Lurker > Bidoof

WORST EVENT

Unlike my previous write-up, I've got a pretty firm grasp on what I feel were the five worst events I watched this year.

#5: NOAH Great Voyage 2021 in Fukuoka

This ended up being the best of the worst for me due to having a couple of fine matches on the undercard, but this is the show where it felt like NOAH went off the rails for me. The main event was Keiji Mutoh, fresh off his inexplicable title win over Go Shiozaki, defending against the young man that is being groomed to carry NOAH into the future Kaito Kiyomiya. Admittedly, Kiyomiya is still young and growing into that position but he's closer to being that guy for NOAH than just about anyone else they've had. So what does NOAH do? They book him to struggle against a man who looks old enough to be his grandfather and can barely stand. Mutoh is completely done about two minutes in and the match goes for another thirty. Then Mutoh wins. Clean. With a roster as good as theirs, they have no business putting a main event this poor and Mutoh has nothing to give to wrestling anymore. Can't wait to see him against SANADA at the NJPW/NOAH crossover show. I'm sure that's going to be a real banger. <_<

#4 WWE Survivor Series 2021

Probably some recency bias here, but I can't think of a more pointless show this year than Survivor Series. There's a WWE show I think is worse than this one that I'll talk about later but even that had some kind of purpose to it. No one cares about SD vs. Raw, they largely feel like the same show with an interchangeable cast. They didn't care enough to make a storyline on television for putting together the teams this year instead opting to announce them via Twitter. Then they ended up shuffling all the teams around because this company has no vision except the same one they've had for the last seven years that has driven off most of their casual viewing audience. The matches mostly stunk (Becky/Charlotte was good but had no stakes at all), the booking was some of the worst WWE has put together, and another sacrifice is made to the altar of Roman Reigns. I doubt anyone is going to look back at this show save for doing reviews for podcasts in a few years like so many do with 2000 WCW.

#3 NWA When Our Shadows Fall

Hey, remember how pre-pandemic the NWA had some buzz about it and was putting out enjoyable programming? Nothing groundbreaking or exceptionally great but it was an easy, fun promotion to watch. Well, due to a number of reasons, that's gone and When Our Shadows Fall really drove that point home. Fred Rosser/JTG and Kamille/Serena Deeb were about the only things that were fine on this show. This was the first and only time I saw Tyrus wrestle this year. I'd like to keep it that way. But what makes it really bad to me is that they capped this middling show off with a Dusty finish to Murdoch/Aldis. Whole thing felt like a waste of time and left me with no confidence in NWA moving forward.

#2 GCW Acid Cup

This is technically two events but Eddv okayed me considering them as a whole event. On paper, this tournament could have been good. You had some good prospects like Lee Moriarty, JJ Garrett, AJ Gray, Calvin Tankman, and Arez as a part of it. Laredo Kid was even announced for it (he wrestled the first show and dropped out of the second probably after seeing what a crapfest this was). Then the tournament started and it all fell apart. First off, the tournament was held in some random parking lot in Florida in front of seemingly 20 people. It must have been some really crap weather because just about everyone seemed off their game and poor JJ Garrett ended up vomiting in the middle of his match due to heat stroke. These conditions didn't help the bad performers in this, Jordan Oliver and Edith Surreal, who were booked to wrestle each other for an unreasonably long time on the first night and had one of the most amateurish showings I've ever seen for a supposedly upper tier indy. Then they took Jordan Oliver, easily the worst wrestler still in the tournament, and booked him in three more matches on the second show before winning the whole thing. And to top it all off, you had to endure the obnoxious commentary from Kevin Gill. I'm certain that GCW has had worse shows this year because this company has no concept of quality control and their fanbase are largely a bunch of inebriated mutants who do not care, but this could have been a quality showing from them and they chose to make it garbage.

#1 WWE Superstar Spectacle

Be honest - you forgot this happened. This was a show that was done to "highlight" all of the "wonderful", "exciting", and "talented" superstars from India in the WWE. I think all the quotations there made it clear what I thought of these showcases. Watching guys like Finn Balor and AJ Styles work ultra basic, practically first match out wrestling school caliber showings in front of nobody was worse than watching Jordan Oliver wrestle in front of 20 drunks in Florida. It had a purpose, unlike Survivor Series, but there wasn't anything good here to boost the show (which is why I put it above the Acid Cup) and I don't even know how many of the Indian wrestlers featured here are still employed.

Oh boy. Some fun awards here. I don't know if I'm going to be able to catch all my thoughts in one post so bear with me.

