Random Match Reviews: Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin

Show: Raw
Date: 5/2/05
Location: Boston, Massachusetts

My brother is a massive Shelton Benjamin fan, so I've seen this match multiple times. This though, is my first time seeing it in a few years. For some backstory here, the WWE was holding the Gold Rush Tournament on this night and the matches were a surprise. When then Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin was in the ring, people wondered who his opponent would be. Shawn Michaels' music hit and everything was perfect. Shelton's stunned expression, Jim Ross' commentary and the crowd's reaction was great. It wasn't just "yay it's Shawn Michaels." The reaction was more of "oh my god, it's Shawn Michaels and he's going to wrestle Shelton Benjamin."

There were so many things about this match that I liked. Shawn, being the veteran, gets outworked on the mat and kind of laughs it off. When Shelton continues to do this, Shawn grows frustrated, knowing this isn't a game and Shelton is serious. They do well to make sure that the first half of the match isn't at a breakneck pace, building towards the climax, which is great. Shawn does a kip up, Shelton does one back. Shawn tries a superkick, Shelton blocks it. Shelton tries one, Shawn blocks it, but gets kicked anyway. They managed to have a great back half without overdoing the false near falls or having people kick out of finishers. The Sweet Chin Music and Exploder both get blocked, protecting them until the end where Shawn hits, arguably the best Sweet Chin Music in history. This is one of the best matches in the history of Raw for good reason.

Match Time - 14:52 ****¼

Raw History: Episodes 17-18

Raw History
Episode #17
May 17th, 1993 – Manhattan Center in Manhattan, New York

Commentary hypes up tonight as a huge show, featuring Tatanka, an interview with Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and a match between Yokozuna and Kamala. Footage airs of the brawl between Shawn Michaels and Mr. Perfect outside of the Manhattan Center last week.

The Smoking Guns vs. Glenn Ruth and Tony Vajda
This is the Raw debut of the Smoking Guns, who would go on to become a rather successful tag team. They come out shooting cap guns which is pretty lame actually. Bart and Billy both get in some offense on the jobbers. They do the WWE video game generic double team move, which is a drop toe hold into an elbow drop. I literally chuckled at the sight of it in real life. The Guns win with an interesting finisher as Billy back body drops a jobber into Bart, who catches him with a piledriver. It’s a nice idea in theory, but it came off very awkward.

Winners: The Smoking Guns in 3:41
A bit longer than I expected, but a good showcase for a new team. With them and the Steiners, the tag division seems to be heating up. SQUASH

Vince McMahon is in the ring for a special interview with the WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. Our now weekly “Shawn is Gay” chants ring out. Shawn calls himself a man of his word because he said he would be champion and he is. He said he would walk out of the Lumberjack match as Champion and he did. He badmouths Mr. Perfect as well before talking about how he fears no man. Suddenly, a man in a hoodie comes over the guardrail and gets into the ring. Shawn tells the “fan” to sit back down, but it’s revealed that the “fan’ is Marty Jannetty! I don’t think he’s been around since losing to Shawn at the Royal Rumble. It’s crazy that Shawn put him through the Barber Shop window all the way back in 1991. Marty challenges Shawn to prove he’s a man of his word and defend the title against him tonight.

The Kid vs. Razor Ramon
Two weeks ago, he was the Kamikaze Kid and last week he was the Cannonball Kid. Sean Waltman goes with the Kid only this week even though his ass says L. Kid. Even though he’s a heel, there are “Razor” chants because he was so damn cool. Razor, being so much bigger, just manhandles the Kid. He hits a chop that is louder than the cap guns we heard earlier. Razor nails a fallaway slam, and his was probably the best ever though JBL gives him a run for his money. He misses a move in the corner, Kid climbs and nails a moonsault, scoring the three!

Winner: The Kid in 2:10
Here we have one of the most iconic and historic moments in Raw history. The crowd is stunned because, as we’ve seen in these reviews, the jobbers never win. This would be the launching pad for Waltman and showed everyone that anything could truly happen in the WWF. **¼

Scott Taylor vs. Tatanka
Scott Taylor mocks Tatanka at the start, which just leads to him getting back body dropped. The crowd starts doing the Tomahawk Chop again. Bobby Heenan starts giving us useless facts about toilet paper. Tatanka is just dominating this thing. Heenan is still complaining about the Kid winning, making up stories about him using a double backflip in the air. Vince calls him the 1-2-3 Kid and Heenan complains it will catch on. You think? Tatanka wins with the Samoan Drop.

Winner: Tatanka in 3:41
I’ve grown very tired of Tatanka. He’s been on nearly every Raw and has the same match most of the time. SQUASH

Mean Gene takes us to the King of the Ring Report. He informs us of the brackets so far as Bret Hart faces Razor Ramon, Tatanka meets Lex Luger and Bigelow takes on Jim Duggan. On Superstars this week, Shawn Michaels meets Crush in a non-title qualifying bout while Kamala faces Mr. Hughes. No word on what happened in the second Doink/Mr. Perfect qualifier. Way to be consistent Gene!

Kamala vs. Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji
Both men literally just stare across the ring at each other for the first minute or so. They charge at each other and neither budges, but the second time, Yokozuna stumbles. Kamala chops away but Yokozuna doesn’t go down. That’s basically the entire story here as Kamala just keeps trying to take him down. Mr. Fuji grabs Kamala’s foot, allowing Yokozuna to do this thing. A Banzai Drop later and this is over.

Winner: Yokozuna in 3:39
Well, it wasn’t a squash which was different. I appreciated the story of Kamala trying everything to get him down, but it was still rather boring. *½

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Marty Jannetty
So, Shawn Michaels is now defending his Intercontinental Title for the third straight episode of Raw. Bobby Heenan calls Jannetty just another ham and egger. I love that term. After Shawn starts a bit hot, Marty rallies and knocks him outside, following with a baseball slide. He skins the cat back inside before diving out onto him. The crowd is red hot. Marty brings Shawn back in and ducks a superkick before snapping off an arm drag and head scissors for two. This is fast paced, which the crowd needs after the previous bout. Shawn gets out of the head scissors but misses his next shot and takes his signature bump in the corner, sending him outside. Shawn is done with this as he grabs the belt and leaves. Unfortunately for him, Mr. Perfect blocks his exit. After a commercial, Marty tries another head scissors but eats the EDDIE GILBERT hot shot. With that, Shawn starts to wear down Marty, which makes sense since he’s been a ball of fire throughout this. Marty catches a dropkick attempt and slingshots Shawn into the corner. He also hits a pretty powerslam for two and they have the crowd in the palm of their hands. Marty fakes out Shawn and hits a cross body for two. They both get near falls, with Shawn having a handful of tights. He hits the Superkick but smack talks Mr. Perfect instead of pinning. A small package earns Marty the shocking win!

Winner and New WWF Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty in 8:55
Hot damn, this was a fun main event. It was fast paced and played off of the fact that they knew each other very well. The title change made for one of, if not the best ending to a Raw so far. ***½

Overall: 8/10; Great. While the actual wrestling, apart from the main event, wasn’t splendid, this was a very important Raw. First, we get a showcase for the hot new tag team before we see a total shocker in the Kid beating Razor Ramon. Marty Jannetty returning was a nice surprise and the main event more than delivered. This is what Raw is all about. The shock value of anything can happen on a live show.

Raw History: The $2500 Challenge
Episode 18
May 24th, 1993 – Manhattan Center in Manhattan, New York

I don’t know about everyone else, but Raw feels much more important when it’s in the Manhattan Center. Whenever I see an early episode from another venue, it ends up being a throwaway show. Before our opener, Lord Alfred Hayes is outside of the Manhattan Center with Doink, even though he just walked to the ring. TOO MANY DOINKS!

King of the Ring Qualifying Match
Doink the Clown vs. Mr. Perfect
So these two have tried to qualify twice and both ended in draws. Doink attacks at the bell, choking Mr. Perfect with his own towel. Perfect retaliates though and works over the leg, wrapping it around the ring post. Doink knocks Perfect outside with a stiff forearm while still selling the leg work. He takes Mr. Perfect down with a fireman’s carry, only to be put in a head scissors. The straps are down on Mr. Perfect and Doink’s paint is nearly halfway gone but they continues to mat wrestle. Mr. Perfect applies a modified figure four that looks like it hurts a ton. After he gets out, Doink rakes Mr. Perfect’s face across the top rope and we spill outside. Doink has been working the shoulder, which is a great contract to Mr. Perfect’s offense. Doink uses one of my personal favorites, which is a body slam onto the arm that you’ve spent the match working. After a commercial, both guys are just slapping each other until Mr. Perfect nails a clothesline and takes him out. A second Doink comes out and rolls under the ring before switching places with regular Doink. Doink #2 is obviously well rested, but it’s clear that his paint isn’t messed up at all. It doesn’t matter though as he falls victim to the Perfect Plex.

Winner: Mr. Perfect in 11:41
This was given a lot of time, had a clean finish and was a damn fine wrestling match. Both guys can work and they focused on an opposing body part, leading to a well thought out contest.***½ 

Bobby Heenan, who the entire match has been saying that it was only one Doink and the others were an illusion, now exclaims that Mr. Perfect beat the wrong Doink. The two Doinks attack until Crush makes the save brudda.

During this week’s King of the Ring Report, we get our first Hulk Hogan appearance since winning the WWF Title. With Mr. Perfect qualifying just now, he will face Mr. Hughes in the first round of the Tournament. Hogan’s promo is about how great it is to be on Raw. Technically, he’s not on Raw. His muscle definition is significantly down. He talks about the five commandments or amendments of Hulkamania. Seriously, it was hard to hear what he said.

Non-Title Match
WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. vs. Mike Bell and Tony DeVito
I have no clue why Money Inc. is still the Tag Team Champions. If there was any title that should have changed hands last week on Raw, it was the tag belts. Before the match, Ted Dibiase gets a fan to shine their shoes for $100. The kid does it but only gets $30 because the tax man comes for him. I’ll admit, I chuckled a bit. We are told that instead of Money Inc. defending their belts and losing them at King of the Ring, they will be in an eight man tag teaming with the Headshrinkers against the Smoking Guns and the Steiner Brothers. This was your basic extended squash.

Winners: Money Inc. in 3:59
Total squash that took way too long. SQUASH

Crush vs. Jobber
Seriously, I don’t know if I missed it or what but I didn’t get this ham and egger’s name. We are told that Crush and Shawn Michaels had a qualifying match over the weekend, but they fought to a double countout. They don’t get a million rematches like Doink and Mr. Perfect? Oh, it’s Bobby Hill or something like that. Crush dominates, but it’s boring as he even does a bearhug. YOU’RE NOT A HEEL DUDE! Crush uses the Kona Clutch to win.

