Articles by Alex Podgorski
(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet – NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors XXIII
This is how you start a flame war among wrestling fans. Five years ago, this match polarized the wrestling fandom. Longtime wrestling fans split into two main groups: those that…
5-Star Match Reviews: Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada – NJPW G1 Climax 2019
For the past several years, the only pro-wrestling tournament worth watching has been New Japan’s G1 Climax featuring big name stars like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Kota…
Weekly Pro-Wrestling in Tokyo Dome (Bridge of Dreams) 1995 Review
Imagine if WWE, AEW, TNA, ROH, MLW, NWA, IWA-Mid South, GCW, CZW, UFC, Bellator MMA, PWG and Women of Wrestling all came together and featured their wrestlers on a single…
(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Misawa vs. Akiyama – AJPW January 26th, 1998
Every wrestling fan has a company that can satisfy their needs. If you’re looking for crazy storylines and larger-than-life characters, you watch WWE. If you’re into wild acrobatics and tongue-in-cheek…
(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi – NJPW G1 Climax 2013
For the past eight years or so, the NJPW G1 Climax has been hyped up as the premier wrestling tournament in the world. New Japan’s annual round-robin contest has been…
(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: The Wyatt Family vs. The Shield – WWE Elimination Chamber 2014
For a very short window of time in the so-called ‘modern era’, WWE actually had two great acts that fans wanted to see: The Shield and The Wyatt Family. These…
5-Star Match Reviews: Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll – NJPW Sakura Genesis 2018
From time to time, I come across a wrestling statistic that simply baffles me. I’ll read something about how this wrestler did this or that match had such and such…
5-Star Match Reviews: Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega – AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 2021
When I started this 5-Star Match Reviews series, it was meant to shine a spotlight on supposed historically-great matches and to see if they held up well to time. As…
(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen – September 5th, 1996
It’s time for a hoss fight. There are some matches that are great because they tell a deep and personal story. Others are great because the wrestlers involved display…
5-Star Match Reviews: Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto – AJW Destiny 09/02/95
Once in a while, I like to go back and watch these old and sometimes obscure 1990s joshi matches because of how crazy they were. It isn’t a cliché to…
5-Star Match Reviews: Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada – NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14
On January 5th, 2020, one of the greatest professional wrestling matches in modern history took place. It was the culmination of a subtle but well-crafted storyline that started eight years…