First things first, this review covers the history of three championships over the course of thirteen years, so it’s a long one. Strap in. I like the way the history of one title leads me to the next. After watching every WWWF/WWF/WWE title change, I wanted to watch every ECW and WCW title change. WCW led me to the NWA title changes. I had to get a subscription to New Japan World for the NWA, so I did the IWGP Championship. While I still had my World subscription, I watched an ROH Championship change, so then I just went ahead and started reviewing all of those. But also thanks to New Japan, I saw the AJPW Triple Crown Champion in action a couple times. So that leads us this. Actually, I need to go back a little further. This review will be the history of the three belts that wound up being unified to become the Triple Crown Championship. I reviewed the Hulk Hogan version of the IWGP title and I feel like being consistent in this once instance.
Before All Japan and New Japan there was the Japanese Pro Wrestling Alliance, run for a decade by Rikidozan until his death. Starting with the oldest, the NWA International Heavyweight Championship was the NWA’s top title in Japan (replacing the JWA’s Japanese Heavyweight Championship), starting in the late ‘50s when Rikidozan beat Lou Thesz for the belt. Antonio Inoki brought the NWA United National title from the United States to Japan in the dying days of the JWA. In 1972, Inoki and Giant Baba left JWA, causing it to close. Inoki started New Japan and Baba started All Japan.
The two titles became dormant for a time. Shortly after starting All Japan as the Japanese member of the NWA, Baba created the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) World Heavyweight Championship, AJPW’s original main title, with PWF serving as a governing body a la New Japan’s IWGP. He crowned himself the first champion after defeating Bobo Brazil in February of 1973. Plenty of matches between Baba and Brazil can be found online, but this wasn’t one of them. Baba held the title for over five years before dropping it. During that time, Baba’s next big star Jumbo Tsuruta was in need of a prize, so the NWA United National Championship was pulled from the mothballs and put up for grabs in a tournament in ‘76.
August 28, 1976 – Tokyo, Japan
Jumbo Tsuruta def. Jack Brisco {NWA United National Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From the Black Power Series. No, I can’t explain it. This might be the most ‘70s match I’ve ever seen. From the slight red tint of the lights, to the haircuts, to the track suits both guys wore, to the referee’s bell bottoms. Tsuruta winning the first fall with a stalling over the head belly to belly suplex felt pretty ‘70s too. Brisco worked the leg a bit and then won the second fall with the Figure 4 Leglock. Brisco went back to work on the leg in the third fall, but Tsuruta worked through the pain. He hit a butterfly suplex, which made Brisco panic and lose his focus when going for the Figure 4 again, so Tsuruta rolled up him for the win and the title at 23:02. This was never boring, but it was only really exciting at the end of each fall. ***¼
March 5, 1977 – Akita, Akita
Billy Robinson def. Jumbo Tsuruta {NWA United National Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From the Excite Series. I’m going to expose my ignorance and admit that the only thing I know about Robinson is that he trained Johnny Saint and Sid Scala like 50 years apart. This was awesome, though Robinson might as well have been holding Tsuruta by the hand through the whole match given how much he was obviously in charge here. The crowd was losing it for Robinson’s wacky British style. Robinson’s selling was top notch too. There was a long stretch where he was fighting out of a Boston crab but kept finding himself in a pinning predicament, which made him get stuck in the crab again. After escaping it, he’d collapse in pain even after going on offense. Tsuruta hit two bulldogs to win the first fall. Things slowed way down in the second fall, as Tsuruta tried to get the win off of a headlock. There was some interesting mat maneuvering going on here, but my 2020 sensibilities can’t really handle this much headlockery anymore. Robinson won the second fall by blocking the bulldog and hitting a backbreaker. They sort of went wild on each other in the third fall. Robinson laid in chops to the shoulder and another backbreaker. Tsuruta responded with a bunch of suplexes. He started moving too quickly though and Robinson countered a roll up to one of his own for the win at 23:03. Tsuruta won the title back from him two weeks later in a match that I can’t find. That really bums me out because I want to see all the Robinson matches now. All of them. Luckily he challenged for the PWF Championship the following year, but Baba would have to lose it to someone else first. ****
