APW TV Workrate Report: 1/29/11

We jump straight to the ring this week, no introductions.

1. Timothy Thatcher vs. Jody Kristofferson is up first. Referee Toby gets his own pre-match graphic, making me again suspicious that the dopey, mild-mannered Toby has some longterm evil plan. APW does a pretty good job at giving people basic mat training. A lot of their workers have decent matwork. They do a good job at making it look a little stiffer, a little rougher, not as rehearsed. Jody has a nice single leg into a cool Indian deathlock to start. The opening 30 seconds of APW matwork is much more entertaining than the opening 30 seconds of ROH wristlocks and headlock reversals. Jody hits a nice powerslam, but Thatcher starts working the arm with some cool takedowns, uppercuts to the arm, etc. Jody kinda spends the match selling the arm when it's convenient, but still hitting all his moves with no trouble (delayed front suplex, spear). They go into a real limp Frye/Takayama spot that has become to modern indies what the superkick was to 1997 indies, or the Roll the Dice was to 2002 indies. Once Jimmy Jacobs started doing that with a spike, it should have buried it for everybody else. Finish was nice, with Thatcher locking on a Fujiwara armbar/crossface, and Jody leveraging it into a pin. Thatcher looked good here and Jody is pretty new to this, but looked fine. OK stuff.

Recap of Derek Sanders/Dylan Drake feud, and Sanders would not look out of place in ROH. He is caucasian, has short brown hair, his eyes are kinda close together, he likes working out, he talks like he's reading cue cards...he could really make an impact there.

There was an amusing Markus Mac/Rik Luxury interview from the beach in San Diego, with Mac asking how the hell the camera man found them, to which the camera man responds, "You've been Twittering where you're at." That's pretty good. They built up a match 2 weeks from now with Luxury against some goofy lost Bravado brother.

2. Dylan Drake vs. Derek Sanders (w/ Will Rood). Rood really needs to work on his eye contact. He's the muscle for Sanders, yet he just shuffles along, looking at his shoes. How the hell did this guy ace the interview? He doesn't even tuck in his shirt. He probably wears his slacks without a belt. Does he go out looking for jobs like that? Rood needs to work on his confidence. Just needs to spend 5 minutes every morning thinking positive, conscious thoughts about himself. Also, get your fucking slacks tailored, Rood. Tell the tailor you want a slight "break" at the ankle. Baggy slacks make you look like a derelict, or a child wearing daddy's pants. And Jesus, Rood gets caught with a weapon before the match even starts. Wow. What does this guy even bring to the table!?!? He hid the weapon in his SOCK! Of COURSE the ref will check there!! Learn to hide a weapon, rookie! Wear tight briefs, ball up the chain, and hide it under your balls. It's not going to be comfortable, but there's no way ref Toby will check your taint for a chain. Get your head in the fucking game, Rood. You're a liability at this point.

Match starts and Sanders has pretty decent punches and elbows. Drake works over Sander's leg for the first few minutes, but Sanders takes over with an awesome rope-draped DDT that Drake took really well. Sanders sells the leg pretty well, limping around and extending the leg, rubbing it out. These two match up really nicely with each other. Drake bumps big for Sanders stuff, and Sanders does simple things like back elbows really well. I cannot put into words how annoying the announcer is calling a "vertical suplay". That just really rubs me the wrong way. Like the word "preggers". I don't really care if it's the correct or incorrect pronunciation, but good lord does it sound dumb. We get it, Gordon Solie said it that way, good for him. Gordon Solie can't hold a candle to Lance Russell buddy, and Solie was born in the roaring 20s! APW announcer Jon Roberts can't be over 30. I hate it. Finishing run to the match was good, with Drake getting Sanders in the sharpshooter and them doing some engaging reversals leading to Drake winning the title. I gotta blame that title loss squarely on Rood's shoulders here. I hope we eventually get to see the Sanders/Rood match so that worthless Rood finally gets what's coming to him. Good match here, went about 15 minutes. Both guys are a little whitebread, but both are in the top half of APW talent. Worth taking the time to check this one out.