Winner: Crush in 3:26
Another squash that was dull. SQUASH

Vince McMahon is in the ring to conduct an interview with Razor Ramon. Razor personally requested this time but looks pretty funny in sweatpants. His fake Spanish is hilarious. “McMang” and “Silencio” are delivered in a terrible way. Razor offers the “little cockroach” the 1-2-3 Kid $2500 to step into the ring with him again. When they bring up the King of the Ring, his first round opponent, Bret Hart comes out. He starts a “1-2-3” chant. Bret basically just says it’s going to be “1-2-3” when they wrestle at King of the Ring.

Adam Bomb w/ Johnny Polo vs. Phil Apollo
Even though he appeared on Superstars recently, this is the Raw debut of Adam Bomb. Yea, we saw Kronik in the last two matches. I’ve always been a big fan of Adam Bomb. He does a rather impressive dropkick and back suplex. A top rope clothesline is impressive here before he wins with a powerbomb.

Winner: Adam Bomb in 2:34
Another squash, but at least this one was to hype a new star. SQUASH

It’s so strange to see Raven dressed as Johnny Polo. A short interview is conducted with Bam Bam Bigelow as he faces Marty Jannetty for the Intercontinental Title next week. He’ll have Luna Vachon in his corner and Marty will have Sherri. Hey look! It’s continuity.

Overall: 5/10; Mediocre. This started off so well. Mr. Perfect and Doink had one of the better matches on Raw this year, right up there with Marty/Shawn, Bret/Fatu and Perfect/Flair. The rest of the show was just squashes and, while they make sense sometimes, can be a chore to watch.

Buffalo Raw Review

With the United States Title back in his grasp, John Cena brought back the Open Challenge. It is answered by the sound of John Cena's theme being played on a trombone! New Day came out to save us from another dreary Cena promo and were fantastic. Xavier Woods was the one to accept the challenge, which I loved since he tends to get the least amount of shine, despite being very good. New Day ran in to cause the DQ, bringing out the Dudley Boyz. This led to the Teddy Long Special, as we got a six man tag. New Day would win the fun six man tag, building up their title defense for MSG, while allowing the show to get off to a different start. I appreciated all of this as, while it wasn't great, it was all fine and enjoyable.

Backstage, we have the Authority and a rep from HR who is going to review Kane after an anonymous complaint. It's clear that it was Seth Rollins who complained. Kane was hilarious as the happy go lucky Director of Operations. Raw was off to a pretty fun start but then, right as I was thinking about it, we got Big Show vs. Mark Henry. Yuck. Show won in short fashion to try and hype his MSG match with Brock Lesnar. Moving on, MizTV was next, with Charlotte and Becky Lynch as the guests. This was a mess last time, but went a bit better here. Becky was the star, delivering some pretty good lines, though Charlotte seemed to struggle. Team Bella came out to ramble about nonsense before Paige showed up. She took credit for the fame of the NXT women and delivered some zingers to everyone, especially the Bellas. Teddy Long must be running things backstage as we get a six person tag match playa. Paige teaming with Charlotte and Becky was so dumb here. JBL quickly pulled the "all women are catty and hate each other" mantra to try and cover up for the pointless decisions the Divas make. They did a miscommunication thing that caused Paige to leave. Did the booking team forget that the team already split? She should have gotten the the hot tag, kicked ass and then left because she doesn't need this and proved her point. Natalya tried to take her place, but Paige attacked her and the Bellas won. Also, Charlotte at the pin because "fuck strong champions" right?

Time for the big hype video to promote Big Show against Brock Lesnar for this Saturday. Who gives a fuck? There is a backstage segment with Seth, Kane and HR Ashley that's kind of just there. Going to a tag match, Luke Harper and Braun Strowman defeated the Prime Time Players. Yes, those guys that were JUST Tag Team Champions, are back to losing. Where are Los Matadores? Next, Stardust was set to face Neville for about the 100th time. They worked for a few minutes until Bad News Barrett returned. He laid out both men and told everyone to hail the returning king. There were zero fucks given because none of these three men are booked competently.

Ashley from HR is out to give Kane his evaluation. Yup, in under two hours she's done. Seth shows up to show a video of Kane being evil, so Kane shows one of Seth being a dick. Ashley decides that Kane is fit for the job but Seth could use an evaluation. Seth attacks Kane and takes out his leg with a chair. Kane has to be taken out in an ambulance and Seth gets to look good. Then Kane returns as the "Demon" and proceeds to kick Seth's ass. Kane could still look like a viable challenger without making Seth look like a total joke. Whatever. Randy Orton then beat Bo Dallas in under two minutes. That was fine as nobody was harmed by a loss and Orton got a free win.

The great Tong Po (Rusev) was set for a match against the great Kevin Owens next. I was worried because if one guy turned face down the line, this could be a damn good PPV match. Instead, they wisely threw the match out as both guys attacked Ryback at ringside. This led to Dolph Ziggler showing up to make the save. This was fine as I guess we're going towards a four way for the IC Title. That's okay. Paul Heyman was out for the next segment, to hype Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar. He tried, but it wasn't on the level of the normal Heyman stuff. He can build a match but it's the Big Show and he's no miracle worker.

Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns was the main event. Commentary reminds us that the feud has been going for five months though it seems like it has been about a year. They went through the motions until we got a double countout. Only then did things get interesting as they had a big brawl through the crowd and Reigns speared Bray through the announce table. This is all obviously going to lead to a Hell in a Cell type match between some combination of them. Fine ending but the match wasn't good. Raw started well with the New Day, but as usual, it went way downhill after. There was a sever lack of Sasha Banks and Cesaro as well, which wasn't good. The booking continues to be nonsensical at times and the in-ring work isn't helping the cause. Just another poor episode of Raw. 3/10.

