UFC on ABC 3: Matt Schnell vs. Sumudaerji R2 4:24. This fight is a bit difficult to rate because the second round is round of the year, and an all timer in terms of being both a great round and amazing comeback, but it's less than a two round fight, and the first round, while certainly interesting enough, was really nothing special. Sumudaerji was using his length to score at distance with kicks, but Schnell took him down, mounted then rear mounted, only to have Sumudaerji turn in when Schnell was going for the choke. Schnell tried to work a triangle and an omoplata from the bottom, but Sumudaerji scooped him up and side suplex dropped him like Dino Bravo. Schnell rolled though, and finished the 1st landing punches on top. Schnell definitely won the first round, but Sumudaerji took over in a big way early in the second with a big left hook then a short right hook to break up the clinch as Schnell was looking for the takedown. Sumudaerji dropped Schnell with a left hook, but Schnell went right after a single leg on the ground, and tried to keep pressuring in stand up. Schnell was now looking for the big left to some extent, but Sumudaerji surprised him with a short right elbow to put Schnell down to a knee. Sumudaerji hurt Schnell with another short right elbow, and around this point Schnell was regularly getting rocked so cleanly that it seemed like he may have been going out for a quarter second, as each shot from Sumudaerji was pausing Schnell in his tracks. Schnell never willingly backed up or tried to take a second to recover, he still kept attacking even though he was very much getting the worst of it, which is perhaps why Sumudaerji's shots seemed to be doing slightly more damage than they were, because they were the only thing that could momentarily halt his forward progress. Brian Kelleher made a good point on Twitter, "That ref helped make that fight amazing. Some would have stepped in and Schnell would have never got the chance to come back." Schnell turned the fight with two minutes left in the round landing a big right straight, then ducking into a double leg takedown. Schnell quickly mounted, and by this point Daniel Cormier's screams had raised about 7 octaves, to the point it was hard to tell if he ever saying actual words anymore or just wailing in ecstasy. Schnell was going to town with punches and elbows from the mount, but Sumudaerji managed to reverse, only to get triangled. Schnell was on the wrong side to actually finish with the triangle, but he was landing elbow after elbow to the head until Sumudaerji basically wasn't trying to resist anymore, then he was able to change sides and finish the submission. What a crazy crazy comeback, especially since the time between when Schnell was almost finished for the last time and when he actually beat Sumudaerji into submission was only about a minute. Excellent match.

UFC on ESPN 39 7/9/22: Jamie Mullarkey vs. Michael Johnson 3R. When Michael Johnson steps in the ring, you know it will be a really exciting fight, and you know he will find a way to lose, somehow. This time it wasn't his fault though. Johnson dropped Mullarkey with a left hook 3 minutes into the first, and I thought the fight was going to be over, as Mullarkey went down pretty hard and Johnson pounced on him with some big right hands. I thought Johnson should have just kept throwing these fast punches hoping for the stoppage instead of going for the choke, and as soon as Mullarkey turned to his knees, Johnson should have just let him back up because just holding a front facelock was accomplishing little beyond allowing Mullarkey to regain his senses. Mullarkey was in good shape by the time stand up resumed, and he wobbled Johnson with a left hook of his own with 20 seconds left in the first round. Johnson didn't go down though, he dropped to his knees going for a takedown, which Mullarkey stuffed and responded to with a few good elbows. While Mullarkey won the last little portion of a fairly close round, both men landed 20 strikes for what it's worth, a knockdown is much better than merely wobbling the opponent, and this should have been a Johnson round. Mullarkey did a good job of fighting behind the jab in the second round, using it to keep Johnson on his back foot. Malarkey was mixing in the front kick and the high kick, working knees and elbows from the clinch, generally showing his diversity after he pushed Johnson back. Johnson had a few moments in the second, but this was a rather one sided round where he was busted up, particularly in the clinch. Henri Hooft wanted Johnson to be light on his feet and keep moving in the third, because when he was standing still that's when Mullarkey was able to hit him with his big strikes. Johnson fought much more fluidly in the third, and now he was the one fighting behind the jab and keeping Mullarkey off him. Johnson's hand speed was also too much for Mullarkey in this round, and he was busting Mullarkey's nose up with barrages of quick straights. Johnson was clearly the much fresher fighter in this round, to the point that Mullarkey was looking a step too slow. This was another one sided round, but very impressive in the sense that Johnson turned the tide so dramatically after getting blown out in the second. This should have been enough to earned him a 29 to 28 decision, but apparently two of the judges weren't paying that much attention as usual, and just gave the first round to the fighter who finished stronger, resulting in a 29-28 split decision victory for Mullarkey. While this won't go down as one of the worst decisions, it was clearly a bunch of Mullarkey. Seriously though, Johnson winning two in a row after losing four in a row would likely make a big difference in what's left of his career compared to losing five of his last six as his record now states. Very good match.

DDT 8/18/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, KO-D Openweight Title: Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega 35:09 of 37:26. 
DC: The early parts of the match were slow, but Canadian wrestler Kenny Omega tried to keep working over Kota Ibushi’s arm as much as possible. Ibushi eventually managed to fight back with some fast-paced action. Omega interrupted Ibushi’s momentum and hit a half nelson suplex on the apron. Once back in the ring, Omega continued working over Ibushi’s arm. Ibushi wasn’t doing much back, perhaps because he was waiting for the right moments to execute fancy quick moves, which didn’t seem like a good idea, especially with Omega constantly stretching Ibushi’s left arm. Also, it wasn’t the fancy moves that Omega seemed worried about, as he seemed to be able to either avoid or counter them quite well early on. Ibushi was most effective when he was able to land well-placed high kicks, and that’s when he disrupted Omega’s flow the most, which partially was because Omega never really seemed to have a good answer in reply to Ibushi’s kicks. Despite Ibushi probably being able to get very far if he would have just relied on kicks, Ibushi clearly had a strong preference for the more daredevil-like maneuvers. Eventually, Ibushi got his wish, and it was the more fancy high flying stuff that did the damage he was hoping for, as Ibushi hit a tremendous springboard twisting plancha to the floor onto Omega and other springboard moves. Omega was overwhelmed by Ibushi’s flurry of high flying offense for a bit, but he managed to keep his cool and start fighting back. One of Omega’s most impressive moments in this match was when he hit a tremendous tope con giro. Omega tried to put Ibushi away, but Ibushi kept staying alive. Omega’s facials sold the desperation of the final parts of the match very well. Ibushi got more fired up as the match progressed, since he now finally realized he had to keep taking more urgent action if he wanted to win. The most insane move happened near the end of the match when Ibushi executed a springboard super frankensteiner on Omega that sent both workers to the floor. Omega was certainly already an extremely talented performer in 2012, and he showed flashes of greatness, but it appeared he was still figuring things out for himself, as he would eventually become an even more impressive all-round worker. This was a really fun match featuring tremendous athletic moves, especially when the action really started picking up after the first 14 minutes or so. The match was probably slightly too long, but it was quite a satisfying match overall. ***¾ 

NJPW 8/13/16 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, G1 Climax Block B Match: Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito 28:12.
DC: The early parts of the match were not that interesting, mainly because of Tetsuya Naito typically not doing much. Naito showed very little urgency for someone who had a chance of making it to the final of the G1 Climax. The match picked up when Kenny Omega dropkicked Naito into the railing and then powerbombed Naito through a table. Omega hit a tremendous springboard somersault plancha over the guardrail, and this was one of the most awesome moments of the match. Omega’s selling was really good throughout the match, especially during the final stages of the match. The final few minutes were very exciting because of the near falls. This match was very good, but it was almost all because of Omega. After the match, Omega cut a heel promo on the Japanese crowd, but the crowd applauded politely and started chanting “Kenny!” ***½  

NJPW 8/14/16 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, G1 Climax Final: Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto 26:49.
DC: For the first time ever, a Canadian wrestler was in the final of the Grade One Climax. Kenny Omega showed his great athleticism several times, including executing a beautiful tope con giro. Omega had left the junior heavyweight division a little over a year prior, but he still kinda wrestled the same type of style that focused on his athleticism. Perhaps the only difference is that he became more focused on the hard-hitting aspect of big heavyweight matches and the overall big match vibe of heavyweight main events. That’s probably one of the main reasons why Omega became a more complete worker in 2016. The reason this match was so much better than Omega’s match with Naito the previous night, is that Hirooki Goto was fighting back strongly and showed that he really wanted to win. Goto showed a lot more urgency and fighting spirit than Naito, but it was mainly Omega’s in-ring storytelling through his display of selling, facials, bumping and impressive moves that made this such an interesting and compelling match. One of the biggest moves was Omega hitting a tope con giro. One of Goto’s most devastating moves was his ushi goroshi. Omega blocked a spinning clothesline attempt by Goto with a knee lift. Omega then came close to victory with a Kota Ibushi-style elevated sitout powerbomb. Omega attempted a phoenix splash, but Goto rolled out of the way. Omega almost won after following up a v-trigger knee smash with a dragon suplex. In the end, Omega finished off his opponent with the one-winged angel, and became the first (and to this day only) gaijin to win the G1 Climax. After the match, Omega impressed the Japanese crowd with his ability to speak their language. The match was wrestled at a steady pace with them constantly trying to do damage to each other in order to come closer to victory. In particular, the finishing stretch, which was essentially the final eight minutes of the match, had lots of exciting near falls and high-impact moves. Great match. ****½ 

NJPW 10/10/16 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Kenny Omega vs Hirooki Goto 21:52.
DC: The legendary Jushin Thunder Liger was one of the commentators for the Japanese commentary team. The match started off with great urgency. Hirooki Goto wanted revenge for his loss to Kenny Omega in the G1 Climax final, and once again the winner of this match was on course for the honor of challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Title on the big 1/4/17 Wrestle Kingdom show. The Young Bucks, Nick and Matt Jackson, were in Omega’s corner, and they got involved from time to time. Even though Omega and Goto did put things over as a big struggle, there was a bit too much obsession with the table for this to be considered a great match, and it just didn’t have that same greatness of their 8/14/16 match in general. It’s almost like Goto never really believed he could be main eventing the 1/4/17 Tokyo Dome show. Still, it’s definitely a match worth watching, and it’s an excellent match overall. ****¼  

ZERO1 6/4/22 Tokyo Ota City General Gymnasium, ZERO1 World Heavyweight Title: Takashi Sugiura vs. Masato Tanaka 24:40.
DC: This was a hard-hitting match between two veterans. Both guys tried their best. One of the reasons they worked so hard is that they aren’t the type of guys that take it easy, but another reason is they did it for Shinjiro Otani, who got severely injured on the 4/10/22 ZERO1 show, and this 6/4/22 show was in fact a benefit show for Otani. After things were kinda evenly matched for a while during the early stages, Masato Tanaka started controlling the match more. Tanaka’s offense was a lot more diverse than Takashi Sugiura’s more simple offense. This didn’t mean that Sugiura’s offense wasn’t effective though, because Sugiura’s stiff elbow smashes temporarily stopped Tanaka’s momentum. Of course, Tanaka is known for being capable of hitting stiff elbow smashes himself, so naturally, Tanaka saw this as an invitation to send a reply of some elbows of his own. Even though this match took place in ZERO1, this match could have easily taken place on a NOAH card because of the stiffness and straightforwardness. Tanaka actually has been appearing more often in NOAH than in ZERO1 lately, and NOAH has always been Sugiura’s main league. Of course, right now NOAH is in the midst of trying to regain lost momentum. NOAH did take action by not renewing the contract of now former booker NOSAWA Rongai, which was not a surprise after the disastrous Kazuyuki Fujita title reign and the odd storyline of Go Shiozaki’s losing streak. NOSAWA has been replaced by the new booker Kendo Kashin. Not much improvement seems to have been made in NOAH so far though, but at least their current 51-year old champion is a bit better than the 51-year old champion they had earlier in the year. It seems ZERO1’s booking of their main title is more reasonable than NOAH’s booking of their main title, because with this Sugiura vs. Tanaka match, at least we have two guys who can still go and have very good matches in spite of them being 52 and 49 respectively. Tanaka was a lot more impressive than Sugiura overall, but Sugiura still deserves some credit nonetheless. In the end, after both guys hit each other as hard as they could, it was Tanaka who got the win via pinfall. Tanaka deservingly winning the match and title meant that his epic theme song was played once again. This was a very good match, because it was two veterans beating each other up until one of them was no longer able to get up. This was a simple, yet very effective and sensible story they were telling in the ring. ***½ 

