Now that April matches have been decided, we get two votes this article! April MOTY Pool and the Match of the Week! Did your favorite match make the list?

We’ve all seen the articles about Meltzer going crazy for one match from this week, so let’s see if it wins or if anything else can hold a candle to it!

But first – Match of April Pool!

April MOTY Pool:

• AEW Dynamite: Christian Cage vs Frankie Kazarian
• NXT Stand & Deliver: NXT UK Championship: Walter (c) vs Tommaso Ciampa
• WrestleMania: SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair vs Sasha Banks (c)
• NXT: Cruiserweight Championship: Kushida vs Santos Escobar (c)
• Impact Wrestling Rebellion: X Division Championship: Ace Austin (c) vs TJP vs Josh Alexander
• WWE SmackDown: Universal Championship: Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns (c)

Out of the MOTY Pool, I’m going to vote for, Tommaso Ciampa vs Walter; but this is the most extensive list we’ve had for a monthly pool. Should be interesting to see if anything can surpass the WrestleMania week matches.

Now let’s kick off May!

Quick Top 5:

1. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs Shingo Takagi
   Rating: *****
2. AJPW Champion Carnival Finals: Kento Miyahara vs Jake Lee
   Rating: **** ½
3. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: NEVER Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Jay White
   Rating: **** ¼
4. AJPW Champion Carnival: Shuji Ishikawa vs Suwama
   Rating: ****
5. AEW Blood & Guts: The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle
   Rating: *** ¾

Honorable Mentions:

• NXT: NXT Women’s Tag Titles: Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell vs Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart (c)
  Rating: *** ½
• IMPACT: Moose vs James Storm
  Rating: *** ½
• NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: Iron Fingers from Hell Ladder Match: Tama Tonga vs Taichi
  Rating: *** ½
• AEW Blood and Guts: Cody Rhodes vs QT Marshall
  Rating: *** ¼
• AJPW Champion Carnival: Koji Doi vs Shotaro Ashino
  Rating: *** ¼
• NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: Tanga Loa vs ZSJ
  Rating: *** ¼
• WWE SmackDown: Cesaro vs Seth Rollins
  Rating: ***
• NXT: Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa vs Grizzled Young Veterans
  Rating: ***
• NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & YOH)
  Rating: ***
• AJPW Champion Carnival: Yuma Aoyagi vs Kohei Sato
  Rating: ***
• NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: LIJ (BUSHI, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare & Will Ospreay)
  Rating: ****
• IMPACT: Trey Miguel vs Rohit Raju
  Rating: ***
• WWE Raw: Lashley vs Braun Strowman
  Rating: ***

5. AEW Blood & Guts: The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
MJF pulls as far back as he can, but Jericho still refuses! MJF lets go to STOMP the hand, SLAM it on the steel, and SLAM it again! MJF gets Jericho’s arm and BITES it!! Then, SALT OF THE EARTH! Jericho continues to endure, their teams still brawl inside the ring, but MJF lets go to STOMP Jericho’s arm again! MJF brings out the Dynamite Diamond Ring! DYNAMITE DIAMOND PUNCH!! Fans boo but Jericho being knocked out won’t win this! Hager makes Wardlow endure an Ankle Lock, but MJF gets an idea. MJF sees there’s no guard rails up there, and he grins. MJF stalks Jericho, fans freak out as he drags Jericho over and aims for the edge!

MJF tells Inner Circle to give up or he’s throwing Jericho off!! Hager tries to get at them from below, PNP go from the outside, Sammy says MJF has to stop! Sammy is saying they give up!?!? The Pinnacle wins?!?

Winner: The Pinnacle

4. AJPW Champion Carnival: Shuji Ishikawa vs Suwama

From Mathew’s Coverage:
Shuji would stomp Suwama down once he rolled back into the ring, but Suwama tries to fight back as Shuji catches him in an Anaconda Vice style while slamming him down onto the mat. Shuji turned it into a Cobra Clutch as Suwama is fighting to stay alive and eventually gets his foot on the rope. Shuji ran the ropes to try and Lariat the champ but Suwama would catch him to hit a Flatlinner, saving himself some time to get back some momentum, applying the Sleeper once again. Shuji was struggling in the hold as Suwama turned him around to try and hit the Last Ride but fails to do so when Shuji flips him over. The two slowly get up and start hitting each other back and forth but Shuji would hit multiple forearms as Suwama collapses onto the mat. Shuji tried to lift Suwama but Suwama reverses it into a Suplex! Suwama is making a comeback, delivering double-handed chops to Shuji before tossing him into the ropes to hit a Lariat and covers him but Shuji kicked out. Suwama lifts Shuji for the German Suplex and charges at him for another Lariat, covering him again but Shuji kicked out again! Suwama hits the Backdrop as Shuji kicked out again but Suwama turns in into a Sleeper Hold once more as Shuji looks to be in trouble but he lets go to pin him as Shuji barely kicked out! Suwama is getting annoyed and picks Shuji up, leading to the two exchanging blows again, both men being stiff towards one another until Suwama attempts the Discus Lariat, Shuji ducks it to hit the Dragon Suplex and tops it off with a Tsunami! Shuji delivers multiple knees to Suwama while he was on his knees, struggling to get up until Shuji picked him up for the Fire Thunder and Suwama kicked out at two! Shuji hits a Kamigoye and then a Tsunami, only for Suwama to kick out at two again! Suwama was struggling but Shuji would hit the Giant Slam onto Suwama, pinning him for the victory, and eliminating the Triple Crown Champion!

