RETRO CLASSIC! ROH TV Workrate Report: 2/28/11

So I noticed that I had written this show up as it happened, and then just left it saved as a draft, and never posted it. Until now! So now we'll go back in time, to a simpler time. Come with me now, remember February? Charlie Sheen wasn't talked about on every channel, a giant earthquake hadn't hit Japan, Knut (arguably the cutest bear in the history bears being cute) was still alive, and David Lynch hadn't been brutally shot to death.

OK, I was just informed that it was not David Lynch, director of Blue Velvet that was shot, but rather David Lynch, leader of the white supremacist American Front. So that's not so much a bad thing after all.

So in celebrating Black History Month, let's watch a bunch of matches featuring a bunch of white guys that look similar!

1. The Prodigy Mike Bennett vs. Adam Cole is up, and they start with some side headlock action! Cole eventually takes control with an atomic drop and some chops, and Bennett rolls to the floor for a breather. Cole does a rana off the apron, and I really like ranas where a guy jumps from the apron to an opponent standing on the floor. It just looks cool. Bennett takes over by booting Cole into the guard rail, and Cole looks great flinging himself recklessly into the rail. Bennett muscles Cole into the corner and works over his back. These guys seem to have a bunch of Edge-like offense that relies on a guy getting thrown up into the air like a flapjack. Like, you can't just do a DDT, a guy has to get flapjacked into a DDT. Can't just do an atomic drop, you have to throw a guy into the air and have him land crotch first on your knee. It looks silly. Edge and Cole's offense is basically pulling a guy down. Not doing a move to them, just kind of touching them and pulling them towards the mat. Cole with an enziguiri and crossbody for 2, and a nice bridging German for 2 more. Cole makes weird fighting spirit faces as the fans get behind him. He kinda looks like when your toes touch seaweed in a lake and it's kinda gross but kinda neat at the same time, leaving you confused. And then Bennett just kinda gets a sideslam out of nowhere. Huh. That was a weird one, as Cole had dominated the last 3 minutes, then really just got pinned out of nowhere. This...really wasn't much. I assume Bennett is the favorite to win the Top Prospect Tournament.

Corino is delightfully odd wearing a sweater and conservative shoes while giving advice to the prospects. "Just keep your head in the game, buddy!" I don't know where they're going with it, but it's quirky for now.

2. Michael Elgin vs. Bobby Dempsey. Yeaaaahhh!!! These two are probably the fattest two dudes in ROH, so I'm kinda excited for this one. Oh, YES! Dempsey has an awkward fat guy one-armed singlet! They collide a few times with painful shoulderblocks (like 10 of them!!) and then Elgin throws a nice back elbow, but Dempsey just runs into him with his fat!! But Elgin HEFTS him up for a big fat samoan drop and the ring shakes! Elgin goes for a powerbomb and Bobby backdrops out of it, throws a so-so clothesline, and THE STRAP IS DOWN! Dempsey hits a slam and goes up for a Vader Bomb or big fat moonsault, and Elgin catches him and hits a BIG sit out powerbomb and Bobby's belly shakes all violently and this is it. Too bad it only went 3 minutes, but pretty fun while it lasted.

Corino in again with his odd generic advice. "Follow your own path, you're doing great!"

Kenny King is very much the same as Shelton Benjamin, except he is better on the stick, and probably less expensive to book.

Corino interrupts Andy Ridge and Grizzly Redwood wearing a different sweater. "The future is yours! Seize your opportunity! Show the world what you got!" This has to lead to him just kicking the shit out of everybody somehow, right?

3. Andy Ridge vs. Grizzly Redwood and I have never seen Andy before. He's skinny and wears trash bag shorts and kick pads. I like Grizzly's backslide. He got some nice leverage on it. Ridge throws a kick, and Grizzly starts shopping his leg! Grizzly somehow leapfrogs Ridge and then trips him, sending Ridge to the floor. Grizzly goes for a tope and runs face first into a kick and it looks pretty great. Back in and Ridge just grabs a chinlock, and eventually Grizzly fights out into an abdominal stretch. More thigh slappy kicks from Ridge including a pretty nice running boot into the back of Redwood's head. Hogewood is amusing trying to put over the kicks by saying there are rumors that Ridge has a steel rod in his right leg. We go into some miscommunication and Ridge hits a mistimed superkick for the win. I had never seen an even-worked Redwood match, and it doesn't really work. I like Grizzly taking big beatings in tag matches, and maybe he has a good single in him, but Ridge was not the man to have it with. Some of his kicks looked good, others missed and made a big thigh slap sound. So he's essentially like every kicker you've seen, like ever.

We cut to a busty Asian gal, and Prince Nana is back!! So they're still using the Embassy name, still have Nana and Ernie Osiris....but aren't using Necro Butcher....why? Dear god why?

3. Main event is another fucking Christopher Daniels match, this one vs. Kenny King. I'm glad I'm getting to see so many 15 minute matches from 2011 Chris Daniels, as Prazak talks about Daniels being in his prime, and how everybody underrates his athleticism because he's instead known for his wrestling skill. I'm not sure I understand that. King hits a nice Japanese arm drag into a kip up, showing more and more how he is basically a slightly upgraded Shelton Benjamin. Daniels throws some decent elbows and sells a back elbow nicely. Daniels hits a goofy running neckbreaker and a nice back suplex, then a spinning neckbreaker, then locks on a pretty nasty cravate. It would appear he is focusing on the neck. Daniels with another neckbreaker, then a vertical suplex, and a real nice crossface. King makes a comeback with a bunch of running/jumping stuff, but misses a slo mo back elbow and Daniels hits the STO. We go into a punch exchange which -- believe it or not -- is probably the best part of the match so far as both guys pull perfectly capable right hands out of God knows where. Daniels gets a slam and then misses the BME, and it might just be me, but it seems like King has gone for about 8 sunset flips this match. Daniels hits the Angels Wings and that's it. Hogewood hears me openly and loudly weeping as he says "Christopher Daniels has waited his whole life to get that belt, and he does NOT want to give it up!"

Yeah. He ain't giving it up any time soon, and I will see him work every one of those TV time limit epics.

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Black Terry has Stripes, Stripes on His Shoulder, He Has Chains, Chains Around His Feet

Black Terry/Rey Mendoza Jr./Robin Marvilla v. Blue Panther/Solar/Rocky Santana UWE 3/26/11-GREAT

This is the revanche from the previous weeks match, replacing Negro Navarro with Robin Marvilla. While that is certainly a downgrade this was a very fun match. We start out with a couple of falls of brawling which was good stuff. Black Terry is in his element, as the absence of Navarro really allows him to take center stage. He was really throwing hard rights and lefts on all three technicos. The Panther v. Mendoza brawling was awesome too, as Panther clearly remembered his mask was sitting on Mendoza's mantle place, and he was trying to beat the shame off. There was some heel ref shit, which hurt the match a bit, but otherwise the brawling was very strong. The third fall was more traditional lucha, as we got to see the Maestros work holds a bit, including some nice Terry v. Solar, not to mention a Star and a six man submission. A great way to end Maestro March

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Heaven Help Black Terry Be a Man, And Have The Courage To Stand Alone

Black Terry/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Ultraman 3/20/11-EPIC

This is the Coliseo Coalaco revanche and is even better then the awesome match the week before. We start out with Solar and Black Terry with some really fast and intense armdrags and counters. From the first exchange you get the sense that their is a bit more bite in this matchup, this is not going to be the traditional fraternal exchange of holds, but a contest of wills. This isn't the regular season, it's the playoffs. Navarro and Ultraman come in and it amps up again. Ultraman has totally brought the fire in the March '11 run of matches, and he and Navarro ruled here, fast twisty mat counters with Ultraman totally belonging. Navarro loses his temper and drops a nasty standing knee to the kidneys and a headbutt, with Ultrman firing back with bodyshots and combos. We only get a moment of Navarro v. Solar in the primera with Navarro quickly catching him with his nasty standing arm lock, although Ultraman gets both rudos to win the first fall. Second fall is our classic Navarro v. Solar, and it some of the best stuff I have seen from them. Very intense, multiple counters, cool near falls, with Solar getting the clean straight falls wins for the technicos. It isn't as long as the matches they had the week before, but what we saw was virtually flawless. My favorite match of 2011 so far, go watch this.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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APW TV Workrate Report: 1/22/11

Last week's episode had some ridiculous Jeckels the Jester drama which embarrassed everybody. This week we start with a Rik Luxury promo, which is much better. Luxury can work the stick really well, claiming he's the real TV Champ, not Matt Carlos. He's also in the opening match.

