The End of John Cena - Plus Others
Catching up on month of random matches I liked, from AEW, To ChocoPro, to NOAH, to yes, somehow, WWE.
John Cena vs Gunther - WWE Saturday Night's Main Event, John Cena's Retirement Match
Coming in and watching this with little investment, and not particularly as a fan. This isn't for me and shouldn't be for me. But even through my on personal lens, this is good. Cena, with his ideal opponent for this, perfectly able to work his preferred pace. The wheels are falling off, but they're not gone. He can still go, and he can still lead a match. While his prime is well past, he's not an old man being dragged across the finish line. This is a slower pace, but one Cena is confident in and has wrestled before.
People are upset at the ending, and, in a sense, it's a bad one. It's bad because it derails every moment after it. Not that people are upset, but that they're doing things like blaming HHH or chanting AEW. This makes me sad though, because I think the ending is perfect.
The end comes for us all. Cena already gave up by deciding to retire. The outcome of this match is decided, no matter what he does. He's not succumbing to pain, or fearing for his life... he has the serene realization that he doesn't need to fight anymore. It's over. It was over since he stepped in this ring. He did what he set out to do. Then, with a resigned smile, he accepts the void and taps out. A more desperate tap wouldn't have felt right. This was a sober acceptance of the truth.
Sometimes you need to know when to quit. So while that finish ruined the match for some people, it's the part I will remember, positively, well after everything else that happened in that match has faded from my mind. Honestly without this finish, this would be somewhere in the 3s for me, personally... but the ending made it a perfect capstone. Closure is sad sometimes.
I watched this match with April and told her about the discourse around it. Her response was to look at me dryly and say "... I'm too media literate to possibly think that ending was bad". Fuckin' got'em.
Kyle Fletcher vs Speedball Mike Bailey - AEW Dynamite #323
Sometimes a match is just a bunch of cool stuff happening with some good pacing and drama. More elevated than a "spot fest", but still in the genre of "junk food".
But junk food rules, and so does this match. It's just innately pleasing to see two guys do their craft as well as possible. I can't remember a better TV match in recent memory. A tournament like this is so ideal for Speedball. A chance to have a ton of great matches with a ton of great people, while being given an upset or two,
We watched this right after Cena vs Gunther and the April opinion was "I really like Japanese matches and I understand the slow grind, but I appreciate when stuff just happens a lot" and this was definitely a match when stuff just happens a lot.
AZM vs Mei Suruga - ChocoPro #485 Emi Sakura 30th Debut Anniversary Cult Heroine
I always think, for obvious reasons, AZM's rival as SLK, but as SLK kinda makes her own style, Mei comes up as AZM's high speed shadow. Two absolute gremlins, just going nuts for 15 minutes. They are naturally good at what the other is good at and they just mesh together perfectly.
Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki - NOAH Destiny 2005
Two men, producing infinite sweat, turn each other into meat-based humidifiers, slapping gallons of fluid off of each others chest. They sweat, as if Space marines secreting fluids from their Mucranoid glands to protect them from the vacuum of space. Like ocean spray crashing up from the rocks as a wave hits, like it's the start of a Toei movie. They beat the ever loving shit out of each other, then throw the everloving shit out of each other, as 60,000 fans scream their lungs out.
Dudes fucking rock.