Another week, another tie that makes things longer than 5. I mean that’s a good problem to have I suppose, but sometimes I’d just like it to be five, ya know.

Last week we had 7 to pick from, and nostalgia mixed with a damn good match helped, Impact Wrestling Emergence: Impact World Tag Team Championship: Motor City Machine Guns vs The North, to win the overall voting. Nice to see Impact gaining a little momentum since Slammiversary.

Now on to the final week for August monthly pool!

Quick Top 5 (6):

• NJPW Summer Struggle: NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs Minoru Suzuki
  Rating: **** 1/4
• WWE Payback: Los Mysterios vs Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy
  Rating: ****
• NJPW Summer Struggle: IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championship: EVIL (c) vs Tetsuya Naito
  Rating: ****
• Impact Emergence: Knockouts Championship Ironman Match: Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purrazzo (c)
  Rating: ****
• NJPW Strong Ep. 4: TJP, ACH, Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors vs Misterioso, Barrett Brown, Adrian Quest & Blake Christian
  Rating: ****
• NJPW Summer Struggle: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi (c)
  Rating: ****

Honorable Mentions:

• NJPW Summer Struggle: KOPW Fatal Four Way: Kazuchika Okada vs SANADA vs Toru Yano vs El Desperado
  Rating: *** 1/2
• WWE Payback: Matt Riddle vs King Corbin
  Rating: *** 1/2
• Impact Emergence: Brian Myers vs Willie Mack
  Rating: *** 1/2
• NXT: NXT Tag Team Championship: Breezango vs Imperium (c)
  Rating: *** 1/2
• Last Buntai at BJW: Strong World Championship: Shigehiro Irie vs Daichi Hashimoto (c)
  Rating: *** 1/4
• WWE Payback: Randy Orton vs Keith Lee
  Rating: *** 1/4
• Impact Emergence: Impact World Championship: Eddie Edwards (c) vs RVD w/Katie Forbes
  Rating: *** 1/4
• NXT: Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar (c) vs Isaiah Scott
  Rating: *** 1/4
• WWE Raw: Raw Women’s Championship: Asuka (c) vs Sasha Banks
  Rating: *** 1/4
• NJPW Summer Struggle: IWGP Heayweight Tag Team Championship: Dangerous Tekkers (ZSJ & Taichi) (c) vs Golden Ace (Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi)
  Rating: *** 1/4
• NXT: Io Shirai & Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai
  Rating: ***

2t. NJPW Summer Struggle: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi (c)

From my Results:
Ishimori came over aiming for the injured shoulder. He took a page out of the former Bullet Club member Robbie Eagles, and became the new Sniper of the sky. Two quick Pump Kicks to the bad shoulder, then Ishimori hit a La Mistica just to add insult AND injury, to the already injured shoulder.

It was from here that we got that heart that Hiromu showed us throughout the New Japan Cup. He kept trying to fight out of submissions and bad spots, with a few of his bigger signature moves. Ishimori had one great counter to the Overhead Release Belly to Belly, where he just jumped through it, landed decently on the ropes, and when Hiromu tried to Powerbomb him, hit the Reverse Frakensteiner.

Hiromu’s hope came from when he caught Ishimori and hit the corner Death Valley Driver, then went right into Time Bomb, but Ishimori kicked out. So this just meant he’d pull out Time Bomb #2, which we saw him invent against Ishii. Ishimori countered, hit the Bloody Cross…and then did the smart evil heel thing. He locked in the Yes Lock, just to torture the injured shoulder more. Hiromu almost gets to the ropes, and then Ishimori rolls back to the center, applying a Garga-NO Escape. Hiromu submits and Ishimori gets his second reign as Junior champ!

Winner: Ishimori via Overhead Single Chicken Wing Crossface

2t. NJPW Strong Ep. 4: TJP, ACH, Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors vs Misterioso, Barrett Brown, Adrian Quest & Blake Christian

From My Results:
Each man got in great offense, great spots, and Barrett Brown took a beating. Commentary added the context that Misterioso will be having a singles match with Karl during Fighting Spirit Unleashed, so this is the New Japan style multi-man building block match. Karl is also dealing with the fact that he’s on a bit of a losing streak after “graduating” from Young Lion.

ACH had some great smooth transitions, TJP applied a nice technical Junior style to the match, and the opponents kept up. Blake Christian is the least impressive looking man in this match, but everything he did was butter. From the bottom rope Tiger Feint to the Springboard 630 into a mass of humanity. This was a lot of fun, fast paced, with everyone looking really good. Clark had some nice spots to show his power and intensity, but he is technically still a Young Lion, so the New Japan trope continues!

Young Lion eats the pin, but it helps to build up Misterioso and keep Karl having something to overcome, without suffering the pinfall. Great great stuff!

Winner: Misterioso via Backstabber

2t. Impact Emergence: Knockouts Championship Ironman Match: Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purrazzo (c)

From My Results:
We get a well-paced slugfest. Both women do a good job at find spots to pick up the intensity to create hope spots and pushes for a first fall. Deonna starts working on the arms, to set up for her Fujiwara, and newly revealed name for the double Fujiwara that she calls the Venus de Milo. Jordynne however takes an interesting approach. She starts out by wrestling with Deonna, the “best technical female wrestler”, and frustrates Deonna for a while.

