Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (August 2023)
Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (August 2023)
From Wembley Stadium to Korakuen Hall.
Honorable Mentions
Kota Minoura vs. BIG BOSS Shimizu (Dragongate 8/3/23)
Sareee & KAIRI vs. Arisa Nakajima & Takumi Iroha (Sareee-ISM 8/4/23)
CM Punk vs. Ricky Starks (AEW 8/5/23)
Mad Dog Connelly vs. Jordan (Timebomb Pro 8/10/23)
Darby Allin vs. Christian Cage (AEW 8/19/23)
Gunther vs. Chad Gable (WWE 8/21/23)
Hechicero, Barbaro Cavernario, & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Averno, Euforia, & Mephisto (CMLL 8/25/23)
Mistico, Atlantis Jr, & Volador Jr vs. Soberano Jr, Hiromu Takahashi, & Titan (CMLL 8/25/23)
Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler YUTA, & Proud ‘N’ Powerful vs. Eddie Kingston, Penta el 0 Miedo, Orange Cassidy, & Best Friends (AEW 8/27/23)
Eddie Kingston vs. Wheeler YUTA (AEW 8/30/23)
Madoka Kikuta vs. BIG BOSS Shimizu (Dragongate 8/3/23)
Kikuta and Shimizu have spent much of the year and opposite ends of various tag and trios matches so there’s a very familiar chemistry between the two coming into this. The occasion of the semi-finals of King of Gate allows them to escalate and build upon their tag interactions though. Yes, they’re still the two big hosses crashing into each other, but here Kikuta actually takes a more domineering role in control. He’s not quite heelish in execution, but it gives the BIG BOSS space to really flex his chops as a sympathetic babyface. Shimizu spends most of this working from underneath, and for someone of his size to do it as well as he does here really speaks to how well-rounded his abilities have become. It also makes Shimizu’s eventual victory in the match all the sweeter, having seen him struggle up and into the finals. The best Dragongate match of the year.
Rating: ****1/4
Soberano Jr, Mistico, & Atlantis Jr vs. Stuka Jr, Ultimo Guerrero, & Gran Guerrero (CMLL 8/4/23)
Even the best CMLL trios matches tend to run together in the memory. That’s thanks to the rather rigid and, yes, repetitive formula these matches adhere too. So whenever one of these breaks from the mold, it can’t help but stand out. That’s the case here as these two trios play with the form in really fun and interesting ways. It’s a breezy 11 minutes, which only gives it the space for two falls, but they utilize that second fall excellently. Instead of the “all at once” approach to fall finishes often employed in matches like this, they actually run through eliminations, staggering out the final moments of the match. Filled with all the wild dives and beautiful athleticism one wants, combined with a solid yet unpredictable structure, it’s one fo the best CMLL trios of the year.
Rating: ****
Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Best Friends (AEW 8/4/23)
If not quite as surprising and fun as the original, a much grittier sequel. Leave it to Moxley and Castagnoli to bring a much more grotesque spin on the match here. Moxley especially always stands out in these settings, bringing out the savagery of gimmick bouts like this with fork and screwdriver stabbings, a wonderful bladejob, and bumping all the sharp and dull surfaces about. Credit too to the Best Friends here who play everything incredibly straight. They’re giving just as good as they take but Trent especially takes some gnarly bumps all over the place that add so much to the sense of danger present. Top it all off with the most despicable act BCC’s committed since turning “heel” in destroying Sue’s car, and this is just an incredibly enjoyable TV bout.
Rating: ****
Mio Momono vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Marvelous 8/7/23)
Hatred was back in style for joshi this month. In this match, Mio Momono and Mayumi Ozaki pay off the promises from their excellent June build up tag with one of the most violent bouts of the year.
I definitely understand the hesitation many people have with this match. Marvelous doesn’t have a great track record of keeping Mio hot, joshi veterans often dominate the top of indie cards at the expense of more current talents. That all being said, this match fucking rules. Ozaki brings a hatred and spite to joshi wrestling that I’ve been sorely missing from other promotions, and does so in the most despicable ways possible. At every turn, she’s stealing the advantage—blasting Mio with the belt before the bell, smashing the champion’s hand with a dog collar chain, using a chair and mist.
Mio, for her part, might just be the best babyface in the world. Infinitely sympathetic as she runs the blade, gets walked like a dog, and times her comebacks perfectly. It’s a powerhouse performance from her, even as she’s absorbing the lion’s share of the punishment. It’s an easy pairing: one of the most hateable women of all time against the most likeable wrestler in the world today. A bloody, beautiful thing.
Rating: ****1/4
Jun Kasai & El Desperado vs. Masashi Takeda & Rina Yamashita (FREEDOMS 8/11/23)
Kasai and Despy make for such a wonderful pair. Their shared history and love for carnage come together so well in a match like this where the action feels less hateful and more celebratory. It’s a love for this kind of violence that ties them together and that rules. Yamashita and Takeda are an interesting comparison, there’s more friction there between the two but it reads almost like sibling rivalry than actual disdain. It makes for some great character moments, but none of those hold up with the proper sicko shit that everyone endures. The Takeda/Kasai interactions are the highlight though. In a match filled with weapons of all sorts, it’s those headbutts the two trade at the end that stick in the memory. Hell yeah.
