2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

19. Titan v. Barbaro Cavernario CMLL 5/3

PAS: Excellent title match between two of the most exciting young wrestlers in the world.  Might be Titan's career performance as he is a true crazy lunatic in losing his title.  Cavernario just mauls him in the second fall crushing him with a tope, powerbombing him on the ramp and into the turnbuckles, before Titan catches him with a mistica into a roll up. Third falls has a surprising amount of matwork, with Titan focusing on Cavernarios taped up leg, and an awesome tapitia reversal. Then we move into the hot death section, including Titan crazily stealing Cavernario's superfly splash to the floor. The slower type of Virus/Casas title match is probably close to its end, but this style can be done well and these guys really delivered.

ER: I would second that this is IMO Titan's best career performance. We've written about a lot of Titan matches here, and he's popped up on several of our "Best of" lists, and while I would never say that any of the great matches he's been involved with have been "total carry jobs" or some other rude comment, but in those matches he was clearly a guy being lifted up to a higher standard than he had previously seen. Here he seemed very much worthy of the praise I've seen him get elsewhere. Cavernario has been one of my (and many others) favorite workers over the last couple years and as the match went on I found myself rooting more and more for Titan. Me, always the contrarian. Titan really put me in his brain, I really felt like he was trying every possible thing in his arsenal to retain his title, and it was epic. Some of his dives were among the best he's done, especially the one that just crushed Cavernario into the barrier. He ups the lunacy by breaking out Barbaro's giant splash to the floor and hitting it with every ounce of force that Barbaro himself normally does. I loved him going after Cavernario's leg in the tercera; that's something that's so out of character/match layout for him and that just added to the vibe of him breaking out all the stops. Cavernario is a wild caveman. He was unfrozen by scientists. Our world likely confuses and frightens him. Imagine how his primitive brain view television! Or cellular telephones! All his brain knows is that when he's being attacked, he needs to attack back, and so he is relentless, as so many cavemen (probably) were before him. Cavernario is always a Tazmanian devil, just windmilling punches and stomps. I love how he kind of responds to matwork the way a cat responds to getting its tail stepped on, and overall there was a nice sense that Cavernario outlasted Titan here. All made for a satisfying title match.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 6/3/15 Review

I'm happy to have more wrestling on my TV. Maybe I'm a luddite - well, I definitely am - but getting to watch something on my large HD TV screen will always win out over watching that same thing on my laptop. I've been mostly out of the ROH loop for the last year or two - there are no Sinclair stations in my area - so let's dive back in and watch, shall we?

I know these aren't filmed exclusively for DA, but it would be cool if this brings them any amount of new fans. And I can't imagine a better introduction to new fans than seeing the hate-filled scowl of Jay Briscoe and caveman insanity of Mark. I love Briscoe promos.

1. Will Ferrara vs. KUSHIDA

I had not seen Ferrara before, and that was probably a good thing. Will Ferrara was definitely a current day indie wrestler. Went through all the motions and movements of a wrestler, no substance whatsoever. There's this certain way a lot of newish indie workers move, this puffed chest/butt out style of movement, and he's got that down pat. He wimps out of his clothesline follow through and seems scared to hit people with his dropkick, but he knows chest puff/butt out style. KUSHIDA has popped up lately on the Friday NJPW show, and he's okay but also has a lot of weenie strikes. His springboard head graze is apparently a signature spot of his (I thought he was working a parody highflyer gimmick against Ricochet), and he throws these real lousy not punches/not forearms where he just kinda hits Ferrara's forehead with his wrist. Imagine the worst version of the way Robert Gibson would throw punches off a hot tag. Ferrara hits an impressive suicide dive tornado DDT but it doesn't really go anywhere. I do love the hoverboard lock as a finisher, looks nasty and Ferrara only briefly held on before wisely tapping. So I liked that, but a lot of this was....not much.

2. Silas Young vs. Watanabe

Young's "Last Real Man" persona rings a little hollow with me as I'm always just left wishing he was more of an asskicker. He's got a great 'stache, and a good mug, but doesn't really work stiff and really, just kind of scowls. It needs some work. Watanabe is a pretty low end NJPW guy who throws poor elbow strikes and sells moves by making exaggerated Eddie Murphy-as-Buckwheat faces. Young kicks him in the ear and Watanabe perks his head up, widens his eyes and purses his lips. Maybe it's more of a Church Lady reaction. He does it three different times here. Young takes a couple nice bumps here, bouncing off the apron after a clothesline and flipping over off a suplex on the floor, but Watanabe isn't very good and Young seems like he needs an actual asskicker in there with him to bring out his best.

3. Moose vs. Colby Corino

I'm a fan of a good squash and Corino manned into some stuff admirably here. Corino is scrawny enough that I cringed whenever he would get tossed around. He takes a big time bump into the guardrail, takes a powerbomb on the apron and one on the floor. I dig squashes in wrestling, especially on an ROH card so we don't just see 8 straight matches of do-si-do mirror sequences.

4. Donovan Dijak & J. Diesel vs. The Briscoes

This was a nice extended squash. Diesel works an amusing golden gloves boxing gimmick, Dijak is a guy with some height and not much else. I love all of Mark's strikes and his dropkicks are some of the best in wrestling. Jay is maybe the most intense dude in wrestling today, his scowls are downright mean. I wish I could have seen them work WAR. I love Briscoe matches when they just start going on a rampage, they both know how to ramp things up so damn well.


This was kind of a weird episode to debut to a wider audience. I know they just opted to show the Sinclair episode that already aired this week (which makes sense) but this was not a good episode in the least for new eyeballs. The homegrown guys looked like duds, and the two matches they pushed from the very beginning of the show didn't end up actually happening, which might look odd to new eyes. Not that anybody would have likely been clamoring for BJ Whitmer in a singles match, but it's strange to start a show advertising just two matches, and keep advertising them throughout the show, and then do a bait and switch on both of them. At least the Briscoes were featured, who are no doubt the best guys in the fed, so at least they had that on their side. Still, you have to assume somebody somewhere was seeing this for the first time. And that person just got to watch Will Ferrara.

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