NJPW Dominion 2023 Results and Review

NJPW was live from Osaka, Japan and had an attendance of 7,040 people and was live on 6/4. I didn’t get to catch up with it until now, and wanted to review it because of course I’m a fan of pro wrestling and have time on my hands, so I wanted to drop in and say what’s up.

Will Ospreay defeated Lance Archer

I’ve seen Will Ospreay before but I don’t remember a lot of Lance Archer matches. This match was hard hitting, but it wasn’t without some interesting maneuvers throughout. There was a lot of slams, and flying around the ring from both men. Lance Archer is impressive as a big man that can fly. Ospreay is known for his high flying moves, and he did a few here, fast as lightning mind you. Even though Ospreay was smaller, he was able to hit Archer with some stellar moves. There were some nice near falls as Archer kept hitting big moves, but it was Ospreay that got the victory. A great opener, smart and cunning, good hits, great moves, fun overall.

Los Ingobernables de Japon defeated Just 5 Guys in an 8 Man Tag

There’s a lot of action to try and comprehend with this match. There were a mix of moves, fast paced action, and lots of back and forth. This broke down several times into a brawl at times, and the ref kept  having to get control over the match. Los ingobernables really put the boots to the 5 Guys, and I found them to be fascinating overall. This was a fun match, although hard to keep up with all the action moving forward. I liked it a lot, and definitely think it was a great display from 8 top guys on the NJPW roster.

Catch 22 (Francesco Akira and TJP) defeated Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight and Kushida)

A fast paced affair was had here, and it was fun to watch. Catch 22 were flying all over the ring, and outside of it to boot. The Jet Setters were good too, Kushida is impressive to me. He moves so fast, and Kevin Knight was good too, throwing down some great moves including one incredible drop kick with height. Catch 22 though was too much, and their team work is tandem, in stereo and just fun to watch. I haven’t seen a pair so in sync in a long time, and they definitely pushed things through to a fun match, even if it wasn’t too long.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Jeff Cobb in the NJPW World Television Title Match

Jeff Cobb is a beast. He was able to throw around Zack Sabre Jr. throughout this match at various times. Zack had to fight from below, and really put on a technical showcase, which he did. He’s one of the best technical wrestlers in the world, and it showed here with a lot of reversals and submission moves. However, Cobb kept powering through many of the options, but even though he had the easier time in some moments, Zack Sabre Jr. was able to defeat him. Sabre did a move that ended in a crucifix for the pinfall victory, and it was really cool to see.

Bishamon defeated House of Torture, and United Empire in a three way tornado match for the IWGP Tag team / NJPW strong openweight tag team titles

There was a lot of frenetic action in this match. A three way tornado match basically means everyone is fighting all at once, and it was fun overall. This was more of a hard hitting, strong style match. There were some moves, brawling, and just overall harder hitting moments than the previous matches. I found this to be a little change of pace for the night, and just didn’t think it was that great. Yeah, it was ok, and there were moments that made me like it, but something was missing throughout, and perhaps it just was the change of pace. There were some good moves, and tandem wrestling at times too, but it was lacking a little. Bishamon won the match, and it wasn’t terrible, just different I guess.

David Finlay defeated El Phantasmo in the Never Openweight Title Match

Another strong match. Finlay and Phantasmo put each other through the ringer in this one. Solid back and forth action, with some nice lucha style elements at times, and some technical wrestling too. The two put their best foot forward in this match, and it was a fun battle to see unfold. It didn’t favor any one person, this was truly divided evenly, but Finlay had a little extra in the tank, with a solid performance. The announcers said it was dominant, but I didn’t think so, Phantasmo put up a good fight here.

Hiromu Takahashi defeated Master Wato in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match

Fans of Takahashi will no doubt love the performance put on by the champion. He really did fly around the ring, and put a lot of action into effect. Takahashi seemed poised to get this one easily, but Wato did turn the tables a few times, and things looked tough for the champion. I haven’t seen a lot of Takahashi matches, so I was impressed with his speed and precision throughout the match. Wato put some work in here, especially some technical wrestling and submissions, which was interesting to see. Takahashi had to drop his opponent twice with the timebomb to win, and it was quite good. Great match!

Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii) and Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated The Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Casstagnoli, Jon Moxley) and Shota Umino

This match had a good mix of modern wrestling, strong style, and Japanese wrestling as well. The Blackpool boys did well here, and they really shined against Chaos and Tanahashi. This was a back and forth battle, and somewhat slow at times. There were rest holds at times, and submission moves, but you’ll find that the hard hitting balance was there, making this a fun match to see. There was a lot of hard hits, and some quality moments, with Chaos and Tanahashi picking up the victory.

Sanada defeated Yota Tsuji in the IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match

The main event was featuring two guys I haven’t seen work before. The match was a solid Japanese style match, with a great deal of back and forth. There was a focus on submissions, rest holds, and the occasional high spot. Sanada was definitely impressive to me, he was technical, versus Tsuji that wasn’t as tech forward. I mean, I type that, and I recall some major top rope moves from both. A solid ender to a good event, with a lot of action to speak of, and not really sure how to top the pure wrestling stylings that NJPW brings forth.

Overall Thoughts

For the purist, this was great. I loved the majority of wrestling that was on this show, and it really did push things forward for the company. While I can appreciate wrestling in all forms, I found that the NJPW product has a little extra focus on the wrestling rather than stories, but then again, I don’t speak Japanese so maybe I’m just missing that aspect. Either way, this was a good night of wrestling and I recommend it to anyone that loves pro wrestling.

WWE Monday Night Raw 6/6/23 Results and Review

Monday Night Raw came and went, and honestly, I was surprised by some of it. I actually invested in watching it through the whole show, and stayed up very late afterwards too. Here are my thoughts regarding the night of wrestling and talking overall.

Becky Lynch defeated Sonya Deville

This match went over ten minutes, and it told a good story. Lynch didn’t win this without a fight, and Deville did a good job fighting back against Lynch’s push. I was impressed that this was the opening bout, and the WWE actually let it play out. Lynch was distracted by Trish Stratus at one point, but that didn’t matter, because she was able to get the win here.

Gunther defeated Kevin Owens

One of the best matches I’ve seen on RAW in a long time. This was a fight overall, and both men went back and forth fighting one another. Gunter hit hard, and Owens didn’t back down, the two exchanged near falls, and some heavy hits, power moves, and more. Gunter would end up getting the win, but this match got some decent time, and was definitely one of the matches of the night for me.

Ronda Rousey and Shayna Bayzler defeated Katana Chance and Kayden Carter

These new women were quite amazing. They are high flyers, and they work so well in tandem. Ronda and Shayna had their hands full in this one, and it wasn’t a straight beat down. Yes, they would win, but they had to sell for some high flying offense, and fast paced movements. I was impressed by the newcomers to RAW, and you should be too.

Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This was a fun back and forth match, but it was interrupted by Bronson Reed and the match was thrown out. This was good though, I loved the back and forth from the two heavy hitters. Ricochet is impressive as always and Nakamura was great too, I liked this a lot even though it was interrupted by Nakamura.

Zoey Stark defeated Natalya

Well, this wasn’t even given 5 minutes, and once again Natalya gets buried. Ok, not a complete burial, but she is definitely not getting long matches, and well, I don’t know what they are doing with her. I expected more, but Stark won this in a barely ok match.

Seth Rollins defeated Damian Priest in the WWE World Heavyweight Title Match

This was a star of a match overall. It featured some high flying, fast paced action, and Priest was looking like a star here. Rollins did a great deal of work, but Priest was throwing everything at him overall. Finn Balor showed up at one point, and got knocked down for his trouble. Priest was mad at him though, and that could be a sign of cracks in the Judgment Day. Seth gets the win after a 20 minute match, which was a frenetic, good overall match.

Overall Thoughts

This was a good overall RAW. I was excited for it, and watched the whole thing, through to the end without watching the replay on HULU. I was thrilled with some of the matches, and loved two of them very much. This was a great night of wrestling if you ask me, even though there was MIZ TV, and talking in the opening segment. Miz got knocked out for his troubles, lol, good night of wrestling if you ask me.

GCW Cage of Survival 2 Results and Review

GCW had a second night in Atlantic City and this time it was streamed live on 6/4/2023. They were at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, and they had a good deal of people in the crowd. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the matches we saw on night one of their double header. I reviewed GCW Tournament of Survival 8, and wanted to follow up with this one as well, so here we go, the results and review of the GCW Cage of Survival 2.

Maki Itoh defeated Janai Kai

I’m a huge Maki Itoh fan, she’s so cute, and ruthless. She’s also gang affiliated! A solid opener, with Itoh using her head a lot to get moving forward. Janai Kai had some nice kicks overall, but it was Maki Itoh after hitting a sweet DDT. Itoh got a good deal of praise from the fans here, and I loved it. Good opening match.

After the match Steph De Lander and Matt Cardona came out and started talking about how they are indie gods. Itoh was in the ring, and just waited for the duo to come through. Itoh got on the mic and refused to bow down to the royals, and had some words to say, which were very cute.

Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander defeated The Kirks (Brandon Kirk and Kasey Kirk) in a tag team match

The people were firmly against Cardona and it was loud in the building. There were several chants going at various stages of this match, which started a bit slow. After a slow start, this match got moving, and we see he reason why Cardona is so fun to watch. Steph De Lander is good too, don’t get me wrong. In fact, all four of these competitors showcased some good overall wrestling. We had a nice mixed wrestling match, and the crowd was into it, as was I. Cardona would get the pinfall after Steph De Lander used a title belt to knock out Kasey Kirk. Good stuff, fun match!

After the match, out came Maki Itoh and Nick Gage! Maki Itoh hit Matt Cardona with a bundle of light tubes! It was a rush, and Cardona was bloodied badly. That was a great way to end things, and I hope they have a match sooner than later, perhaps a tag match with Maki Itoh, fun stuff.

El Hijo del Vikingo defeated Ninja Mack

Two high flyers battled it out in a lucha libre style match, and if you’re a fan of the style, you were in for a treat on the smaller stage. El Hijo del Vikingo gets a lot of attention, in a lot of matches that are with tens of thousands of people in attendance, so it’s nice to see him on the indie scene. This was perfection to me, with everything you could expect from a lucha libre match. There was a little bit of modern wrestling thrown in, but it was a lot of lucha flying through the air, and impressive moments. There were so many close calls too, this was one hell of a match and perhaps my favorite match I’ve seen in a very long time. Vikingo’s 630 Splash gets the win, and it was absolutely breath taking, you owe yourself to watch this one, wow.

East West Express (Jordan Oliver and Nick Wayne) and Mike Bailey defeated Alec Price, Jack Cartwheel, and Jimmy Lloyd in a six man tag team match

This six man tag was fun, lots of action overall. I liked how things broke down overall. This match had a great deal of back and forth, modern wrestling, and really getting the crowd going. East West Express was very impressive, as was Mike Baily. Don’t get me wrong, the other guys threw down too, but it was most memorable seeing the East West Express, except for Jack Cartwheel which was just fun. Overall a good match, nothing too fancy, good back and forth, nice tags, quick reactions, and the crowd made this an enjoyable romp.

Los Macizos (Ciclope and Miedo Extremo) defeated Soul Meat (Tomoya Hirata and Toru Sugiura)

This was a brawl, with a lot of light tubes. While I’m sure that these guys can throw down, and there were flashes of good wrestling, it had a lot of brawling. The brawling wasn’t bad, mind you, but don’t expect much of a wrestling match in the traditional sense. Miedo Extremo injured his shoulder, so he was limited in what he could do. However, Ciclope, Tomoya and Toru did a lot of the heavy lifting at times. The end had a broken door and a broken pane of glass, with a top rope slam, in one chaotic match overall. It was hard hitting, and definitely tough on the guys.

El Desperado defeated Joey Janela in a Death Match

A back and forth battle from these two. This death match had some wrestling, mind you, but it broke down to weapons, and things of that nature. Blood flowed from both competitors, and they kept fighting back and forth, brawling for the most part. This was a good deal of fun, and the two work well together. Janela really impressed me with his toughness in this one, as Desperado really threw down some good moves and chops overall. A giant ladder and a huge stomp from Janela was impressive and had to be mentioned here.

Blake Christian defeated Masha Slamovich and Rina Yamashita for the GCW World Title

Fans of death match wrestling are going to eat this one up. It had half a cage around it on one end, and a scaffold on the other. There were light tubes, glass panes, doors, and much more. There was a lot of back and forth with this one, and it was hardcore throughout. There wasn’t a lot of wrestling here mind you, as much as it was a brawl and punishing moves. The crowd was going nuts for Rina at various stages, and the ring was covered with broken glass, barbed wire and more. After an insane sidewalk slam off of a scaffold through 3 doors, Blake Christian ran out and cashed in his title shot, getting the win here.

Overall Thoughts

This was a great night of wrestling, with a good mix of wrestling styles. I enjoyed it greatly, and will be watching more GCW as they keep putting out quality products on FITETV. Fun stuff here, and wow, just wow, great stuff if you ask me.