1. Rik Luxury vs. Brandon P.Net (P Dot Net is how it's pronounced) starts the show. There's a pre match graphic telling us that the referee for the bout is APW Referee Toby! Not sure why I would need to know that. Now I'm just going to be suspicious that APW Referee Toby is up to something this whole match, like at King of the Ring '93 when the camera focused on that one shady looking camera man for too long. I'm watching this asshole like a hawk. P.Net shows off his sub-Nova matwork and grabs a limp wristlock. Luxury cheats to transition and 1 minute into the match announcer Killer J Mattias is already comparing this to a Tyson/James Buster Douglas situation. Holy fuck really? P.Net with an armdrag, and this is basically the 1980 Miracle on Ice. P.Net hits a horrible spin kick and arguably the worst yakuza kick I have ever seen. Man this guy is bad. He has looked lost every second of this. He gets suplexed and spends his time on the mat fixing his hair. P.Net's punches are almost as good as babyface Tori Wilson, but not there yet. They're nowhere close to heel Tori Wilson. Wow P.Net fixes his hair a lot. He's clearly been watching his BJ Whitmer tapes. Blecch. He even hits the lame stlye bulldog, with one hand gently coaxing Rik's face into the mat. This guy is the worst. I don't think P.Net is ready for 11:00 Saturday mornings on local TV. Luxury wins with a backcracker. Well that was a bad 10 minutes right there. Luxury is easily top 3 in APW, but you wouldn't know it here. Whole match was spent on laughably awful P.Net and Rik in his ear desperately trying to relay spots that P.Net would then make look awful.

2. "Out of Control" Matt Carlos vs. Dave Dutra is next, and there's a picture-in-picture promo with Matt Carlos, where he talks about how out of control he is, and it sounds like the most bland, level-headed thing you've heard in your life. "I'm fighting my good friend. For the title." I want to see him throwing drinks in peoples' faces and lighting bags of shit on fire and lighting off bottle rockets indoors, or riding a mini horse or blowing off a job interview or stealing sunglasses he won't even use. Just anything. He's so boring and in control.

They start on the mat, and it looks pretty decent. Good struggle, Carlos does a cool roll up into a nice single leg crab. Announcers are pretty unbearable 5 minutes in, putting over what a classic we're witnessing. Let the match breathe a bit, guys. Carlos is good at making pinfalls, kneeling on Dutra's arm while holding him down, putting an elbow across the chin. Dutra helps Carlos out on a sloppy headscissors, really whipping himself around. They have a pretty fun fight on the apron, with some good reversals and some cool teases of trying to knock the other off the apron. Back in and Dutra takes over with a vertical suplex and nice running knee. Carlos gets in my good graces by hitting a really great fist drop off the middle rope. Really looked good. Then he hits what the announcer refers to as the Out of Control Leg Drop, which was a leg drop after bouncing off the ropes. It seemed really safe and very controlled. If he had legdropped him and accidentally put a boot in Dutra's eye, or accidentally stepped on one of Dutra's balls before doing the leg drop, that would be pretty fucking out of control. Matt was totally in control though, very safe and careful.

The commercials are kinda hurting this match, as both times they've gone to break and come back with the other guy suddenly in control, with no explanation of how we got to that point. So now Dutra is taking back over, and with Carlos standing on the apron, brings him back in the ring with a vertical suplex. The announcers are awful here, with the one still insisting on calling it a suplay which sounds so incredibly douchey, and Killer J calling the suplex a "forced entry". Good lord. That's what I want my finisher called, the Forced Entry Suplay. Look at those tights he's wearing, it's like Carlos wanted it! Carlos is getting his back worked over, but goes back on offense with a springboard DDT that Dutra took really well. Another commercial, and of course we come back with Dutra in complete control. Man whoever edited this match is awful. Also very possible that the transitions in the match were just handled really badly.

Dutra hits a powebomb and folds Carlos over for the pin which looked really good, then when Carlos kicks out, Dutra (still holding on) lifts him back up for a sit out powerbomb. Really nice, impressive spot. But Carlos goes right back on offense and the match ends limply with a double pinfall where each guy clearly had a shoulder off the mat. Woof.

So that match took up the last 1/2 hour of the show, and while it had some really great moments, it was either a) hurt badly by 3 commercial breaks, or b) the guys might have just jumped back and forth on offense with no real rhyme or reason. It wasn't a bad match, and a lot of the stuff was hit really nicely, but the ending was lame and it was a bit too much time for these guys to fill.

Post-match "Out of Control" Matt Carlos takes a shit on the American Flag, right in the middle of the ring. Really gross and completely out of control. He smears it a bit and puts on Braveheart make-up with his own shit! What!?!? This is public access TV, Matt, regain control! Have some pride in your country for Pete's sake! Or he really politely thanks all the fans for their applause, shakes Dutra's hand, goes home and does the dishes and thanks his mom for a really great meal. She made homemade mac 'n cheese and topped it with tasty panko crumbs! Yummmmm. Every night she goes to bed and thanks Jesus that she raised such a polite boy, completely in control.

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Beyond Wrestling- Developmental Hell Disc 1

ER: So I've watched a boatload of wrestling the last couple weeks. I had over 100 Texas matches to watch and rank over 10 days, so I've watched a lot of wrestling. A lot of us have watched a lot of wrestling. But how many of us have gone...BEYOND wrestling!? Well Phil and I have.

PAS: I have a strange soft spot for Beyond Wrestling. Certainly this kind of indy wrestling innovative offensithon is not my normal cup of tea, but there is sort of a DIY vibe that the DC Punk Rock fan in me kind of digs. Basically Beyond Wrestling rents out a gym in the middle of nowhere and puts on shows for other wrestlers where guys just kill each other with every crazy spot they can think of. They put up lots of matches on youtube, but this is the first time I am going to try to watch a whole DVD.

1. Team Beyond v. Aeroform

PAS: Pretty close to the perfect Beyond Wrestling match, it is going to be very tough for anything else on this show to live up to this. Exactly what you would want a match between these four guys to be. I have decided that to enjoy these shows I have to be willing to except a 70/30 split of cool spots to stupid or blown spots, this match was 90/10 or even 95/5. There was one "make a guy DDT his own partner spot" which I thought was dumb, but otherwise everything was crazy and hit well. Chase Burnett of Team Beyond is probably my favorite guy in this promotion, he is 5 foot nothing 100 and nothing, but has a bunch of nusto spots and takes lunatic bumps, including the Hamerick/Fuerza bump which is one of my favorite in wrestling. Here he teases that bump, but lands on the apron and ends up taking a flip bump from the apron to the concrete which may have been crazier. I have been more hit and miss on his partner Zane Silver in the past, but here most of his karate kicks landed nastily, and I really enjoyed all of his kung fu stand offs with Louis Lyndon. Flip Kendrick is a guy with crazy dives and Flips, but I thought he looked better in the non-Flippy stuff then I had seen him, his early lucha exchanges with Chase were pretty great. Finish run teased me with overkill, but I ended up having little problem with where it ended. Hell of a start to a show, and I see no reason why EVOLVE isn't opening all of their shows with this matchup.

ER: On paper this match looks really fun, as all the guys here have some really fun spots. Burnett and Flip star with a bunch of silly and fun armdrag combos, and Chase gets into position for armdrags in really funny, spazzy ways. For a guy who nobody talks about, Lyndon has way better kicks and way better triangle transitions than Kyle O'Reilly. Kendrick does an impressive standing moonsault that started from sitting Indian style on the mat. Lyndon and Burnett work really nicely together and Lyndon WILL knee you in the face, and Burnett WILL have zero problem leaning way into a knee to the face. Zane Silver does a lot of moves that seem based around stuff landing on his own knee. Clothesline -> opponent lands on Zane's knee. Reverse DDT -> opponent lands on Zane's knee. Chase has a crazy sequence where he hits Evan Bourne's double knees to the shoulders thingy to a guy on the apron, then in one motion does a corkscrew asai moonsault to the floor. I was hoping for a double backdrop driver, and my prayers were answered. Lyndon does a reverse rana that dumps Silver on his dome and this is just too much fun to criticize.

This match is basically critic-proof. Like Ratt albums. You know exactly what the fuck you're diving into, because the title to every Ratt song describes it. No fruity embellished Mars Volta song titles, just shit like "She Wants Money" (bitch clearly is a goldigger), "I Want a Woman" (to have sex with, naturally), "Wanted Man" (either for his sexual prowess, or because he's runnin from the law), "Nobody Rides for Free" (shit you do takes its toll), etc. It's pointless to even try and make fun of Ratt, because they're in on the joke and their songs are fucking catchy as hell anyway, so why the hell would you want to make fun of them? You can't really criticize this type of Beyond match, because there's no time to. It's too fun. Burnett takes Hamrick's crazier bump, flipping right onto the concrete from the apron. This match goes over 17 minutes, and it flies by in a blur of flipping and thigh slapping and bumping and awesomeness. Are some of the spots contrived? Fuck yeah, the good ones, anyway. This was awesome fun.

