Matt D

Few notes to start. NJPW is shifting to a "Big show" approach like UWF apparently. We'll see if that continues but it does mean we have less footage in April. Just the two matches on the joint show (none of which are with the WWF or AJPW because of the TV company wanting to leave them off) and one other show. Apparently that Fujinami faction/production is still happening. We'll see. That would severely affect the Americans and they have honestly been used quite well on this tour. Takano was supposed to become Cobra again to fight SSM, which is something I think should have happened when they were teaming but he and Sano will leave for SWS anyway. I'm done with Sano footage in NJPW btw. That makes me sad because he was very good. They still think the cooperation will continue and are talking about a Vader/Hansen vs Doc/Gordy match for December. Obvious that doesn't happen. UWF 4/15/90 Bart Vale vs Miyato: Very cool match. Miyato is conservative, plays rope-a-dope and blows people up then wins with his spin kick and other holds down the stretch. No chance at all at that against Vale. Vale is lanky, tall, HUGE reach advantage, and a kicker. He danced around him to start but Vale could reach his way out of any real hold. You could see it play out in real time where Miyato would have the leg and Vale's arm would just come down to work the fingers. There wasn't a ton Miyato could do about the kicks and Vale landed some, leaving him staggered. Miyato tried to solve the puzzle and would work his way out of holds and even get those spin kicks down the stretch but there was nothing to be done. Vale got one big rear naked at the end and yes Miyato got out but then Vale picked him up like he was a baby and turned him up and around into a Razor's Edge of all things, a shoot Razor's Edge, and that was it. Funaki vs Suzuki: This was Funaki's first fight back from injury. Snowden wrote about this recently: https://hybridshoot.substack.com/p/the-invisible-wall. They worked this incredibly hard on the mat, with all the energy you'd expect from Funaki and Suzuki, but it's just holds. The crowd was mostly dead for it, even when Suzuki was able to get on top of Funaki. At first, it felt like Funaki KNEW the sort of damage Suzuki could do and was just trying to contain him by meeting his energy with grappling alone, but that was the whole match and Suzuki taps in ten minutes or so to a leglock. They barely stood out after the start and when they did it was quickly back down. The idea is than Funaki wanted to do pure wrestling and that UWF wasn't giving him what he wanted so he pushed the needle even farther. Funaki came in more of a star, but to me, watching the footage, Suzuki was the more electric one. Funaki had his moments. They both did corner dropkicks in a UWF setting, for instance, and Funaki had the ballistic Backlund match, but with Funaki out with injury, Suzuki was the one there with 4-5 bit MOVES per match, the shoulder roll, the Gotch pile driver, the fireman's carry drop followed by the dropkick, etc., plus the insane energy he brought to striking and aggression. I really, truly think having watched so much of this stuff now, AJPW, NJPW, UWF, and all the American wrestling I'm familiar with, that Suzuki was the most exciting young wrestler in the world from summer 89 to April 90. He had mastered this dynamic hybrid style where you couldn't take your eyes off of him. And as cool as this engaging, energetic grappling is on paper, keeping up a sort of pace that Maeda/Takada really didn't, making it a sort of UWF for the UWF, it's not nearly as cool as what he was doing in Fall-Winter 89/90. I get that we got Pancrase out of this, and so much more of what would become MMA, but I want to live in the reality where Suzuki continued the OTHER path and we got to see what his highspot/big move laden style that was still absolutely grounded in struggling for every inch (as defined by the way the Gotch Piledriver back then was about the LIFT being assisted, not the impact) led to instead. And maybe Pancrase as a more performative sort of shootstyle does give us that. I don't anticipate really finding out anytime soon, but this match wasn't it by any means even if it was very good for what it was. The crowd was disappointed that the didn't get the fireworks show they expected. I find it hard to blame them. Newborn UWF was already enough purity! They had the right balance and Suzuki was already pushing it in a more interesting and honestly undeniable direction. Yet he took a step back to be the one, himself, to deny it. Maeda vs Nakano: I can't imagine the crowd didn't come out of this show buzzing far more about this fight than Funaki vs Suzuki. Nakano usually dwarves opponents like Miyato or Anjo but he seemed weirdly tiny next to Maeda. Maeda tried to play nice enough at first, just going for some holds, but Nakano knew he had no chance without being the aggressor. He went for the first kick so Maeda started kicking him. He got a press up against the rope and forced a break so Maeda got pissed and started going for knees. He got out of a hold with a headbutt and followed up with stomps so Maeda almost pumphandled him to lay in even more knees. At every point, both when he was pressing an advantage and working from underneath, the crowd was huge for the underdog, chanting Nakano's name. Wild contrast from the silence of the previous match. This was a Nakano rally and everyone was invited. A futile hopeless rally, but one everyone was happy to be at. He charged in desperately, getting Maeda in the corner like a runaway train and hitting a snap suplex. Maeda was still able to move him around and this time when Nakano tried to stop it with headbutts, Maeda fired back with headbutts of his own. In the end, Maeda caught his foot, hit the capture suplex, and wrenched his leg back for the win. Inevitable, but it was a journey worth taking.

I wish there was more Maverick Wild footage online.

3/19/90: Hiro Saito/Norio Honaga/Tatsutoshi Goto vs Hiroshi Hase/Kuniaki Kobayashi/George Takano: Hamaguchi added a lot to the act. He cut a quick promo early here. Then the good guys stormed the ring but got swept under. Hase got beat on to start until he could get underneath Honaga with the waterwheel drop. Super credible, that Hase. Kobayashi still wanted Saito though and tossed Honaga to the corner to get him. But the numbers game won out. This repeated for most of the rest of the match. Hase took a beating. Kobayashi took a beating. Takano (bandaged up) took a beating including Goto's back drop (though it became more of a German). Then the faces finally came back and stomped the hell out of Goto (he had gotten too close to the wrong corner). They were really tweaking the finishes. Low blow from Goto but Hase came back but then he ran into Honaga on the apron who nailed him and couldn't get the lariat but Goto did and that was the win. Perfectly fine but no real forward momentum. 3/19/90: Choshu/Kitao vs Cameron/Bigelow: Bigelow and Choshu remain a great pairing. Here he started against Kitao crashing into him as Choshu clapped big. Kiitao almost got him out but then Choshu hit the lariat to knock him out and raised Kitao's hand. He knows what he's doing. Kitao and Cameron traded headbutts. Bigelow got him way up for a suplex. Then Choshu and Bigelow did great rope running with Bigelow missing a dropkick and taking a flip bump for Choshu's lariat. Kitao hit an awkward power slam on Cameron but a pretty fun rolling belly to back. Bigelow took over and Choshu jammed a suplex by kicking his legs before he hit one of his own. That led to Kitao throwing his weak kicks at everyone and hitting another awkward powerslam on Cameron and the backbrekaer for the win. Kitao really doesn't look good but Choshu is trying with him here. 3/19/90: Chono vs SSM: Chono came out hot attacking all the Outlaws. That didn't go well for him and SSM controlled to start. Chono finally slipped out of a hold to start on the arm. They kept it on the mat for a bit but it was still fairly gritty. SSM did a cool Navarro type cross-leg submission. They ended up scrapping on the mat and Chono fought his way up and hit a back brain kick. That led to more matwork and then SSM taking over with a back brain kick of his own. Match built to SSM missing his tope rope headbutt and Chono getting his stuff (belly to back, neckbreaker) in. He put on the octopus. Goto got up and he broke it. Chono went after the outlaws. Takano was out to help. SSM caught him on the outside in though and after one big punch (he was opened up I think), Takano hit the diving headbutt for the win. Post-match Takano rushed into take SSM's mask and he had to leave under a towel keeping the heat going. 3/19/90: Liger vs Pegasus Kid: It's weird watching Benoit even under a mask. He got better during this tour though. The nerves calmed down I think. This was pretty good, I have to admit. I'm not going back to check but I think Benoit came out to a kareoke version of Jump. Lots of matwork here. It was good. Fairly back and forth but this did feel like a title match. They built to Benoit doing a Gotch Lift. Or trying to. He more or less failed. He also had a pretty rough electric chair (deadlift out of a headscissors) fall back later on too. Overvalued his own strength maybe. When things picked up, Liger hit a dropkick through the second and third rope to Benoit on the floor and it looked like one of the best things I've seen all year. his flip dive off the apron that followed it wasn't quite as good. His flip dive towards the end hanging on to the top rope as he flipped was great though. Also great was Benoit's bridging German down the stretch. Liger reversed Benoit's super belly to back by landing on him. Benoit returned the favor landing on him out of a superplex. There were missed diving headbutts. And liger won with a reverse cradle out of nowhere. It had its issues but was still leaps and bounds better than Benoit's first match or two in 90. 3/19/90: Hashimoto/Saito vs Hall/Punisher Dice Morgan: This was a title match and kind of fun for what it was. Taker came out walking like a Bushwhacker for some reason. Then they did the anthem and he got really excited after that. They had the whole deal with the flags behind the head and everything. Taker is so goofy here. He hit a flying clothesline on Hash and then held up his hand splayed and made a face. That's how they started the match. Hall looked great though. It got really fun when Saito was in there since he got all hyped up like a southern babyface, fist pumping and hulking up and what not. He actually got Taker in the Prison Lock. Taker countered with the claw. Then Hall somehow got the razor's edge on Hash (barely). Taker had a fun gutwrench and legdrop. He definitely had a lot of agility and energy. He and Hall hit a side slam elbow drop combo too. But eventually super hero Saito came in. Taker got the claw on both Hash and then Saito. Saito came back with the flip flop and fly. Taker did the rope walk on Saito's arm but Saito came back again with a lariat and Saito suplex on hall. Then Saito tossed Hall into the spin wheel kick and Taker into a Hash superkick.and Hash got the DDT and spin wheel kick on Hall for the win. It was fun. I won't say it wasn't. Just a weird alternate reality match. 3/22/90: Hashimoto vs Punisher Dice Morgan: This was a rough watch. 6.5 MB and 10+ minutes. ASF file. This was a handheld on a show where Saito vs Bigelow for the AWA title was the main. Hopefully we get that and a VQ upgrade on this someday. From what we could see this was decent though. Hashimoto scored a bunch of kicks including a leg one that made Taker limp about. Taker knocked him out of the ring and used the claw for a bit. At one point Taker hit a huge leapfrog and then a clothesline. Finish was very nice. Hash hit the spin wheel kick but went for more punishment. Taker got a foot up and went to the second rope. Hash caught him with a leaping spin wheel kick up there and then hit the DDT for the win. Shame we couldn't really see it. 3/23/90: Kitao vs Kirchner: Funny stare down to start as Kitao, emotionless, does a thumb across the throat. Then Kirchner does a double thumbs down. Both guys looked pretty goofy. This wasn't good. Kitao looked unsure. His shots looked off or weak or stilted. Kirchner would bully him around a bit but he knew his job so not too much but it meant a lot of nothing or disconnected things. At one point towards the end I think Kitao was supposed to drop him for a Fujiwara and time just stopped as they ended up kind of hugging. He won it with an over the shoulder backbreaker. Not great! 3/23/90: Chono/Takano vs SSM/Goto: Outlaws ambush. Gogo takes out Chono with chair in the crowd. That lets SSM and Goto work over Takano. Takano reverses a SSM whip with a dropkick and hits a belly to belly (not one of his normal moves). Chono in with the whip assisted second rope shoulder block. Then Takano goes up and Chono doesn't let go of him SSM soon enough and he falls off the ropes but still manages to hit the top rope spin wheel kick which was kind of awesome. Things go back and forth because that's how Takano and SSM wrestle. Eventually it cycles back around to Takano and SSM but Goto gets him from behind. Chono comes in with blood (probably from the last match repened). they double press slam him off the rope and then double press slam takano to the floor. So that's funny. Goto hits a cool back drop where he loses Chono in midair and it turns into an exploder. But then Chono gets a roll up out of nowhere. Post match Outlaws en masse destroy them to get their heat back. 3/23/90: Choshu/Hashimoto vs Cameron/Bigelow: At one point they said that this tour was about Choshu establishing his reign and dealing with the Outlaws. Hashimoto came out and two kids jump in front of the camera super excited and he moves them out of the way. Then he chucks the flowers. What a guy. Bigelow starts against Hash, whose kicks are night and day from Kitao's. Things go absolutely haywire on a suplex though and Bigelow lands nasty on his shoulder (and on Hashimoto) and he struggles for the rest of the match. He still, minutes later, gets Hashimoto up high in a suplex and takes a flip bump for Choshu on a lariat (and a slightly modified double suplex where Hash might have been protecting the shoulder) but it looked bad. Cameron ends up working more of the match than you'd expect. It's still fun overall and he eventually falls to Hash's DDT. He's working again a week or so later in TWA against Tuilly in a cage and then through April so I guess it wasn't that bad.

They just announced Death Before Dishonor in August. This might be unpopular but it feels too early to have Maya knock off Athena, even if she's going to beat Reigns' record between now and then. That feels like something to really build to between now and Final Battle. And the way to do it is to have Hyan get jealous for Maya lapping her and becoming a minion, giving Maya something to overcome for a few months on the road there.

That Casey is too defensive in the face of shifting paradigms. I had words but it was mainly a chance to share a thread as a reply where I had posted a bunch of Bock's matches on YouTube and that got a lot of eyes and bookmarks, so hopefully people will be exploring on their own.

Have you watched the brunt of Athena’s ROH PPV matches? The crowds are clearly involved in those finishing stretches. Also, this is a big argument today and it’s giving me a headache, but I care far more how I’m emotionally affected by a match than how the crowd is even though crowd involvement impacts my involvement.

We are very far apart there. I feel like Mercedes storyboards out her matches and plans out most of her reactions and Athena is far, far better at living in the moment and reacting on the fly and feeling alive and immersive in her matches. Night and day. I think Athena's one of the best in the world today, maybe even one of the best in the last fifteen years in managing to do that. With Mercedes I almost always see the strings. They're strings that come together to a pretty solid construction most of the time, but I see the person behind the character in ways I don't with post-2022 Athena who lives and breathes her performances. Weirdly, some of the best, most organic reactions I see out of Mercedes is when she's teaming with Athena and reacting to something she does.

Just want to make sure I'm not slipping into a "pronouns, pal" scenario here? Are you saying that Athena is more robotic than Mercedes?

Finish of Mercedes vs Maya was one of the best things all year. To have a crowd engaged like that over an OUTCOME was something special. That said, I'm not convinced the match overall held up well. Maya seemed to have nerves early and some of the choreographed stuff ended up looking choreographed in a way that it didn't against Athena, for instance. Some excellent sequences in there like the fallaway slams, the sunset flip power bomb into the corner, Mercedes going out to get her, etc. I just don't know if it came together how I wanted/expected/people are saying overall.

I got Minishoot Adventures on the steam sale and I'm really enjoying it. It's basically a bullet hell zelda metroidvania. You're a little ship. You fly around a 2D Zelda like world, and you power up by killing enemies and gaining levels and getting new skills that unlock other areas of the map.

