Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (June 2023)

The king is back.

Honorable Mentions

  • D’Courage vs. YAMATO, Naruki Doi, & Dragon Kid (Dragongate 6/1/23)
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Alex Coughlin (AEW 6/1/23)
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Lee Moriarty (AEW 6/2/23)
  • Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Shota Umino (NJPW 6/4/23)
  • Atlantis, Stuka Jr, & Gran Guerrero vs. Soberano Jr, Euforia, & Valiente (CMLL 6/9/23)
  • Yuji Hino & HARASHIMA vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada (DDT 6/10/23)
  • Strong BJ vs. Violent Giants (AJPW 6/17/23)
  • Violence is Forever vs. Miracle Generation (DPW 6/18/23)
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada (AEW/NJPW 6/25/23)
  • Gunther vs. Sami Zayn (WWE 6/26/23)

Mio Momono & Takumi Iroha vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Saori Anou (OZ Academy 6/11/23)

@ryota95288915

Mio Momono was already the best women’s wrestler in the world before this, so adding blading to her repertoire feels almost like an unfair advantage. Mio’s been a delight all year, but she feels at home in this kind of match in a way she hasn’t since the Sendai Girls/Marvelous feud. Her underdog fire gets put to perfect use against the bullying force of Mayumi Ozaki & Saori Anou. I’ve never seen Anou work closer to heel, and she acquits herself well here. Anou’s whip is a great weapon that provides a great visual on offense, but outside of that, she’s throwing real meaty elbows to Mio.

One mustn’t ignore the efforts of one of wrestling’s great little shits and nuisances though: Mayumi Ozaki. Some of the old magic still remains in her—pure spite funneled into things like stretching and tying up Mio while taunting her with a nearby rope break. She’s so mean in little ways like tossing a dog collar chain down onto Mio’s hand repeatedly or pulling Mio’s shoulders off the mat repeatedly in the finishing stretch. Even the meandering outside interference and crowd brawl in the middle couldn’t detract much from this match’s charm.

Rating: ****

Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler YUTA vs. Hangman Page & The Young Bucks (AEW 6/14/23)

AEW

2023 is for trios wrestling. Here we have the best of the Elite/BCC tags of the year—yes, even better than Anarchy in the Arena. This is perfect TV tag wrestling here with the hot start from the Hung Bucks, making good use of their speed and risk taking to get an early jump on the BCC. I love how much care the BCC puts into sneaking their way back into the advantage, never allowing themselves to outshine The Elite, but always coming across dangerous and credible in the process. Does it turn into more of a big bombfest by the end? Sure, but this is a combination of guys extremely well suited to getting the most of that.

Rating: ****

Kazusada Higuchi & Yuya Koroku vs. HARASHIMA & Hideki Okatani (DDT 6/16/23)

DDT

One of the hardest qualities to harness for a wrestling match is charm, and this has it in spades. Wrestling on a tour show where the turnbuckle pads and canvas couldn’t make it to the venue in time, these four men have to work with bare boards and exposed turnbuckles. For the most part, this is your standard DDT tour tag fare, but it’s elevated by how seriously they take the scenario. Every bump onto those boards is sold like absolute death, such that every single potential crash in the finishing stretch feels absolutely major and game changing. A textbook example of simply committing to the bit.

Rating: ****

Yuji Hino & Takeshi Masada vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada (DDT 6/17/23)

DDT

Another high end DDT tour tag as a result of Higuchi stepping up to fill the top of the card. Masada’s inclusion as Higuchi’s partner feels like it reaches its truest potential in this match as Hino & Yukio beat the living shit out of him. It’s always great when halfway through a match, a man’s nose is busted open and it’s hard to tell just what caused it. Such was the casual brutality with which Hino & Yukio attacked poor old Masada here. Higuchi’s comebacks are stunning as always. He’s in there against two men who would never hesitate to hit him hard, and Higuchi certainly doesn’t hesitate in hitting hard right back. The Yukio/Higuchi interactions especially recall the intensity of their title fight from last year, but Hino’s no slouch too with his frying pan chops.

