Puroresu pick of the week:

The Young Bucks {Matt and Nick Jackson} vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico
from ROH Final Battle (December 19th) 2009 in a Tag Team match

As June comes to a close, this will be the final pick of the week, ending this experimental blog series. Like with Smash Saturdays, I will probably be doing this again occasionally down the lane when I have the free time. I love watching pro-wrestling and this was really fun to do! With that being said, let’s get to my pick for the week! What a better way to end this month’s series with a match from Ring of Honor’s Final Battle event. ROH’s Best in the World PPV will be live in a couple hours from now, so I figured I end this month’s pick with a match from ROH. Even before Bullet Club, The Young Bucks were making themselves known as a top-tier tag team as they go against the best friend duo of Kevin Steen (who was still dealing with an injury at the time) and El Generico at the historic Manhattan Center in New York City. There wasn’t really anything on the line for this match, but the pride of being called the better tag team and get one step closer in contention for the ROH Tag Team Championships.

The tag match itself was simply awesome, and all four had great ring chemistry. The crowd were really behind everyone ESPECIALLY Kevin Steen as he was battling through an injury. Crowd was giving a lot of Mr. Wrestling (his nickname at the time) chants throughout the match in support of Steen’s efforts. His performance was absolutely amazing especially during the finish of the match. Now what really was most notable about this match is what Steen did after the match [full video in link] that really got to the fans and changed both his and El Generico’s careers FOREVER moving forward after this significant event. Notably Steen, as he went on to be a huge main event player for ROH and eventually became world champion. Today, these two are having great success (although it could be better) in WWE as Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. Whether they were fighting as enemies or being the best of friends, these two are one of the best pro-wrestlers that this business has to offer today! That same goes for the Young Bucks in their success as a part of the Bullet Club, and it’s too sweet!

Puroresu pick of the week:

AJ Styles & Kurt Angle vs. Christopher Daniels & Kazarian from TNA Slammiversary X (06/10/12) for the TNA World Tag Team Championship

With IMPACT’s Slammiversary happening a month from now (and the company celebrating 16 years being one of the top promotions in the industry), I feel the need to talk about one of my favorite TNA matches from one of their biggest shows of the year. I was an AJ Styles fan way before his debut in WWE, and the match I will be talking about is even featured in his Top 5 Slammiversary moments on their YouTube channel. After weeks of personal attacks by Daniels & Kaz, AJ Styles decides to team-up with Kurt Angle in hopes to take away their World Tag Team Championships (OF THE WORLD), and challenged them to a tag team match at TNA’s huge 10th Anniversary show in Arlington, Texas.

There’s not really much to say about how awesome this match is (without really spoiling some good spots and trades), but this tag match is definitely a roller coster ride of reversals, submissions and high flying-action! The story leading up to this wasn’t exactly the best (a.k.a. The horrid Claire Lynch storyline), but whenever you put Styles and Daniels in the ring together, it just screams GOOD MATCH. They had storied history together in TNA as friends and enemies, and for the most part had awesome matches. I mean they’re friends in real life, so no wonder why they have good chemistry together. With the addition of Angle’s technical prowess, and Kaz’s dastardly schemes, the match got a whole lot more interesting! It’s funny though that none of these wrestlers are no longer with this company, but it’s great what legacy they left behind in TNA’s history.

Puroresu pick of the week:

Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne from last year’s NXT TakeOver: Chicago (05/20/17) for the WWE United Kingdom Championship

With NXT TakeOver: Chicago happening tomorrow (and the 2nd annual WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament next week), I’d like to talk about last year’s TakeOver in Chicago where Tyler Bate had a big major title defense on live WWE programming. These two fine lads from the U.K. stole the show! 

Today’s pick is actually a rematch that built-up all the way from January 2017 where Tyler Bate won the 1st United Kingdom tournament, and became the Inaugural WWE U.K. Champion. He won that championship AT 19 YEARS OLD, becoming the youngest singles champion in WWE history! He faced Pete Dunne, who he actually beat to become the first ever U.K. champion, in what I like to honestly say the 2017 match of the year. The crowd was crazy (as was I) during most of the match, especially during the times when we all thought someone was going to get the pin. It went a good length, the spots were stiff, the moves were technical, and the storytelling can all be seen with the superb performance they showcased to the Chicago crowd what British strong style wrestling is all about. Jim Ross was even a guest commentator just for this match which even made it more special. This match definitely made me proud to call myself a fan of professional wrestling. So, GO WATCH IT!

Puroresu pick of the week:

Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito from NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome (January 4, 2018) for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship

Today I gotta show some love to NJPW. It’s probably the 2nd biggest promotion in the world behind WWE. It’s very popular in Japan, and it’s making their wrestling known to the world. The title of this weekly blog series is inspired by the Japanese, so I’m very happy to talk about this. Wrestle Kingdom is New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s biggest annual event (like WrestleMania) and has been called the “Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl.” It is held inside the Tokyo Dome, Japan’s most famous stadium venue.

Today’s pick comes from a more recent match (this year in fact) from the main event of this year’s Wrestle Kingdom. I decided to pick this over the Jericho-Omega match since everyone is pretty much talking about that and wanted to give spotlight to pure Japanese wrestlers at heart. Tetsuya Naito won the G1 Climax tournament last year, which gave him the opportunity to get an IWGP Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom. He faced Kazuchika Okada, who currently holds the longest in the heavyweight championship reign in IWGP history, and has had a long-storied history with him in the past. Both go head-to-head in a hard hitting and technically sounded match, in which the crowd was on their feet hoping that Naito would finally end Okada’s 2-year long reign as champion. A really good match to serve as a WK main event. すばらしいです！

Puroresu pick of the week:

Latino Heat Parking Lot Brawl from WWE SmackDown! (September 11, 2003 episode): Eddie Guerrero vs. John Cena

Kicking off my other (1st was Smash Saturdays) new experimental weekly blog series with my puroresu pick of the week where I select/recommend a match every Friday for the rest of this month that I personally enjoyed in the world of pro-wrestling! I do apologize to non-wrestling fans that follow me (which is probably the majority of you lol), but I just love my sports entertainment too much that I just have to share, and maybe some of you can check it out. This type of wrestling is more than just guys “fake” beating the hell out of each other, but mostly around characters, storytelling, and the spectacle of it all.

Anyway my first pick comes from WWE in a SmackDown episode that aired late 2003. It was just a short match that lasted around 10 minutes between two big SD! talents John Cena (O.G. CENA) and Eddie Guerrero who were feuding for the United States Championship. To be honest that the match wasn’t that great, but it was a rare occasion to have a Parking Lot Brawl match type and they have it on a taped show! Both used the cars and their surroundings nicely. That final spot in the finish was really a good way to end it (not spoiling if anyone hasn’t seen this match yet) The other reason why I picked this match was because this is was the match that hooked me to watching wrestling weekly on TV. Back then I just watched WWF PPVs casually with grandpa’s old VHS tapes without really understanding the story. After this match, I followed every one of WWE’s story-lines from both RAW and SmackDown and never looked back since!