2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki v. Callihan

1. Low-Ki v. Sami Callihan AAW 3/17

PAS: Callihan is the AAW champion and is coming in trying to avenge a beating Ki gave him in JAPW back in 2011, and it really delivers the level of violence that set up promise. Ki is rocking his Hitman suit gimmick and both guys rip into each other early. Callihan is landing straight punching him in the forehead and Ki is lacing him with chops. This is the best Sami performance since his return to the indies, violent, explosive, and a bunch of fun Finlayish tricks like catching Ki in the ring skirt and yanking Ki's arm and causing him to whiplash himself into the top rope. There were moments in this match which felt like high end FUTEN which isn't something you see in wrestling these days, near the end Ki is unloading these uppercuts which are thrown at full force. There was alot of fun horseshit in this match too, Callihan tapes Ki to the top rope and brutalizes him with a chair (including a shot to the face which was super nasty) when Ki gets loose he retaliates by grabbing Callihan by the jaw and dislocating it, Callihan then rips his managers shirt and makes a makeshift bandage. This was working it's way to an all time classic until the plum awful Abyss run in, about the worst way to end a great match reminded me of the end of Lesnar v. Reigns or Fiera v. Estrada. Still strong MOTY contender but any better of an ending it could have closed the debate.

ER: Wow. This is easily my favorite Callihan match since his return to the indies, and possibly of his career. I assumed the Gulak match from December 2015 PWG was as good as it was going to get, and if so then the getting was good. And this match crushes it. This was one of the meanest, nastiest, flat out brutal fights I've seen. My body wouldn't have held up for any 3 minute portion of this match. Things begin with a bang as Callihan does a low tope that sends himself into the 3rd row while contorting Ki over the guard rail in disgusting fashion. The crowd is real close and the areas between ring and guard rail are very narrow, but that doesn't stop Callihan from tossing Ki violently into railings and then leaves him right there to mug for the adoring people of beautiful downtown Berwyn (cue BERRRR-WYN soundbite). Callihan beats the hell out of him and then gets cocky and sets up an allll around the ring attack, and when he arrives back at his destination finds his manager waving his arms, turns around to see Ki has chased him and annihilates him with a dropkick. And then more and more violence. Callihan clonks Ki right in the head and face with heavy hands, Ki seems like he's literally uppercutting Sami as hard as he can, Ki goes full bore into a baseball slide dropkick and Callihan catches him in the apron skirt in a way that would have you believe that Ki had no clue he was going to get caught in the apron skirt, and there's just too much pain and awesome on display for me to mention it all. And it wasn't just stiff for stiffs sake, the vengeance story was strong and adds real meat to this madness. The dislocated jaw was flat out great pro wrestling (though I think he held the dragon clutch way too long, as that move applied to a dude with a wrapped up busted jaw should have been instant tap), and then we get the run in ending with Abyss of all people. The ending stunk, as if the match had just ended with Sami tapping to the dragon clutch and then Ki getting destroyed then this would be an unbeatable #1. As it is, it's still a really difficult to beat #1. Classic match.

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST