Spoiler Free Wrestling Reviews/Recommendations

Chief Savage Man

Chief Savage Man

Active member
I watch a lot of wrestling and it annoys me that it's impossible to get reviews of matches without having the result spoiled. There's so much content available now that it'd be nice to have a reviewer tell you what's worth watching and what isn't. I'll give that a spin here. I usually only watch what's on WWE network and New Japan World so if you're looking for something from another promotion or from each weekly TV show, I can't help you.

I'll put at the end of each match that I saw one of four ratings:

SKIP means it isn't worth watching at all

SKIPPABLE means it was fine or okay and you're fine if you don't watch it.

WATCH means you should watch it.

MUST WATCH means I loved it or that it was at least very important in addition to being good.

I'll start with what I watched in January.

 
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Wrestle Kingdom 11 - New Japan Pro Wrestling

Overall an excellent show with an okay first half and an out of this world second half. Very long show and you're in good shape if you start with the tag titles three way. If you don't know the wrestlers then English commentary will help with that, but Japanese commentary is usually more enthusiastic and captures the spirit of the match better, as the English commentators are often too busy with their schtick, so even if I can't understand what they're saying, I enjoy the Japanese commentary better. Alternatively, the AXS TV shows featuring this event are commentated by Jim Ross, so I'm sure that's excellent even though I watched it on NJ World in Japanese.

-New Japan Rumble: entertaining like any goofy battle royal but mainly because of NJPW old timers who I don't know as a newcomer to the promotion. SKIPPABLE

-Tiger Mask W vs Tiger the Dark: short but energetic, the dudes under the masks are very talented but the match wasn't long enough to really get into it plus Kota Ibushi is way better than he showed here because he's apparently not used to working with the big goofy mask. SKIPPABLE

-Roppongi Vice vs Young Bucks for IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title - like any young bucks match, there was a lot of action and crazy shit, I thought it had a good story and ending. WATCH

-Gauntlet match for NEVER Trios Titles - basically had everybody on the roster that they wanted to put on the card but didn't have a big match for. It was fine but definitely SKIPPABLE

-Cody vs Juice Robinson - Cody Rhodes doesn't really seem to fit in in Japan and the crowd didn't seem to care much about it they're both good wrestlers so it was fine. SKIPPABLE

-Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Reilly for Ring of Honor Championship - I don't give a shit about ROH and apparently neither does Japan, but they had a short enough match that it didn't outstay its welcome. SKIPPABLE

-Chaos vs Guerrillas of Destiny vs Great Bash Heel for IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles - very good match and complete with Japanese and Samoan guys cursing extremely loudly and often at one another. The Chaos team is entertaining as Ishii is such a great tough guy and Yano comes off so annoying. WATCH

-Kushida vs Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship - excellent, the Jr heavyweights are supposed to be the best flyers and they did a ton of it without doing too much. Hiromu's charisma in the ring is excellent. MUST WATCH

-Katsuyori Shibata vs Hirooki Goto for the NEVER Openweight Title - these guys beat the shit out of each other and it was awesome. Shibata always comes across as a tough bastard but he was better than usual here. excellent in a way totally different from the last match. MUST WATCH

-Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Title - awesome match that came across most like a WWE main event. Naito has charisma for days and Tanahashi is almost like cena in how he makes matches feel important. - MUST WATCH

-Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada - best match I've ever seen. Went very long without seeming long at all. I'm shocked these two aren't dead with all the insane shit they did. The last 15 minutes or so is the best work you'll ever see - MUST WATCH

 
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United Kingdom Championship Tournament - WWE Network

All of night one was basically SKIPPABLE as it served to introduce each guy more so than put on great matches, but the ones who are going to end up being important are featured plenty on night two.

