Now this was a pretty packed week of wrestling action! Between the normal television products, we had four different New Japan events, AEW Revolution and Stardom’s All Star Cinderella!

There were even more events that I just couldn’t find time for, because trying to balance consumption with any other hobby or interest is mad difficult on weeks like this. Yes – first world problems, I’m aware.

Anyway! Let’s see what match won last week to fill out February!

February Pool:

• NXT: Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher vs The Undisputed Era
• NXT Vengeance Day: Johnny Gargano vs Kushida
• AEW Dynamite: Riho vs Serena Deeb
• NJPW Castle Attack 2.27: Jay White vs Tomohiro Ishii

My vote will go to Riho vs Serena Deeb. Yes Gargano and Kushida was a beautiful match, but Riho and Deeb really helped a tournament and division that is the laughing stock of an already meme worthy company. So I feel like it had a larger impact for the year.

Before we get into the Top 5, yes I saw the Sting cinematic, and it falls in line with my feelings about the Boneyard match and what not. I don’t officially rate cinematics, but I thought it was damn good, definitely comparable to Undertaker’s Boneyard match. It would’ve made the Top 5 if I rated cinematics.

Quick Top 5:

1. New Japan Cup 3.6.2021: Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi
   Rating: **** ½
2. New Japan Cup 3.5.2021: Taichi vs Hirooki Goto
   Rating: **** ½
3. Stardom 10^th Anniversary: Wonder of Stardom Championship: Hair vs Hair: Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano
   Rating: **** ¼
4. New Japan 49^th Anniversary: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs El Desperado
   Rating: **** ¼
5. New Japan Cup 3.7.2021: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Will Ospreay
   Rating: ****

Honorable Mentions:

• New Japan 49^th Anniversary: New Japan Cup: Great O-Khan vs Tetsuya Naito
  Rating: *** ¾
• NXT UK: UK Women’s Championship: Kay Lee Ray (c) vs Meiko Satomura
  Rating: *** ¾
• IMPACT!: Deonna Purrazzo vs Jordynne Grace vs Kiera Hogan
  Rating: *** ¾
• AEW Revolution: AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Ryo Mizunami
  Rating: *** ½
• NJC 3.7.2021: Gabriel Kidd vs Zack Sabre Jr
  Rating: *** ½
• Stardom 10^th Anniversary: Mayu Iwatani vs Yoshiko
  Rating: *** ½
• NJC 3.6.2021: New Japan Cup: Juice Robinson vs KENTA
  Rating: *** ½
• IMPACT!: Black Taurus vs Chris Bey vs Ace Austin
  Rating: *** ½
• New Japan 49^th Anniversary: New Japan Cup: Satoshi Kojima vs Jeff Cobb
  Rating: *** ½
• NJC 3.7.2021: LIJ (SANADA, BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, SHO, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii)
  Rating: *** ¼
• AEW Revolution: AEW World Heavyweight Championship: Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch: Jon Moxley vs Kenny Omega (c)
  Rating: *** ¼
• NJC 3.6.2021: New Japan Cup: Tomoaki Honma vs Minoru Suzuki
  Rating: *** ¼
• NJC 3.5.2021: Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr, DOUKI) vs Gabriel Kidd, Yuya Uemura & Tomoaki Honma
  Rating: ***
• AEW Face of the Revolution Ladder Match: Penta El Zero M vs Cody Rhodes vs Scorpio Sky vs Ethan Page vs Max Caster vs Lance Archer
  Rating: ***
• NJC 3.7.2021: Bullet Club (Jay White, EVIL, Dick Togo & KENTA) w/Gedo vs Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson
  Rating: ***
• New Japan 49^th Anniversary: LIJ (BUSHI, SANADA & Shingo Takagi) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Tomohiro Ishii)
  Rating: ***
• NJC 3.5.2021: Bullet Club (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori) w/ Dick Togo vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tiger Mask IV, YOSHI-HASHI, David Finlay
  Rating: ***
• AEW Dynamite: Shaq & Jade Cargill vs Cody & Red Velvet 
  Rating: ***

