Match Of The Month (July)

The month of July...in a word...DAMN! In the heat of the summertime, July delivered some of the hottest action this entire year.  Not only did we have a great PLE with Money In The Bank, but we also had AEW's yearly special of Dynamite, Blood & Guts, which featured the havoc-provoking Blood & Guts Cage.  However, Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT-Pro, Marigold, and ROH all presented excellent PPVs worth the time, money, and attention to enjoy. Not to mention, it's that time in New Japan again, as the summertime tradition of the annual G1 Climax tournament started and goes through mid to late August.  So far, there have been some very good matches within the tournament.  This was a very physical month, but only one match can make the distinction of being the Match Of The Month. Plus it was a tight one for the Runner-Up MOTM spot, but we have that for you as well.  With that said, let's dive in!

Match Of The Month

Will Ospreay vs. MJF

AEW International Championship

AEW Dynamite 7/18

It's pretty much a safe bet that fans the world over can attest to the fact that MJF can wrestle, and can wrestle DAMN well. While we had already known he was a great bell-to-bell competitor going into his work with the likes of CM Punk, Moxley, Jericho, and others, it was his modern classic with Bryan Danielson at AEW Revolution '23 that the world officially knew how fantastic of an in-ring competitor the unbelievably brash, arrogant and highly controversial talent was. Not to mention his work with Darby Allen from 2021 as well.  The young Long Island native hung with Danielson for over sixty minutes while wearing the proverbial crimson mask as he retained the AEW World Championship from Danielson.  Fast forward to 2024 and MJF has more than erased any notions that his bite wasn't as powerful as his bark.  He's truly one of the most low-key gifted performers in all of the business, and this was displayed again against a man seen and viewed as the most exciting bell to bell performer in wrestling today, Will Ospreay.  Ospreay is one of the most exceptional talents the business has ever seen, especially within modern wrestling.  His encounters over the past few years against the likes of Omega, Takagi, Okada, Josh Alexander, Mike Bailey, and ZSJ more than show this.  With MJF returning from a five month absence to reclaim his throne and crown, it was only a matter of time before these two outstanding talents got it on.  With MJF officially back to being his masterfully heel self (as he turned on Daniel Garcia after his match against Ospreay on Dynamite in which he left Garcia injured, bloodied, and stretchered out of the arena), he challenged Ospreay for the International Title on the 7/18 edition of Dynamite. The match was a complete masterclass in the sum of its parts. Ospreay exhibited his electric and innovative offense, but also his ability to tell a story that has him trying to simultaneously scrap to defend his title while trying to not allow MJF to get him unraveled to where he defeats himself.  As for MJF, this was another story of him demonstrating his stellar ability to hang with absolutely anybody in wrestling and adapting to any style there is, even if it's a hodgepodge of various hybrid styles.  Plus of course, this was also a matter of him getting a step closer to regaining the AEW World Championship. This remarkable match was lasting in to the allotted sixty minutes, in which they were clearly showing the wounds of war within this game of human chess. However, as time was starting to end, MJF pulled out his ever notorious ring and  decked the British phenom with it behind the ref's back.  With a heart-pulsating TWO SECONDS REMAINING, MJF became the new International Champion in what was the greatest Dynamite match in quite some time, if not ever.  With oxygen mask in tow, MJF walked (or staggered) out with the belt, while Ospreay showed one more time why he is one of wrestling's most amazing competitors.  We will have a rematch for the title (or as MJF has now rebranded it, "The American" Championship) in Wembley, and if this rematch will be ANYTHING like this first encounter, make more room for another MOTY candidate.

Runner-Up Match Of The Month

Swerve Strickland, Darby Allen, Mark Briscoe, & The Acclaimed vs. Kazuchika Okada, Hangman Page, Jack Perry, & The Young Bucks

Blood & Guts Match

AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts

For the fourth time, AEW presented its special edition of Dynamite entitled Blood & Guts, which is essentially a War Games match on prime-time television.  If you know the history of War Games, you know this is traditionally one of wrestling's most brutal, violent, and blood-soaked matches. Going back to the first War Games in '87 between Dusty Rhodes, Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff, and Road Warriors' well-known manager, Hall Of Famer, Paul Ellering against The 4 Horsemen of Flair, Luger, Arn Anderson, Blanchard, and another HOF figure, their old manager, J.J. Dillon at the Great American Bash on July 4 of that year. It was a bloody, vicious affair that had injuries but also was a classic street fight that innovated the way we see cage matches.  While the greatest War Games match of all-time is widely seen as Sting, Koloff, Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, and Barry Windham vs. Paul E. Dangerously's (Heyman) Dangerous Alliance of Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Steve Austin (yes, THAT Steve Austin to my younger heads reading), and Larry Zybysko from Wrestle War '92 in Jacksonville, FL.  Since then, we've had some memorable War Games and some very forgettable ones as well. While WWE officially secured the rights to use the name 'War Games', AEW made the match in its traditional ways: a two-ring affair with a steel cage surrounding it with a roof on top and submission/surrender being the only way to win. WWE has no roof on the cage and pinfall and submission decides the winner when all men (and women for their own War Games match) have entered.  AEW had to call their War Games match 'Blood & Guts', but regardless of what you call it, it's nearly an hour of the most chaotic minutes in wrestling television.  This year's edition involved Team Elite, which consisted of the reigning three-time AEW World Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks, the current Continental Champion, Kazuchika Okada, the newly crown TNT Champion, Jack Perry, and original Elite member, Hangman Page facing Team AEW in the form of current AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland, reigning ROH World Champion, Mark Briscoe, The Acclaimed, and the ever unpredictable, Darby Allen.  As this new version of The Elite has been running over people flaunting their EVP power (mostly The Bucks, but Okada and Perry have a hand in their decision making), the likes of Team AEW were tired of putting up with it and came together for this potentially extremely vicious encounter.  Rules were standard as two men started off in the match, and in this case, it was Allen and Perry.  These two young guys fought like hell during those initial three minutes before Team Elite (who used a double-sided coin to help them gain the advantage going into the match) sent out Nick Jackson to make the odds two against one and Jackson and Perry went to town on Allen.  After that two minute beatdown was over, in came Briscoe, who thrives in these type of violent environments historically (along with his late, great brother Jay).  From there, after those two minutes were up, Matt Jackson came out (both Bucks, by the way, came out with hard briefcases with some goodies inside them as will get explained later).  The elder Jackson opened up Briscoe, who bled the most in this affair, and the work on him and Allen commenced.  Time for Team AEW to send their next man out, which was Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed, who did a great job showing his toughness and violence, as he nailed Perry with scissors (appropriate) to the head and opened up Perry.  In the home stretch of entrants, when it was time for Page to arrive, he never showed up, even though there was an apparent deal made between Page and Matt Jackson sometime prior to the event.  Once Swerve came suited up for war, Page attacked him from behind and proceeded to handcuff him and beat up on Swerve before he could even get in the ring.  Matt had threatened to fire him if he didn't go through with this "deal", and that brought Page inside ad Jackson demanded the ref to ring the bell for the match to officially begin, where submission or surrender was the only way to win.  Swerve eventually got assistance from his manager, Prince Nana, as well as Billy Gunn and Jeff Jarrett to get Swerve unhooked and into the cage.  Frankly, Swerve was on fire in this match.  He looked like the star, and champion, that he was supposed to be presented as.  In perhaps the most vicious spot of the match, inside one of the briefcases, there were five staple guns. All of Team Elite stapled Swerve's body in an excruciating looking situation. The ever sadistic, yet tough as a board, Swerve laughed off the stapling and started doing some stapling of his own onto his opponents, especially Page who caught a staple in his cheek.  The ending came as a lacerated Darby doused Perry with gasoline and had a torch ready to set Perry on fire, demanding Matt Jackson to not only quit for his team, but for him to give him a match against Perry in Wembley for the TNT Championship. Both happened, and Team AEW won.  This was a violent, yet fun as hell, match to be engaged in.  It was a soaker like the first two B&G matches were, but this was definitely among the upper two best so far.  With barbed wire boards, barbed wire chairs, tables, staple guns, scissors, cuffs, and thumbtacks, this had all the gnarly ingredients for carnage and that's what we got.  Everybody in the match showed tremendous toughness, but perhaps the award for most tough went to Darby, as he and Perry started the match from the beginning and he out his body through more punishment than anybody else arguably in this encounter.  Of course, the ever violent and uncomfortable chair shot to Perry from Briscoe (an homage to infamous rivalry from ECW, Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven) made just as much news, if not more so, but as a whole, this match was Anarchy In the Arena confined, and the results were a chaotic, bloody good time for all watching, although very surely not at all for the combatants.

Honorable Mentions

Drew McIntyre vs. Jay Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Chad Gable/WWE Money In The Bank '24

Stratton vs. Skyy vs. Naomi vs. Valkyria vs. Greene vs. Stark/WWE Money In the Bank '24

Diamanté vs. Hirsch/ROH Death before Dishonor '24

Uemara vs. Konosuke Takeshita/NJPW G1 Climax 34 Day 4

Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita/NJPW G1 Climax 34 Day 1

Strickland vs. Okada/AEW Dynamite 7/18

AJ Styles vs. Naomichi Marufuji/NOAH Destination '24

Sareee vs. Giulia/Marigold Summer Destiny '24

Io Skyy vs. Utami Hayashashita/Marigold Summer Destiny '24

Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Page/AEW Dynamite 7/10

Henare vs. Konosuke Takeshita/NJPW G1 Climax 34 Day 6

Donshoku Dino vs. Shanshiro Takagi/DDT- Pro Wrestle Peter Pan '24

MAO vs. Yuki Ueno/DDT-Pro Wrestle Peter Pan '24

El Desperado vs. Adam Brookes/DDT-Pro Wrestle Peter Pan '24

Shota Umino vs. Gabe Kidd/NJPW G1 Climax 34 Day 3

Kommander vs. The Beast Mortos/ROH Death Before Dishonor '24

Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong/ROH Death Before Dishonor '24

July was a hell of a month with its action and physicality.  We saw another modern classic and one of the best War Games-styled matches in a long time.  Mixed with several of the matches in the HM, July has s et the bar for the summer in terms of matches go.  Will August set a new one? We sure will see.  Until next month folks!

Match Of The Month (June)

It's clear that these past few months of the year have been outstanding in physical activity and storytelling that would be compelling and enthralling.  June was definitely no different.  AEW presented the stellar Forbidden Door PPV with New Japan for lots of critical acclaim, plus WWE delivered a great Money In the Bank PLE that produced one HELL of an MITB Women's match.  Other matches that were featured on the likes of Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite, Collision, CMLL Super Viernes, and others made for quite the entertaining and engaging viewing for wrestling.  Our Match Of the Month for June was clear and away the best match, not just for the month, but quite possibly an all-timer.  Does June have the win for the best month of highly heralded matches? We will see.  Right now, let's give it up for our MOTM and its Runner-Up. 

Match Of The Month

Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland

AEW World Championship

AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

It should come as no surprise that the main event of AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door would take this slot as June's Match Of The Month.  AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland, defended the title against then-reigning AEW International Champion, Will Ospreay, in a very highly anticipated match that met every expectation, and even exceeded them in some regards.  Ospreay is arguably the best in-ring performer in the world today, as any match he is in, he delivers show stealing performances and all-time levels of greatness.  Evidence of search a claim can be seen with matches against the likes of Okada, Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, and, of course, his legendary encounter against Danielson.  Meanwhile, Strickland is enjoying the run of his career.  After his mediocre stint in WWE/NXT, once TK got a hold of him, this allowed him to fully reach and realize his potential.  A former AEW Tag Team Champion with Keith Lee, everyone knew Swerve had "IT", and expectations were finally met when he became the first Black AEW World Champion back at the same event Ospreay and Danielson collided in AEW Dynasty.  It was only a matter of time before these two world-class performers had their date, and this was every bit the incredible match we knew it would be.  After an intense build for the match, in which Swerve quickly got into his challenger's mind by crossing some lines, the match was set to be a heated and personal affair.  After what already been a tense and physical build up, the match was on and it was on very quickly.  The ever slick, yet smooth as silk (yet superbly tough) style of Swerve brought it to yet another level matching Ospreay and his aerial expertise and magnificent offensive display.  It was clear throughout this match that Swerve had something to prove here. An already fantastic competitor, Swerve had to silence critics and any doubters there were going into the match, and boy did he.  At one point, there was a spot in the match where Swerve did a Swerve Stomp on Ospreay on the broadcast table and nearly took Ospreay out from it.  Mr. "Billie GOAT" was not at all without his impressive and scintillating offense, as he countered Swerve's attempt at piledriving Ospreay on top of the barricade by turning it into a Hurricanrana.  We would later see impressive feats of offense by Swerve by having him execute a version of Kurt Angle's Olympic Slam from the top rope, while Ospreay would match that with Ospreay hitting his dreaded Hidden Blade on Swerve after Swerve executed a reverse Hurricanrana on Ospreay.  As you could tell, this was simply a GLORIOUS matchup between two of the absolute best in-ring performers in the world.  Near the end, Don Callis would hand Ospreay a screwdriver for him to use against Swerve or even Swerve's manager, Prince Nana at ringside, and Ospreay couldn't put himself up to do such a thing (anymore).  His hesitation would ultimately cost him later, as he had a chance to put this away with his Tiger Driver '93 (which the same move he used against Omega at last year's Forbidden Door and on Danielson at Dynasty that made it seem like both guys' necks were broken seemingly), and didn't pull the trigger.  Evert the opportunist, Swerve would execute his House Call kick, which then set up for his finisher, Big Pressure, for the pinfall in one of the most exceptional matches one could ask for from either man.  We all knew, and clearly have seen, Ospreay is THAT performer, as he does five star matches in his sleep, but this was about Swerve's official coming out match. That match that not only proved his worth as World Champion, but that he could toe-to-toe hang right with "The Aerial Assassin", and he absolutely did, thus solidifying himself as THE top guy in AEW.  Afterwards, a heartbroken Ospreay would receive respect from Swerve, and one has to imagine this has to happen again somewhere down the line.

