2015 Mid-Year Round Up: New Japan Pro Wrestling

We've reached the mid-year point in pro wrestling and its certainly been a wild one. Between attempting to keep up with everything going on in America from WWE to Lucha Underground to TNA to ROH to PWG, I've fell completely behind on puroresu. So last month, I began catching up and decided to put it all together in this one article by promotion. I'm starting here with New Japan and I plan to do one of these for Dragon Gate as well.

It's sort of funny that I say I fell behind on NJPW when the first wrestling event I watched this year was Wrestle Kingdom 9. After that, I completely lost track of things so I'm basically gonna go through and cover all the best matches from that point on. Since I've already seen WK9, I will include some matches from that in this because there were two classics on this show that this column wouldn't be complete without mentioning. Although, it will be the same basic review that I wrote in my original piece on that event. So, if you read that, you can go ahead and skim down past those two matches. None the less, let's get into it and take a look at the best NJPW matches of the first half of 2015!

NOTE: These are not in order of quality, I'm reviewing/covering them by date.

1) Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota Ibushi - IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - 1/4/15

TNA Impact Wrestling: Destination X 2015 Review

EC3 starts the show with a "sit in". He's still bitching about wanting a World Title shot which brings out Kurt Angle to cut his sit in extremely short. Angle proceeds to cut an awesome fiery promo. Without a doubt the best I've heard from him in a while although it's nothing out of this world as he basically just tells off EC3 and dares him to make a move on him. With that taken care of, the World Title Match starts the show. HA. I already know where this is going.

1) Kurt Angle vs. Rockstar Spud - TNA World Heavyweight Title Match
As if Dixie spoiling it on Twitter by promoting two Kurt Angle title defenses tonight wasn't enough to squash the interest I had in this match, IT OPENS THE SHOW. I mean, c'mon, atleast have it come on at the half way mark. Any way, this was solid despite me not being able to get into it at all due to the predictability. Angle grounds Spud early only to get rocked by some quick offense soon after. Spud sends Angle out of the ring with a hurricanrana and goes for a crossbody, BUT HE'S CAUGHT! BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR! Angle gets back in control from this moment forward. They end up countering and trading finishers. One or two close falls that I wasn't sold on at all. This wasn't bad. In fact, I was entertained by it. I just couldn't get invested due to the booking. I feel like this wasn't worth taking the title off Spud for, but I'm guessing they "had" to due to not having any other ideas for what to do for this X Divsion themed show. Bring back the X Cup, PLEASE? It's a stretch, but -- you know what, we're way off topic, that's for another time.

Match rating - **1/2

2) Low Ki vs. Manik vs. Crazy Steve - X Division Qualifier

ROH TV Review - June 10th, 2015

The Addiction opens the show with a great promo from backstage before making their way out to the ring. Kazarian informs us that Bobby Fish can't compete due to injury so unless O'Reilly can come out here & fight, the match is off. ReDragon's music hits and KYLE O'REILLY RUSHES THE RING AND STARTS CLEANING HOUSE ON DANIELS & KAZARIAN! This brawl/match goes on for a few minutes and features some good action. Kyle hits a running kick off the apron onto both members of The Addiction and things never really slowed down. Daniels ends up hitting Kyle with the title belt and gets himself & Kaz disqualified. They hit O'Reilly with Celebrity Rehab, their double team manuever, and continue beating him down which leads to MATT SYDAL AND ACH RUNNING DOWN TO MAKE THE SAVE! This was a really fun way to start the show even though the match I was hyped for didn't happen.

1) Dalton Castle vs. Jushin Liger
YES! I first saw Dalton Castle earlier this year during the Top Prospect tournament and he immediately stood out. So much so that I was bummed when he got eliminated. Thankfully, ROH decided to continue using him anyway and we have this one of a kind match up. Sweet antics mixed with great wrestling made for a pretty solid contest. You had comedy, but then you also had crazy stuff like Castle spinning around on the apron and catching Liger in a head scissors and hitting him with a hurricanrana on the floor. The action really picked up near the end as well. Good match!

Match rating - ***

2) Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger

CHIKARA Match Rating Archive / Match Recommendations

I've spent the first half of 2015 going through and watching every CHIKARA "Best of" compilation from 2005-2012 along with a few random matches & shows. I became hooked on their brand of pro wrestling. That leads us here. An archive of all the matches that reached three stars or higher aka the matches you should check out. Just like all my other MRA's, this can/will be updated as I watch more stuff although based on the compilations I've watched, this features most of the best/major matches in CHIKARA history aside from a few random ones. So, enjoy and feel free to tweet me your feedback on my ratings.

2005:
Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, & Arik Cannon vs. Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, & Sabian - Remain In Light - ***1/4
Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, & Arik Cannon vs. Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, & Reckless Youth - Anniversario Orange - ***1/2
Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Arik Cannon, & Gran Akuma vs. Mike Quackenbush, Sabian, Eddie Kingston, & Equinox - Young Lions Cup III Night 3 - ***
Shane Storm vs. Icarus - Young Lions Cup Finals - Young Lions Cup III Night 3 - ***3/4
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Mike Quackenbush - Negative Balance - ***1/2
Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston - Negative Balance - ***1/2
Claudio Castagnoli vs. KUDO - International Invasion Stage 1 - ***1/4
Jigsaw vs. Hallowicked - International Invasion Stage 2 - ***
Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Milano Collection AT & Skayde - International Invasion Stage 2 - ***1/2
Jigsaw vs. Hallowicked - 2/3 Falls Match - Running in the Red - ***3/4
Shane Storm vs. Gran Akuma - Mask vs Mask Match - Running in the Red - ***1/4
CHIKARA: Best of 2005 DVD Review

