Chronicles of NewJackia

I had a lot of partially watched shows needing completed on various streamers and felt like dusting off the old notebook. So, here’s some scores on partial shows which I’ve capriciously titled after my love of Chronicles of Narnia and New Jack (RIP).

WWE Monday Night RAW #1652 1/20/25

4) Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai & IYO SKY) vs. Pure Fusion Collective (Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark) (w/Sonya Deville) — ✰½
5) Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre — ✰ ✰ ✰

Kai and Baszler started with some of the lousiest in-ring I’ve seen in ages. Just working at half-speed unsure of basic rope running sequences etc. and not on same page whatsoever. Stark enters with a springboard dropkick off the ropes that was AWESOME and woke the crowd (and me) up. Whatever Rollins is doing these days isn’t for me, but firm believer McIntyre may be his best suited opponent in the company. Drew brings a thudding intensity that by proxy makes Seth step his game up. Really solid TV main event.

ECW on TNN #10 10/29/99

2) Lance Storm (w/Dawn Marie) vs. Tommy Dreamer (w/Francine) — ✰ ✰½

This was actually a pretty stellar episode of the still in its infancy TNN show. Opened with a rare Sabu vs. Taz singles bout. Tommy enters in black track pants and a black shirt one size too small. I know Storm gets a lot of guff for his robotic style but that wasn’t an issue in ’99 I’m glad to report. He still had a lot of explosiveness and athleticism in pretty much all he did here. And I was actually loving this, but it was curtailed before it really got going (complete with a catfight, Raven run-in, etc. as was their bog standard at the time). The few minutes of wild brawling around ringside and into the first few rows of fans was fun and Dreamer smashing a $6 draft beer on Lance’s skull was au gratin.

WCW Thunder #33 9/24/98

6) Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Disco Inferno — WCW World Cruiserweight Title #1 Contendership Match

— ✰ ✰½

7) Alex Wright vs. Norman Smiley — ✰ ✰½
8) Kanyon (w/Raven) vs. Goldberg (c) — WCW World Heavyweight Title Match — ✰

I’ve been blowing through these Thunder episodes like Sonic speeding toward a chili dog food truck. They’re a blast but not the type you’d expect most people to be tossing out a lot of generous star ratings toward. So, I feel like I have to make a case for the slightly high ratings on the first two bouts. Disco versus Chavo the word that popped into my head was “fluid” while watching it. Not in the regard of it being seamless work – they just packed in as much as they could in the short time they were allotted (sick pescado to floor, Pepe hobbyhorse hijinks, springboard bulldog, etc.). The backstory was this was for a shot at the Cruiserweight championship. Disco won with a surprisingly sick piledriver. Post-match they bring out a scale and determine he’s too fat to fight for Cruiserweight belt for big LOLZ~!  Wright and Smiley was also quite fun. Honest to goodness I think I saw more genuine mat wrestling in this six min. match than all of Monday Night Raw’s run on Netflix thus far two months into it debuting there. Main went 10 seconds but gave it an extra half-star because how insane the audience was here for Goldberg it's just bonkers and unlike just about any phenomenon in wrestling history.

MSW Mid-South Wrestling TV #127 2/13/82

2) Paul Orndorff vs. Brian Blair — ✰ ✰
3) The Junkyard Dog (c) vs. Bob Roop — Mid-South Louisiana Title Match — ✰ ✰½
4) Bob Orton Jr. & Ed Wiskowski vs. Mr. Olympia & Ted DiBiase — ✰ ✰½
5) Frank Monte vs. Ron Cheatham — ½ ✰

Two Tampa boys tussling with Orndorff and Blair. If you only knew JYD from his WWF run, you have to go back and see him in his glory days. Guy was built a like a Grecian statue. Just insane upper-body and arms. And he was over like R.L. Stine at a Scholastic book fair. Tag match was fun, but the finish took place during commercial break. So they re-racked the tape and showed us the fin. Then, as is the norm on Mid-South, they toss on a bonus “standby” match to fill remaining TV time, but in this case, it literally got about 90 seconds before they had to roll credits rendering it null. If you’ve never seen Frank Monte though he’s a reoccurring enhancement guy that looks like a cross between Freddie Mercury and Rocky Johnson.