As for night two:

Pete Dunne vs Sam Gradwell - This built off a night one angle where Dunne attacked Gradwell so the match followed that nicely where it wasn't so much a tournament match as a grudge match. Dunne is imo the best guy in the tournament and how he went after Gradwell was convincing. Not a very long match. SKIPPABLE

Mark Andrews vs Joseph Conners - Every spot with Conners seems to revolve around his fucked up ear. Mark Andrews is a very good high flyer and this match had a decent energy to it but ultimately SKIPPABLE

Wolfgang vs Trent Seven - Most of the tournament had smaller guys so Wolfgang stands out because hes a big boy. Different than everything else on the show but also SKIPPABLE

Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin - Short and action packed, Devlin looks like Finn Balor Jr which is funny enough on its own and worth a watch but ultimately SKIPPABLE

Dunne/Gradwell winner vs Andrews/Conners winner - Great match with a lot of action. If I get into what happened, it'll give away who was in it but it was definitely the best match of the tournament up until the finals WATCH

Bate/Devlin winner vs Wolfgang/Seven winner - This match had great story aspects based on an injury from a previous match and the sizes of the two guys in the ring. The post match angle added a lot of juice to the final so I would say WATCH

Neville vs Tommy End - non tournament match to kill time in between the semis and the final. Neville's heel gimmick is incredible so if you haven't seen it, you probably should check this out. Ultimately SKIPPABLE because it has nothing to do with the tournament

Finals - excellent match that was built well due to the post match angle from the semis. The two guys, for being WWE guys for a total of two days, had their personalities well built through the night. The babyface in the match had a different attitude than usual when faced with the heel which was great because it was the appropriate way to deal with the guy. MUST WATCH

 
Fantastica Mania - Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre/New Japan Pro Wrestling

Fantastica Mania is a very unique tour in which the Mexican CMLL promotion tours Japan along with NJPW's wrestlers so you end up with this bizarro combination of Japanese and Mexican wrestling and culture. For instance, the ring announcers have mariachi outfits on while speaking Japanese. Night one and two have no commentary but Night Three has Spanish commentary which is awesome. If you only want to watch one show make it Night 3.

Night one was a bit weak and mostly SKIPPABLE because all of the wrestlers on the show can be seen in better matches on the other nights.

The Dragon Lee vs Cavernario Barbaro CMLL lightweight title match was the main event and I would call that a WATCH if only for Cavernario's ridiculous gimmick and outfit.

Night two:

Gedo, Jado, Raziel & Ephesto vs Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Henare, Blue Panther Jr. - a lot of old timers in this match and outside of a funny bit with Tiger Mask nothing really to recommend it - SKIPPABLE

Stuka Jr. vs Okumara - Good match that had the crowd into it. Okumara's manager is supposed to be his girlfriend or something and she kept getting involved which is usually annoying but worked out well in this match. WATCH

Okada, Ospreay & Cavernario vs Kushida, Soberano Jr. and Taguchi - tag match with a lot of big moves and goofiness from Taguchi who was dressed as a pharoah. It was alright but definitely SKIPPABLE

Los Ingobernables de Japon vs Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Dragon Lee, Titan & David Finlay - LIJ is an awesome stable and they built up the Lee/Takahashi rivalry very well. WATCH if only to see LIJ being great

Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia vs Mistico & Volador Jr - Volador and Ultimo Guerrero are very good wrestlers and the heel team did great by beating the shit out of the face team with their jackets to start off the match. Lots of good flying from Volador. WATCH

Rush vs Atlantis - Atlantis is apparently like a thousand years old and it kinda shows here. Rush has charisma and is cool as part of the Mexican wing of Los Ingobernables but the match was kinda slow. SKIPPABLE

Maximo Sexy vs Hechicero for the CMLL Heavyweight Title - this entire match basically revolved around Maximo Sexy being fat and gay, which sounds offensive and ridiculous and it is, but Maximo Sexy pulls off the gimmick well and by the end of the match I felt like they didn't let his absurd gimmick totally ruin the match. Ultimately, the antics made it more entertaining. WATCH

Night three: 

First three matches are all SKIPPABLE

Okada, Ospreay & Ephesto vs Maximo Sexy, Juice Robinson & Taguchi - Again this match revolved around Maximo Sexy being fat and gay and again it was great. Okada was wearing a cat mask for some reason. Okada and Maximo's interactions as the two major champions of their promotions was interesting and ultimately entertaining. WATCH

Los Ingobernables vs Tanahashi, Atlantis, Kushida, & Finlay - Los Ingobernables continues to be an awesome stable and having their Mexican colleague in breaks up the routine of the group and so makes this pretty unique as far as LIJ centric matches go. WATCH

Mistico vs Euforia - Pretty much what you'd expect from a lucha libre match with all of the crazy high flying moves and a good one at that. The crowd's reactions make the whole show along with the excited Spanish commentary. WATCH

Volador Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero - If there's one match from the whole tour to watch, it would be this one. They did all the crazy lucha libre shit you wanna see and the crowd was super into the match and they're one of those Japanese crowds that is actually cheering like mad instead of being impressed with themselves like Western crowds. MUST WATCH

 
NXT Takeover: San Antonio

I had low expectations for this show since so many NXT stars are gone but it turned out to be better than I expected.