3/5/90: Choshu/Hashimoto vs Bam Bam Bigelow/Larry Cameron: Cameron is very effusive, very good at posturing. He had a few things working against him in general. He started in his mid 30s. He had heart issues, dying in the ring in 93. But if he had started ten years earlier, he feels like he could have been a big star in the late 70s. They were calling Choshu/Hashimoto (and maybe Chono) a new Power Elite and that was good rub for Hashimoto I guess. The foreigners on this tour, Bigelow, Cameron, Morgan, Hall, Kirchner, Nord, made up a sort of solid foreign army of monsters (as in 89 there were more credible wrestlers to do the 5x5 series). 90 feels a little underlooked (though 89 was as well, maybe even 88) so it's good to figure out what the big themes/stories/narrative pushes are in between the Dome shows and for specific tours. Bigelow was so good at working with Choshu. They started matches so well, just ducking clotheslines and missing dropkicks and then Bigelow finally bumping big for the lariat. Likewise, he missed a corner charge on Hashimoto and then ate a ton of kicks and the spin wheel kick, with Choshu lariating him out of the ring. Great stuff. I'm not sure I've ever seen Bigelow look better or more effective. I'd argue that Cameron was better at the in between stuff and the swagger than his actual offense, though he had a good headbutt. Heels controlled most of this but Hashimoto got out of a full nelson at the last second causing Bigelow to nail Cameron. Then Hash hit his snapping DDT for the win. 3/15/90: Saito/Kitao vs Bigelow/Punisher Dice Morgan: This was rough! Morgan (Undertaker) had looked ok in his last tag but he was up against more seasoned guys. Here at points he and Kitao just sort of stumbled about. Some of that was actually okay as it looked gritty and competitive but I'd argue that's not the best way to protect Kitao who you wanted to present differently than, let's say the Russians. Bigelow and Saito tried to give it some professionalism and polish with Bigelow taking stuff well (even Kitao's kicks) and Saito being, frankly, awesome as he hulked up against these guys like he was Hogan in 82 Minneapolis (or Dusty with elbows), but this was one of the weakest matches I've seen in this entire project, honestly. 3/15/90: Sakaguchi/Kimura vs Hall/Kirchner: This was one of two special retirement matches for Sakaguchi. He got to hit a really nice jumping knee on Kirchner to start. Then Kimura got the leg lariat on Hall, knocking him out of the ring. Big chants for Sakaguchi a couple of times in this one. They did take over on Kimura especially including the Razor's Edge. Hall looked pretty good in general though not always exactly on the same page as Kirchner. Eventually Kimura made the tag to Sakaguchi who cleaned house and set up another leg lariat by Kimura for the win. 3/15/90: Liger/Hase vs Saito/Honaga: Hase is such an interesting case. He came in with a ton of fanfare, really brightened up the junior scene in early 88 and he's barely been a factor since. Yes, in 89, he went to Russia and came back with new moves and was the big star of the 5x5 finale, but just really nothing. It's nice to see him and Liger here against the Outlaws. You'd think a few months in the act would be getting old, but adding Hamaguchi and SSM, having some real heated angles, and giving them diverse opponents has helped. It's mainstreamed some things like the low blows to take back offense, even if they're done a bit too freely. Hase spent a lot of this match working from underneath but that just meant Liger could come in hot. He presented himself like such a star after hot tags, hyping up the crowd, waving his arms. Then he did the tilt a whirl backbreaker or snap belly to belly. It was the combo of the two that made him what he was. This had the hallmarks you'd expect, an early ambush some hot tags, a low blow to take back over, Hase missing a big kneedrop off the top and some legwork including him and Saito whacking each other in a deathlock. They had already inverted some finishes by having Saito or Honaga grab the ropes off of a corner sunset flip but now they were inverting that by having Hase break it up for instance. Finish was hot with Hase surviving a German, hitting a bit lariat, and then Liger getting a roll up. Post-match, Outlaws got revenge with chairs and Liger demanded a one-on-one with Saito. 3/15/90: Hashimoto/Chono vs Cameron/Nord: Nord is such a blast. He doesn't have any of Brody's energy when he comes down to ring, and once he's in there, he's occasionally awkward but then does amazing stuff. He went up so high on a missed legdrop. And then once he got knocked out of the ring over the top and stumbled back to bump all the way over the guard rail. Great stuff. Heels did spend a lot of time grinding down Hash and Chono here in less than compelling ways around those spots. Finish was fun with Hash hitting a DDT on Nord and Cameron accidentally hitting a diving headbutt on the top on him when Hash moved. Chono got the back brain kick on Cameron to get him out and Hash hit the spin wheel kick. Good decisive win for these two. 3/15/90: Choshu/Takano vs SSM/Goto: Feuds really coming together here. I keep sort of worrying we're not going to get the Choshu vs SSM singles match (this is knowable. I can look it up but I'm coming in blind and I don't like looking ahead too much). Some parallels to the last SSM tag I saw where he comes down with Hamaguchi and the godzilla theme but is ambushed and they work him over for a bit. Outlaws take over when Choshu goes for the mask though. They cycle but when Takano gets Choshu back in, the corner pad is pulled back and they lay in on Goto. Things go back and forth with another long bit of heat on Takano. I'm not sure if it comes together as much as I'd like though SSM does a bunch of really good looking offense like always. Finish had Choshu with the scorpion on Goto but everything down and Chono running in to help with a chair. Still meat on the bone.

