If it isn't obvious, I like professional Wrestling a lot. Something I was blind to was how much damn wrestling there was. Since beginning to track what I watch this year, I believe April is the biggest yet. It was WrestleMania season, the independent scene gathers for a piece of the pie that is Mania season, even international companies came to Philadelphia for the festivities. If you've been a wrestling fan for a while, you know this is essentially tradition. Outside of the sphere of Philly and WrestleMania, the rest of the month was nothing to sleep on. AEW debuted a new Pay-per-view called Dynasty. Which brought big changes to their show. Wrestling simply doesn't stop, which can definitely feel like a daunting task.
For the first time in five years, Stardom put on a show in the United States. American Dream 2024 from Philadelphia. To be realistic, this wasn't the most important Stardom show, and definitely not the most important show from this month! However Mina Shirakawa broke twitter for a day when she appeared on AEW's Dynamite and saved her former Club Venus partner Mariah May and then proceeded to kiss her. American Dream featured the return of the original Club Venus, Mariah, Shirakawa and Xia Brookside. They faced Mayu Iwatani, Momo Kohgo and Tam Nakano. Overall the match was pretty fun, and Philly was having a blast for the whole show. Following this match as Mina and Mariah celebrated, Timeless Toni Storm arrives to steal the spotlight from Mina to get back at her for what she did on Dynamite. Toni confesses how proud of Mariah she is, gives her flowers and kiss on the cheek. Toni and Mina talk smack back and forth, when Club Venus' music plays, Mariah does what any person stuck between her ex and new partner would do. She tries to embrace both of them. A nervous smile from Mariah, an apprehensive smile from Mina, and a bitter scowl from Toni.
AEW's Bryan Danielson took another route, instead of visiting the party in Philly, He and the other members of Blackpool Combat Club headed to Mexico! Danielson himself challenged Blue Panther, a nearly 50 year veteran of Wrestling, Who became known for his grappling and technical style that was dubbed "Ras de Lona" or "on the mat". This was definitely a cool match worth watching if you like this style. To see Bryan make another dream of his a reality, was really nice to watch.
ROH Supercard of Honor took place this weekend too. I genuinely did not have the time to watch this, I really wish I did the card looked fantastic! Queen Aminata faced Billie Starks to determine the first Women's Television Champion. Kyle Fletcher and Lee Johnson put on a clinic. Athena continued her historic reign by defeating Hikaru Shida. Eddie Kingston's ROH World title reign came to an end in his match with Mark Briscoe. Unsurprising to me a big ROH show lived up to expectations. All the matches I've mentioned are absolutely worth your time if you can spare it.
On the same day on the other side of the world, NJPW's Sakura Genesis took place. There was only 4 matches I was interested in on this card starting with: Sho vs Yoh for the Junior Heavyweight Championship. During their pre-match brawl, Yoh suffered from a dislocated shoulder. The match was over before it could start. Fair warning if you are squeamish about injuries. Yoh's shoulder was messed up, you did not need to be a medical professional to know what happened. NJPW pivoted pretty quickly to Jon Moxley and Shota Umino against Ren Narita and Jack Perry. I was not blown away from this match, but I like everyone in it, and that made it worth it to me.
The second to last match was for the NEVER Openweight Championship, EVIL during his time as champion has spray painted the belt black. Honestly? it looked kind of cool under the bright Kokugikan Arena lights. Most of the match was fantastic, towards the end every member of House of Torture showed up and tried to steal a win. It definitely was approaching overbooked mess territory. Shingo walks out of Kokugikan as champion. Bullet Club War Dogs' Gabe Kidd laid out a threat to Shingo and all of NJPW. Needless to say my mouth waters at the thought of Gabe Kidd wrestling Shingo Takagi.
The main event was Tetsuya Naito defending his IWGP Heavyweight Title against the New Japan Cup winner Yota Tsuji. Every time I watch Tsuji perform, I cannot help but think I am watching the future of NJPW. Unsurprisingly this match was absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure how much I can say other than, selfishly I wish Yota Tsuji picked up the victory here, but he has time to build and grow more.
