mikeawesomemike Wrestling Comp Vol. 1

Hey y'all! It's been a while, hasn't it? My bad, lost a lot of motivation to write for a bit. But now, I want to write again, so here.

Currently, the incredible Wrestling Playlists is in the middle of their "Season Of Giving." For the uninitiated, a bunch of great wrestling fans online (including Charles, the guy behind the project) curate these playlists and compilations to share with subscribers/readers. I wanted to do one this year, but couldn't get much done before the deadline due to my horrible time management. I felt a bit inspired though, seeing some of the cool concepts and ideas some folks had. Another thing that inspired me was seeing some of the comps produced recently by guidedbyrockets. They've all been great and something that I like about them is that you can tell what kind of fan they are based on what matches are selected. And if I remember correctly, that was part of the goal with the Season of Giving stuff: put something together that would show people what type of wrestling fan you are. Also in general, I just really like taking a peek at older wrestling comps like the DVDVR Yearbooks and such.

So without further ado, these things made me wanna do one of my own. Here it is:

In this post, I'm gonna talk a bit about the matches I included in this, maybe some info on why, and also just how I like these wrestling things. I would highly recommend going into the comp blind, not knowing the contents within it ahead of time, but I can't stop you from doing whatever.

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LSD "Survival" Rongai vs. Ettsu (Japanese University Student Wrestling Match 4/11/2006) - GREAT

I could wax poetic about how amazing "student wrestling" can be. These two guys have seemingly no training and are in front of a handful of people and they put on a great wrestling match in spite of that, in an area that looks to be on their university's campus! Ettsu is a Misawa clone, and I'm not the biggest Misawa fan ever, but it's awesome seeing King's Road bumps brought to this kind of environment. LSD "Survival" Rongai. That's it. I don't even know where to start with this guy. He's insane. Well, both these of guys are, but he is definitely so. It feels like he takes the overwhelming majority of the nastiest moves in this. Even when he's when he's the one delivering them.

After some consecutive crazy spots happen on the outside, the match ends via double count-out. I really liked this finish because Ettsu delivers a disgusting suplex from the apron to the outside floor to prevent Rongai from getting in at the last second. It's all he had left in that moment, so he ends up losing too, but it made it feel all the more like he actually wanted to win the match.

That actually doesn't end up being the true finish though, because Ettsu grabs a microphone and begs for the match to be restarted, as this will be the final time him and Rongai would be able to face off. I don't think a reason is outright given as to why that is, but I assume one (or both) of them was about to graduate and therefore would no longer be at the university. Rongai agrees for the match to be restarted with a three minute time-limit. Honestly, I thought it was a cool moment. It was real, yknow? Can't make that kind of stuff up in "professional" wrestling.

Nothing much happens in the added minutes that's anything crazier than the earlier match, but they still treat it like a sprint and they both are rushing to win. Inevitably, none of them can get that before the time expires. Amaresu rules, watch this.

Masao Orihara vs. Gran Naniwa [Tohuku Jr. Title Tournament] (Michinoku Pro 8/16/2002)

This is just a clip of the finish to this match. I like both of these guys a lot, but it's especially awesome seeing Orihara as this weird little freak that chokes people considering my introduction to him was his stuff during the WAR/NJPW feud. I mean, he was somewhat like that back then too, but this is looks and feels like a completely different guy.

Kana vs. Kagetsu [Best Two Out Of Three Falls] (OSAKA Joshi-Pro DAIJO 1st Anniversary 3/21/2011) - FUN

This is a bit clipped but still watchable enough that I feel I can review this.

One of the few Kagetsu/Kana singles matches and if I remember correctly, this one was on YouTube for a bit before being taken down and disappearing for some years. I bought a "Best of DAIJO" DVD and got this with it, mainly because I wanted to see this match. Very glad I did, because this was neat.

