APW TV Workrate Report: 5/21/11

We start with a promo from the debuting Kay Jutler, another British wrestler in APW. It's actually a good cocky heel promo, better than almost all the APW regulars that get promo time. It came off fairly natural, didn't sound like it was something he had rehearsed in the bathroom for an hour.

1. Kay Jutler vs. Timothy Thatcher. So the two British guys are going up against each other in Jutler's debut. Thatcher is one of my favorite APW guys. He has a real skeezy leering face, and can go on the mat. Odd that they have two foreign heels working solo against each other, but we'll see how it goes. Referee for the match is Toby, and commentator Killer J Mathias instantly starts making a bunch of "Your name is TOBY" jokes. I eagerly await him commentating a dog collar match so he can make some "Chains ain't right for niggers, Fiddler!" jokes. It's official, 2011 is finally appropriate to mine Kunta Kinti for jokes.

Looks like the crowd is instantly in support of Thatcher at the start, so that clears that up. Thatcher takes Jutler down and starts stretching him in neat ways, like wrenching an arm behind Jutler's back, holding it in place with his knee, and twisting the other arm out at a nasty angle. Thatcher also can throw a boss uppercut, and nails a few here. Looks like Jutler is an indy kicker as he hits a few nice kicks to a downed Thatcher. My favorite was while standing on the apron, hitting a sidekick through the ropes on Thatcher, allowing him to slingshot over into a swinging neckbreaker. Looked painful. Also did an amusing top rope slap to a downed Thatcher. Just jumped off the top, landed on his feet, and slapped Thatcher across the face. Jutler actually makes that jumping heel kick that Punk and Malenko do/used to do look good, which is a move that is tough to make look good. Thatcher helps it out huge by coming up clutching at his few teeth. Finish is Jutler missing a moonsault and Thatcher locking on his Lebell Lock-esque finisher. Not a bad match, decent debut for Jutler.

2. Victor Sterling vs. Will Rood. This is the opening match of the APW Young Lions Cup. I have never seen Sterling before. Rood I have written more about than any other wrestler ever I think. Rood instantly makes me take back anything bad I've ever said about him as he does a fist drop, and a REALLY good fist drop at that. Will Rood just vaulted up to my 7th favorite APW worker I think. And wow, then the match just ends a little later with Rood hitting a neckbreaker. This was only like 2 minutes. Can't really judge it too much. But shit man, FIST DROP!

3. Levi Shapiro vs. Brandon P. Net. Another Lions Cup match. These guys have not impressed me from what I've seen. All the Levi matches I've seen see him constantly pulling and tugging at his trunks during his matches, and within 2 seconds of this match he's at it again. And this match fucking ends after 2 minutes as well. What do I even say about 2 minute indy matches? "They had a forearm exchange, there may have been a backcracker, one of the guys won with a move that looked like it hurt both guys."

Matt Carlos leaves it all in the ring! We're gonna see who the better man is! This is going to be a fight! Bleeechhhhh. This guy is a fucking boooooooring babyface. He even does all his promos in a "wrestler voice".

Jeckles promos makes me thankful for the gift of DVR. Sometimes I bitch about my DVR when it forgets to record something, or it says my memory is more full than it actually is, but in times like these I kiss my DVR and thank it for it's 5x speed.

4. Perry Von Vicious vs. Daniel Torch. Torch is a greasy tiny guy who bumps big, but really if you weigh like 120 and you're a pro wrestler, you better fucking bump HUGE. PVV is working an upper class snob gimmick and he is very pale and skinny fat. Torch hits a spinning heel kick, misses a springboard move, and PVV wins with the Million Dollar Dream in like 2 minutes. Man these Young Lions Cup matches are fucking lame and pointless.

5. Corvus vs. Mickey Jay. Not sure why Corvus is in the Young Lions Cup since he's been in a bunch of APW main events, but I guess he won last years' YLC so he's defending his crown or something. Seems like it would make more sense for him to just face the winner of the whole tourney, but whatever. Seems like that just predictably means that Jay will get the win so the announcers can jizz over how Jay beat the...and while I was typing all that Jay got the win. Man this YLC has started out really shitty. This match went like 4 minutes while the others went about 2. What's the point? Why even have this opening round? Booooring waste of time so far.

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HWA Heartland Cup Night 1 4/22/11

It’s an Indy tournament! Back in the early part of the century tournament wrestling was the primary form of anticipated Indy wrestling, the Super 8, TPI, Best of the Best were all calendar highlights. There was a certain style which was developed, ripened and rotted. This HWA tourney seems a bit conceptually passé, but I figured I would check in and see what Indy tourney wrestling looks like in 2011.

