*By Request*
“Happy Birthday, Bro. I was gonna leave a post on your page, but I have a request so I just did it here. What is the best birthday present that wrestling has ever given you? Maybe it’s a match that took place on your birthday or a memorable promo or a debut or something like that.”
Much appreciated. Another year goes by, and I’m still out here, putting out content. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been doing this for damn near two decades now.
Indeed, I just celebrated my birthday recently. Ironically enough, this column request ended up being something of a birthday present to me. I’ve had a busy week, and I haven’t had as much time as I normally would to sit in my office and work on something. I was looking for an “easy” topic to write about this week, and because of you, I have it. Thank you.
The request is pretty straightforward. I have to look at my birthday (July 18th), and talk about the best “birthday presents” that pro wrestling has given me through the years.
Let’s go to work.
Wrestlers I Share A Birthday With: Carlos Colon, Al Snow, The Great Sasuke, Joey Matthews, Mandy Rose, Valentina Feroz/Valentynna Reis
Wrestler Who Passed Away On My Birthday: John Kronus
Favorite Birthday Match: I’m going to cheat a bit here. Actually, I’m going to cheat in two different ways. First of all, I’m going to choose two matches here, as I can’t really pick between them. Two, while these matches took place on my birthday, I didn’t see them until a couple years later, and I didn’t see them on my birthday. Whatever. You’ll live.
My two favorite birthday matches took place on the exact same date. July 18th, 2005. They took place in the exact same venue. The Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. They took place on the exact same show. NOAH Destiny. A lot of the big-time puroresu nerds already have a good idea what two matches I’m referring to, but for everyone else…
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title against KENTA (aka Hideo Itami to North American fans that don’t partake in Japanese wrestling)
– Kenta Kobashi squaring off against Kensuke Sasaki in a first-time-ever match between two of Japan’s all-time greats
This was five months before KENTA’s first appearance with Ring Of Honor, where I, like many people, would first be introduced to the man. He was going after his first singles title in NOAH, but was facing the three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion (and one-half of the reigning GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugiura) here.
From the sound of the opening bell, these two hit a pace that was absolutely insane, and the desire to hurt one another never really let up for the entire 20-minute duration of the match.
KENTA was already on the rise, but this match was his true coming out party, setting the stage for the legendary career that he would have. One that continues on to this day, as he just won the GHC Heavyweight Title last week, marking his second reign with that championship.
Kanemaru is also going strong today, working a full-time schedule with New Japan, but he hasn’t been a champion of any kind since he and El Desperado dropped the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles to Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask IV on October 26th, 2021.
As for Kobashi vs Sasaki… the match has become very famous over the last 20 years for one particular reason. Smack dab in the middle of the match, those two legends decided to have an epic chop battle that literally lasted for four-and-a-half straight minutes, lasting of nearly 200 total chops. The temperature inside of the Tokyo Dome was warm, and both men were very sweaty. With each stiff chop, the sweat went flying into the ether, making for an even more amazing visual to go with the glorious sound of the chops connecting time and time again.
I’ve said this about different things before, but it’s very fitting here… watching Kobashi vs Sasaki was like watching Godzilla taking on any number of the giant monsters he has faced through the years. Two big badasses, throwing haymaker after haymaker at each other, trying to land the kill shot and put their opponent down. This is one of my favorite matches of all-time, birthday or otherwise. It’s one of the most intense matches you’ll ever see, and it got the notoriously quiet (yet respectful) Japanese wrestling crowd to go banana on multiple occasions.
Favorite Birthday Moment: This is an easy choice for me. Money In The Bank 2021 was already a major event for WWE. It was the first WWE pay-per-view to be held in front of a full crowd since the start of the COVID pandemic, so the crowd inside of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas was more amped than usual, and it sure seemed like that helped the wrestlers themselves put on a better show.
After a really fun night of action, the main event saw Roman Reigns successfully defend his Universal Championship against Edge. After the match, Seth Rollins and Edge continued their feud that would set up a match between them at SummerSlam. Once they brawled through the crowd, it left Roman in the ring to finally celebrate his victory, and he called for the crowd to acknowledge him.
