of my most anticipated shows this year, and boy, did it deliver!  The big matches delivered and so did everyone on the undercard.  Seriously, wow. The show took place in a sold out Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.  I will say this, the worst part of the show was the crowd towards the end of the show.  For the last two matches, they just cheered at select spots instead of truly getting it going.  Weird. Anways, let's break this mother down! Opening Segment-  They opened the show with Bullet Club cutting a promo. Karl Anderson introduced the IWGP Champion, AJ Styles. Styles said that there were no followers in Bullet Club, they all lead.  This brought out Kazuchika Okada, the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, who got in Bullet Club's face since they screwed him at Wrestling Dontaku 2014. Styles stated that he was busy with Elgin tonight, which then brought out Michael Elgin.  Elgin stated that he thought he'd b...

Just wanted to give my quick thoughts on the first of two joint ventures between Ring of Honor and NJPW. Last Night's show, Global Wars, took place at the Ted Reeves Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Cananda.  It was a pretty decent show so let's break it down. 1.) Michael Bennett vs. ACH This was a fine opener, but it wasn't a thrilling match.  ACH got a few nice spots in, but there was never any doubt in the fan's minds on who was winning.  Bennett has a big match against Tanahashi on Saturday, so Bennett needed to look good.  Mission accomplished.   Rating : ** 2.) Michael Elgin vs.  Takaaki Watanabe Similar situation to the first match where Elgin needed to look good before he faces AJ Styles for the IWGP Championship this weekend.  There were some fun moments, but again this was never in doubt. Rating : ** 3.)  The Decade vs. Red Dragon vs. The Briscoe Brothers The Briscoes won in a fairly short but fun matchup.  Red Dragon has a ma...