Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (October 2023)
Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (October 2023)
Honorable Mentions
Athena vs. Leyla Hirsch (ROH 10/5/23)
Eddie Kingston vs. Komander (AEW 10/7/23)
Jun Kasai vs. Matt Tremont (GCW 10/8/23)
Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland (AEW 10/10/23)
Jay White vs. Hangman Page (AEW 10/10/23)
Rina Yamashita vs. Masha Slamovich (GCW 10/12/23)
Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade el Idolo (AEW 10/21/23)
Eddie Kingston vs. Jeff Jarrett (AEW 10/21/23)
Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr (AEW 10/1/23)
With Jon Moxley concussed, Bryan Danielson has once again absorbed the powers of being the best professional wrestler in the world. This isn’t the charmer that is their legendary 2008 meeting, but instead a far more straightforward Great Match. One would think that sacrificing that charm might have diluted the quality, but that’s just not a problem for someone as excellent as Bryan Danielson.
Before I get into the obvious, it’s worth noting that Zack more than holds up his end of the deal here. His chain wrestling is far more focused than it’s ever been in this bout, not only flashy but outright brutal looking. It’s also accompanied by a lot more thought and structure than some of his lesser efforts. Of particular note is how he intentionally baits Dragon into giving up his arm with uppercuts so that Zack can start picking it apart. Then there’s Zack on the sell too, especially those gruesome dragon screws that he absorbs in the back half of the match.
But the magic is Bryan Danielson. Sorry, not sorry, but that’s just the truth of it. His arm selling is consistent and sympathetic, his expressiveness is so at home in a big arena setting, and mechanically he’s just as disgustingly brutal with his submission work as Zack ever was, probably even better. As he did in 2008 too, he gifts Sabre moral victories to hold onto in the face of defeat. When the two are tangled in dueling leg locks, Dragon doesn’t escape with a counter but by actively pissing off Zack to let go of the hold instead. Then in the end, it’s a strike that puts Zack down, leaving the question of who’s the better mat grappler up in the air. Just another powerhouse of a performance from the best ever.
Rating: ****1/2
Gunther vs. Tommaso Ciampa (WWE 10/2/23)
Once again, Gunther delivers with a high quality Intercontinental Championship defense in the main event of Raw. While the dynamic and natural chemistry he has with Gable isn’t present here, Ciampa being a more direct striker makes for a decent substitution. The big hits are all here and the champ’s reddened chest at the end shows how hard these two go together, but it’s everything between the big blows that makes this work so well. Ciampa works hard to try to get the Sicilian Stretch onto the champion and trying to wear down the hand to get him there. It’s a tighter expansion of the same ideas used in their NXT Takeover bout, this time without a gimmicked announce table cover to spoil the fun too. No one in the WWE’s having better and more interesting matches than Gunther right now. Must-see worker.
Rating: ****
D’Courage vs. Kota Minoura, Ben-K, & Naruki Doi vs. YAMATO, Dragon Kid, & Punch Tominaga (Dragongate 10/6/23)
Even when it doesn’t peak quite as high as other companies, Dragongate has been a consistently breezy, good vibes watch for most of the year. This match exemplifies a lot of that, notably being in the signature match-type of the company, the 3v3v3 match. The match is built around an all-star line up of main eventers bullying the shit out of certified jobber Punch Tominaga and watching him try to succeed long enough to pull out a win for his team. It’s just a charming watch, seeing all this quick action still solidify into this well-structured story about an underdog taking on a murderer’s row of the top talent in the company. Feel-good wrestling that goes down real easy.
Rating: ****
FTR vs. Ricky Starks & Big Bill (AEW 10/7/23)
I’m a big fan of matches that play out in an unexpected manner without sacrificing any quality or pacing. In this, we have a classic blowout in the style of the Punk/Mox squash from the year before. What makes it work so well is a compressed runtime packed with nothing but absolute violence. Starks & Bill are relentless in the attack from the word go, it’s a furious offensive play that never lets up for a second. A big announcer table, repeated chokeslams, and a one-two-three. The dictionary definition of “all killer, no filler” here.
Rating: ****
Bryan Keith vs. Timothy Thatcher (New Texas Pro 10/8/23)
I really love the dynamic that these two went for here. Thatcher presents himself as this outsider force coming after the king of the region in Bryan Keith. To that end, we have a very extended babyface shine where Thatcher, in spite of all his talent, just can’t seem to get a grasp on Keith. They remain fairly committed to that idea, and it takes a little bit of trickery and help from the ropes for Thatcher to finally get a foot in the door. BK’s great in this as the hometown hero, but man, I just can’t take my eye off Thatcher and everything he brings to this. I’m especially fond of how smothering his attempt to ground BK is late in the match. It’s never flashy enough to draw admiration from the crowd, but also never boring so as to lose them entirely. A pitch perfect pair of performances from both men, easily in the upper tier of BK’s New Texas Pro title defenses.
Rating: ****
Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Minoru Fujita (KTDan 10/12/23)
Even at this age, there’s still magic in the air when Ikeda and Ishikawa touch. It’s not all that it could be, but this match doesn’t ask too much of them. That’s the benefit of tag team wrestling is there’s always clever ways to tell multiple stories at once and to disguise weaknesses. Sekimoto and Fujita are supporting players but they add to the richness of the narrative here. Fujita, though the weak link in the equation, plays a fun nuisance disrupting the fight we came to see, while Sekimoto works to try and neutralize him. As for Ikeda and Ishikawa, the spite and hatred is still there with some great punches and headbutts. The body isn’t always willing, but the spirit of hate runs through them both. That’s all I really ask.
