Top 5: Matches Of The Week Ending 1/14/18

Well the winner of last week is no huge surprise. Many casual fans watched Wrestle Kingdom 12 just because of this match, so the winner should now be obvious, Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega. It was a damn good match, and very deserving of being our first match voted into the January pool for a possible match of the year. This week’s Matches Of The Week?

This week, the easily accessed wrestling wasn’t nearly as high of a level, but it was about where we’d expect it for a week with no large events. So let’s see what we have to choose from this week:

5. Raw: Rollins, Reigns & Jordan vs Balor Club

Where this match lacked in actual wrestling and pacing, it made up for in establishing the character dynamics. We see Jason Jordan doing his best impression of the little brother who’s hanging out with older siblings and thinks he’s suddenly cool. Reigns is the brother that wants nothing to do with the little sibling and Rollins is the one that tries to protect the sibling, while knowing full well that they are an idiot.

As for the match, it was fairly color by numbers for a typical multi-man match. It exposed Jordan’s eagerness to appease his “brothers” and his father, all while kinda forgetting the basics of tag team wrestling. Bull-Bal-Balor Club…yes, no cease and desist please, pick up the win simply by being a team that can work together.

But hey, at least the Shield 4.5 or whatever number we’re at, should be an amusing storyline through the Rumble. Here’s to figuring that Jason Jordan will somehow accidentally screw over/eliminate Reigns or Rollins and cause more tension filled shenanigans.

Ranking: ** 1/2 (Silver III)

4. NXT: NXT Tag Team Championship: Fish & O’Reilly vs Aleister Black & Roderick Strong

Well, this was an unexpected match due to Undisputed Era taking out SanitY before their scheduled match. Black and Strong have legitimate reasons to want a piece of the Undisputed Era, so it kind of naturally came together.

All four participants are technically sound, and it showed in this match. The pacing was a little quick, but crisp, and Fish & O’Reilly showed that being an established team helps fluidity. However, once Black and Strong started to get some momentum, Adam Cole interfered and caused Aleister to chase after him, thus, leaving Roderick Strong high and dry to get pinned after a Total Elimination.

So if the match was able to progress naturally, it would’ve probably been highly rated since it felt like it was building right at the point Cole interfered. Does it work for storyline? Sure. But what’s best for story doesn’t always reflect well for a match, and can sometime hinder it.

Ranking: ** 3/4 (Silver I)

3. Impact: Bobby Lashley & KM vs Eddie Edwards & Moose

This match actually almost mirrored the NXT match storyline wise. American Top Team has tormenting people, got James Storm to have to quit the company, and Moose and Edwards banded together as the faces to stop the turmoil.

Moose is amazing athlete, hard stop. Not many former sports players can transition well to wrestling, but his style is crisp, Japanese crowds enjoy him and he’s one of the best things Impact has going currently. Eddie Edwards is in a similar boat, but he really has no discernible charisma. He can put on a clinic in the ring, but you’ll struggle to care about him.

Aside from putting over the participants, the match was solid. Everyone got in most of their moves, but as soon as it looks like Edwards is going to hit his Boston Knee Party on KM, Dan Lambert grabs his foot to distract him, allowing KM to hit the Egodriver, for the pinfall.

The ending is interesting because it adds to tension within American Top Team, since Lambert gave KM all the credit for forcing James Storm out. Even going as far to say he did things that Lashley couldn’t do. So it’s leaning heavily towards Lashley getting sick of being minimalized and possibly turning on ATT.

Ranking: ** 3/4 (Silver I)

2. Riki Choshu Power Hall Special: Andrew Everett & Jay Bradley vs Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke

Riki Choshu produced an event for the first time in about 3 years. He utilized a lot of top talent in Japan and basically sold out Kourakuen Hall. Harada and Tadasuke are from NOAH, Everett is from Impact and I haven’t seen Jay Bradley since his brief stint in TNA, so maybe he’s been doing the Japanese indies.

Regardless of who I’ve last seen when, for a 10 minute match, this was actually very good. Bradley towers over everyone in this match, so when Harada and Tadasuke bait him into a low bridge, they motion to the crowd and I found it quite amusing. But beyond that we had Everett’s amazing high flying ability on display for most of the match. The match ends with Everett hitting his rather unique looking Shooting Star Press.

The crowd enjoyed the gaijins, and it was a very well put together, back and forth tag team match.

Ranking: *** (Gold V)

1. Riki Choshu Power Hall Special: Naomichi Marufuji & Shingo Takagi vs Masato Tanaka & Masa Kitamiya

This was the first of the double main event, and it was definitely main event material. Marufuji is the genius of NOAH, Takagi is an elite talent in Dragon Gate, Tanaka has been everywhere including ECW and now Zero-1 and Kitamiya…okay he’s the least decorated of everyone, but his power compliment was used to match up nicely with Takagi.

This match was hard hitting, methodical, and paced wonderfully. Shingo (a former bodybuilder) had many strong style spots with Kitamiya, whereas, Marufuji and Tanaka traded strikes and moves they both innovated. Tanaka hits an avalanche variation of his Shotgun Stunner on Marufuji, but the pinfall comes from Marufuji hitting his Shiranui (Sliced Bread) on Kitamiya while Shingo help Tanaka at bay in the ropes.

Post match saw Shingo and Marufuji celebrate and what seemed like Shingo implying that a one on one match would be fun. If that happens, that would be a pretty huge match in the puroresu scene. My yen is on Takagi.

Ranking: *** 3/4 (Gold I)

My vote will actually be easy and follow my rankings this week. In a fairly slow and low quality week, Riki Choshu’s special event was a breath of fresh air. So Marufuji & Takagi vs Tanaka & Kitamiya get my vote. Three of the best wrestlers not in New Japan, in one match, is enough to nearly make me mark out.

Now since I doubt many people have seen it, I don’t expect it to win overall. So this week’s winner will be a surprise to all of us once the votes are tabulated. Until next week!