IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #16: John Wayne Murdoch v. Davey Richards 7/17/14

John Wayne Murdoch v. Davey Richards 7/17/14



PAS: It has been a long time since I watched a Davey Richards match, and I would like to make it along time since I watch another. I got the sense I might like Murdoch more when he wasn't jammed in the Davey Richards match structure, but he didn't do much for me here. All of the obnoxious Richards stuff was here, but mainly what stuck out to me is what an awful in ring actor he is. All of his selling was so hammy, he looked like a bad 1st year UCB improv student doing a pro-wrestler gimmick. Just utterly takes me out of the match, in the past he has been a guy with good execution, executing everything wrong, here his execution didn't even look good. This wouldn't even be a top 20 match for a random month of cards in 2002 IWA, much less top 18 of all time.

ER: I actually liked this match more than Phil, while at the same time seeing zero reasonable way that this match could be considered anywhere close to a top 20 of any individual year of the promotion's existence. I really loved Murdoch in this, made me want to see a lot more of him. He leans into kicks, has no problem being punched, does these cool backhand chops to the face, throws weird elbows, great knee drops to the arm, has some nice mat stuff. He also really does have that pasty Murdoch skin, skinny arms and the exact same torso as Dick (with the face of Trevor!). But holy fuck what is Davey Richards!? Please do yourself a favor and watch him around 14:55 and 18:25 of the linked video. Please tell me what in the actual hell he is doing. In this first clip he is in the middle of a strike exchange, but I have never seen a human move the way he moves here. It's like he's trying to do wobbly legs but the example of wobbly legs he was trying to mimic had a bunch of missing frames or…something. I have no idea what he thinks he looks like when doing that. At 18:25 he's trying to prevent a sunset flip in just the ugliest dorkiest pants peeing hilarious way possible. If Shawn Michaels had done this against Hogan in their match people would still be talking about it today as the most memorable instance of Michaels telling Hogan to fuck off. When I saw Murdoch was working Davey's arm a bunch I groaned - not because I thought the arm work would get forgotten and no sold, but because I knew Davey WOULD try and sell the arm, and Davey Richards selling is just the most awful selling possible. Phil likens it to a 1st year UCB student, but NO 1st year UCB student has this much unwarranted hubris. To get your arm worked on and respond by going "OH GOD NOOO! GOD! OH MY GOD NO!" is just the worst possible read. If that shit was in Troll 2 it would get one of the loudest laughter reactions at showings. Just…what the hell is this guy?

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 7: Héctor Garza, Máximo, Negro Casas vs Atlantis, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

2010-03-19 Arena México
Héctor Garza, Máximo, Negro Casas vs Atlantis, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

6 minutes in

http://youtu.be/qQqlghV6Lxo

http://youtu.be/OeFEEy6dFd4

This was second from the top for the 2010 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show (technically third from the top I guess but the last two matches were linked and culminated with Felino losing his mask). Casas was a rudo so I'm not entirely sure what the build to this match looked like. Garza was the captain for the tecnicos but don't be fooled when it comes to card placement. This match was really just thrown on there and the entirety of the build (much like the recent cage match where Felino lost his hair, ironically) was about the four way mask match.

I can understand someone in 2010 being totally and absolutely burnt out on los Guerreros del Atlantida. Rey and UG had been together for the better part of a decade at this point, even with Rey's tecnico turn. Later on in the year, he'd morph into more of the Jack Sparrow gimmick with Perico (not yet Zacarias), and they even had an little bit on the showing of this (which i think happened months later) with him in there. By that point he'd joined La Pesta Negra. Atlantis' rudo turn was probably two years stale by this point. Here, in 2014, having only watched them this year and in bits and pieces, I get pretty happy when I get to see this unit in action. There's just this air of professionalism. Maybe it makes things rote and lazy. You know you'll see the same things (the alley oop body drop, the catapult onto the knees followed by Rey's back senton, the triple corner moves ending with the senton de la muerte, them going to the well one too many times with one of those causing the transition), but it's fine. All of it worked. The beatdowns were generally good, and the three of them, despite being near the top of the card for years were still totally willing to show ass. I have the luxury of not getting sick of it because I jump around. I didn't have to live through it. That said, it's a lot less interesting to see modern UG/Gran Guerrero/Euforia matches, even if there is something refreshing about the fact that they're full on rudos as opposed to La Pesta Negra or Los Ingobernales (though since they're feuding a bit with Los Ingobernales now that's becoming skewed).

This match had a few things going for it. I'd much rather have Rey in the rudo trio than, let's say, Niebla. He wore a green bandanna coming out to match Atlantis and UG. Casas in trios is interesting to me. He's very good at blending in. Maybe less so today, but I found this to be true both in 2006 and 2010, and maybe even back in the 90s. If he's not the featured feud, he plays his role, holds up the match as a structural element, and you don't even always notice him. That's both good and bad. He doesn't ham and distract in the way Niebla or Wagner might but you almost want him to because he's so good and so enjoyable. Here, he played his role as the rudo slumming with the tecnicos, kissing a shocked Maximo on the cheek pre-match and then eating a well-wished kiss from Kemonito later on and selling it big. He also had a nice little exchange with UG to start the match. I don't remember having seen the two of them match up too many times before, so I was glad to see it.

This was a little bit paint-by-numbers, a feel good trios match for a big show and even then just a little stilted. In the primera, we only had that first match up and a little bit of Rey/Maximo before Maximo ran into a knee from the outside and the swarming began. It ended in a triple submission. The comeback was one of Maximo's usual step ups and those always go well but we missed a chunk of it due to a poorly timed replay, which really happens more rarely than you'd think. It hurt the match flow as a viewer though. The tercera let everyone hit their stuff with the tecnicos coming out on top.

Like I said, it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, but the ringwork itself was well timed and well executed and hit the right marks. If it just had about 20% more of everything, it would have been pretty good. As it was, it did its job and left long before it wore out its welcome. There really is a simple joy to a perfectly competent trios match.

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