Rating: Shuji Ishikawa via Giant Slam

3. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: NEVER Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Jay White

From My Results:
Tana and Jay start off with their pose down as Jay continues to insult the aging Ace’s physique. The entire story of this match, was both men breaking each other down and playing with the fact they’ve gotten one another to tap out in the past. The Reverse Figure Four of Jay’s that he calls the TTO (Tana Tapped Out) and the Cloverleaf of Tanahashi’s that he referred to as the JTO (Jay Tapped Out).

Both men went after the legs, which is always amusing to watch Tanahashi go after someone else’s knees. Jay locks in his submissions early, but Tana fights out, Tana hits two High Fly Flows on Jay’s legs causing him to audibly scream. Tana locks in the JTO, but Jay fights off. Sling Blades, Dragon Suplexes, Shutdown Suplexes, Blade Busters and Dragon Screws, all helped to tell the story of how they tried to break one another down.

Gedo feigns getting inside, but Tana cuts him off with a Dragon Screw, Jay scoops the Ace in a Roll-Up but only for 2. Tana gets out of it and tries to get position on Jay for a Dragon Suplex, but Jay keeps struggling to the ropes, stops, pivots and hits a Blade Runner out of nowhere! Jay White is the new champion!

Winner: Jay White via Blade Runner

2. AJPW Champion Carnival Finals: Kento Miyahara vs Jake Lee

From Mathew’s Coverage:
The two are now in the ring as Kento hits the Blackout on the back of his head, Jake flopping down on the mat, Kento tossing him into the ropes as Jake catches him with a beautiful Leg Lariat as they both go down. Jake delivers another knee to Kento’s gut as he tries to fight through the pain but Jake kicks him in the gut to pin him as Kento kicked out at two. The two exchange blows once Kento has a burst of energy as Kento kicked him in the face before running the ropes, getting caught with a Giant Killing as Kento goes down but kicked out again! Jake goes for the D4C as Kento reverses it into a German Suplex, hitting another Blackout. Kento tries to hit the Shutdown German Suplex Hold but Jake reverses to knee his gut again. Jake hits Kento repeatedly in the face and chest with knee strikes until Kento was knocked out, Jake waiting for him to get up as he went for the D4C but Kento reversed it into a Small Package as Jake barely kicked out! Kento finally hits the Shutdown German Suplex Hold onto Jake but Jake would kick out! Kento couldn’t believe it as he tries again, he has it locked in but Jake is struggling till he reaches the ropes with his teeth. Kento quickly pulled him in the center, still having it locked but breaks free, only to get hit with another Blackout! Kento goes for one more as Jake roundhouse kicks him in the head twice, and catches him to hit the D4C as he pins Kento in the ring to win the Champion Carnival!

Winner: Jake via D4C

1. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs Shingo Takagi

From My Results:
Shingo breaks the assault, they trade a little and he finally gets more space after he grabs Ospreay’s foot and just flips him twice in the air, which he did in a previous match of theirs. Takagi and Ospreay have an amusing Table fight, where Shingo’s Sabu style approach of throwing it, wins the tussle. Chekhov’s Gun is established with both tables being set up but not used right away.

Shingo uses them about 8 minutes later as he drives Ospreay through both with Made in Japan/Last Falconry which almost results in a countout victory. As soon as Ospreay slides back in, Made in Japan again, and this time a near fall. The callbacks come back in spades in the match, notably, Shingo learned from the flipping through the Pumping Bomber spot. As Ospreay flips and goes for the Oscutter, Shingo waits and catches him in his own Cutter. Super Oscutter countered with TTR. Shingo even pulls out the Poison Rana again to stop Will from trying another Oscutter.

This becomes a real test of willpower when we get to the point where they just absorb the shot and fire back. Lariats, kicks, Headbutts, great stuff as Shingo slips Stormbreaker, hits the Yukon Lariat, but Ospreay responds with the flying Blackout style Knee Strike. More back and forth, but Chelsea Grin dazes Shingo enough, Ospreay hits a Rainmaker, to set up for the Hidden Blade and then Stormbreaker!

Winner: Ospreay via Stormbreaker

Thoughts:

Now even Meltzer added to the hype of the fourth installment of Shingo versus Ospreay; and I can’t argue that. As much as I really enjoyed seeing Jake HOPEFULLY take his final step towards being crowned champion and Jay White continuing to embarrass Tanahashi and call out the NJPW heroes…I can’t get passed how good Shingo and Will was.

Plus let’s also assess, Blood & Guts was a spectacle, but also a comedy of errors. So many trips, dumb spots, stall spots and the finish was lame. I don’t just mean the cardboard, I mean the entire climb up the cage thing. It wasn’t built well, it was corny and Jericho stalling the climb until they came out of commercial was obvious and laughable. While it was entertaining from a spectacle perspective, it wasn’t anything special and towards the bottom of the many versions of WarGames.

Remember to vote for the match of April and the week!