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling 5/28/10

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling

5/28/10 (aired 6/9/10 on Samurai! TV)
Korakuen Hall (Tokyo, Japan)

1) Isami Kodaka, Kankuro Hoshino & Mototsugu Shimizu vs. Atsushi Ohashi, Ryuichi Kawakami & Shinobu – 4
2) Ebessan & Yuichi Taniguchi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Kanjyouro Matsuyama – 3
3) MEN's Teioh, Onryo & Shiori Asahi vs. Daisuke Masaoka, Hercules Senga & Tsutomu Oosugi – 5
4) Madoka & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kazuki Hashimoto & Takumi Tsukamoto – 4
5) Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto – 6
6) Jaki Numazawa, Jun Kasai & Masashi Takeda vs. Abdullah Kobayashi, Ryuji Ito & Shadow WX - Fluorescent Lighttubes Death Match – 8

Something that crystalized in this viewing was prime BJW and CZW share a commonality that I really, truly enjoy. While both are known primarily as death match purveyors, their bookers knew well enough to diversify the cards. And so you get a smorgasbord of pro wres~! Some novices getting in valuable ring time, high-flying action with juniors, hard-hitting feats of head-dropping fare, some theatrical flair, blood feuds and rivalries, etc. usually climaxing in a crescendo of carnage.

(Note: Sadly – some time has passed since my 1st draft of this piece, and I lost all my notes. I’m decided to still post it because I enjoyed the show and wanted to share that joy. I have thousands of pro wres discs and picked a routine BJW show at random and was so glad I did. I know in my notes I talked about digging Onyro’s undead ghost gimmick. I think perhaps at the time this aired, but even earlier than that, say ’99 or so when friends and I would trade RF Video catalogues around in study hall, BJW had seemingly seen its heyday and most of us had moved on. But watching this show made me think we took it for granted. The main event, which again, I wish I had more detailed notes on, was such a spectacle. Yes, we had some lukewarm crowd brawling early, but by the time they hit the thrilling final stretch, with one unbelievable death-defying bump after another, I was on the edge of my seat more than I was during any of the films nominated at the Oscar’s ceremony last weekend. The amount of torn flesh was like something out of the New French Extremity movement. Hard to pick an MVP .. maybe Ryuji Ito but all these barbaric dudes deserve their flowers.)

AEW Rampage #176 - Holiday Bash 2024 - Night 2

AEW Rampage #176 - Holiday Bash 2024 - Night 2 12/20/24

1) Mark Davis & Powerhouse Hobbs vs. The Don Callis Family (Brian Cage & Konosuke Takeshita) — ✰✰½
2) Action Andretti & Lio Rush vs. Goldy & Myles Hawkins — ½ ✰
3) Willow Nightingale vs. Harley Cameron — ✰ ✰
4) Brody King vs. Komander — Continental Classic 2024 Gold League Match — ✰ ✰ ✰½ 

Liked the opener – what it lacked in personality it made up for with sheer beef. Not unlike the ones Carmy served up at The Original Beef of Chicagoland. I wouldn’t let Mark Davis dogsit at my place, but he can sure bring the fierceness. Second bout was a short showcase of Rush and Andretti but what severely pulled me out of it is the referee didn’t even try to enforce the rules and let both guys run through about 2 min. of an offensive routine, both in the ring at the same time, to the dismay of purists everywhere. Cameron is great and Willow has grown on me as I catch up with the Khan era of Ring of Honor so was pleased with this. Main event I really dug. They did the big bruiser vs. high-flyer formula but did it exceptionally well. King was positively punishing with his chops and power. Komander’s chest looked like some roadside service station beef jerky. Then Komander’s rally to tip the balance back to his favor with an aerial attack was tasty. Very much worth seeking out on HBO Max.