Fave Five 9/21/15-9/27/15

1) Shinsuke Nakamura: The biggest news coming out of the two Destruction shows this week was that Shinsuke Nakamura is once against the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. He's become synonymous with that belt and is the main reason that it has been elevated to the level that it has. Earlier this year, he lost it to Hirooki Goto before also losing the rematch at Dominion in July. During the G1 Climax however, he defeated Goto, earning him another shot. Nakamura was able to hit a big time Boma Ye and entered his fifth reign with the belt. You have to figure that he will carry it into WK10 and co-headline alongside the Tanahashi/Okada main event against a big name. I'm hoping for Styles/Nakamura in the Tokyo Dome.

2) reDRagon: I firmly believe that the best tag team in professional wrestling is none other than reDRagon. reDRagon went 2-0 during the NJPW Destruction shows. On Destruction in Okayama, they defeated Mascara Dorada and Jushin Thunder Liger in what was a bit of a warmup match. It was a decent match but was just setting them up for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title defense in Kobe. They faced the Time Splitters. I went in expecting the Time Splitters to win considering KUSHIDA had just dropped the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title in Okayama, but reDRagon retained in a really fun match. It wasn't on the level of their best work (Power Struggle last year), but it was still good and capped a strong week for Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish in Japan.

3) Togi Makabe: The first Destruction show this week was the one in Okayama. The main event of the show was for the NEVER Openweight Championship, held by Togi Makabe. I badly wanted Kota Ibushi to win the title here but it was not to be. Despite this, they delivered a strong main event and showed that they deserved a headlining spot. The match was hard hitting and damn good, with Makabe having to alter his finisher slightly to win since Kota had him well scouted. I've gone on record in saying that I'm not the biggest fan of Togi. Maybe it's because I'm only just now brancing out and watching his past stuff, but in 2015, I haven't been wowed. This was my favorite match I've ever seen of his. Makabe's team may have lost at Destruction in Kobe, but his main event win was enough to crack the top three.

                              4) Ethan Carter III: The one thing about TNA or Impact Wrestling that I still really love is Ethan Carter III. He has been the single best thing about the company in 2015 and even further back than that. This week, he defeated Rokstar Spud to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. These two had a classic earlier this year in a Hair vs. Hair match, in a star making match for Rockstar, only for TNA to fumble that opportunity. Their rematch this week wasn't on that level, but was still a solid match. EC3 has been having one of the best years in all of wrestling but it often goes overlooked, by myself included, because of the company he works for.

5) Matt Sydal: This may come as a surprising pick for number five this week. With Kenny Omega winning the Jr. Heavyweight Title, Hiroshi Tanahashi picking up a big win over Bad Luck Fale, the Bullet Club retaining their belts and a big win for Tetsuya Naito all this week, this was a tough choice. In the end, I went with Matt Sydal. Sydal made his New Japan debut at the Destruction shows. First, in Okayama, he teamed with Tanahashi in a fun win over Fale and Tama Tonga. That in itself is a pretty nice rub for your debut. He was featured in the Jr. Heavyweight Title match later on and challenged by Kenny Omega to be the next challenger. Then, in Kobe, Sydal pinned Omega in a six man tag and is next in line to challenge for the belt.

NJPW Destruction in Kobe Review

Destruction in Kobe
September 27th, 2015 | Kobe World Memorial Hall | Attendance: 6,120

Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu def. Jay White and David Finlay in 5:01
The Young Lions opened the show here and got less time than I expected. As noted during my review of the last Destruction show, I haven't seen much of these guys. This was a fun little match here, but they didn't get enough time for it to develop into something really good. From what I've seen, I've been impressed by both White and Finlay, even though they were on the losing end here. This served it's purpose and was a solid way to kick things off. **1/2

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and Yuji Nagata def. Captain New Japan, Juice Robinson and Manabu Nakanishi in 8:44
So this was the big event debut for Juice Robinson. He has worked the Road to Destruction tour, though those were basically house shows. For those unaware, Juice is the former CJ Parker from NXT. I liked this match. Juice got his most ring time since he started in New Japan and looked very amped up. He was animated in everything he did, trying to get the crowd behind him. There was a pretty funny running gag where Nakanishi would get kicked off the apron and each time he fell, it looked like I was watching a replay because he sold it the same way each time. In the end, Nagata hit a backdrop on Robinson for the win. Enjoyable match here. **1/2

Chaos (Baretta, Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi) def. Mascara Dorada, Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in 7:48
I wish this got just a bit more time. It was a typical New Japan multi-man tag but that isn't a bad thing. Those can be fun for sure and that's what I feel like this was. I enjoy at least five of the eight performers here. Baretta and Romero got a fair amount of shine in this one, which surprised me, but became clearer later in the night. It was similar to the multi-man tag most of these guys ran on Okayama, but I preferred that one. They continued to hype the eventual Ishii/Makabe NEVER Title match, but I'm not interested in that again so I think that took away from some of this. Roppongi Vice got the win for their team with Strong Zero. ***

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Matt Sydal and Satoshi Kojima def. The Bullet Club (Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Kenny Omega) in 10:52
Another multi-man tag, another fun outing but another match that I wouldn't consider great. Still, that isn't really the point of these. It continue on the Bullet Club/Kojima and Tenzan match from Okayama, while hyping the upcoming Omega/Sydal match. Sydal's first two performances in New Japan were both relatively good. He got the rub of teaming with Tanahashi in a fun match in Okayama before getting a good showing here. Karl Anderson was a highlight here, overselling the hell out of Kojima's chops in a fun way. Sydal pinned Omega after the Shooting Star Press, giving him a win over the Jr. Heavyweight Champion. It was a good match and cappe a strong first week in NJPW for Sydal. ***

