Variety Pack Week 2: Reviews of Limitless, wXw, NJPW, AJPW, & More

Welcome to week 2 of Variety Pack. The column that I take one random match a day and give you a quick blurb about it. Last week seemed to be a success and with that, we are onto week two!

DAY ONE: Golden Lovers vs Young Bucks – NJPW Strong Style Evolved (LIVE)
This was a match I had been beyond excited for since announced and was ready to give it ***** off the bat, which in the end is what almost everyone I have read has done. I’m in a pretty large minority here and maybe it was a case of my expectations being too high? The Bucks are easily my favorite tag team going today (and probably the last 4-5 years), Omega and Ibushi are easily in my top 10 singles going today, but this match was not the ***** classic for me that it was for so many. I thought maybe it was the JR & Barnett commentary that took me out of things live, so I watched the following morning with Japanese commentary, but that didn’t change things. I thought the 1st quarter & 2nd half were great, but the 2nd quarter of the match was a big disconnect for whatever reason. Really I think the match would have been better just shaving off the 10 minutes and going about 30. The match is great, no doubt, and the story told throughout was excellent but when it comes to NJ 2018 matches this year, it’s only #5 for me. (****½)

DAY TWO: Ethan Page © vs Michael Elgin in a Two-out-of-Three Falls Match for the AIW Absolute Title from AIW Dead Presidents (2013)
Wow! I was expecting to see something in the good to very good category but this one blew that away. Page won the title after inserting himself in a match with Johnny Gargano vs UltraMantis Black right before this one. Elgin came out and stated that since his planned opponent (Josh Alexander) wasn’t there for their ⅔ falls match, Elgin instead wanted Page for the title. Page would accept and a beautiful 30 minute war ensued. There was brawling around the arena, but mostly this was just incredible in ring action with a hot crowd. I’ve always been a fan of Ethan Page, the person, and now I am happy to have a definitive match in his career to watch as his best. Go check this out on Powerbomb.tv, and the rest of the show isn’t too bad either! (****½)

DAY THREE: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs David Starr vs Travis Banks vs WALTER for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title from wXw We Love Wrestling Tour 2018: London
This match took place last weekend and was Dragunov’s 2nd title defense after his shocking return and title win at the phenomenal wXw 16 Carat Gold Day 2 event against John Klinger and WALTER. If you’re not following wXw than I cannot recommend them strongly enough, they have a great mix of German talent along with some of the best from the UK scene. They are also very English friendly with the majority of their shows having English commentary, which is something they didn’t have 8 years ago when I started watching them. For anyone familiar with these four names, this will live up to what you would want from a 15 minute four way. The sequences of chops, kicks and strikes was beautiful. WALTER wore out all three other men with chops and Ija’s chest really showed it. If you’re checking out this show I would also recommend checking out Bobby Gunns vs TK Cooper in the opener and Aussie Open vs Hunter Brothers. (****¼)

DAY FOUR: Joe Doering (c) vs Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown Title from AJPW Dream Power Series 2018 Day 5
Another show from this past weekend, one that was stacked with puro to be exact. This was the first show streamed on AJPW new streaming service I have only dabbled in AJPW for the past few years, never watching more than 10-15 matches each year. This year I am already at 12 and fully invested on checking out the Grand Carnival in April. Doering really impressed me with his defense vs Zeus (****½) in January and he is someone I can see myself getting behind. This match didn’t create quite the same excitement for me as the formerly mentioned match but was very good. Doering plays the monster in Japan to great excellence everytime I see him and he meets quite the foe here with the ace of All Japan. You won’t get a 30 minute strong style classic here but if you’re about to start in with AJPW than this is a very good place to start. (***¾)

DAY FIVE: Triple H © vs Big Show vs Rock for the WWF Title from WWF Raw 3/20/2000
Here’s something a little different, most of my viewing on Thursday was adding matches from 2000 episodes of Raw that were not in my review archive. I have seen them all and this is one of my favorite years for Raw so this is very enjoyable. The match had been building since the Royal Rumble when Big Show had Rock’s Royal Rumble match win upheld, claiming Rock hit first. Show would win the #1 contendership thanks to Shane McMahon at No Way Out. Rock worked the next few weeks and finally earned it back the previous week on Raw when Mr. McMahon returned. Mr. McMahon said they would be having the WrestleMania 2000 main event early and booked the match, and I’d say I enjoyed it a tad more than what we actually got that year. Show & HHH double teamed Rock to start but then we got a very good three way between the three stars. Once the match was done the fourth McMahon (Linda) appeared and she booked the rematch for WrestleMania, with a fourth man… Mick Foley! One of the most enjoyable things about this match, and other main event Raw matches during this era is how rabid the fans were for the action, and especially the top guys. (***¼)

DAY SIX: Thick Boys vs Workhorsemen from Limitless Only Fools Are Satisfied
I had the pleasure to attend this match live (on Friday), as I have many Limitless shows in the past. For my money this was the best Limitless match that I have witnessed. For those not familiar the teams are made up for Anthony Henry & James Drake for the Workhorsemen, and the Thick Boys are John Silver & Jay Freddie. There was not huge backstory here besides the Workhorsemen being upset that they lost last month to Massage NV. The action was wild and included James Drake hitting a coast to coast dropkick, if you’re not familiar with James Drake go look up his photo right now and picture that. Henry is a guy I’ve been high on for a little over a year now and keeps getting better. Drake is a name that you should plan to hear a lot more from. These four kept the crowd invested through the match and really brought the innovation. This show will eventually hit Powerbomb.tv and I cannot recommend checking it out enough. (****)

DAY SEVEN: Bam Bam Bigelow vs Hak in a Hardcore Match from WCW Spring Stampede 1999
My friend and I were playing a game that has us connecting one match to another, we do this over the course of hanging out at different times and each connection removes something. For this I was connecting Bam Bam Bigelow from a match he had with Vader in NJPW from 1989. I saw before the match that Meltzer had gone ***½ and this had my intrigue level pretty high, especially since Bam’s opponent was Sandman. This was from Sandman’s short run in WCW as Hak and during the time that WCW was trying to have some real hardcore action. These two fought hard for about 12 minutes and broke lots of things. Probably the most memorable spot comes early when Hak dives off the old fashioned carriage in the entry way, onto Bigelow on a table. This a fun late 90s hardcore brawl for sure. (***½)

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