Runner-Up Match Of The Month

Hechicero vs. Zach Sabre Jr.

Two Out Of Three Falls

CMLL Sabados de Coliseo

We are going to go a different route for this one. While the prior match was filled with a lot of high flying, technical, finesse, and effective psychology that involved suspense and even emotion.  This match was the opposite, at least terms of emotional investment, but plenty of psychology in terms of competition of who was legitimately the better technical wrestler.  Two of the absolute best in the world in terms technical and scientific wrestling are Zach Sabre Jr and CMLL's Hechicero.  While the world is starting to know just who ZSJ is more and more on a notable level, a lot of people were relatively unknown to the former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, Hechicero.  These two met back in 2018 in PWG, in what was an excellent match at that time as well.  Six years later, ZSJ and Hechicero knew there was no love lost and decided to pick up where they left off, although at the time ZSJ picked up the win.  Those years apart only enhanced and greatly developed the two men's skills even more, and what resulted in this return match was one of the finest technical wrestling matches seen in many years (the Danielson/ZSJ matches notwithstanding) at CMLL's weekly Sabado de Coliseo event.  The match itself was under twenty minutes in length, but boy did they make the most of their time.  Back and forth holds, suplexes, stiff shots, and plenty of counters for the holds, these two were exhibiting master craftsmanship with their mat abilities.  The first fall was won by Hechicero, but ZSJ quickly countered that with his own win, but after some of the most grueling minutes you could imagine, Hechicero picked up the win in what was a phenomenal mat wrestling affair that showed some vital mechanics of how to keep people invested in a style that doesn't involve chairs, blood, weapons, tons of high flying, and other troupes typically seen in modern wrestling of today.  These two stellar mat workers will face off against each other one more time at the RevPro Anniversary Show in August, and one has to imagine what type of match that will be.  It will be quite the hurdle outdoing how unbelievable this match was, but it's very possible with these two human chess players.  ZSJ is modern wrestling's Billy Robinson in terms of pure mat wrestling supremacy and work ethic, but Hechicero should have more people mentioning him more within an elite technical wrestling class as well. Here's to hoping we see a lot more of this nearly twenty year Lucha veteran beyond Mexico, preferably the States.

Honorable Mentions

Orange Cassidy vs. Zach Sabre Jr./AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Mercedes Mone vs. Stephanie Vacquer/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Toni Storm vs. Mina Shirakawa/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Hechicero vs. Zach Sabre Jr./CMLL Sabados de Coliseo

Kyle O' Reilly vs. Zach Sabre Jr./AEW Dynamite 6/26

Kiyomaya vs. Gabe Kidd/NOAH Grand Ship

Quite honestly, this was a hell of a month for tremendous wrestling. other matches from Stardom, CMLL, NOAH, and RevPro have been worth viewing and could really mess with the matches on this HM.  July had its work cut out for it, but will it be as excellent as June was? Time will tell.