Secret Santo 2025

[The Natural]

On 12/29/2025 at 6:36 PM, AxB said:

 AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi. I don't think I've seen this one before. But I have seen a lot of AJ Styles matches from his long run in TNA, and he wasn't really a guy who switched things up a lot; He tended to just have his match, no matter who his opponent was.

 Tanahashi enters first, and Mike TeNAy notes that he's a 6 year pro, 29 years old, and is the current Under 30 Champion of NJPW. Which I'm pretty sure was a belt that was made just for him, and more or less disappeared shortly after his 30th Birthday. New Japan's history with secondary titles is pretty spotty and pretty recent; I think for a long time the feeling (ie, Antonio Inoki's feeling) was there should only be one Heavyweight Champion, one Junior Heavyweight Champion, and one pair of tag team Champions, and nothing else. Which does make me wonder, is belt proliferation another way that Wrestling around the world has been Americanised (no; World of Sport had shitloads of titles. Largely because it also had shitloads of weight divisions, but let's not get into that).

 The 2005 Mr TNA (who is also the 2003 and 2004 Mr TNA) enters, and does that thing where he lifts his hood up to make sure there are actually fans in the building before taking his hood off. And then they're both in the hexagonal ring (that they always called the six-sided ring, because someone in TNA tought wrestling fans were so stupid they wouldn't know what a Hexagon was; Obviously a few years later that policy would change, because they never changed Penta's name to Five-Sided Wrestler Junior. Fuck it, I blame Russo).

 Tanahashi is a very handsome man with a great physique, so the fans immediately assume this is a face vs face match and start cheering for both guys. Perhaps they actually knew who he was... 2006 would be too early for NJPW World to exist, but presumably tape (DVDs mostly at this point) trading would still be a thing, being as YouTube was not yet a juggernaut, and other streaming services were not particularly available.

 Early stages, Tanahashi outwrestles AJ, getting a Full Nelson and then a hammerlock. Styles reverses but is backed into the corner, and Tanahashi eschews the clean break, instead doing a backwards double mule kick (like a Dropkick when your opponent is behind you, like Misawa used to use to get out of the standing surfboard). AJ explodes out of the corner but is armdragged and armbarred on the mat. So early on they're establishing that Tanahashi is technically sound, bigger and stronger than Styles, but not neccesarily at a speed disadvantage. Arm Drag exchange blocked by Tanahashi outmuscling AJ and securing an armbar. AJ escapes by shooting him into the ropes and doing the Leapfrog, Dropdown, Dropkick that he does in every match. Tanahashi bails out of the ring and sells being kicked in the mouth like he was just kicked in the mouth.

Tanahashi runs away from a dive, but AJ lands on the apron and springs back into the ring no bother. AJ starts a chop exchange, then steps up the intensity by switching it up into a Forearm Smash exchange, then ends it with a bodyslam and a jumping kneedrop. So the story so far is Tanahashi is physically superior, but AJ can cancel that advantage by taking the initiative and changing the terms of battle. Tanahashi fights back with a couple of forearms, AJ swings back with an overambitious Clothesline, but that's ducked, and Tana hits a very nice release German Suplex. Flying Forearm, flying elbowdrop, jumping flip senton. Young Tanahashi sure did like to leap around... real contrast with how he wrestles late in his career. Still, make the most of your knees while you've still got them. Another wild swing from AJ misses, and Tana procures the abdominal stretch. Rope break from AJ, because Tanahashi is too big to be hip tossed out of it. Tanahashi dominating the match, AJ barely struggling to stay in it. Sleeper hold , reversed and reversed back, AJ struggling to stay upright and Tanahashi turns it into a Dragon Sleeper instead... and then does a Giant Swing from the Dragon Sleeper position. Spins out into a slam elbowdrop thingy like  The Eye of the Hurricane, and covers for... nothing, because the ref refuses to count. Tana's shin was on AJ's windpipe and that's an illegal choke.

