Forever Forward Fridays

Riho VS Emi Sakura - AEW 3/3/2023

JJZ: Sticking with the AEW here. Side question to start. They mentioned during the commentary that Riho started wrestling when she was 9. I know that Kenny Omega was one of her trainers. Is she the girl that he wrestled back in the day? I tried to look it up real quick and got nothing. So this was a really smart match with Riho working from under while Emi Sakura used size and strength to maintain the offense. Emi had a little swag in her game I thought. I don't think I've seen her before but I maybe have in the past with you on a Saturday night filled with wrestling. I think both ladies came out of this match looking better than they went into it. I really enjoyed the commentary also. Jericho and Excalibur were fantastic together. JR really needs to hang it up. Enjoy baby cakes.

CJD: Riho started working with Omega when she was something like 13 so you'd think she was the same girl, right? But no, that was another child wrestler (9 years old) who Kenny had the infamous match with. I don't believe I've ever watched a Sakura match before either and I agree, she put some stank on this match. In a good way. I thought her and Hayter in our last match both built very compelling structures around Riho, who if I'm going to be honest, I think is fairly limited. The positives she brings to the table are strong though and these two matches highlighted them nicely. I really loved that tiltawhirl backbreaker on the outside. And some of those pinning reversals. The main thing I left this match with was an appreciation for their chemistry, and how Emi in particular refused to rush this match. There were a few moments you could tell another opponent would have executed one second sooner, and those seconds over the course of the match really add up. I love that seasoned approach and am looking forward to getting a better understanding of her career!

Dangerous River

Eddie Guerrero/Essa Rios VS the Hardy Boyz - WWF 4/17/2000

CJD: This is such a good television tag match. Really everything you could want especially with all the moving pieces. It honestly exceeded my expectations... except one glaring issue. You'll be able to tell by the end. I rewatched a few times to try to figure out what happened and I think it was a rare Eddie botch where he immediately realized he had to just own it to make the spot work. But man is he so, so fucking good as always every other second from the moment he walks out with Chyna to the moment the video cuts off. I loved the two of them together in this run. Essa has a real edge in this match that I enjoyed. The Hardys in this era were every backyard wrestler's heroes. And they were such a force in US wrestling in general, so unique and totally unstoppable. I can gladly overlook that one miscommunication to play this one forward to you. It's a real moment in time!

JJZ: This is a fucking dream match on paper. Could you imagine if they got twenty minutes. Totally forgot Lita was with Essa Rios at one point. Watching Eddie wrestle is like Christmas moring. I'm so excited for all of his moves. They are like little presents. I know what I'm going to get but I love them every time I open another box. The Hardys and Rios have such explosive offense that you can't blink. Also Jesus Jeff bumps so hard for everything I don't know how he is walking today. Another fantastic TV match. Love me some Eddie. You absolutely know where I'm going next!

Back Next Week

What's good my PIF fam, it's CJD here, hopefully telling you for the last time in a while we're missing our updates this week. But we will be back for certain next Tuesday and Friday! The matches are in the bank and they both rule. On my end my family's move is finally in the latter half (of Phase I at least) so I should have my priorities back on pro wrestling blogging any day now. See y'all then!!

Forever Forward Fridays

Riho VS Jamie Hayter - AEW 12/8/2021

CJD: I know my JJZ, and I know there's one thing he loves here at PIF above all else. When two matches we share show very different sides of a pro wrestler! And while Hayter's big personality shines through no matter if she's working under or in top, the nuts and bolts of how she works this match are very different than our last match VS Ayesha. With an opponent like Riho that's no surprise, but I was still super impressed with how well Hayter did in very different settings. There's also one big slice of pizza in this match that Jamie scoops right off the ground, dusts off, and says "5 second rule!!" I thought with the story it told they needed to deliver one hell of a finish if I was going to play this one forward. The match kind of hinged on it. Well I'm playing it forward, so you know how I feel about that. And it's nice getting a non-pandemic AEW match up in here, at least for as long as TK allows this upload to exist.