June 1, 1978 – Akita, Akita
Tor Kamata def. Giant Baba {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. Imagine Abdullah the Butcher, but Hawaiian, and with the ability to do silly jumping front kicks and you’ve got Kamata. This match sucks. Only in a world where kayfabe exists does Kamata end Baba’s five-year reign on the strength of just being a heel. Baba lost the title by disqualification for not ceasing to choke Kamata with a cord of some kind at 16:16. I guess the title could change hands on a DQ. What a weird, important way to end a long title reign. ½*
June 12, 1978 – Ichinomiya, Aichi
Billy Robinson def. Tor Kamata {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From later in the same tour. I was very curious to know if Robinson could get anything out of Kamata. Nope, this was bad too. In the last few minutes, Robinson forced Kamata to pick up the pace a little, but that won’t give me those twenty minutes of my life back. Robinson hit a backbreaker for the win at 21:57. *¼
October 18, 1978 – Utsunomiya, Togichi
Abdullah the Butcher def. Billy Robinson {PWF World Heavyweight Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From the Giant Series. I was dreading this but Butcher was game to move around here. I guess I shouldn’t judge a man in 1978 by his work in the ‘00s. Robinson won the first fall with the backbreaker. The second fall was more of a mess, with not much happening until Butcher started to sloppily and vaguely work on Robinson’s leg way until Robinson just quit. There really was no third fall, as Robinson couldn’t continue so Butcher was given the title at 17:39. Well, the first fall kind of was fun, I’ll give it that. **
February 17, 1979 – Chicago, Illinois
Giant Baba def. Abdullah the Butcher {PWF World Heavyweight Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From an AWA show. Baba straight up comes out to the Star Wars opening crawl music. About three minutes into the match, Butcher hit an elbowdrop, got a pin, and Baba didn’t kick out. But they didn’t count it. That was weird. Butcher starts bleeding and people in the crowd are clearly grossed out. Baba hit his clothesline/neckbreaker thing to win the first fall. Butcher won the second fall with an elbowdrop. Then presumably because of blood loss, Butcher fell to the floor and got counted out at 19:09. Oh my god these finishes are so bad for this title. Baba was in charge, you’d think he’d win the belt convincingly! This wasn’t the worst, but it was a freak show that didn’t draw much heat. This title is rough to watch, but luckily the next stretch of title changes brought us back to Tsuruta. **
February 23, 1980 – Kagoshima, Kagoshima
Dick Murdoch def. Jumbo Tsuruta {NWA United National Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From the Excite Series. So on the one hand you’ve got AJPW putting a major title on a black guy and having him (unsuccessfully) defend it in the U.S. (though he was Canadian) long before any American company did the same, but on the other hand they’ also put the title on a Klansman here. I guess it’s all moot given Japan didn’t really have an ingrained history with North American blacks or the KKK as far as I know. After a lifetime of mat wrestling, Murdoch casually hits a brainbuster to win the first fall. Moments later, Tsuruta hits a neckbreaker to win the second fall. Tsuruta hurt his knee coming off the top, so Murdoch hits a legbreaker and then starts putting on the Figure 4 Leglock… but then just lays on top of Tsuruta for the win at 23:38. This started okay but got worse as it went and that finish was dreck. **
March 5, 1980 – Kuroiso, Togichi
Jumbo Tsuruta def. Dick Murdoch {NWA United National Championship 2/3 Falls Match}
From later in the same tour. AJPW was all about quick title changes like this in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. The version of this match going around online is joined in progress. Tsuruta hit a gutwrench suplex to win the first fall after twenty minutes of dull mat wrestling. Murdoch hit the brainbuster to win the second fall. Tsuruta came back with a stun gun and a roll up for the win at 20:29 (shown of 27:50). Basically the same as their previous match, but with a finish that didn’t look like a mistake. Tsuruta lost the title to Butcher in October and won it back in January. After that, it was time for AJPW to bring in the third title that would eventually become part of the Triple Crown. **¼
On April 30, 1981 in Matsudo, Chiba at the International Champion Series, Dory Funk Jr. was meant to fight Bruiser Brody in a tournament final to crown the first NWA International Heavyweight Champion in nine years. But Brody got hurt so Funk was awarded the title. Rather than do nothing, Funk immediately defended the belt against his brother and they went to a time limit draw. It was literally the only time the two ever wrestled against each other in a singles match and it only happened because Terry won a shoot draw lottery for the title shot after Brody’s injury. Brody eventually got his match and won the title by disqualification. But then…
November 1, 1981 – Tokyo, Japan
Bruiser Brody def. Dory Funk Jr. {NWA International Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Giant Series. This started out pretty slow but turned into a decent bloody brawl. Brody’s buddy Buck Robley kept attacking Funk at rinside and eventually got Brody disqualified at 13:52. I guess that’s a taste of Brody’s own medicine? Once this really got going I liked it, but who wants to see Brody working an armbar? That happened for a good chunk of the early match. Brody won the title back from Funk the following April by pinfall for once. **¾
August 1, 1982 – Tokyo, Japan
Harley Race def. Jumbo Tsuruta {NWA United National Championship Match}
From the Summer Action Series. This ended an 18-month reign for Tsuruta, though he’d win the title back two months later and hold it for ten more months before he got bored of it. This match was more like it! Race and Tsuruta just beat each other up until they were a pair of bloody puddles of mush. Race made like he was going for a shinbreaker but then just threw Tsuruta over his back for the win at 15:29. I wasn’t kidding when I said that he got bored of the title. That was actually the story, as he decided he wanted to just defend the NWA International Heavyweight title instead. He’d won that title from Brody in April of ‘83 and dumped this title in June. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself as I need to go back a bit and address one of the billion Race vs. Baba matches. ***½
February 11, 1983 – St. Louis, Missouri
Giant Baba def. Harley Race {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From an NWA St. Louis Show. They really got as much out of Race as possible in ‘82, as his PWF title win came two days after he’d dropped the NWA UN title back to Tsuruta. This is the fifth match between these two that I’ve reviewed for one of this title histories, the other four being for the NWA title. This was about on par with those, if a little less compelling and a little more rote. Baba won with the neckbreaker/clothesline thing at 13:04, which is interesting because when Tsuruta hit that move on Race it didn’t get him the win. **½
Jumbo Tsuruta def. Bruiser Brody {NWA International Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. I don’t know how others feel about him, but I find Brody’s style quite boring. He hits big moves and grunts, but rarely presses the action. All the heat here, and there was plenty, came from Tsuruta’s bloody comeback. The last couple minutes were wild, and since the title could change hands on a count out the crowd went insane for Tsuruta’s scramble to keep Brody on the floor and rush back into the ring at 21:33. Aside from the finish, which is pretty breathtaking from a heat perspective, the match left plenty to be desired. Three months after this, Tsuruta vacated the United National Championship. I know I mentioned it above but I want to keep the timeline here clean. ***
September 8, 1983 – Chiba, Chiba
Stan Hansen def. Giant Baba {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. This was alright. Hansen just kept pushing the match forward as he does until Baba couldn’t quite get his shoulders up. This was pretty clearly the beginning of the end of Baba as any kind of a champion, as he moved rather slowly and never quite commanded the crowd. Hansen won at 9:02 with the lariat. **¾
Ted Dibiase def. Genichiro Tenryu {NWA United National Championship Match}
From the Giant Series With the United National title up for grabs, AJPW put on a tournament. Ted DiBiase was meant to fight Jerry Lawler in the finals, but Lawler was unable to compete and DiBiase won by forfeit. Yep, it’s the exact same scenario as with Funk and Brody two years earlier. And like two years earlier, DiBiase defended the title immediately to establish himself as champion. Both guys look like babies here, but DiBiase was 29 and Tenryu was in his ‘30s. This was very fast-paced for the time. Both guys came at each other hard and at the end there were even a couple dope creative counters. Dibiase reversed a roll up to one of his own for the win at 11:42 (shown of 15:59). ***¼
In January, Dibiase lost the title to Michael Hayes in Georgia, who lost it six days later to David Von Erich in Texas. One week later, Von Erich died in Japan and the title was vacated. I’m not going to talk about the circumstances of the death here, but there’s plenty to read about online and it’s also the subject on one of Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring specials.