Scoop slam from Tana, but his follow up elbowdrop off the middle turnbuckle misses. AJ blocks a punch with his foot and lands a jumping Enzuigiri, and having taken some time to recover, his wild swinging clotheslines now connect. The Springboard Forearm... connects first time. I thought he might miss it early and hit it later. Vertical Suplex dropped into a Neckbreaker, in a spot I dislike because there's no visual clue to tell you if it was a successfully performed offensive manoeuvre, or a vertical suplex that was countered into a Neckbreaker by the guy being suplexed. That gets two. Which is our first actual count of the match. For all Tanahashi's early dominance, he didn't score any nearfalls... which has me thinking, if someone ever runs a stipulation where if a match ends in a draw, whoever got the most 2 counts in the match is declared the winner on points, it would a) make kicking out at 1 instead of 2 meaningful, and b) encourage cradle spam late on... and possibly set up a situation where someone was trying to rack up 2 counts, but left themselves open for a high impact move and got pinned while trying to run the score up.

 Anyway, Full Nelson into an Uncle Slam by Tanahashi gets him a 2 count, so the score is now One all. Forearm smashes by Tana, he hits the ropes and AJ tries to catch him with a spinkick, but Tana ducks and it gets a bit confusing, I think Tana might have ducked the wrong side? Anyway, he smashes a double axe handle to the back and grabs a standing chinlock so they can sort themselves out. Jumping Enzuigiri by Tana, into the Sling Blade (which Tenay calls "Powers AJ down to the canvas", so he must not have done his research). That gets two (Two-One Tanahashi). Turnbuckle smash, and he sits AJ on the top turnbuckle and climbs up after, looking for the Belly to Belly Superplex. AJ spins in the air to make it a Crossbody. Both guys down, selling the pace. Tana ducks an Enzuigiri and grabs a Full Nelson, reversed into a Waistlock by AJ, reversed back by Tana, and Shannon Moore runs in, swings an object (it might be a clipboard or a computer keyboard or something) at AJ, who ducks and he hits Tanahashi instead! How unprecedented!! Pele kick to Moore by AJ. Styles Clash on Tanahashi gets the three. So technically it should be a no-contest due to interference and Tana should win on points.

 Oh, apparently it was the Mr TNA plaque that he hit him with. Oh well.

 See, that was a perfectly fine match, that suddenly ended just as it was getting good. With another 3 or 4 minutes and an actual decisive finish, it could have been really good. But instead, they Russo'ed it.

@AxB: Glad you liked it and it's a match you don't think you've seen before. Interesting watching retrospectively knowing what Hiroshi Tanahashi and AJ Styles went on to do. I need to watch their NJPW matches, 2014-2016 is a bit of a blind spot for me. Cheers!

[The Natural]

15 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I'll get back this after detox, thanks

@Curt McGirt: Thinking of you, mate.

[BrynnJade92]

@Matt D @RazorbladeKiss87 Gonna get caught up on this over the next day or so. Will report back!

[Casey]

I'll be doing mine Sunday, I'm taking PTO that day from work. I had some issues with my router and it blocking access to the Internet Archive. but it's sorted out now thankfully.

[BrynnJade92]

Catching up on these now:

