IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches #9: Mike Quackenbush v. Claudio Castagnoli 9/30/06

 #9 Mike Quackenbush v. Claudio Castagnoli 9/30/06

PAS: This was a TPI match and a really fun showcase of the wacky shit that Quackenbush and Claudio could come up with working together in the Chikara school. The stuff they pulled off was really elaborate but didn't come off as swing dancey as this kind of thing can at its worst. The parts where Claudio was controlling with forearms were a bit dull, but the finish was pretty crazy, loved Quack standing on Claudio's shoulders, and the finishing rana reversal powerbomb was totally nutso. Well worth the ten minutes.

ER: Oh man did I love this. This is one of those 10 minute matches that you can show to the most casual fan, or even non-fan, and they would totally lose it during several moments. You see several facebook posts a day of things that have gone viral, and I can't see how a 1 minute comp of this match hasn't blown up social media for 7 minutes before promptly being forgotten by everyone who watched it. Claudio was always a great base for fliers, and this is probably the fullest realization of Quack's work, the best representation of all his weird flips and armdrags and roll ups and moments where he ends up in a spot you didn't expect him to end up. The announcers at one point mention "body control" and that's totally accurate. The dude knows where he's going, even if nobody in the crowd knows. Claudio was in full base mode here, so it was up to him to tie things together with stiff forearms and nasty clubbing shots to the back, and all of Claudio's strikes looked great. But his main role was to catch all of Quack's wildest fantasy moves and he did that with aplomb. Quack's armdrags are mind blowing and gorgeous, and here he tops them all by leaping from the middle turnbuckle to the floor, flips upside down and armdrags Claudio into some chairs. Wow. I mean just crazy gorgeous and insane. But there are plenty of other cool moments, like Quack leaping all the way over Claudio in a knucklelock, Quack leaping up to Claudio's shoulders at another point, the finish where Claudio SUWA's a rana so damn fast that he flips right through into his own powerbomb, some wild roll ups including one that made for a great nearfall; I mean this was some comic book video game awesomeness, maybe the best ever execution of that style. This is the kind of thing I want to show all my friends.