WWE's WrestleMania weekend kicked off with NXT Stand & Deliver. A solid event from start to finish, new Tag Team champions were crowned as Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin leave to the main roster. A great triple threat match between Oba Femi, Dijak, and Josh Briggs, which my notes for the match were simply "MEAT MEAT MEAT". Strangely I actually over estimated this event. I saw on paper "Lyra Valkyria vs. Roxanne Perez" and I couldn't help but think it could be a match of the year contender. The match was just great and I'm excited to see Roxx as World Champion going forward.
Ilja Dragunov successfully defended the NXT Championship against Tony D'Angelo who in storyline did attempt to kill him. So a simple one on one contest was maybe not the right match type to end this feud. Despite the severity of an attempted hit, The biggest storyline coming into Philadelphia was Carmelo Hayes turning on Trick Williams. A feud absolutely deserving of it's main event spot. The match itself was pretty good, maybe it was because of how enjoyable their promos and face off's have been leading up to this match, but I was genuinely expecting an all timer. NXT Stand & Deliver made me feel as if I had a good dinner, but was left wanting Desert. Great but could've been a little bit better.
Finally it was time for WrestleMania! Which kicked off with Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley. Beck came out adorned in quotes from her new book and even walked through a giant CGI version of it that definitely was not as cool as they wanted it to be. Rhea Ripley was played to the ring by Motionless in White who recorded her entrance music. I've been fortunate to have met Chris Motionless a few times , he was always so kind and it's really cool to see him and the rest of MIW on a stage like WrestleMania with Rhea Ripley who I'm sure was even more geeked out than I was. These women really put on a match of the year contender. Rhea up this point had held the World Championship for just over a year. Many online wanted this to be Rhea's last defense. I personally just hoped it was a good match as I love both of these athletes very much. If you watch any match from Night 1 of WrestleMania XL please pick this one.
Later in the night, it was brother vs. brother, continuing a coincidental 15 year cycle of having brothers fight at WrestleMania. Jimmy Uso vs. Jey Uso, a feud that has definitely had its ups and downs much like the overarching Bloodline story it is connected to. The people who I watched WrestleMania with and I honestly liked this match, we didn't have any outright complaints, just that we wanted a bit more from it. The internet seemed to think otherwise, with valid critiques of "too many superkicks" and much more. I personally don't think that every match needs to be a technical masterpiece, the emotional weight of this match is what made it enjoyable for me.
Gunther defended the Intercontinental Championship against Sami Zayn. Gunther's title reign lasting an iconic 666 days, surpassed the previous record of longest reigning champion by over 200 days. Once the record was passed, Every title defense for Gunther felt like it COULD be the one where he loses it. As much as I love Sami, I still think Chad Gable should've been the one to dethrone him. I digressed, Sami was a brilliant underdog in this match. Before the match, we saw Sami console in his wife and child, after embracing his son, he tells his wife that he shouldn't be ringside for this, he is afraid of what is going to happen. The promos leading up to this match we're that Sami was scared for once, he wasn't sure how to face it. The Ultimate Underdog questioning if he really can do it was gripping, but to see him ask his son not to be present really push things over the top and made this feel like WrestleMania. Gunther beat the crap out of Sami, it was brilliant, I do wish the match had a bit more back and forth to it. I felt like Gunther was extremely dominant and Sami made one good comeback and that was it.
The main event of this night was a goofy overbooked mess to be honest. I don't have many opinions on it than "Sure I guess". I truly believe this spot should've been for the rightful winner of the Women's Royal Rumble Bayley and her incredibly strong feud with Iyo Sky and Damage Control. The tag match was fun, I would be lying if I said it wasn't. The audience had a lot of fun too, every member of the bloodline showing up and The Undertaker of all people to help out was strange but a decent surprise. Definitely not a WrestleMania main event worth going back and watching in years to come.
Night two of WrestleMania kicked off with a very fast World Heavyweight Championship match between Drew McIntyre and an injured Seth Rollins, Drew finally winning the title in front of an audience and redeeming his victory during the pandemic. Instead of celebrating this moment, Drew can't help but taunt and provoke CM Punk at the commentary desk. Sure enough this is what costs him everything. CM Punk sucker punches Drew and allows Damian Priest to cash in the Money in the Bank contract and take the World Heavyweight Title for himself. Honestly a really great way to start the show to distract us from an injured Seth, who absolutely deserves the time off.
