This is gonna become an interesting article for the foreseeable future. With Japan being the hipsters of shutting down wrestling; that scene is a little dry. TV matches aren’t always the most blow away, of matches; but that might be the extent of what we have to deal with for now.
So firstly, the February pool was voted on, and it was the difference of literally 1 vote after a 3 way tie for a while.
So after two months, the current Match of the Year Pool is:
- January – Wrestle Kingdom 14: Double Gold Match: Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito
- February – AEW Revolution: AEW World Tag Team Championship: Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (c) vs The Young Bucks
The other vote we had last week; was for Match of the Week. In a close vote, ROH TV: The Briscoes vs Bandido & Flamita, edged out the Gulak versus Bryan match.
Now on to this weird week of wrestling!
Quick Top 5:
- Zero1 19th Anniversary: Dangan Yankies (Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura) vs Strong BJ (Yuji Okabayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto)
Rating: **** 1/4 - IMPACT!: Best of 5: Match 5: Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards
Rating: **** - AEW Dynamite: Dustin Rhodes & Hangman Page vs Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara
Rating: *** 3/4 - FSW Mecca VI: Grand Championship Qualifier: Chris Bey vs Daga
Rating: *** 3/4 - NXT: NXT Tag Team Championship: The BROserweights (c) vs Undisputed Era
Rating: *** 3/4
Honorable Mentions:
- Zero1 19th Anniversary: Zero1 Championship: Yuji Hino (c) vs Kohei Sato
Rating: *** 1/2 - FSW Mecca VI: Tessa Blanchard vs Lacey Ryan
Rating: *** 1/2 - AEW Dynamite: Cody vs Ortiz
Rating: *** 1/4 - FSW Mecca VI: Michael Elgin vs Tom Lawlor
Rating: *** 1/4 - AEW Dynamite: Private Party & Joey Janela vs Death Triangle
Rating: *** 1/4 - WWE Raw: Angel Garza vs Rey Mysterio
Rating: *** 1/4 - FSW Mecca VI: No Limit Championship 4 Way: Funny Bone vs Ice Williams (c) vs TJP vs Remy Martel
Rating: *** 1/4 - NXT: North American Championship: Keith Lee (c) vs Cameron Grimes
Rating: *** - IMPACT!: Mahabali Shera & Rohit Raju w/Gama Singh vs Dez & Wentz
Rating: *** - AEW Dynamite: Butcher, Blade & MJF vs A Boy, His Boy and His Dinosaur
Rating: *** - WWE SmackDown: Cesaro vs Daniel Bryan
Rating: *** - FSW Mecca VI: Chris Masters vs Hammerstone
Rating: ***
5. NXT: NXT Tag Team Championship: The BROserweights (c) vs Undisputed Era
Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
All four men are down as fans rally and duel. Dunne goes to the apron to MOONSAULT, but Fish gets clear. Kyle leaps off the apron with a flying knee! Dunne gets sent into the crowd but Kyle goes to the ring. Tag to fish, they bring Riddle up, CHASING THE DRAGON! Cover, TWO!! Riddle survives but Fish tags Kyle back in. They bring Riddle up but Riddle chops and kicks away on them both! Fish boots, Kyle clubs, but Riddle avoids annihilation to DOUBLE SPEAR! All four men are down again but fans rally with “RIDDLE~!” Wait, here come the Grizzled Young Veterans! Dunne returns to regroup with Riddle, but Fish tackles Dunne out!
Kyle waistlocks, Fish standing switches, James Drake distracts the ref! Kyle throws Fish off and Gibson THROAT CHOPS! Roll up, TWO!?! No grizzled screw job here and that angers GYV! FINAL FLASH! Drake slides in but Dunne drags him out, to BLAST him with a forearm, and he knocks into Gibson! Fish runs at Riddle but is thrown out onto Gibson and Drake! Tag to Dunne and they enziguri knee Kyle in the corner! BROSERWEIGHT TO SLEEP!! Cover, Broserweights win!!