Rich Swann v. Jake Crist

Swann is a black highflyer who is part of the Gabe crew of black highflyers (ROH was all Puerto Rican highflyers, EVOLVE all black dudes, there feels like there is a Michael Eric Dyson essay in there somewhere,) Crist is one of the Irish Airborne who hung around ROH undercards a couple of years back, he has put on some weight and looks a lot more ground borne now. Good indy tourney opening round match, each guy got in some of his stuff, but not too much and the finish was clean without diminishing the loser. I enjoyed some of Swann’s shit talking and flips as taunts, he did a pretty cool headstand counter out of an Ace crusher which nicely skirted the line between cool and stupid and I dug his flash KO selling. Crist looked solid too, and his spinning superkick finisher is pretty boss looking. If the rest of the tourney is like this, it will go down nice and easy.

Chrisjen Hayme vs. Gerome Phillips

Gerome Phillips is a big black dude who looks exactly like Big Worm from Friday, he seems to be working a Big Worm gimmick too, lots of loud shit talking and ass kicking. Chrisjen is a guy I mainly know from laughing at the stupid spelling of his name when it shows up on match lists. Pretty close to a Phillips squash, and he is really fun kicking someone’s ass. Really nice clubbing forearms and a sick clothesline. Hayme was questionable on offense, but perfectly fine bumping and taking a stomping. Good stuff and it got me excited to see more Phillips.

Jesse Emerson v. Paul Birchill

Haven’t seen Birchill since he got endeavored and he definitely can’t afford the good Deca-Durbolin anymore. Emerson is a guy I remember from SAW, although he is the 17th most interesting guy in SAW. Some nice stuff, Burchill takes a big bump where he is on the apron, gets dropkicked on the knee and ends up hotshotting himself. Definitely something Finlay should steal. By then end both guys looked a little gassed. I didn’t hate this, but it was the least of the matches so far.

Ron Mathis vs. Necro Butcher

I am a sucker for a Necro Butcher formula match. He is a guy you can put in with any game guy willing to take a beating and it is going to be entertaining. I didn’t get much of a sense besides the fact he was game and willing but that was enough. This had the feel of some of the old IWA-MS Ian v. Simon Sezz or Dysfunction matches, where Necro just pummels this kid and Mathis looks good being willing to just hang and fire back. Necro just blasts him with chops and punches and by the end Mathis is bowed, bloodied and beaten.

Tim Donst vs. Jeremy Madrox

Madrox works a old timey 1890’s carnival boxer gimmick, with Hendricks Gin boxing stance and comedy mustache, Donst is one of the more tolerable Chikara students. Donst is a guy well versed in working around comedy guys, and this never delved into the overly cutesy realm which much Chikara lives in. I liked Donsts arm wringer reversals a bunch which felt more like a Bill Dundee comedy spot then a Chuck Taylor comedy spot. Madrox had great dedication to the gimmick although I couldn’t tell how good he was.

Dustin Rayz vs. Zack Sabre Jr

I haven’t been a fan of Sabre Jr. in the past, he felt to me like the Empire outpost for the Davey Richards school of indy wrestling. This was a much less irritating version of what he does, instead of finisher killing backyarder UWFI, he and Rayz worked 10 minutes or so of “watched a Saint tape” World of Sport. Post Taylor camp indy wrestling beat that style to death, but it has been long enough that I didn’t mind watching it again. I fear for later round Sabre, but this was fine.

Sami Callihan vs. Dave Crist

Much like Necro, Callihan also has a formula style which can be really entertaining with pretty much anyone willing to hang in and bang with him. The Crists have gotten more tattoos and are willing to hang in the pocket and throw blows. This came off a bit like Callihan working a lesser Callihan, still Pentagon v. Octagon is usually an entertaining match. Crist didn’t do anything particularly memorable, although everything landed with a thud, Callihan was bumping great, including taking an awesome flip bump on a otherwise mediocre leg lariat. Finish was great too, with Callihan catching a spin kick and locking on the stretch muffler. Fun stuff and another entry on Callihan’s resume.

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs

These guys had a one of the great feuds of the decade a couple of years ago, cool angles, classic matches. Whitmer at his worst is excretible, but his best matches are pretty damn good. This wasn’t at the level of their 2006 stuff, it was more a wrestling match then a brawl, and Jacobs was working heel which isn’t his best role in this matchup. Still I always like watching Jacobs, he had some great looking grounded punches and bumped really well, and they still have some charisma together. I also really dig Whitmers crazy choke finisher. Match ended with Phillips coming in to brawl with Whitmer and I could see myself digging that matchup.