Before they could, though, John Cena’s music hit, marking his triumphant return to the company, and what was once a venue with a roof became an open air space, because those crowds blew the damn thing clean off. It was one of the loudest crowd reactions of the modern wrestling era, made even more incredible because of the crowd size. It was an announced attendance of 14,541 people, but with zero hyperbole whatsoever, it sounded like 44,541 people were in the building. On commentary, Michael Cole had one of the best calls of his legendary career. His “OH, MY GOD! OH, MY GOD! CENA’S HERE!” still echoes in my mind, said with the emotional intensity of someone who was experiencing a surprise just like all of us were.
As a John Cena mega fan, it was cool to see him back. However, as a John Cena mega fan, it was even cooler to see him back and receiving the love and adulation from the WWE Universe that he deserves, after what was a decade-and-a-half of mixed reactions and dueling crowd chants. It’s love and adulation that he carried up until his heel turn earlier this year, and it’s love and adulation that he will receive once again when he inevitably turns face before he officially retires.
You’re up. I want to hear from you about this topic. Using your own birthday, what are some of your favorite wrestling matches and/or moments to take place on that day? Who are some of the wrestling personalities that share your birthday? Have any wrestling personalities passed away on your birthday through the years? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s get to my Weekly Power Rankings, before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this week’s column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and SummerSlam: For what seems like forever, I’ve been praising the tag team scene on Smackdown, and just how deep the division is. We’ve been seeing them all feud for a bit now, so it’s only natural that we’ll be getting a TLC Match at SummerSlam between the top SIX TEAMS on Friday nights. Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy vs The Street Profits vs Motor City Machine Guns vs FrAxiom vs DIY vs Andrade & Rey Fenix… my word, that’s going to kick 58 different types of ass, plus have another group of asses lined up around the corner, waiting to be kicked at its leisure.
Kevin Knight & “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs FTR: Take two of the top tag teams in AEW… place them in a match against each other… have the match be in a tournament that will see the winners receive a shot at the AEW Tag Team Titles at Forbidden Door… that seems like a pretty good recipe for success. This match was a super fun clash of styles.
Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer: Two women that have a legitimate claim to being the best in the world at what they do. They tore it up here, and the best part about it is that we’re basically guaranteed that we’ll get more from these two in the future. This was their second match against each other since Vaquer was called up to Raw, and they have wrestled for a combined 29:06 in those two matches, but neither match has seen a true victor. We had a No Contest between them back in April, and this one ended in a Disqualification. WWE could EASILY go back to this as the main event of something big moving forward, where we’d finally get a real winner.
Sheamus vs Rusev: I don’t know if that’s where it’s going, but at this point, WWE might as well just book these two in a Best-Of-Seven series. Rusev has one win, and Sheamus has one win. Let’s go another five matches where they beat the holy hell out of each other.
“All Ego” Ethan Page: I know a handful of people that have met Ethan Page in person, and there is an overwhelming consensus that he might be one of the nicest, friendliest people in the wrestling business today. That’s why it’s especially amazing to see him on television, where he is such an easy person to hate. Him debuting the brand new look of the NXT North American Title was brilliant, and he got a ton of heat for it.
“Timeless” Toni Storm vs Billie Starkz: I’ve been wanting to see more of Athena and Billie Starkz on AEW programming, and I’m getting it. Now, I just need to hold out hope that Billie can pick up some wins on AEW programming. The only win she has in AEW came back at the WrestleDream pay-per-view, and that was a pre-show eight-person tag. We’ll see, I guess.
Hulk Hogan Tribute: For this, it doesn’t matter how you feel about Terry Bollea passing away… WWE’s tribute on Smackdown was classy and well-done, especially for something that needed to be put together in such a short amount of time.
Mark Briscoe vs Claudio Castagnoli: Through the years, these two have been on opposite sides of some really good tag matches. Briscoes vs Claudio & Chris Hero at RoH Final Battle 2006. Briscoes vs Claudio & Matt Sydal at RoH Respect Is Earned. Briscoes vs Claudio & Chris Hero at RoH Domination. Briscoes vs Claudio & Matt Sydal at RoH United We Stand. Briscoes & Young Bucks vs Claudio, Chris Hero, Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards at RoH So Cal Showdown. Briscoes vs Claudio & Chris Hero at RoH The Big Bang. Briscoes vs Claudio & Chris Hero at RoH Death Before Dishonor 8. Briscoes vs Claudio & Chris Hero vs Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas vs Kenny King & Rhett Titus at RoH Best In The World 2011. There’s a lot more, but you get the point. This match was, to my knowledge, the first time Mark and Claudio have ever had a straight up one-on-one match, but it came as no surprise that they still knew each other very well. Lots of in-ring chemistry with these guys.
Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro vs Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs The Creed Brothers: It’s a similar recipe to what we’ve already seen in this week’s Power Rankings… take three of the best tag teams on your show, put them in a match together, and give the winners a shot at the World Tag Team Titles. I like that Wilde & Del Toro came out victorious here. They weren’t the “obvious” choice, but they’re going to have a great match against Finn Balor & JD McDonagh for the titles.
Dustin Rhodes vs Lee Moriarty: 56-year-old Dustin Rhodes continues his attempt at world domination, defending one of his three titles. It was a good match that got more time than I was expecting it to. That’s certainly not a complaint.
Dominik Mysterio: When I first saw the clip of Dom making his surprise appearance in Mexico at a AAA show, I was amazed by the huge pop he got from the crowd. Then Triple H tweeted out the clip featuring the raw audio and no commentary… holy shit, the pop was even bigger than I originally thought. That was LOUD. He has a chance to become the AAA Mega Champion on August 16th at TripleMania, facing champion Hijo del Vikingo in a match that also includes El Grande Americano and Dragon Lee. If he wins the title to become the top guy in AAA, that crowd is going to lose their minds. I’m not saying… I’m just saying.
Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez vs Lyra Valkyria & Bayley: I love how much in-ring chemistry Raquel and Roxanne have built in a short amount of time. They’re going to have themselves a really good run as the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, which will only add intrigue to the storyline when Liv Morgan is finally able to return from her injury.
Oba Femi vs Josh Briggs vs Yoshiki Inamura: Let’s see… Oba Femi… in a match where he’s facing off against fellow “big man” wrestlers. Yeah, this was always going to be fun, and that’s exactly what it was.
Athena vs Alex Windsor: Usually, Tony Khan’s problem is that he should book someone to be in a title match, but always decides to place them in some sort of “eliminator” bout instead. This time, the script was flipped. There was zero logic in Alex Windsor getting a shot at the RoH Women’s Title here, but she received one nonetheless. The match was good, but how we got to the match didn’t make any sense.
Hank Walker, Tank Ledger, Sol Ruca & Zaria vs Shawn Spears, Niko Vance, Izzi Dame & Tatum Paxley: I speak negatively about Shawn Spears and his crew a lot, but credit where it’s due… they have found themselves in my Power Rankings on multiple occasions recently. Again, I’ve never felt that Shawn Spears is a bad wrestler. I just find him to be incredibly boring. I’m glad that he’s on a bit of a hot streak, though. No complaints here.
AJ Styles: The man continues to flash his comedic chops, as he hilariously stalks Dominik Mysterio, waiting for Dom to be “medically cleared” to defend the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam. It’s all silly, yes, but that can make for some very entertaining wrestling when it’s done right.
Hologram, Tomohiro Ishii & The Outrunners vs Hechicero, Lance Archer, Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo: Week #947 of me begging Tony Khan to stop the lame “all-star” tag matches and/or matches where the winner(s) supposedly get an arbitrary amount of money as a prize. It’s fucking lazy. Stop doing it every single week, and sometimes, more than once in a week.
This Week’s Playlist: “Sucka Free” by Tyler, The Creator… “Kill Me Fast” by Three Days Grace… “The Only Heaven You’ll Know” by Caskets… “Sharing The Night” by Fiji… “Sweet Darlin” by Fiji… “Misty Blue” by Fiji… “Naughty Girl” by Fiji… “Into The Night” by Fiji… “Le Andi” by Fiji… “Stone Cold” by Fiji… “Love” by Fiji… “Ku’u Aloha” by Fiji… “Tribal War” by Fiji… “Anything You Want” by Fiji… “Warrior Of Love” by Fiji… “Come On Over” by Fiji… “Morning Ride” by Fiji… “Jowenna” by Fiji… “Impossible” by Fiji… “If Tomorrow Never Comes” by Fiji… “Darkness To Light” by Fiji… “Did You Know?” by Fiji… “Indi Moan’n” by Aziel & Fiji… “Take Me Away” by Laga Savea & Fiji… “No Other Love” by Common Kings, J Boog & Fiji