LA Knight and AJ Styles had a really fun build to their match with brawls breaking out constantly even at each others homes. However the match itself fell short in my opinion. I struggled to feel invested. Which was unfortunate as both men are incredible talents. The following match was Logan Paul defending the United States Championship against Randy Orton and Kevin Owens in a triple threat match. Now this was the match to reignite my investment in the show. Such a fun series of events, that included streamer IShowSpeed getting RKO'd.
As I mentioned earlier the rightful main eventer, Bayley challenged Iyo Sky for the WWE Championship. Bayley had a fantastic showing in the royal rumble, and the story line of Damage Control turning on Bayley was engaging whenever WWE actually wanted it on TV. My only notes for this match were "The women have done it again" as this is absolutely a match of the year contender for me. Over Iyo's 245 day reign after cashing in the title has been a star making run for her. She had some great title defenses that unfortunately were on awkward spots on cards, that maybe left others feeling like her run was forgettable. She definitely earned a main event and should've gotten it.
A long story was finally finished. Cody Rhodes ended the historic 734 day reign of Roman Reigns. If this match had one more kick out I think it would've pushed this to another level for me. My friends and I watching were having a great time and when the pin fall finally happened we all said "imagine if he kicked out". Cody has been the face of WWE since returning, he is THE company guy and its nice to see him finally hold the gold. All of Cody's friends came out to help him celebrate. Wrestling is at it's best when there is years of story behind a moment, and to see not only this chapter of Roman's story come to an end, but Cody's as well made this worthy of a Wrestle Mania main event.
With WrestleMania behind us, I was pretty wrestled out, Dynamite the week following was as contentious as could possibly be. In response to some WWE figures making off handed comments about AEW a handful of times during the press for WrestleMania, AEW decided that they would air the infamous backstage footage from ALL In at Wembley Stadium. If you've gotten this far into this reading and have no idea what I'm referencing, I'm impressed. At All In, all the way back in August of 2023, CM Punk and Jack Perry got into a physical altercation that led to firing of CM Punk from AEW and a suspension for Jack Perry. (If you know about the situation and/or don't care to hear ANOTHER opinion you can skip the next paragraph.)
An off air beef, where Jack wanted to use real glass in a spot for his match. Which Punk disagreed with. When the match happened, Jack said to the camera "It's real glass, cry me a river!" A funny quip to see as a viewer. When Jack went to the back following his match he was confronted by Punk. Now everyone and their mom has a take on who was in the right and who was in the wrong. If you're curious, I am in the camp that Punk was absolutely in the wrong for throwing the first punch, its honestly a childish move for someone to do. There was a lot of discourse that Jack looked "weak" in the 10 second altercation. Which I still don't understand, what could you do in 10 seconds after getting sucker punched? Either way this whole altercation was embarrassing for AEW, and I'm shocked they went ahead and showed it.
The goal of them showing the footage was to further progress the feud of the Young Bucks and FTR with the explanation of; The Young Bucks were distracted due to this and needed to fulfill their duties as EVP's and couldn't focus on their match. Which my feelings are "sure". Shortly after this Will Ospreay came out and cut a promo also taking a shot at WWE and at Triple H. Being a month removed now from this, this episode ended up feeling very "little brother". Which was disappointing overall as I do think AEW is a genuine alternative to WWE, and better in a lot of ways. From my perspective it is absolutely damned if you do, damned if you don't.
April 15th a new Joshi promotion was announced! Rossy Ogawa finally revealed the new promotion he has been orchestrating for a while now. Dream Star Fighting Marigold looks to debut on May 20th with their first show titled "Marigold Fields Forever". Alongside the reveal of the name was the first seven signing including talent from STARDOM such as Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Mai Sakurai, MIRAI and Yuzuki. Accompanied by Nanae Takahashi and Nao Ishikawa. In the following days a handful of more talents were named as being signed including international talent. I'm looking forward to seeing how this new promotion will effect the landscape of Joshi wrestling.
I stopped into watch NXT on the 16th, for two matches. Je'von Evans answer an open challenge from Ilja Dragunov. Which was still a squash match, there was never a doubt that Ilja could lose, but Je'von showed out. For someone as young to be as talented as he is, makes him a must watch talent for the next few years. The main event of the show was a Stand & Deliver rematch. Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams in a steel cage! Although a quick match, this had a lot of energy going into it. Carmelo had all of his hired security try and interfere which Trick was able to fend off. However it was all not enough to stop the momentum that Trick has garnered. After dodging a chair strike, Trick his Carmelo with his signature knee strike through the steel chair, getting the victory and sending Melo off to smackdown.