2. Johnny Cockstrong v. Jeff Yager v. Jarek 1:20 v. Jack Verville

PAS: This is the flipside of Beyond Wrestling, this was a match where they really didn't pull off what they were trying for. Johnny Cockstrong is another of my favorite guys in this fed. His gimmick is that he has a steel dick and has a ton of amusing spots built around his indestructible hog leg. Unfortunately for this match the other three guys all had shtick they were trying to get over too, and it was just overkill. Jarek 1:20 does magic, Jeff Yager wears bowling shoes, Jack Verville does a wacky dance, the whole thing was too much. Verville especially was hell bent on getting that wacky dance over. The meat of the match consisted of guys dumping each other on their heads in awkward looking ways. Yager especially took multiple spots which had a concussionary feel to them. The ratio here was closer to 50/50 or 40/60 and the stuff which looked bad, looked really bad. You are going to get this kind of thing too in this fed. It had enough of a nasty trainwreck feel that I didn't hate watching it, but this wasn't good.

ER: I love Johnny Cockstrong matter-of-factly letting everybody know that it is totally fine to hit him in the dick. "Totally legal, just on me." I loved Yager yielding Cockstrong's cock as his own personal weapon, wielding Johnny like a chair to hit opponents with, and then dropping opponents with a snake eyes over Johnny's steel dong. I kinda like Verville's dance, too. It's like he made a mixtape of all his favorite songs, and they may not be crate digger selections, but he doesn't give a shit who's watching him in his car at the traffic light. This match is working for me. I think they established all their schtick before the bell, and then I just sat back and watched them do awesome shit like sunset flip powerbombs that bounced the recipient off the bottom rope. Good lord that was nasty. Yager has no problem being dumped on his head in gross ways. And it may be the only match I've seen with 4 participants whose names all start with "J". Yager is really great at making it look painful when he breaks up a pinfall. Just putting the heel of his shoe to the back of their heads. Match falls apart in the final few minutes, kinda hurt by 4 guys being in the ring the whole time. For a match that went about as long as the first, it wasn't as good, and it was really cluttered with everybody in the ring at once. But it had its moments. And for the record, Verville only did his little dance twice.

3. Anthony Stone v. Nick Talent

PAS: They start with a vignette where Stone, who is kind of a amiable New England meathead (the kind of guy who throws a Patriots themed wedding), talks about all the young up and coming stars in Beyond Wrestling. He approached and complimented Nick Talent, who responds by calling him irrelevant and worthless basically being a huge uncalled for dick to him. Then Stone says something along the lines of "Well we are wrestling tonight, and I will prove to you I am worthy and then we can tag up." Why would anyone want to have anything to do with Nick Talent after that? I don't know if girlfriend with low self esteem is really a gimmick you can work in wrestling. The match was pretty choppy, Talent does have a natural hateable charisma, kind of like Tully or Mike Booth, he really makes you want Stone to crack him in his smirking mouth. He also bumps pretty well. Still Stone wrestles this more like "guy trying to earn respect" rather then "guy trying to beat this fratty douche into a blood puddle." Meanwhile Talent is cursing him out, and spitting on him. When Stone gets the win (with double knees, which is probably the first time a Beyond Wrestling match could have used more near falls) he asks for a handshake which Talent obliges. Baffling storyline, and pretty subdued match.

ER: Talent really does have a hateable face. He's like a douchey Adam Scott, with bushy shitty sideburns. The vignette setting this up WAS odd, since they don't work that dynamic in the match, but I think the match works really well if you just pretend that vignette hadn't taken place. As Phil said, they worked "guy trying to earn respect", and in that regard it worked. Stone finds a few ways to bump awkwardly onto his head (landing all sideways on it off a DDT). One problem of starting a show with two 18 minute matches that have constant spots, is a few of them were repeated here. The double knees that ended this match were both done more spectacularly in the previous matches, and used as more of a transition spot in those matches. Still, this match had plenty of nice moments, it was just a major cooldown after the first two matches.

4. Johnny Mangue/Chris Dickenson v. Darius Carter/T.J. Marconi

PAS: Dickenson kind of works an indy Davey Richards gimmick, which isn't going to endear you to me, I have seen a fair amount of him in JAPW and EVOLVE before and he irritated me less here then usual. Marconi seems to be working some version of the Chuck Taylor/Kenny Omega "Isn't wrestling kooky" gimmick which is about my least favorite thing in current wrestling. Still I enjoyed this more then I would expect to enjoy a tag match with indy Davey Richards v. indy Chuck Taylor (or regular Davey Richards v. Chuck Taylor.) Doom Patrol (Dickenson and Mangue) are working heel and this is a pretty spirited brawl, I liked Carter and Mangue a fair amount and their exchanges with each other were good stuff. There was also a couple of fun bumps including Dickenson getting powerbombed into a wall. I also think they did a nice job setting up the hierarchies, these aren't teams I was familiar with, but it was clear that Doom Patrol were the higher ranked team with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous being the upstarts.

ER: It's really impressive how Beyond seems to narrowly avoid the "wink into the camera" Chuck Taylor style of wrestling, since the whole thing comes off at times like a big inside joke. It's a fine line to walk, but they usually get away with it. I actually get a kick out of the chants, since instead of trying to be clever, they just state things that are happening. Like "4 Way Dance" during the 4 way, or "2 Way Dance" during the singles match. It's clearly self-aware, but it works for me far more than people just trying to get themselves over for 8 seconds of glory. Carter looks like an indy superstar in this match and takes some nutso bumps. Huge bumps off suplexes, and flies into the gym's garage door from the apron, showing Generico how you throw a yakuza kick in the corner, breaking up a pin with a sweet somersault senton. I agree with Phil that Beyond does a good job setting up wrestler hierarchy, even giving guys points totals as the come to the ring. Since a lot of indie workers look the same these days, it's not like the 80s when it was clear who the star was and who the underdog was.

5. Matt Cross v. Zach Novak

PAS: Cross is also known as MDOGG20 and Tough Enough's Matt Capiccioni, Novak is 18 years old and a rookie who kind of looks like Andy Samberg. The idea behind the match is that this match is Novak's chance to get in there with a veteran and a star and he needs to impress, while Cross isn't taking the match seriously. It is a fine story, and executed solidly, but Cross was less "I don't take this kid seriously" and more "I don't take wrestling in this fed seriously." There were parts of this match which veered into inside joke territory which is where Beyond Wrestling can get insufferable I liked the last couple of minutes and they brought me back into the match

Post match Doom Patrol beat and fork a fat guy in a hockey jersey (promoter? the personification of all indy wrestling fans?) not sure if something like this works when the ring is surrounded entirely by wrestlers not doing anything, but it was violent.

ER: This match didn't really work for me. Novak wasn't that good. He took some really great bumps, like from the garage door onto the ropes below. But then he would have really crummy use of thigh slaps. Cross didn't really appear to be taking the match as any kind of a big deal, which worked for the story they were working, but didn't do the match any favors.

This show was good times overall, but it was going to be REALLY hard to follow that first match, which might have been the best, most fun Beyond match I've ever seen. There were a million more spots that happened that I couldn't even begin to describe. Every match had at least some worthwhile stuff in it, and the atmosphere for a Beyond show is way easier than your common ROH, WxW or DGUSA show. This was just the first disc of 3 Developmental Hell discs, so we'll hopefully be reviewing those within the next week or so.

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But He'll Try To Carry Off A Little Darkness on His Back, 'Till Things Are Brighter He'll Be The Man Black Terry

Black Terry/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Ultraman 3/13/11-Evening-GREAT

It's Maestro March on youtube, as we get this great matchup twice in a day. This was focused more on the classic Navarro v. Solar match up then the afternoon version. I am never going to get tired of watching Solar and Navarro square off, but Black Terry and Ultrman are a little underused. The Terry v. Solar section at the beginning of the third fall was pretty great, Terry's Indian deathlock while stepping on the knee was nasty looking. Your final Solar v. Navarro face off was awesome, Navarro did this great pin reversal, where he traps Solar's ankle with his foot and leverages him over to reverse it. Navarro probably should have learned from the afternoon match not to put Solar in a Tapita, it never works out for him.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Take This Weight From Him, Let Black Terry Be Unchained

Black Terry/Negro Navarro/Rey Mendoza Jr. v. Blue Panther/Solar/Rocky Santana UWE 3/16/11-GREAT

The 2011 Maestro run continues. This is a little different then your standard match as they mixed up the matchups. We start out with Blue Panther v. Black Terry which isn't something I remember seeing before, it is pretty great although I could have used another couple of minutes. Then Navarro v. Santana and then ends with Solar v. Mendoza. Most of these type matches are built around the Navarro v. Solar stuff, but they only had one quick exchange here. I love Navarro v. Solar but I am glad I got to see them work with other guys. We got to see Panther v. Navarro work fast spots and it was great with Navarro actually getting a submission to win the fall. The match is worked llave style until the third fall where Panther and Mendoza start brawling and actually get pulled apart by the other wrestlers. It was a weird beat, but I kind of dug it. They move in and out quicker then I prefer in these kind of matches, but everyone looked great and I am so jazzed we have had so many cool HH matches like this so far in 2011.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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I'd Rather Shoot a Woman Than A King, I Worry Whether This Is My Last Life

Jerry Lawler v. Kerry Von Erich 12/15/89 - FUN

I always enjoy watching Lawler rile up a Texas crowd. Nobody hates the King more then the folks in Dallas. Lawler does some shitalking on the mike and bailing during Kerry rallies. There were a lot of cool moments in this match, Kerry breaking a Lawler choke with the claw, him lifting Jerry with the stomach claw, Lawler using the elbow pad as a boxing glove. Still the match kind of felt like a backdrop to set up a Kerry v. Terrance Garvin feud which is a ludicrous thing to use a world title match to set up. This should have been the climax to Kerry v. Lawler, and they should have let it be the climax, rather then have it overshadowed . Especially having it overshadowed by Terrance Garvin.

Jerry Lawler v. The Undertaker WWF 9/28/94 - FUN

This was a Casket match which aired as a Coliseum home video release. Lawler gets a ton more offense on the Undertaker then I expected. He does some stooging and stalling (including being blinding by a strobe light from an extra large urn, which is a stupid Undertaker gimmick I did not remember), but for most of the match he takes it right at Undertaker. Cracking him with some nasty chain assisted right hands. There is a really great near fall where Lawler punches and stomps Taker almost all the way into the casket. The King even gets to cut off the Taker comeback, before succumbing. More of a nifty curiosity then a great match, but kind of cool that it exists.

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v. The Cyberpunks 5/18/96 - FUN

Dundee is in the midst of a big feud with the Cyberpunks who are PG13 under masks. He brings out Lawler as his surprise partner. Lawler does an interview saying he isn't turning his back on the fans, but is just collecting belts. They have a fun shortish TV match highlighted by Dundee and Lawler laying in some tricky veteran cheap shots. My favorite was Lawler challenging Fire to a test of strength and then jacking his jaw when Fire raised his hand. The Ice v. Dundee stuff was great too, as they obviously have some great chemistry with each other. Finish is cool as Dundee pops his own son with a chain to get the pin and the USWA tag titles, with Lawler feigning ignorance. I enjoyed watching Lawler subtly heel it up, but too short to be anything substantial.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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Black Terry Stole Ten Bucks and a Pickup Truck. An He Never Went Back Again

Black Terry/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Ultraman 3/13/11-Afternoon-EPIC

I am never going to get tired of Space Cadets vs. Missonaires in any form. BTJr. blesses us with another corker from Coliseo Coalaco which is a great looking arena which looks like they set up a ring in an abandoned junkyard, it looks like a place that Scooby Doo would solve a mystery. First two falls were great stuff, and then we get an absolute killer third fall where we get all four possible matchups and they rule. Ultraman has always been the least guy in these matches, but he was great here, his mat exchanges with Navarro may have even been cooler then the classic Navarro v. Solar stuff in this match, Navarro puts on this crazy standing kneelock while stepping on Ultramans ankle, which he smoothly reversed into a indian deathlock. I also loved the chance to see an extended Terry v. Solar, it isn't something we see as much of, but is solid gold when we do. Maestro wrestling at its best.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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ROH TV Workrate Report: 3/7/11

I read that there are only like 4 or 5 more episodes of ROH on HD Net, so I will possibly need another weekly show to review. Thoughts, anybody? Superstars? CMLL on LATV? AAA? I am open to suggestions.

1. Michael Elgin vs. Kyle O'Reilly in a SEMI-FINAL bout of the TPT! This could be a fun one. Big biel by Elgin (Biel? Beal? Beele? What is correct?) O'Reilly ducks some Martini interference and throws a nice elbow, but then Elgin shoulderblocks him HUGE right out of the air off a springboard dropkick! YES! O'Reilly recovers and gets a rolling armbar, but Elgin powers up and hits a fallaway slam!! We go into a strike exchange and Elgin seems to be holding back a bit but leans way into a nice dropkick. O'Reilly does some tumbling exercises and then hits a nice kick combo, but it doesn't damage Elgin too much. They battle out on the apron, exchanging yakuza kicks, an then Kyle climbs to the 2nd rope (Elgin still on the apron) and ranas Elgin to the floor, and Elgin spills out spectacularly. Definitely worthy of the replay. Elgin staggers into the corner of the guardrail, and O'Reilly does a MASSIVE running dropkick off the apron and just PLANTING his feet into Elgin's stomach. Elgin was stuck in the corner and O'Reilly really just went crashing through him. That was fucking killer. This match is fucking awesome so far. Back in the ring and O'Reilly hits a big missle dropkick. Elgin up and throwing some big whiffing Leonard Garcia haymakers, but then catches Kyle with an exploder and a spinebuster. Elgin goes for a clothesline, but O'Reilly kicks his arm, so Elgin wheels around and uses the other arm to level him with a MASSIVE clothesline (O'Reilly ragdolled and flipped all over onto his dome and is making me fall in love with him). I thought that was 3 so I completely BUY THE NEARFALL!! Elgin lifts him for another slam and O'Reilly reverses into a tornado DDT and Elgin PLANTS his head directly into the mat. Using the available keys on my keyboard, he took that DDT at a nasty 45 degree angle, like this --> /. He's the forward slash there. I BUY THE NEARFALL AGAIN and this match is all movezy and I'm loving it! Now Elgin is bringing the stiff elbows and back elbows and hits a NASTY cradle suplex on O'Reilly, just right on the head. Good lord. I BUY THE NEARFALL again and Elgin is just as shocked as I am. Elgin goes for a powebomb to end it all, but O'Reilly deadweights him and drags him down into a triangle, and is giving him 12-6 elbows in the triangle. Elgin powers back to his feet, but O'Reilly reverses into a sunset flip for the 3!

I completely thought Elgin was going to win this and face Bennett, but I don't care because that match was fun as FUCK. I know there's a weird rumor that Segunda Caida hates movez matches, but that ain't true at all, they just have to be done RIGHT and this one had that in spades. This built well and had plenty of believable nearfalls, but they never seemed overkill or ridiculous. When O'Reilly would kick out, he would BARELY get out before the 3, and there was no "sell like death but then get up and rope run a bunch". Both guys were on spaghetti legs and this was paced really, really well. Wonderful 8 minutes here, and easily my favorite ROH TV match since Necro stopped appearing. Fun fun stuff, you should go out of your way to see it.

I WAS eating a whole bunch of really delicious and sweet raspberries while watching that match, but I don't think it affected my outlook in any way. If you watch the Elgin/O'Reilly match and think it stinks, then it's probably because there was a raspberry party in my mouth and they can make anything fun. Go get yourself some Driscoll's organic raspberries. They're in season.

2. The other semi-final in the TPT, Mike Bennett vs. Andy Ridge. I did not like Andy Ridge before, but I give people 2nd chances. Right Leg Ridge is a pretty decent nickname. Nice shoulderblock to start by Bennett. Corino tells the camera that Bennett is really good at the basics. Some kicks by Ridge get two, and Bennett bails as Ridge misses a superkick. I loved the Chris Adams/Great Kabuki superkick match on the 80s Texas Set. ROH should bring in Nate Webb to work a superkick match. Or shit, just bring in Nate Webb. Back in and Bennett takes like 9 more kicks and is making really great faces while being kicked. Nice running dropkick to Bennett in the corner. Hogewood: "If I have one criticism of Ridge, he uses that right kick a lot." You dance with who brung you, Mike. Bennett finally scouts a right kick (after taking about 17 of them and nothing else) and transitions to control. Both guys throw decent elbows (Bennett's is really nice) and Ridge hits a nice running knee. Bennett blocks a superkick, goes for a piledriver, but Ridge gets a roll up for 2. Bennett dodges a superkick and hits his sit-out uranage slam for the win.

OK. That's two weeks in a row where Bennett's opponent took 90% of the match, and then Bennett just won out of nowhere with a sit-out slam that looks far less devastating than most ROH workers transition offense. It's like in ECW where Shane Douglas would use chairshots and weapons and then win with a belly to belly. In this match I only remember Bennett hitting a couple elbows and a vertical suplex. Ridge took 7 of the 8 minutes, then just got pinned. I was enjoying Bennett, but if this is going to be his regular match formula then his matches are going to get beyond old.

Tony Kozina is back on TV! I've always liked Kozina. Buuuuuuuutttttt, he's back on TV with Davey Richards. Davey does an actual decent interview, because he's not trying to cut one of his shitty promos, just kinda being interviewed by Cornette and casual definitely works better for him. Cornette tongues Davey's asshole and it makes all of us uncomfortable. Just blowing Davey and talking about his MMA and Pancrase abilities, as it shows him holding a surfboard on an opponent. I miss all those classic Bas vs. Frank Shamrock inverted surfboard battles. Apparently Kozina vs. Davey is next week, and I'll be honest....I'm kinda interested in seeing it. This segment was actually really well done, presenting Kozina and Davey as two guys who like each other, but who will also do whatever it takes to win their match. I hope Kozina just hammers him in the balls the whole match. It won't happen, but nevertheless I am kinda excited to see the match. I'm a sucker.

3. Main event is a 4 way which SHOULD be decent. Roderick Strong vs. Homicide vs. Generico vs. Jay Briscoe. The tasty juicy raspberries have put me in a super optimistic mood. Roddy does some amusing stalling to start. Jay looks far more menacing than Homicide, for the record. Generico hasn't been on TV for awhile. He and Jay kinda do-si-do with some wristlocks for awhile. They're really pacing this one to go long. Jay hits a great headscissors on a running Roderick. Generico and Homicide trade some arm drags...like for a minute. 5 minutes in and this thing feels like it's been on forever. The cameras can't cut quickly enough during Generico's punches. Must...eat more raspberries. Strong also decides to challenge the director by throwing many bad punches in a short amount of time. Where will the cameras cut to!? Homicide somehow throws even worse punches (what the FUCK happened to Homicide in the last year!?). His corner punches make Kofi Kingston snicker. Generico runs and and Homicide snaps out of it and punches him right in the face. FINALLY. Roddy is lying on the apron selling insane damage, but I seriously don't even remember him taking much offense. Briscoe bumps big into the corner off a suplex. Generico throws two of the lightest lariats I have seen. Good lord what is happening in this match. I swear I am not trying to be negative here. These guys are just moving in slow motion and trying not to break eggs here. Generico leans out of a superkick from Jay, then Jay gets tossed to the floor onto Homicide and Strong. Generico does a flip dive and manages to miss almost everybody. Not his fault. Bad catching job. Homicide was asleep at the wheel on that one. Homicide ranas Strong off the top. Generico slaps his thigh and Jay kindly decides to sell it. All 4 men are down selling the WAR they're in. J-Driller on Homicide. Generico brainbuster on Jay. Strong tags in and gets the pin.

Wow. That match was fucking horrible. In order of best to worst, I'd go Jay Briscoe, Roderick Strong, Homicide, Generico. Most of this match was just hot garbage. Everybody seemed just...off. Generico is fucking awful. His offense looks crummy and he always just seems out of position for things. Homicide had the Necro Butcher match a few months ago and literally everything else he's been involved with has been disappointing and bad. Strong looked good in moments, then lousy in others. Jay was consistently quality here.

But what a fucking disaster. It got 18+ minutes of time, and almost all 18 of it was one giant disjointed mess. It had minimal build throughout, bad execution, goofy selling...just crap.

It's for the best. When you're a kid, and your best friend is moving away, sometimes a few weeks before the move you might start arguing. Your friendship might dissolve over something silly. Subconsciously, you just don't want them to go, and you're trying to ease that pain by tricking yourself into hating that friend. "I don't care if he moves, he's being stupid anyway." It happens all throughout life. You get through tough breakups that way. If you miss the person, you find things you hate about them, you linger on those things. If you only lingered on the good things about some girl, you'll never get over her. It's torture. But it's how life works. People move on. Relationships end. You might not always want them to, but love is a two way street. If someone is further along then you, you just have to get over it at some point. There are other fish in the sea. Sometimes you don't realize how bad things had gotten until afterwards. It's easier to reflect. You realize you were disagreeing more, you used to be more attracted to her (and let's face it, your pants are fitting tighter too, buddy). She read Eat, Pray, Love and really identified with it. She really, really identified with the main character. She identified with an over-privileged white woman who whines a whole lot. Wow. How did you not see this sooner? She saw Sex & the City 2 in theaters? She sometimes uses the word "psychobabble" in regular sentences. Who the fuck is this person? There used to be things I loved about her, right? Have I changed? Has she changed? Have we both changed? Who am I?!

ROH has been doing a good job to make me not miss it. Everything I used to love about it is gone. I used to look forward to it, and we still have our moments. It's bittersweet. You see glimpses of why you used to love it, and it makes you miss the days that those moments happened constantly. It only magnifies how rare those moments now are.

People grow apart. People fall out of love. Not everything is supposed to last forever. You enjoy it while it's enjoyable, and you know when to cut and run. Nobody knows the right time to cut and run. You just ride every last enjoyable moment to the end and hope you aren't left too scarred afterwards.

You will love again.

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I Next Saw You, You Was At The Party, You Thought You Were a King

Jerry Lawler v. Eric Embry USWA 9/8/89 - EPIC

This is pretty much your quintessential heel Jerry Lawler match, everything that makes him great is on display here. He is invading Texas against their hometown hero Eric Embry and he won't be satisfied until every person in the crowd wants him dead. He gets on the microphone early and tells the crowd if they get too loud he will win because of excessive noise, which is just a perfect way to get the crowd to scream at him. All the early exchanges were great, especially Embry's enzigiri, Lawler is just such a smirking douchebag holding Embry's leg and he just gets obliterated by the kick. Lawler grabs a towel from ringside, and is excellent at choking Embry with the towel behind the refs back. Embry is great at wheezing and coughing and Percy is spectacular with his exasperated fury at Lawler. The dropped strap comeback by Embry is awesome and the closest you will get to heel Lawler wrestling face Lawler. I also love Embry pulling out the foreign object, I love when guys turn face but still keep their bag of tricks to pull out if they have to. Finish was executed a little poorly, but Lawler is great as cheating bastard who never gets his comeuppance.

Jerry Lawler v. Goldust WWF Raw 5/26/97 - EPIC

We start with Lawler spitting hot fire in a backstage promo. He calls Goldust a flaming fag, Marlena the biggest Goldigger in GA and says they should have named their daughter Target because everyone in Atlanta took a shot. Goldust jumps him at the bell and they go toe to to at a breakneck pace. The rights and lefts are as good as you would hope a Dustin v. Lawler punch exchange would be. The show was in Evansville IN, so Lawler get a huge crowd reaction even as a heel, including a Lawler chant as he was choking Dustin. Lawler gets bumped to the floor and bitch slapped by Marlena but he steals a quick pin with his feet on the ropes. Post match was great too, with them brawling to the stage and Lawler taking a huge rolling bump all the way down the ramp. Total bell to bell brawl in which every moment was great. Really makes me want to seek out more Goldust matches here, as this was brawling at the level of his best stuff with Buck and Funk.

Jerry Lawler/ Dr. Tim Linder v. Bill Dundee/Dr. Brian McCarver 3/4/11 - GREAT

This is at a fundraiser for a Prevention of Child Abuse Center and is Lawler teaming with a local Primary Care physician v. Dundee teaming with a local primary care physician (the names might be the other way around, ring announcer was muddled and there are no pictures of the doctors in google). The tag team with the money mark is a classic Southern wrestling staple, and it is clear that Dundee and Lawler are masters at working shtick around untrained guys. Lawler and Dundee do their thing for most of the match, and their thing is a great thing. Dundee just lays it in, including an awesome combo series in the corner and a violent right hand. He also does hide the chain with the heel Doctor. Dr. McCarver is clearly a guy who grew up on Memphis wrestling and is totally jazzed to be playing Jimmy Hart. He enthusiastically chokes and cheapshots Lawler, and even eats a piledriver, he would be in the upper half of all the fake Jimmy Harts I have seen on various indy shows over the years. Your face Doctor has much less of a role, although he handles the Doctor v. Doctor stuff fine. Fun match which the crowd was totally into, and something that even someone not versed in the workplace politics of Chester County TN, Primary Care Hospitals would totally dig.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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Segunda Caida SYNCS UP on the DVDVR 80s Texas Project!

Phil and I are currently behind on the DVDVR 80s Texas Project (go check it out if you somehow have not heard of it) and we decided to SYNC UP and watch some matches together. Feel free to get out Disc 7, and watch with us. We don't so much do play-by-play (as that would be boring and pointless), as we shoot the breeze while pointing out assorted things we love and/or hate about the matches.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=94470&cmd=tc

The show will also have plenty of entertainment for those of you that don't sync up. We talk about tons of stuff and fill almost 2 hours easily. If you all enjoy this, then we'll do more for sure.

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When the King's Beside Me, I Don't Worry, When the King's Beside Me All I Know

Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich WCCW 11/25/88 - GREAT

This is in the midst of the Lawler v. Von Erich real world title feud and is a Sportitorium cage match. The Dallas crowd is seething with hate for Lawler as he has played them like a fiddle, and this match is another example of that. There are a couple of nice back and forth exchanges early, but most of this match is Lawler playing hide and seek with the chain. He cracks Kerry and hides it in his trunks, when Lubich searches his puts it in his mouth (Lawler may have never done drugs, but I imagine sticking a chain covered in Kerry's cocaine saturated blood in his mouth must have given him quite the contact high). There is this amazing camera shot of a smirking Lawler with the chain dribbling out of his mouth. Finally Kerry pops him in the gut, gets the chain himself and goes to work much to the crowds delight. Lawler gets the chain back and we get another great Lawler beat down section, but it ends rather abruptly with a roll up. With another five or ten minutes of action this is at the level of your true Lawler classics, but I did feel this was abridged in a way that left me unsatisfied.

Jerry Lawler v. Tito Santana WWF 3/21/93 - GREAT

Lawler debuts in MSG and immediately gets the crowd riled up hardcore. He starts shit talking the rotten apple, and offers to let Sanatana out of the match if he kisses his feet. First part of the match has Tito bumping Lawler around, while Jerry cheap shots stalls and talks shit to the crowd. It is really great to see an old pro break out some classic tricks on a new stage and get folks screaming for his scalp like that. The match really kicks into gear when Lawler gets the advantage and hits his beautiful piledriver. He then grabs the house mike and tries to start a "wetback" chant, I am surprised a young Fat Joe didn't jump the rail and stab him in the ribs. He goes to crotch Tito on the ringpost, but Santana pulls his legs back causing Lawler to smash his face into the ringpost as only Jerry can. The have a heated bit of brawling before Santana tries a sunset flip, which Lawler sits down and grab the ropes for the pin. They then keep brawling and end up spilling into the crowd exchanging shots among the fans. The last five minutes of this were off the charts, and if that section was longer I could see rating this Epic. The first was fun mid card MSG, the second part was main event MSC.

Jerry Lawler v. Bill Dundee SAW 1/28/11 - GREAT

PAS: This is what we came to see and it didn't disappoint. Both guys seem totally jazzed up by the huge crowd and Dundee was especially frisky. Early in the match Mantell forces clean breaks in the corner, but he eventually gives up and lets them fight. Dundee gets an advantage and lays in a nasty looking beating on Lawler. His punches are as good as ever, and Lawler takes a couple of his signature eating of posts. The whole thing was violent enough that I thought Lawler was going to end up calling the Royal Rumble with a pressure bandage We of course get the strap drop and big time Lawler comeback and it always great to see, although Dundee fires back and doesn't go down easy. I have to rewatch this and the other, but this feels like the best of the 21st century Dundee v. Lawler matches.

TKG: All three guys get face pops coming out so Dundee makes sure to heel himself by doing a Zbysco stall to back and getting into it with some ringside fan. Lawler puts Dundee over on the mic but wants to make quick work of him so he won’t come into Rumble damaged, and hilariously warns Mantell to watch for Dundee’s closed fist. Dundee is in his late 60s and takes a lucha style rolling back bump, but will take big back drops and goes full force into all of his other bumps. This includes taking a superfast and nasty looking Flair flop off a comedy spot (Lawler uses a closed fist-Mantell gets upset and Dundee raises his hand for the DQ win only to have Mantell shove arm down with such force that Dundee does a face splat). I think this had a longer Dundee eats stuff opening then the Ward family show and the Lawler eats stuff section was a more vicious Dundee then the kind of less vicious more dickish Dundee that we saw in Waynesboro. Both guys take big ring to floor bumps and there is a lot more weapons based brawling then there was in the Ward family show. Dundee is first to throw chair into ring only to get hit by it. And Dundee just wails on Lawler with chair on the floor. They do a Mantell in ring bump which allows the Superstar to get a hold of Shoo Baby and whip Lawler’s back. But it still comes down to two men trading punches and the big piledriver in the end.

PAS: Post match Lawler puts over the fans and promoters, and Dundee gets on the mike and buries Jeff Jarrett, talking about screwing Dixie Carter and how they only drew 600 people. I almost expected him to book himself in a challenge against Jeff with 1500 dollars going to Cerebral Palsy kids if he loses. Just a great show and a really fun road trip.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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Won't You Tell The King to Get Off My Back, Tell Him What We Said About Paint It Black

Jerry Lawler v. Harley Race CWA 12/10/77 - EPIC

You don't hear this match mentioned along the classics of American wrestling, but I think this maybe as good as any long Flair title defense, and is the best Harley Race match I have ever seen. Race is great here but this is a Jerry Lawler match, he looks on another level here, like he should be the guy touring with the belt.

The opening part of the match was built around Lawler grounding Race with a headlock, you don't really think of either guy as a matworker, but they ran through some spectacular reversals and counters.

Lawler really controls large sections of this match and it actually exposes a bit of a flaw in what Race does. Race has a big arsenal of athletic bumps, and he is backflipping and diving on all of Lawlers early punches. This is a sixty minute match, when he is twirling on a punch in minute five, it doesn't mean as much when he does it in minute fifty. Lawler in contrast is really amazing at long term selling, his bumps really are much bigger as the match goes on, and he is spectacular at digging down for one last shot.

One of the things I have noticed in watching Jerry Lawler matches, is he is a master at building to a big spot in a match. Race keeps cutting Lawler off with headbutts to the belly, after four or five times, Lawler dips back and kicks Race right in the face when he tries it. It is a great big of in match strategy, and is awesome because they set it up for so long.

Of course one of the great things about any Lawler matches is the punches, and they are amazing. Jabs, uppercuts, straight rights, hooks, punches on his knees, punches from the mount, diving punches, jumping punches. Lawler has more variety on his shots then anyone, ever, and they all rule. Race also has great punches, but he never goes toe to toes with Lawler, all of his shots are kind of sneaky. He also throws some amazing headbutts, just killing Lawler with a standing headbutt on a rope break, and his diving headbutts look like he crushes Lawlers orbital bones. What makes the diving headbutts so great too, is that Race misses it the first couple of times he tries it, so when he lands it, it looks even more spectacular.

Your finish was a little weird for a touring champ ending. Flair would often end his draws on defense, escaping with his belt at last minute. Race is on defense at this end of this match too, but Lawler almost throws too much at him. You don't get the sense Lawler was moments away from winning the belt, it almost more like Lawler doesn't have enough in his arsenal to finish Race.

Jerry Lawler v. Samoan Joe AWA 1/30/88 - FUN

Las Vegas Showboat taping competitive squash. I am not sure who Joe is, as he doesn't look like any of your more well known Samoans. I dug him though, he couldn't really take a back body drop, but he had a real luxurious Jheri Curl, which really gave off a cool spray every time Lawler punched him. We get a little Samoan Joe offense, when the King makes the mistake of hitting a Samoan's head into a turn buckle which leads to some nice looking headbutt based stuff, which was also really accentuated by the activator. Strap drop, right hands, second rope fist drop, good night

Jerry Lawler/Owen Hart v. Bret Hart/British Bulldog WWF 3/19/95 - GREAT

This is from MSG. Most of the action was between Bulldog and Owen, which is a very good match up. They have some really slick looking signature stuff which they run through. Lawler did some early stooging, including a great spot where he is the rope in a Owen v. Smith tug of war. He also throws some nice cheap shots during the Bulldog face in peril, including a beautiful fist drop. Finish has Bret tag in and bump around both Lawler and Owen, and Lawler eats some big power offense from Bulldog including a press slam and running power slam. Bret isn't in this much, and I would have dug seeing more of him work with Lawler and Owen, but that is a small quibble as this was just a solid quality house show tag, everyone looked great and the crowd left happy.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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It Gets So Hard In Times Like These To Hold On, But Guns They Wait To Be Stuck By, and On My Side is The King

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v. Original Midnight Express AWA 10/30/87 - EPIC

PAS: This is for the AWA tag belts and is a match which on paper looks really awesome, but especially in the 80’s on paper matches were often pretty disappointing. This however was even better then it looked on paper. Lawler and Dundee are a great tag team, we all know what great individual wrestlers they are, and how well they match up against each other, but they also have great face tag team shtick. Their opening babyface in control section was just full of great stuff. I especially loved the variations on the partner blocks the Irish whip into the corner, also this was a punch marks dream match with both Lawler and Dundee breaking out tons of different combos. I especially loved the running left hook by Dundee. OMX were a lot fun in this too, especially Randy Rose who looked Eaton great in this, he takes a huge high backdrop, and has a bunch of fun offense. Slim Paul E. with his sport coat with rolled up sleeves throws in the phone and the OMX win the belts. I liked this more then any of the Rose/Somers v. Midnight Rockers matches and this was fucking with the high end Rock and Rolls v. Midnights matches.

TKG: Man this was fun. A lot of faces do stuff effectively, heels try same spots only to have the backfire. If you’ve seen the Memphis doc on youtube, you may remember the Hector Guerrero vs. Lawler spot where Hector puts Lawler across top rope and then kicks at him…Lawler tries same spot and Hector gets out of way. Lawler does same spot with Rose but with Lawler working face this time out. Lawler is caught with knee in corner and ends up face in peril eating a punch with a big bump to floor and then taking body slam on the floor running powerslam from Rose, etc. Dundee is all over the place as guy on apron…running after Heyman on the floor. Holding back heel from making tag while waiting for Lawler’s attempt to make hot tag etc. But really this match is about the early face in control section with the two faces just laying in punches and clotheslines..with Randy Rose just running head first into the fists and lariats. Dundee does a top rope knee drop with refs back turned. I don’t know what the top rope rule was at the time but ref turns around and really can’t figure out what’s going on as Lawler and Dundee switch off going for two counts on Rose before ref can figure out who is the legal man. I don’t know if it was a stunt granny but there is also a nun in the front row who punches at the air with every face punch and gets absolutely irate at all the heel cheating. I have no idea why I haven’t heard this match pimped before.

Jerry Lawler v. "Macho Man" Randy Savage WWF 7/4/94 - FUN

Pretty much a by the number Lawler heel match, which no matter how by the numbers is completely awesome..We get four or five minutes of shtick before any lock ups where King taunts the crowd, yells at the ref, pratfalls on some stairs, basically runs through the book. When we do get some contact, Lawler works a donut hole fake chain masterfully, including some truly jaw dislocating punches. No one in wrestling history knows more ways to pretend to hide a chain. He does this great taunt, after dropping Macho Man, where he does some push ups, stopping to elevate himself on one hand to pose to the crowd. Savage is a complete passenger, he does nothing in the match, as Lawler completely controls the match until he tries a piledriver, gets backflipped, Savage then tries a piledriver gets reversed but rolls through Lawler for the pin. Savages only offensive move was a sunset flip. Great opportunity to see Lawler work a broomstick, but I would have obviously liked to see Savage show up.

Jerry Lawler/Chris Michaels v. Bull Pain/Todd Morton XCW-Midwest 8/9/08 - EPIC

This is a match I had big expectations going into, and it totally exceeded them. Morton and Pain are a tremendous tag team, they take huge bumps, really violent offense, great at cutting off the ring, pretty much everything you want from a Southern Heel tag team. Morton really looks like one of the top 10 wrestlers in the world, his stuff is so crisp and athletic for a guy who has to be in his mid 40s, and his bumping is crazy. Usually in a tag match like this your big indy legend will hang around the ring apron and come in for a spot or two at the end, Lawler however worked about 70% of the match, bumping around the heels early, taking a big beating (including a ring post bump which is as good as the best post bumps on the Memphis set) and delivering the big comeback. Michaels looked good in his spots, but this was a Lawler showcase and it was awesome. Finish totally ruled with your big revenge spot by the crutch wearing Tony Falk son at ringside, and a Lawler Fireball. Hit up XCW Myspace and pick this up.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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Complete and Accurate Jerry "The King" Lawler

Out of all the Complete and Accurates we have done so far Jerry Lawler is the biggest star and probably has the biggest consensus as an elite wrestler. My motivation for this project is to see if he stands up as real GOAT candidate. Does Jerry Lawler have the matches to stand up with the all time greats? I am looking forward to revisiting some classics, and checking out some hidden gems. I am going to limit this to competitive matches, as I am not sure how many Lawler v. Rough or Lawler v. Ken Raper's I can write up. Some of the matches will be C+P'ed from other places, some of those will have Tomk and EricR comments as well. As always matches will be broken down into EPIC, GREAT, FUN and SKIPPABLE.

1974

Jerry Lawler vs. Jackie Fargo CWA 7/2/74 - GREAT

1977

Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee CWA 8/22/77 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Harley Race CWA 12/10/77 - EPIC

1978

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Phil Hickerson/Dennis Condrey CWA 3/78 - FUN

1979

Jerry Lawler vs. Toru Tanaka CWA 5/19/79 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Jackie Fargo/Bill Dundee vs. Larry Latham/Pete Austin/Wayne Ferris CWA 7/9/79 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Jerry Jarrett late 1979 - EPIC

1981

Jerry Lawler vs. Crusher Blackwell CWA 5/14/81 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Jimmy Hart CWA 6/29/81 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Super Destroyer CWA 11/14/81 - GREAT

1982

Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantel CWA 3/22/82 - EPIC

1984

Jerry Lawler/Blackjack Mulligan vs. Ken Patera/Jerry Blackwell AWA 3/4/84 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Rick Rude CWA 8/27/84 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Randy Savage vs. King Kong Bundy/Ric Rude CWA 9/17/84 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler/Tommy Rich/Jerry Oates vs. Rip Rogers/Bob Roop/Ted Oates GCW 10/31/84 - GREAT

1985

Jerry Lawler/Jimmy Valiant vs. Great Kabuki/Takashi Ishikawa 2/5/85 - FUN

Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage CWA 6/3/85 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee CWA 12/21/85 - EPIC

1986

Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Rickard Polynesian Pro 8/9/96 - GREAT

1987

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Original Midnight Express AWA 10/30/87 - EPIC

1988

Jerry Lawler vs. Samoan Joe AWA 1/30/88 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Jimmy Valiant vs. Kerry Von Erich/Michael Hayes AWA 9/18/88 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Tommy Rich SPW 10/2/88 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich WCCW 11/25/88 - GREAT

1989

Jerry Lawler vs. Eric Embry USWA 9/8/89 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Kamala Great Lakes Wrestling 12/89 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich USWA 12/15/89 - FUN

1990

Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich TWA 3/31/90 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. NY Mauler USWA 4/28/90 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler vs. The Snowman USWA 6/11/90 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Gary Young/John Tatum USWA 8/31/90 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk USWA 11/3/90 - EPIC

1991

Jerry Lawler vs. Eric Embry USWA 4/26/91 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Eric Embry USWA 7/21/91- GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Eric Embry/Tom Pritchard USWA 7/27/91 - GREAT

1992

Jerry Lawler vs. Bob Backlund WWA 1/10/92 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Austin Idol/Jeff Jarrett vs. Moondogs/Big Black Dog USWA 2/10/92 - GREAT

1993

The Rumble Match WWF Royal Rumble 1/24/93 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Tito Santana WWF 3/21/93 -  GREAT

Jerry Lawler vs. Jim Powers WWF Raw 4/5/93 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Mark Thomas WWF Raw 6/14/93 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage WWF 8/13/93 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart WWF Summerslam 8/30/93 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage WWF 9/28/93 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart WWF 11/5/93 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Doug Gilbert/Reggie B. Fine USWA 12/6/93 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Doug Gilbert/Eddie Gilbert USWA 12/13/93 - FUN

1994

Jerry Lawler vs. Chris Benoit 1994 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage WWF 7/4/94 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Duke "The Dumpster" Droese WWF Raw 9/19/94 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. The Undertaker WWF 9/28/94 - FUN

1995

Jerry Lawler/Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart/British Bulldog WWF 3/19/95 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart WWF In Your House 5/14/95 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart WWF King of the Ring 6/25/95 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler/Hakushi vs. Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart WWF 7/26/95 - FUN

Jerry Lawler vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Raw 8/14/95 - GREAT

1996

Jerry Lawler/Isaac Yankem DDS vs. The Smoking Gunns WWF 1/6/96 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. The Cyberpunks USWA 5/18/96 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Mark Henry WWF 9/22/96 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee USWA 12/14/96 - GREAT

1997

Jerry Lawler vs. Tank USWA 3/15/97 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Goldust WWF 5/26/97 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Taka Michinoku WWF Raw 12/15/97 - GREAT

1998

Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee MPPW 4/18/98 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Billy Joe Travis/Bulldog Rains MPPW 7/26/98 - FUN
Batman vs. Dr. Frank vs. Wolfman vs. Bill Clinton vs. Bulldog Rains vs. Killer Klown vs. Popeye vs. Grave Digger MPPW 10/31/98 - FUN

1999

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. The Fabulous Ones MCW 5/1/99 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler vs. Mike Rapada NWA Georgia 7/2/99 - SKIPPABLE

Jerry Lawler vs. Jackie Fargo NWA Worldwide 1999 - EPIC

2000

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz WWF Summerslam 8/27/00 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz WWF Unforgiven 9/24/00 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Chris Jericho vs. Tazz/Raven WWF Smackdown 9/28/00 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz MCW 11/4/00 - FUN

2001

Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Richards MCW 1/20/01 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Richards WWF 2/25/01 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler/Rob Williams vs. David Young/Rick Michaels NWA Wildside 5/22/01 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 7/28/01 - FUN

