RingoPlaysDrums

Bart Gunn/Mike Barton in TNA. Actually had a good little hidden gem of a match with Perry Saturn. Saturn would also face Kenzo Suzuki in his only TNA match a few weeks later.

Don Callis is great. Crazy heat! The sit-down interview with JR that they put on their YouTube was brilliant and it's ridiculous that they only ever showed 30 seconds of it on the Double or Nothing Buy-In. Kenny bringing in Ibushi would be brilliant. There's probably a better chance that it's going to be Okada, which whilst not quite as cool, would still be cool.

I thought this was pretty great. A fantastic atmosphere and I liked the involvement of the four women at ringside a lot. Wagner holding up Mistico's mask in front of them after the first fall and stealing their Mistico banner was great. Mistico appearing on the set and diving onto Wagner only to slice his head open was superbly done. I didn't like the mid-match posing contest and I wasn't crazy about the finish (not so much the interference, more how it was handled and contributed to Mistico's victory) but it's a great match with great selling in front of a molten Arena Mexico crowd.

BOSJ Day 1 was good fun. Some enjoyable matches that didn't outstay their welcome. Good set up for El Desperado's run with the leg injury. Capped off by an excellent match between Hiromu and Speedball in the main event. All in front of an engaged Korakuen crowd. I tried a few New Japan tournaments during the clapping only era and they were never able to keep my interest. This one may be different.

Feel like the KCs would've been first in line ahead of Fyre & Dawn but I'm happy for them. Especially Kay Lee Ray. She's been wrestling since 2009 and in NXT she's always looked like one of the most seasoned wrestlers down there so it was a nice moment as it did look like they were hearing the news as we were. Indi too, although she's injured so I wonder how long it'll be before we actually see her on the main roster.

Christian was great in that match. The man's a master. Very good PPV with a fantastic main event. Going in, it looked like a good card but the build had probably been the worst of any AEW PPV I can recall. Honestly, despite plenty of strong matches on TV lately I think AEW has been a bit of a mess for a while now. However, almost every match delivered or overdelivered. Great to see FTR back. Lots of hints to suggest that Punk may be next. I liked the trend of the younger guys going over the more established stars. Starks, Perry and Hayter are all headed in the right direction. They've got some work to do to rehabilitate Wardlow but this could be the first step. House of Black finally get a big time win. I even enjoyed the women's post-match angle - and this programme has not been great. I'd like to see Jade Cargill join the AEW originals/loyalists. They've kept her away from the women involved in the main title picture almost entirely I think. It would be a cool moment she got involved in this. In the Texas Deathmatch, there was quite a bit I liked and quite a bit I didn't. I'm definitely not as high on it as a lot of people I've seen.

Keeping Cody off the show was a smart move I'd say. He hasn't been booed yet and I don't expect him to at Mania or on the way there but there's a chance he would have been last night in Montreal.

This is almost certainly the best way to go, I'd say.

I don't think that's fair at all. The Field was super over until a) the HIAC debacle and b) dropping the belt to Goldberg in under 3 minutes in Saudi Arabia.

Cody's story is all about winning the titles (well, one of them at least). Sami's story absolutely needs a satisfying pay off but it isn't really about titles. It's about remembering where he comes from, standing up for his old pal and getting revenge on Reigns. He and KO topple the Usos on Night One and he/they interfere on Night Two to help even the odds for Cody against Reigns. That should do it.

Post-match was an incredible segment. Everyone was just perfect in their roles. I haven't seen anything quite like that in wrestling for a very long time. I was thinking that Reigns/Cody & Usos/KO & Zayn was the way to go but I'm not sure it is now. I'm not sure where they go from here. Cody making his comeback and going for the belt his Dad never won is still a compelling story but it's nothing compared to what's going on with the Bloodline. Perhaps they could get the WWE belt onto Seth somehow and Cody can beat him instead. That'd work well with their history. But I don't think Cody/Reigns and KO & Zayn winning the tag belts is quite going to cut it. Rest of the show: Some good, some bad, a fair bit in the middle. Bit disappointing in terms of surprises but the expectations are always so high for the Rumble. Great showings from Gunther & Ripley.

The fundraiser for Jay's family (here: https://www.givesendgo.com/pughlove) is getting close to its goal of $200k. Big donations from the likes of the Bucks, Owens, Dax, Adam Cole, Jim Cornette, Shawn Spears, Cody and of course Jericho. Nice to see.

It really was. Between this and the Takeshita match, Danielson's had a great start to 2023. Top Flight beating the Bucks was cool.

Ugh, this is so bad. Horrible news to wake up to.

Not a perfect show by any means but I had a blast watching it, which hasn't really been the case with Wrestle Kingdom for a few years now. The crowd involvement was a welcome return even if they're not as noisy as they were pre-pandemic. That will take some time I expect. One absolute classic in Ospreay/Omega. Ospreay's performance was incredible and really surprised me as I'm not always his biggest fan. His selling in the second half of the match was something else. Looked like Terry Funk at times. That final 10 minutes really helped to put over the big spots that had come earlier. That Croyt's Wrath off the top was disgusting. Kenny doing the Shining impression with the broken table. So good. GREAT entrances too. I was thrilled to hear the return of "Elevated". A handful of other really good matches and a couple which were just okay. I liked Narita/ZSJ and the tag title match a good deal. The Jr. tag opener was made more memorable by Rush's blood. Even Anderson/Tonga had that absolutely devastating looking piledriver on the ramp. That was nuts. I was fully behind Master Wato in the junior 4-way. He had some great near falls. But it wasn't to be. Sasha/Mercedes' big return/debut didn't quite land in the way some may have hoped but I thought she looked incredible. The delivery was just a bit off. Not to worry - I think the match with KAIRI in the US will deliver regardless.