The final AEW Dynamite before their Pay-Per-View Dynasty, had some really strong matches including a cool mixed tag of Adam Copeland and Willow Nightingale against Brody King and Julia Hart. To me the main event of this show was Deonna Purrazzo against Mariah May. Both are beyond skilled and should be staples in AEW for a long long time. This match left me wanting more much like the actual main event which was Will Ospreay against Claudio Castagnoli. Both of these mentions matches were really strong but I couldn't help but think what if these had more build and more time, how amazing could they be?
AEW Dynasty was not surprisingly the capstone of professional Wrestling for April. with 2 match of the year contenders for me and several incredible performances and moments. There was so many that I have to gloss over a few.
Bullet Club Gold ended the Acclaimed's tyranny over the Trios Championships, Rodrick Strong defeated former best friend Kyle O'Reily to retain the International Championship. FTR and the Bucks battled in a ladder match for the vacated Tag Team Championships in an absolutely insane match which culminated in Jack Perry returning to help the Bucks win the match. Security tackled him and pulled his hood off to reveal a devilish smile that will go down in history.
Okada's first defense as Continental Champion was against The Bastard PAC. From the moment they teased this match, I was practically foaming at the mouth. Pac and Okada is the type of dream match, you just wouldn't think to say when prompted to think of a dream match, Then when PAC announced he wanted the title, it was all I could think about. PAC is someone I have been a fan of since his early NXT days and he has never truly been given the ball to shine, and AEW has placed him in some fantastic spots and rivalries but this blew my expectations away. Pac and Okada went twenty two minutes which was intense from start to finish. A match of the year contender that you should go back and watch.
Julia Hart's break out championship reign finally came to a close with Willow Nightingale earning her first championship here in AEW. The House of Black has been feuding with Willow and Statlander for what feels like ages, and I'm very happy Willow is now the TBS champion! The two women put on a a performance worth watching. All of this now sets up Mercedes Moné to challenge Willow at Double or Nothing. Following her match, Willow gave us possibly the greatest championship photo in all of wrestling. As much as I love Mercedes I hope Willow retains in May, because Willow deserves a generational run with this title.
No I wont talk about HOOK losing the FTW title.
Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm pulled out a fantastic match with so much heart behind it. Thunder came out without her signature face paint which contrasted Toni's white powder makeup. I'm actually surprised Toni retained her, The way the build to the feud was as well as the structure of the match, it felt like Rosa was taking back the title she never lost. I'm sure Thunder will be Women's champion again, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Samoa Joe defended his AEW World Title against the white hot Swerve Strickland, in a banger of a match. Swerve was crowned the new champion. Unfortunately this match had to follow:
Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson, which some people are calling the best wrestling match ever. This was everything wrestling should be. Two insane athlete putting their bodies on the line for the love of the sport. This match was back and forth from start to finish and could've ended at any second. This was a match of pride, Bryan has been calling himself best in the world for a long time, Ospreay wants to take that for himself. The results were as grand as everyone expected. Two of the best in world collide and you simply get magic. The explosive match came to scary halt when Ospreay delivered the Storm Driver '97 to Danielson. The referee began to check on Danielson and called for medic's. However Ospreay was locked in and didn't realize that Bryan was being assisted by the medical team and wiped Danielson out with a hidden blade elbow to the back of the skull to become the victor of the match. Ospreay's celebration was quickly spoiled when he realized exactly what had happened. As he technically didn't win cleanly and took advantage of an injured opponent to score a win. Later in the evening during the Press Conference a shamed Will Ospreay announced he is retiring the Storm Driver '97 move in fear of injuring someone else. I'm intrigued to see the fallout of this decision as Ospreay tries to further himself from the Callis family. Ospreay's journey in AEW is realizing that he is not a jerk anymore, but has to be accountable for that past. I'm not sure if this was the best wrestling match of all time, but this is definitely in the conversation. I hope we get a rematch at some point and a clean finish will truly determine the best in the world.
