BWOTW: 11/4/16 - 16/4/16

Come in, sit down, have an After Eight whilst you relax and take in this week's hefty instalment  of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'SO MUCH FUCKING WRESTLING', its the most entries we've had on one blog post. I mean, there's always new weekly wrestling non-stop around the world, but of what I watch they've fucking thrown it all at me. Hope you like reading folks!

Oh, I changed the comment bit so anyone can do it, so feel free to tell me how I'm an idiot for not liking most Dean Ambrose matches. 

News of the past few days looked almost identical to this;

1. INTRODUCING The BWOTW Leaderboard, here I will keep track of all the wrestlers and their appearances in the blog. Wrestlers are listed individually unless they exclusively wrestle as a tag team (i.e. The Young Bucks). It's 1 point for having the best match on a show and an additional 3 points for having the best match of the week, so a single match could get 4 points for its competitors. It may spoil this week's results if you look now and do like all the math though
2. Not really major news, but someone put last week's Match of the Week on YouTube - Zack Sabre Jr vs Will Ospreay
3. Ricochet tweeted out that he wont be in the Global Cruiserweight Tournament, as he will be in New Japan's 'Best of the Super Juniors', which should also be a class event.
4. It also turns out Kota Ibushi wont be in either, with him reportedly now signing with a Japanese MMA company
5. Bullet Club 4 Lyfe - Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows debut on RAW and kick the piss out of The Usos. Very Nash and Hall style, perhaps they'll go full nWo and reveal a third man, probably Balor. I'm hoping they take The Usos spot in the Tag Title Tournament - by the way there's a Tag Team Title Tournament, which is awesome, making these big pennies mean something

And now, for the week in matches;

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on Monday Night RAW (11/4/16): Sami Zayn vs AJ Styles 
Honourable Mention: Cesaro vs Kevin Owens - No. 1 Contender Match for WWE Intercontinental Championship

What a bloody good RAW this was. Shane-O-Mania runnin' wild all over WWE programming! So, here we go. Shane booked this match at the top of the show, with the stipulation that if Zayn won, he'd be inserted into the World Title match to make a three way dance between him, Styles and Reigns. Started off nice and slow, chaining holds together, the usual. In my opinion, Zayn has the best looking arm-drags today, especially when AJ's tossing himself around for them. This match did a real good job of showing Zayn's determination and growing desperation, I loved it when they went for a clean break in the corner, Zayn backed up, clatter AJ with a bastard of a chop and then just backed off. Also, his face when AJ kicked out of the Blue Thunder Bomb, awesome. Also, I had a heart attack when Sami nearly landed on his head. Loved this one.

The honourable mention, Cesaro vs Owens. First off, Cesaro is James Bond now. Usual goodness we've got here. Owens worked the fuck out of Cesaro's shoulder, and the end sequence was really cool, countering the Pop-Up Powerbomb into the Neutralizer. 

Thursday Night SmackDown!

Best Match on SmackDown! (14/4/16): AJ Styles vs Alberto Del Rio

Get the piped in crowd reactions, its SmackDown! This week had some good matches, but with some of the roster flying out on European tour before the taping, we were missing some names. Best match this episode was 'The Phenomenal One' AJ Syles facing 'The Guy Who Returned A Few Months Back But Soon Lost Momentum' Alberto Del Rio. Pretty standard this one, AJ got his shit in, Del Rio got most of his shit in, he even dropped AJ on his head using a super reverse suplex. Scary, but he's okay folks!

NXT

Best Match on NXT (13/4/16): Shinsuke Nakamura vs Tye Dillinger

Pretty light NXT this week, taped at WrestleMania Axxess and whether the crowd wasn't mic'd up well or what but they seemed quite quiet (lordy the amount of times I checked those last two words). However, they were at their loudest in this match.
This one had kind if a comedic start, with Dillinger's eccentric 'Perfect 10' character and Nakamura's wealth of charisma. We saw Tye declare himself as a 10, only for the crowd to announce that Shinsuke is an 11. 
I feel like NXT is building up Tye a bit, he's been main eventing live events, teaming with Corbin to take on NXT Champion Finn Balor and his opponent here, Shinsuke. Plus, this match wasn't as much of a squash as I thought it was gonna be. Tye had near half the total offence of the match, cool. But, Nakamura Strong-Styled his way on top and kicked and knee'd and forearmed the fuck outta Dillinger. It's another win for Shinsuke!

Ring Of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (9/4/16): Dalton Castle vs Silas Young - Fight Without Honour

Seemingly capping off their feud, 'The Peacock of Professional Wrestling' Dalton Castle faces 'The Last Real Man of Professional Wrestling' Silas Young. A 'Fight Without Honour' comes from the early days of ROH. The founding principals of ROH was its focus on pure wrestling, with the company starting around the time when WCW and WWE programming would often see interferences and the like. There have only been a handful of 'Fights Without Honour' a match where there are said to be no rules, with these taking place when a blood feud calls for it. This is the first to be on television.
Big spots aplenty in this one, we had a powerbomb onto chairs, a fall onto a ladder, back body drop to an outside table. Although Silas was dominant near always, Castle had several flurries and glimpses of comebacks. Despite seeing this spot a few times, it still makes me wince, Silas was resting on the corner post on the floor, Dalton swings a chop, Silas moves, clang on the steel. Lordy the things that could do to your arm, it sounds like a hit in softball. Oh, and fuck me the amount of streamers that were thrown at Dalton were insane, crowds love the man. I'm a big fan of Silas, he's character is really cool and he has a real weird finisher - its a turnbuckle-headstand into a rope bounce moonsault, cool shit.