Brain Damage vs. Nick Gage vs. Brandon Prophet vs. Necro Butcher - Four Way Barbed Wire Boards and Light Tubes Match (CZW Tournament of Death V) from @RazorbladeKiss87
There’s nothing I love more than a good deathmatch tournament and for this we’re venturing back to when men were men and roamed the woods of Delaware like a local mythological cryptid. Here we have our ring announcer dressed to impress in khaki shorts and a polo shirt and looking like a lost member of Bowling for Soup. Not sure who this Brandon Prophet fellow is but he’s a large human. Oh, they’re not waiting for the other two. Light tube explodes, not sure who got the worst of that. Prophet is a mess already as “Free Bird” plays and Necro jogs down. Nick Gage seems like he’s in zero hurry to join the fray. This might make him the smartest man in this match. Gage and Necro brawl amongst the crowd. Necro takes a violent chair shot. Meanwhile, Damage throws Prophet through what looked like a tiny piano. Don’t ask questions. the play-by-play announcer compares this to Survivor. That’s one way to put it. Damage and Gage fight near a barbed wire table. Necro throws Prophet through some barbed wire covered plywood. Prophet’s nickname is now “punching bag”. What the hell?! BRAIN DAMAGE SUPLEXES GAGE THROUGH A LIGHT TUBE BRIDGE ON THE BARBED WIRE TABLE!! The table didn’t break! Gage suplexes Damage through the table. Again the table doesn’t break! Second rope elbow did the trick. Necro just beating the hell out of Prophet. He’s eliminated. Now there’s a baby stroller covered in light tubes involved? Sure. This is chaos. Wait, did Damage just go after a fan? Damage and Necro just throwing bombs at each other. I love it. Necro eliminated and wait, that’s it? Gage and Brain Damage advance? That was ten minutes of utter insanity.

The York Foundation (Thomas Rich, Richard Morton & Terrance Taylor) vs. Dustin Rhodes, Big Josh & Z-Man - Steel Cage Match (WCW Pro Chicago, 11/16/91) from @Matt D
To have something like this on WCW TV in 1991 just makes me wonder what else they aired? I actually like post-Flair 1991 WCW a lot because it’s such a weird and wild world. This is a non-title match. Dustin and Taylor working and arm wringer and Z-Man comes in. Pink is definitely a choice in a cage match. Tony Schiavone, calling this match solo, never explains how to win. I say this because Rich definitely tried to escape but then again why would you escape and leave your team down a man? Nice top rope splash by Taylor for a nearfall. Rich dropping some hard knees on Big Josh. Belly-to-belly by Josh! Rhodes in now and just lighting everyone up with elbows. Morton takes a big slam off the cage. More arm work by Taylor and nice sell by Dustin ramming said arm and shoulder into the ringpost inadvertently after charging into the corner. Everyone up top now except for Rich and Z-Man. Superkick by Z-Man! They’ve worked this like a usual six-man tag for the most part, relying little on their surroundings. The action has been good though. Crowd is into it. The constant switching in the abdominal stretch by the York crew is great. Perfect heel work. Crossbody by Z-Man followed up by an enziguri! Everyone in now and a double team dropkick/suplex combo by Dustin and Josh gets the win! No wait, there’s more! The heels are pissed and throw Josh into the cage, busting him open. Pretty fun match.

[Curt McGirt]

On 12/23/2025 at 9:24 AM, AxB said:

For @Curt McGirt, we have: 

'King Freak' Alton Thorne vs 'Stiff Robo Ginger' Gary Jay, for Kumite Combat Wrestling, from Vines Bar in Derby, England.

You picked this for me just because of the D-beat song at the end, didn't you?  

Anyway, what struck me first was that this must've been behind some old Brit bars... and then I realized it, of course, was, in a courtyard where there were probably even better real fights that happened on certain nights. 

Gary is a skinny dude who looks like Sami Zayn with no muscle mass (and balding) and Thorne is a tub who was probably in some of those bar fights. I've heard Gary's name in places so I presume he's gaining a bit of a name. There's really not a lot of analysis to make here: they hit each other really hard. There are some transitional moves and I dug the super-spinny Bossman slam. Gary does some topes. But mostly this was elbows -- HARD elbows -- and chops -- HARD chops. Short, sweet, and stiff. Hope the owner erased Thorne's bar tab after this.

The lighttubes on the outside made me think of people covering their beers and backing off. This must've been fun to come to on a nice, balmy British afternoon. The closing montage with the Willow-esque wrestler and what looked like Alton again doing sexual organ-related spots was hilarious in a very non-PC fashion. You been to any of these shows, AxB? 

