Almost 5-Star Match Reviews — page 2

Kenta Kobashi is many longtime wrestling fans’ favorite wrestler. His career is filled with outstanding matches, crazy moves, and insane moments. Even though he spent 99% of his career in his native country he created an interesting legacy for himself. Though he was never as famous, wealthy, or popular as the biggest names in American wrestling, he still became beloved among diehard segments of the wrestling fandom for a myriad of reasons. To this day I have yet to see an outwardly bad Kobashi match. Even when he was having an off day he was still putting on mid-to-high-***-range matches. It seems like he is allergic to having bad matches…as proven here once again when a seemingly forgettable match of his ended up being way better than expected.

The Story

At first glance this looked like one of the biggest mismatches imaginable at the time. Post-knee surgeries Kobashi was built like a classic heavyweight champion who could hit like a freight train and take hits like a planet. Think of him as a wrestler with John Cena’s physique, Kurt Angle’s in-ring ability, and Rey Mysterio’s knees. In 2003 Kobashi was on a tear as NOAH’s world champion, having accomplished a lot in his first six months on top. His world title reign was something of a template for all world champions to follow. He won the title from Mitsuharu Misawa in what many call THE best match of all time (and is also my personal favorite match), and then proceeded to elevate the title by defending it against all comers. First he beat a near-Olympian grappler in Tamon Honda. Then he had his first and only match for NJPW by beating Masahiro Chono ~IN THE TOKYO DOME~. Then he beat a token gaijin hoss in Bison Smith. And after that defended his home turf against then NJPW ace (read: the only guy wrestler in the company with a shred of credibility remaining following Inoki’s disastrous MMA obsession) Yuji Nagata. After surviving such a wide variety of opponents, including some that outclassed him in some way, Kobashi needed a new challenger…and I guess with NOAH having a dearth of credible homegrown guys built up, they went with one of the most perplexing choices imaginable.

Ogawa will probably go down as the least-threatening Japanese wrestler in the past 30 years. He was pencil thin, unimposing, and lanky. He was too tall to be a full junior heavyweight and too small to be a heavyweight (his official stats show him as standing 5’7” and weighing 180 pounds, motherfucker is smaller than ME!) And yet there were three reasons not to dismiss Ogawa so easily. First, Ogawa was AJPW’s wrestling trainer who oversaw technique training in the All Japan dojo. Since he lacked overall strength and looked like he could be knocked over by a passing breeze, Ogawa built his own wrestling ability around countering, fluid techniques, and being crafty. This led him to be a mainstay in AJPW’s fledging junior heavyweight division, it also made him an interesting partner for Misawa when the green machine found himself without a partner once again (Misawa originally wanted to team with equally small UWFi guy Masahito Kakihara while Giant Baba wanted him to team with Hawaiian wrestler Maunakea Mossman and Ogawa was ultimately selected as a compromise).

This led to the second reason: Ogawa was surprisingly good in his role as the sneaky weasel who cheated and used underhanded tactics to win. He earned the nickname “Rat Boy” and wrestled like a mixture of William Regal on the mat with Ric Flair at his eye-poking best, all while looking less menacing than Jack Perry. Yet with these attributes Ogawa was able to have at least two outstanding, MOTYC-level tag matches with Misawa against Kobashi and Akiyama in 1999.

Third, these skills helped Ogawa reach the top of the mountain NOAH once before. That’s right, this scrawny little geek is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, having beaten Jun Akiyama with his countering and reversal specialty in only four minutes a year earlier.

So on one hand people saw these two very different men square up and probably concluded that this was going to be a night off for Kobashi. After all, Kobashi’s arms were wider than Ogawa’s torso so it was only a matter of time before Kobashi caught this little rat and cleaved his head from his shoulders with a lariat. On the other hand Ogawa was as unscrupulous as he was quick, which meant he wasn’t above cutting corners to get what he wanted. And since Kobashi was this righteous do-gooder who believed in sportsmanship and digging down deep to get the most out of himself and his opponent, it was only a matter of time before these two diametrically opposed ideologies led to an explosive clash.

