All Time MOTY List Head to Head + Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Anarchy Team Anarchy v. Devil's Rejects V. Akiyama v. Inoue

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Slim J/Ace Rockwell) v. The Devil's Reject's 
(Iceberg/Tank/Azrael/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 7/22/06

PAS: What a grizzly blood soaked war, Devil's Rejects have to be the scariest faction in wrestling history, they look like a gang of hillbilly cannibals. It really adds something to the danger of WarGames it is one thing to be locked in a cage with Arn Anderson or Sid, totally different thing to be locked in a cage with a bunch of guys who look like they have lost hikers chained up in their basement. Rockwell comes in with a broken arm and Slim J comes with a bad eye and they both injuries get exploited in horrible ways, Rockwell gets crucifix powerbombed arm first into the cage, Tempers drives a fucking meat cleaver into Slim J's eye. The babyface comeback after the sides equalled up was awesome, Shadow Jackson was great in the Nikita/Sting roll of powerhouse babyface roll coming in an powerslamming the 600 pound Iceberg. Rockwell wails on Azreal with his cast, and they end up Russian legsweeping Tank off the top through a table and superplexing Iceberg which might have opened up a crater in Cornelia. Finish was totally legit as Rockwell takes a claw hammer and tries to rip out Tempers cheek. Post match was crazy too, the match was control of Anarchy v. owner getting 5 minutes in the cage with Rev. Dan Wilson (all of these War Games seem to be about control of the fed, fucking McMahon GM nonsense ruined indy wrestling), the owner gets one punch in and then the Reject's stream in and maul that dude, stab him in the head, Iceberg second rope splash, meanwhile the crowd is hurling garbage and wrestlers are trying to scale the cage.

ER: This match completely surprised me. I loved Wildside but really haven't watched much Anarchy. A decade ago I never heard anybody recommending Anarchy matches, it flew almost completely under my radar. And THIS was there the whole time! This match has been sitting around on YouTube for 8 years and this is the first I've heard of it. And it's wonderful. Ace Rockwell turns in one of the finest fiery underdog babyface performances I've seen, blazing in with a cast on his arm and throwing these great right hands all match, throwing his whole body at Azrael, making me root for Team Anarchy right out of the gate. Phil is right that the Devil's Rejects stable are downright frightening. How many times have you seen metal t-shirt face painted wrestlers come off like total jokes ("I am counter culture!"), and here they look like Satanist bikers from I Drink Your Blood. And it's all great! Again Ace Rockwell is an impossibly good babyface warrior here, Slim J enters by flying off the top with a crossbody and doesn't slow down, Azrael and Tempers are great meathead thugs (who end up hitting big bladejobs), Tank and Iceberg (comically billed at 600 pounds, which I suppose would make Tank 560 and Ace Rockwell 350) are big ol' fat guys who will stiff you, splash you, crush your face with a legdrop, and wrestle like you wish Tank Abbott wrestled in WCW. We get some pretty sick bumps throughout, including what I think are the nastiest cage bumps I've seen. Tempers and Azrael press slamming Ace into the support pole of the cage and letting him just drop was nasty, but there are several other moments of guys flying into the cage at awkward angles and dropping terribly in between ropes and cage. Finish is disgusting as Tempers gets a clawhammer jammed into his mouth and thankfully taps before it bursts through his cheek. This was some wild violence right here, the kind of thing that makes me want to go watch all the Anarchy I can find.

Akiyama v. Inoue Review

Verdict:

PAS: I am going with Wargames, easily the most violent of the War Games I have seen, and a match which delivers visceral fear and hate better then almost anything I can remember. I loved Inoue v. Akyama but that is more a quirky indy comedy, Anarchy Wargames is Apocalypse Now

ER: Going in I thought this was just going to be a fun discovery and would make a good challenger for its novelty factor. But goddamn does it get my vote. Akiyama/Inoue is an all time favorite of mine, and this match crashed the party and made itself known as possibly the most violent WarGames match in history. Think about that. New champ.