Really well done Night 1. Nothing felt overkilly the matches were different enough, and everything except the main event was kept to around 10 minutes. Worth checking out, and I am excited to watch Night 2.

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Finlay Has Cursed, Bled and Sworn. Jumped Bail and Landed Up in Jail

Finlay v. Big Van Walter WXW 8/14/11

I really enjoyed this, it was much more of a Callihan style slugfest, then the slower mat based matches against Ryan and Thatcher. Walter is a big raw boned hard hitting guy and is willing to both smack and get smacked. The start with a lock up and Finlay gets the advantage using his trickiness. Walter responds by throwing bombs and Finlay is totally up for that kind of match too. Finlay lays in some big time uppercuts and Van Walter responds with some nasty clubbing forearms and a couple of thundering clotheslines. Finlay takes a crazy bump to the floor and Walter responds by working over his back, until they stumble out to the floor again and Walter loses his cool and blasts Finlay with a chair. Really had the feel of a good version of the 80's Japan finish. It is really fun to watch Finlay work a guy willing to go toe to toe with him and I hope this leads WXW to bring Finlay back for a rematch.

FINLAY INDY TOUR

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 12/3/11

Virus/Polvora/Euforia vs. Metro/Dragon Lee/Fuego:

I really really liked this. I kinda assumed it was just gonna be a throwaway, some tossed off third match on a Friday night Arena Mexico show, but everybody in here got a chance to shine. Some did OK, and others really shone. Metro looked GREAT here, and the whole match was practically structured like a Metro showcase. Metro looked absolutely killer in this, whether he was getting punched in the neck repeatedly by Virus (and man can Virus throw a bunch of great punches to the neck), bumping wildly to the floor, hitting his boss somersault senton into the corner, doing a rad sliding single leg takedown, cool little standing spin kick ro Euforia on the apron, just everything. I was thinking of listing him as one of my "Most Underrated" in my WON ballot, but this whole match was pretty much "Hey, check out this here Metro guy", and Gala chose to air this instead of the Blue Panther/Negro trios and the Tiffany lightning match, so I guess he's a known commodity. Crowd was going nuts by the 3rd fall of this, mainly helped by the rudos going into beatdown overdrive in the 2nd. All the standard rudo beatdown greatest hits, just played twice as fast with no room for breathing. Euforia stood out more than usual, too, holding things together when Virus was on the apron. Dragon Lee got to hit a spectacular springboard shooting star press in the 3rd, Virus got to be Virus, etc. Basically, if you're fans of any of these guys, you would enjoy this match.



Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Escorpion/Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Atlantis/Jushin Liger/Delta:

This was one of those hyper-rushed CMLL main events that don't really do much good for anybody. Nobody really looked bad (although Escorpion had too many noticeable moments of standing around, adjusting his wrist tape, waiting to get into position), but these "3 falls in 8 minutes" matches are just pointless. It's all messed up right from the beginning, when the tecnicos attack the rudos on the stairs to start...and then the rudos just instantly beat their asses. That looks bad. Not only do the tecnicos cheat, but then it immediately gets turned on them. Ultimo tore it up in his limited time here, and I'm convinced nobody bumps better to the floor than he does. Rojo hits his cool inside-out dropkick to the apron, super rushed pinfalls happen. I guess I just don't see the point.

There were a couple matches from this taping that didn't make the Galavision airing that looked intriguing to me, so I figure I'll link them below and mention if they're worth checking out or not.



Tiffany vs. Estrellita lightning match:

Match is pretty much worth watching for Tiffany's amazing entrance gear, as she has a collared cape and tiara and catsuit and looks like the evil queen from Snow White mixed with Catwoman. Super awesome. Match was fun for the 8 minutes it lasted, with Tiffany being a great bumper for lady offense, and then controlling with great dickish things like chops to the boobs. Match ended odd with Estrellita going for an ill-advised springboard tornillo suicida, which totally misses the mark and causes her to go *splat* on the floor. Count out, stretcher job, Tiffany wins. I don't remember Estrellita trying something like that. Maybe there's a good reason why...