STARDOM 6/5/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: AZM & Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani & Lady C vs. Mayu Iwatani & Hazuki & Koguma & Hanan 13:48.
DC: Queen’s Quest vs. STARS. This was the best STARDOM match in over a month. AZM was the worker of the match, but everyone tried their best. Hanan and Lady C have been improving. Mayu Iwatani is still a very useful worker, even now that she’s in the established veteran part of her career. On 5/15/22, Utami Hayashishita won a match that made her officially the leader of QQ after having been the de facto leader for a while. It seems Utami has been more motivated and enthusiastic since then. Her smile sometimes even seems genuine these days. Saya Kamitani hit some cool springboard moves to the inside and outside of the ring. When AZM was in the ring with Hazuki and Koguma, the match peaked in quality, because AZM used her High Speed style to get the most out of those two. This particularly was useful in a fast-paced action-packed 8-woman tag like this one. At some point, there was a really cool spot where Hazuki springboard dropkicked AZM off the shoulders of Lady C. The match was wrestled at a high pace and nobody really stayed too long in the ring at once, but things never got too chaotic because of everyone being spot on with their execution. 13 minutes is not very long for a match involving eight people, but when it was over, it felt like they had presented something that was worthwhile. If you want to watch more STARDOM from June 2022, there was a Syuri vs. Mayu Iwatani vs. Starlight Kid three-way match on 6/11/22 that was pretty good. Try to avoid the overrated matches between Tam Nakano and Natsupoi though (6/26/22 and 6/28/22), because those matches were not nearly as good as they potentially could have been due to them trying too hard to make them "epic classics". ***¼  

GLEAT 6/11/22 Osaka Umeda Sky Building Stella Hall, UWF Rules: Minoru Tanaka & Yu Iizuka vs. Seichi Ikemoto & Takanori Ito 11:36.
DC: Seichi Ikemoto showed right from the start that his strikes were going to be something his opponents would have to look out for. His speed on the mat was certainly another strong weapon of his. Yu Iizuka countered some of Ikemoto’s moves on the mat, but Ikemoto was definitely having the upper hand, and while Iizuka was hanging in there, he was struggling. Minoru Tanaka and Takanori Ito tried to do damage to each other through kicks, but they were able to block them for the most part. Ito was kinda cautious, not wanting to make a mistake, as Tanaka's strategy seemed to be waiting for Ito to make an error. When Tanaka was in the ring with Ikemoto, Tanaka went for a takedown, but Ikemoto caught him with a knee. Tanaka was stuck in a crossface chickenwing applied by Ikemoto, but Tanaka managed to grab the ropes. This was the first rope break used in the match. Iizuka was tagged in and was fired up, as he really tried to take it to Ikemoto, who remained cool and calm. At one point, Iizuka’s enthusiasm paid off when Ikemoto had to go for a rope break after being stuck in a leglock. Both teams were tied on points again. Soon after this, Ikemoto got revenge by twisting Iizuka’s ankle, and Iizuka had to grab the ropes. Iizuka had to grab the ropes once again when Ito countered a leglock with a leglock of his own. Tanaka lost a point when he was down for a few seconds after a released German suplex by Ito. The team in the red corner, Tanaka & Iizuka, had only 1 point left. The team in the blue corner, Ikemoto & Ito, still had 4 points left. Tanaka managed to get Ito to go for a rope break after a leglock. Tanaka and Ito started hitting each other in an intense manner, as they realized that the end of the match could be near soon. This turned out to be the case indeed, as Ito scored the win via a series of high kicks that sent Tanaka down. Tanaka, Iizuka and Ito gave a good effort, but Ikemoto stood out the most because of his superior execution. That being said, while this was a good match, these four have the capability of having a better match together. It’s likely that it would have been more exciting if it was a bit closer on points near the end. Another reason why this match wasn’t as good as some of the better UWF Rules matches in GLEAT was that this match wasn’t always as urgent as it could have been, especially considering this only went 11 minutes. ***¼

