AJPW 4/2/92 Yokohama, Champion Carnival Block A: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 30:00.
DC: The crowd was firmly behind Mitsuharu Misawa when Jumbo Tsuruta was showing his dominance early on. Misawa had beaten Tsuruta before, so it was completely plausible that it could happen again right here, especially in a tournament in which upsets are bound to happen. After anticipation was strong early on in the match due to the fact that it was a meeting between two big stars, the match quickly started dragging. Tsuruta has never been strong at keeping a singles match intriguing, as he’s best at providing flashes of fired up energy, usually in tag team matches and/or the beginning and ending of singles matches. In Tsuruta’s best matches he tended to benefit a lot from whatever the opponent did to keep things interesting. The problem here was that Misawa didn’t seem very interested at all in keeping the audience awake at all times. These two were fine with people having to endure moments of dullness, but we can’t really blame them too much when we consider this was a 30-minute draw in the middle of a tournament. What they did really well, though, was add seemingly random and unexpected near-fall moments. That truly prevented the match from being a borefest, and it is certainly something they deserve credit for. And what they also did really well was making the match increasingly more intriguing by selling the increasing desperation and the intriguing struggle. All in all, it was a smartly worked match that got the job done. In a way, this was almost the opposite of the 3/31/92 Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue match in that it never felt that Misawa and Tsuruta were interested in merely putting on a good show (as opposed to trying to create the illusion that they were trying to win), as they seemed mainly interested in putting over the idea that they tried to overcome the powerful opposition and go for a pinfall attempt whenever possible. The main story was that it was a grueling match for match, as they were two of the strongest competitors around, and the wear and tear of the match made it more and more difficult for both men to get a clear advantage. It was quite an even match, and all things considered (especially the length), they pretty much had the best match they could possibly have here. The psychology was pretty straightforward, and they focused more on the physical aspects of the match. Especially for Tsuruta standards, the execution was actually really good. They really kept winning over the viewer as the match progressed. This is one of those rare matches that probably actually benefited from its length. Excellent match. ****   

AJPW 4/6/92 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Champion Carnival Block B: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Stan Hansen 17:59.
DC: Their styles meshed together very well, since they both like hard-hitting action. While the stiff offense from both competitors lended to exciting parts of the match, the selling segments were usually not very eventful, as both workers seemed to just treat the selling as a moment to rest, wasting an opportunity to tell a more cohesive story. The match certainly felt disjointed and lacked flow. Toshiaki Kawada’s sense for drama helped the second half of the match, but at the same time, his knack for melodramatic selling kinda hurt the middle portion of the match. Stan Hansen’s selling looked rough, but that kinda fit his unrefined and no-nonsense style. The execution of the moves was good enough, but it was nothing to write home about. It really was the brief spurts of stiffness that made this match interesting. While this was definitely not just an average pro wrestling match, it did feel kinda like just another AJPW match, as it didn’t quite live up to expectations. Hansen’s lariat-out-of-nowhere finisher never gets old, though. Decent match. **¾

7/11/26 AEW National Title: Mark Davis vs. Mike Bailey 14:13
ML: Bailey gave a major effort here as you'd expect, seizing the opportunity to steal the show. He was fired up, and his energy was carrying this fun sprint as much as his exciting offense. They did an entertaining power vs. speed match that didn't overstay its welcome. While no Lleyton Hewitt, Davis is the more passable of the former tennis players because the possibility of doing something with him that actually looks like anyone is actually trying to win exists. Davis held up his end here. He was brutal, and he was able to pull off the counters. Unfortunately, Kyle Fletcher was on commentary ruining the match by endlessly screaming nonsense to the point I had to mute the TV before he punctured my eardrums with his endless "hey! hey! hey! hey! hey!" and "yes! yes! yes!". At least I was safe by the time he started pounding on the table Davis busted Bailey open by piledriving him on. Davis' power came off more impressive in this matchup both because Bailey is undersized and bumps really well. This did a nice job of making the belt seem important. This was better than expected because Davis also gave a high effort and wasn't slowing things to a crawl whenever he went on offense the way Fletcher always does. There were a lot of good near falls here, including Bailey getting a nearfall with a shooting star senton. This may not have been great, but generally, it's what you want from a title match on TV, as it was a reasonable length and they kept it moving and gave you some offense you could get excited about. ***1/4

7/11/26 UFC: Brandon Royval vs. Lone'er Kavanagh R3 3:40
ML: They claimed Royval had three inches in height and 1 inch in reach, but both advantages looked to be considerably greater. Royval being a southpaw also accentuated his reach advantage in a fight where Kavanagh was largely trying to do his damage with his right hand. Kavanagh was the favorite here after his impressive win over Brandon Moreno, partially because Royval is on a 2 fight losing streak, but this wasn't looking like a very good matchup from the outset, as Royval was fighting long and utilizing his jab. He could do anything he wanted, while Kavanagh could really only reach with the kick. Kavanagh wasn't doing a good job at pressuring. When he would come forward, he would stop and let Royval regain his desired range. You know Royval can keep a high pace for the duration, and he can take a hell of a shot and look like nothing happened. This was his typical high quality fight. The opponent always has moments against him, but you have to really make those moments count because he'll recover quickly. The more Royval pushed Kavanagh back, the more this was one way traffic. Royval won the first round easily, but Kavanagh got himself into the fight a minute into the second round when he answered Royval's left with a big right for a knockdown. Kavanagh was posturing up and hammering Royval because Royval was looking for a submission off his back. Royval was able to pressure considerably when he got back up, still seeing fresh and with it, though his takedown failed, and Kavanagh hammered him with an elbow. Royval continued to up his pressure though, and did get a brief takedown late in the 2nd round. They were exchanging wildly at the start of round 3. Royval got off to a good start, but got wobbled with a big hook. Kavanagh definitely had more power to hurt Royval when he hit him solidly, it was just hard for him to be in range to do it. Royval used the right hand to set up the takedown and cut Kavanagh with some big elbows on the ground, causing Kavanagh to give his back. Royval switched from the rear naked choke to the arm triangle back to the rear naked choke before finally securing it for the win. Good match.

7/12/26 Senjo, Sendai Girls World Title: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. VENY 22:54
ML: This was reasonably entertaining from start to finish. It was about what you'd expect from them, for better and worse. Their consistency was the biggest asset. It never really got much better, but they kept it feeling like a serious, sports based presentation. It didn't find it overlong, but I never became invested either. Both execute well, but basically they just took turns doing their stuff at a medium pace. They hit hard. Hashimoto used power moves, while VENY used flying. VENY was credible enough standing up to Hashimoto, but has no particular energy or charisma to get you excited about her comebacks or the prospect of her taking the title. I knew neither title was changing hands, but I was much more into Mike Bailey going for the virtually meaningless AEW National Title against Mark Davis because he brings so much enthusiasm and energy. It was really a reach to take VENY's arm work as something beyond filler, but nothing they did felt like stalling. VENY had a couple answers for Hashimoto's suplexes, but eventually fell prey to the Albright. ***

7/12/26 Senjo Sendai Girls Tag Title: Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase vs. Mio Momono & Yurika Oka 17:05
ML: High energy tag with Iwata bullying her speedy opponents. Iwata still did her thing well within the Bob Bob high speed framework, and stood out here for being different. Mio wasn't in enough, and Oka was getting tedious throwing nothing but dropkick after dropkick. It's still much better seeing Oka throw 10 dropkicks in a row than throwing 1 and spending the time it would take to throw the next 9 preening while the opponent takes a nap, but the repetition made this feel more like the 2nd match on an early 90s AJW show rather than a big tag title match. The main thing this match had going for it is they went all out from start to finish. It was generally quite basic, but the effort was high, so you still cared, and it felt like the belts mattered. Takase was mostly taking because her partner is the beatdown, but her work was good. Everyone contributed, but this certainly wasn't anything new or challenging for them. ***