It was only a matter of time before Will Ospreay wrestled his doppelganger.

There are many people who adore Ospreay as a wrestler and it isn’t hard to see why. He’s flashy, acrobatic, willing to risk everything on a regular basis, and he has ludicrous conditioning for a guy who has spent the past 15 or so years throwing himself around like a pinball, both on defense and on offense. Personally I’m not all that convinced of his purported historic greatness: I’ve seen awesome matches from him against the likes of WALTER, Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Zack Sabre, Jr., and even once with Kenny Omega. But the thing with Ospreay is that he’s a guy that requires a very specific type of opponent to really shine and show off his strengths.

So who better to fill that role than the man who, at one point, did Ospreay’s shtick better than he did?

Remember when Kazuchika Okada was considered THE best wrestler on the planet and many people agreed with that statement? Remember when he actually put in serious effort into his gimmick, angles, and matches, and as a result actually gave people their money’s worth? Those were good times.

Okada’s fall from grace is kind of disappointing from the fans’ perspective. Here’s a guy who, not too long ago, earned the near universal praise he got by being one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world. But it seems like a decade on top turned him into something of a cynic and led him to seek greener pastures. Well it turns out he found those pastures in AEW and since then he has been…underwhelming, to say the least. Most people watch Okada in AEW and see through him quite clearly: that he’s here for the fat paycheck and will do the minimum to get it.

While there’s a certain respect to be given for him managing to, for lack of a better word, hustle more money for less effort, it’s also disappointing to see a once exciting wrestler come down and fail to live up to the hype. And it’s not like Okada was only great during the 2010s when he was the challenger; he was having great matches as recently as two years ago that were by and large much better than what he has shown in AEW…

One look at these two names and you know you’re looking at greatness…supposedly.

Jushin Liger and Ultimo Dragon are two of the most famous luchadores in the world outside of maybe Rey Mysterio. Liger is a certified legend, one of the few Japanese wrestlers to overshadow heavyweights in a country that very much emphasizes weight classes and the preconception of “graduating” from junior heavyweight to full heavyweight. Meanwhile, Dragon is a legitimate record holder, having held more singles titles at once than any other wrestler before or since.

But is he really deserving of this stellar reputation, both as an in-ring performer and as a booker?

I’ve heard nothing but good things about this match. It’s something of a lost classic, known only to the small handful of people dedicated enough to scour the interwebs for obscure matches that took place during the tail end of joshi’s post-peak downward spiral. And with news that Meiko Satomura will be retiring within the next five months it’s fitting that we take a look at what is considered one of the best matches of her career…as well as another feather in Hokuto’s cap as well.

“I WILL KILL YOU!” – Brock Lesnar. “YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO!” – The Undertaker.

Who needs longwinded promos with recycled verbiage conjured up by unenthusiastic writers when you can tell an entire story and sell an entire arena out with those two simple phrases?

The last time Brock Lesnar faced The Undertaker the two men had a shitty match that, despite its shocking conclusion, had a deflating effect on the atmosphere. Part of that was due to the combination of underwhelming hype and a bad performance stemming from an in-match injury that neither guy really managed to overcome or work around in the moment. But that was a bad note to end things on, which is why Undertaker came back to try and finish his feud with Lesnar on a much higher note. But could he?

Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar are two if the biggest names in wrestling from the past two decades. Both of them have reached the top of the mountain more than once, have been showered in accolades, and still have legions of unyielding fans who love everything they do. It wasn’t always this way, but despite having some bumps along the way both of them have managed to become so comfortable that they don’t have to do all that much to get ludicrous reactions from fans willing to shell out top dollar just to see them live.

But hype and build don’t always translate into a polished or worthwhile final product. Despite being heavy promoted and protected, both Lesnar and Reigns have…mixed…track records when it comes to delivering on the purchased ticket. I remember back during the 2010s when words like “lazy” were used to describe Lesnar, while Reigns was the target of far worse vitriol. Whether the hate these men got in the past was deserved or not is a matter of opinion, but it’s important to note because the past does affect the present. In this case, it’s the mixed response to previous Reigns/Lesnar matches that loomed overhead as these two men battled for what was – and so far is – their final encounter.