Negro Casas/Felino/Mr. Niebla vs. Blue Panther/La Sombra/Shocker:

Odd that this whole episode was pushing Panther/Felino hair vs. hair match, yet they choose to show some throwaway Liger match instead of a match featuring Felino and Casas headbutting and kicking Panther in the head. Match itself is fun and plenty hate-filled, would have made a much better use of time than that lousy main event we ended up getting instead. Casas and Felino took it to Panther in the first 2 falls, with Panther kinda snapping at the end of the 2nd and wrenching in the Fujiwara armbar HARD on Casas, then locking an ankle lock on Felino in the 3rd (with him biting Felino's feet). Sombra looked really good, too, showing a lot of personality. His superkick to the back of Zacharias' (you KNOW I spelled that one wrong) dome was great. Also loved Niebla walking around punching guys at will. Plenty of fun stuff here. No clue why it wasn't shown on TV when it dealt directly with the match they were hyping.

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APW TV Workrate Report: 5/14/11

We start this week almost immediately with a match.

1. "Out of Control" Matt Carlos vs. Sheik Khan Abadi. Both of these guys can take real nice beatings from larger opponents (especially Abadi), so I'm curious how the two small guys work each other. Opening matwork scrambles are nice, with both guys slipping out of holds and neither really gaining an advantage. Cool spot where Abadi leapfrogs and lands in the splits, and Carlos dropkicks him in the face causing Abadi to bump big through the ropes to the floor. Carlos misses a plancha, Abadi hits a nice kneedrop, and Carlos takes over with an enzuigiri. Carlos also hits a completely awesome fist drop off the middle rope. He flew kinda recklessly towards Abadi, and it kinda was an "out of control" fistdrop. What's funny is crummy announcer John Roberts keeps saying things like "Out of Control Matt Carlos is in control of Abadi right now" seemingly oblivious to how stupid that sounds. I hope if Carlos goes heel he'll become "Cool, Collected and In Control" Matt Carlos. Big spots start coming, as Carlos hits a leaping DDT (he was on the middle rope, Abadi was in the center of the ring), and suplexes Abadi to the floor in a big bump, Abadi hits a dragon suplex, Carlos hits a Sliced Bread (that Abadi bumps nuttily on his head) for the win. This was a pretty workrate-y match with a bunch of moves being traded back and forth, often with minimal regard to selling, but for what it was it was pretty decent.

2. Larry Blackwell vs. Dylan Drake is the main event, and FINALLY we get a Blackwell singles match on TV! Story of this one was Drake continually attempting to lock on the Bay to Breaker submission (Sharpshooter) but every attempt resulted in Blackwell kicking him off and beating him more. Blackwell jumps at the bell and hits some rad clubbing crossface blows. Drake leaps at Blackwell, gets caught in a bearhug, maneuvers into a sunset flip, Blackwell blocks and misses a giant butt splash, and Drake hits a big shoulderblock to a seated Blackwell. Drake starts working over Blackwell's knee and Larry's great at fighting for the ropes and hitting nasty forearms and elbows to counter Drake. Blackwell fights back to his feet and throws Drake to the floor, elbowing the snot out of him all around the ring. Blackwell misses a charge and smashes into the ringpost, and Drake hits a cool somersault senton off the apron. Blackwell is eventually able to use his size advantage to take back over, clubbing Drake all over the ring and hitting a sweet 'Taker leg drop on the apron, really splatting Drake. Blackwell gets missle dropkicked and does the cool stuck in the ropes spot, but he's still able to use his fat to come back and hit a HUGE belly to belly suplex, really chucking him like an even fatter Gary Albright. Drake hits some shoulderblocks which on paper sound like a horrible idea, but he really smashes into Blackwell, a few times. I guarantee Drake's shoulder was killing him the next day. Blackwell takes over again with clubbering, and goes up top to hit a Vader Bomb, and Drake AWESOMELY climbs up and German's Blackwell off the middle rope. That was EASILY the most spectacular spot I've seen in APW since I've started reviewing their TV shows, that was just INSANE. I rewound the DVR 5 times to watch that one. Blackwell taking a massive German out of the corner is something pretty much everybody needs to see. This allows Drake to finally lock on the Bay to Breaker without getting kicked off by Blackwell, but then the Dark Carnival runs in for the DQ. Wow, pretty damn disappointing ending right there, since the match had gone like 17 minutes and then just ended in a run-in. Still, match was pretty awesome and one of the top APW TV matches I've seen.

Next week is the debut of some guy named Kay Jutler. That is one of the stupidest names I have heard. I mean, say what you want about Michael McGillicutty, but fucking Kay Jutler? Really?! I can't wait to see the debut of Ren Boethlisberger or Brew Dees.

