POLL 4/1-4/7/2022- WHAT WAS THE BEST FREE TV MATCH OF THE WEEK? WHOM?

[DEAN]

Jiminy Crickets!  MAN, this was a LOT of wrestling this week.  Many quality wrestling matches are on the cut list!  I am stuck between Jamie Hayter vs Riho, ATHENA vs Miyu Yamashita and Ethan Page vs HOOK!  Hayter vs Riho was fucking awesome so I'm going with that.  There were giant wads of WWE wrestling- mostly on NXT and Smackdown but a couple matches on RAW.  IMPACT! kinda sucked this week.  CWFH was good and NWA was pretty good this week.  MLW was perfectly fine.  Anyway, here we go.

 

CUT LIST: Natalia Markova vs Labrava Escobar- NWA 312 pre-show;  Natalia Markova vs Labrava Escobar- NWA USA; Faces of Destiny vs Super Classics- IWA-PR; Danielle Kamela vs Johnnie Robbie- CWFH;  León Dorado vs Imposible- IWRG;  Galeno del Mal/ Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr vs Travis Banks/ Hijo de Canis Lupus- IWRG; Hijo del Pirata Morgan/ Morgana/ Pirata Morgan/ Pirata Morgan Jr vs Pig Decapitador/ Pig Desenterrador/ Pig Destroyer/ Pig Destructor- IWRG; Nick Comoroto vs Action; Angelica Risk vs Skye Blue- AEW Elevation; Soma Watanabe/ Tetsuya Izuchi vs Takanori Ito/ Yusuke Kodama- GLEAT; Michiko Miyagi vs Akane Fujita- GLEAT; Check Shimatani/ Hayato Tamura/ KAZMA SAKAMOTO vs Hartley Jackson/ Kaito Ishida/ Kotaro Suzuki- GLEAT; Serpentico vs Willie Mack- AEW Dark; Homicide vs Salavar del la Muerte- NWA PowerrR; Esfinge/ Fugaz/ Star Black vs Gemelo Diablo I/ Gemelo Diablo II/ Sagrado- CMLL;  Mark Briscoe/ Rey Fenix/ Penta el Zero Meido vs JD Drake/ Anthony Henry/ Shane Taylor- ROH; Alex Shelly/ Chris Sabin vs Bad Dude Tito/ Shane Haste- IMPACT!; Jon Gresham vs Speedball Mike Bailey- ROH;  Ivy Nile vs Tatum Paxley- NXT; T-Hawk vs Issei Onitsuka- GLEAT; Liv Morgan/ Raquel Rodriguez vs IYO SKY/ Dakota Kai- RAW; Copa Irma Gonzalez Match- CMLL; 1 Called Manders vs Ricky Shane Page

 

[Boydy]

I forgot Athena was wrestling on ROH this week. I will probably vote for her match or Hayter Vs Riho this week as that was an awesome match.

 

[Boydy]

I enjoyed Athena's ROH match but I enjoyed Jamie Hayter Vs Riho more so I voted for that.

 

[DEAN]

1 minute ago, Boydy said:

I enjoyed Athena's ROH match but I enjoyed Jamie Hayter Vs Riho more so I voted for that.

 

Yeah, me too.  The Athena/Yamashita match was more unique, but Riho/ Hayter was more of a classic.

[John E. Dynamite]

OH BOY

The Arena Coliseo Torneo Cibernatico. THIS ONE! This one, this one, this one. This whole show was so good. For those who don't know, Arena Coliseo is the 5,000 seat Korakuen of Mexico City and it deserved a celebration like this.

https://youtu.be/LTVs3yCMujo?t=2715

I don't necessarily prefer a big multi-man mess of desperate rookies on a big show. But when it works, when *anything* works this well, I get taken back to the good old days when I was making my first VHS purchases, Japanese indie tournaments with dudes I didn't even realize were legends and CHIKARA ciberneticos that featured future WWE and AEW champions going toe-to-toe with effervescent flashes in their funny little pans. Just a full-force blasting of spectacular shit and engaging performers that I barely know a thing about. A lu-charcuterie plate, if you wheel.

It's fresh. It's fun. It makes you wonder where these guys are gonna end up. Neon is the standout babyface for my money. Crixus is BIG and has a high ceiling. Vaquero Jr. is the no-mask charisma dude for sure. The major promotions' rosters are so well-eatablished these days, so this one really hit. This is sort of a sequel to the Mexico City School vs. Guadalajara School Cibernetico from some weeks ago that's also up on CMLL's YouTube channel. That got some votes, and this is better. PIMP SHILL PIMP SHILL

Edited April 10, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[DEAN]

NO WAY!  Torneo Cibernetico is tied for first!

