Last night, count them, not one, BUT TWO girls walked up to me and told me "I love you!". A dude told me I was an inspiration. Just another night for Superstar Sleeze (@superstarsleeze), the hottest attraction in the Greater Boston Area, BABY!
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| I LOVE ME TOO! We have something in common! |
My inspiration as a dance commander comes from my years of the watching the greatest art form that mankind has ever produced, professional wrestling. Arguably, the most outstanding wrestler of the past year in the world was my main man, AJ Styles! AJ Styles is my personal favorite wrestler of the past 15 years and has been very exciting that other people have jumped on the AJ bandwagon after he left TNA for New Japan Pro Wrestling and the US Indy Scene. Even thought, I have been beating the drum for AJ as a great wrestler (I will post those reviews over the course of time) while he was in TNA. He was often lumped in with the general "TNA sucks" talking point. It does bother me that a lot of the praise for AJ's phenomenal often comes with the remark "Look how much better AJ is now that he is not in TNA." It bothers me if people think there was some sort of epiphany AJ had last year and now he is outstanding and somehow sucked before. If the point is more along the lines AJ is so much better offer because TNA is a shitty promotion. Now that I can get behind as I agree TNA's promotional and booking strategies definitely hamstring every wrestler they have ever had. Make no mistake about it, AJ was a badass wrestler throughout the majority of his career.
I was worried though that now AJ was out of TNA. If he was still not well-received, he really would have no excuse. While I would go to like what I like, it always more fun when other people really enjoy what you like. So to have numerous people discussing AJ as a Most Outstanding Wrestler in the World candidate, really brings a smile to face. My smile was only further widen when I found out the Phenomenal One would be coming to my neck of the woods, Rhode Island, January 17th, XWA. Now due to other wrestling watching priorities, I missed out AJ Styles's awesome 2014 save for the ROH show in NYC, which was disappointing. AJ seemed game, but Okada was disinterested and Elgin was all over the place. Now it is time to rectify that.
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| BEST IN THE WORLD! |
I decided to started with the lesser known portion of AJ's 2014 campaign: his US Indies Tour of 2014 because I will be viewing him in that setting. The most famous match of this tour and rightfully so that is against Chris Hero. Hero, much like AJ, departed from a major pro wrestling company, WWE, to strike it out on the road of the Indies and Japan (NOAH). As both were still in the nascent stages of their return to being true independent contractors, they met in one helluva slobberknocker. AJ Styles has this reputation for being a high-flyer and a generally pretty wrestler. Much like Brian Pillman, just because he can fly does NOT mean that is all he does. AJ can take to the mat (amateur wrestling background) and he knows how to get nasty with his strikes. In Dayton, OH, Chris Hero's hometown, Hero returned to take on AJ Styles in a dream match, but also one with high stakes as both men could be potential ROH World Champions in the future (once AJ signed with New Japan that seems unlikely as that is too much of a time commitment.) Hero's was using his knockout head shots like antiaircraft artillery. The story of the match became could Hero knock AJ's head off first or would AJ survive long enough to hit his own big bomb. Even more amazing than the great match was how it was presented as a real Clash of the Titans with a big fight feel. I cited Cena vs. Lesnar as pretty much the only match that could generate that feel for me, but damn did Styles and Hero do that for me and using ROH production values. In the US, I have this only behind the Wyatts vs Shield in my match of the year rankings.
The other marquee ROH match was against one half of the ROH World Tag Champions, the up and coming Kyle O'Reilly. I had seen reDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) against the Young Bucks at the ROH show in NYC I attended and it was a spectacular, mindless spotfest (the most entertaining match on the show from a firework perspective). O'Reilly is a little bland and it seems Fish adds the character portion of their team. Still, O'Reilly's violent attack on Styles weak arm from the G-1 Climax was badass. It was the perfect match for O'Reilly to excel and a real meat and potatoes match. Styles worked his ass off here. Just selling the arm like a million bucks. He took a 50/50 crowd to start to being totally pr-AJ in anticipation of his comeback. The Styles Clash teases throughout the match led to a real satisfying finish.
I am little worried about the AJ Styles I'll see because while he has ripped it up in ROH. His two Indy matches outside of ROH I watched were either disappointing or average. The first was not his fault as Kevin Steen just wanted to do a comedy the match. The Ricochet match until the finish was pretty by the numbers spotfest. I would be happy seeing a match like the Ricochet match just because seeing AJ would be a treat, but to see something along the lines of those ROH performances would be mind blowing. It is too bad he paired with Jason Blade and not Buff Busick.
Finally. if anybody has a copy of the AJ Styles vs Drew Gulak from the CZW 15th Anniversary, hook a brother up! Overall, AJ Styles has been really been able to showcase his talents on the Indy scene. He builds to the Styles Clash so well and is just an incredible seller. I always thought he had the best strikes of any X-Division wrestler, but his elbows seem to have a bit extra behind him and I love the addition of that strike combination. I look forward to watching AJ's matches from New Japan and especially this weekend for XWA in Rhode Island!
Match Listing:
AJ Styles vs Chris Hero - ROH 3/22/14
Slobberknocker. Hero's head shots against AJ's survival tactics. Match of the Year Candidate
AJ Styles vs Kyle O' Reilly - ROH 8/22/14
O'Reilly tries to bring AJ's arm home with him. AJ builds to Styles Clash perfectly. GREAT finish!
AJ Styles vs Kevin Steen - House of Hardcore V August 2014
A Steen comedy match. Avoid.
HOG Heavyweight Champion Ricochet vs AJ Styles - HOG 12/19/14
A little all over the place, but really good home stretch until bullshit finish.
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AJ Styles vs Chris Hero - ROH 3/22/14
Coming out the nice chaining sequence, Hero gets his first big boot as he swats AJ out of the sky on a leapfrog attempt. AJ says two can play at the disturbing the typical running the rope sequences and gets up a bit early on his dropdown, which fucks Hero enough to hit a dropkick to send him out. They do a great job teasing dives on each other with Hero paying tribute Misawa's head and shoulder fake. AJ wins with a springboard forearm to the outside. Hero cuts AJ off with another big boot as he comes out of the air. Chris Hero is anti-aircraft artillery. AJ runs into the mother of all big boots to his head and does a great death drop sell. It is at this point, Hero knows exactly what his strategy is. Knock AJ the fuck out with knees, elbows and straight front kicks to the head. It was brutal, gnarly and violent. AJ is sick and tired of these kicks and tries to take out the knee with a dragon leg screw so Hero obliterates him with an elbow. But as Hero pours it on, AJ slowly starts to fade. First, he can get a bit of offense here and there and goes for Styles Clash, but then offensive spells get fewer and further between. AJ was just spot on checking to see if his teeth were there, glassy eyed selling, acting concussed. He starts running wholesale into big boots because he doesn't know what else to do. In a last ditch effort, AJ gets a suplex into the turnbuckles and he unloads his new strike combination, which Hero does well countering the Pele. Now it is Hero that is on jelly legs. Styles may have hit the head shot to get him back in it. Styles wastes no time and goes for the Styles Clash. Hero blocks and hits a wicked Akiyama-like elbow to the back of the head. ROARING BIG BOOT~! HOLY SHIT~! That was a great nearfall for Hero. Hero may have punched himself out and AJ has just enough in the tank to come flying back with lariats at Hero. Then he rolls through for the Calf Killer and Hero has nothing left to do but tap out. AJ survives.
It was Hero's anti-aircraft strategy of kicks, elbows and knees to the head against Styles's survival tactics. This felt like an absolute major clash of forces. It was important match for AJ on the indy scene and going forward in New Japan that he could take a licking and keep on ticking. I know he could I watched TNA stuff very closely, but for a lot of people I think they looked at AJ and saw X-Division wrestler, which means pretty flips and choreographed, floor gymnastics bullshit. AJ can take a whupping and deliver one. I don't know how many people thought AJ had this in him before watching this match. I know I did because his matches with Abyss, Bully Ray, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels only showcase this side of AJ Styles. Hero was really good in this and he had a MOTYC last year against Regal. For some reason, I have never sought out more Hero. I enjoy Hero, but he lacks that spark that really gets me interested. Damn, he still impresses. It is not just offense, the key to the match is the pele kick because that is the move that levels the playing field. If he does not sell that well then Styles' victory would ring hollow and he would like a chump for basically choke. Thus it was in his best interest to sell in doing so he got himself, AJ and the match over. This was a standup, knockdown slobberknocker. Definitely in my Top 5 American Matches of the Year so far. ****1/2
| Badass! |
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IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs
ROH World Tag Team Champion Kyle O' Reilly w/Bobby Fish - ROH 8/22/14
Everybody talks about the Hero ROH match from earlier in the year, but damn this is not that far behind it. AJ has been on point in ROH in terms of his selling and his timing his timing. Whether it was acting concussed or glassy eye for Hero's headshots or selling his arm so well for O'Reilly that ROH crowd was clamoring for the AJ comeback. I would say the biggest difference between this AJ and the AJ I knew was that he is definitely laying his strikes in a lot harder. I always thought Styles had one of the better working punches in TNA and is generally underrated in his striking. But here against O'Reilly, during the finish stretch, I was surprised how nasty his clolthesline and elbows looked. O'Reilly has a pretty bland look, but is a fun wrestler. When I went to ROH last year, reDragon (Fish & O'Reilly) had a really fun spotfest with the Young Bucks. O'Reilly wrestled this match much more straightfoward highlighting some "MMA" influences (read: he used kicks and a cross-armbreaker). I really liked O'Reilly focus on the arm and thought he came up with some innovative, but logical spots to attack the arm (hammerlock into a legsweep).
The announcers let us know before the match begins that AJ is coming in with a weak left arm from the G-1 Climax tournament. O'Reilly read the scouting report and goes after the arm early so AJ dumps him to the outside with a bodyslam. It was a great response by AJ to immediately get O'Reilly off him. Fish becomes a distraction and O'Reilly becomes a pitbull on that arm. The way he was wrenching it, you thought he was going to take it home with him. AJ is so great at slowly escalating his selling. AJ gets a quick counter and wants to get this match over with quick and goes for the Styles Clash, but his arm is messed up. He bursts out of the corner with a double fist to maintain control. Styles is able to continue hit other moves like the Skywalker Knee while his arm heals. Then on the outside, Fish distracts him again and O'Reilly whips him down on the bad arm. That's twice now Fish has been able to set up O'Reilly. Now AJ is really starting to milk his arm for sympathy as O'Reilly unloads on it with kicks and wrenches it with holds. Styles is scrappy, but O'Reilly always goes back to the arm. I love that when O'Reilly goes for any overly complicated suplex, AJ reverses it and suplexes him into the corner. AJ is so great on fighting through the pain on this comeback and displaying how he can't capitalize due to his injured arm. He keeps going for his big bomb, the Styles Clash, but this leaves him open for counters like cross-armbreakers and triangle chokes. The teased Styles Clashes really build to a cool climax. When Styles looks like he is done for in a triangle choke and AJ basically hits a one-armed Styles Clash in a desperation move. It was such a badass spot and they really milk with the ref counting both men down and the fans chanting "AJ Styles". Damn, well done. They go into a strike exchange, which as far as strike exchanges go was not that bad and liked the finish being the Pele kick. Crowd was really behind AJ and the crowd interaction made this more tolerable than most strike exchanges. Styles strikes especially the discus clothesline looked great. O'Reilly with great struggle on Styles Clash so what does Styles do he just drops him on his head GANSO BOMB~! That was sick. It should have been the finish, but Styles drives it home with the Style Clash.
It is the Styles Clash against the submissions of O'Reilly. O'Reilly has made it so the Styles Clash is damn near impossible to hit and set himself up for a submission victory. I love AJ's responses. He is injured and needs to get this match over with quickly. At every opportunity, he is going for his big bomb, arm be damned. With each tease of the Styles Clash, the tension mounts. O'Reilly looks like he is prime position when out of desperation hits the Styles Clash out of a triangle choke. O'Reilly was great at struggling through everything and really making AJ earn his comeback. It would have been easy for him to let the veteran, AJ overwhelm, but even after the match started to tip in AJ's favor he was still struggling up until the AJ's ganso bomb. I thought AJ's experience really came through here in how he sold and built his comeback. It went from a split crowd to a crowd that was 100% AJ by the end. Great, great work by AJ. ****1/4
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AJ Styles vs Kevin Steen - House of Hardcore V August 2014
What a colossal disappointment! If I paid to see this match, I would have been ripshit. The crowd seemed to have fun with it, which is good on them. I was watching this on Bulgarian Youtube so I did find certain things humorous, but fuck I actually would have been kinda pumped to see this as a wrestling match. This is second time within in a year that Steen's sarcastic wrestling style has actively ruined a match. I thought he really killed the Nakamura match at the ROH show I went to. Some of his stuff was pretty funny like patting down the ref and yelling "Leave me alone" in the middle of the match. However, threatening to stay in a chinlock the entire match and jawing with a Cena fan was eyeball-roll inducing. Though AJ was actually pretty funny in his chinlocks with "I am either going to spoon him all night long or pop his head like a pimple". The best part of the match by far the commentators (Matt Striker was one) played this match super straight. So after the battle of allegedly comedic chinlocks they called this "a chess match" and I actually burst out laughing. They went into a finishing stretch where they hit a bunch of moves on each other with Steen aping the Stunner and the F-5. AJ wins with the Styles Clash. Fuck Steen Fuck! Total waste of AJ and if I was a paying customer, I would have felt ripped off.
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HOG Heavyweight Champion Ricochet vs AJ Styles - HOG 12/19/14
Wow, an actually pretty decent indy commentary team! I thought they did a fabulous job putting over Ricochet while still mentioning his weaknesses. They stressed how important the championship is and that the goal of the match is to win, not to entertain. Really I think that is basic stuff, but so many commentators totally whiff on that. What really impressed me was their discussion of the Styles Clash. This was after Styles broke Yoshi Tatsu's neck. The commentators explained how critical the Styles Clash has been to his career and agreed he should use it, but were worried about the danger. It really increased the drama around the match and the Styles Clash.
Ricochet had quite the 2014 and seems like he is poised to breakout this year in a big way. He won NJPW Best of the Super Juniors and Battle of Los Angeles tournaments. He was the inaugural Lucha Underground champion, a key mainstay in Dragon Gate (decorated titleholder), and of course House of Glory champion. I was excited to take a look at Ricochet. I came away thinking he felt really Dragon Gate-y. He is good at incorporating extra flips into his offense and likes modified slams. He is not very good at strikes and is sort of all over the place as a wrestler. AJ did not seem to intent on reigning him in until the end of the match. This was a pretty tame spotfest. The first portion of the match was the best with some good mat wrestling until the finish. Ricochet would gain the advantage do some gloating and AJ would retreat to the corner. Ricochet is established as a grandstanding hot dog that may let his attitude get in his way of winning. AJ shows his veteran experience. Ricochet calls his shot, a People's Moonsault and AJ rearranges his face with a kick. The next five minutes were pretty spotty. AJ's offense looked crisp at least. There was an AJ legsweep and Ricochet started to sell the knee. I was hoping they could salvage something then Ricochet did two backflips and a Pele kick. But wait! Ricichet's knee is really starting to bother him and he struggles to hit a Shooting Star Press. and crashes and burns. Styles drags him over and figure-4 around the post. AJ looks to hit the Styles Clash, but Ricochet flips out. AJ wraps up the leg and CALF-KILLER! Ricochet makes the ropes. AJ is tenacious with a spinning toehold into a wicked STF. Bell rings, but it due to the time limit expires. He agree to five more minutes, but then the Bruiser Brody Midget attacked the both of them.
The beginning and the ending were pretty entertaining, but the body of the match was them just throwing shit out. AJ's offense especially elbows looked great. I really how he is into Styles Clash teases. They could have salvaged a good match with an appropriate ending to the knee work. It must be tough to book AJ because he is not going to job, but you want your top star to look good. It is kind of like the old NWA travelling champion philosophy. I think tag team main events that set up singles matches would be better. It is fine, but nothing that great.
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Next time, we will look at the part of AJ Styles' 2014 that really cemented his status as a candidate for the most outstanding wrestler for the year: his run in New Japan Pro Wrestling, more specifically, the G-1 Climax!
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