Winner: BROserweights via Broserweight to Sleep
4. FSW Mecca VI: Grand Championship Qualifier: Chris Bey vs Daga
The final qualifier for the FSW Grand Championship. Commentary does a solid job at setting the ground work of Bey recently losing the Heavyweight Championship after nearly a year; which garnered respect from everyone, except Daga. Daga is really just trying to establish himself in FSW; and what better way, then taking out a fan favorite strong opponent?
Junior Heavyweight mixed with Lucha is a lot of what this match was. Daga tried to use his power to stop some of Bey’s more athletic attacks. Opportunistic Backstabbers, Suplexes and that fun flourish Doctor Bomb; but Bey remains persistent. As it looks like Daga is building up some momentum, Bey manages to avoid him and hit the Springboard Cutter.
Winner: Bey via Triple C
3. AEW Dynamite: Dustin Rhodes & Hangman Page vs Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara
Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
Ortiz gets up but Hangman DECKS him! Hangman goes to the corner with Dustin, and they both LEAP!! Dustin crossbodies Sammy and Jericho while Hangman MOONSAULTS Hager and PNP! Dustin clotheslines himself and Sammy out of the ring as fans are thunderous again! Hangman aims at Jericho, slingshot, but into a takedown! Jericho wants and gets the WALLS! Dustin runs in to CLUB Jericho down! Sammy tags in and heads up top, SHOOTING STAR! Hangman moves, Sammy lands on his feet but gets another BOOT! Hangman wants it, but Jericho trips him off the apron!
The ref reprimands Jericho but Jericho throws Hangman at the apron. Hangman rebounds off the ropes to DECK Jericho! Dustin has Sammy for a DESTROYER!! Sammy flounders into a BUCK SHOT!! Cover, Hangman and Dustin win!!
Winner: Page via Buckshot Lariat
2. IMPACT!: Best of 5: Match 5: Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards
The match started off quickly, like most of their previous encounters; but this was given a bit more time. We see three commercial breaks, and the match started with about 30 minutes left in the show. Eddie pulled off an Avalanche Butterfly Suplex; while Elgin pulled out a Fireman’s Carry X Factor and Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. This was a great back and forth match, but at this point we’ve seen most of it before. Elgin did try for the PG-13 Burning Hammer, but Eddie managed to get free of it.
For the finish we saw Elgin apply the Crossface, and Eddie turned it into a pinfall. Since there were two referees, after the ref bump knocked one out, we get simultaneous pinfall/tap out. Each referee only saw the one finish, so we get controversy.
Winner: DRAW
1. Zero1 19th Anniversary: Dangan Yankies (Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura) vs Strong BJ (Yuji Okabayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto)
So people should know by now, even though this was the Zero1 March 1st event; it wasn’t televised in Japan until the 12th. Since it had the later televised date; it’s nice to be able to find some more fringe shows during this weird Coronavirus time.
This is effectively a dream a match up. Tanaka and Sugiura are great veterans, and this is also a clash of promotions to a degree. So we get a great strong style match between grizzled veterans and the hoss slightly less veteran team of Strong Big Japan.
The contest was just filled with tests of power, shoulder tackle square offs; and great moments where each man was trying to impose their power. As soon as one team thought they got an advantage, the other team would refuse to bend their will. As the time starts to wind down; Tanaka was trying to finish off Sekimoto as Sugiura was picking fights with Okabayshi during the entire match. After a short range Sliding D, Tanaka goes for the pin; but right on the 2 count, the time limit is called.
We see more jawing and comments, so we might get more of this in the future. But who knows if it’ll be NOAH, Zero1 or Big Japan. Should be interesting.
Winner: DRAW
Thoughts:
My match vote goes to, Zero1: Dangan Yankies vs Strong BJ, mainly because it was a pleasant surprise. Personally, I like the variety in the matches when it comes to companies on the list. Maybe these virus weeks will lend more spotlight to smaller organizations; or at least force me to search around deeper.
Be you infected, mutated, avoiding the outbreak or self quarantining; wrestling can help get us through this. Stay safe, wash your damn hands, and check out any of these matches you haven’t seen.
Make sure to vote in the comment section below!