[Curt McGirt]

58 minutes ago, onelegbrynn said:

tiny piano

 

Spoiler

I think I actually had one of these as a kid! It wasn't digital, but y'know. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

On 12/17/2025 at 5:42 PM, onelegbrynn said:

On it! Thanks!

For you @RazorbladeKiss87 I've got this. It's a fairly recent match (as in it aired last week) that I really enjoyed
Indi Hartwell vs. Dani Luna - Dog Collar Match (TNA Impact, 12/11/25)

 

Of course TNA would be the promotion to get working dog collars. This was fun as hell. Not familiar with Luna but Hartwell has always been a favorite. Her romance with Dexter in NXT was one of my favorite storylines of the time. 

Luna is really good at this. Indi seems less comfortable in a wild brawl but she gets there. Love the whips with the chain around the ring post. Indi is perfect for getting the sympathy as she's just so skinny compared to Luna's more muscular frame. 

Oh hell, Luna hit a good one. That's a gnarly crimson mask. Great single leg drop kick from Luna, looked very impactful. 

I'm always a sucker for powder spots but that looked awkward and leads to the ending I'd heard scuttlebutt about. Indi is the type of character to check on a downer ref, I don't mind that, but she looked like a geek for how long she was pinned. Minor nitpicky moment though as the rest of the match ruled. Thanks!

[Matt D]

On 12/22/2025 at 5:19 PM, onelegbrynn said:

Ooh, nice! I love a good random cage match.

For you sir, I have a selection from my Season of Giving playlist, the first ever match between Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson from August of 2010

 

Thanks Brynn.

I'm closing out my days off here and the kids slept in so I snuck this in.

I'd never seen it before. I really didn't see anything of Mox before his FCW run back in the day and this was an interesting place-in-time for him. Bryan was obviously a much bigger fish and yes, I think a lot of this was about Mox just hanging. That meant it wasn't always the most coherent match but you watched the first half, at least, to see how he'd react. I think I would have been far more into him if 2026 (now it's 2026) me was watching him than 2010 me. He had this ants-in-his-pants agitation that's very familiar, constantly moving and pacing. He'd rub his forearm across Danielson to get a momentary advantage and it looked great. In general, Danielson had his number and Mox had to scrape for most of what he did get, or just power through things and hit a surprise attack. The best of these came towards the end when Danielson kipped up and let out a scream and turned right into a cutter. Iconic moment. There were a few bits in here which made me think "Ah, that's why Danielson got the bag." including pulling on Mox's face in the inverted surfboard position and doing the "I've got til 5" to the ref, and then the hammer and anvil elbows that led to the ref calling it that he won it with. Honestly, that's a missed opportunity in the AEW BCC run. They should have had some matches end by ref decision with those to establish them and add more drama. They became more of a throwaway gimmick than something brutal. But this was a lot of fun even if Mox was sort of all over the place (some of that was his character and some of it was him as a wrestler at ~25 I think). Thanks!

[AxB]

19 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

You picked this for me just because of the D-beat song at the end, didn't you?  

Anyway, what struck me first was that this must've been behind some old Brit bars... and then I realized it, of course, was, in a courtyard where there were probably even better real fights that happened on certain nights. 

Gary is a skinny dude who looks like Sami Zayn with no muscle mass (and balding) and Thorne is a tub who was probably in some of those bar fights. I've heard Gary's name in places so I presume he's gaining a bit of a name. There's really not a lot of analysis to make here: they hit each other really hard. There are some transitional moves and I dug the super-spinny Bossman slam. Gary does some topes. But mostly this was elbows -- HARD elbows -- and chops -- HARD chops. Short, sweet, and stiff. Hope the owner erased Thorne's bar tab after this.