The interesting aspect here was that Jordynne seemed to be trying to prove something to Deonna. Jordynne focused more on wrestling and submissions, less on her power advantage. The first fall comes from Jordynne and the Rear Naked Choke she pulled out a few weeks ago. This leads to interesting angles in the match.

With only about five minutes left, Deonna is down 1-0. Deonna then drags the referee in the way of a splash, which sets up Deonna getting hit by the Grace Driver, but there’s no one to count. Deonna then recovers, gets her belt, hits Jordynne with it when she isn’t paying attention, and gets her pinfall to tie up the match.

Looking at only about 3 minutes to go, Deonna starts scrambling and searching for the arm. Jordynne counters a few attempts with pinfalls but as they show us the final fifteen seconds on the clock, Deonna hooks in the Venus de Milo and Jordynne submits with about four seconds left in the match.

Winner: Purrazzo 2-1

2t. NJPW Summer Struggle: IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championship: EVIL (c) vs Tetsuya Naito

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Evil and Naito slowly rise, and Naito dodges Evil to enziguri! Naito whips, Evil reverses but Naito hits leaping forearms! Naito aims from a corner, runs, tilt-o-whirl, DESTINO!! Cover, TWO!! Evil survives but Naito still isn’t done. Naito drags Evil up, wrenches, tilt-o-whirl but no Destino as Evil grabs Red Shoes! Evil mule kick LOW BLOWS Naito!! Evil runs, and LARIATS Naito!! Cover, TWO!!! Naito survives and Evil is furious! Evil seethes while the fans rally up again. Evil hobbles and wobbles but he slashes the throat. Evil drags Naito up, spins him around, but Naito elbows out of Everything. Evil still tries, Naito spins him, reels him in, escapes and flips over, but Evil falls so whatever Naito wanted, it was more like a sloppy DDT!

Both men slowly rise, Naito basement enziguris! Naito fires himself up, drags Evil back to his feet, but blocks the low blow! Red Shoes reprimands, Naito elbows and SLAPS! Scoop, VALENTIA! Naito drags Evil back up, tilt-o-whirl, DESTINO!! Cover, Naito wins!!

Winner: Naito via Destino

2t. WWE Payback: Los Mysterios vs Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy

From Adam’s Review:
Dominik coming out like a house of fire, taking it to Murphy and Rollins early out of pure frustration. Amazing back and forth, amazing high flying wrestling, amazing technical wrestling with counters from everyone and being one step ahead on both sides of the teams. Some of the counters including both Murphy and Rollins catching a crossbody and doing the Falcon arrow, Rey going to the top and getting two knees to the gut from Seth but in the end with the last counter, a little malfunction at the junction between Rollins and Murphy in the Buckle Bomb and Enziguri combo sending Rollins into the kick instead of Rey. Rey tagging in Dominik, taking out Rollins with a sliding suicide dive through the bottom rope and Murphy taking the 619 from Dominik along with a nice Frog Splash to get his first win as a WWE Superstar.

Winner: Mysterios via Frog Splash

1. NJPW Summer Struggle: NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs Minoru Suzuki

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Suzuki dares Shingo to rise, SLAPS Shingo from all sides over and over with fast palm strikes, then keeps Shingo standing to keep going! But Shingo JABS and HEADBUTTS outta nowhere! Shingo runs, Suzuki follows and gets around, only for Shingo to still torture rack! Suzuki fights out, gets a sleeper hold on, then spins Shingo. Shingo spins through to LARIAT! Suzuki stays up, Shingo LARIATS again! Suzuki powers up to stay up but Shingo LARIATS him again! Shingo runs, into a dropkick! Both men are down and the fans are fired up again! Suzuki rises as fans rally, but Shingo gets head to head with him. They headbutt on the mat, throw forearms back and forth, then Shingo keeps Suzuki up to ROCK him again!

Suzuki ROCKS Shingo back, eggs Shingo on, and Shingo ROCKS him back! Suzuki smiles again as he ROCKS Shingo with another forearm. Suzuki eggs Shingo on, Shingo ROCKS him back! Both men are on wobbly legs but Suzuki ROCKS Shingo again. Shingo ROCKS Suzuki back. Suzuki bluntly headbutts Shingo! Shingo drops to a knee, Suzuki scowls but Shingo headbutts back! They go back to forearms back and forth, fans rally up, and Suzuki just keeps hitting Shingo! Shingo hits back but Suzuki ROCKS him again. And again! Suzuki just CLOBBERS Shingo with that forearm! Sleeper hold!! Shingo flails, fades, fans rally up but Suzuki spins Shingo around! Shingo gives a nod to his late mentors as he Gotch lifts for the PILEDRIVER!! Cover, Suzuki wins!!

Winner: Suzuki via Gotch Style Piledriver

Thoughts:

A whole lot of New Japan, but Impact and WWE did manage to sneak in some stuff. Again, I didn’t catch AEW because of scheduling, so this isn’t devoid of AEW because of a bad show, just more a busy schedule.

With that said, I doubt much could touch Shingo vs Suzuki this week, so I don’t think my choice would change at all. It was also nice to see that Seth continues his pattern of following up a lackluster match with something that was actually really damn good. Either way, given the fact two thirds of the list is NJPW, I expect one of them to win.

Should make for an interesting August pool!