2006:
Team DDT (KUDO & MIKAMI) vs. Team Kaentai Dojo (MIYAWAKI & Yoshiaki Yago) - TWGP Nt 1 - ***3/4

WWE Monday Night Raw Review - June 8th, 2015

John Cena opens the show which leads to Kevin Owens coming out. This was bittersweet because I got the feeling the show would be downhill from here considering the fact that they've been the only thing worthy of watching on Raw the past two weeks. But hey, I'll take it because this ruled. They have a confrontation about their respective open challenges until they finally agree that the next person to come out will get to choose what title they challenge for and that person is NEVILLE! AW YEAH! I'd be happy with either match up, but thankfully Neville gives a first time match up in WWE as he picks long time opponent Kevin Owens!

1) Kevin Owens (c) vs. Neville - NXT Championship Match
As you can probably guess, I marked out completely for this. Steen vs PAC on Monday Night Raw with John Cena on commentary? UN-BE-LIEVABLE. Neville snaps off some fancy stuff early like a hurricanrana and a huge dive. Owens soon gains control though and beats down Neville with strikes & slams while trash talking him as well as Cena. Neville begins fighting back, nails a big top rope moonsault to the outside. He went so far that he nearly missed Kev. Back in the ring, Owens sends him in the ropes for a pop up powerbomb but NO! NEVILLE HITS A RELEASE GERMAN SUPLEX/THROW! That was awesome! It would get better though as he would somehow deadlift all 272lbs of Kevin Owens with a bridging german that got him a two count. Neville heads up top for the Red Arrow however Owens recovers and nails Neville with the pop up powerbomb for the win. Extremely fun match as you'd expect. They didn't go all out like I kinda thought they would, but it was still a great start to the show.

Match rating - ***1/4

2) Nikki Bella vs. Summer Rae

Month in Review: May 2015 - Kevin Owens' Rise, ROH/NJPW shows, + more

What a month it's been! Four ROH/NJPW joint shows, DDT4, BOSJ, two WWE PPV's, the WWE debut of Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens feuding with John Cena, and that's just for starters! I've been saying we were on the verge of a boom period for nearly a year now and I think this month was the next step towards that as so much stuff happened including ROH announcing a national TV deal on the same network as TNA. The moment it was announced, the internet broke as everyone rejoiced over the news. Wednesday night is officially the new Monday night as now ROH, TNA, Lucha Underground, AND NXT will all be airing on that night. It's certainly an amazing time to be a wrestling fan and I see it only getting better with GFW on the horizon. None the less, this is about the month of May and I don't want to get ahead of myself so let's get started by discussing the true stars of the month.

WWE Star of the Month - Kevin Owens

Honestly, who else could this go to? Kevin Owens had quite possibly one of the biggest months in recent pro wrestling history. The former ROH & PWG World Champion and current NXT Champion debuted on the main roster of WWE by confronting John Cena on Monday Night Raw. This led to Owens dropping Cena on his back with a pop up powerbomb after scolding him for attempting to give him "veteran advice". Followed by this, Owens absolutely destroyed Sami Zayn in an NXT Title defense before coming face to face with the debuting Samoa Joe in a moment that fans will never forget. That's two unforgettable moments in a matter of weeks and Owens was just getting started. He went on to Elimination Chamber and delivered a phenomenal match with John Cena and DEFEATED him cleanly. In this one month, Owens made his stock as well as NXT's stock SKYROCKET. After this, the sky is the limit for Mr Wrestling in WWE. I shudder to think what Owens will do next considering everything he accomplished in the past three weeks. It's going to be a wild ride having him on Raw & Smackdown every week!

Last month's winner: Neville

Independent Wrestler of the Month - Trevor Lee

Lucha Underground Review - June 3rd, 2015

As of this writing, I'm still technically a week behind on LU as I haven't seen the episode with the Fenix/Muertes Death Match. I'm dying to see it however I was unable to catch the replay this week so I decided to keep it current and go forward with my review of this show. It shouldn't do much harm considering they usually alternate storylines each week to keep things fresh. This week we will see Jack Evans in action once again as well as the first ever submission match in Lucha Underground history! Things start off with a match with some last minute high stakes.

1) Jack Evans vs. Argenis
Before this match began, Dario Cueto came out and declared that the winner would get one of the remaining six ancient medallions. Fenix won the first one in an AMAZING seven way match a few weeks back. These two competitors are both longing for a victory so I guess that's why Cueto decided to place the stipulation on this bout. This match surprisingly didn't last extremely long. It was long enough to be super fun to watch though. They began building up Jack Evans as the innovator of the new age Lucha style which was pretty cool. He took control early on with flashy moves while also displaying his signature cockiness. Argenis took advantage of this and caught Evans with a vicious german suplex in the midst of him doing a back handspring. Evans rolls to the outside, recovers, and cuts a backflip off the apron which he turns into a hurricanrana. It looked like Jack would fully regain control as he began running on the apron and went for another hurricanrana, but NO! ARGENIS CATCHES HIM WITH A POWERBOMB INTO THE RAILING! Argenis gets him back in the ring and hits a sick driver variation off the top turnbuckle for a near fall. Then out of nowhere, Evans gets Argenis in a unique pinning combination, bridges back, and keeps him down for the three count. This was alot of fun while it lasted, good opener.

Match rating - **3/4

2) Angelico, Ivelisse, & Son Of Havoc vs. Delavar Davari, Big Ryck, & Cage - Trios Title Match