Tetsuya Naito def. Katsuyori Shibata in 11:49
This is the match I was most excited to see coming into this show. The video package they playe beforehand, highlighting Naito's transformation was great. Naito came out in a new mask, which was magnificent. These two became two of my favorites during the G1 and i loved their match during that tournament. here, I feel like despite being really good, I was a bit let down. I wanted this to be better than their G1 match but it wasn't. That s not to say that it was bad by any means. Their styles clash in the best possible way. Shibata kicked Naito's ass and Naito pulled out his best Toru Yano to win. He delivered a low blow behind the official's back and then hit another, before nailing Destino to win. I expected the result and they put on another really solid match. Naito attacked cameramen after the match, until Shibata caught up to him and they brawled to the back. I thought that meant the feud would continue but later events tell me different. They are capable of more. ***1/2

Kazuchika Okada, Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano def. AJ Styles, Cody Hall and Tama Tonga in 12:18
Coming out of intermission, we got a preview of an upcoming IWGP Heavyweight Championship match. Again, this was similar to the match we saw in Okayama when Yano and Okada defeated Styles and Hall. Adding Tonga was good, since he's better than Hall and while Sakuraba is good, he didn't get to do much here. Yano took a fair amount of the punishment and Okada got the bulk of the offense. His exchanges with Styles were, as usual, breathtaking at times. Sakuraba won by making Tonga tap out in another fun bout. ***

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: reDRagon (c) def. The Time Splitters in 16:17
These are two of my favorite tag teams on the planet and I wanted them to deliver here. I saw their first match during the G1 Finals last year and it was good but they had an excellent one at Power Struggle. I'd say this was about in the middle of those matches. I think the fact that I truly thought the Time Splitters would win made me bite really hard on some near falls. The chemistry these two teams have is pretty great and they worked in some really fun double team moves. reDRagon hit Chasing the Dragon to retain and I'm glad they went with this decision because the revolving door of Jr. Tag Champions is pretty annoying. After the match, Roppongi Vice came out and attacked reDRagon, setting themselves up as the next contenders. Great match and effort from both teams. ****

Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Bad Luck Fale in 16:37
I've seen the matches these two have had in the G1 the past two years, both won by Bad Luck Fale. They are up there with the best Fale matches I've ever seen. What I liked most about those was that they were kept under 15 minutes. This went a bit over that and it hurt some of the match to me. The early stages ran a bit dull for me, but the final few minutes were damn good. The Bad Luck Fall is a heavily protected finish and the fans bought into the possibility of it ending things twice here. Tanahashi was able to avoid it though and win with the High Fly Flow. I thought this was better than I expected. After the match, Tanahashi called out Naito, who nonchalantly answered. I guess that is the next program for them, as Naito did pin Tanahashi during the G1. ***1/4

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura def. Hirooki Goto (c) in 22:56
This would be the fourth match this year between these two. I didn't catch the first, but enjoyed their match at Dominion and the one during the G1 Climax. I have to say, this one was my favorite. They played off of their past encounters very well, but upped the ante. At one point, Goto hit a top rope Ushigorshi I believe it's called, but it was fantastic. From there, there were multiple false finishes and near falls. Both guys worked armbars, which is how Nakamura beat Goto in the G1 and it made sense for Goto to use due to Nakamura's recently injured arm. In the end, a Boma Ye, not the first of the match, was enough to earn Nakamura his fifth Intercontinental Title. Fantastic stuff. After the match, Karl Anderson came out to face off with Nakamura, setting up the next IC Title match. ****1/4

Overall: 7.5/10. I liked this show more than I thought I would. Coming in, the card seemed lackluster, but they delivered. Like the Okayama show, nothing was bad and everything entertained. 

NJPW Destruction in Kobe Predictions

I've never done any predictions for any non WWE show but I felt like this would be a cool time to try it. With me getting more and more into New Japan, I'm going to try some predictions for their big show tomorrow. I'm only going to be doing the four major matches though as the rest of the card is full of multi-man tag matches that work as previews for other future matches and such.

At the G1 Climax finals, reDRagon captured the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships from the Young Bucks. That was just over a month ago and this is, I believe, their first title defense. Normally, I would say that means they were a lock to retain here but the Jr. Tag Team Titles change hands incredibly often. This year alone they've gone from reDRagon to the Young Bucks to Roppongi Vice back to the Bucks and back to reDRagon. With KUSHIDA dropping the singles Jr. Heavyweight Title at Destruction in Okayama, I can see the Time Splitters walking away with the belts here and that's what I'm picking.

Winners: The Time Splitters

Of the entire card, this is the match that I want to see the most. During the G1 Climax, I became a huge fan of both Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito. Their match early on in the tournament was one of my favorites and the build to this has been fun. Shibata with his "fuck you" attitude and Naito's attitude of "I don't give a shit" makes for a great contrast. The brawls they've had have been good and I see this stealing the show. As much as I like Shibata, I sense Naito winning here. First, Shibata won their G1 match and seond, Naito is one of two men that beat Hiroshi Tanahashi during the G1 so he wins here before going on to face Tanahashi for the Tokyo Dome title shot.

Winner: Tetsuya Naito

Speaking of Hiroshi Tanahashi and defending his Wrestle Kingdom 10 title shot, he'll be doing it here. Besides Tetsuya Naito, the other person to defeat him in the G1 was Bad Luck Fale. In fact, going back to the G1 24 in 2014, Fale also beat Tanahashi in that tournament. It would seem that he kind of has Tanahashi's number. That is one of the main reasons I can't see Fale winning. He's not going to beat Tanahashi again. Not only that but there is no way Fale gets the biggest title shot of the year. Expect a solid match as Tanahashi seems to get the best out of Fale, and a win for the ace of New Japan.

Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi

The main event of this show will be an Intercontinental Title match as Hirooki Goto defends the strap against Shinsuke Nakamura. There is obvious history here as Goto won the belt from Nakamura earlier this year. Goto then defeated Nakamura in the rematch at Dominion in July. Nakamura got one of those wins back during the G1 Climax, earning him this championship match. Honestly, Goto isn't going to go 3-1 against Nakamura this year is he? The IC Title and Nakamura have become synonymous, so I say he wins it back here, building to a big defense in the Tokyo Dome. Maybe against AJ Styles?

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

Fave Five 9/14/15-9/20/15

1) Jay Lethal: I bring you this a bit late again due to the busy week of wrestling. It was an interesting week where two companies had a guy with two titles defend them both in one night. Jay Lethal did so with the ROH World and ROH Television Championships at All-Star Extravaganza. He successfully opened the show by defending the Television Title against Bobby Fish. Lethal has made half of the TV Title defense in the entire existence of the belt, which is sick. He then defeated Fish's partner, Kyle O'Reilly, with the World Title on the line in the main event. Both matches were good showings, and despite him retaining through cheap terms (a handful of tights on Fish and interference against O'Reilly), Lethal proved once again that he is the man in ROH.

2) Seth Rollins: The other champion to make two defenses in one night during this week was Seth Rollins.I'd say his performance was better than Jay Lethal's, as he had to wrestle back to back matches, but he did lose one belt. First, he faced John Cena in a good match. It was a notch below their SummerSlam outing and Cena won back the US Title. Now before anyone complains that Cena isn't my list, I preferred the matches of some other people on my list and chose to recognize people capturing their first taste of certain titles. Anyway, back to Seth, he then faced Sting and had a good match with him too. I mean, if you would have told me five years ago that Tyler Black would be headlining a PPV by facing Cena and Sting in one night, I'd have slapped you. The fact that he did so while putting on a great performance and beating Sting, is enough to put him on this list. 2015 continues to be the year of Seth Rollins.

3) Kevin Owens: Two months ago at the Battleground PPV, Kevin Owens should have won the US Title. I stand by that. At Night of Champions though, the WWE righted that wrong somewhat by having Owens defeat Ryback for the Intercontinental Title. I'm not one of those people who was very against Ryback being champion and I think if he didn't get hurt or have to feud with Big Show, he could have had a good reign. Still, Owens being champion could get us back to a place where the IC Title matches were the best on the card. My biggest wish for this is that Owens gets a rather dominant run with the strap and it leads to a match against Sami Zayn at WrestleMania. It would not only be a great match but would give an IC Title match a great storyline.

4) AJ Styles: During Ring of Honor's All-Star Extravaganza Pay-Per-View, there was a Four Corner Survival match to determine the next number one contender for the ROH World Title. Adam Cole, AJ Styles, Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong competed. While I don't believe the match was on a Match of the Year level, it was still my favorite of not only the ASE even itself, but the entire weekend, including Night of Champions.After a good back and forth match, Styles won after hitting Cole with the Styles Clash. This now sets up Styles as a future challenger for Jay Lethal, which should be interesting. The Bullet Club are heels, but get treated like faces in ROH. It's interesting that Styles has never held the ROH Title, but I see him losing to Lethal and putting him over down the line.

5) Charlotte: I was pretty torn on who would get this spot, between Charlotte and the Kingdom. The Kingdom has grown on me and they did capture the ROH World Tag Team Titles at All-Star Extravaganza, but I chose to go with the new Divas Champion, Charlotte. Charlotte was unable to end Nikki Bella's title reign before she broke the record to become longest champion, but in her rematch at Night of Champions, she managed to win the belt. She won a solid match against Nikki Bella to become champion for the first time. It's a pretty worth accomplishment to make the list this week.

NJPW Destruction in Okayama Review

This morning, New Japan Pro Wrestling held Destruction in Okayama. I didn't catch it live but watched it once i woke up this morning.

Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu def. Tetsuya Naito, David Finlay, Jay White and Manabu Nakanishi in 7:47
While I've been watching a fair amount of New Japan this year, I haven't seen much of the young lions, but I have liked what I've been able to check out. The main focus during this match was the rivalry between Shibata and Naito, who will wrestle on Sunday at Destruction in Kobe. I have really loved their interactions during the "Road to Destruction" and did so here again. Naito was the last guy out for his team, while Shibata was first out for his guys, which is perfect for their personalities. The match featured a fair amount of fun back and forth, while Naito and Shibata were very aggressive with one another. Nagata got the win for his team when Naito refused to tag in and then chose to watch the pinfall rather than help. This was a blast and built towards Shibata/Naito more, meaning the match did it's job. ***1/4

reDRagon def. Jushin Thunder Liger and Mascara Dorada in 8:31
I've gone on record to state that I firmly believe reDRagon is the best tag team in pro wrestling, so I always look forward to seeing them. Liger is always fun to watch as well, though I again admit I haven't seen much of Dorada. He did well here, including a really sweet dive to the outside. I feel like this worked more as a tuneup of sorts with reDRagon having a bigger title defense at Destruction in Kobe. This was fine, and reDRagon won with Chasing the Dragon in a decent match. **1/2