Two days later NXT Spring Breakin' took place with the main event being Trick Williams challenging Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship. I'm really not sure why they had a champion as dominant as Dragunov lose the title in an eleven minute match even to someone as electric as Trick. This show definitely could've given another five to ten minutes to this contest. Regardless Trick was the rightful winner with Ilja moving up to Monday Night RAW. The crowd in attendance was so hyped to see Trick as champion that the camera's were literally shaking from how much energy they had jumping up and down. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch this match Trick has had 2 better matches earlier this month and same for Ilja but Trick is going to shine even brighter as champion.
The next day on the 24th Dynamite was back at Daily's Place, the "home" of AEW. I always like when wrestling shows are at unique venues, it breathes some fresh air into the aesthetics of an increasingly homogenous AEW. The show opened with the new Elite arriving to the arena and heading to Tony Khan's office. It was announced that Jack Perry will meet Tony in the ring later in the show.
The recently heel turned Trent demanded Chuck Taylor make a decision on who he chooses Trent or Orange Cassidy. Which Chuck sided with OC and called him a piece of crap. Leading to the announcement of a parking lot brawl between the two.
My main event Mina Shirakawa wrestle Anna Jay in a fun but albeit quick contest. Mariah May was ringside to support Mina. Anna Jay decided to interrupt their celebration and attack Mariah. This led to Toni Storm making the save. Leaving Mariah awkwardly between her two mentors. As if it was not hectic enough Serena Deeb came out and staked claim as Toni's next challenger. Its really exciting to see all of these moving parts in the women's division, last year felt like such a vortex for the two divisions. The walls are closing in on Toni and I really think her reign can come to an end at any defense. If Toni manages to hold on to the title until Forbidden Door her opponent should definitely be Mina in what would be a fantastic match.
Speaking of moving parts in the women's division: Willow Nightingale had her TBS championship celebration which was interrupted by Mercedes Moné, who accused Willow of attacking her backstage in the prior week. Of course Willow denied this and so did Kris Statlander who was supporting Willow. This tension burst when Mercedes turned her back and Kris grabbed her arm to get her attention, Mercedes saw this as an attack and slapped willow HARD. Kris played coy and acted confused. I think this was laying the ground work for Kris and Willow to split which would be a great feud down the road.
Leading up to the show, AEW advertised a "Casino Gauntlet Match" which I just assumed was their "Casino Battle Royal". I couldn't have been more wrong. This was first pin fall to win. No eliminations. The match began with two wrestlers, then another joined the fray every few minutes. The winner would receive a shot at the AEW International Championship at Double of Nothing. Jay White, Dante Martin, Pentagon, Kyle O’Reilly, Will Ospreay, Lance Archer, Komander, and Jay Lethal were all participants. I truly did not expect Ospreay to pick up this victory here. I'm curious if they will have him beat Strong at DoN, since myself and many other are expecting him to challenge swerve later in the summer at ALL IN. For a new concept match that was announced practically the day of, this was really fun and I hope they do this more often.
Following Jon Moxley's title defense of the IWGP Heavyweight title against Will Hobbs, The show was on overrun. Jack Perry heads to the ring and calls out Tony Khan. The two agree that Jack should be reinstated and that he is free to be back in AEW. TK and Jack embrace as that familiar devilish smile shows its face again. BAM! Jack hits Tony with the microphone. The New Elite come out and play up their confusion, until the Young Bucks begin helping up Tony Khan... into an EVP Trigger double knee strike. We think that is it and that they are going to leave. Matt and Nick Jackson were not done. They finish off TK with an assisted Piledriver fittingly named "the Tony Khan Driver". The Elite pose and walk off leaving Tony Khan in a billionaire colored puddle. Medics and talent poured out in hopes that TK is okay, finally Tony Khan's father Shahid Khan comes out to check on him. This was an awesome closing angle for a show, it felt just off cuff enough that it pushed reality especially with Shahid Khan showing up for the first time.
There was too much damn wrestling in April. This is the longest "Wrestling In" yet. Even with everything I was able to watch and cover here, there is still so much I missed and didn't cover. Wrestling is in a bit of a renaissance, there is something for everyone right now. I truly believe that this will only grow larger and larger. There is so many great storylines going on, and I can't wait to see how they all turn out.
Yorumlar