Seeing either of these two work a 2/3 falls is really interesting, and they don't do a bad job structuring it either! Kagetsu's still pretty early into his career by this point and we don't see anything that's reminiscent of the Oedo Tai era of his work that would define said career, but he was a damn good wrestler still at this point. Instead, Kana's more of the heel here and of course, she's excellent in that role. You're getting Kana, an Ishikawa trainee near her peak against Kagetsu, a Meiko Satomura trainee who's young at this point and is fighting with a lot of fire in his heart. Like I said, neat for what it is.

Ricky Marvin vs. Virus [Mexican National Lightweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match] (CMLL 12/12/2000) - FUN

Ricky Marvin is one of my favorite wrestlers of all-time and so is Virus. Virus is still very good to this day, and this was a pretty big deal for Marvin at the time. Another two-out-of-three falls match, but this is lucha libre. Even for these two smaller guys, they make the match feel like a big deal and you can tell how important it is to them.

This was one of the first matches I looked for when I was introduced to Ricky Marvin, and so it has a special place in my heart.

Kazunari Murakami vs. Lee Young Gun [No Rules Match] (UFO TAKE OFF 10/24/1998) - GOOD

As far as I know, this is Murakami's pro wrestling debut. The story seems to be that he was training at Lee's gym, before things got out of hand after Lee started throwing live rounds at him. Somehow, Lee's the one that's mad at this and he says he's gonna kill Murakami.

Lee throws some sick kicks, like the ones he threw at the gym. It seems like he's got Murakami in trouble for a second. The Heisei Terrorist does what he does though, and within a moment's notice he's able to flip a switch and DESTROY Lee. Huge slam, followed by a disgusting judo throw, ended off with an armbar. In the five seconds he pulls all of that off, we see the Murakami we all know. This guy was always going to be great, huh?

The bell-to-bell for this is like a minute and a half at most, watch this.

Ryuki Ueyama vs. Ryuji Hijikata (AJPW 4/12/2003)

This is a clip of the finish to this match. A while back I did a bit of a deep dive on Ueyama and watched 90% of the matches he did (there were less than 30 of them). I left thinking that he was someone who could've been a bit of a gem but just barely missed the mark a lot of the times with his match output, even if that wasn't always his fault. I do wonder how his career would've panned if he fully committed to pro wrestling early on.

And then Ryuji Hijikata's one of the sickest fuckers ever, love that guy.

Junkyard Dog vs. Kamala (WCCW 10/21/1983) - GOOD

JYD really did ooze of charisma. In fact, he didn't just have charisma, he WAS charisma. I have such a fun time watching him whenever a match of his comes up. I don't mean any disrespect to Kamala either but man, there's never anyone that would come close to moving the crowd the way Junkyard Dog did and it's so clear when you see how they react to him compared to his opponents. He just got it like no other.

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I know this was a bit different than usual, but thank you for reading my thoughts on these matches/this comp today; I hope you enjoyed! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Matches #8

Hey y'all! Back already with more matches to talk about.

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Matt Mako vs. Katsuyori Shibata (Ring of Honor 9/11/2025) - GOOD

This was under ROH's Pure Rules and aired on the 9/18/2025 episode of Honor Club.

Was a big fan of this matchup, I think it ended up being even better than the two Lee Moriarty/Xelhua matches that ROH just ran that I also liked a lot. I've never really connected with Pure Rules like longer-tenured Ring Of Honor fans seem to, so I don't think there's a lot of guys left in the U.S. that I'd want to see in the match type. But Mako is definitely one of them, more than Shibata even.

While they have been getting better at it as of late, AEW has always seemed to struggle with hierarchy in their match structure 90% of the time and I wish they could borrow more from ROH in that regard. This isn't a perfect example of that, but I feel it's really interesting to see how this match goes about showing it. Of course, it's easiest to see that Shibata is outplaying Mako when he forces him to use all 3 of his rope-breaks very early on in the match, before Shibata himself even uses one of his own. Shibata is gonna out-grapple Mako, sounds about right. Mako then has to resort to his striking instead, and Shibata beats him there too. He's just not going to be able to beat him by any traditional/"pure" means but he's gonna keep running into that brick wall, hoping it comes crashing down.