February 23, 1984 – Tokyo, Japan
Genichiro Tenryu def. Ricky Steamboat {NWA United National Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. This was a huge night actually, as there was this tournament finals to fill the vacant title and right after this match, Jumbo Tsuruta beat Nick Bockwinkle to win the AWA Championship in a match where the NWA IH Championship was also on the line. This match was seemingly wrestled in honor of Von Erich. Because of his matches against Ric Flair and Randy Savage I always want to assume that every high-profile old Steamboat match is a hidden gem I’ve uncovered, but it’s never the case. This was joined in progress but even still it was slow in the beginning with six minutes cut off the front. The final few minutes were quite exciting, though they completely ignored all the mat work that went into most of the match. Tenryu got the win at 15:01 (shown of 21:13) with an Octopus Stretch into a pin. ***
July 31, 1984 – Tokyo, Japan
Giant Baba def. Stan Hansen {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Grand Champion Carnival III. I believe this was the final major championship that Baba ever won. He held the title for almost one year, losing the title back to Hansen one day shy of it. Speaking of hidden gems, this match is great! I have no idea how Baba had this in him at this stage in his career. He systematically broke down Hansen’s arm to neutralize the lariat. Hansen didn’t take that lying down, attacking Baba’s leg in a panic to get out of armbars when he could. Baba then booted away the lariat, kicked out after a lesser clothesline, and then got a roll up for the win at 10:07. I don’t think a better match between the two could be had given Baba’s physical limitations. Hansen beat up anyone he could get his hands on as he walked to the back. ****
July 30, 1985 – Fukuoka, Fukuoka
Stan Hansen def. Giant Baba {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Summer Action Wars. This had the same intensity and investment from the crowd as their match a year earlier, and told a nice story coming off of it. Baba again tried to dismantle Hansen’s arm in order to make the lariat useless, but he couldn’t get it done. Hansen hit the lariat, sending Baba to the floor. When Baba got back to the apron and went for the arm again, Hansen hit him with a huge back suplex for the win at 13:50. ***½
April 5, 1986 – Yokohama, Kanagawa
Riki Choshu def. Stan Hansen {PWF World Heavyweight & AWA World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Champion Carnival. Here’s an interesting predicament. Your champion is also the champion of a major American company. You want to do a massive title match to move your belt onto someone new, but the American company doesn’t want the new guy to be their champ too. What do you do? You exploit the idiosyncrasies of the two titles. The PWF title could change hands due to disqualification, the AWA title could not. This had way more mat wrestling than I expected or wanted from a Hansen match. Hansen knocked out the referee with a lariat by accident, but then Ted DiBiase interfered and Hansen took out a replacement referee on purpose and got disqualified at 18:27. This one is interesting as a history lesson in how to handle co-promoted matches politically, but the quality of the match wasn’t up to snuff. **¼
April 26, 1986 – Omiya, Saitama
Genichiro Tenryu def. Ted DiBiase {NWA United National Championship Match}
From later in the tour. Two months earlier, Tenryu had been stripped of the title because he got pinned in a tag team match. All Japan was really trigger happy when it came to their champions losing in any fashion. This was the finals of a tournament to crown a new champion. The match was joined in progress. This was pretty fun, though it stayed at one speed the entire time, never falling into a lull or picking up for a peak. It wasn’t boring, but I wasn’t going to be able to take much more of the same. Tenryu countered a spinning toe hold to a roll up for the win at 14:44 (shown of 21:07). ***
July 31, 1986 – Tokyo, Japan