Do you like violence? How about blood? And explosions? Yes to all? Okay, how about seeing someone get electrocuted? Or how about someone running into barbed wire? Still here? Okay, how about having two men trapped in a cage surrounded by all of these implements of destruction unable to escape while fighting against time under the threat of a time bomb going off? If all of this sounds like a fun time then boy do I have the match for you.

This one of the craziest stipulation matches of the past three decades, so much so that AEW tried to copy it (and failed spectacularly). When people complain about exploding matches in North America not living up to historic standards, this is the match to which those lesser matches are compared. It certainly had a lot to live up to, and with so much change in the wrestling landscape, let’s see how well it holds up.

I was originally going to post this a few days ago but got sidetracked with other stuff. I wanted to bring attention to this particular match because it’s something that I think is worth studying. Few clips of this match exist; the only one I was able to find had no subtitles and no commentary, not even in Japanese. As such, if you were to start watching it randomly you’d probably find yourself confused. After all, why would Jushin Liger, NJPW’s most respected and iconic junior heavyweight, be wrestling The Great Muta, a wrestler in a completely different weight class?

It seemed completely random and out of nowhere for NJPW to book this; after all, it was the penultimate match on a random night during NJPW’s tag tournament so it’s not like there was much emphasis put on this feud. And yet with so little build this match ended up being far more entertaining than it had any right to be.

This match has been on my radar for some time but I couldn’t get around to it until now. On paper it seems like a completely forgettable match; after all, the only two guys most people might be familiar with here are KENTA and Marufuji. The former because he made it to WWE, AEW, and NJPW after his NOAH career ran its course; and the latter because pretty much every wrestler active today has either wrestled him or borrowed/stolen something he came up with at some point in their careers.

But the other reason I wanted to see what this match was all about was because of its presumed reputation. This is one of the few 2000s matches Dave Meltzer rated ****3/4 out of five, and this was during that long decade when, for whatever reason, he seemed to think there wasn’t all that much good wrestling. So if we take his rating at face value, this match got similar ratings as: Angle/Benoit at the 2003 Royal Rumble, Angle/Michaels at WrestleMania 21, Undertaker/ Michaels at both WrestleManias 25 and 26, Kobashi vs. Sasaki at NOAH Destiny 2005, and many more classics that’ve aged so well to the present day.

Yes I know, taking old Meltzer’s opinion so seriously is ridiculous…BUT from time to time he does serve as a useful starting point for people looking to find something they might like. And since Pro Wrestling NOAH was putting on some of the most exciting wrestling in the world during the first half of the 2000s, then maybe, just maybe, he was right with this match as well.

Hey remember Kenny Omega, that guy once labeled the best professional wrestler in the world and one of AEW’s founding fathers? Whatever happened to him? Oh, he’s been sidelined for almost a year due to serious illness? Well, isn’t that depressing.

It has been almost a full year since Omega wrestled his last match and, as of this writing, nothing concrete has been said of his return. There have been rumors here and there but nothing substantial. When he does come back (it’s not a matter for “if” for someone who loves pro-wrestling as much as Kenny Omega), people are going to be very curious about what he will do.

But while Omega’s return is growing ever more likely with each passing day, there’s one thing that isn’t: that he’ll return the same man as he was before. Considering that he’d be coming back from diverticulitis, a nasty condition that not even Brock Lesnar could overcome completely unscathed, there’s a growing possibility that Best Bout Machine Kenny Omega might never be seen again.

If that ends up happening then we might be left with a more subdued version of Omega, one capable of having great matches yet one that’s still far removed from his 2016-2018 prime. With that in mind let’s take a look at one of Omega’s lesser AEW matches since, after all, this might end up being what we end up seeing from Omega down the road.

Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston are two of the most beloved wrestlers in AEW. They’ve both been around for decades, have earned their reputations for dedication and passion, and wear their hearts on their sleeves. Danielson in particular is still adored by many fans and his popularity transcends the tribal division that has come to define online wrestling discourse. Kingston, on the other hand, is another matter. He was one white-hot after that Players Tribute story about him went viral. Yet despite it turning him into more of a likable and relatable person, there was never any genuine follow-up to it. Despite him catching fire he fell through the cracks and ended up being one of several promising people in AEW to languish on a treadmill, always in motion but never moving anywhere. And this match is one of the reasons why.

A few days ago my colleague JABRONIVILLE did a write-up on the 6-9-95 AJPW tag match that, to this day, has stood the test of time as the greatest tag team match to ever take place. With such high praise, readers commented on what they saw as other matches worthy of the title of ‘greatest tag match of all time’. That brings us to this AJW match here, courtesy of user PeteF3.

This has to be one of the most star-heavy tag matches of the 1990s interpromotional era. You’ve one of the few women to be honored with a WWE Hall of Fame induction, the women’s version of Big Van Vader, one of the toughest women to ever lace up a pair of boots, and an Olympic bronze medalist with an ax to grind against pro-wrestling in general, all fighting in a company notorious for pushing the envelope and revolutionizing pro-wrestling in general. Much has already been said about the in-ring quality of joshi wrestling in the 1990s, so how does this particular tag match hold up?

One of the most perplexing things surrounding today’s wrestling scene is why AEW continues to keep ROH alive. Most of the diehard fans who specifically like ROH shifted their attention elsewhere: either to AEW proper, New Japan, PWG, NXT, or even WWE’s main roster. Many commentators have called ROH a zombie promotion, an entity that doesn’t have a proper raison d’être. It isn’t even formally considered ROH’s developmental territory, even though lots of fans consider it as such.

And yet from time to time a surprise appears from this dying fed. In this case it was a match between one of the most tenured and respected wrestlers to ever grace the American independent scene against one of the biggest rising stars from the Land of the Rising sun. And when they clashed for the first time they were praised to the moon…but was that praise genuine or just in-the-moment temporary excitement?

When people talk about the best women’s wrestlers in modern times, two names that tend to come up a lot are Manami Toyota and Akira Hokuto. Both of them have long lists of incredible matches that many fans still go back to. Both of them changed the wrestling landscape. And both of them put their bodies through some of the worst physical punishment one can imagine, all for the sake of this wacky business we call pro-wrestling.

But these two women have only ever faced each other one-on-one a grand total of six times. Given that lack of regular interaction compared to their other opponents, were these two as good in the ring as other famous AJW pairings?

Also, special thanks to Evito#, xXx_420_bLaZiN_420_xXx, Manjiimmortal, and jabroniville for the match suggestion.

2000 was one of the best years in WWF/WWE history. It was a year filled with wild brawls, Dusty finishes, multi-man encounters, and an ‘involve-as-many-people-as-possible’ mentality. Nowhere was that clearer than on the final PPV/PLE of the year, Armageddon. This show featured the first – and so far, only – time that six wrestlers were inside a Cell at the same time. It stands as a microcosm of WWF in 2000 as a whole, but how good is it in hindsight?

The Story

There were multiple overlapping stories going into this match. First, there was the ongoing Austin versus HHH and Rikishi with Austin wanting revenge for Rikishi – at HHH’s command – running Austin over at Survivor Series 1999. Then there was Kurt Angle who feuded with The Undertaker through the summer of 2000 and then moved on to WWF Champion The Rock, whom Angle defeated at No Mercy in October.  The story also included what is quite possibly the best promo The Rock has ever cut, and think about how much ground THAT covers.

Alright, it’s time to return to 1990s All Japan and check out another match from everyone’s favorite overachiever, Kenta Kobashi.

Kobashi’s matches have largely withstood the best of time better than most wrestlers to reach their peak in the 1990s. Many fans still remember his legendary wars with Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Steve Williams, Jun Akiyama, and Stan Hansen. But there’s one opponent of his that doesn’t get all that much recognition by comparison: Jumbo Tsuruta. There’s an unfortunate reason for this: Tsuruta’s main-event career was cut short in late 1992 once he was diagnosed with Hepatitis. This was a crippling blow to an already beleaguered All Japan which was enduring long-term fallout from Tenryu’s SWS exodus two years earlier.