I wrote up Athena vs Syuri and Athena vs Maya this week: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/06/aew-five-fingers-of-death-615-621.html

Now that we have a Switch 2, I'll probably end up getting FFVII Remake, etc. at some point. I think I've been a bit wary due to the download size. The library happens to have DQVII Reimagined, Suikoden I+II, and Octopath Traveler 0. I'm 12 hours into DQVII (which I haven't played since it first came out on PS1) now so it'll be a while before I get to it though.

It's DVDVR. You can argue anything you want so long as you back it up and are earnest about it. That said, if you're going to go around defending WWE and their feudal, monopolistic, exploitative, petty, and now quite late-capitalist practices, well, you've got a lot of backing up to do and you're going to have to live with that.

Still need to watch the main. I really miss Velvet as a heel. She's fine as a face but she was really on another level as a heel. The Merecdes win hurt her more than helped her ultimately, in part because they didn't capitalize on it in any meaningful way. Ten man tag was super fun. Love Truth doing the flying head scissors. The waterfall missed top rope move bit was a bit cutesy. Johnson is getting better a a stooge every week. Love Shibata screwing with Solo with all the rope breaks and the way he rubbed his hair in his face in a hold. What a jerk. Thought Marina and Steel was massively overachieving. My only critique is that Steel went for the rolling leg pick twice and didn't pay for it the second time (or fail to get it the first). I really liked her headlock takeover from the outside in. Great babyface move. I really think the way she caries herself will work better as a heel though. There's some bluster there that I don't quite connect to as a babyface. You see it less in her in-ring though.

That was more for sovietshooter and others who were leaning into upside when I was more focused on in ring. I have to watch Perry matches instead of other matches on the card. I don't have stock in AEW. I'm happy to talk positively about a number of the names you mentioned but it'll be primarily in ring. I don't really care about "upside." Upside doesn't benefit me as a viewer at all.

Do you miss Eddie or do you not miss Eddie? If you just miss hanging out with him or whatever, watch his reaction to the Knicks winning.

You should seek out the Manders match though.

I’m not going to argue upside. Luke Perry’s athletic spot-hitting son will always have more upside than Evil Uno or whoever.

Thanks for that. Wasn’t my take on the match and it’s the only singles they had but I’m not the office.

Like you said, personal preference, but I would disagree with most of this list, with some of them strongly disagree upon. And a couple extremely disagree with. Copeland and Alexander are the two I’d seriously consider though. Killswitch was better than Luchasaurus given the illness we don’t have a ton of data points over the last few years.

