Professional Graps

Watching good graps one day at a time.

[professionalgraps]

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Great Muta - NOAH The New Year - 1/1/2023

What a way to kick off the year. This match was a spectacle from start to finish. Obviously Great Muta is well past his prime --hence the retirement tour -- and Nakamura isn’t the same wrestler that he was during his New Japan Pro Wrestling run but they still delivered a worthy main event. I thought Muta looked about as good as a 60-year-old with terrible knees can and Nakamura was able to break out of the patterned WWE style. The 18 minute match absolutely flew by and while the outcome was never really in doubt it didn’t detract from my enjoyment.

I especially loved the finish of this one: Nakamura blinded Muta with his own green mist after stealing it from his mouth and then pinned him with the Kinshasa. 

Special shout out to for bringing in Lee England Jr. to put Nakamura’s entrance over the top. When England’s in the house you know it’s a big deal.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Great Muta via Kinshasa in 18:19 Rating: 3.5 stars

[professionalgraps]

Mission Statement

I watch a ton of wrestling. Probably too much, to be perfectly honest. I know there are some hardcore people out there who keep spreadsheets of all the matches they watch as well as their personal star ratings. While I don’t want to go that far, I do want to keep track of the pro graps that I’m consuming. So I’ve decided to start this experiment where I watch a match a day/every other day/a week and write a short blurb about it. 

I’m going to try to stick to as much new wrestling as possible but out of the gates I plan on watching an old match every Thursday as a lifetime spent working in digital marketing has taught me that Throwback Thursday always plays.

I also plan to try to get out of my comfort zone so each post won’t be covering the latest five alarm banger on Dynamite or the random great WWE match. The big boys will certainly show up here but I’m trying to seek out new and interesting stuff.

I have no clue where this blog is going to go or if anyone will actually end up reading it but I’m hoping it allows me to discover and highlight some stuff that I’ve never seen before while also providing some quality viewing to anyone who stumbles across this.