Tsuruta’s illness and unceremonious departure from All Japan’s main-event spot had its own spillover effect on the company: none of the Four Pillars besides Misawa got a critical singles win over him and Misawa’s was perceived as lucky and not decisive. Part of this was by design since Giant Baba was a notoriously conservative booker who took ages to pull the trigger on big decisions. It’s possible that Kobashi knew his chances of winning here were slim, but could he still get even more over with the audience all the same?

Kane and Shane McMahon are two wrestling personalities with…interesting…reputations. When he was fully active in wrestling Kane was considered something of a model employee. He always did whatever was asked of him and never complained or politicked. Even as his character was dragged through the mud and subject to some of the worst angles and stories ever conceived, Kane trudged along and did his best to make chicken salad out of chickenshit. Sadly Kane had to work with worse material more often as he got older, especially since his last non-Rumble appearance was in an awful tag match in Saudi Arabia.

As for Shane, he isn’t seen in as fond a light as he used to be. Over the past seven years or so the once humble and down-to-earth Shane seems to have succumbed to the family illness and fallen into egomania. Ever since returning in 2016 he has bought into this false notion that he’s a huge draw that’s worthy of being built around. He tried building a Royal Rumble match around himself which angered so many people that Shane was “let go” by WWE which, at the time, was still run by his father. The last time anyone saw Shane on WWE programming was at WrestleMania 39 when he tore his quad twenty seconds into an impromptu match with Snoop Dogg.

Both of these guys are prime examples of wrestlers getting worse with age, either due to being stuck working with bad material or sticking around way longer than necessary. As such, when their names come up most fans prefer to revisit their earlier work, which brings us to this match. Though it’s far from a technical marvel there’s still something intriguing in seeing Shane the (mostly) untrained wrestler try and survive WWE’s version of a supernatural slasher film monster. But how does it hold up with more than twenty years’ worth of hindsight?

WrestleMania 21 was a pivotal show for WWE. It marked the coronation of two of the company’s biggest stars of the next decade in John Cena and Batista. It marked the first time that The Undertaker’s Streak became a marketing/storytelling device for the show. It also featured one of the best wrestling matches of all time in Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels. And then there was the second match on the card, something new that changed the landscape in WWE forever: Money In The Bank.

What started as an annual gimmick evolved into one of the most repetitive and successful match types in modern times has grown to have its own PPV/PLE. Not only does this match usually lead to plenty of exciting and daredevil stuntwork but the results of each match have wide-reaching implications. The entire course of WWE history has changed thanks to various MITB cash-ins. And while some might argue that the match has become repetitive and watered-down, there remains enough excitement in the match for it to keep coming back year after year.

And today we go back to where it all began.

As of this writing Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes II is the frontrunner for many fans’ Match of the Year for 2024. It isn’t hard to see why: the match had this incredible sense of spectacle with the highest of stakes and had one of the most emotionally moving conclusions in years.

It’s a pretty good match and probably the most outwardly explosive and surprising contest in years…but to call it some kind of top-tier epic comparable to some of the GOATs is tenuous at best.

That’s because this is match had the potential to be a classic but it got bogged down by a serious of dubious decisions that shifted the story in a way that was entertaining in the moment but distracting from the central narrative that people were paying to see in the first place.

The Story

Cody Rhodes won the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble match fair and square without any shenanigans. It was a predictable win and his choice of title challenge was just as obvious: he was going to avenge his loss from the prior year and “finish the story”. He had much more momentum going into this ‘Mania compared to the previous years, having beaten Brock Lesnar, The Judgment Day, and WWE’s #1 shithead heel in Dominick Mysterio. There was no storyline reason for Rhodes to challenge anyone else or for Roman Reigns to defend his title against anyone else.

But leave it to ego and “business” to throw a monkey wrench into things.