match reviews

weapons duel ahoy fascinating first fall the control if we can call it that from either side is very knife edge. faces pick up the win eventually with a combo on Moreno. The heels do telling damage in the second fall with asuka bleeding and chigusa eating the pin. the heels target the cut in the third and the match breaks down in the third leading to a double countout. chaotic bloody. rules. 8/10

 Vicious sneak attack by the heel trio leading to them having solid control in the first fall. New referee with facepaint in this match who the heels do double team moves with which was fun. heels win the first fall by attrition. The heels lose track of Chigusa for a moment leading a series of triple teams on Crane yu ending in a heel win via spike piledriver by the Crush gals. Mayhem ensues in fall three great brawl leading to a dq on the heels with hair cutting and babyface blading as a part of it the road to the hair match begins rating 8/10 impressed with peggy lee

The vets start off with a sneak attack that backfires. Neither side maintains control for long with the faces getting a surprising amount of offense in. the vet offense comes in the form of arm control on both the babyfaces. I think Jaguar kinda feels in character like she's a bit past her peak. I don't mean artistically more so how much she's allowed to be in control on offense has notably been slipping. It definitely feels like Devil Masami is carrying a good amount of the offensive load. Vets win eventually. Probably my least favorite of the Jaguar Devil vs young guns tags. Not bad but relatively probably my lowest rated of them due to overly blurry structure. 7/10

Lord that is a shockingly strong cold open. Feel like the prologue is a little hostile with how it throws you into the deep end combat wise. It's interesting that our first experience with the cast is them in this it might be too early to say final state but in such a polished state which is kinda fun as a contrast to the protracted getting the team together sequences that define the modern persona titles. Kinda frustrating how the prologue undercuts the amicable first meeting between Rean and Alisa by immediately diving into a vaguely horny misunderstanding leading into tsundere nonsense. Machius and Jusis are probably the interpersonal dynamic i find most interesting on a theoretical level Though it begs the question of what the thesis of this series is going to be regarding aristocracy and empire in general cause sometimes in media an empire can feel more like a kingdom instead.

 Cause I'm oblivious at times here's the overall thoughts on disk 6. The vibe on this disk content wise is immaculate. The crowds are white hot Dump Matsumoto and Crane Yu are amazing heel anchors and it's so fun seeing The Crush Girls and Devil Masami let loose. The thing i notice about myself in this disk is how I value expressive the none face in peril partner is which I realize is part of why I'm cold on Lioness Asuka. Possibly wild theory ajw foreshadows the flaws of all japan in the 90s in how they handle submissions

 Winner for surprise match of the set. It's been a minute since we've seen itsuki and I'm impressed. Really solid vicious targeting of jaguar's hand and arm while in control. Eventually the veteran wiles of Yokota win out. I came into this predicting an old man jumbo sort of performance from yokota and got the exact opposite. Super fun 7.5/10

 March 14th Friday show complete. good week of lucha if a weird last portion of the Friday show due to the earthquake warning partway through. I would say that puts the Tuesday show above it even if I find it hard to penalize a promotion for a thing not in their control. kudos to cmll for being able to put on as many trios matches as they do and still keep things interesting that takes genuine consideration to not them start to blend together. the volume mixing on the entrances was the thing I struggled with it seemed like the combination of the ring announcer and the music drowned out the crowd and it made me realize how much i rely on that first burst of crowd noise during a wrestler's walk to the ring to help place them on the heel face spectrum. I will say that skill issue is a valid response to my last point. one specific thing I struggled with was telling max star and futuro apart because their outfits looked so similar. overall feeling on the 8/10

 This maybe the most ineffective heel control fall in the set. The luchadoras get the sneak attack. The second fall is in general a much better showing from the heels with an assist by Dump and crane ending in a super tombstone for the win. The third fall sees asuka and lola both bleeding with the heels going full vampire as is the grand lucha tradition though the faces do get the win in the end. One of the few times we've seen the faces bleed on the set iirc I wish there was slightly less interference from the alliance but a really fun one. 7.5/10 

Chigusa starts off with a missed spinning high kick that forces Yokota into the ropes leading to an Irish whip that leads to a missed punch that Jaguar rolls under. The first control segment of the first fall is on The lioness's leg which is short but leads into a tag from chigusa that leads to the vets going after Chigusa's back and abs. The thing i notice about this segment is the copious use of devil's size and power moves. Asuka tags in misses a dropkick and gets irish whipped by the devil with asuka altering her angle to run into Jaguar on the apron knocking her to ringside. The devil misses her attack and gets lifted by Asuka into a back suplex position with Chigusa capitalizing via back elbow off the top combing with Asuka dropping the devil. they continue with stereo spinning body kicks into a giant swing by Asuka leading into a back superplex for the pin in fall 1. The second fall begins with a flurry of kicks from Asuka onto the dazed devil's head following up...

 Now this is more like it. We start off with a slap exchange ending in a miss by Jaguar leading to nasty leg work by Galactica. The challenger gets her moments in control with head arm and back stuff but at large is kept on the back foot. Jaguar gets her best moments on the outside via brawling and post a dropkick to Galactica causing her to drop to the apron then to ringside. A double arm suplex leading to an eventual jaguar special get the win for the challenger. Great love the meanness and animosity in this encounter Yokota blading certainly doesn't hurt it. If I didn't know better I'd guess this was the apuestas 9/10

 This maybe the shortest review of the bunch cause there's not a lot to add to what's in the footage. Great face in peril from Chigusa awesome beatdown administered the alliance and a great comeback with a bs dq from The ref on the babyfaces. content wise 8/10. The weird thing about this match was it felt edited more so than other matches. question for the readers was this clipped on the classics release?

 Rematch of the first match on this disk of the set. The hype is real. Jaguar Yokota comes into this with a bandaged shoulder and back area. Jaguar and Devil start quickly with a press from Jaguar leading into a hotshot from the devil. brief moment of control but distinctly unlike the last match the confidence of the veterans appears dented from the off. They start off so quickly it contributes to a sense of desperation. The crush girls take control via exploiting jaguar's injury at which point this becomes a race of endurance between the experience and big bombs of the veterans focusing on Lioness Asuka against the ability of Jaguar to continue in light of her injury. Eventually the attrition on Jaguar's shoulder forces a referee stoppage. Very different from the first match maybe doesn't quite reach the heights of the first encounter really enjoyable nonetheless 7.8 

Complicated match for me to rate let's get into it. The structure of the first fall is defined by both sides jockeying for definitive advantage with the crush girls getting it on Omori and getting the fall as a result. the second fall starts out with the crush girls pushing their advantage before a crossbody is countered into a pseudo suplex by Hori leading the champions to get the second fall eventually. The third fall is double face in peril on both crush girls with Chigusa getting the upset win via German suplex. Lord this crowd was molten all throughout this deep crush girls pro crowd. I think they execute the structure they want to well enough though personally i wish the champions had leaned more into an overtly heelish aspect which I really appreciated Jaguar and devil doing in their match against the crush girls. Even with my gripes the moment is so great I can't justify not going 8/10 on it

Another fun sneak attack by the atrocious alliance false Devil shine leads into an fip segment on Jaguar Yokota. Yokota makes for a great face in peril the babyfaces get to beat up on Shiro Abe leading to minor bleeding from the heel ref. it's interesting the differences in how Jaguar and Masami are portrayed. Devil is shown being able to at least in moments be able to go toe to toe with Dump and Crane on a size level where as Jaguar is almost framed as a junior heavyweight. the alliance uses multiple weapons leading to Devil Masami using her iconic Kendo stick leading to a Double dq. Really fun if a bit below the previous match 8.5/10. A thing i said about the first match on this disk was predicting that the year 1986 might be the year AJW switches to predominantly one fall tag matches consider me corrected via the last match reviewed. It'll be interesting to track when each format is used across this disk.

The action starts off with a sneak attack from Matsumoto and Yu using the bouquet of flowers competitors get post match which i loved. Such a great improvisational weapon to start off with. This leads into a segment at ringside which pivots in face in peril segment on Omori. Hori is such a great indignant babyface throughout the whole thing. the first fall ends in a heel victory. the notable thing in the second fall is a bit of Abe Shiro cheating backfiring when Dump accidently smacks Shiro. Other than that, the great heel work continues but ends up being so egregious the heels end up being disqualified. the third fall is focused on the comeback and what a glorious it is. It's helped along by the fact that between the second and third fall the heel manager and Abe Shiro are both ejected. The faces get their revenge on Dump with her blading and taking a doomsday crossbody which rules alongside a second rope Samoan drop esque thing for the fall. Pitch perfect southern tag match execu...

 It's odd how at least for my fandoms 2025 feels like a dark mirror of 2016-17 or maybe oddly darker given how dark the first administration already was. First administration... I'll stop before this becomes ranting about the triplet sins of wealth racism and ableism. This is my first month trying to test if the wrestling fandom in me was like dead yeast or not by picking out two shows and seeing how i reacted to them. the shows being Ase's televised product on YouTube and deadlock pro. Verdict yup it's alive and burning hot. It's interesting that there was or maybe still is an instinctive cringe at comparisons between comics and wrestling from the wrestling side of things. There's still a lingering trauma response to the cartoony elements of 80s wwf presentation but that's enough of that.  It strikes me that both times I've successfully dived back into wrestling have been when the world has been going to shit. Now that I think about it the same holds tr...