5. New Japan Cup 3.7.2021: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Will Ospreay

From My Results:
Ospreay fires up, but runs into a BIG LARIAT from Tenzan! Fans fire up as Ospreay stumbles about, into Tenzan’s scoop! T T D!! Cover, TWO!! Ospreay survives but Tenzan wants the Anaconda Vice again! Ospreay flails and reaches as Tenzan thrashes around again. Ospreay fights up, but Tenzan hits the ANACONDA BUSTER! Cover, TWO!!! Ospreay survives again but Tenzan heads up top! Ospreay anchors a leg but Tenzan clubs at him! Ospreay tucks Tenzan in! CHEEKY NANDOS! And then Ospreay gets Tenzan up for a LAST RIDE! Cover, TWO!?! Tenzan survives and fans fire up, but Ospreay calls his shot!

Ospreay springboards, OSCUTTER!! Cover, TWO?!?! Tenzan survives and no one can believe it! Ospreay gets up, reels Tenzan in, underhooks and gets Tenzan up, but Tenzan slides off to headbutt! MONGOLIAN CHOP! And again! Tenzan fires up, scoops but Ospreay resists! Ospreay elbows away on Tenzan, scoops him, and pops him up to a fireman’s carry, for a SIT OUT SLAM!! Cover, TWO!! Tenzan survives but Ospreay takes off the armband! Ospreay brings Tenzan up, around, and hits a DREAM CRUSHER ELBOW! Ospreay keeps going, underhooks and lifts, for STORMBREAKER!! Cover, Ospreay wins!!

Winner: Ospreay via Stormbreaker

3t. New Japan 49^th Anniversary: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs El Desperado

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
NO! Ibushi fights out to wrench and LARIAT! Ibushi fires up and fans respond in kind! Ibushi gets Desperado up, reels him in, and lifts, for a LAST RIDE!! Cover, TWO!! Desperado lives but Ibushi vows to end it! Ibushi grits his teeth, gets Desperado’s wrists and sits him up. Desperado wrenches through to ES EL CULERO! Cover, TWO!!! ROUNDHOUSE from Ibushi hits clean! Ibushi sits Desperado up again, KAMI- NO! ROLL UP, but to the STRETCH MUFFLER!! And he puts it on tight! Then gets NUMERO DOS SUPREME! Ibushi endures but he is caught! Desperado holds on as hard as he can but Ibushi refuses to give in!

Ibushi pries an arm free, reaches, but Desperado rolls him from ropes! Ibushi make sit a cover, TWO!! KAMIGOYE!!! Cover, TWO!??!?! Ibushi can’t believe Desperado still lives! Ibushi gets the wrists again, for ANOTHER KAMIGOYE!!! Cover, Ibushi wins!!

Winner: Ibushi via Kamigoye

3t. Stardom 10^th Anniversary: Wonder of Stardom Championship: Hair vs Hair: Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano

Tam and Giulia has been an on going feud since Stardom returned to activity. Giulia has been seen as the new It Girl, and Tam is always popular with her cute exterior, but her drive for the white belt was for her former tag partner. Arisa Hoshiki had to retire for a second time because of neck injuries, and even though they fought and acted like oil and water for a while, Arisa and Tam became great friends. This being Tam’s fourth shot at Giulia, her only win so far being in the 5 Star Grand Prix. So when Tam demanded one more title shot, Giulia wanted the Universe’s Cutest to put her hair on the line. Tam agreed, and that brings us here.

This told a great story. Tam had moments of despair and frustration where Giulia was just toying with her and Tam couldn’t find an angle to get in offense. Giulia’s hubris was her undoing though. Giulia had Tam down in the ring for a 10 count, but she shoved the referee and went into full mount to continue the punishment.