I also love seeing when someone that actually knows what they're doing goes out there and showcases some real jiu-jitsu discipline like Mako does. His transitions are incredible here and it's nice to see Shibata in his most grapple-focused match in years.

Felino, Místico & Volador Jr. vs. Averno, Mephisto & Olímpico (CMLL 6/18/2004) - SKIPPABLE

This was the debut of Místico under the gimmick and was re-released by CMLL last year to celebrate his 20th anniversary. Also, Fray Tormenta comes out to second Místico during his entrance, yes!!

Místico starting off with Olímpico just feels like the right decision. Místico doesn't feel like he's moving as mythically (if that doesn't make sense, just think about Hijo del Santo moves) yet at this point in his career, but Olímpico has always felt like a reliable hand to me. It also creates an opening for rudo trios offense on Felino and Volador Jr. while Místico chills on the outside in that first fall.

Second fall goes pretty similarly, in the sense that Felino and Volador are carrying the load after Místico gets a cool spot in. To be fair, they're sick as hell and I love the both of them. Rudos have some great stooging of course.

Místico/Mephisto and Volador Jr./Averno are great pairings in the third fall. There's a lot of points in the match that just feel like a regular two on two match between the Felino/Volador Jr. and Averno/Mephisto, while Olímpico and Místico do their own thing. They are the opening and closing of the match and while this a perfectly fine debut, there's still a bit of novelty behind seeing those two do their spots in a historically significant moment as the four other guys are having a much more interesting match (albeit, one that could've been better).

They should run this back in 2025 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara but move Felino to the rudo side to replace Olímpico and then put Rey Bucanero on the tecnico side.

Great Muta vs. The Great Kabuki (WAR 5/24/1993) - FUN

I don't really know how great this match could've been (or even ended up being), but I love blood in my wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, call me insane or whatever, I see blood and I like the match. I don't even wish to spoil how gnarly the blood in this match is, but it's basically the one thing I wanted to talk about that I feel like I have to.

Kabuki has blood squirting out of his forehead after just a few minutes. It's one of the sickest visuals I've seen in a match and also one of the most concerning. I don't usually love a lot of Muta/Muto matches because a lot of them fall into a boring, control-heavy formula. This still has some of that but the blood does so much to keep me engaged and the match didn't go too long either. I can't hate this.

Jon Cortez vs. Steve Grey (World of Sport 7/27/1981) - GOOD

Usually am put off by a lot of the WoS stuff I've seen but this was the first time watching a match from there that was a recommendation, so I wanted to give it a fair chance. A lot of the other stuff I've seen has too much "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" grappling that's without much struggle and it makes it really hard for me to get into it, but I tried going into this with the mindset that not all wrestling is going to fall into the mold of a match that I love and that's alright!

Funny enough though, there was actually a lot of great struggling in this! The earlier rounds made me feel like I was watching a match from decades before this took place, which is great. I love when there's a focus on a hold as "simple" as a headlock. The suspense builds perfectly to when the first forearm strike gets thrown later on.

I even like the simplicity of the finish and didn't feel necessarily let down by it or anything. I liked both of these guys, but I think I'm gonna seek out more Steve Grey for sure.

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Thank you for reading my thoughts on these matches today; I hope you enjoyed! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

More Matches? Yes. (Fujiwara, Sangre Chicana, and an Instant Classic)

Hey y'all! It's been a little bit longer since the last post, I know. Things have been slightly hectic lately and so some of the stuff I've been working on had to take some small delays. Fortunately though, I did want to get out a post today because I need to scratch that writing itch somehow.

The biggest reason I couldn't write much earlier in the week is because I haven't really been watching much lately. The past couple weeks have mostly been recent CMLL stuff that I've really loved, but didn't have anything to say about it other than "I recommend these matches." Two of these matches were watched only because they were suggestions from friends (as part of a mini wrestling "book club", if that makes sense).

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF 9/7/1984) - EPIC

In response to a Matt D tweet a few weeks back that was about how a spot from a Mike Bailey vs. Kazuchika Okada match felt sport-like as opposed to feeling "real", I asked if there was anything in wrestling that could do both: make things feel real but also feel like a competition. Most of the responses were answers of shoot-style and to be fair, it makes sense. 

I thought about that a lot throughout this matchup largely because of how I already perceive Fujiwara. He's not a wrestler that seems to care for the competitive nature of shoot-style, but does a hell of a job at making what he does feel real. Rather than it feel like he just wants to out-wrestle his opponent, I almost am horrified (in the best way) at how he would instead prefer to crush whoever stands across from him.

I know it's too easy to say this (especially when it comes to shoot-style stuff), but the match truly does feel like a fight instead of a wrestling match. And I love that. Fujiwara spends the early portions of the match trying to murder Sayama and I wince at how brutal that offense looks. When Sayama gets the upper hand, he does the same and it's even more disgusting. It goes beyond the "beat the hell out of each other" scale and enters the "are they shooting???" territory in my mind.

Something that will occur throughout these matches today is my praise for the selling. Super Tiger does a great job at getting his ass beat and making you feel bad for him but the star of this show is Fujiwara by far. What sticks out is the selling of his exhaustion. For a feeling that is so common and one that the audience can relate to, I don't think there's many wrestlers ever that have sold it great. Fujiwara is on that very short list of those who can though. As I'm watching him lay there after getting destroyed by Tiger's kicks and knee drops, I start to feel like I just went through a war myself.

For someone like Fujiwara who has kind of always been an evil bastard wrestler in my eyes, I do feel sorry for him while Sayama is laying it in on him (even after Fujiwara was being just as evil to him earlier in the match!). If that's not a testament to how strong his selling is here, I don't know what is. To me, that's what selling is for.

MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (EMLL 50th Anniversario 9/23/1983) - EPIC

I've tried to deep-dive Sangre Chicana before but just have never gotten around to doing so, which makes me all the more glad I got to watch this recently. Both him and MS-1 are names that I've heard have some of the bloodiest brawls in all of lucha history and if there's anything I love most in wrestling, it's two awesome punchy guys making each other bleed throughout any venue.

It's a 2/3 falls hair vs hair match, and most of the first fall is spent with MS-1 keeping Chicana outside the ring after catching him off guard during his entrance. An interesting note-to-self is that throughout this ordeal, MS-1 looks scared. His body language makes him seem anxious. Almost as if he attacked Chicana before the bell because he knows he wouldn't stand a chance otherwise.

Once again, this is another match that serves as a masterclass in selling fatigue and exhaustion. Sangre Chicana showcases fantastic selling but also some of the best striking I've ever seen in wrestling. Every single punch is exaggerated just enough that all of them mean something without going too overboard that it would become cartoonish.

And they don't call him SANGRE Chicana for nothing; he bleeds buckets in this one. The visual of the bleeding itself looks awesome but what follows is even better. Throughout the course of the match, it feels like Chicana is getting stronger in real-time as soon as he starts to see his own blood. It's astoundingly easy to get behind him during this, really leaving me with wanting to watch more of his work. Only the best of the best can flip a switch and get everyone behind their big comeback solely through their bleeding (and punching).

Excellent match; maybe one of the greatest ever?

Sareee vs. Ranna Yagami (Stardom 6/8/2025) - GREAT

Let me be clear, I do love Ranna Yagami and she's someone that I do always want to cheer for. But I understand that Stardom is behind when it comes to their trainee quality compared to the rest of joshi promotions. Marvelous has Senka Akatsuki and Sora Ayame, Pro-Wrestling Evolution has ZONES and Chi Chi, Marigold has Seri Yamaoka and the recently debuting Shinno showed so much in her debut match against Mai Sakurai. While I don't think Stardom produces bad talent, their current, more lenient approach has certainly led to some of their rookies being lapped by those coming out of some of the more traditional dojos.