AAA 6/18/22 Tijuana, Mexico, AAA Cruiserweight Title & AAA Latin America Title: Laredo Kid vs. Taurus vs. Hijo del Vikingo vs. Fenix vs. Bandido 20:37.
DC: A five-way match between possibly the five best Mexican high flyers at the moment where the titles that were held by Taurus and Laredo Kid respectively were on the line in this match (while Hijo del Vikingo’s AAA Mega Title was not). Taurus was the biggest guy in this match, but he is the type of guy that will surprise people because of his ability to fly and bump recklessly. He is not the smoothest high flyer though, and he is more like a brawler who likes to bump and fly a lot. Still, he seems to understand his limitations, and makes up for it by providing the viewer with the recklessly spectacular. The other four are more the pure high flying type. Laredo did really well for himself, but it was hard for him to stand out in a match with these super spectacular guys. That being said, Laredo actually hit one of the most amazing moves of the match, a tremendous huracarrana on Hijo del Vikingo to the floor. Bandido did some really cool flippy stuff, and he was impressive both in offense and in his willingness to take crazy bumps. Fenix was solid, and he ended up winning the match, but this definitely wasn’t his best showing. On his worst day, Fenix is still better than most wrestlers though. This match was lots of fun to watch, as these five workers displayed tremendous high flying that was often reckless, and almost insane. Vikingo is most likely the most amazing high flyer in the world right now, and it was his performance that made this so memorable. He gave a great performance and executed too much cool-looking stuff to even really start describing here. To give you an idea of some of the stuff he’s capable of, at some point in the match, he stood on top of a ring pole and executed a springboard somersault plancha to the floor on Laredo and Taurus. One of the craziest spots of the match took place when Laredo hit a flying cross body block off the top rope onto Bandido who was sitting on Taurus' shoulders, which resulted in Bandido taking a sick-looking bump while he hit a reverse rana due to the momentum of his bump. Overall, this was an excellent spotfest, especially considering the difficulty level they went for, as most of the moves they did were executed well enough. Some of the stuff that didn't look super smooth at least fit the chaotic nature of five guys constantly leaping at each other. After the match, there was a staredown between Vikingo and Fenix, which hopefully means they’ll have a singles match one day. ****

UFC 276 7/2/22 Bryan Barberena vs. Robbie Lawler R2 4:47. Lawler debuted in UFC just over 20 years ago, and obviously isn't the great champion he was in his heyday, but he still serves a purpose when they are smart enough to book him in dream wars against BMF's like Nick Diaz and Barberena rather than a soporific Neanderthal like Colby Covington. This was an awesome all action war with Barberena keeping a ridiculous pace throughout. Lawler was really light on his feet, which is not his traditional style, and did a nice job of ripping the body early in the fight. He tried to come forward, and to cut Barberena off, but even though this worked for the most part, Barberena was still just beating him with endless hand activity. Lawler rocked Barberena with an uppercut midway through the 1st, but his footwork began to break down after this, and he wasn't really able to capitalize. Barberena did a great job of constantly throwing his hands, sometimes touching, sometimes ripping, which not only prematurely gassed Lawler but prevented him from being able to set up the way he wanted, or often at all. Lawler was clearly the harder hitter, and when he got a good shot in, it made an impact. However, Barberena was really forcing him way out of his comfortable pace and setups. Despite Barberena throwing almost 200 strikes in the 1st, Lawler arguably won the round because damage is the #1 scoring criteria (in theory), but either way, the younger and fitter Barberena would still be favored because he should be more able to sustain this type of insanity over 3 rounds. Barberena did a better job of coming forward in round 2 to keep Lawler from cutting him off, but despite Lawler moving less, his jab was money, and the sweathog was battered & bloodied from it. Barberena increasingly dragged Lawler into a fire fight, and although Lawler was winning the round again, he's better when he can be more technical and fight on his own terms then when he's forced to just be reacting. I want to stress that Lawler was arguably on course to go up 2 rounds, depending upon whether you value damage over volume, and either way seemed to have the recipe for fighting just smart enough to control him with the jab and useful movement when the tide totally turned in an instant. Once Barberena finally caught Lawler with a big shot, Lawler never really seemed to recover from either that or the flurry he took because his movement was drastically diminished as he tried to regain his bearings. Down the stretch of this contest, Lawler did his best to pass off the illusion he was still fighting, but he was actually kind of slowly going through the motions with his arms without really utilizing a useful stance or being able to move his feet literally at all. Barberena just kept coming, and eventually because Lawler's stance was now poor and his reactions were minimal, he soon rocked him with an overhand right to set up the finally flurry leading to the stoppage. Barberena has done well against aging warriors in the past, with wins over Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown in his previous fight, but Lawler is now the biggest scalp on his mantle. Such a gutsy performance from Barberena, really just outlasting Lawler by putting as much presure and volume on him as he possibly could until he broke him. Excellent match.