Rating: ****1/4

CMFTR vs. Samoa Joe & Bullet Club Gold (AEW 6/17/23)

AEW

Exactly what I envisioned from this match—a six-man tag built around extended heat segments with Joe/Punk interactions as the highlight. Everyone played their role exactly right in this, structured around a two different heat segments that allow multiple hot tags from all the babyfaces. FTR are still mechanically crisp, with Cash in particular once again proving that he’s far from a second banana in the unit. But the money is Joe/Punk here, I haven’t felt such joy for a headlock all year. I usually have to dig into the past to feel wistful about a headlock, getting it on live in 2023 is special.

Rating: ****

Calibus vs. Demus (Lucha Memes 6/18/23)

Lucha Memes

I’ve spent much of the year extolling the warm chicken soup quality of CMLL’s take on lucha. Demus in Lucha Memes doesn’t bring comfort but grime. Much like his fight against Wotan from earlier in the year, this is a bloody, gritty brawl that sees both competitors roll about in the dirt. Mixed in with the wooden plans cracked over skulls and the mask tearing are hilarious bits that really only could exist in a place like Coliseo Coacalco. At one point, Demus throws Calibus into a fan who tumbles ass backwards into a giant tire that’s just laying about. Even better than that was a child trying and failing to pull said fan out of the tire afterwards. Only in Mexico, baby.

Rating: ****

CMFTR & Ricky Starks vs. Bullet Club Gold & The Gunn Club (AEW 6/24/23)

AEW

Punk follows up on his limited ringtime as a hot tag in his return match to spending the majority of this match in the ring as the “face-in-peril.” Massive quotation marks on that as Toronto did not take kindly to Punk here on this night, and that’s all for the better. Punk shines when his pettiness gets to mix with a classical structure of match, and we get him here gouging at Jay White’s eyes to transition into a comeback to allow the hot tag on his side of the match. There’s a lot else to love here too like the real sense of camaraderie on Punk’s side of the ring that allows for the emotion and tension of the match to escalate until it breaks down into a wonderful finishing stretch. With any luck, big tags like this on Collision become a regular feature moving forward.

Rating: ****

CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima (AEW/NJPW 6/25/23)

AEW

This has its limitations, of course. As enjoyable and likeable as old man Kojima is, he’s still not delivering on any kind of high level physicality here. But that’s fine because both old man Kojima and everyone’s favorite coworker CM Punk realize that when a crowd is this fucking pissed off, that’s an opportunity, not a hindrance. Toronto hates Punk? Fine, he goes out and gives Kojima an honest to god babyface shine by bumping all over the ring for the simplest stuff. Punk brings the Hogan tributes back from the night before, but also spices things up by stealing moves from Kojima’s longtime tag partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Everyone’s already picked up on Punk referencing his famed shoot interview with Samoa Joe and shouting out Homicide, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg on an astonishing heel-leaning performance. It’s the shitty little push ups he does after the bell just to spite everyone that really does it for me.

Rating: ***3/4

Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler YUTA, Konosuke Takeshita, & Shota Umino vs. Hangman Page, The Young Bucks, Eddie Kingston, & Tomohiro Ishii (AEW/NJPW 6/25/23)

AEW

A bit of a mess, but still the best match on a night filled with really good wrestling. As great as The Elite/BCC interactions have been all year, Eddie Kingston once again rises to the top as the heart and soul of this match. The highlights of the match come from Eddie’s confrontations with old foe and close friend Jon Moxley. The electricity of that pairing is so palpable, that it almost overshadows the more urgent story at hand of Eddie’s rivalry with Claudio. That being said, Claudio plays his role here well, regressing into the cowardice of his BDK days and ducking Eddie and only taking cheap shots. Is Eddie sacrificing himself for Mox a little overwrought? For sure, but beyond that there’s just so much great action from everyone involved here. The benefit of big tags like these is that nothing ever really has the chance to overstay its welcome. Hangman and The Bucks are a reliable combo of the Elite, and they keep the pace rolling with a balance of high flying and stiff shots. Soup focuses on big elbows and sick suplexes—his biggest strengths. And Ishii gets to do Revolution homage spots with Eddie. Just too much talent involved for it to fail.

Rating: ****