Stan Hansen def. Jumbo Tsuruta {AWA Championship vs. NWA International Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Summer Action Series. This being an AWA title match is very odd, as a month earlier Hansen had been stripped of the title for refusing to wrestle (in reality, refusing to job to) Nick Bockwinkel, seemingly because he was already booked to defend the title in this match. The story is that he ran over the title belt with his truck and mailed it back to Verne Gagne. But here it is, seemingly not run over. Then again the belt looks kind of weird so it might not be the real title belt at all. This was interesting. Tsuruta went after Hansen’s arm because stopping his lariat had worked for Baba in the past. He even used Baba’s clothesline/neckbreaker thing. But Hansen lured Tsuruta into the post and hurt his arm as well. Things deteriorated into a sloppy punch and kick fest near the end, and then Hansen just won with a roll up at 16:27 anyway. To say that fell apart would be an understatement. **¼
October 21, 1986 – Tokyo, Japan
Jumbo Tsuruta def. Stan Hansen {NWA International Heavyweight Championship}
From the Giant Series. Once again, Hansen was all over Tsuruta’s arm. Halfway through the match, Tsuruta opened a vein in his face and they ditched all the mat work for a bloody brawl. It was a good move, as the slug-em-up portion of the match was a lot more fun. The finish was kind of irritating, as Tsuruta was just starting to come back from a stretch of Hansen domination when he slipped in a weird roll up for the win at 19:37. Hansen’s shoulder’s weren’t really even down. ***
March 9, 1988 – Yokohama, Kanagawa
Genichiro Tenryu def. Stan Hansen {PWF World Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. In March of ‘87, Choshu bailed on AJPW for NJPW, so All Japan stripped him of the PWF title. Hansen beat Hiroshi Wajima to decide the new champion in April. That whole deal was weird, as they fought in the tournament finals to a double count out on TV, and then the next night Hansen beat Wajima in a decision match that never aired. Here, Tenryu took the first step toward the establishment of the Triple Crown, as he held two of the three titles that would make it up due to his win here. I liked this. It was the first match of this large batch of matches that felt like what would become the All Japan heavyweight style that made American wrestling fans so wet for Japanese footage. After a bunch of hard hitting action, Tenryu rolled Hansen up for the win at 14:40. ***¼
March 27, 1988 – Tokyo, Japan
Bruiser Brody def. Jumbo Tsuruta {NWA International Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Champion Carnival. The feeling out process was almost the entire match here. In the last three minutes they started throwing bombs, but none interesting enough to snap me out of the haze the first 14 put me into. Brody picked up the win and the title at 17:07. While Brody was champion, there was an attempt to unify this title with the United National and PWF titles that Genichiro Tenryu had, but the match ended in a double count out. **¼
April 19, 1988 – Sendai, Miyagi
Jumbo Tsuruta def. Bruiser Brody {NWA International Heavyweight Championship Match}
From later in the tour. Brody put over Tsuruta clean as a sheet in the center of the ring here, which is fortunate because Brody was tragically killed three months later so there wouldn’t be another opportunity. This had a bit more oomph than their previous match, as the crowd was hot for Tsuruta to get his title back. Nobody bled here, and Tsuruta got the win with the back suplex at 20:34. **¾
July 27, 1988 – Nagano, Nagano
Stan Hansen def. Genichiro Tenryu {PWG World Heavyweight Championship & NWA United National Championship Match}
From the Summer Action Series. This was the final shift that was needed to get everything in place for Triple Crown Championship to become a reality. Though, I’m not sure that All Japan had that in mind at the time. Hansen attacked and bloodied Tenryu during his entrance. I’ve seen a lot of people fawn over this one, but I think they were taken in by Tenryu’s bloody face and less by the action. It was consistently good, but never great. Hansen clotheslined Tenryu off the turnbuckle to the floor and won the titles by count out at 14:40. ***
If you’re still here, thank you for reading through a very long review to get to where the pieces are in place for the Triple Crown to come into being. In October of ‘88, Hansen & Tsuruta made the second attempt (after Brody and Tenryu) to unify all three titles, but their match also ended in a double count out. In April of ‘89, Tsuruta and Hansen gave it a go, but the match ended in a no contest. Two days later, they tried again. But that’s for the next installment of this series.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