WORST WRESTLER

Steiner kind of hit a lot of the "highs" on this one. To me, the Worst Wrestler has to be someone constantly featured despite being aggressively bad. With the bar for wrestling being higher than it's been in ages, you'd think it would be difficult to get wrestlers as awful as a Virgil or a Kendall Windham on TV anymore. But hey, people found a way.

In WWE, it's difficult to find someone as bad in almost every facet of the game as Dominick Mysterio. Is there anyone out there who believes this guy would even be employed if it weren't for his father? I am a little surprised that Steiner left out Omos but WWE has tried to hide him by pairing him with AJ. He's got size and something of a presence but his stuff from what I've seen looks so awkward that I can't believe he's on television. To round things out with the 'E, I can't really vote for The Fiend since he was around so little this year but I can give a shoutout to his child bride Alexa Bliss. The gimmick was the dirt worst and here's hoping that Alexa's absence is them trying to get everyone to forget it existed.

AEW has also repeatedly booked and featured people this year who have no business in the ring. Matt Hardy is practically immobile and I have no idea why they keep having him wrestle. HFO is something that could disappear tomorrow and I don't think any AEW fan would care. Jade Cargill looks like a million bucks but she can't even be trusted to go longer than a couple of minutes (and sometimes even that's pushing it). I don't quite know where else to put her in this rambling write-up, but all the people who are trying to convince me that Maki Itoh is any kind of good need to get their heads examined. Wrapping up with AEW, I'm giving consideration yet again to Abadon. I know she's been mostly relegated to Dark and good on her for getting into shape, but I've yet to see anything that would justify her still being around and still keep being booked as strong as she is there.

Jordan Oliver is terrible, has been pushed hard everywhere he regularly works, and after seeing some of the young guys coming up out of the Dragon system I'm tired of people hanging on the excuse that he's young and learning. Hell, not even just the Dragon system. Daniel Garcia is about the same age and he's so far above Oliver in terms of ability that it's laughable to compare the two. Steiner hit the nail on the head so perfectly with Keiji Mutoh. His title reign in NOAH made the company a joke, his run damaged Kaito Kiyomiya (the guy many see as the future of the company), and at the end of it he dropped it to the broken husk that is Naomichi Marufuji. His time in NOAH has done nothing but hurt the company, just like he's hurt every other company he's been a part of over the past decade and a half.

Honorable mentions to Tajiri, BxB Hulk, and Edith Surreal. Surreal and Tajiri were garbage in the handful of matches I've seen from them this year and Tajiri seems to be doing everything in his power to get everyone in AJPW to quit, but I didn't see enough of them to care. Hulk was saved by finding whatever he had left in him to get one good match with YAMATO. Hopefully that's the last time he ever has a serious singles match again because, like Matt Hardy, Hulk is so broken down that it's uncomfortable watching him.

Well. I can at least guarantee there is 100% less Punk in my featured match this week.

Crazy MAX (CIMA, Don Fuji, SUWA) vs. Do FIXER (Genki Horiguchi, Susumu Yokosuka, Magnum TOKYO) vs. Shin M2K (Kenichiro Arai, Dragon Kid, Masaaki Mochizuki) vs. Italian Connection (Masato Yoshino, Shuji Kondo, Milano Collection AT)
Toryumon, Verano Peligroso 2003 (8/30/2003)

Match Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfbIFYEvd-k

Confession time - this has been kind of a hectic week for me professionally and personally. I guess shame on me for expecting anything different going into a holiday weekend. I had something completely different lined up for you guys but the link I had saved on my original spreadsheet for tracking MotW suggestions is dead and I can't find an alternate version of anything approaching decent quality. So I went with the old stand-by - Toryumon/Dragon Gate action. Funny how this promotion keeps finding its way into various recommendations.

Normally I would give you some insight into the story going into this match but honestly? This match doesn't need it. In the grand tradition of multi-stable Toryumon tags, this match is just one gigantic spotfest. You're going to see some exciting high-flying, inventive team offense, and some fun comedy that doesn't take you out of the match (unlike a certain other recent match I saw from a popular company). There's no real "down" period to this match and thus the nearly 30 minutes flies by. It's kind of the perfect match for a holiday, something that is very good but you don't really need to have your brain on for it. Just sit back, relax, and watch a bunch of Japanese guys bust their ass to a hot crowd. I hope this puts a smile on your face like it did mine.

Sorry about the delay. Had a couple of issues come up, not the least of which is trying to find the match I wanted to show. I'll hopefully have something this evening for everyone.