WCW 2/29/92 Milwaukee, WI MECCA Arena, WCW Light Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman 17:00
DC: Jushin Thunder Liger had been arguably the greatest junior/light heavyweight in the world since 1989. WCW had introduced the WCW Light Heavyweight Title in 1991, and had “Flyin’” Brian Pillman become the inaugural champion on 10/27/91. On 12/25/91, Liger became the title holder by defeating Pillman at a house show. Interestingly enough, at the time of this match, NJPW’s Liger was also the holder of their IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title, but Jim Ross, who was generally quite excellent during this PPV, mistakenly referred to Liger as the former champion. This was Jesse Ventura’s first PPV match as color commentator for WCW, and the first time Ventura had the chance to see Liger in person. Ventura mentioned here that he was impressed with Liger, and that Liger reminded him of the Predator. Liger and Pillman displayed their tremendous athleticism with great execution. This was truly a ground-breaking match, as it introduced a large American audience to great junior heavyweight wrestling of a spectacular level previously only seen in Japan. It wasn’t just the state of the art high flying moves in this high-paced match that made it so great, because the mat wrestling parts of the match were essential to the match as well. This was tremendously enjoyable from start to finish. Thanks to the great selling and timing, the storytelling aspects of the match turned this match into a strong MOTYC for 1992. This match showed that it was possible for great junior heavyweight action to be appreciated in mainstream American wrestling, and thus opened up possibilities for so-called undersized workers who were previously neglected. This was a hot opening match, one of the greatest opening matches ever. It was also arguably the greatest match on American soil since 1952. And the reason this match was even a truly great match for international standards was the fact that there was a great level of intensity and urgency displayed. As pretty as the wrestling was technically, they still managed to also put over the idea that this was a fight. All in all, you could really feel the electricity and excitement in the air while watching this greatness. Outstanding match! *****

6/12/26 ONE Muay Thai: Kyaw Swar Win vs. Salatan Jitmuangnon 3R
ML: If you like offensive minded, high pace toe-toe warfare, this is definitely the match for you. This was almost all close quarters fighting after round 1. It had the most standing elbows landed of any real fight I ever remember seeing. It was kind of like what pro wrestling forearm exchanges would be if they weren't just lazy nonsense, as KSW especially was predominantly using every variation of elbow in his arsenal. No one was waiting for each other here, that's for sure. Kyaw was very aggressive, and relentless with his pace and pressure. He just wanted to be as close as possible where kicks were out of the equation, and elbows were the best weapon. Salatan largely just went along with this, which was was puzzling, especially since his early success was a product of being able to maintain some distance by using the front kick then working the jab and the low kick. He was way too content to try to beat Kyaw at his own game in the last 2 rounds, and that really took away all his weapons that were combating Kyaw's aggression. Salatan had a block that would be good against a normal opponent, but KSW would punch or elbow in between, so waiting and trying to play defense then counter was just taking punishment. Salatan may have won the first round because of his outside work before KSW upped the intensity and aggression considerably at the start of the 2nd with his short range attack. Salatan landed some good body hooks in the second, but I think he was headhunting too much. This was now a really hard fought, take no prisoners phone booth style fight. KSW mixed in some body hooks and middle kicks in the third, and now Salatan was beginning to show fatigue even though he was still firing back. Salatan's left eye was finally busted open in the third from the elbows. KSW was going for the high kick now to finish things off. Somehow KSW's output was actually still increasing (it helped that they were standing right on top of each other so he didn't have to waste time with entries were feints), and Salatan was just answering back with elbows from muscle memory. KSW won a unanimous decision. Very good match.

