We look back over Dave Meltzer’s five-star wrestling matches.
The hype around this six-man chaos led to many people checking out the high-octane style of PWG for the first time. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s fair to say that it’s been incredibly influential on how wrestling has gone in the last few years and matches like this helped push it to a wider audience.
Continue readingKazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii are two of my favourite wrestlers of all time, so it’s kind of a crime that I haven’t seen this match before. It also means that I am almost guaranteed to like it. As I write this Kazu is making his entrance and I’m smiling away well aware that I’m about to see something I’ll love. See you in twenty minutes.
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It’s 2005 and Ring of Honor is the hottest independent wrestling company in America. One of the jewels in their crown is Samoa Joe, a man in the prime of his career who had spent 21 months with their title in 2003-04. Meanwhile, over in Japan, NOAH is in a similar spot, and the legendary Kenta Kobashi had just finished up a two-year-title-reign which cemented his already hefty legacy. When Kobashi signed up to do some dates with ROH, the chance to face him off with Samoa Joe must have been the easiest booking decision they ever made.
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I started watching New Japan regularly in January 2017, so the idea that Tomoaki Honma was having five-star matches only a couple of years before is rather baffling to me. Honma wasn’t awful when I first tuned in (his injury has since seen him drop down to that level), but if you’d asked me to rank the roster, he would have been near the bottom.
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Let’s dive into another five-star classic as we look back at Shingo Takagi going head to head with Masaaki Mochizuki. I say it’s five-stars, but I’ve seen a few places say that Dave has never officially bestowed the rating on it. Truthfully, I don’t care. I want to watch and write about Shingo because he’s my boy, so if it’s bothering you, imagine it says wrestling classics at the top rather than Meltzer’s Classics. Better? Good.
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For a company that produces as much wrestling as they do, WWE/F has had shockingly few Meltzer rated five-star matches over the years. Their focus on entertainment over skill has often led to even hot feuds not producing classically great bouts. However, there have been a few, and today we go back to SummerSlam 1994 where it was brother vs brother.
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Damn, I was almost giddy with excitement about getting to check this one out. Ishii and Shibata are two of my favourite wrestlers of all time, yet, somehow, I’ve never seen this match. Time to change that.
Continue readingIt’s been a while since I’ve dived into a five-star classic, so I’ve decided to mix up the formula a bit. Previously, I was going chronologically, but it was proving hard to find certain matches which kept derailing me. Therefore, in a change to your regularly scheduled programming, I’m going to start jumping around history, picking bouts I’m in the mood for, rather than what Father Time dictates. That explains why we’re going straight into a favourite of mine: Styles vs Joe vs Daniels from TNA’s Unbreakable 2005.
Read moreMeltzer loved 90’s Joshi, didn’t he? We’re back in AJW where Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada are facing off for the IWA World Title with the added stipulation of it being a Hair vs Hair match. It was the blow-off to a long-running feud which grew out of the two having previously teamed together.
The match’s defining moment.
Kenta Kobashi loves a five-star performance. This time, it’s not a six man involving a host of Japanese legends. It’s a straight up tag team match for the All Asia Tag Team Titles with the Gaijin team of Furnas and Kroffat defending the belts against Kenta and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Shall we have a look at what went down?
