Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley
AEW Dynamite, 5/10
This is the fourth singles match between the two, and another bloody hardcore brawl to go along with their Lights Out match at Full Gear 2019 and their Exploding Barbed Wire match at AEW Revolution. It really feels like as a pair they bring out some of the more ghoulish aspects of their personalities, wallowing in stuff like glass and barbed wire, which isn’t really something Omega especially does outside of these matches with Moxley.
I recently rewatched the other two Mox v.s Omega brawls for a project to be named later, and I liked how Mox added some Blackpool Combat Club flavor to the weapons spots which wasn’t present in their other matches, the way he would shift his hips to get leverage on the choke with the removed top rope, or how he snatched a rear naked choke after he was driven back first into the broken glass. The late UFC hall of famer Stephan Bonnar fought a hardcore match with Matthew Justice a couple of years ago, and some of this match had that flavor, not a shootstyle wrestler wrestling shootstyle, but a guy who has that stuff in his bag and who can break it out if he needs to in the midst of an otherwise insane war. I am overall probably a low voter on Omega as a wrestler, but stiff out of control Omega is my favorite type, and he had some real highpoints here, including the V Trigger through the cage which was totally nuts looking, and looked like Omega came close to castrating himself.
The finish was what it was, I think AEW botched the last time a mentor turned on his protégé, although that had a lot to do with Regal bailing mid-angle. If they have a real compelling reason for Callis to turn on his adopted son, it could work, if they did it just for shock value it really won’t and the “Don Callis speaks” part of Dynamite the next week just kicked the can down the road.
Masha Slamovich vs. Mio Momono
The King of the Indies tournaments which All Pro-Wrestling held in the early 2000s, were an important part of the independent wrestling revolution. The second tournament in 2001 (which I was lucky enough to attend live) was cited as an inspiration for the formation of Ring of Honor and featured many of the earliest stars of that promotion (Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Doug Williams, Spanky and a final of Low-Ki vs. Bryan Danielson which was the hottest indy matchup of that time).
West Coast Pro and Pro Wrestling Revolution, another pair of Bay Area wrestling promotions have brought back the tourney in recent years, and West Coast Pro ran the inaugural Queen of the Indies show last weekend, highlighting some of the biggest female stars in current indy wrestling as well as wrestlers from the Marvelous promotion in Japan. Marvelous head, and living legend Chigusa Nagayo came over for the tourney, both wrestling and performing a song (in addition to being a wrestling star, Chigusa was a teen music idol in the 1980s)
Mio Momono is the 24-year-old star of Marvelous, and the current AAAW champion, a belt which originated in GAEA wrestling in the 90s and is currently the top belt in Marvelous. Masha Slamovich is the top indy women’s wrestler in the US, she wrestles for Impact Wrestling and currently holds not only the West Coast Pro Women’s title, but the Combat Fights Unlimited title, the AAW Women’s title, the ETU Keys to the East title, the Fight Life World Championship and the GCW Heavyweight title. She spent the early part of her career in the Marvelous dojo and was trained partially by Chigusa Nagayo.
Masha is a really hard hitter, in the spirit of great Joshi crowbars like Yukimiko Hotta or Dynamite Kansai (although not at their level, few wrestlers have ever thrown that level of heat), and a lot of this match was the smaller Momono using her speed to avoid the bombs being thrown her way. Mio was able to get an early advantage with some fast roll ups and dropkicks, only for Masha to grab her from the outside and drive her throat into the top rope, and fling her to the floor. Masha really worked her over, tossing her violently into the turnbuckles with Momono landing awkwardly straight with her head. Momono was able to get a rally with a big top rope armdrag and attempted her Code Red variation, only to get dropped right on her head, Masha hit a Ganzo bomb for a two count, but Momono rallied with a bunch of headbuts and her Code Red, only to fall to a choke and White Knight driver.
This kind of sprint Joshi wrestling isn’t always my favorite, but I appreciated the extra level of violence Masha brought the proceedings, and Momono is a fun spirited underdog.
Bobby Lashley vs. AJ Styles
SmackDown, 5/12/2023
Styles and Lashley battled for the right to fight Seth Rollins for the participation trophy World Heavyweight Title at the next Saudi show. As silly as that title is, and as continuingly gross it is that WWE is running these shows in Saudi Arabia, the match itself got a bunch of time and was a real slow-build heavyweight slugfest. This was only the second singles match between the two (they had a US title match on RAW last year, and somehow didn’t interact in TNA at all).
Lashley came into the match with a nasty cut on his head from the three way earlier in the night, and it got opened up here. As a long time notorious vampire, I appreciate that the WWE seems to have loosened the reins a bit on blood, and AJ who is an old pro, had the sense to pound away at that open cut and let it flow. The structure of this match generally hewed to a David vs. Goliath format, with Lashley throwing some really bullying heat at AJ. AJ however is such a hard hitter, and Lashley was leaking so badly, that it evened it up more then you would expect going in. Styles really had a focused attack on Lashley’s leg, lacing it with sharp Marco Ruas-style kicks and trying for the calf crusher. I really liked the finish too, with Lashley missing a spear and hitting the ring post, and Styles then kneeing his bloody head into the LED ring post, before hitting the springboard forearm. Both guys are real athletic marvels for performing at this level in their mid 40s, and while it seems the fake world title is going to Rollins, they could do a lot worse than putting it on AJ and having him be an in-ring workhorse.