CMLL 2/14/92 Mexico City Arena Mexico, Hair vs. Hair: Bestia Salvaje vs. Huracan Sevilla 19:13
DC: This was a big “lucha de apuestas” (fight of bets) that saw both men put their hair on the line in a show-saving battle. Both workers showed the desperation required in a hair vs. hair match. Both men had grown their 1987-style mullets reasonably long to maximize the idea that losing this bout would indeed be quite the embarrassment, as neither man looked forward to resembling the Warlord instead of a reputable luchador. Whenever there was a spectacular move, it was clear that it was not to show off or entertain but purely with the intent to take the opponent out. This bout truly was a Latin American sports contest in the sense that it combined athleticism with lots of passionate intensity. It wasn’t just what they did, it was especially how they did things that made this match stand out. Both men did a great job of turning this match into a fascinating drama thanks to their understanding of doing the right things at the right time, which made the intrigue factor optimal from start to finish. Both did a great job putting over the idea that they did whatever it took to not lose this fight. Except for the short second fall, the match never felt predictable. And it really felt like they exceeded expectations and tried to give their very best performance. This was the most intense lucha match of the year ‘92 so far. This was overall even better than the excellent 1/31/92 Ultimo Dragon vs. Blue Panther match due to the tremendous ferocity displayed. While Huracan Sevilla certainly deserves credit for his role here, this was a match that truly saw Bestia Salvaje show what he was capable of, as he carried this in an impressive manner. Great match. ****½

5/1/26 ONE Muay Thai: Julio Lobo vs. Kongklai AnnyMuayThai 3R
ML: This match was much more competitive and exciting than it looked on paper and started out being. Lobo had the length, and he came forward on his own terms. The latter may have been helpful to Kongklai because he was looking to counter, but Lobo could keep Kongklai on his back foot, back him with the front kick or oblique kick then come in behind it, or he could just score from the outside. Kongklai would get into trouble when Lobo backed him into the ropes, partially because Lobo had to leverage in the clinch. The more troubling aspect for Kongklai though was that Lobo could kind of snipe from a range close enough to keep Kongklai on the ropes, but at the same time far enough to be somewhat out of range. As the first round progressed, it looked like the main reason for Lobo to not win this by decision would be for him to score the KO first. Lobo should have been credited with a knockdown where Kongklai was kept up by the ropes after a big punch. Kongklai realized he had to change his strategy after this, and devoted all his energy to pushing forward to create chaos. Defense was basically out the window for the rest of the fight, and both were taking big shots to give them. Lobo's chin was holding up, but he was taking too many clean left hands now, and this was really not the style he needed to be fighting, entertaining as it was. Since the knockdown was missed, you could consider giving Kongklai the second round for how well he did in the second half because Lobo was the one who was stunned now and then by a punch. Lobo was definitely doing a lot more different things, he punched the body, used various kicks and the step knee, and worked in the clinch, but Kongklai had more zip on his power punch, and you could see the momentary impact it was having on Lobo each time Kongklai caught him solidly. Kongklai was pushed down from a left hook when he was already off balance, and was completely dismayed that this was called the knockdown. I guess it made up for the one before, but it was an awful call that was going to secure the decision for Lobo. Lobo hurt him with an overhand right, and was working Kongklai over in the corner, with Kongklai seemingly ready to falter. This time Lobo took his space and drilled him with a few elbows. Kongklai came back wobbling Lobo with a left hook though, and Lobo was on shaky footing from shots that weren't even landing cleanly because he was pretty spent. It felt like Lobo might fall from a clean punch, but then Kongklai landed a good overhand right and Lobo was still somehow able to absorb it. Lobo definitely had far less in the tank, but he wasn't holding on to the finish even though he had this won barring disaster. Nonetheless, Kongklai ran out of time, so Lobo won a unanimous decision. Very good match.

6/28/26 Owen Hart Foundation 2026 Men's Tournament Final: Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland 35:06
ML: All three of their AEW matches have been way too long, and they are trending in the wrong direction length wise, as well as in every other way, going from 27 to 30 minutes now up to a neverending slog of 35 minutes. This was beyond methodical. It was snail's pace throughout, and generally lifeless. If they started fast, but slowed it down incrementally due to the excessive blood loss that sort of grind to the finish would have been a lot more defensible than what they did, which was just make it dumber and more outrageous. Nothing in this match felt spontaneous or organic or logically thought through. Everything was painfully deliberate. This was trying to be super dramatic, but in such an obvious manner that it had the precise opposite effect of feeling totally manufactured and completely unconvincing. There was no connective tissue here. They just did some move that might be a finisher under different circumstances, watched each other do some cringy bad acting, eventually did some other finisher, wash, rinse, repeat. They weren't building anticipation. We were only waiting because they insisted on doing an overlong match, and thus including many excessive moves and 20 minutes of idling around them. Once in awhile they teased a big move, but even the payoff was meaningless, and that was basically the be all and end off what was going on here. They kept trying to achieve these iconic cinematic moments, but it feels like they think the acting was the reason The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was great rather than a director with a great eye who understood which shot to use, how to piece them together, what music to put them to, and how to pace the sequences. This epic melodrama never felt like a fight, or like something so well done that you didn't care. They incorporated every nonsensical trope we've seen from 00's NOAH to 10's NJPW to 20's AEW, as if either trying to rack up 29 stars for including everything that has ever worked at some time without any thought to how it actually fit in the context of their own match that was taking place tonight, or were actively trying to be a parody of everything people hate about wrestling since kayfabe was broken and they stopped trying portray a sporting fight. It wasn't the Z grade homage we get from the bum Kingston, they actually performed all the spots really well because they are great athletes who can maneuever their body however they need to, but in many senses this was the worst of box checking because we've seen from their first AEW match on 6/30/24 that they are capable of doing something that's sometimes awe inspiring, but also holds enough interest in between the highlights to remain worthwhile. Tonight, they did impressive things, eventually, but people were surely falling asleep waiting for it, and they seemed to be amplifying every bad tendency and forcing everything. The style just felt so empty because the match was nothing more or less than doing moves that had no meaning in this context, and then not doing anything at all for ridiculous amounts of time. There were 2 actual sequences, and the rest of the time they just eventually got around to walking over to the opponent and starting to pose them or jumping at them with no setup or deception. There was no real strategy, progression of holds, or good old fashioned beating the opponent when he's down so he can't see what you're eventually going to do coming from a mile away and make you pay for being so nonsensically slow and deliberate. Sure, the moves were always impressive in a sense because not everyone could or would do them properly, but they never seemed do or die the way they do with Darby Allin, and were rarely set up to build any anticipation. There was never a point where the match was really even working within it's own constructs. There's enough highlights that there's surely a good 15-minute match of them killing themselves with dangerous moves here somewhere, especially if they added substance around this outline, but instead it was just buried within the other 20 minutes of standing around staring at each other and making the cringiest faces imaginable. The match never felt like it was going less than half an hour, and never felt like it had any real stakes. Sure, they did dangerous things they wouldn't do on Collision, but from start to finish there was never a moment of urgency, and that just made it feel like no one really cared about winning, even though this was for a shot to main event the biggest show of the year, and if victorious there, leave with the title. It's not hyperbole to say that any UFC Flyweight who wasn't actively looking to grapple would have thrown 25 strikes in the time these two took between each and every move. This could have been a situation where more was more since it was a PPV main event, a tournament final, one of the promotion's biggest matches of the year, but they didn't do any more moves than they might do in a TV sprint, they just did things that were a lot more dangerous, spread them out a whole lot more, with literal air in between instead of creating some sort of context for their insanity. There's absolutely some impressive career shortening stunts, not that we should aspire to that obviously, but especially when they largely feel less important than a good old fashioned babyface dropkick after a hot tag. For the most part, my feelings to spots I should have jumped out of my chair for were just indifference. The best wrestlers can make even boring spots interesting by giving them context, effort, and strategy, why you are doing something can be more important than what you are doing when it's serious and cohesive, but this was neither. These guys made even their great spots mundane. There was just no intensity to this slog, and it always felt like a theatrical performance of the worst sort. In addition to the holds feeling meaningless despite being impressive in and of themselves, both also tried to exceed Hiroshi Hase in the bucket bleeding department. You couldn't help but notice how much especially Strickland was bleeding basically at all times for the rest of the match, but this wasn't any kind of a grudge match, or any sort of a brawl. Sure, blood will always have some effect, but the logic was only that blading will get me an extra star, which did make it consistent with everything else they included. Ospreay bled buckets from getting lifted 2 inches into the exposed steel that attaches the lowest turnbuckle to the ring post. This was about the least impressive spot of the entire match. Swerve's bleeding coming when he stopped the Styles clash on the floor, but Ospreay swung him into the stairs was more convincing. After teasing some moves on the steps, Ospreay succeeded with the Styles clash off the steps onto the table. There wasn't really much flying here like in their first match, it was more fancy high impact moves. Half the match was just Swerve strolling around at a quarter mile an hour though, while Ospreay lay around unresponsive. Sometimes Ospreay countered because Swerve took forever to actually follow up, but realistically no move should work when the wrestler takes a minute to get around to it, and there was no real fire to Ospreay's comebacks to bring the crowd to their feet. The blood loss, and being on the wrong end of the majority of the offense until the excessive lengthy finishing sequence did give Ospreay some excuse for being unable to press his advantage, but Swerve was wrestling like he had a lot of money on a prop bet of being able to win this match while taking less than a thousand steps. Ospreay showed some life when he countered an avalanche powerbomb with a Frankensteiner, threw a couple kicks, and followed with Robinson Special, but this was one of the only examples of anything being even somewhat chained together. Swerve then countered the Oscutter with the deadeye, but it's not really the right setup, so Excalibur tried to cover for them by saying Will was actually going for the Canadian destroyer. Ospreay finally picked it up a little when it got back in the ring after the table spot. He put Swerve down stomach first with a couple of powerful elbows, but when he reverse mounted and started to throw ground elbows, the ref broke it up not to stop the fight, but to give Swerve time to recover from the knockout so he could get concussed a few more times. Swerve couldn't actually beat the 10 count that easily took 30 seconds, but he pushed the ref to stop it, and Ospreay hit the hidden blade so the ref allowed the match to continue since Strickland kicked out. Tony Schiavone described this as "nothing but amazing, stunning competition", but competition is the last word I would think of when it came to this sluggish Kabuki theater. Swerve was leaving a puddle of blood everywhere he went. After a double knockdown spot culminated the second sequence of the match, I was ready for a "please f'n end this" chant. Instead, they stood motionless on opposite ends of the promotion's logo and stared at each other for a minute then took their wraps off and prepared for the final joust like a couple of demented Knights of the Ground Round Table. Eventually, they made their way to opposite corners in what was the very antithesis of Max Holloway vs. Justin Gaethje. Ospreay won the duel with the hidden blade, then hit his stormbreaker, but of course Swerve still kicked out. After Swerve got a few more near falls on Will, the entire Death Riders unit came out to motivate Ospreay. You might think that seeing all these unfriendly faces at ringside would give Swerve some more urgency to actually finish this before they ganged up on him, but you would be wrong. Ospreay Hulked up after a house call, which apparently paralyzed Swerve, as he just stood there until Will finally put him down with another hidden blade. Even a buckshot hidden blade still wasn't enough though. Ospreay then borrowed a couple of Moxley's finishers and finally won with the Tiger driver '91. This was a good match if the standard is simply did you pull off a bunch of dangerous things without dying. There was no tension, and I basically only cared who won before they actually started the match. The match is very polarizing because people thinking it's great make other people say it's terrible, and vice versa, but realistically, most of the problems are with what's passing for wrestling as a whole these days and what's getting big phony propaganistic star ratings in exchange for access. You might have to sub some dangerous moves for some strikes or whatever, but this sort of match isn't really that much different than what a lot of other wrestlers have been doing in the same spot, it just amplifies it all to the nth degree because these are actually two very capable wrestlers doing it. **

6/28/26 AEW: Kenny Omega vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 26:25
ML: Forbidden Door ceased truly being a thing when Tony Khan started signing everyone from the promotions he's supposed to be friends with. At this point, there's more former wrestlers from the rival promotions appearing on the show then ones that have stayed put. The only actual dream match on the PPV was the Best Bout Machine against the best technical wrestler in the world. True, it has been done twice before, but their 3/8/13 4FW was only seen by hundreds, and their 8/1/18 NJPW match was a 15 minute G1 Climax league match. Giving Omega won both of those matches, you would think Zack had to finally win this, except that Tony isn't giving NJPW anything, Takagi & Titan and ZSJ got to lose just so Shota Umino could get a win over PAC, who probably wouldn't have been on the PPV otherwise. The commentary was pushing Kenny's upcoming world title bid, and you know things are bad when the current opponent feels compelled to do the I'm not a stepping stone bit. If you went to your local armory, and you got a match of this quality you would be thrilled, but given to these guys are, it's difficult not to be completely underwhelmed. I don't think you can look at this as just any old match. It's Kenny Omega. It's Zack Sabre Jr. Both have been the best worker in NJPW, as well as their champion. These are very clearly two of the best wrestlers of this century. Their match was largely on autopilot though. It truly felt like there were no stakes because they didn't pounce on their opportunities or try to beat the opponent to literally anything. It was not only lacking intensity, but