Tuesday, January 26, 2010

1/22/10 Freedom Fight

(taped 11/28/09; aired 1/22/10)

Gran Akuma vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Matt Jackson vs. Nick Jackson vs. Lince Dorado vs. Hallowicked:
This was a fun spotfest and the crowd was totally into it. If there was any complaint, I just wish they had more time. ***3/4

BxB Hulk vs. Brian Kendrick: Great stuff. Crowd not as much into it as the other matches, but it had awesome back-and-forth action worthy of being on PPV. Ratings-wise, this had the lowest rating, but it was in no way a trash match. ***

CIMA vs. Super Crazy vs. Mike Quackenbush vs. Jorge Rivera: I must say, Rivera can still go, and I love it. CIMA is great, Super Crazy was his usual crazy self, and I loved the Quackenbush dive to the outside near the end. All these factors led to a great match. ***1/4

Yamato vs. Davey Richards: Yet another unbelievable match. Words really cannot describe how much I marked out during this match. It was a hard-hitting, pull-out-all-the-stops match that showcased two amazing people doing what they do best. Richards had an epic match against Shingo at the last pay per view, and delivered another one here. ****1/2

Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid & Shingo: Wow. Just incredible stuff here. Words definitely elude me in being able to describe this match, but let's just say I was marking out even more than Yamato/Richards. This is a must-see match, and any pro wrestling fan should go out of their way to see it. ****3/4

BxB Hulk vs. Gran Akuma vs. CIMA vs. Yamato (Elimination; Open the Freedom Gate Title): This flowed fine, but you had to think all these guys were tired with it being the second match for each. It sucked to see CIMA get eliminated so early, but the match told a good story with Hulk overcoming the double teaming of Akuma and Yamato to win the Open the Freedom Gate Title. ***1/4
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MVPs: Honors go to Davey Richards, Yamato, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Dragon Kid, and Shingo. All six were outstanding, and the ratings show it.

Final Thoughts: We had two amazing matches, a great opening spotfest, and then the other three matches barely cracked three stars. While Untouchable had three matches of at least ****1/4 from me (this one only had two), Freedom Fight had all matches at least ***. Regardless, this PPV is still well behind Enter the Dragon. Oh, and it sucks to wait two months for the next PPV.

Overall Rating: ****1/4

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