After that point, Tam’s frustration turned into motivation, we had a great slap exchange which showed Tam’s heart and Giulia even clasped her hands behind her back, showing that much disrespect to Tam. It’s honestly hard to tell if Giulia was trying to get this side of Tam out, or if she was just cocky, but it was great heel psychology.

Tam countered the Glorious Driver variations often, landed the Shining Knee, ther Tiger Suplex Hold and really started to come alive in the second half of the match. Once Tam landed Giulia’s Glorious Driver, it was all but over. So Tam hammerlocks both of Giulia’s arms, and locks in the Twilight Dream for the win! Tam finally has the white belt!

The story of the match was great, the emotion of the struggle for the last 9 months was fantastic and Tam finally gets a chance to show how she went from a teased and lost girl who needed Io Shirai and Mayu Iwantani to protect her at different times; to now she’s leading her own faction, and a great asset to Stardom.

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Winner: Tam via Twilight Dream

1t. New Japan Cup 3.5.2021: Taichi vs Hirooki Goto

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Taichi paces, drags Goto but Goto is dead weight. Fans rally up and Taichi drags Goto by his hair. Taichi stands Goto up but Goto blocks the forearm into a spin and suplex, SHOUTEN KAI!! Both men are down again and fans fire back up! Goto grits his teeth and rises again! Goto gets himself to ropes while Taichi sitrs. Goto drags himself to his feet, Taichi is in a daze but Goto powers up now. Taichi sits up into the BUZZSAW! But he pops right up to BOOT?! Goto forearms, Taichi mule kicks, Goto HEADBUTTS! Taichi is down but Goto shakes his head. Fans are thunderous again as Goto fires up and drags Taichi into the dragon sleeper!

Taichi slips out, Alabama lifts, but Goto escapes to dragon sleeper! Taichi gets out to ROUNDHOUSE! Taichi hooks the arms, TAICHI STYLE GEDO CLUTCH! TWO!!! Goto narrowly escapes and the fans are thunderous yet again! Taichi and Goto slowly rise, and Taichi goes to a corner. Taichi fires himself up, builds power and takes aim, but Goto blocks the kick! Goto fireman’s carries to G T W!!! Cover, TWO!?!?! Taichi survives and the fans are now electric! Goto isn’t done, he dragon sleepers to TRUE G T R!!! Cover, GOTO WINS!!

Winner: Goto via GTR

1t. New Japan Cup 3.6.2021: Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi

From My Results:
Shingo added his arrogant flair to a lot of things in this match, including the Rainmaker pose that Japanese Commentary called the “Pumping Steel Maker”, which also worked well when Shingo countered the Rainmaker with his own Pumping Steel Maker. Even injured this was a great slugfest between the two. Okada still hit a good number of his classics, but he was visibly hampered as the match wore on. Shingo managed to escape the Money Clip twice, which was an important element since Shingo passed out to the Money Clip in the G1.

Superplex, Noshigami, Made in Japan and an Uranage Backbreaker were some of the bigger moves towards the end that swayed the momentum for Shingo. Shingo went for Last of the Dragon a few times, but Okada usually had an answer. At the end, Okada slips behind the Last of the Dragon, winds up the Rainmaker, but Shingo ducks it and continues the momentum to lift Okada to his shoulders and finally hit his finish to win the match!

Winner: Takagi via The Last of the Dragon

Thoughts:

Well now this is a very Eastern centric week, but I tried, you saw other stuff in honorable mentions. Now I’m conflicted since I’m a big fan of Tam, and really enjoyed her story the last few months. However, Shingo versus Okada II is fantastic. These two have great chemistry and it’s cool to think of the former top guy of Dragon Gate facing the current top guy of New Japan is nice dream matching.

Big match Holy Emperor showed up really well for a loss, I just personally don’t see it surpassing my Shingo/Okada fanfic of amazingness. So yeah, Tam Nakano vs Giulia is close to winning my vote, but beefy Shingo getting the Rainmaker rub is my vote this week!

There we go, Japan was great this week and I never even got around to NOAH’s show. *grumbles about time and flat circles*