The lighttubes on the outside made me think of people covering their beers and backing off. This must've been fun to come to on a nice, balmy British afternoon. The closing montage with the Willow-esque wrestler and what looked like Alton again doing sexual organ-related spots was hilarious in a very non-PC fashion. You been to any of these shows, AxB? 

I've been to Kumite shows, but not at this venue. It was out of business for almost all of 2025, so they were running at a heavy metal club called The Hairy Dog instead. But their next show is back at Vines Bar, in the open air. I think it's in March, because running an outdoor show in an English winter isn't too smart.

The big black girl is called BlueShe, and she's the current Kumite World Champion. Alton Thorne held the Kumite DeathWolf championship for most of 2025 before losing it on the Halloween show, to 'The Deathmatch Fuckboi' Antonio Gonzalez. Which I only mention because 'The Deathmatch Fuckboi' is such a 2020s gimmick.

[Curt McGirt]

They seem like a pretty unique fed. Not only a lot of intergender matches but anybody can be champ (I'm not gonna say man or woman and exclude gender neutral people). 

The Deathmatch Fuckboi. Jeeeeeeeez hahaha. "Oh I love your scars Fuckboi, give me your glass lighttube"  That's up there with BlueShe using her titties as weapons.

[Curt McGirt]

18 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Her romance with Dexter in NXT was one of my favorite storylines of the time.

That still cracks me up.

Re: The ending of that match, that is the only time I can recall a ref bump visual pin end with an actual pinfall victory instead of a kickout.

Edited January 3 by Curt McGirt

[BrynnJade92]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

Thanks Brynn.

I'm closing out my days off here and the kids slept in so I snuck this in.

I'd never seen it before. I really didn't see anything of Mox before his FCW run back in the day and this was an interesting place-in-time for him. Bryan was obviously a much bigger fish and yes, I think a lot of this was about Mox just hanging. That meant it wasn't always the most coherent match but you watched the first half, at least, to see how he'd react. I think I would have been far more into him if 2026 (now it's 2026) me was watching him than 2010 me. He had this ants-in-his-pants agitation that's very familiar, constantly moving and pacing. He'd rub his forearm across Danielson to get a momentary advantage and it looked great. In general, Danielson had his number and Mox had to scrape for most of what he did get, or just power through things and hit a surprise attack. The best of these came towards the end when Danielson kipped up and let out a scream and turned right into a cutter. Iconic moment. There were a few bits in here which made me think "Ah, that's why Danielson got the bag." including pulling on Mox's face in the inverted surfboard position and doing the "I've got til 5" to the ref, and then the hammer and anvil elbows that led to the ref calling it that he won it with. Honestly, that's a missed opportunity in the AEW BCC run. They should have had some matches end by ref decision with those to establish them and add more drama. They became more of a throwaway gimmick than something brutal. But this was a lot of fun even if Mox was sort of all over the place (some of that was his character and some of it was him as a wrestler at ~25 I think). Thanks!

You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it. At lot of pre-FCW Moxley gets forgotten about and so does a lot of his pre-CZW stuff, although this was right around the time he was starting to transition over to CZW as his primary indy fed, if memory serves me right. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

On 12/23/2025 at 8:39 AM, Casey said:

.

—-

@RazorbladeKiss87

I see you just wanna watch stuff that the other person enjoys, so here’s one of my favorite matches.

Yes, I could watch Mike Awesome matches all day long. Dude is fucking awesome.

Yep, this is awesome. It's hard to write a review because there's only so many ways to express "They hit each other hard, took some wild bumps and it ruled!" There's almost no down time, just two men pushing forward towards their limits. I had the thought that Awesome should have been a no brainer star but had to reconsider. No top guy in America was taking his offense at the time. Modern era, drop him in and he'd be a perfect fit. Put him in WWE and let him wreck Sami. Have Ilja go to war with him. Just mix and match him, Gunther, Drew, and Sheamus and let them beat the shit out of each other. I would eat that up with a spoon. I'd even watch a Fire Pro sim of those 

