2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Two More from AAW Take No Prisoners 5/25/18

24. Darby Allin vs. Brody King

ER: Another great match in that Darby formula, a similar take on his matches with WALTER and Keith Lee and any other guy that much bigger than he (so, every guy). It's a formula I'm not anywhere near getting sick of, especially when watching someone as creative as Allin. Each big man gets his own destruction canvas to paint on, an opportunity to try out their most dangerous big spots on a guy way too willing to take them. King memorably catches a Coffin Drop to the floor and starts brutally swinging Allin's body back and forth across the aisle into the guardrail. But I love the ways Darby gets into control, the slip ups that he never hesitates to pounce headlong into. There's a great spot where King is on the apron and gets kicked to the floor, taking a backwards bump off the apron into the front row. Allin wastes no time in hurling his body out after him into a Coffin Drop. The Coffin Drop is such a great character appropriate finisher for Allin, and I love how quickly and recklessly he breaks it out. It never feels like overkill, because at the heart of it he's always using his body to try to do harm. Sometimes it gets caught, sometimes he dumps himself on the back of his head (like later in this very match!), but it's always him hurling his whole body at his opponent, and that's awesome. The rolling clutch with him getting kicked off and bouncing immediately into a tornillo is such a fun spot, and he makes it look great. We get several fun moments set up earlier in the match and paid off, like King crushing Allin with a cannonball early and then missing a big one late, creating an opening for Allin. The match ending over shoulder piledriver is an awesome exclamation point, and Allin's 2018 continues to be impressive as hell.

PAS: This is the best I have seen King look, beating on Darby Allin is a perfect showcase for what someone can do. Allin has pretty much turned into the worlds greatest Spike Dudley, which is a real compliment. He takes huge violent bumps, times his comebacks perfectly and has really compelling credible offense for someone so much smaller. He also has this grim determination in everything he does, he just soldiers forward through brutal punishment, always looking for an opening, sometimes he finds it and wins, sometimes he gets hit with something so brutal there is no recovery, but he is almost like a Zombie, tear his head from his shoulders or he won't stop coming. This match was full of cool moments, King falling from the apron to the front row, only to get wasted by a coffin drop was awesome looking, as was King catch Allin and hurling his body reckless around the ringside area. There were lots of moments where I thought Allin might pull it out, and that finishing piledriver was a finishing piledriver. Allin feels like the Wrestler of the Year, and he keeps adding to his resume.

Sami Callihan/Jake Crist/Dave Crist vs. Shane Strickland/Dezmond Xavier/Zachary Wentz

29. ER: I was skimming through this show and planned on skipping past this one, but stopped mid match and it looked more heated and IWA Mid-South than I would have expected. So I went back to the beginning and was not let down. The opening mean shoving and jawing between Callihan and Strickland looked like a showdown happening over Donald Trump's Walk of Fame Star. This was a crazy and stiff spotfest, feeling like a wrestling match broke out in the middle of Mortal Kombat. There are a lot of moving parts and constant action, and while I don't always react to Crist matches, they're actually really good at stringing together these kind of fast pace moving parts matches. I don't always like their structure and match length, but they don't get lost and plan unique chain spots. There are a lot of stiff shots in this one and the action really felt similar to that great ROH match with Jack Victory, or some of the best Jersey All Pro brawls. The Crists throw really nice kicks, Callihan seems like a guy with a genuine high pain tolerance, Strickland has actually focused up a nice right hand, and Jake Crist throws better punches than you remember. We get fun trainwreck dive spots into the crowd, a completely stupid tower spot in the corner that - while completely stupid - was also creatively crafted with a nice payoff: an expertly timed seated powerbomb out of a superplex, several guys get suplexed into turnbuckles, an amusing 619 from Xavier, some more shockingly great full leg extension kicks to the head, the Crists leaning face first into a bunch of kicks, the whole thing was like a stiff version of an early 2000s SAT trios. The Crists really seem like guys who like thinking up complicated spots, and they really go all in on these spots, and while they don't always stick the landing, they at minimum miss big. I'm appreciating that the more I see it. We had a nice violent end run, Sami hit a wicked snap piledriver, Crists got misdirected into hard kicks, Jake hit a cutter on Wentz from opposite corners, just some wild stuff. This felt like it hit just the right pace and teetered close to the edge but never toppled into overkill, made use of some good saves, and built great. Very recommended.

PAS: I really wished I like Strickland more, because that Chaka Khan entrance is class stuff. This kept threatening to lose me, there were a lot of missed clotheslines and kip ups, but they kept the pace going and ramped up the violence and got out of there in 13 minutes. That spinning superkick by a Crist (not sure which) always looks like it dislocates someone's jaw, and Dave Crist flying out of the air to catch Wentz's splash with a cutter was really awesome looking. Callihan is great at forcing pace, something like this where he just barrels forward for an entire match can be really compelling (he had an awesome pull apart with Brody King at the end of the show too), I don't think this match redeemed Strickland or the Rascalz for me, but they certainly kept it nuts and Wentz especially died some big deaths. Up there with the AAA undercard match for spotfest of the year.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST