Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

1. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
2. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
3. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
4. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
5. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
6. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
7. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
8. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
9. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

2. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10

God bless the internet, because in previous years all of these spot show matches with old fat luchadores ruling it on the mat were lost forever. Now they are starting to seep out and end up on the computer where I can watch them. This isn't as great as last years "let's show these punks how lucha libre is supposed to be" match (Villanos/Negro Navarro v. Heavy Metal/Dos Caras Jr./Solar) but was still pretty brilliant. The match starts out matching Solar and Navarro, and we know what those two bring to the table, suprisingly their first caida matwork is out shined by Black Terry and Mano Negra ruling it.

I knew all of the other guys could still go, but I had no idea Mano Negra still could work at this level, he had this awesome poofy hair that made him look like the corporate villain in an 80's sex comedy ("This is the only mountain that will let us snowboard, and they want to shut it down), and he and Terry do some awesome leverage standing stuff, and some great matwork counters. The second caidia mixes up the pairings and again both matchups are great. Black Terry is amazing, he is 54 years old, but in great shape and moves and bumps like he is 30 years younger. I think you could throw a mask on him and stick him Guerreros Del Inferno and people would think he was some hot shot young indy guy CMLL repackaged. The third fall, they match Navarro and Solar up again and they do a fast roll up section which was incredible, slick, quick and amazing. I also liked how they ran a draw finish with two double eliminations, rather then a time limit or a double DQ. At one point Coloso Colesetti on commentary yells out "They wanted the lucha, here is the lucha." Can't say it any better then that


7. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27

I think there is an argument to be made, that, for basically the same guy, current Jimmy Jacobs is better then Eddie Gilbert ever was. Tiny guy with great wrestling mind who was best in crazy brawls. The entire Jimmy loves Lacey angle was truly brilliant, I can't think of a better angle in the last ten years, and it was pretty much all Jacobs. This was part of that saga, as Jacobs tries to get revenge on Whitmer who he blames for disfiguring his love, turning him from Emo to Screamo. Even without the backstory this was a great brawl. Building from chairshots and spikings to insane spears into guardrails and Jacobs flying headfirst into chairs. Both guys spray blood out of their heads, and land wrong on their necks. Weirdest thing about the match is BJ Whitmer doesn't actually do anything that bothers me. Even the BJ Whitmer matches I have liked, there are moments where I go "Fuck this guy." Here he was completely inoffensive and bled and bumped enough not to drag down the Jacobs show. The ending was pretty ass, as that fake Benoit guy from Smackdown with a muscle queen back tattoo comes in and Exploders Whitmer through a table. I forgive it, because this wasn't the end of a feud so you need a reason for these two to keep killing each other, but it dropped the match below your other high end 2007 garbage.