NWA World Junior Championship: Tiger Mask def. Steve Anthony (c) in 10:10
This would be the last match of the night to feature someone I've yet to really see. Steve Anthony is new to me, but was clearly the heel. The two men worked at a decent pace but I just couldn't get into this. I'm honestly unsure if it was because I didn't know much about the competitors or the match itself but I found myself tuning out. Part of it is my fault but their inability to suck me in made this lackluster for sure. Tiger Mask won, to earn the title for the second time in his career. Looking at the history of the belt, it's his first reign in nearly a decade. **

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Matt Sydal def. Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga in 10:01
Similar to the giant opening tag team match, this was partially here to build towards a match at the next Destruction show, between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Bad Luck Fale. The other story in this was the NJPW debut of Matt Sydal. The faces started hot and surprisingly, the heat seemed to come on Tanahashi. Sydal didn't get that much ring time, but looked fine in the time that he did get. Fale stayed looking strong as he didn't eat the pin and was dominant at times against Tanahashi. A Shooting Star Press, followed by the High Fly Flow ended this. Basic stuff but overall, the crowd was hot and it was enjoyable. **3/4

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (c) def. Tencozy in 13:15
Tencozy consists of Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima. They are older guys, both in their mid-forties, but can still go, which they showed during the G1 Climax this year. The tag team scene in NJPW tends to be lacking but I thought this was good. It started out slow with a highlight being seeing Karl Anderson steal Kojima's trademark chops in the corner. As the match grew to the climax, there were a fair amount of false finishes and near falls. Coming in, I fully expected the champions to retain but I bit on some of the close calls. A Gun Stun on Tenzan and the Magic Killer on Kojima wrapped this up. ***1/4

Chaos (Baretta, Rocky Romero, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi) def. Alex Shelley, Captain New Japan, Hirooki Goto, Rysuke Taguchi and Tomoaki Honma in 13:23
Right from the bell, it was clear that Ryusuke Taguchi was going to be an agitator, getting in the face of Nakamura several times. It is sometimes funny but it came off as annoying here and I guess that was the point since even his teammate, Goto, shoved him. I'm a big fan of Alex Shelley, like Roppongi Vice and have come to really enjoy Goto, Nakamura, Ishii and Honma, making this really fun. At one point, Capt. New Japan, Taguchi and Honma did a triple Kokeshi, which made me chuckle. As expected, the interactions between Honma and Ishii and Nakamura and Goto were both probably the highlights. Capt. New Japan ate the pin after a Boma Ye and brainbuster. ***1/4

Kazuchika Okada and Toru Yano def. AJ Styles and Cody Hall in 9:52
Of all of the Bullet Club members, I feel like Cody Hall is probably the worst in the ring. Despite this, his interactions with Toru Yano were fun, though that was more due to Yano. Hall came off as awkward a fair amount of the time. Yano was a joy but the key to this match was the interactions between Styles and Okada. They are set to face for the IWGP Heavyweight Title at King of Pro Wrestling next month and much like their match at Dominion in July, their exchange was fast, furious and fantastic. Yano stole the win for his guys with a rollup on Hall. Again, not a great match but one that I had fun watching, which is all I can ask for sometimes. **3/4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega def. KUSHIDA (c) in 16:26
These two had a pretty great match at Dominion in July, where KUSHIDA took the title from Omega. This match wasn't on the level of that one and I think part of that had to do with the crowd here not being as hot as the Osaka one from July. Still, this was going well, with the focus being on KUSHIDA's back and KUSHIDA trying to get his armbar locked in throughout. Doc Gallows and Alex Shelley got involved, which I expected and thought was fine, until it got taken too far. It was fine as a quick thing but happened again after a ref bump and then Karl Anderson showed up too. KUSHIDA ate a Gun Stun and the One Winged Angel to lose the belt. I disagree completely with this decision as there was still a good amount that could have been done with KUSHIDA at champ. A match with his partner or the tiebreaker with Ricochet for example. Matt Sydal was shown at ringside throughout and Omega called him out in an awkward segment after. Omega/Sydal is coming and I'm not too excited about it. This could have been much better. ***

NEVER Openweight Championship: Togi Makabe (c) def. Kota Ibushi in 18:41
Kota Ibushi has been one of my absolute favorites in NJPW and I've totally bought in on him trying to win a title above the Jr. Heavyweight level. I wasn't a huge fan of their G1 Climax match, which Ibushi won, but this blew that match away to me. I love that Ibushi doesn't look like a badass dude, but absolutely can hit with the hardest of them. They just beat the fuck out of each other and it was worthy of headlining an event like this. When they fought outside, Ibushi hit a sick dropkick and then brought a table into play and hit a double stomp from the top onto it. When Ibushi countered the Spider German, he did so by landing on his feet, showing off his athleticism. However, the high risks that he takes proved to be an issue as he missed the Phoenix Splash. He tried to fight off the Spider German again, so Makabe changed it to a Spider Dragon suplex and finished it with the King Kong knee drop. I wasn't a big fan of Makabe retaining, but it played into Ibushi coming so close to winning a big title. He was close to winning the Intercontinental Title at WK9, the Heavyweight Title at Invasion Attack and now the NEVER Title here. After the match, Tomohiro Ishii showed up and it looks like we'll be getting Makabe/Ishii again, which I could do without. Either way, this was a great, hard hitting battle and another star making performance for Ibushi. ****

Overall: 6.5/10. I rather enjoyed this show. I don't think it was one of the stronger New Japan shows of the year, but I didn't expect it to be judging by the card. Still, they managed to put on a show that I found to be fun. There were a few matches that I wasn't big on, but there were some good tag matches and while the Jr. Heavyweight Title match disappointed, the main event was awesome. Worth a look.

Split Personality Kane Raw Review

In an absolutely shocking moment for me, Raw did not open with an Authority segment. I know Sting opened things recently but still. The Wyatt Family opened the show to discuss their win. Roman Reigns arrived and brawled. Dean Ambrose ran out to help, followed by Randy Orton. It was a chaotic start and didn't take up 20+ minutes. This was a refreshing start to Raw and things like this are needed more often. My only gripe is that I'd like to have heard more about Chris Jericho walking out on Shield lite but I guess that will either be ignored or saved for something down the line. Now, we went backstage where Seth Rollins tried to get in Kane's face, but Kane played dumb and said he only just got back and gave Seth his US Title rematch tonight. Goofy Kane would be a theme throughout the night.

There was a PPV 24 hours earlier which means that we have to get the obligatory rematch. This time, it was the Cosmic Wasteland taking on Neville and the Lucha Dragons. The match was much better at Night of Champions and this time the faces won. It was more of that 50/50 booking that helps nobody. The Cosmic Wasteland lose momentum here and the match felt like it meant nothing. Moving on, Kevin Owens joined commentary for Ryback's match with Bo Dallas. Ryback looked pissed throughout and attacked Bo but ended up getting worked over. Look, I like Bo and would like to see him as more than a jobber, but if he's going to be a jobber, then Ryback needed to just plow through him here. An angry Ryback murdering Bo after losing the belt would have been best. Owens tried a post match attack but Ryback sent him packing. Cool points to Owens for killing it on commentary once again.

We were now taken to an in celebration ceremony for Charlotte's Divas Title victory. Since these are usually reserved for cocky heels or faces like Jeff Hardy and Eddie Guerrero, who worked for years to get there, I assumed it was time for Paige's heel turn. Ric Flair came out first to put over his daughter again. We get it, she's a Flair. Can we move past this now? Charlotte thanked her dad and her friends, especially Paige. This is when Paige went off, stealing the microphone and saying that she started all of this and then telling Charlotte that there is no "Divas Revolution." She threw jabs at everyone, saying that Becky is irrelevant, Charlotte is only there because of her dad, the Bellas are here "for reasons we all know", Summer & Lana are more focused on who to jump on and questioning where the hell Natalya has been. She threw down the microphone and left, which brought out the Bellas, leading to Charlotte facing Brie. Charlotte obviously won but the real story was Paige. I think the heel turn was well executed and I like that it didn't just feature Paige randomly attacking Charlotte. Hopefully it goes somewhere good since heel Paige is infinitely better than face Paige. From the palest woman, things go to the palest man as Sheamus took on Mark Henry. Sheamus won and then cut a promo saying that, as far as he's concerned, he is the WWE Champion. Basic stuff that got Mr. Money in the Bank some heat back but was nothing more.

More from split personality Kane as he even plays the game with Stephanie and Triple H, saying that Stephanie must have lost his mask. Backstage, Paige runs into Natalya and calls her a "mother hen". New Day came out for a six man tag, with Xavier Woods cutting a funny promo about table shards being in his buttocks. They teamed with Rusev, aka my dream team, to face Dolph Ziggler and the Dudley Boyz. The dream team won a fun match, made all the better by how great the UpUpDownDown guys worked together. I wish that one of the Dudleys ate the pin instead of Ziggler though as it wouldn't have hurt them, especially if it was done with a handful of tights or something. Also, they announced the Dudleys get another shot on the October 3rd MSG show.

With Paige watching on a monitor backstage, Natalya returned to the ring against Naomi. They worked a short match that they managed to cram a lot into. Naomi won after her teammates got involved. I would normally point out that Sasha Banks should be doing a ton more, but I have hope that once she wraps up her NXT stuff on October 7th, she'll become more of a focal point. Big Show faced Cesaro next and guess the outcome? Cesaro loses. Look, I get that with Big Show having a match against Brock Lesnar in MSG, he could use wins, but why Cesaro? Why not have him squash Miz? Adam Rose? Fandango? Mark Henry? Or all of them at once? That would have been much more logical. He then cut a promo on how he beat Brock in MSG back in 2002 but whatever. That result was poorly done.

After our opening six man tag rematch and then the six man tag that mixed the Dudleys and Ziggler match, we just had to have one more Night of Champions rematch. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins. Which we saw a bunch at the end of 2014, on Raw a month ago, on SummerSlam and at NOC. They worked at a lesser pace than the PPV, which is kind of expected. Cena won with an AA, continuing the trend of making the WWE Champion his bitch because Cena > WWE Champion all of the fucking time. After Cena left, Corporate Kane appeared on the tron to say that Seth has a bunch of challengers lined up. His pyro went off and Demon Kane came up through the ring and pulled Seth into "hell." That ended the show. I think that this Raw was similar to the past few weeks. The wrestling wasn't really bad but the booking decisions continue to be baffling at times and the show drags at times. Some things were good, like goofy Kane, Paige's promo and the Rusev/New Day pairing. I'm okay with Seth/Kane if it's a fun one-off match. 5/10.