[JLowe]

I don't watch much but I said Darby-Moriarty was borderline 5* for me so that got my vote.

[Marcel]

I'm leaning hard towards Hayter/Riho but still need to watch the NJPW AXS show and apparently the Tornero Cibernetico as well.  

(Love Arena Coliseo.  Very happy to have gotten there and to Arena Mexico over the years.)

[DEAN]

We have FOUR WAY TIE for first!

[DEAN]

We now have a two way tie!

[Kang]

I picked the Riho vs Jamie Hayter- DYNAMITE option. Yappari Riho is the best.

[Eivion]

Raw was a bit light on matches though what was there was at least solid.

NXT had some nice stuff with Lee/Axiom and Frazier/Dragon beignthe standouts. If both were just a few minutes longer I might have considered voting for them.

FTR/Gunns built into something solid by the end. Hayter/Riho was another solid match though nothing special. Honestly, as much as I like Hayter I tend to find her matches overrated. Athena as ROH champ feels like she is delivering more. HOB vs. Best Friends was good and the standout for Dynamite to me.

Shibata/Daniels was fine but didn't really feel like anything super worthwhile. Athena/Miyu built into something good. Dug the late stages with it almost looking like a count out. That segment does remind me though that I wish US refs would sometimes take the Japanese route sometime of waiting to start the count and trying to get the wrestlers back inside first. 

Hook/Page was fun. Dug Darby/Moriarty more. After watching him the last 6-9 months I have to admit I enjoy seeing Allin in matches like this and Kushida more than I do his stuff against big guys. Darby is a great bumper and knows how to bring that wild fighter attitude, but its much more fun to see him have to think and counter when dealing with guys who are less about bomb throwing and more about groundwork and submissions. 

Jade/Billie was fine in an extended squash kind of way. Dug the bits of character Jade showed. Billie impressed me more here having to bump and sell in a non-crazy manner than she did in her matches where had big bump fails and a lot of offense. I only wish she got a slight bit of more shine during her comeback. OC/Dralisto was another fine OC match, maybe the the best one from the past 6 weeks or so to me. Didn't feel like OC had to carry things much like he did in other, and Dralistico left far more of an impressive impression than past OC opponents did both in what he brought in offense and as a character. 

Smackdown was mostly good with the matches here all being solid at worst. Brutes/Imperium was probably the stand out with them having the crowd ready to explode when Sheamus finally entered the ring after cheap shots and Gunther dodging the man. 

Plenty of nice matches this past week, but nothing that really runs away with it for me. Still need to check out NJPW and CMLL. 

[Marcel]

Watched the Torneo Cibernetico and NJPW and as much as I enjoyed both, I've got to go with Hayter/Riho for the week.  Love them both and they might not be able to have a bad match together.

[DEAN]

And one match is pulling ahead!  RIHO! RIHO! RIHO!  HAYTER! HAYTER! HAYTER!

[The Natural]

Went with Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium.

[DEAN]

Whoa!  The Cibernetico match comes raging back!

[Eivion]

Dug the 6-man tag form AXS a good bit. Really hope they show the Bishamon vs. Aussie Open tag titles match on AXS. Loved the teams' interactions here. Hiromu/Lio was pretty good, but felt somewhat off seeing Lio fighting from behind with fighting spirit. The crowd seemed to like him fine, but they were never getting behind him against Hiromu.

The Atlantis tag from CMLL was fun, but I think the Copa Irma Gonzalez match probably should have made it into the poll over. Way better match even with the flubs. The Mistico tag seemed standard fare until the last fall which was pretty nice. Went with Cibernetico in the end. It was well done aside from a few flubs. I like seeing guys unknown to me go for broke. And I have to admit it was nice to see Vaquero Jr. go so far. He has been one of my favorites of this crew. In general though it was a pretty good match all around and nothing else stood out to me quite as much while still being at the same level quality wise. 

[DEAN]

5 minutes ago, Eivion said:

The Atlantis tag from CMLL was fun, but I think the Copa Irma Gonzalez match probably should have made it into the poll over. Way better match even with the flubs.

Yeah, it was a tough cutting stuff.  It was really close.

[DEAN]

Your winner IS Riho vs Jamie Hayter!