JJZ: So CJD, I actually watched this one live! Side note my wife walks in during the match and says "oh shit Chun-Li!" I did not pick up on the cosplay. This is a fantastic TV match man. Playing up on the size difference is basic math. Baker's antics on the outside were great but not over the top to take away from the work going on in the ring. I didn't think the pizza was that bad. Loved the finish. That bump was nasty. I remember not expecting much from this one at the time and liking it. Very nice pick

Rock Star, Flip Into The Crowd Like TAKA Michinoku

TAKA Michinoku VS Papi Chulo - ECW 4/3/1999

JJZ: Redo! So with this match I just wanted some late night junk food  goodness. We got all the hits in this one. The best thing about this match that was they hit everything on point. You know with ECW that matches like these, it can go off the rails sometimes. Now I know we both have seen this before but I'm 100 percent positive that we've never reviewed it before. Love me some ECW and their ability to let wrestlers be themselves. It made a lot of wrestler's careers. Watching ECW is like putting on an old pair of shoes. It just feels good man.

CJD: I'll be honest, I remember a few matches from this show, but absolutely nothing about this match. Not even that TAKA came back to ECW at all. So this was a pleasant surprise! The execution was good in this one indeed. It was a little your turn, my turn, but looking at where it was in the card and the time they had that kinda makes sense. The crowd was totally along for the ride. In some ways it was just fascinating to see what a match like this looked like in ECW in 1999. One guy on his way up to WWF. One guy on his way out. International talent colliding which ECW loved. And the two standouts from our last MDTSOCWWKD match going one on one! This was meant to be JJZ.

Forever Forward Fridays

Ayesha Raymond (c) VS Jamie Hayter - GWF Women's Championship 11/3/2018

JJZ: Baby cakes. How you doing! I'm doing great I'm on vacation, drinking a cold one and watching this plucky underdog baby face in Jamie Hayter vs the monster Ayesha Raymond. This match was all about working from under for Hayter and trying to take advantage of Raymond's mistakes. Really good little indy match here. Love the build and psychology. Super impressed with the smoothness of the match. These women showed they were above their pay grade in this one.

CJD: If I wrote you a recap of the last 3 weeks of my life this would be the longest review in the history of PIF. I'm sitting in a camping chair in the only bedroom clean enough in a slumlord apartment that I'm paying an arm and a leg for, one beer in the holster, pizza in my lap, laptop on my fold out twin mattress that I'm about to get a terrible night's sleep on. I'm in a new state starting a new job, trying to move my family up, to give my daughter a home that she will hopefully really thrive in for years and years to come. And I say all of this because if there's one thing I love about pro wrestling above all else, it's that it's the constant that I can always rely on in times when I can't even imagine what to do next. This match was so fundamentally sound, the atmosphere was so electric, and I don't think it could have found me on a better night than tonight. Both of these ladies crushed it. The shifts in momentum and cut offs were perfect. The hesitation and execution of the finish was even better yet. And this promotion and venue were so so on brand for FFFridays. This match was the sip of cool water I needed in the middle of the oasis that is my life right now JJZ. Well played.

Astral Projector, Super Astros Projector

TAKA Michinoku/Sho Funaki/Tiger Mask IV VS Papi Chulo/Super Loco/Apolo Dantes- WWF Super Astros 5/30/1999

CJD: I didn't know which way I was going this week. And maybe the weird stuff is just catching my eye right now, but after watching a few okay matches this one stood out because it was just so damn unique. If we watched this in 1999 our minds would have been blown. If you cut out the intros and the Owen Hart memorial stuff this match might not even be 5 minutes. But for what it is, on a WWF show at the time, and with the guys involved... this is fucking bonkers. Pro wrestling is so weird. It's hard to really critique something like this but I will say TAKA and Papi Chulo both came off like stars which was clearly the intent. And our boy TMIV held his own in the process! We've had plenty of weird detours over the years here at PIF and this is one of the weirder ones. Enjoy my friend.

JJZ: So much flavor in this banger baby. I think everyone really shined in this match. It started at a 10 and never stopped honestly. I'm always super impressed with matches like this when the energy is so high and every crazy spot is hit perfect. The chance for shit to go off the rails is very high but all six wrestlers kept it on track. That T Mask backflip kick thingy might've popped me the most because it was hit right on target and that could of easily fanned. Nice pick baybay!