Rating: ****1/4
Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW 8/12/23)
Given that I’m not the biggest fan of these two in 2023, them having even a borderline great match is worth the slot in this piece. There’s things that I don’t care for here, of course. I think Naito’s initial approach to neck work is a little hit and miss, especially when he’s working down on the mat. I wish that Ospreay got to display the damage done to his body a little more towards the stretch especially given how long and how brutally Naito worked it over. But other than that, this is a pretty focused effort from both that allows them to do some real cool shit. Naito targets Ospreay’s neck for the most part, and in service of that has some of the best New Japan-style cut offs and counters that I’ve seen in quite a bit. The big DDT counter as well as turning the Stormbreaker into a rana both stand out in the memory quite a bit.
Rating: ***3/4
Masha Slamovich vs. Nicole Matthews (DEFY 8/12/23)
Watch here.
When talking about Masha Slamovich, I get the impression that her mat work doesn’t get enough discussion. She’s pretty consistently enjoyable riffing on the mat, and there’s few better dance partners for that than Nicole Matthews. Watching her control Nicole by the arm is some of the best work I’ve seen from her all year outside of nearly ending Mike Bailey’s life.
It’s Nicole’s performance that really helps elevate this though. That perfect combination of veteran savvy as a technician combined with clever heel transitions that give so much shape and substance to a match like this. Pulling the hair, working the neck, ramming Masha into the turnbuckles, Nicole feels so comfortable unloading every dirty trick she knows to get one over on Masha, and it’s enough to grant her the victory in the end too. Probably the best performance from Nicole all year.
Rating: ****
Soberano Jr vs. Stuka Jr (CMLL 8/18/23)
He doesn’t get the opportunity to showcase it, but between this, the Mistico match earlier in the year, and last year’s Aniversario main event, Stuka Jr. has distinguished himself as one of the most reliable big match workers in CMLL. Here, he plays the antagonist to perhaps the second biggest tecnico in the company, Soberano Jr. Nothing sums up how well this dynamic works better than the first moments of the match where Soberano Jr. ducks an ambush on the entrance and still has the flair to complete his entering pose without missing a single beat. Beautiful stuff that leads into an exhilerating first fall win for the tecnico. The next two falls build around Stuka Jr. working over Soberano Jr.’s back and midsection. Perhaps not as significant a plot point as in the Dorada/Rocky match from the month before, it still serves to add some depth and stakes to the truly stunning high flying work that both guys do through to the end of the match. One month later, and a new crown jewel for CMLL match of the year.
Rating: ****1/4
Arisa Nakajima vs. Sareee (SEAdLINNNG 8/25/23)
Big month for joshi and violence. Sareee and Arisa spent much of their build up tags painting a picture of the most direct, face-bruising violence imaginable and when the lights finally came up on the title, they delivered. All those blistering, cringe-inducing shots are in there. Crunchy, full elbows. If anyone doubted their legitimacy or chalked it up to brilliant pro wrestling trickery, one need only look at their faces after to see the reality of it. Swelling, redness, these two put each other through a goddamn lot. There’s a few narrative tricks in there too that round this out. Sareee goes for the arm early, in increasingly mean ways too, and she uses that as an opening late in the game. One can quibble about Arisa’s arm selling, and fair enough, but man, who gives a shit when the rest of it so goddamn good? The arm work doesn’t take up too much time, still comes back later on, but never takes too much attention away from just the raw brutality of it all. The best women’s match of the year, maybe even the decade. A true must-watch.
Rating: ****1/2
CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe (AEW 8/27/23)
One can’t help but wonder if a part of CM Punk knew that this was it for him in AEW. Everything about this match, from his performance to the structuring makes it a perfect swan song for the most controversial man in wrestling. Punk and Joe achieve this by finally delivering that Big Stadium Version of their classic match-up. It is abridged, but not lacking in substance. All the old hits are here: the early headlock attempt, Joe intercepting a big Punk headscissors by swinging him into something, even an early Punk bladejob disrupting the momentum and confidence he’s built. Then there’s the tributes to the recently passed Terry Funk—the big bumping on the ropes, the bleeding, the spinning toe hold. It’s all just a delight, and it’s topped off in the best way possible: Punk finally getting his most devastating finisher in and succeeding truly and definitively against Joe.
Hell of a way to end a run.
Rating: ****1/4
Jun Kasai vs. Masashi Takeda (FREEDOMS 8/28/23)
There’s something really special about deathmatches like this or the Kasai vs. Despy bout from the year before, or even the build up tag I wrote about earlier. Despite the obscene levels of punishment, the absolutely pouring blood, the glass studded in open wounds, these matches are not hateful. If anything, what emerges stronger than anything is a sense of love—for one’s opponent and for the craft itself. In a match like this with all the delicious deathmatch goodies like razor blade boards, panes of glass, and lighttubes, these two dedicate themselves so fully to the joy of deathmatch wrestling. They both put in such vibrant, lively performances, brimming with charisma at every turn, that it’s hard to read anything into this match other than just the absolute elation of grotesque violence.
Rating: ****1/4