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Black Terry Drinks Water, Lord That Liquors Hot

Black Terry v. Negro Navarro OLX 8/06-GREAT

I still want to see these guys in a long epic singles match, but it is really fun to watch them work this kind of WCW Pro match. Lots of very fun matwork, Navarro seems to have different stuff which he does against every opponent and his Black Terry shtick is some of my favorite shtick. The early stuff had a very amateur wrestling style with both guys doing quick switches and exchanges. Because this is a 2000's indy lucha match we get a couple of backcrackers, including a trapped arm version from Navarro which was awesome looking. To brief to be anything but a taste, but it was a delicious taste.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Black Terry I Wish I Could See You Once Again, I Believe You'd Stack Up With the All the Mighty Men

Black Terry/El Hijo Del Pirata Morgan/Skyde v. Negro Navarro/Trauma 1/Trauma 2 Arena Neza 1/1/12-GREAT

We start off 2012 with a corker of maestro lucha match. I always enjoy when Black Terry hits the mat like this and he and T2 have a couple of really fun exchanges. Some really cool leglock exchanges by both guys. The highlight of the first fall was watching Navarro and Skyde totally rip the new year apart. Navarro looked like he had an entire batch of cool shit he had never used with Solar before and Skyde had his a bunch of stuff he wanted to try out too. Awesome stuff and I would love if Skyde was added to the touring maestro mix. He was also really great when he moved into the rana and armdrag section of the match. Second and third falls were a bit perfunctory, and El Hijo Del Pirata is a little out of his league, which kept this from truly legendary status, but a great way to begin the new year.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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APW TV Workrate Report: 5/7/11

We start off right away with a Jeckles match, so it's gonna be that kind of a week.

1. Jeckles vs. Vennis DeMarco isn't really setting my world on fire as an opener, but let's open mind this shit! Vennis' tights have Italian flag colors down the length of the leg, but it looks more like the stripe on Aqua Fresh toothpaste. Match starts off pretty nice as Jeckles throws some solid forearms, Vennis knocks him to the floor with a dropkick, then follows up with a nasty tope into the crowd. Don't remember seeing Vennis do a tope that often, and smashing into the front row of fans gave it a cool visual. Jeckles clotheslines the ring post after Vennis moves, and Vennis starts attacking the arm, to minimize the effect of Jeckles' Jokeslam. APW has always taught arm work it seems, going back at least to 1999 Boyce LeGrande matches where he would always do cool legdrops to guys' arms, so it shouldn't be too surprising that Vennis has some decent and engaging armwork. One move I liked in particular is when Jeckels was on all fours, Vennis grabbed Jeckles' arm and held it perpendicular, then mule kicked it. Looked real nasty. Jeckles transitions back to offense by hitting a drop toe hold on a charging Vennis, and Vennis splats into the bottom rope, allowing Jeckles to hit a nice 'Taker dropkick on the apron. Arm work kinda gets tossed out the window as we go into a "we're fighting each other while we're on our knees, because we're in a war!" forearm exchange, then Vennis gets crotched on the top rope and Jeckles hits the Jokeslam off the middle rope. I like the beginning, I liked the middle, but the ending didn't really go anywhere rewarding. Still, this was much better than I thought it was going to be.

"Out of Control" Matt Carlos cuts a promo that is very punctual and while he stumbled over a couple of words, I never got the feeling that he was anything but in control. Whether interesting or not, his words were his own. "You took me to the limit! I escaped with the skin of my teeth!" He did end the promo saying he was "OUT...of conTROL Matt Carlos", which was some zazzy annunciation, but not that out of control.

2. Main event is Derek Sanders/Alexis Derevko vs. Jody Kristofferson/Will Rood. Rood throws a decent forearm and a couple alright punches to Derevko, but it looks silly to have Rood irish whip Derevko due to the size difference. Rood especially should not do a flying shoulder tackle against Derevko, as it looked absurd for Derevko to sell it. Now Kristofferson's slingshot shoulder block looked completely awesome, on the other hand, but he probably has 40 lb. on Rood. I really liked the spot where Rood throws elbows from his knees, three really nice ones to Sanders, and then Sanders blasts him with one while standing. Derevko/Sanders pretty much take over the last half of this, and Rood is pretty good working as Ricky Morton. The hot tag to Kristofferson was good (and of course the ref missed the first couple) as Jody has some real fun hot tag offense after sitting on the apron most of the match. Palm strike, cool looking sit out axe handle/fist drop, big jackhammer, impactful spear. He really made the most of the hot tag. Sanders' team ends up getting the win with interference and Rood gets screwed out of the win again. Match went pretty long, almost 20 minutes, and considering Rood was getting beat on for about 14 of those minutes, and was only recovering on the apron for about a minute, his last comeback seemed a little bit much. But, this match was pretty decent and moved forward the angle along nicely.

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