Forever Forward Fridays

Nikki Storm VS "Amazon" Ayesha Rae - LCW 3/1/2014

Match Link

CJD: I watched a lot of Nikki Storm era Nikki Cross to decide what to play forward to you this week. I honestly don't know if this was the best match. But it was the most interesting. You know I've been listening to a lot of WTF with Marc Maron, and on the episode where he goes to a pro wrestling event for the first time and meets a bunch of the AEW roster he talks to Jericho about performing in front of small crowds. And they both agree the secret to being great at any type of performance is mastering the art of playing to an audience of 7. I count more than 7 in this crowd but if there's more than 30 I'd be surprised. It's very awkward at times. But in that you see these two young ladies growing leaps and bounds in this relatively simple and shortish match. Ayesha is totally new to me but she impressed me quite a bit. I don't think think either lady really nailed this match but they were dealt a tough hand that night and I appreciate what they did out there. I might just be digging this match because I'm exhausted bouncing around rentals in Vermont trying to build a new life for my family and just generally in a weird head space. But I dug it none the less.

JJZ: Marc Maron and Jericho aren't wrong. It's an art playing to such a small crowd. So many art forms are mastered playing to mostly empty rooms. The lack of bodies in the building didn't stop these ladies from putting out an effort and energy that would have been the same if 20,000 were watching. Speaking of podcasts, I remember Sami Zayn saying recently that he felt like he never mailed it in no matter how many people were watching. Nikki and Ray mailed nothing in. This is also my first time watching Ayesha and even though this match was only 12 minutes I got a really good sense of how good she can be. She uses her size really well with her moveset. Nothing over complicated. Storm always delivers. I think she is totally underrated. Really excited to dive into some Ray!

Bred For His Skills In Magic

Jushin Thunder Liger/Tiger Mask IV VS Kenoh/Hajime Ohara - NOAH 8/2/2014

JJZ: This was part of the 2014 NOAH Jr tag league and this is as far from a traditional Jr's match as you will see. It's wild to watch Liger getting out heeled when you think about his nuclear heated run in the past with NOAH. There is a time to wrestle and there is a time to fight. And all four of these guys came to that arena that night for a fist fight. Sometime you watch a match and it is totally opposite of what you expected. Usually you're disappointed. Not in this case at all. I was so taken aback at what I was surprisingly seeing and kept saying to myself, this is so good. How did I not see this before. And I hope you've never seen this before either. Little side note. I know I live and drink at NOAH's well and probably should avoid it for a while but damn I'm glad I took a sip this week.

CJD: This match was such a breath of fresh air. Everyone brought so much to the table but the main thing I was thinking was "fuck me, Jushin Thunder Liger is great." When people think of Liger they probably think of his colorful technical precision and groundbreaking matches. But the thing that is so impressive to me about the thousands of matches he had in his career is how much purpose he put into almost every single one. This feud is such a great example. Neither one of us were aware of it and it's yet it's another in an endless list of great storylines Liger and company built and paid off over his career. Like how many times have you seen Liger, even in a throwaway undercard 6 man like last week, just have "a match?" There's always so much intent there. That's the stuff I love in pro wrestling. And I love Jushin Thunder Liger!! Also Tiger Mask's gear was fire.

JJZ: Yes it was.

Forever Forward Fridays

Nikki Storm VS ASUKA - SHIMMER 4/13/2014

JJZ: So this was the first match that popped up when I typed in Kana on YouTube. You know how much I loved this feud in NXT. So this was a no brainer for me. I loved Nikki's mic work in the beginning, Dave Prazak is such a comfortable voice to hear. And this crowd wanted this match so bad. They really showed up and out. So right off the bat I'll say I was hoping for a little bit more piss and vinegar out of the bout. I realize that is because I had expectations from the NXT matches. Resetting my thoughts they did an excellent job of building this match. Solid base, good story throughout with a hot finish. I'm not sure how long after this match these women went to NXT but watching them reminded me of watching guys like Claudio and Danielson on the indies before they went to WWE. You knew it was time for the next step. They were way above everyone else. Not sure if this was the only indie match Kana and Storm had but I'd love to see a bunch more.

CJD: I think both ladies went to NXT about 2 years later. With how heated their rivalry there was I get wanting a little more oomph out of this match. But I thought this was a fascinating look back at how these two built such terrific chemistry here that when they had the chance in NXT, they knocked it out of the galaxy. I think the best thing about this match was how every little component came together so nicely. If you were really excited to see this live at the time I bet you'd leave extremely happy even though no one aspect of the match especially stands out. Two very talented pro wrestlers from opposite ends of the world coming together in the Berwyn Eagles Club to do pro wrestling things. Ain't nothing wrong with that!