pretty low energy in general. Both wrestlers did what you've come to expect from them, and not much more. Neither felt particularly dangerous or animated tonight. Their styles are very different, and I don't think they had much chemistry or were pushing themselves that hard to develop their match together. This was definitely closer to the worst match they could have than the best. It's getting by on individual talent a lot more than crafting a memorable match together. They didn't embarrass themselves like IYO SKY laying around and having her seizures against Mayu Iwatani, but it was a lot of the same problem where instead of feeling like a big intense interpromotional match, it was another wannabe epic where they didn't actually work together that much, and it never really caught fire. Kenny & Zack are two of the best active wrestlers at carrying a match, but in this case, perhaps that was to their detriment? They both showed too much respect and deference to each other early, and ultimately, they just kind of did the moves you'd expect from them, but Kenny did most of them, and they didn't put much effort into incorporating them, or playing off one another. This is a style clash at heart, but Zack had to learn how to get past style clashes long ago, given the old Gorilla Monsoon saying that "most of his opponents don't know a wristlock from a wrist watch." We needed more of Zack countering Omega's strikes or power moves into submissions. Zack just didn't really feel that competitive, and we didn't need someone of his caliber to just stand there letting Omega run and jump at him over and over. It was seemingly 2/3 Omega offense even though he was winning, and he just couldn't push the pace like he used to over this amount of time. I think the match would have been much better if Zack pulling him into locks gave him his breaks, and it was a shorter match where Omega had less offense, but he was able to sprint whenever he got free. With what they chose to do, the match was too long because Kenny had so much offense that he didn't bring much energy to. His offense was competently performed, but just seemed kind of flat and lacking explosion or oomph. Zack needed to be more explosive as well in and out of holds, but it's not so much that he was being lethargic as that he just wasn't getting comebacks. Kenny needed bursts when he was running around, but we got very little of this, especially before the last few minutes. This was wrestled much like a big NJPW match from Omega's era. It was kind of methodical, and always felt like it was going to be a long match. Zack slowing things down and controlling would have been the logical and more effective story for this, as this felt slow, but lacked any particular kayfabe reason for giving that feeling. Having Kenny do a running something, and then being no hurry to do the next running something was just diminishing returns. I think the match would have been better with Kenny as the underdog, which would have made sense given he's the older man who was out with potentially career ending surgery while Zack finally won the G1 Climax and the World Title twice, but AEW doesn't care about any of that. What you wound up with was both guys doing their thing, but that's really two different matches. The early portion was supposed to be more exciting with some of Omega's flying and snap Dragon suplexes, leaving the middle portion for the technical wrestling. It was well executed, and compelling enough, but it had a hard time getting out of first gear. Some of what Omega thought was dramatic, for instance the struggle on the top rope with Zack getting the rear naked choke but Omega falling backwards into the ring, was just too leisurely to take seriously. Ultimately, this was definitely more Omega's match than Sabre's because Omega got most of the offense, and they never gave you the feeling that Zack was going to come up with something to win this. The back and forth just wasn't very explosive. Sabre didn't feel dangerous, not because he was mostly on the receiving end, but because he wasn't doing many of his usual counters into submissions or flash pin attempts. The announcers portrayed this as a match that Sabre needed to win with his Zack driver, but matching knockout bombs with Omega has rarely been a successful strategy for anyone, and it also wasn't here, if that's what Zack could be said to have done. ZSJ mostly targeted the arm, but it never felt like this was going to lead anywhere. Overall, this was a good Kenny match where the excitement was missing and Zack was mostly just playing second fiddle. Neither wrestler was off tonight, but I couldn't say that they were on either. Because it was so slow paced and had so much selling, this just wasn't that exciting for the most part. It wasn't until Sabre slipped out of the one-winged angel and had a flash pin attempt and the Zach driver that you felt like they were finally moving to a higher gear for the finishing sequence. The match was much more enjoyable from here, not because they did much better moves, but because they were finally doing them with the speed and energy they deserved. The finishing segment was alive, and if more of the match looked like this, the crowd would have been a lot more enthusiastic throughout. ZSJ countering the one-winged angel with a triangle was good. Omega powerbombed his way out, hit another knee, and finally won with the 3rd one-winged angel attempt. These are wily veterans who still managed to deliver a good match, somewhat in spite of themselves. It didn't feel anything like a dream match between two of the best wrestlers of the past decade plus though to the point it's probably more enjoyable if you come in with no expectations. ***