–Blake Christian vs. Michael Oku – Very solid opener, with a good contrast of styles (high flying vs. grappling). Crowd liked both guys. Springboard 450 finish from All Heart, whose win was a surprise since he replaced Rocky Romero. – 3.25-3.5/5
–Bryan Keith/KENTA vs. Tom Lawlor/Christopher Daniels – The Fallen Angel was Lawlor’s mystery tag partner, while KEN FREAKING SHAMROCK was the special guest enforcer! The legend saved the match at the end with a face-off against Lawlor, as the match went on a little too long and felt a little too patterned. – 2.5/5
-Negro Casas vs. Ultimo Dragon – The legends had a great match, despite their age (63 + 56, respectively). And it didn’t hurt to have Chris Jericho open up with a hype video. Dragon sleeper puts Casas away after a very respectable 12-minutes. – 3/5
-Arez/Latigo/Laredo Kid vs. Rey Horus/Galeno Del Mal/Aramis – Def going to go down as one of those forgotten little gems from the 8 million shows in LA this past week. Crazy lucha libre dives and creativity for 11-minutes, plus the MASSIVE “Super Lucha” Galeno def stole the show with his size and agility. – 3.5/5
–TJPW 10-Woman Tag: Hyper Misao/Shoko Nakajima/Yuki Kamafuku/Mizuki/Yuki Aino vs. Raku/Nao Kakuta/Miu Watanabe/Riku Tatsumi/Hikari Noa – This was a super fun — and super helpful — preview of the TJPW show they were having the next day. Comedy, athleticism, personality. – 3.25-3.5/5
-Mike Bailey vs. Shigehiro Irie – This never really lived up to its massive hype, and the ground and pound finish felt flat. Coming off his MVP performance at least year’s Mania Weekend in Dallas and his BOLA 2023 (while Irie won 16 Carat Gold!) win, expectations were (unfairly) SUPER HIGH for Speedball this year. Maybe the workload was too much, as these two only went 10-minutes. – 3.25/5
–United Empire (Jeff Cobb/Aussie Open) vs. Time Machine (Motor City Machine Guns x Time Splitters) – The first of many terrific performances for Aussie Open and the first of 8000 matches this weekend for Cobb, another Mania weekend workhorse. Here, you had the 3 athletic heavies against the 3 super cruisers and the contrast made for a very entertaining match with great crowd buzz. – 3.75+/5
–AAA Mega Title: El Hijo de Vikingo vs. Black Taurus vs. Komander – Barring anything mind-blowing on Night 2 of Mania, this is a serious contender for Match of the Weekend. If Lucha isn’t your cup of tea, then this won’t be either; but, if you love wildly creative spots and extreme speed, this was it. The crowd went absolutely bonkers for this, with a buzz as big as many of the PWG matches that take place at the same venue (Globe Theatre). Dragonrana’s, reverse springboard rana’s, crucifix bombs, crucifix drivers, 630s, rope-walks — it was all here! – 4.5+++/5
Matches = 3.5/5
Entertainment = 3.5/5
Overall = 3.5/5 Modelo Especials
The Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show was really a show memorable for the main event. Other than the 6-man tag that led up to the AAA Mega Title festa, everything else was merely fine to solid. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it’s widely apparent that many of these non-WWE shows have to rely on a lot of foreign talent to get over. That said, I def popped for Shamrock, Ultimo and all the terrific Lucha talent. Speedball not having a blowaway match on the show def hurt the ratings, but hard to fault guys like him or Cobb who worked 3-4 times in one day. As AEW & WWE continue to eat up superb indie talent, I do wonder how “Super” can remain going forward…
-Calder McColl vs Jeff Cobb – As I just mentioned, Cobb & Bailey worked all three of these shows. Just insane! Now you see why Jeff opened this event, while Mike worked the fourth. Cobb won via powerbomb, which is simultaneously awesome and silly.. because a powerbomb likely wouldn’t have finished McColl in a pro wrestling match– but since this is a shoot, well, you know. – 2.75/5
–Erik Hammer vs. Calvin Tankman – I don’t know either guy. This was alright. – 2.25/5
–Marina Shafir vs. Killer Kelly – Shafir is perfect for this. I know her style doesn’t translate to excitement in the squared circle, but maybe she could arrange a ropeless match in AEW sometime. – 3/5
–Kota Ibushi vs. Mike Bailey – The legendary Golden Star of Japan hasn’t wrestled in almost 2-years, and the GCW Collective were in for a one-two treat this weekend from Ibushi. For the 7-minutes given (so Bailey could rush over to the Globe to take part in at least 2 more events on the day), this was superb with a trading of kicks, strikes and submission holds. Maybe the highlight of the match was when Kota apron-German suplexed Bailey from the floor into the ring. Just nasty. A Kamigoye defeated Speedball. – 3.5/5
–Bad Dude Tito vs. Yuya Uemura – Tito wins via anklelock. – 3/5
-JR Kratos vs. Harry Smith – Fairly solid big hoss match. – 2.75/5
–Johnny Bloodsport vs. Royce Isaacs – My dude Royce shoulda won! This was a great Bloodsport match with Johnny Zillion names showcasing some great mat work with the West Coast Wrecking Crew member. Isaacs tossed the self-proclaimed Bloodsport around with some devastating suplexes early on, with some hard knees in between. Johnny kept going for the arm before getting piledriven to oblivion. This should have been the finish, but after escaping a dragon sleeper, Johnny won via guillotine. – 3.25/5
–Jon Moxley vs. Alex Coughlin – Mox did a great job putting over Alex and his strength during the match, making it look like a struggle against his much lesser known opponent and some frustration set in. This one had some power moves and great striking, before Mox got the bulldog choke on for the win. – 3.5/5
-Josh Barnett vs Timothy Thatcher – This overachieved in terms of excitement, as both wrestlers’ resumes speak for themself. The upset felt massive on FITE TV so I can only imagine how it felt in the Ukrainian Cultural Center that evening. Barnett didn’t need the win, so good on him for putting Tim over– who tends to feel like the world’s toughest loser. – 3.75-4/5
Matches = 3/5
Entertainment = 3.5/5
Overall = 3.25/5
Despite the just “good” score, Bloodsport 9 actually overachieved. On paper, this card definitely felt one of the weakest in its Mania Weekend history — despite Ibushi on the slate for his first match almost 2 years. Barnett’s stars such as Moxley, Morrison, Cobb did a great job with their young and/or up-and-coming opponents and this card also didn’t rely to heavily on nostalgic or ex-MMA acts. It went the pure “bad ass” pro wrestler route and it seemed to pay off. Bloodsport is definitely the type of event that comes off better in person, I can imagine, but unfortunately it ran against WrestleCon. That didn’t stop Bailey or Cobb, but it def forced me to catch the replay today. Good show.
–Pre-show: Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd – 2.5/5
–X-Division Title: Rich Swann vs. Kevin Knight vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Clark Connors vs. Rocky Romero vs. Trey Miguel – All action, everyone “got their shit in” so to speak, with Miguel retaining. Fun opener. – 3/5
-Eddie Edwards/Tom Lawlor/JR Kratos/Joe Hendry vs. PCO/Fred Rosser/Sami Callihan/Alex Coughlin – If you’re a big New Japan fan, but not into Impact, this won’t please you too much; while there were some major Impact fans in the Globe on Thursday night. I didn’t expect to see too many of the like, but they exist! PCO and his undead gimmick was definitely the star here, while both Eddie and Sami seem VERY large since the last time I saw both of them. Covid did neither favors. This had its moments, but wasn’t crazy over. – 2.75/5
-Moose vs. Jeff Cobb – Arguably the third best match on the show, a statement that probably doesn’t excite too many diehard New Japan fans who’re curious about the event. WrestleCon originally promoted this as a New Japan show, which many of us figured it would be the American-based NJPW Strong; instead, it became Multiverse United, bringing both Impact and NJPW Strong together–which boosts NJPW Strong but not your traditional New Japan. That said, Cobb and Moose absolutely gave it their all, an amazement for Cobb seeing how he worked the two other shows I reviewed above. – 3.25–3.5/5
–Deonna Purrazzo vs. Masha Slamovich vs. Gisele Shaw vs. Miyu Yamashita – This show also became a tale of Impact injuries, with Mickie James sitting this one out with hurt ribs for commentary duties. There were some moments, and Masha was terrific. Deonna and the otherwise terrific Miyu never felt they were on the same page, while Gisele was steady. Not bad, not great. – 2.75/5
–Tag Team Titles: TMDK vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Aussie Open vs. Bullet Club (Chris Bey/Ace Austin) – Aussie Open were arguably the non-WWE Tag Team MVP’s of this weekend, and they put on another great display. I’m thrilled for these guys who’ve been around the globe, putting in the work and feel like they’re now finally getting their due. Everyone did their thing here — fun stuff. – 3.25-3.5/5
–KUSHIDA vs. Lio Rush – Rush replaces Impact champion Josh Alexander and the match arguably got all the more exciting for it–but that depends on your taste. I love the contrast here between the submission grappling of KUSHIDA and agile flying of Rush, who can still wrestle and strike with the best of them. My MoTN here. – 3.75/5
–Strong Openweight Title: KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki – I enjoyed this match for what it was, since it felt like the most “New Japan” match on the card. Suzuki played super babyface while KENTA did what he does as a heel. There weren’t a whole lot of wrestling moves or bumps, as the majority saw these two legends exchange a multitude of strikes and submission locks. So long as you’re okay with that, you’ll enjoy this. – 3/5
–Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey – Let’s be real. Will Ospreay’s injury — more than Alexander, James, etc. — crippled the quality of this card. Multiverse United could have wound up a WrestleCon show, where everything is fine leading up to a killer main event. Bailey and Ospreay had potential to be a 5-star match and easily the Match of Mania Weekened. But, sadly, it didn’t happen and you could have a worse replacement that the legend Tanahashi. But this isn’t the same guy from even 3-years ago. Throw in a tired Bailey (who, like Cobb, worked every match I’ve reviewed on this Thursday), and this wound up still really good but nowhere what could’ve happened with Will. And Speedball could’ve used the W here more than Tana!- 3.5/5
Matches = 3/5
Entertainment = 3/5
Overall = 3/5 Santa Monica IPA’s
This show was MID. I feel bad for my fellow wrestling buddies I attend shows with since we had a dilemma: NJPW/Impact or DDT? Well, we KNOW New Japan more than DDT Pro (a product I haven’t followed since the beginning of the pandemic), and none of us three were “Impact fans”, if you will. But it’s New F’n Japan! In the same venue as the WrestleCon Supershow that ended just an hour or so before… Yeah, we wish we did DDT–but we wouldn’t have been saying that had Ospreay not got hurt. While great to see some big names (Tana, Suzuki), this show just wasn’t enough to live up to the brand we all know and love. Multiverse United definitely missed the likes of Zack Sabre, LIJ, Okada and Ospreay. Maybe next time.
-Travis Moody