3/2/90: Liger/iizuka vs Cheetah Kid/Pegasus Kid: Cheetah Kid is, of course, Rocco Rock. He was basically 36 here and had been wrestling since 78. Benoit was around 23. But Cagematch has almost nothing before this tour. It's very funny. Cactus Jack twice in 88. Ken Patera once in 89. And here in Japan in 90. This tour has Larry Cameron, Scott Hall, Mike Kirchner, John Nord, Bigelow and Undertaker, so it's a little all over the place too. He was fairly spry if not always smooth. His big spot was running to the corner, climbing/leaping up and doing a backflip followed by a dropkick to a surprised opponent. Here he followed it up on Liger with a plancha (no hands) over the top, which was a pretty impressive dive for 1990. He also had a pretty dodgy cartwheel out of a wristlock (here he followed it up with a headscissors takover). It was all a little rough around the edges but not in a bad way. Pegasus looked better than in the 2/10 show, maybe less nervous. Explosive as you'd expect. He ate an absolutely killer Liger flip dive becauase the guardrails are so close to the ring. His belly to back off the top on Iizuka that they won it with still looked rough. I don't know if Cheetah Kid was faking his way through or not but he more or less pulled it off. I guess. It's not like he'd get another tour. 3/5/90: Liger vs Cheetah Kid: A good match for Liger, the sort he should have now and again. It almost felt like an AJPW Jr. Title match instead to some degree. Started with matwork. Moved on to rope running. And escalated from there towards the finish. Liger took over mid match including with a lucha springboard arm drag and hit a dive off the apron. Kid came back with his backflip/dropkick/plancha combo. He just goes for it. Liger fought back with a Kappo Kick against the ropes. Kid recovered with a clothesline, German, and missile dropkick. Then they had a weird moment with a "lucha bump" into one another which usually creates space but here felt like a miscommunication. Liger went right behind him for a German and won soon after with a tombstone and a nice Moonsault. Good for him to switch things up now and again. A little weird but overall fine and a good win for Liger to have. He should be winning on TV like this now and again. 3/5/90: Chono/Takano vs SSM/Saito: Just realized Koshinaka hasn't been around. I don't exactly miss him but he's not on Cagematch for almost three months between the end of January to the end of April. I'll be honest that a Takano/Koashinaka vs Super Strong Machine/Saito tag sounds dreadful though. Because this had its issues because Takano and SSM are two of the worst guys when it comes to structuring a tag match, especially with one another. They keep calling their former team the "Reptile Squad" which I find fascinating and has to be a translation thing. OH! He was Cobra. So that kind of makes sense, I guess. Man, it would have been so much cooler if he put the mask back on when he tagged with SSM. This did start off well. Takano ambushed SSM when he hit ringside as Hamaguchi was forced to watch. That let he and Chono control for the first few minutes including some tandem offense like a corner whip into Chono's shoulder block off the second rope and a spin wheel kick Hart Attack. About five minutes in SSM made the tag and the rest of the match was going to be entirely too back and forth given who was in it. Some of it, even the transitions were good, like Takano having SSM in a crab, Saito coming to punch him, Takano going to attack Saito, and SSM hitting a German on Takano to take over. Likewise, Takano firing back a few minutes later only for SSM to hold down the second rope as he was whipping off of it so he fell to the floor. Normally, a match like would be a struggle in 12 and they went closer to 20 but what put it over the top in a good way was a long heat segment on Takano down the stretch where he bled big after getting posted. Eventually, Chono had enough and rushed in with a chair. Because they had SSM beat Takano clean, this was a way to heat things back up.

Name names. I tried. Unless we’re bringing in the Frat House here, it’s tough. I don’t think Perry’s had a better ten minutes in the last 2 years than the first ten minutes of Jericho vs Ricochet (even if the second ten were terrible). Sammy does a lot of the same stuff Perry does well, just better, and he at least tries (and fails) to do the things Perry doesn’t do. Edit: looking at the roster. I can’t speak for Bustah, Brain or the Rascalz yet. I’ll give you Ogogo. He’s very comparable to Aaron Solo, with the exception that Solo almost always goes out and accomplishes the job he’s supposed to do in ways Perry can’t. Maybe Quen but not Kassidy. Frat House guys as mentioned. Hard to say with Satnam. Satnam is a better Satnam than Perry is a Perry. Hook I might give you (though I liked their second FTW match). That’s it.

Thought the Street Fight was excellent. There were so many visually interesting shots too. Lots of great moments but it never felt like romper room or them just playing around. There was focus to the violence in a way that you lose with certain Anarchy/Stampede/etc. participants.

We could have gotten Danielson vs Cassidy (there was a rumor that was the initial match, just trust me) and we got Danielson vs Perry which was as bad as any match in his AEW run instead. Perry might be the worst, most limited guy on the roster honestly.