Rating: ****1/4
Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe (KTDan 10/12/23)
I’ll be writing more about this match at the end of the year (big shock if your eyes have already wandered to the snowflakes below) so I’ll keep it brief here. A real statement of what the Astronauts bring to their vision of professional wrestling. Occasionally comedic, but always, always so goddamn violent. These two fight in the way only those deeply bonded by philosophical commitment can, they hit each other with the kind of trust often only seen in blood brothers. Everything lands with such sickening brutality, bringing the realities of professional wrestling into such stark, glorious visibility. There’s so much more to unpack here, but the main reason it rules is so apparent: it whips an unparalleled amount of ass. I’ve seen some already push back against the overwhelming praise of this match—never to call it bad, but just to argue the level of its goodness—and I don’t mind that at all, all the voices I’ve heard push back have valid criticisms that I can understand.
I just don’t believe it for myself. It’s perfect.
Rating: *****
Mistico vs. Templario (CMLL 10/13/23)
The god of Arena Mexico does it again. Neat little switch up of pace here with Mistico not allowing Templario any room to breathe in the first fall with an immediate attack before the bell. Beyond that though, it’s the Mistico formula that’s come to work so well, basically as close as we get to a neatly segmented shine-heat-comeback 80s babyface as exists in 2023. What helps move things along nicely in this case would be that Templario might be Mistico’s most physical opponent. Templario has the best strikes and also a real great array of power moves to complement his big dives that make him function as a rudo against Mistico so well. But the magic is getting behind our hero, seeing him take to the skies, and bring us along for the ride.
Rating: ****
Christian Cage vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW 10/14/23)
Yet another excellent outing from the American Dragon. This time, this title match feels like the closest we’ve gotten to embodying the main event ethos of those early weeks of Collision since CM Punk left. Christian Cage has been getting a lot of attention for his heel work on the mic, but he’s applied that to his ring work as well. He’s always looking for the cheap way out as a heel, a lot of hair pulling and eye pokes, and it makes for such wonderful cut offs especially when he’s up against one of the greatest babyfaces of all time. They work the basics here, Christian going for Bryan’s bad arm, and Bryan milking everything he can out of selling and his fiery comebacks. Mixed in too is that real special moment of the front row fans dragging Dragon to his feet to help him get back into the fight. It’s what I love from TV wrestling given time to breathe—an easy face/heel divide, a clear structure, and two masters going at it.
Rating: ****1/4
The Workhorsemen vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (DPW 10/15/23)
There’s probably not a better tag team in North America today than The Workhorsemen. They’ve figured out this wonderful balance between being bruising bullies while still remaining classic chickenshit heels when necessary. They apply those principles to help GYV deliver on a great return to the indie scene. Gibson & Drake play their roles well here. Gibson locking horns with Henry is especially exciting and I’m eager to see more of those two down the line. James Drake’s relegated to playing face in peril as well as hitting some real sweet dives at the end and that works for him too. But it’s JD & Henry controlling the pace, working this modern take on the southern tag that makes it all come together. The rematch can’t come any sooner.
Rating: ****
Will Ospreay vs. Mike Bailey (Impact 10/21/23)
This being a Will Ospreay match, there’s still a few things here that I really didn’t care for. The big exchange of superkicks and hook kicks and all that that’s been clipped and circulated online kind of can’t help but make me roll my eyes a bit. There’s a lot I can tolerate from strike exchanges, but superkicks especially have an airy quality to them that makes them hard to buy into in this kind of context. I also don’t love how much Ospreay gives Bailey to survive in the final stretch, his Storm Driver especially gets less and less impressive the more it gets kicked out of.
That being said, outside of all that, this is probably the best individual Ospreay performance all year. Mechanically, everything’s as clean and weighty as it’s been. He really does look great bumping and basing, and Bailey’s no slouch in this department either. We get things like that beautiful top rope moonsault to the outside from Bailey. The real triumph is in the pacing though. Seventeen minutes that mostly move nonstop and crammed with just some of the coolest shit these two know how to do. A bombfest that wastes no time, the ideal Ospreay experience.
Rating: ****
Astronauts vs. Hideki Suzuki & Hikaru Sato (BJW 10/22/23)
By virtue of the talent involved and the tone of the match as a whole, this feels like a sequel to all the delights of We are the Fighting Detectives. Suzuki & Sato are especially interesting opponents for the Astronauts here as they force a much more grounded match than we typically get from them. That sort of disrupts the typical Astronauts formula in interesting ways as this match becomes a lot more about closed quarters grappling and one-on-one interactions.
It feels more like an organic riffing session than some of the other Astros tags, both to the match’s benefit and detriment. The free flowing pace means that this can at times be uneven, never quite as neatly structured as some other tags, and it does tend to lose some steam in the final moments. Where it benefits the match though is from this constant sense of struggle, that there’s no quarter given among the competitors. Suzuki especially is a ruthlessly petty bastard in this, finding all these small ways to frustrate and smother the BJW Tag Champs. It helps that the Astronauts return that pettiness in kind, best exemplified when Sato offers himself up to a kick exchange only to be ambushed on both sides by the champs for daring to offer himself up to harm.
There’s likely a tighter version of this that’s even better, but as far as 30 minute tag matches go, don’t think you’re going to find any better this year.
Rating: ****1/4