Sareee seems to agree too. In an interview with Tokyo Sports prior to this match, she was quoted as saying, "“Stardom wrestlers overwhelmingly lack the fighting spirit that is an important part of joshi puroresu. I have no choice but to train Ranna Yagami thoroughly in the 6/8 Korakuen show!" [credit to Shigeo on twitter for translating this quote]

Even though the interview is in-character, I think there's some truth to what she's saying. In fact, the part that sticks out the most is that she says she will "train Ranna Yagami" in their match. Sareee truly does care about the joshi scene and is not saying these things just to chastise the talent coming up in Stardom. She's trying to prove a point and push these rookies to be stronger and get further.

The best compliment I can give a match like this is that it was very reminiscent of an 80s AJPW match with the same dynamics: fiery young boy getting killed by much more experienced, grumpier old man. The match quite literally starts exactly how I'd want something like that to start, with Ranna instantly getting on the offense before Sareee could even finish making her entrance.

And going back to that point I said about Sareee wanting the best for these rookies and wanting to further them, my favorite part of this match comes pretty early on. After Ranna catches her off guard in the beginning, she continues to get some offense in on the outside. Right when she lands a couple of forearm strikes, you see the biggest smile grow on Sareee's face to the extent where she can't even hide it. She looks like a proud mom because she knows very well what she has done. She unlocked something in Ranna and pushed her. That might be my favorite wrestling moment this year.

While this match continues to be even better from there, that's the stuff I wanted to talk about for today. If you want a more in-depth look at this match, I highly suggest checking out my friend Zeph's blog when they publish their own thoughts about it!

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Thank you for listening to my thoughts on some random matches today; I hope you enjoyed reading! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Just Some Matches #3 (Sheik, Singh, and Micros, oh my!)

Another day, another blog post! I have been having so much fun writing these lately, working on these everyday and watching/writing more about wrestling. Thank you to anyone that reads these or even just takes a look at the site, truly. Time for some more matches though!

The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh [Cage Match] (Canadian Big Time Wrestling ?/?/1975) - FUN

This match was for Sheik's United States Championship and I only found out about this match's existance because I saw that Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling had uploaded this as a part of this show's unaired pilot produced by Dave McKigney, but the footage itself has been on YouTube since 2018 I believe.

I also have historically not been a fan of cage matches that utilize a "escape the cage" stipulation to win the match, especially when you can do so through the cage door. This match's finish definitely makes it work though, but we'll get to that later.

Sheik is so good man, one of the best. My biggest takeaway from the match was how damn good his punching is. Tiger Jeet Singh has some awkward punches himself for the most part, but then lays in some really nice ones to the body near the end.

Going back to that "escape the cage through the door" point, they do some teasing in this one with a lot of the exchanges actually being them grabbing each other whenever one of them makes a run for the door. At one point, Singh takes a punch that knocks him back closer to the door, so he tries to escape then but gets stopped by Sheik. I remember thinking "that's neat" in the moment, and then they revisit that for the finish! This time though, it's Sheik who gets knocked back and flails his body onto the floor outside the cage. Creative finish that really makes you feel like Sheik robbed Tiger of the win, but also points out the hypocrisy of the fans because they would've loved for Tiger to steal that win in that earlier moment. 

There's not much else to really talk about for this one. Cool match, nice heat, Sheik is amazing, and Tiger Jeet Singh is awesome (and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Chamuel, KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas vs. Duende Blanco, KeMonito & Mije - GREAT

From this Tuesday's Arena Coliseo Guadalajara show. I was watching primarily for the main event (which I still might talk about at some point in a future post), but was so blown away by this match that I felt like I needed to write about it.

The micros tore the house down at a GDL show that had some pretty big names like Atlantis, Blue Panther, Máscara Dorada, etc. For a part of the roster that I mostly saw as being there to get some laughs and pop the children in the crowd, they blew my mind. I didn't even know how this would go, as I usually associate the micros with the openers that only go one fall, not a 2/3 falls match that's in the middle of the show.

First things first, Chamuel is amazing here. I know to the casual viewer (which one could argue I am myself), KeMalito is the heat magnet for the rudo team, and it's not wrong to say that. But Chamuel takes that heat and is able to stretch it like a rubber band as far as he can without dragging it. There's one moment in particular in which he stops wrestling, leaves the ring, and just stands on the ramp as he takes in all the crowd's boos. Once he takes the initiative, KeMalito and Sacaryas are able to absorb some of that reaction so they can get some of that heat too.

On the opposite end of Chamuel's heel work, you get Duende Blanco and Mije, who do some awesome moves and brings exciting action to the match. Yeah, KeMonito is of course gonna be the center of attention for most people, but those two specifically take such a beating from the rudos. The second fall ended with Mije being late to save his partners and he has to drag KeMonito back to the corner for the next fall, but gets attacked by Sacaryas and KeMalito while doing so. This made me feel genuinely sorry for Mije and them. Good shit.

I am not sure how someone could see the crowd erupting for the first and third falls and feel like both sides didn't do their jobs perfectly here. Speaking of which, I thought this was a very well paced match all things considered. First fall feels goes by very quickly after the opening segments, the second fall sees the rudos getting some good teamwork going on to get some 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 action, and the third fall has our heroes pulling out their big spots. They get their shine, comebacks, and then the win. I did feel that the final fall did get a bit too start-stop at points but it wasn't major enough to ruin anything for me.

Really, really good match, cannot recommend this one enough.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches (Intro! Akarangers & The Little Things That I Love)

So, this is the first post to be published by me on here! I'll use this as a mini introduction to myself, although if you've made it here, you very likely already know a bit about me. After we get past that, I'll get to a couple random match reviews!

I'm Mike, although the alias that the person reading this is probably most familiar with is "mikeawesomemike" or some variation of that name. Started watching wrestling in the later 2000s when I was younger. This mostly came in the form of WWE, but sometimes my oldest brother would be watching TNA, so I'd take a peek at the shows when he did. I don't know exactly what made me stop watching, but I know I stopped a little bit after the Rusev v. Cena feud (which I remember liking at the time) ended. I would then start watching again around WWE Clash of Champions 2020 (I distinctly remember that being near the beginning of the Roman Tribal Chief stuff), but that didn't have to do with the return of my fandom. Around that time, a friend that was into wrestling had told me to watch Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's G1 Climax match that had happened in New Japan, because it was their favorite match ever. I had never heard of Ibushi before, and Omega was someone that I knew of loosely because of the formation of AEW being so huge. 

And so I watched the match, and it was unlike anything I'd really seen before. I was fascinated by not only that match, but the entire world of wrestling I had been missing out on outside of the WWE. And so, I began to watch more and more puro, which became more and more lucha, and then a little bit of everything else around the world. So by now, I feel I've been watching wrestling for a long portion of my life. Not as long as some of the fans that I'm inspired by (such as SegundaCaida, reverseviperhold, and Matt D, who's influences will hopefully be very prevalent on this blog) but I want to get there eventually.

"Introduction" aside, I feel it's only right to get to some match reviewing! These matches are somewhat randomly chosen, but I also felt that my thoughts on them might give some more insight on how I think about pro wrestling and the kind of stuff that I like and dislike.

Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tomohiro Ishii (WEW 9/14/2002) - GREAT

Ah, what a place to start. While I'm sure I've watched matches from here before, I know little to nothing about WEW. If this match is the one thing I'll remember the company for though, then what a way to leave an impression.

Ishii, the most popular name here today, of course, but this was a much less experienced Ishii than the one most know now. I'd personally argue that there's things that I like more about this version of him more than his New Japan era. Firstly, he walks into the ring looking like Dick Togo. This is the second biggest compliment one could receive. Then, it actually feels like he wrestles like Dick Togo. This is the biggest compliment one could receive.

Maybe it's just me being blinded by his look, but it really does feel like Ishii does a good job at filling that chickenshit bastard role against the Akarangers' "pure" babyface energy. I think that also might be me being blinded by my love for Takashi Sasaki and (especially) GENTARO though.

GENTARO is another wrestler that has had very different styles throughout his career. My first introduction to him was his incredible match against Kenichiro Arai for Mutoha. While he is amazing both in that match and this one, they are for completely different reasons. In the Mutoha match, he displays so much struggle through what he goes through himself as well as the pain he inflicts on Arai. (Anyways, enough of that match; that'll be for another time.) Yet GENTARO here, in the best, most cartoonish way possible, makes his entrance late while Takashi Sasaki is getting jumped, proceeds to take a moment to take his glasses off before running towards the ring, just to still get bested on the ramp by Ikuto Hidaka. Fantastic start.

I've said this before, but I don't want my "reviews" to turn into just play-by-plays of what goes down in the match and that is especially the case for this one, because I think you, yes YOU, should go watch this right now.

I actually want to go back though to what I mentioned earlier about Ishii (and by proxy, Ikuto Hidaka) being the chickenshit heels in this one compared Sasaki and GENTARO. Ishii and Hidaka hit hard, to no one's surprise. But what's very noticeable is how GENTARO takes that offense. He is stooging HARD here. Comically BOUNCING around the ring whenever he gets hit. And yet, that's the perfect way to garner sympathy for yourself against guys like these. Despite how "ridiculous" it might seem, it genuinely really makes you feel sorry for him. Despite how different the selling is from the Arai match, it is still the selling that makes you feel in this match!

I know I've spoken about him the least here, but Sasaki is also sick here: He does his great tag spots with GENTARO, has an exciting comeback, and generally is just cool! Not much else to say about him in this match unfortunately, but that doesn't necessarily mean he did bad.

Finally, the match reaches it's conclusion with a DQ finish right when Ishii and Hidaka are about to lose the upper hand to the Akarangers. It hurts, but in the intended way. I'm mad that the match ends there and GENTARO doesn't get a chance to win it himself, but it was also the exact point that the match should've ended at so it didn't overstay it's welcome. Pretty neat match.

Xelhua & Valiente Jr. vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. & El Hijo de Stuka Jr. (CMLL 5/3/2025) - GOOD

Firstly, what a past year Xelhua's had, am I right? Easily the most promising young guy in CMLL in my opinion, has been in a program with the fantastic Guerrero Maya Jr., and is even more exciting with the opportunities he has in Lucha Memes. His ongoing feud with the aforementioned Guerrero Maya Jr. is definetely the biggest thread going into this match, but I feel this match is still able to stand on it's own merits as well.

The little things are what matter most in this match, and Guerrero Maya Jr. shows that the most. From the creative mind that decides to go for an elbow drop to the groin, to the way he performs each specific move, even to his shocked and distraught reactions to seeing the athletic feats of Valiente Jr. right before his eyes, he is shows so much character and personality without going too far and being "over-expressive". It might just seem like regular behavior to most viewers and that's fine! But damn does it mean a lot to me.

I especially enjoyed how quick the first fall changed momentum, with Xelhua only making one mistake that caused Maya Jr. and HD Stuka Jr. to get the opening they needed to claim the fall. Makes the other falls a lot more suspenseful and gives the feeling that any counter could realistically cause the match to end.

The finish fell flat for me, I can't lie. But that isn't to take much away from the rest of the match that was really really good.

Hope whoever got this far enjoyed! I wasn't really sure how to go about most of this originally, but I feel proud of how this came out! Let me know anything I could've done better, what you liked, what you didn't like, and generally any thoughts on my writing or the matches themselves!