2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

6. Chris Hero v. Eddie Kingston AIW 12/26/14

PAS: This is one of the great indy wrestling feuds of all time, and oddly this was the only time these two matched up during the time in between Hero's WWE stints, you would think this would be a matchup indy feds would be falling over themselves to book. This was worked very similarly to a New Japan style Shibata/Ishii stiff fest, but I enjoyed it so much more those or their US Indy dopplegangers. That was mainly due to how great Kingston is at selling and conveying hate. Early in the match he is getting pounded and responds by being furious at his body for failing him. Hero is beating him to the punch and he is mad at himself, he has some awesome KO sells too, slumping, glass eyed and defeated. Kingston is maybe my favorite ever slugfest seller, too bad he never got to work Hashimoto, Sangre Chicana or Lawler. Hero is great too as an arrogant star who has always hated this guy and desperately wants to put him down. His popping up after the suplexes was less no-selling and more determination to not let this piece of shit beat him. I really loved this, makes we want to seek out all of their earlier matches and makes me bummed that we didn't get another bunch of rounds of this before Hero went back to NXT.

ER: Strike exchanges are the most played out thing in online wrestling fandom, and this match starts with that very thing. And seeing Kingston and Hero actually express interesting character through body language and facials only illustrated how terrible everybody else is at this played out match function. It really doesn't seem that hard to add some personality or character into guys hitting each other, but seeing every single chest puffing time killing exchange would prove otherwise. Here Kingston is able to effectively show within 30 seconds that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, and the fact that it ends with him splayed on the mat after an awesome Hero tornado pump kick would back that up. Hero flat out hits harder than Kingston. That's it. Kingston has plenty of intangibles, but Hero hits harder. It never stops Kingston from hitting Hero, and the results are always great. Kingston's selling really makes this so much more. Watching Hero eat several chops, only to perfectly time a right jab to the jaw as Kingston goes foggy, or seeing Kingston slump into the ropes after Hero throws a right hand to the temple, you just know Kingston is going to keep coming forward, but his selling brings an extra level of "bless his heart" sympathy that most of these slugfests don't have. Kingston really did a great job of using the ropes as a method of support, that pride of having both your feet still planted on the mat, even if it means your butt is resting on the bottom rope. We get a great little moment of strategy with Kingston throwing weaker and weaker shots, Hero smelling blood and ramping up the strikes, so Kingston yanks the ref in the way to momentarily distract Hero, enough to headbutt him in the guy and hit a nasty Saito suplex. That suplex is what leads to the end for Hero, with Kingston landing some big fists, including a nasty backfist to the back of the dome. Great story, great match, these two never disappoint.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST