This week! Captain Lou reviews the first two days of the DDT Ultimate Tag League and we’re all watching another episode of How I Met Your Puroresu with a trip to Dragon Gate’s King of Gate Tournament. AEW is headed towards Double or Nothing while WWE is headed towards ending their tour of duty in the Thunderdome.
DDT Ultimate Tag League 2021 Day 1 (5/9/21) - Captain Lou
DDT Ultimate Tag League 2021 Day 2 (5/10/21) - Captain Lou
AEW Dynamite Performance Review (5/12/21) - Dum Dum Daniels
How I Met Your Puroresu: Season 1, Episode 8 - Robert McCauley
Working Man’s WWE TV Review (5/16/21 - 5/22/21) - Dum Dum Daniels
Captain Lou’s Review: DDT Ultimate Tag League 2021 – Day 1 (5/9/2021)
Hideki Okatani vs. Toi Kojima
Young boy opening match wrestling done very well. I’d say this was probably Kojima’s best performance yet and the closest he’s ever come to picking up his first win. He hung right in there with Okatani and came off as his equal. Shoutout to the springboard leg lariat off the 2nd-rope. That thing looked like a million bucks. I also should mention that Okatani has the best Northern Lights suplex setup in wrestling. The ability to turn a simple move into a big deal is quickly becoming a lost art and this kid gets it. **3/4
Sanshiro Takagi & Yukio Naya vs. Danshoku Dino & Super Sasadango Machine vs. Kazuki Hirata & Toru Owashi vs. Akito & Keigo Nakamura – 4-Way Tag Match
My god. Equal parts sad and kind of amazing that they wrestled this match in front of no one. It was a lot of dumb shit, but to their credit, they got creative with the dumb shit. The jet bike charge into the chair pyramid was tremendous and the reverse over-the-top stipulation brought some laughs.
Tetsuya Endo, Soma Takao & Mad Paulie vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yuki Iino
Not much to write home about. The haka elbow remains Problematic, with or without a crowd. Also, people wrestled. The highlight was Endo nearly dying off a springboard tope con hilo but somehow regaining his balance at the last second. Real super hero shit. **
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Yusuke Okada
5 minutes of pure, unfiltered piss and vinegar. Drink it in, baby. Okada truly has balls of steel for coming at Sakaguchi like he did. He’s been throwing his bad temper at the DDT roster ever since January, but this was the first time he faced an actually-dangerous dude that could put him in his place. At various points throughout the match, I was just expecting Yukio to start shooting on the guy. You can’t top this kind of tension. They beat the fuck out of each other with forearms, kicks and headbutts – it all ruled. It felt more like a UWF burner than a straight pro-wrestling match and I was shocked by how well Okada adapted to this kind of setting. Unsurprisingly, the blink-and-you’ll-miss it slug-fest is Sakaguchi’s sweet spot. Without Higuchi at his side, longer matches can expose some of his weaknesses. This one made him look like the baddest dude on Earth. ***3/4
HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO
Listen to me, wrestlers and bookers. I know you’re all reading Captain Lou’s review. This is how you do a return match. After being M.I.A. for the past 6 months, Yoshimura instantly feels like an important piece of the puzzle thanks to this hard-fought and well-thought-out piece of wrasslin’ business. They got over all of his big boi strengths in the opening, turned him into a babyface in peril for extra sympathy points and then setup a potential Universal title program by having the former Nautilus buddies just rip into each other for the finish. Air-tight layout and quality pro-wrestling that made you excited about the future, which is how it always should be. To their credit, both HARASHIMA and MAO brought a ton of creativity to the table, but Yoshimura taking Ueno’s head off with a lariat is the image that’ll stick with me for a while. ***3/4
Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi vs. Chris Brookes & Antonio Honda – Ultimate Tag League
Obviously not on the level of the last two matches, but also not the clusterfuck you were anticipating. Anton’s shtick was integrated fairly painlessly and Akiyama bouncing off his gags was actually kind of fun. They even got some of that sweet empty arena heat by building off a very cerebral limb work subplot. The limbwork subplot I am referring to is Junretsu ruthlessly working over Honda’s balls. Thank you. More seriously, Brookes popping in all the time to save Anton’s ass made for a neat structure. How I wish we could’ve gotten a fully-vocal Korakuen pop for the wacky upset finish. ***
Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata vs. Daisuke Sasaki & Yuji Hino – Ultimate Tag League
Running 30-minute draws in front of no one is not something I would recommend doing. However, if you’re going to do it, this match would be a pretty good template to follow.
All four bros put in a serious shift and made sure the citizens of the WRESTLE UNIVERSE got their money’s worth. Most importantly, the layout was so well put-together that you barely felt the time. Everything flew logically into the next thing: Sauna Club targeting Sasaki’s back only for Damnation to turn things around with their bad boy shtick, leading right into Shunma In Peril Southern tag drama and eventual post-hot tag escalating BOMB THROWAGE.
Absolutely Peak Wrestling exchanges between Hino and Take (holy fucking fuck @ that deadlift MAD MAX assisted-Brainbuster), FMW-style chair fights between Sasaki/Shunma, Hino freakin’ Powerbombing Shunma on top of Takeshita to break a fall. These are things that happened in this match and it was wild. Super entertaining empty arena effort that managed to stay exciting for an unnecessarily-long amount of the time. Big props. ****
Captain Lou’s Review: DDT Ultimate Tag League 2021 – Day 2 (5/10/2021)
The state of emergency in Tokyo forced a complete reshuffle of the tag league schedule, causing this show to turn into a two-match card in an empty Ice Ribbon Dojo (home of the world-famous Chris Brookes Produce shows). I’m all for two-match cards during this cursed pandemic.
Chris Brookes & Antonio Honda vs. Daisuke Sasaki & Yuji Hino – Ultimate Tag League
While yesterday’s Brookes/Honda tag had just the right dosage of Anton, this was Too Much Anton. And I say this as someone who is somewhat pro-Anton. There should be a limit of one fake injury gag per match. Anything more than that is pushing the boundaries of performance art to a level that the human mind is not quite ready for. *3/4
Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi – Ultimate Tag League
Extremely rad companion piece to the TakeMAO/Eruption tag from February, which still stands tall as my current MOTY. This show’s dry-as-fuck setting kept it from reaching its full potential, but the work was pretty undeniable. We already knew Takeshita/Higuchi had world class chemistry, so the real revelation here was Shunma/Sakaguchi.
They told a really fun story where Katsumata kept trying to take out the shooter’s leg at various points throughout the match to avoid getting his head kicked off. Yukio sold just enough to keep the subplot relevant, but was quick to beat the fuck out of the NEPOWER-ed scoundrel whenever he had an opening. Love a dynamic that just makes sense.
This goes without saying at this point, but Takeshita’s the most creative Ace-level dude in mainstream Japanese wrestling. He’s still young and has room to improve, but his willingness to try crazy new shit all the time already puts him in a league of his own. That whole sequence where he dodged Yukio’s corner knee and transitioned right into the springboard cross body was a real work of art. Also very much enjoyed the multi-layered finish where a big table bump led to poor Shunma facing the full wrath of Eruption on his own. Tag team wrestling! ****
How I Met Your Puroresu: S1 E8
How I Met Your Puroresu is a series dedicated to providing background information on matches in hopes of broadening horizons. These matches will be no longer than that of a sitcom as to not overwhelm a first time viewer.
Company: Dragongate Pro-Wrestling
Show Title: King of Gate Night 4
Match: Kzy vs Jason Lee
Stakes: King of Gate Tournament Match
Length: 17 Minutes
Production Date: May 21, 2021
Air Date: May 21, 2021
Declaring Jason Lee the best foreigner wrestler in Japan comes off as faint praise in an era where travel restrictions still loom large. You wouldn’t be able to grab at those same straws when I was making this statement back in 2019 and it still holds true today.
Like many others, my first exposer to Jason was through the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. He suffered a first round exit to Rich Swann and he wouldn’t appear on my screen for more than a year until he showed up in my favorite promotion, Dragon Gate. Jason’s history dates back several more years in his home of Hong Kong.
Jason New, as he was known, became a professional wrestler in 2009 and founded the Hong Kong Pro Wrestling Federation, Hong Kong’s first wrestling promotion. By 2011 he was working ZERO1 Hong Kong, ran by Ho Ho Lun, which led him to ZERO1 proper. The teenaged Jason New found himself wrestling the likes of Jonathan Gresham the following year.
Through his time in ZERO1, Jason became a two time ZERO1 World & International Junior Heavyweight Champion. Shortly thereafter he took a chance at representing Hong Kong by being one of thirty-two wrestlers from across the world to compete in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. His time ended after only one match but that’s not where his story ends.
Dragon Gate Pro-Wrestling was looking for a way into the Chinese market and Jason became a way in for their project. He was immediately given a couple of singles wins in dark matches but the first singles win outside of the dark format came at the expense of Kzy.
One month later, standing alongside two of the company’s aces, Jason ended Kzy’s fourth reign as Open the Triangle Gate Champion. Kzy would eventually come back to reclaim the titles, this time with a brand new confidence. Now leading his own unit, Kzy no longer felt like the guy Jason had beat six months earlier.
Since taking the loss to Jason, Kzy had made his first Open the Dream Gate challenge to Masaaki Mochizuki. Even with the loss, Kzy managed to stay hot enough throughout the next year to have another Dream Gate challenge. He once again fell but was firmly established as ahead of Jason’s position.
To further this point, the two had their second singles meeting in a match where Kzy was able to even the score. Later on in the same month, the company ran a show in Hong Kong where Jason would receive his first Dragongate singles main event.
The icing on the cake was not only that Jason won but he defeated the man who Kzy fell to in his first Dream Gate challenge in Mochizuki. Granted, the match wasn’t for the Dream Gate but it was a main event King of Gate tournament match in his hometown.
2020 largely saw the two teaming together on behalf of the Dragongate side of the generational battle. Kzy failed two more times at capturing the Dream Gate and it wasn’t until this year that he and Jason started to lock horns once again.
After a year’s hiatus, Kzy reformed the trio who’d captured the Triangle Gate from Jason at Dead or Alive 2018. The team quickly regained their status by winning the titles once again but at the 2021 edition of Dead or Alive, Jason found himself with a new crew where he’s now the veteran. Just like in 2018, the titles changed hands.
Their third singles clash now takes place in the King of Gate 2021 and for the first time since Hong Kong, Jason is positioned in a singles main event. The moment is there for him to reestablish himself in this rivalry and prove he can stand out against the top of the heap.
Performance Review – AEW Dynamite (5/19/21)
“Yeah — one’s a rapper; the other’s the rapper’s.. friend.” – Eddie Kingston on The Acclaimed
Last week was an off week — we all have off weeks, days, years… adapt and move forward; emerge from the funk with renewed focus and good intentions. Hopefully good intentions.
The World
Christian Cage had a wrestling match, Jon Moxley kicked ass, and AEW showcased some young and promising wrestlers — this is what people in the business call doing what you’re good at. Acclaimed, Ogogo, Red Velvet, and Varsity Blonds all got put in big spots and not just delivered, but added their own distinctive spin to the proceedings too.
There were plenty of beats this week with a heart in the right place and for the most part that made for good TV, even if American flag jacket Cody Rhodes feels as out of touch as Stardust and I am really really bored with The Pinnacle and Inner Circle talking at each other again and again and again and — didn’t they just beat each other bloody and gutsy? Why are they all still just talking? Promos = good; set pieces = lame.
It’s mainly the top guys who don’t hang with Eddie Kingston that are holding this world back, as on top of those guys the 3-Way Dance World Title match at Double or Nothing is still searching for its purpose with promos. Our EVP’s (etc) are all grown up and they’re primarily in stories and situations that someone thinking about starting a new wrestling company might think are kind of lame.
On the contrary, it took Miro and Lance Archer just one promo and one week to have one of the most anticipated matches on the card. You always need a Ron Garvin/Bubba Rogers, you just do.
Congrats on the new TV show.
Performance: 3.5 / 5.0 (MEANT WELL)
The Wrestling
Everything between the bell this week ruled – four good to great matches plus a pair of squashes (Hikaru Shida over Rebel, Anthony Ogogo over Austin Gunn).
Christian Cage vs. Matt Sydal – These two never had a match together in WWE (how?!) but there’s something to be said for each guy, Sydal especially, now older and wiser and slowing things down while continuing to provide the things that have made me dig them for decades. It’s 10+ minutes of smart, solid, and occasionally dramatic Christian Cage work plus a super-motivated Sydal freaking you out by landing in many painful positions. Christian’s spear ruled too.
Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. The Acclaimed – The type of match/angle I feel like AEW used to pull off more often, one where everybody got some momentum. Mox and Eddie smacked the newbies around en route to a Tag Title shot, but it was Caster (and Bowens!) who really shined either bumping like goofballs or, dropping bars about Mox’s wife before the match. That didn’t go well for them.
NWA Women’s World Title: Serena Deeb [c] vs. Red Velvet – Serena Deeb returned from an injury like it never existed, right back to a serious championship match in the middle of a show. Deeb brought the credible work and viciousness (that chop block!); Red Velvet brought the star-making performance.
AEW Tag Team Title Eliminator: The Young Bucks vs. The Hollywood Blonds – Flyin’ Brian Jr. and Griff Garrison are a couple of fired up babyfaces in letterman jackets and my gosh it just might work. It did this week, at least. Their promo early in the show was so unbelievably outlaw independent in the 80’s cheesy but it actually paid off with this match, a full and complete babyface tag match with double dropkicks and fired up comebacks and a pair of pretty blond dudes getting sort of famous on TV.
Performance: 4.5 / 5.0 (TREMENDOUS)
The Entertainment
Max Caster continues to make me text my buds every time he’s on TV. Keeping things topical may keep it fresh over time; making a Renee Young joke this week ensured it was very pro wrestling.
Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston are the new Dream Team, from promos to walkout to kicking The Acclaimed’s asses.
Ricky Starks‘ music is a jam but the Team Taz vs. Christian Cage and Hangman Page stuff is so formulaic it’s becoming boring. The angle this week felt like something mapped out by the NXT UK guys, not Big Tony and crew.
Other things I liked: Britt Baker making an entrance. Jade Cargill getting recruited. Frankie Kazarian being a psycho.
Performance: 3.5 / 5.0 (VERY GOOD)
My Favorite Things
Matt Sydal’s bump into the ropes
Anthony Ogogo punching people
Jesus Christ, Miro!
Room for Improvement
Calm down, Chris Jericho
Calm down, Cody Rhodes
Figure it out, Kenny Omega
Top 5 Dynamite Stars
Eddie Kingston
Darby Allin
Miro
Britt Baker
Jon Moxley
5 to Keep an Eye on
Nick Comoroto
Hollywood Blonds
Danny Limelight
Legit Leyla Hirsch
Tay Conti
Performance Review: 76% [+13%]
Working Man’s WWE TV Review: 5/16/21 – 5/22/21
WrestleMania Backlash (that’s the name) took place Sunday evening, where Roman Reigns remained the Universal Champion keeping SmackDown interesting and Bobby Lashley remained the WWE Champion in search of anything other than what RAW does every week.
By the end of the week, WWE made another round of talent cuts (including a pair of creeps) and announced that live audiences are back in two months. I’m so excited about that last one I might do the circle-each-day on a calendar gimmick.
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, Toni Storm, Hit Row, Bronson Reed, Tyler Bate, A-Kid, Bayley, Kevin Owens
World: More Talent Releases, The All Mighty Bobby Lashley, The Completely Uninteresting Drew McIntyre, Heritage Cup Rules, Where’s the Women’s Division?, Aleister Black Returns
Wrestling: Heritage Cup: A-Kid [c] vs. Tyler Bate w/ Trent Seven (NXT UK 5/20/21), Fatal 4-Way Match – WWE Intercontinental Title: Apollo Crews [c] w/ Commander Azeez vs. Big E vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 5/21/21)
Entertainment: Pete Dunne sit-down interview (NXT 5/18/21), Supernova Sessions w/ Ilja Dragunov (NXT UK 5/20/21), Bayley runs down the champions (SmackDown 5/21/21), Intercontinental Title match promos (SmackDown 5/21/21), Roman Reigns promo (SmackDown 5/21/21)
RAW (5/17/21)
Bobby Lashley and MVP kick off the show with some beautiful ladies and put out an open challenge — who’s taking on the champ tonight? The question gets brought up often over the next few hours, all the way until the end of the show when Kofi Kingston answers the call and finds out: HA! He can have his match, but it’s not even for the WWE Championship!
Kofi beat Randy Orton earlier in the show too (distraction by trombone), which was a better indicator to me Kofi may be next up for Bobby than Kofi beating Bobby in a non-title main event — which he did too (distraction by McIntyre). They are just shitposting wrestling TV!
Sheamus vs. Ricochet was pretty good, while after part 9 I think Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair may officially be boring.
Omos stared down Jaxson Ryker after AJ Styles beat Elias, because that’s the current Tag Team Title feud. Angel Garza put a rose down Drew Gulak’s mouth and John Morrison (post-zombie attack but not a zombie) lost to Damian Priest in a (non-zombie) Lumberjack Match.
All this and an evil doll — what a strange show!
Rating: 1.0 / 5.0
NXT (5/18/21)
If I’m in charge, Cameron Grimes buys the NXT Title and sends Karrion Kross to RAW or something. Unless Grimes is broke now. Oh no.
There’s plenty going on at CWC NXT, but until somebody besides Kross and Finn Balor has actual momentum it’s just a bunch of teaser trailers for a deep bullpen of talent. There was a whole Prime Target video for Kross/Balor tonight, but I’m still not convinced the feud has actually started yet.
Interesting directions here and there: Pete Dunne‘s back to being a proper shit, Sarray kicked more ass, and heel Toni Storm is unbelievably consistent — she put young Zoey Stark in her place and introduced a sweet new DDT on the head to do it.
Jake Atlas found WWE’s fabled “newfound aggression” in the ring according to NXT’s psychotic commentators, but to beat Cameron Grimes he needed the distraction of Ted DiBiase — who appeared live.
Hit Row‘s awesome debut promo last week was followed up with a tag win for Ashante “Thee” Adonis & Top Dolla over Ariya Daivari & Tony Nese, and as someone who has seen every 205 Live one of the only things I’ve learned is that Adonis is pretty great.
Bronson Reed is the new North American Champion! The big guy beat Johnny Gargano in a Steel Cage to close the show on a high note, and speaking of notes — they absolutely hit them in this match. The NXT Steel Cage Match is just like the NXT WarGames match, too formulaic and safe to completely work but plenty of fun morsels including Gargano being a turd and some wild bumps by both guys.
Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
MAIN EVENT (5/19/21)
Naomi/Lana vs. Mandy Rose/Dana Brooke was a solid match of teams that haven’t really clicked, then Cedric Alexander screamed “you’re not ready” a bunch Mansoor and lost.
Rating: 2.0 / 5.0
NXT UK (5/20/21)
This week had the usual lame sketches and middling matches (I’m looking at you Wolfgang vs. Rampage Brown!), but it also had a few chuckles from Noam Dar and Sam Gradwell and a great main event.
The main event – A-Kid vs. Tyler Bate for the Heritage Cup trophy – was phenomenal, a rematch from last December when Kid retained the trophy in somewhat of an upset with a cradle two falls to one. For the first three rounds (Heritage Cup Rules), it was all hold-trading and counters — plenty of attempts at offense, but pretty much all defense.
Once the fourth round began they dropped the holds and moved to just hitting each other, a natural escalation if I’ve ever seen one. The exhaustion began to show as Bate, fresh off throwing a European uppercut at Kid’s face, exerted even more energy to suplex his way out of a guillotine choke and wasn’t able to cover before time ran out. Midway through the fifth fall, Bate hit a Tyler Driver for a massive near fall then went for the Skytwister press and missed, which Kid immediately followed up trying to put on the Omoplata which became a struggle until the bell rang.
The sixth round began with both guys holding their arms in agony and just throwing themselves at each other until Bate went for the Tyler Driver again, which Kid countered with a hurricanrana for a near fall. Kid blasted Bate with a superkick right after, like one with a running head start and everything, then went for Bate’s leg but Bate managed to reverse it and trap him in a cradle (!) for the 3-count and only fall. Bate wins the trophy after just under 18 minutes of brilliantly escalated and executed main event drama from two gifted fellows aged just 24-years-old.
Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
SMACKDOWN (5/21/21)
It must’ve been sweeps week SmackDown because this was stacked, a well-hyped main event for the Intercontinental Title while Roman Reigns and The Usos kept telling their story which is giving SmackDown layers and shit. Plus Bayley ran down all the champions to start the show – it was amazing.
King Corbin has worn his crown so long I forgot how ridiculous it was that Shinsuke Nakamura hasn’t had a crown his entire WWE run. In addition to the crown Nakamura has picked up the guitar skills of new manager (I think?) Rick Boogs, which for this week at least added to the act.
Everybody’s shitting on poor Dominik Mysterio too, who wrestled about 20 seconds with Robert Roode this week.
The 4-Way IC Title match got four great promos throughout the show – Apollo Crews is a prick, Big E is joy, Kevin Owens is serious, and Sami Zayn is peaking on a cocaine binge. This seemed like a natural PPV match, but as the SmackDown main event it got more time to stand out as another naturally flowing multi-man match where everybody showcased their thing before Aleister Black ran in and kicked Big E in the head.
Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
205 LIVE (5/21/21)
Asher Hale vs. Ari Sterling opened the show, a battle of the new class that I thought was pretty great. With current WWE I don’t rewind often — in fact I fast-forward a lot more — but I went back for like 3 or 4 things here. Impressive showing and physical match. The Bollywood Boyz vs. August Grey & Ikeman Jiro was your tag team main event.
Rating: 2.0 / 5.0