ROH: Supercard of Honour X 

Night 1

Best Match on ROH: SCOHX Night 1: Jay Lethal vs Lio Rush - Ring Of Honour World Championship Match

Coming to you from 'Mania Weekend, its Supercard of Honour X. The first night was home to this baller match-up: Top Prospect Tournament Winner Lio Rush and 'The Greatest First Generation Wrestler' Jay Lethal. Lethal was adored by the fans in Dallas, chants of 'Best in the World' and 'Let's go Lethal' rang out constantly, despite him technically being a heel. This match told a wonderful story, Lethal stating 'ROH is running out of ideas' and that 'The Champ's got a night off', having to face Rush, who had won this as the award for being Top Prospect, less than 2 years into his professional career and looking to make headlines. Lethal's cockiness was prevalent, slaps, refusal to shake hands, taunts, just being a dick to Lio. Rush is ridiculous in the ring, the agility on this guy is insane and he's a pleasure and exciting to watch. Wonderful, wonderful match.

Now, the end of this match saw Lethal retain, and further his point, that he has beaten everyone in ROH's locker room, and that there was nobody left. Enter Colt Cabana. For those unfamiliar, Cabana debuted for ROH way back in 2002, becoming tag team champions with his good friend CM Punk. He would later be signed to WWE developmental in '07, making a few appearances as 'Scotty Goldman' on TV before being released in 2009. He would return to ROH and the indies. Colt later left ROH due to disputes with at the time booker, Jim Cornette, who believed 'funny doesn't equal money', which is something Cabana heavily implements in his wrestling (Cornette is also the guy who didn't think Kevin Steen (Owens) and El Generico (Zayn) could be top stars). Colt being back is really quite major, with many thinking those bridges were burnt and a return was near unthinkable. Yet, here he is. He cut a fucking dope promo, super intense, and I cant wait to see Lethal vs Cabana. For more about Cabanarama, ROH have put up this lovely article

New Japan Pro Wrestling: Invasion Attack 2016

Best Match on NJPW: Invasion Attack 2016: KUSHIDA vs Will Ospreay - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Highlight Video

Making his New Japan debut, its young Will Ospreay, at 22 years old its incredible the level he's at right now. KUSHIDA here playing the veteran, targeting the arm from the get-go to set up his submission the 'Hoverboard (Kimura) Lock'. Will's screams of pain were horrific, I just wanted to crawl in the ring and hold him tight and yell at KUSHIDA 'He's just a boy!'. Ospreay pulled out his flips and kicks to ware down the champion, even teased Okada's Rainmaker Lariat. The Japanese crowd responded really well to Ospreay with lots of 'Ooos' and 'Aahhhs' to near everything. In the end, after a hard fought battle, Ospreay succumbed to the Hoverboard Lock and KUSHIDA retained. 

PWG: Bowie

Best Match on PWG: Bowie: Mikey Bailey vs Evil Uno
Video Preview

It's Pro Wrestling Guerilla's tribute to David Bowie, uh, 'Bowie'. Its two first appearances here, 'Speedball' Mikey Bailey and Evil Uno. Bailey is one of my favourite wrestlers in PWG, with him debuting since I have been watching. He's essentially The Karate Kid. Evil Uno is the new version of Player Uno. Once one half of the tag team 'The Super Smash Bros.', he's now found a darker side and now hails from Bowser's Castle. Uno was right mean bastard for the majority of this match, chopping Mikey's chest to shit and destroying him with an Alabama Slamma to the ring apron and something I think might be the coolest thing ever, a second rope Tombstone Piledriver. Bailey was the underdog throughout, a role that suits him wonderfully and made his later match comebacks all that much better. Kicks, kicks and shooting stars, Bailey is awesome. 

EVOLVE 59

Best Match on EVOLVE 59: Ricochet vs Will Ospreay - USA vs Europe Series Match 4

Ain't no stopping Will, NOOOOOOOO. Remember how I talk about Ospreay's flip-dee-doo goodness? Yeah? Well, now he's versus Ricochet so times that by 2. Good Christopher Walken almighty, this match was the bee's pyjamas and the cat's knees. Everything here was goddamn impressive, wowing the piss outta me. I've already expressed my deep love of young Will, but Ricochet is here debuting on BWOTW (i.e. this fucking thing). If you want to know who or what Ricochet is, take The Rock and have him do the fusion dance with every high flyer ever. He even does the most electrifying move in all of indy wrestling, The People's Moonsault. Two elite high flyers going head-to-head almost always creates something that displays how beautiful, exciting and amazing professional wrestling can be, and boy is that true right here.
Some guy put it on YouTube

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Jay Lethal vs Lio Rush - ROH World Championship Match - ROH: Supercard of Honour X Night One

This was a tough decision this week, was really struggling to pick between this, Ospreay/Ricochet, Uno/Bailey and KUSHIDA/Ospreay.  In the end, this one took the biscuit and didn't even feel bad about it. I feel like I enjoyed this one the most, it was a well performed match and told a good story, 'cocky confident champion takes lightly the newest face in the locker room with his underestimating causing him some trouble'. I'm loving Jay Lethal's reign. Find this one if you can, but as I mentioned it was a tough choice and all those are awesome, there's a link for the Ospreay/Ricochet, I recommend you give it a watch if you're only used to WWE or just want to see something amazing.