1) FREEDOMS/Jun Kasai Produce Blood X’Mas 2020
Minus the skippable opener this show is absolutely amazing!
Fujita vs Susumu was beautiful technical wrestling with some high impact moves thrown in for good measure.
Kamui vs Yamashita was a really fun short title match that really showcased what Yamashita can do
Sasaki & Violento Jack vs The Brahman Brothers was peak wrestling comedy in opinion. I was dying of laughter the entire match including a spot that legitimately brought me to tears.
Ueki & Sakuda vs Kasai & Fukimoto is the match everyone came to see and it did not disappoint at all. Words cannot do this match justice. Please go out of your way to watch it.
Main Event: Sugiura vs Takeda was about as beautiful and violent of a deathmatch as you can get. 2 men fighting back and fourth for the honor of calling themselves the King of FREEDOM champion. As close to a perfect deathmatch as you can get.
Overall grade for this show 9.5/10
2) AJPW Real World Tag League 1998 – Tag 16
First I need to inform you that this show has some darkness behind it. This show features the final match of Giant Baba before his death that none of his coworkers saw coming. So that match may be extremely uncomfortable for some. But there was also some positives on this show too!
Baby Marufuji in a tag team match against baby Kanemaru, The Headhunters doing headhunter things, Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace, a very fun 6 man tag & The Real World Tag League 1998 finals between Vader & Stan Hansen vs Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi
Overall grade for this show 6.5/10
3) TJPW Tokyo Joshi Pro ’21
This show was all over the place. Comedy, bad ass action & a huge title match. No bad matches on this show but one specific match sticks out more than the rest, but we will get to that later.
This show featured the debut of Arisu Endo who went one on one against Suzume in a very good debut match.
Neko & Pom had a tag match against Miyamoto & Yuna Manase who was a surprise for this show as she was originally left off the card. Decent action in this match.
Then the bullrope incident happened. After 20 minutes of setting up 100 Capsules around the ring someone forgot to untie the bullrope so they had to stand in the ring awkwardly while the ref untied it for 5 minutes. But once the bell rung this match was worth the wait. I was crying at how funny this match was. This wasn’t all comedy though there was some brutal bumps in this match taken by both ladies. This match is absolutely worth is.
Up next Aja Kong teamed with Mizuki & Raku to team against Maiumi, Wantanabe & Kakuta. This match was a fun 6 woman tag with Aja Kong doing a bit of comedy which was great to see.
Hikari Noa & Sena Shiori had a very fun tag match against Mei Saint-Michel & Sakisama with a spot that had me audibly yell out holy shit while dying of laughter. Bet tag match of the night.
Then we go to my match of the year so far (yes it’s only 16 days when I’m writing this but it’s still that good) Miyu Yamashita bs Maki Ito. This match was actually amazing. In my honest opinion this is better than anything in America, better than Wrestle Kingdom & better then anything All Japan did. Go out of your way to watch this because it was amazing.
Then we had 2 good but disappointing title matches in a row but don’t take my word for it! Go watch it yourself and hopefully you will have a more positive opinion on them!
Overall grade 7.5/10
4) ICW No Holds Barred Volume 9
Not the best show they have put on but a show that not only had a killer opener and main event, But also built up the future. A lot of new stars came out of this show looking great.
Names like Satu Jinn, Lord Crewe, Alex Ocean Atticus Cogar, Akira & Shane Mercer but none of them can compare to how big of a star making performance Nolan Edwards had against Brandon Kirk.
Other things to look out for on this card is Neil Diamond Cutter continuing his career resurgence by having another amazing match. Reed Bentley & Orin Veidt having an amazing match a day after Orin almost killed himself Storyline development between John Wayne Murdoch & Rickey Shane Page and just some good fucking wrestling.
5) PPW UWFI Rules Contenders Series #3
This show was good from top to bottom but the main reason I put this show on the list is because of the fantastic match between Akira & Yoya. This is the first time I’ve seen Akira in a not deathmatch type situation & the first time ever seeing Yoya. This match ruled so fucking much. I put this on randomly and now I will be tuning in every single week.
Overall Grade 9/10
6) Synergy 1221
Synergy is one of those companies that just do everything right in my opinion. Coming off the highly successful all women’s garden state invitational this was a great show to follow up with not gonna say too much but just make sure you don’t skip the main event.
Overall grade 8/10
7) AJPW New Year Wars 2021 – Tag 1
This kinda was a one match show but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. While the main event is all people are gonna talk about on this show I personally enjoyed Hidaka & Iwamoto vs Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura & Zeus vs Masato Tanaka
The main event of the show was intense as hell though. Violent Giants put their tag team titles and tag team career on the line against the ace of All Japan & Suwama’s next world title challenger Yuma Aoyagi. These 4 had an absolute banger. Highly recommended you at least check out the main event
Overall Grade 7/10
8) AJPW New Year Wars 2021 – Tag 2
This show was the better of the 2. While the main event wasn’t as good as night one the undercard was better and this was just a solid show. 3 title matches 2 good 6 men tags and 2 meh non title tag matches.
The 2 matches to watch on this show is a) The main event between Suwama & Yuma Aoyagi & b) Yoshitatsu vs Jun Kasai.
While Suwama & Yuma but on your usual ALl Japan banger Tatsu & Kasai went on a completely different route. Skewers, brutal ladder shots and unprotected chair shots. All stuff you expect from Kasai but nothing you expect from Yoshitatsu. Absolute banger between those 2.
Overall grade 7.75/10
9) ROH Final Battle 2020
Not gonna lie. I went into this show expecting to hate it and make fun of it. But between the great pre show & main show I can only name 2 things on this show that I hated. Those 2 things being Jay Briscoe vs Shane Taylor and Jonathan Gresham vs Flip Gordon.
Other than that we had a breakout performance from Tony Deppen on possibly his biggest audience yet, Mike Bennett proving that he can have an awesome match when given the chance and motivation. Funny Danhausen things & a solid main event between Rush & Brody King
Overall grade 6/10 (Take Flip off the show and this can easily be an 8/10)
10) BLP Slamilton 2
This is a long show so strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. A lot of comedy in the first match, The best Tom Lawlor entrance of all time, Young lion Ren Narita’s first match outside of New Japan during excursion, The battle of the smiles Kylie Rae vs the future of Indy wrestling Billie Starkz, Solid performances from Erick Stevens, Blake Christian, AJ Gray, Gary Jay, Jake Something, Jake Atlast and a fantastic title match between WARHORSE & Tony Deppen.
This show is also topped off with a 30 minute iron man match between The WorkHorsemen & 2 time IWTV Tag Team of the Year Violence is Forever.
Overall grade 8/10
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