Current Watch List:

• Bobby Roode vs. Austin Aries (TNA)
• MVP & Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle & Lashley (TNA)
• Luke Harper & Rusev vs. John Cena & Dean Ambrose (WWE)
• Dragon Lee, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Ephesto, Kamaitachi, Mephisto (CMLL)
• Negro Casas vs. La Mascara in a lightning match (CMLL)
• Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero © vs Mistico, Valiente, Volador for the CMLL Trios championship (CMLL)

Matches Watched:

Bobby Roode vs. Austin Aries
United States
TNA

Solid TV bout.  They more or less worked a Kurt Angle-like sprint with constant movement and reversals.  Austin wiped out on the guardrail while attempting a tope in what was the big spot of the match.  I liked how that turned the tide immediately and allowed Roode to pick up the victory.  Probably my favorite TNA match of the year.  It was just a solid 2015 TV match overall; not sure there have been many better on NXT TV this year (I’d have this somewhere around Itami/Balor).

MVP & Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle & Lashley
United States
TNA

Not executed as well as I would have thought, given the experience levels of all four.  Lashley struggled to even run the ropes correctly at points.  MVP’s offense was rather light and he didn’t look good.  Even Angle had a sloppy moment on a missile drop kick.  Joe looked the most competent of the four.  Turned into an Angle match down the stretch.  Even with sharp execution, there wouldn’t have been much to this.  The structure was there really wasn’t any structure.  One of those TV matches where it is clearly guys doing some offense to kill some time before the finish.  In this case, the finish was usual TNA nonsense of doing a miscommunication spot with Angle and Lashley one week after they joined forces and in their first match together as a team.

Luke Harper & Rusev vs. John Cena & Dean Ambrose
WWE

This is a fan-cam from an Abu Dhabi house show.  Standard main event level house show tag in that it was longer than a TV tag you would normally get between these two teams, they worked two heat segments, and it was just basic, solid work.   Decent heat as well, but nothing blow away.  House show matches like this are fun because you get to see wrestlers work a slower paced match that is more focused on the basics.  While slower paced matches focus on the basics are generally a good thing, that doesn’t make a match like this anything special on its own.  Rusev and Harper did not have enough interesting offense to make their long offensive stretches anything better than average.  If I was at this show, I would have been all onboard with the length but watching the match at home, I felt like it dragged too long.  Ambrose and Cena were great at working the crowd, but I wouldn’t expect anything different.

Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero © vs Mistico, Valiente, Volador
Lucha
CMLL
CMLL Trios championship

Very good trios match, perhaps the best of the year thus far.  Ultimo Guerrero has a real case for WOTY at this point which would have been unthinkable a year ago.  He was arguably the best guy in this match.  His first fall mat work with Valiente that got the match started was very solid.  He served as a great catcher throughout the match in addition to pulling out a couple of individual “double teams” that I don’t think I have ever seen before.  He’s been a completely different guy since losing the mask.  Between this match, the CaraLucha trios, the FantasticaMania final night trios, and the Atlantis FantasticaMania match, he has as good of WOTY ( 1 1/2 months into the year) as anyone.

Mistico was also great.  The shooting star press to the outside was absolutely beautiful.  Many great dives in this one form the tecnicos.  In terms of flying and high spots, this was the best of 2015 this far as it probably edges out Volador/Mascara Dorada from FantasticaMania.

Long first fall that allowed the match to find a rhythm and settle in.  I wouldn’t say the first fall was title match style, but close to it.  First two falls were very good.  If there was an issue with the match, it was that the third fall wasn’t as good as near fall heavy CMLL third falls can get.  The structure just felt a little off and they probably did too many saves at the expense of some kick outs.  It kept them from achieving any great false finishes, although there was one decent one.  It is a nitpick though that at worst kept this from being a surefire MOTYC.  Great highspots built into fun/unique structure for modern CMLL make this well worth watching.