[vivalabrave]

Originally Posted by Andy3000

Just watched this one:
Hiroshi Tanahashi v AJ Styles (New Japan, 2/17/08)

Great match! Tanahashi was probably my favourite wrestler on the planet before he got injured, and I was interested in seeing how good AJ was after not having saw him in almost a year; needless to say, it delivered.

I enjoyed AJ going all "Y2J in Japan", taunting the crowd and Tanahashi, while Tana is obviously the crowd favourite. Both guys pulled out some really good stuff too and since it's been so long since I last saw AJ his offence seemed fresh to me.

My favourite spot of the match was the brainbuster on the apron, which Tanahashi took like a trooper. My actual favourite thing in the match (as I'm sure it wasn't intentional) was when Tanahashi went to slide outside the ring so he could wrap AJ's leg around the ring-post, only to baseball slide a cameraman square in the face! It was beautiful - Tanahashi > cameramen.

I felt AJ could have sold the leg better than he did as, for pretty much all of it, he seemed to act like Tanahashi never went to town on it earlier in the match. Hell, when Tanahashi was in the middle of working over it he never really seemed to sell it then either. There were a couple of slightly sloppy parts as well, but nothing that would take away from the rating.

So, great match, 2 great wrestlers - top 5 for the year so far from what I've seen. ****

I remember watching this a couple months ago and just dying laughing. I went back and replayed it like 20 times (He never saw it coming... lol)

[Andy3000]

Haha, he never even aknowledged it, making it even funnier. It's 'coz he knows that cameramen are so far beneath him. The dude should be privelaged that Hiroshi Tanahashi kicked him in the head.

[vivalabrave]

I wish it would happen to me.

[Andy3000]

Fluorescant Lighttubes Death Match: Ryuji Ito & Shadow WX v Yuko Miyamoto & Takashi Sasaki (BJW, 2/9/08)

Big Japan is seriously ruling it right now, and this continues that trend. I'm not the biggest fan of Ito, and Shadow I'm pretty indifferent to (althoug he was great here), but Sasaki and Miyamoto are one of my favourite tag teams at the moment and they have yet another great match here, this time in the death match stting as opposed to the regular tag format they had with Sekimoto/Sasaki from 1/2.

Miyamoto is an absolute babyface heat magnet, so the crowd are constantly making noise in this one, especially in the last 5 minutes where Shadow goes about killing him. Speaking of Shadow, the guy takes some sick shit in this, including a couple of running knee shots from Miyamoto, driving a bunch of lighttubes into his chest, and a sick roundhouse kick from Sasaki that drives some more lighttubes into the side of his head. I like how he would just run the ropes whether there were still lighttubes attatched to them or not, making him seem like a badass (which the match in general managed to do) for not caring if he gets a shit load of glass stuck into his back. He's also the one that eventually picks up the win for his team after destroying Miyamoto with lariats and brainbusters.

This is the first death match I've watched this year (still have to see BJ/Jacobs NRBW as wel as the DM that dele uploaded), so naturally it goes top of the death match list, but I still feel it will take a bit to beat this one once I get caught up with Big Japan. It's not in my top 5 for the year overall, but it's a pretty good choice for top 10. ****

Just downloaded the 1/1/08 Zero-1 matches I'm interested in (Tanaka/Sekimoto and MCMG/Hidaka & Togo) so I'll get to watching them later.

I've actually really been enjoying the puro scene so far this year. I only started to catch up this week, but the Zero-1/New Japan feud, Big Japan, the CC and guys like Sekimoto, Miyamoto and Masato Yoshino really have me looking forward to shit again, which isn't something I was feeling last year.

[Sephiroth]

Ryuji Ito is GOD. m i rite?

[Andy3000]

Depends which religioon you follow. We clearly follow different ones... I fall more into the 'Tanahashi is GOD but when he's injured Sekimoto is GOD' religion.

[-Mystery-]

FIP Redefined
Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens - ****1/2

[- Styles -]

ROH 6th Anniversary Show

Austin Aries vs. Go Shiozaki - ****1/4

The last 10-15 min or so are absolutely fantastic. Go's got some wicked chops!

Nigel McGuiness vs. Bryan Danielson - **** - ****1/4

Sacrilege! I know.... I just couldn't get into Nigel/Dragon as much as I thought I would. Loved the heat Mcguiness was getting though, the crowd fucking hated him lol. I actually preferred the Aries/Nigel match from Rising Above (I think it was) alot more.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Andy3000

Depends which religioon you follow. We clearly follow different ones... I fall more into the 'Tanahashi is GOD but when he's injured Sekimoto is GOD' religion.

I was just saying it because Dele always shits a brick about how much Ito sucks.

Originally Posted by AjStyles>GOD

Nigel McGuiness vs. Bryan Danielson - **** - ****1/4

Sacrilege! I know.... I just couldn't get into Nigel/Dragon as much as I thought I would. Loved the heat Mcguiness was getting though, the crowd fucking hated him lol. I actually preferred the Aries/Nigel match from Rising Above (I think it was) alot more.

Don't worry, the majority of the people that have rated it in this thread have said **** 1/4 (myself included)

[WillTheBloody]

Originally Posted by AjStyles>GOD

ROH 6th Anniversary Show

Austin Aries vs. Go Shiozaki - ****1/4

The last 10-15 min or so are absolutely fantastic. Go's got some wicked chops!

Nigel McGuiness vs. Bryan Danielson - **** - ****1/4

Sacrilege! I know.... I just couldn't get into Nigel/Dragon as much as I thought I would. Loved the heat Mcguiness was getting though, the crowd fucking hated him lol. I actually preferred the Aries/Nigel match from Rising Above (I think it was) alot more.

This is, word for word, what my post was about to be. Saved me some time