2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Red vs. Ki 2018!!

4. Amazing Red vs. Low-Ki House of Glory 2/3

PAS: I have made an argument that this could be the greatest juniors feud in wrestling history, so it is pretty awesome to see these guys face off fifteen years later. This is worked very differently then their matches in the early 2000s, here Ki is working straight vicious heel, and is this is more like a Tenryu match then Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis. Ki seems to be trying really new things in his big singles matches, the awesome Callihan match had all of the crazy spots around Sami's broken jaw, and this match had a crazy kung-fu battle on a stage. The didn't open with the Wushu, they built to this really cool showdown on a stage which not only had their cool martial arts feints and counters, but also had Ki and Red having a weapons battle with a pair of sticks and a chair. I did think the Ki beatdown went a little long, and the ref stuff seemed a bit unnecessary (although Ki punching the chair into the ref's head was awesome), but this was a nifty spectacle and both guys are still really great.

ER: A totally blown out epic take on the match they pioneered over 15 years ago. They go for something different, crazier in some ways, more reserved in other ways, and bizarre in ways their feud never has been. Ki makes offense look so spectacular and he immediately bumps huge to the floor and then into the guardrail, and nobody will make you look more devastating than Ki. A chair gets involved, and things get weird right out of the gate as Ki punches a chair right into the ref's face and the ref stays knocked out for the entirety of the match - over 20 minutes - so that man is clearly dead at this point. Low-Ki  killed a man and nobody removed his corpse from a ring while people are crash landing around him. But this allows the match to be No DQ-ish, and then it's Red's turn to take a crazy bump over the top to the floor. The crowd brawl is really cool, using their weird timing and understanding of the other's movements, and once Red gets backdropped onto the large stage of the venue, things get downright weird. The two of them basically break the 4th wall and put on a kabuki performance of their kung fu movie scenarios, right on the stage, only playing to one wall of crowd. It's so strange, like they're in 2D working as Street Fighter avatars. Things normalize once they get back to the ring, although Ki beats him down for a LONG time before Red starts coming back. But they put so many cool moments to build to the comeback that it's always satisfying. I love how big Ki hits, but I might love how big he misses even more, and the big miss in this match is Ki leaping for Red in the ropes, missing, and Ki bouncing off the ropes. I have no idea how this guy isn't a mess of knee and ankle injuries. Home stretch is really huge, with Ki hitting a couple brutal double stomps, and Red pulverizing him with a few tornado DDT variations (again, Ki makes a DDT look absolutely skull crushing). The knocked out ref was flat out stupid, and there's overdone drama with a new ref (why is this new ref counting so slow?), but everything between the two of them was gold.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI