Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X (4.4.24) review 

 

April 4, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #9  

 Well, technically 8.5 because I’ve not finished 8 yet but whatever. 

 

Source: Triller TV+ ($7.99 per month) 

 

We’re in Philly at Penns Landing Caterers. Bloodsport is always popular. I’m expecting a sell-out crowd. WWE have lent GCW Shayna Baszler for this show, which is insane. Imagine if this becomes normal? Bloodsport faves Minoru Suzuki, Tim Thatcher and Barnett himself on the card. However, the main event (for me) is Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe. Let’s, and I can’t stress this enough, FUCKING GO. Hosts are Lenny Leonard and Dan Barry.  

 

 

Steve Regal’s kid looks to be a late addition. 

Seeing Shayna Baszler is so weird. If WWE start to play nice with other promotions on WrestleMania weekend, the possibilities are endless.  

 

AKIRA vs. Viktor Benjamin  

AKIRA wants to grapple but Victor is all about the big KO power moves and punches. That’s the contrast/story for this. Benjamin has trouble making his strikes look good until he goes to the kicks. They do something I hate, which is Benjamin hits a roundhouse and AKIRA no sells it and flips him off. No. Just no. Benjamin ends up winning. Crowd boo. This was not good. Crowd hate it. Should have finished it with the first roundhouse.  

 

Nic Nemeth vs. Mike Bailey 

Imagine how good Dolph’s Indies run would have been if he quit WWE back in 2016 or something? He might even be in that Cody spot. You never know. Instead, he took the easy money and waited to get released.  

Nemeth has a big size advantage, but Bailey has those kicks. Nemeth tries to push Bailey out of the ring a few times before slamming him on the apron, so he falls outside. Was that on purpose? Is Nemeth a dick? I love how rabid this Bloodsport crowd is. Bailey gets an armbar and they ERUPT. Ziggles slips out, hits the ZIGZAG and chokes Bailey out for the win. This was a fun little match. Nemeth acted like a jerk but made his size and strength advantage count. Kinda cool how he used his wrestling move in a shoot environment and it didn’t seem totally stupid.  

 

Women’s Tournament Semi-Final 

Lindsay Snow vs. Lady Frost 

Snow is covered in tattoos. I don’t remember her having that many. They do stand up where Snow struggles, so she takes it to the mat. One kneebar later and it’s over. Snow advances.  

 

Women’s Tournament Semi-Final 

Janai Kai vs. Marina Shafir  

Shafir is 3-0 at Bloodsport. Kai is 0-2. This should be a squash. Shafir throws her socks into the crowd. Some foot pervert will be all over them.  

Kai tries to hang on, instead of trying to create seperation and get a kick away. When she does land a kick, glancing blow albeit, she almost finishes. A more direct kick to the jaw should finish but Kai rushes in and can’t finish. Shafir baits Kai in and chokes her out after a lovely judo throw. Shafir is great but I don’t get why Kai didn’t play to her strengths here. I don’t care for the superkick not finishing either. Either do it and finish or don’t.  

 

Matt Makowski vs. Charlie Dempsey 

They work hard here, especially at the grappling, and throw in some interesting throws. Dempsey busting out a capture Fisherman suplex to counter a kick is nice work. Makowski clearly has the advantage on striking and they’re closer on the mat. I like Dempsey catching Makowski with a lifter. The old European forearm. He connects with a few big shots before finishing with a kimura. Good effort from both guys. ***¼ 

 

Fuminori Abe vs. Nakuya Nomura 

These two know each other well, as tag team partners. Abe is outstanding at this style too. The slaps are so good. Abe’s ‘pick a hand’ bit is great.  

Abe’s headbutt draws blood. Not content to do that, he does it again. The forearms are fucking tasty, baby. Two guys who know each other can time the strikes better. Get closer to the target. A lot of these strikes, you couldn’t do to a stranger. Abe gets the heel hook but Nomura headbutts his way out, knocks Abe silly and gets a choke to win. This was banging. **** 

 

Erik Hammer vs. Lou Nixon 

Hammer comes in 4-0 in Bloodsport. Nixon is a big dude though, with MMA experience, so it’s not an easy 5-0 for Erik. Not sure I agree with Lou wearing a chain around his neck though. That’s fucking stupid. They do a lot of parity work, able to go equally on stand up and on the mat. Nixon takes a huge German suplex and Hammer finishes with a kimura. Nixon is still struggling to get out of the ring when the ref calls it, which makes it look like more a shoot finish. I like it.  