Edited January 4 by RazorbladeKiss87

[Casey]

I’m at work, but let me say this: there’s an alternative timeline somewhere out there where he doesn’t go to ECW and instead stays in All Japan, maybe eventually leaves with Misawa for NOAH, and is one the top gaijin in either promotion. Instead we got his (admittedly) great ECW run then it all fell apart once he jumped to WCW and WWF didn’t know what to do with him besides the Hardcore title scene. Oh, what could have been. I get depressed thinking about it. What could have been his best years were spent doing the Fat Chick Thrilla instead of throwing bombs with Misawa or Kobashi or Akiyama, or Kawada and Muto and what was left of the AJPW roster or the partnership with NJPW around that time. Fuck, man.

[AxB]

Mike Awesome's best years were in FMW. His best opponent was Masato Tanaka. The only issue is that they ran it too many times, and tended to do the same spots in every match (which made a lot of sense in terms of live audiences; Seeing those crazy moves on tape from Japan, and then getting to see them live and in person in Philadelphia or wherever, that's a selling point. But seeing them on tape from Saitama and then seeing them again on tape from Philadelphia is a bit samey).

[Curt McGirt]

I don't care if he'd ended up in Zero-1, he should have went back to Japan after ECW... immediately. He might still be alive now. Beat to fuck, but alive. 

[AxB]

He was beat to fuck when he retired after his WWE run. The fact that Masato Tanaka is still wrestling shouldn't imply it was an easy style for your body to survive, it just implies that Masato Tanaka is a living miracle.

[Curt McGirt]

I remember when we all saw Masato slimmed down and were like IS THAT THE SAME PERSON?!?!?! 

[Casey]

On 12/24/2025 at 4:26 PM, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

@Casey

https://archive.org/details/pro-wrestling-revolution-the-gate-of-revolution-2025-18-04-25

Jump to about 1:35 for a wild tag team match

The Lucha Solos (Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito) vs. Los Hermanos De La Jungla (Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr.)

 

I love when teams have matching gear, so the Lucha Solos are right up my alley. They're beefy boys too, so that's always fun in lucha stuff. Give me a big ol' fucker that can do flips and stuff like that. The one without the mask does a nasty forearm to one of the Panthers after a powerbomb onto his partner's knees. Then there's a wild sequence of a spinning plancha knee to the face type thing, then a cazadora into a fucking spear? These guys are great. Then one of the Panthers does a TKO/DDT combination?? I love a good suicide dive to the outside where the guy taking it gets pushed into the audience. The woman sitting right next to this madness unfolding didn't look too happy lmao. Divino is the standout for me so far. NASTY FUCKING SUPERKICK from Divino, holy shit. Maldito with an overhead suplex into the turnbuckle to one of the Panthers. An interesting lucha style take on the Tower of Doom spot that used to plague North American wrestling for years. You know what, I dig it. One Panther does a running moonsault from the inside turnbuckle to the outside, then the other Panther does a running senton to the outside (love the visual of the crowd scattering seconds before that landed). Like a weird version of the One Winged Angel/Iconoclasm into a 450 Splash, that's crazy. Maldito splats one of the Panthers with a powerbomb onto the apron. DIVINO DOES A HURRICANRANA ON MALDITO FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE OUTSIDE onto the Panthers. Mexican Destroyer from Maltida and then Divino creams the other Panther with a running moonsault plancha thing to the outside. The crowd is throwing money into the ring, that's awesome.

Jesus fucking christ. What a fun little sprint. Lucha Solos were definitely the standouts here, IMO. Apparently their upcoming show (at the time) has Mistico on it? That's wild and cool. I need to track down more of PWR. And also watch more of these shows from that weekend, I see DPW, West Coast Pro and Stardom are advertised on that big screen. I'm assuming this is WrestleMania weekend from this year, given that it's Vegas and April.

Give me more Arkangel Divino and Ultimo Maldito, man. They're great.