We start in PWG which is widely seen as the number two independent promotion in the US behind ROH. The first match took place at the big DDT4 tag team tournament in 2007 and was pushed as the first singles match between CIMA and Danielson. The opening exchanges are very reminicent of a exhibition match. Lots of nice reversals, clean breaks etc which the fans were enjoying. Match finally takes a more serious tone with both wrestlers having long spells of controls and CIMA doing surprisingly well against Danielson on the mat. All the big moves were on show including dives, coast to coast from CIMA, the iconaclasm, cattle mutaliation on a number of occasions, schwein hit at least twice and Danielson using the elbows which nearly earned him the victory. Fans were basically standing up for the final few minutes and thoroughly enjoyed this excellent 30 minute draw. Fans asked for another five minutes which didn't occur.
Staying with PWG but moving forward to the BOLA 2009 was a very heated tag team title match. The champions are the Young Bucks who had been the title holders for a long time. If you haven't seen PWG then seeing the Bucks as hated heels may take some getting used to, as they are generally faces everywhere else. Match started with Steen teabagging the unfortunate Matt Jackson much to his disgust and the fans amusements. Young Bucks still do all their great double team spots but insist on either posing to draw heat or in some cases do moves such as hand spring elbows into a back scratch or a poke into the eye. Steen isn't a regular with PWG, El Generico at that stage was teaming regularly with Human Tornado in PWG. El Generico as he always is, is just completely loved and plays the perfect babyface in trouble. Steen then makes the big comeback and the Bucks go flying was the story. This match also had a number of excellent false finishes including the Bucks hitting their finisher of More Bang for Your Buck for a close two count, while the challengers nailed Nick Jackson with the package piledriver into the brainbuster for an insane two count. In the end though it was the champions who retained after eliminating Generico, Steen was hit by a number of superkicks including two stereo dropkicks for the pinfall loss.
Moving onto JAPW, we have a considerable drop in quality. The story being that LAX especially Homicide are trying to drive Teddy Hart out of the promotion, a perfectly justifiable quest in my eyes. The match was fought inside a steel cage and was fought 2 on 1 as Samoa Joe for no apparent reason takes an age to make his appearance. This match just never caught fire maybe the audience was waiting for Joe to turn on Hart as I was, it just seemed a matter of time before it happened and Samoa Joe several minutes after his arrival nailed his tag team partner and left the cage. More double teaming followed before Hart was put out of his misery after Homicide nailed him with the Cop Killa. After the match Teddy Hart cut a promo saying that Homicide would never drive him out of JAPW.
Leaving the US, the next three matches take place on the big NOAH show as a part of their 10th Anniversary which took place on August 22nd. The first match see NOAH's Jr Tag champs Marvin and Ishimori who should be a major star in the next 12 to 18 months defending against NJPW duo of Kanemoto and Tiger Mask. This was another really enjoyable tag team match with Kanemoto again being absolutely superb as the cocky heel and Ishimori as the fiery babyface. Full of great wrestling, stiff kicks and strong comebacks this didn't quite capture the live audience as it did me. They enjoyed this but I thought they would react more strongly to this, the challengers prevailed when Kanemoto secured the win after nailing a reverse tiger suplex to end the champions six month title reign.
Up next was the semi main event and was another NOAH vs. NJPW in what was built up as G1 Climax grudge match, the fans certainly saw this as a big match, though Nakamura looked like he would rather go for a sleep. This was a typical heavyweight match with both wrestlers trading chops, kicks etc but not many big moves so the match built quite slowly. It was also interesting to see how Shiozaki has continued to develop as a star in NOAH since his time in ROH. Fans did pop big for Shiozaki when he was offence and were thrilled to see him victorious when he hit Nakamura with a modified Go Flasher.
The last match from the NOAH show was one which occured earlier on in the show featuring KENTA going against Aoki who has been involved in some great matches. This match had a simple plan of being used to elevate Aoki as a talent. With KENTA still being completely over with the fans and Aoki more than holding his own and on a number of occasions seemed to be on the verge of getting another big win. However it was KENTA who emerged victorious after hittinng GTS for the pinfall.
The final match on this compliation comes from ROH Live in Osaka show from July 2007. With the No Remorse Corps with Mochizuki taking on the aces of ROH, DG and NOAH. The downside to this is that it's very difficult to see the NRC winning this. CIMA especially was over in DG's home territory. All six men get plenty of time to look good as the match swung from one teams advantage to the other. Romero looked great doing his modified cross arm breaker which he even hooked from the top rope down to the mat. Mochizuki and Richards kicks were super stiff as you would imagine, while it wouldn't be a Danielson match without Cattle Mutaliation. In the end though it was CIMA and Marufuji working together to hit the unfortunate Romero with a shiranui and then a schwein for the popular win.
Overall this is a strong compilation with an interesting look at the recent NOAH show, two awesome PWG matches with only the travesty of Teddy Hart being anything close to being a negative.
Total Wrestling Vol. 3
CIMA vs. Bryan Danielson ****1/4
Young Bucks vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen ****1/2
LAX vs. Teddy Hart & Samoa Joe **1/2
Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask IV vs. Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4
Go Shiozaki vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ***1/4
KENTA vs. Atsushi Aoki ***3/4
Bryan Danielson, CIMA & Noamichi Marufuji vs. Davey Richards, Rocky Romero & Masaaki Mochizuki ****
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