Tye Dillinger vs Eric Young - Young's stable was all over this match which is fine because thats what you want. Tye Dillinger is underrated in my opinion. The ending seemed a bit telegraphed and a little shitty but overall a good match - WATCH

Roderick Strong vs Andrade Almas - Almas sucks in NXT. His work is good but the character just feels impossible to care about. On top of that, Strong seems to be mostly coasting on his reputation from Ring of Honor. Nonetheless, they're both good wrestlers so this was a fine match but ultimately SKIPPABLE

Authors of Pain vs D.I.Y. for the NXT Tag Titles - Authors of Pain are not a very good tag team but they performed really well here in a battle of two big strong dudes versus the two skinny talented indie wrestlers. It was nowhere near as good as the DIY vs Revival matches from last year but it's ridiculous to expect that from them. There's a non-match related spot after this match that was very good. WATCH

Asuka vs Nikki Cross vs Peyton Royce vs Billie Kay for the NXT Women's Title - Asuka is much better than Nikki Cross who is herself miles ahead of Royce and Kay. The women's division is in rough shape since Bayley went to the main roster, but they made do. It wasn't a great match but it had its fair share of Asuka beating the shit out of people which is the best thing going. SKIPPABLE though

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Bobby Roode for NXT Title - awesome unique entrances that made the match feel special and Bobby Roode's character is the best. The match revolved around an angle I won't spoil that was done pretty well and gave the whole thing an air of credibility and urgency that I enjoyed greatly. WATCH

 
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Royal Rumble

A great show that felt big time because it was in the Alamo Dome. Had a few matches that weren't anything special but also a few awesome matches and the Rumble was decent which was a good change from the stinkers of the last few years.

I didn't see the first preshow matches.

Nia Jax vs Sasha Banks - fucking dumb match, Nia Jax sucks and Sasha seems to forget how to wrestle a logical match too often - SKIP

Charlotte vs Bayley for the Raw Women's Championship - This was okay but didn't live up to the standard of the Sasha vs Charlotte matches and definitely not up to the standard of the Becky/Bayley/Charlotte/Sasha NXT matches. SKIPPABLE

Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship - This was a no DQ match so the two of them beat the shit out of each other and did all kinds of out of the ring stuff. Jericho was suspended in a shark cage above the ring to plug some dumb ass toy set but he's great so he made that part entertaining as well. Had some cool angles and a lot of crazy stuff. WATCH

Neville vs Rich Swann for the Cruiserweight Championship - A good match, unfortunately nobody in the crowd gave a shit so it didn't come off well. They're both such excellent technical wrestlers though and Neville is an awesome heel so I say WATCH

AJ Styles vs John Cena for the WWE Championship - awesome awesome match, if you saw these two at summerslam, it was better than that. John Cena is so underappreciated as a wrestler imo and AJ Styles is the best. There's not a lot to say about it considering its a MUST WATCH

Royal Rumble - Started out slow with a lot of wrestlers you knew couldn't win. Once they got into 10-20 though it started to pick up with some great spots. 20-30 it was a lot better with the big stars in the match. The last few minutes were an emotional roller coaster (look up wwe fan reactions to #30 when you're done) and the ending was ultimately satisfying. WATCH

 
New Beginning in Sapporo/Osaka

Two separate shows. Like most New Japan shows the first half of the show is SKIPPABLE but the second half is very good. The English commentary is the debut of Don Callis who is starting out, but the Japanese was very good at least for Osaka because they lose their minds at the appropriate times and enhance the matches.

First three matches are SKIPPABLE.

Yoshi-Hashi vs Iizuka - this match was shit - SKIP

Tanahashi, Elgin, Nakanishi, Taguchi & Dragon Lee vs LIJ - The big tag matches between LIJ and an assortment of faces are always fun especially since the two big matches on the Osaka show are between guys in this match so it set those up well. Fun, but ultimately meaningless. SKIPPABLE

Roppongi Vice vs Taka Michinoku & Taichi for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Championships - Taichi's entrance is stupid as hell and his whole thing is that he has a horny girlfriend who wants to fuck everything, which isn't as entertaining as it sounds, but Roppongi Vice are very good so the match was fine. SKIPPABLE

Hirooki Goto vs Juice Robinson for the NEVER Openweight Championship - Juice played a very good underdog here and so I enjoyed the match a lot, even though Juice is clearly not in the same league as guys like Shibata. These NEVER matches seem to be very physical and so if that's your style then this is a good one to WATCH.

Chaos vs Great Bash Heel vs Archer and Davey Boy Smith JR - Ishii is awesome, as usual. As for the rest of it, it was a chaotic multi-team match and Archer and Smith are pretty good too. Had a lot of double team spots which are fun. WATCH

Minoru Suzuki vs Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title - these guys beat the FUCK out of each other. Suzuki had attacked Okada's knee before the show in some angle so the match was centered around that and it was all done very well. Perhaps a bit too long and a little uncredible at points, but it had high drama without relying too heavily on crazy dangerous shit and was generally excellent. MUST WATCH

As for the Osaka show, I only had time to watch three matches:

Will Ospreay vs Katsuyori Shibata for the British Heavyweight Championship - This was very good, it had a lot of different stuff without being too long. Ospreay is good at the quick mat wrestling and high flying so it had that, and Shibata is great at beating the shit out of people so there was that too. It makes for an easy 15 minute WATCH

Hiromu Takahashi vs Dragon Lee for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship - these guys oughta be dead because they did a ridiculous amount of extremely dangerous shit. MUST WATCH if only to marvel at how they're not dead. It was also very exciting and good and all of that but for gods sake they did everything that wrestlers really shouldn't do

Tetsuya Naito vs Michael Elgin for the IWGP Intercontintental Championship - Another New Japan match that was pretty long but didn't feel it. The crowd was way loud. Elgin is a strongman who can also do a lot of nimble shit and Naito is God as usual. Naito's gimmick is all about being disrespectful and he's very good at it, and Elgin's gimmick is being strong as shit so there were a lot of spots that highlighted both of them. Very good match that was enhanced by the crowd losing it and by the story of how Naito broke Elgin's orbital bone (legit) last year. Not as good as Okada vs Omega from WK11 but still a MUST WATCH

 
Elimination Chamber

There were some shitty matches in this card and it would be fine to just watch the Elimination Chamber match tbh

Mojo Rawley vs Curt Hawkins - neither guy is very good so they kept it simple and it was okay but both guys are dead in the water so its a pointless match and a SKIP

Becky Lynch vs Mickie James - These two are probably the best women wrestlers on the brand so they had a very good match, better than the other two women's matches. WATCH

Apollo Crews & Kalisto vs Dolph Ziggler - this is a case of the booking overtaking the wrestling because all three are good wrestlers but the setup of the match is so unbelievably stupid that there's no way to take any of it seriously so I say SKIP

Tag Title Turmoil match - Had literally every tag team on the roster in it. Each segment was generally too short. Usos vs American Alpha was okay, the rest was either pointless or not good. SKIP

Nikki Bella vs Natalya - the storyline of this feud sucks and so that colored my perception of the match but it wasn't bad and Nikki looked fine. The match had an air of pointlessness to it however so its definitely SKIPPABLE

Randy Orton vs Luke Harper - almost any Randy Orton match is bound to be a good one because he's so good, and Luke Harper is also very good so this turned out to be a good match. After a pretty shitty stretch of matches, the crowd was ready for a good match so they were into this one so go ahead and WATCH

Naomi vs Alexa Bliss for the Smackdown Women's Championship - Naomi fucked up a lot of stuff in the match and that unfortunately took away from it, but Bliss' character is great and Naomi is likable so the match was fine but SKIPPABLE

Elimination Chamber: Wyatt vs Cena vs Styles vs Corbin vs Ambrose vs Miz - This was a great match because all of the participants seemed plausible winners to an extent. There's a new chamber that is smaller but it didn't change the intensity of the match at all. A few spots off the top of the pods as to be expected, some great stuff with Miz' character as a coward, and a really good ending. a MUST WATCH if you're into Smackdown, WATCH otherwise

 
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