Matches from Black Label Pro 8/18/18

C.W. Anderson vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor

PAS: Always excited to see CW, he really should be the next old guy to get the PCO indies push, he is still excellent and doesn't seem to have lost a step at all.  I really liked the opening mat exchanges in this, it wasn't shootstyle at all, but Lawlor is also really good at basic hammerlock, drop toe hold headlock US territories matwork. There is some great punches, a cool guillotine choke counter of a spinebuster and Lawlor doing a go-to-sleep into a sleeper and putting someone to sleep. You would expect this to be a styles clash and it wasn't at all.

ER: I wanted more out of this one, but I like these guys, and overall I liked this. C.W. really is ageless (not only in the way he moves, but facially he still looks really young for being late 40s) and I fully back him getting a big tour of the indies. Really I have no clue how he hasn't been brought in as a veteran presence in NXT. I liked how the two kind of met their two styles in the middle, with Lawlor working more wrestling holds and throwing a heavy, non-stylish German suplex, and C.W. throwing more elbow strikes than normal but not attempting some silly MMA crossover. I love the way Anderson moves in the ring and I loved the build to that big left hand (coming not long after a new thrust headbutt that he's been integrating), and Lawlor grabbing a guillotine choke to block the famous spinebuster was a really great spot.

PCO vs. Darby Allin

PAS: This is an on paper banger, which doesn't fully live up to it's promise. Allin is my WOTY so far, and PCO has become a super hot act. This never fully kicked in though PCO has kind of morphed into almost an Undertaker like monster character, I love the videos, but I think it is a weaker in ring act. The WALTER match worked because it was kind of a wild sprint. This match was kind of ponderous, and even killer Darby spots didn't get as big a reaction. I did love his tope with PCO draped over the guardrail, and his big senton looks great. Destro coming out with the car battery is kind of goofy, and really ground the match to a halt. Some fun stuff, but ultimately disappointing.

ER: Same. I think the PCO hype train is a little off the rails at this point, and really I'd just want to see Quebecer instead of this quirky Frankenhooker character we got now. He moves a little stiffly and slowly, and is also now doing Undertaker no-selling, and it's kinda hard to tell sometimes which he is doing because his staggering sell looks nearly identical to his Undertaker no-sell. He bumps big but there can be a delay to his bumping, so sometimes there was awkwardness waiting to see if he was just going to no sell Darby and let him bounce right off...or let him bounce right off but then also bump. But once this gets going it was good. The very beginning is fun, with Darby hitting a hard dropkick that believably knocks PCO through the ropes, then gets caught on a dive, and Darby blocks a chokeslam by landing feet first on the apron. Coo, sequence. PCO takes a plausible Code Red and we also get some neat stuff with big splats: PCO catching Allin and slamming him into guardrails before powerbombing him into the rail, and then a sick powerbomb across a few chairs. But I love how Darby is a guy you just can't take your eyes off. Once PCO heads back to the ring Allin is leaping over him, catching him on the railing, and then hitting a bonkers tope to PCO while he's draped over the railing. Absolutely crazy spot (I wrote "absolutely crazy spot" before I watched the match, with Allin it's just a matter of where I put it in the review of any of his matches, not if I'll need to). Allin also hits one of his all time great cannonball sentons off the top (shame we didn't actually get a battle of the cannonballs here, mais ce sont les pauses), but here's where Destro comes out to freaking Andrew Lloyd Webber like he's a Wednesday night dinner theater magician, then puts us through an act more interminable than the magician who was working the Wednesday day shift. PCO and Allin - who have kicked the shit out of each other the whole match, are now just forced to lie motionless in the ring, selling more damage than any one of them has ever sold. We've seen Allin get concussed and break his elbow, pretty sure he sold doing his own senton more than he sold any of those actual injuries. And then PCO sees if that's still the case and drops Allin on the back of his head with a package piledriver. There were flaws before Destro did his routine, but that just left my sails totally windless.

D-Lo Brown vs. Joey Janela

ER: This is of interest because we've all seen Janela attempt to break his neck doing crazy things in a wrestling ring, but now he's in the ring with an actual certified neck breaker. But this match was fine. D-Lo is bigger (I appreciated Dave Prazak's speculation that the added size might be because D-Lo was wearing his chest protector underneath his t-shirt), but not crazier like PCO. Still, this was a perfectly fine older star/younger indie guy match. D-Lo had loud chops, dropped a great elbow, took a low and fast dive from Janela (that sent D-Lo sprawling down the entrance). There was nothing spectacular, but nothing bad. They didn't bog it down with comedy, kept the shtick to the opening sequence, D-Lo hit signature spots and took a big bump off the top when Janela tossed him while attempting the Lo Down, and it went the right time. Expectations, met.