POLL 8/20- 8/26 - WHAT WAS THE BEST FREE TV MATCH OF THE WEEK? sad week happy matches

[John E. Dynamite]

If the Biggest Show Ever still isn't enough for you, we've got you covered.  Emotional tribute shows, marathon pre-tapes, and THREE count em THREE crossover events all make the cut here. Vote as you see fit, but if you didn't check NXT it's very worth your eyeball time.

btw the links started inlining halfway through? I have no idea how or why, and it f'ed up the formatting. When I tried to undo they kept zapping back to being inlined. I dunno. This it probably positive progress.

Spoiler

GLEAT x AJPW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FplFxblAu5s
IWRG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3ZuOHGAoI
& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vb90D2Xor0
& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGLUfjlnDzE
MLW 

VENY vs. Momono 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[porksweats]

I want to make it known that QT Marshall's Latin American Championship run as a Luchador Bully has my full attention and support.

[John E. Dynamite]

My weirdo pick for the week is the TRIANGULAR EXTREMO wtih Lunatik Extreme,  Super Boy Jr. and Ovett Jr. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3ZuOHGAoI . Turns out I was hankering for indie lucha lighttube nonsense, and the crowd gave this one got a well-deserved ESTO ES LUCHA chant. Not a super gory deathmatch, just well worked, a tight 12 minutes with fat boy high-flying and yeah the blood's good too. The front row's definitely a splash zone. And maybe I didn't need to include the Las Shotas match but I was tickled when they delayed the start of the match so they could sweep up all the blood and glass. I don't know the complete state of exoticos in 2023 but I find Jessy Ventura to be the best, more naturally charismatic and believable in the role than Dulce Gardenia or whoever else I've seen.

And know this - Ryusuke Taguchi is over in Philly. Rising HAYATO trying to win the AJPW Junior belt back from El Lindaman is straightforward, no fluff, good stuff.

Anybody bellyaching about Ospreay + Jericho having a pretty good one can watch Big Match Willie and El P have one of the top G1 matches of this year (and boy did that show need it). IMPACT was very very consistent and worth watching the full two hours. GUNTHER v Gable was world class and took me back to WALTER on the indies murdering little workrate guys. Great episode of NXT to check in on if you're not a regular viewer. I eat that Heritage Cup stuff up, I do.

Edited August 28, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[Curt McGirt]

Ilja/Trick was a nice surprise so it get mine.

[John E. Dynamite]

On 8/28/2023 at 8:08 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Ilja/Trick was a nice surprise so it get mine.

There are occasionally prodigious NXT performances that make me forget that a talent is purebred Performance Center. Trick Williams isn't that guy, even if his offense is occasionally indie-by-osmosis. And I don't entirely believe in "promo class" pre-or-post-Dusty - I think it can turn a mediocre promo into good promo, but I think that *great* promos are more or less born that way (Trick is probably one of those guys). BUT... that match managed to make me believe in the Performance Center process a little bit more than I did before. In the sense that the "indy" stuff - being in position, clean execution of offense.. and his selling was weirdly uncoordinated. But he stayed in the scene. I always use that phase because I'm a theater guy but damnit that's the phrase for it. Trick will be an interesting case study by the time he gets promoted.

Edited August 30, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[Eivion]

All of the WWE on here was good. Ilja/Trick, Nathan/Dar, Melo/Wes, Profits/Brutes were all especially good. With that said, GUNTHER/Gable was great and easily above everything else which is saying something considering how good a lot of those got. Still need to see plenty from AEW, NJPW, lucha, and GLEAT, but I can't see anything else coming close to GUNTHER/Gable.

[caley]

Frazier-Dar was my pick (To be fair I missed both the Dragunov and Hayes matches) because I'm in awe of Fraziers speed and Noams shtick. 

[Curt McGirt]

I missed GUNTHER/Gable. I've kinda decided that I'm using my votes on here to go for the unsung now though, anyway, unless something is unbeatable.

[John E. Dynamite]

Somehow I added a four-month old joshi match to the poll because I couldn't differentiate between APRIL and AUGUST.

I'm struggling on the joshi side. I feel like there should be more out there, but most of the time it's just STARDOM New Blood or pre-shows. Where exactly should I be digging for the new-new?

[Eivion]

That is probably it. Most joshi promotions don't do full matches for free. When they do show up they are usually still clipped to a degree and its months later. Stardom can afford to do the freebies and pre-show matches because they are the most successful and do well on PPVs.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I just now learned via this poll that Kaz Hayashi is still active! I was a fan of his in the WCW days, I'm looking forward to catching this one

[Eivion]

1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I just now learned via this poll that Kaz Hayashi is still active! I was a fan of his in the WCW days, I'm looking forward to catching this one

His AJPW Jr. champ run was good. Apparently in GLEAT he is in a team with Minoru Tanaka & CIMA. There is a GLEAT show from a few weeks back where they went up against Hiromu and two GLEAT guys. Its fun and worth checking out.

[Eivion]

Mox/Fenix seemed good but left me cold for reasons I'm not sure of. Dug Darby/Wayne vs. Swerve/Fox. Ruby/Skye was solid. The Rampage matches were solid if unspectacular. Thought both were better than what Johnny/OC from the previous week. The Collision matches were similar fine but nothing standout. One of the weaker weaks for AEW and Collision in particular. 

[Eivion]

ELP/Ospreay built into something good.

Trinity/Jody was just decent.

The UWF GLEAT match was decent but these tend to only do so much for me. Dug HAYATO/Lindaman. Hayato doesn't have the energy I'm used to from juniors, but his stuff feels better paced than the average junior. The 8-man vets vs. youngsters tag was pretty fun. Enjoy T-Hawk being a dick at times and Tamura/Suwama. Also after watching him in these GLEAT tags the past half a year or so I see why people dig Miyahara. Kind of surprised NJPW hasn't tried to pick him up yet. He is super charismatic and like Okada still relatively young despite being around 15 or so years.