2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Kingston v. Cobb

31. Jeff Cobb v. Eddie Kingston AAW 6/17

PAS: Pretty simple story based match, Kingston is the old broken down war horse coming in against a young monster (although Cobb is 34 and Kingston is 35, wrestling is fiction). Kingston has a bad neck and the worst thing you can do with a bad neck is face a beast like Cobb. Kingston is one of the best sellers in wrestling history, so a match built around him selling paralysis is going to work great. Kingston is so great at gutting through pain, as he would refuse to back down even as he was getting more and more damaged. Finish seemed a little abrupt, Kingston has a great backfist, but it feels like it should take a bigger shot to drop Cobb. Still great performance by Eddie, and if he is really winding down his career, he will be missed.

ER: Kingston is probably the best salesman in modern wrestling and I love matches where he's playing the survivor, the guy who is just enduring punishment but has a lot of big shots and a lot of pride. Kingston's neck is in bad shape and he's facing a guy who is an expert at hurting necks. They don't drag this out, this is a quick fight with immediate consequences. Kingston's backfists and elbows land as hard as I've ever seen them land, smashing into Cobb's concrete block skull, and when Cobb finally grabs hold of him it's a huge moment. King tries to get heavy, but Cobb drags him slowly up and over. King sells these germans pretty masterfully, skillfully selling his neck, arm, back and leg all at once, getting over that tingling that comes with a stinger. I was disappointed with the finish as it felt like they got a sudden call to go home, and it felt like Cobb went down too easy. I did like Kingston's hubris leading him to pull off a suplex on the suplex him, but I would have loved another Act to the story, another wrinkle like Kingston hitting that suplex but then further damaging his back. It felt like we are missing the third reel to a great match, but those first two reels are damn entertaining wrestling.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST