Monday, October 24, 2016

Fave Five 10/17/16-10/23/16

1) Katsuhiko Nakajima: The rare week to not include anyone from the WWE. The biggest accomplishment of the week came from Pro Wrestling NOAH. After years of being dominated by the Suzuki-Gun faction, NOAH was able to regain the title thanks to Katsuhiko Nakajima. Nakajima as arguably the MVP of the G1 Climax this year, so to see him rewarded with his first GHC Heavyweight Title win was great. He defeated Takashi Sugiura and is most likely in line for a defense against Minoru Suzuki. Considering the NOAH vs. NJPW feud, I'd love to see Nakajima defend his title in the Tokyo Dome on 1/4, maybe against Yuji Nagata since they had an awesome match in the G1 Climax. Either way, this is an excellent win for Nakajima and hopefully represents a turning point for NOAH.

             2) Eddie Edwards: Picking a second choice this weekend was tough but I went with the TNA Champion. Sure he didn't rank this high when he actually won the title, but that was a tougher week. Here, he had a match that I actually went out of my way to check out. He successfully defended his TNA Title against Cody Rhodes in a match that felt like a relatively big deal. It as a really good performance by both men and a strong early defense to solidify Edwards as champion. His run with the ROH Title was largely forgettable, so hopefully he gets better shine with the TNA Heavyweight Title.

3) ACH and Taiji Ishimori: Last year, New Japan's Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament was full of pretty good matches, but nothing really good. There were three first round matches this year and one really stood out. The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, the Young Bucks, took on the winners of Pro Wrestling NOAH's Jr. Tag League, ACH and Taiji Ishimori. ACH and Ishimori are the team I'm hoping wins since they didn't book Momo No Seishun and reDRagon are heavyweights. ACH and Ishimori surprised many by upsetting the Bucks in the second best Bucks match I've seen all year. ACH and Ishimori have a good chance to win it all. They should actually.

4) Prince Puma: At the Lucha Underground season one finale, Ultima Lucha, Prince Puma lost to Mil Muertes. That ended Puma's season one long Lucha Underground Title reign. Though he was part of the Trios Champions in season two, Puma was no longer the focal point of the company. He then lost to Rey Mysterio Jr. at Ultima Lucha Dos. With some nudging from Vampiro, he targeted the man who started his struggles, Muertes. This led to a match this week where Puma exorcised his demons and finally picked up a win over Muertes in a really good match. He became only the second man in Lucha Underground history (that I can recall) to pin Muertes in a one on one match, joining Fenix.

5) Matanza Cueto: Picked up another successful Lucha Underground Title defense.