Jerry Lawler vs. The Bruiser MCW 11/10/01 - EPIC

2002

Jerry Lawler vs. Yukon Braxton IWR 2/3/02 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Jim Cornette/David Flair Tojo Yamamoto Memorial 3/31/02 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Steve Corino JAPW 8/10/02 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig 3PW 10/19/02 - GREAT

2003

Jerry Lawler vs. Kamala JAPW 1/18/03 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Air Paris NAWA 4/18/03 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Shane Douglas vs. Dan Maff JAPW 12/13/03 - GREAT

2004

Jerry Lawler vs. Zach Gowen JCW 7/17/04 - GREAT

Jerry Lawler/Kid Kash/Monty Brown vs. Terry Funk/Insane Clown Posse JCW 7/17/04 - FUN

Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Derrick King/Dustin Starr LAW 8/29/04 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Slyck Wagner Brown NEW 10/3/04 - SKIPPABLE
Jerry Lawler vs. Ric Flair WWE Raw 11/29/04 - GREAT

2005

Jerry Lawler vs. Kamala IWC 12/3/05 - FUN

2006

Jerry Lawler vs. The Barbarian TNT 5/20/06 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Romeo Roselli NEW 6/1/06 - SKIPPABLE

Jerry Lawler vs. Shane Helms WWE 8/1/06 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler v. Romeo Roselli NEW 10/14/06 - SKIPPABLE

2007

Jerry Lawler/Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart vs. Sex &Violence (Dave Danger/Jeff Starr) NEW 3/10/07 - FUN

Jerry Lawler vs. Sid Vicious NEW 8/25/07 - FUN

Jerry Lawler vs. Joey Mercury NEW 11/3/07 - EPIC

2008

Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Sane NEW 3/15/08 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Mad Man Pondo 3/22/08 - FUN

Jerry Lawler/Maria/Ashley vs. Santino/Beth Phoenix/Melina WWE 3/24/08 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Sane NEW 4/19/08 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler/Chris Michaels vs. Bull Pain/Todd Morton XCW-Midwest 8/9/08 - EPIC

2009

Jerry Lawler/Reid Flair vs. Trevor Murdoch/Brian Anthony NEW 4/25/09 - GREAT

2010

Jerry Lawler/Beau James/Dutch Mantel vs. Jimmy Golden/Eddie Golden/Jeff Tankersley SSW 9/18/10 - GREAT

2011

Jerry Lawler vs. Tommy Dreamer NEW 1/15/11 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee SAW 1/28/11 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Bill Dundee/Jamie Dundee Evansville 3/2/11 - EPIC
Jerry Lawler/ Dr. Tim Linder vs. Bill Dundee/Dr. Brian McCarver 3/4/11 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole WWE 4/3/11 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Jack Swagger WWE 4/4/11 - FUN
Jerry Lawler vs. Jack Swagger WWE 4/11/11 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Jim Ross vs. Michael Cole/Jack Swagger WWE 5/1/11 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Brian Christopher/Shane Williams Gulas OSW 7/30/11 - GREAT
Jerry Lawler/Zach Ryder vs. Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga WWE 9/5/11 - SKIPPABLE
Jerry Lawler/Dory Funk Jr./Johnny Magnum/Cory Weston vs. Luke Spencer/Shane Chung/Blain Rage/Jayson Falcone BANG 9/10/11 - FUN
Jerry Lawler/Sheamus vs. Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga WWE 9/12/11 - SKIPPABLE
Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk NEW 10/1/11 - EPIC

2012

Jerry Lawler vs. Jake Manning NEW 3/23/12 - FUN

Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Derrick King/Precious WFW 6/2/12 - EPIC

Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantel NWA-ME 7/1/12 - SKIPPABLE

2014

Jerry Lawler vs. Kevin Steen NEW 8/2/14 - FUN

2015

Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk Wildfire Wrestling 10/14/15 - GREAT

2018

Jerry Lawler vs. Doug Gilbert PWE Strawberry Slam 2018 - FUN

2020

Jerry Lawler vs. Flash Flanagan USA Championship Wrestling 11/26/20 - FUN

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ROH TV Workrate Report: 2/21/11

President's Day ROH Report!! What president would have made the best pro wrestler? Like, aside from Lincoln. I'm not even talking from just a carny aspect (like which president's campaign did Pro Wrestling better than Pro Wrestling...I'm looking at you, Grant! Getting all your buddies into office like you were Hogan in '94 WCW!!), either, just who would be the best presidential wrestler. I'd be most interested in seeing Taft work. By all accounts he was over 300 lb., heavier than Stan Hansen, and had an even better mustache. Was he the last president with facial hair? I bet Taft would throw an awesome elbow drop. What president would you want to see work...AND WHY!? Support your answer.

Aw crumbs we start off with a Davey Richards return promo. He failed himself. He failed the American Wolf believers. And he's sorry. People want a rematch, but "The American Wolf isn't about being handed things." That name sounds even shittier when spoken in 3rd person. He's starting with Cabana, and "This is an important hunt to this Wolf." Good lord. When he said "This hunt never dies," I heard my girlfriend do a pity-groan and eye roll from the next room. I wasn't even aware she was within earshot. Cannot wait to have this show filled with Davey and Chris Daniels matches.

Briscoes do another awesome promo calling out Benjamin and Haas. They always talk like they're wearing headphones and don't realize how loud they're talking. "We were only 15, 16 back in Jersey, Haas! We're like, 25, 26 now!" And Mark is always awesome as Jay's hype man. "Yeah, 25 or 26!!"

1. Devon Storm vs. Christopher Daniels. Wow, Devon Storm? Really? This is definitely a battle of the HOTT indie stars of 1997. I eagerly await Davey Richards vs. Ace Darling. And Roderick Strong vs. Cheetah Master. Storm throws some pretty decent jabs. Daniels has a pretty cool ankle pick takedown. Aw shit, Prazak just made a fucking Ace Darling joke. If he mentions Cheetah Master then Prazak and I are one and the same. Rachel points out that Storm has that same "I got bad knees so I walk like I rode a horse halfway across the country to get to this show" gait that Shawn Michaels does. Storm with a crossbody over the top to the floor and back in with some GREAT jabs to a kneeling Daniels and this match is actually getting pretty damn fun. Daniels with a nice STO and....something off the top that ends with his knees into Storm's chest. Storm hits a stiff rope flip leg drop and Daniels kicks out. We go into some slow forearm exchanges and Daniels ends up hitting the BME. This was a pretty fun 6 minute Superstars match up. I'd much rather see Daniels working random 1997 feuds in 6 minutes than him working 20 minute draw "wars".

2. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Rhett Titus. Claudio looks like a fucking superstar wearing the belt and posing, and Del Ray is great doing her pageant queen parade wave on the way to the ring. We start with an uninspiring chop exchange. Titus can't chop, and he can't throw a decent forearm. These guys seem to be on a different page early on. Titus does a goofy somersault into a back elbow out of the corner and this is not working. But Titus takes a big hip toss bump to the floor and that works. Claudio hits a cool back breaker on the apron. Titus sells back pain far less convincingly than Michael Cudlitz on "Southland". Seriously, TNT knows drama, and you owe it to yourself to check out "Southland". Patrol Officer John Cooper's back is fucked beyond belief and Cudlitz makes me believe that he is in constant pain, all while trying to tough it out. Some of the best on-screen selling since Daniel Day Lewis selling his leg in "There Will Be Blood". Castagnoli has wimpy kicks to the stomach. But makes me regret typing that as he ends the match with a great falling clothesline. This was not much.

3. Back from break right into Chris Hero vs. Kenny King. Hero shows the crowd how to throw a chop, then King throws a mighty back elbow that Hero leans way into. King with a crazy springboard move off the guard rail and this is starting off fun. Hero catches a kick and Yakuza kicks King. Hero sells King's punches better than they deserved. And then catches another King kick and Yakuzas him to the floor! Hagadorn throws him back in and Hero gets a running baseball slide kick to a downed King for 2, then locks on a Stretch Plum. Huge rolling elbow from Hero and Titus is quality trying to slap some life into King. Hero misses a springboard moonsault (leaping to the top rope unassisted!) and King hits a spinning heel kick knocking Hero to his butt. King is on fire hitting spinny kicks and non-spinning clotheslines of varying quality, but then throws a beast of a spinebuster for 2. Hero hits a rolling Yakuza kick that looks AWESOME considering how ridiculous it is, then gets a Liger Bomb for 2. Hagadorn interference backfires and King rolls up Hero for the win. Hero is pissed and throws Todd Sinclair to the floor. Todd took a nice bump on that spill. KOW start destroying Titus/King (King bumps a Claudio uppercut awesomely) and Sara Del Ray is kicking ring boys in the face to keep them at bay as we go off the air.

Fun show with a couple decent matches all at reasonable lengths, though I can't say I'm very excited for the big show they've been building to.

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