 

Royce Isaacs vs. Minoru Suzuki 

Suzuki is still in great condition considering his age. I assume he works out, doing shoot wrestling, on a daily basis. The way he, still, land cat like on his feet from almost any position is fantastic. Isaacs tells an interesting story, which is that he’s scared of grappling and doesn’t want to mount Suzuki. I like how Suzuki finds a way to get his hanging armbar. He messes with the count.  

He’s toying with Isaacs here. Giving the people what they want. He’s fucking about. Royce gets a kneebar and Suzuki laughs at him. Oh no. Royce mate, run away. Isaacs starts elbowing Suzuki and he laughs at him again. Terrifying man. Isaacs finally finds some fire from this, and Suzuki is like, hey, that’s all I wanted to see brother, and he chokes him out and hits the Gotch Piledriver. Your typical Suzuki “fuck about” match. I liked it. Crowd appreciate it. If Minoru Suzuki is having a nice time, it’s all good.  

 

Axel Tischer vs. Tim Thatcher 

Two large men rolling around on the mat. Tim takes some shots to the ribs that leave red marks.  

Thatcher feels like he’s got it won a couple of times only to give up his position to look for something else. When he’s getting beaten in stand up he nails that big slap too and does nothing afterwards. Timothy isn’t a killer. He’s too nice. Tim gets the Fujiwara armbar out of nothing for the win. I like the finish being out of nowhere, but I felt tactically this was odd. 

 

Video Control gives us a great hype video where Masha Slamovich talks about having the passion and determination to beat Shayna because she’s not made it to the top yet. Shayna is too comfortable. This is a great video and GCW used to be better at these. I appreciate the effort. 

 

Shayna Baszler vs. Masha Slamovich  

The crowd are into Masha.  

It’s a tentative contest. I expected a lot of energy from Masha, based on her promo, but she’s patient and waits for openings. Shayna does great work in establishing a leg kick and blocking Masha’s kicks in retaliation. They both chase submissions on the mat and it comes off as a great showcase for Slamovich. Shayna gets the Kirifuda Clutch and Masha getting out feels weird. Pumphandle backdrop driver from Masha is awesome. They get too many chokes in here without a finish. Shayna takes a kick to the face and doesn’t appreciate it. SHE STOMPS MASHA’S FACE INTO THE MAT. Fucking hell. Crowd hate Shayna but that finish was beautifully violent. ***½ 

 

Women’s Tournament Final 

Marina Shafir vs. Lindsay Snow 

Shafir walks more tentatively to the ring this time thanks to an ankle problem from the SF. Shafir leaves her ankle hanging, like Brock Lesnar against Frank Mir, but too often these chances slip by in these matches. Snow spends a lot of the match as the aggressor. Shafir is almost sleepwalking into holds and then realising she has to work her way out. Snow keeps coming forward and she’s got in Shafir’s head.  

Shafir ends up finishing by kicking Snow in the head and she falls out of the ring. Snow hops back in like that wasn’t the actual finish. I didn’t like Snow rolling around on the finish. In general, we’ve had some issues with selling tonight. Shafir gets the trophy but wasn’t convincing.  

 

Josh Barnett vs. Johnny Bloodsport 

Johnny comes in with heavily taped elbows. He tries to do some weird stupid spin kick and slaps his thigh. Fuck off mate. Get that shit out of here. All the MMA fighters slap their thighs when they kick someone to make it sound louder, yeah? Bellend. When they hit the mat, it gets better. More kicks, more thigh slapping. Josh, stand up and fucking tell him off. Don’t just lie there like a coma victim. Barnett lands an outrageous spin kick, and they keep going for some reason and Barnett finishes with a gutwrench. This fucking SUCKED. An embarrassment.  

 

The 411: 

Despite the main event and some pretty unconvincing performances in some matches (and bad refereeing throughout) this was still the best show of the weekend so far. Low bar but hey, it cleared it easily enough. Abe-Nomura and Baszler-Slamovich were the easy stand outs. Way too many matches on the show but I appreciate them coming in at 2h30m. I don’t mind shows going that long if they’re ok. Way too many shows this weekend have run over that and been shit.