WWE Evolution 10/28/18

ER: Nita Strauss and Lizzy Hale start us off with some shredding, which is a cool touch, but I am already a bit worried that every single woman who is on this show is going to be called a trailblazer and a groundbreaker. Which is fine. But it feels like they say this about everyone, which makes them come off more like them talking about how inspirational it was for someone in a wheelchair getting pushed over the finish line of a marathon.

Trish Stratus/Lita vs. Mickie James/Alicia Fox

ER: Lita and Trish are Team MOB here, Mesh OverBoard. I know a little about fashion, and it's weird for Lita to want her outfit to have an intentional whale tail. Bliss/Fox/James definitely smoke them with their Queen of Hearts attire. And a lot of this is really James and Fox doing an excellent job at setting up offense for two non-active wrestlers. They're both really great at stooging; Fox has been the women's division bumping MVP for a couple years now at least, and James has had one of her absolute strongest wrestling years ever, and I think her contribution in getting Ronda over has been really undersold. Here James handled a 2 count kickout as well as some of these great Meiko kickouts we've seen in the MYC. I really thought they were giving Trish and Lita a quick feel good win do go a different way after Bliss was no longer involved. After a fairly one-sided run of offense, Lita misses the ALMOST GED STUDENT OF THE SKY moonsault to allow our favorites to finally control. I wish James and Fox got more control though, as it was good but still made them feel way inferior to two women who aren't going to be around much. Lita and Trish wrapped things up way too neatly, the end stretch could have used a couple more momentum shifts, and with Bliss on the floor there was no need to have Trish and Lita be so dominant, overcoming essentially three women with very little trouble. Fans were into seeing Trish and Lita, so if the point of the match was to give them a strong showing leading to a double comeback, then it was a huge success. I'm pretty sure they aren't planning on that though.

ER: Just noticed Beth's Bull Nakano shirt and I want it.

Battle Royal

ER: Big battle royal with practically every single WWE women's wrestler returning. We get Molly Holly, but throw in Layla and Bull Nakano and this PPV gets 10 stars for me. Molly still looks exactly the same. And I loved Iiconics telling the old timers that they were going to throw them over the top rope and back into obscurity. It's also funny how Tamina is lumped in with the present since she's just been around for almost a decade, and was in WWE longer than most of the women in "the past". Who actually would want Tamina on their side, though, is the predicament. Carmella is dressed up as an all time great GLOW worker, love the gear. Torrie Wilson takes an unexpectedly big bump off the apron from a Mandy Rose knee, and Rose eliminates Deville too. If Rose gets the win here this will be the best. They are really desperately trying to Make Tamina a Thing. She won't ever be a thing. There is literally nothing they can do that will make people interested in seeing Tamina. She is 40 years old and she has been doing this for a decade. I totally forgot about Zelina and liked the stuff with her at the finish, LOVED Nia's huge press slam to eliminate her, chucking her far into Tamina on the floor. They were giving Moon some big moments and when she eliminated Asuka I really thought she'd be winning, but am excited to see Nia back in the title scene.

Toni Storm vs. Io Shirai

ER: This was about the level of match I was expecting from these two, and just makes me more annoyed that we didn't get Meiko/Ripley. This was fine enough, and you could tell both busted ass and wanted to have a really good final, and they were able to pull out some tricks that nobody got to use in the regular tournament. Shirai hit a moonsault to the floor, and Storm gave her a German suplex on the apron, don't think we got a top rope to floor or apron spot in the 8 MYC episodes. So if so I liked that they mapped things out to be that way. They didn't do anything wrong here, really, only it was a structure that I'm really bored with, as it was basically the structure of a lot of 2018 wrestling: we're in a war, a finisher gets kicked out of to a shocked face reaction, both have moments where they can barely get to their feet but are up on offense a moment later, there's a strike exchange in the middle (and Shirai just doesn't have very good strikes. Dawn Marie had better strikes. Shirai's might be closing in on heel Torrie Wilson. She's probably above face Torrie Wilson), a big move hits knees; it all looked pretty good, it all just felt way too familiar. I do agree with them that Storm has potential to be a big star, so I fully get why she was season 2 champ.

The Riott Squad vs. Natalya/Sasha Banks/Bayley

ER: While watching this Rachel shows off her gamer dork knowledge and says that Liv Morgan should go as (Liv) Morgana from Super Puzzle Fighter II, saying she already has the pink hair and just needs a black bodysuit. She says this will solidify the 30-and-Up nerd fan category, which I told her is the last category of fan these girls would want obsessing over them. Those are the guys who would show up to her house with a knife concealed inside a teddy bear. This match was also decent enough, and was getting great reactions from the crowd, but just felt like a longer than normal Raw match, and there were some pretty rough spots like Sasha barely tumbling to the floor with a flip dive, or a really dumb spot where Natalya puts the Sharpshooter on Morgan and Logan at the same time, even though Logan alone is larger than Natalya. Plus this show feels a little too intentionally feel good, 4 straight face victories and everyone having this weepy overly smiley ugly cry finishes for all of them, every face acting like they simultaneously won the Hunger Games and also were retiring from wrestling after the match. It's all a bit thick. However, Rachel thinks that a lot of the emotion the girls are showing post-match is genuine. She makes a lot of sense in her defense of why, and it genuinely feels like she's gee, Riott Squad really feel like a team they should run with, Riott has been impossible to ignore the last 6 months, they're just wasting so much time keeping Natalya inexpicably strong. Everyone knows she's the biggest heel on Total Divas, because she is awful but thinks she's the nice one. The Squad could be a way bigger deal than they are. Natalya  cannot. I liked the Squad launching Sasha into the barricade, liked Bayley's fast tope con hilo at the finish, but I wanted something very different from this.

Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane

ER: This was a nice tough fight that went longer than I thought it would, but also made really good use of its time. It does require you to think that Sane could stand and strike with Baszler in an exchange, which is a bit much, but I think that while small Sane is still really good when she's using her body as a weapon, so it makes up for the overall size difference. Shayna dominated for much of this, but Sane never really felt out of it. Sane was valiantly getting beaten down, while getting in some stuff, but it felt like Baszler was always dominant. Baszler ran her into the steps, then we get several different nasty Baszler knee strikes, a cool as hell gutwrench slam, starts working over Sane's arm including a nasty stomp. Shayna handled the Sane strike exchange portion well, threw a kick at the arm to end an exchange, but ate a nice spinning backfist from Sane. I do really like Sane as cannonball, and she's convincing on a suplex, and we go into some bigger spots. Shayna drops her arm first over the top rope to the floor, Sane winds up hitting a hard crossbody to the floor, really smashing into Shayna, Sane takes a big bump into the crowd right into Shayna's squad. We get a big interference portion that I think they make work, timing it well enough and making it fit in. We get a really tight nearfall that fooled me, with Shayna locking in a tight rear naked choke and Sane rolling through like the Bret Hart/Austin finish. I could buy Shayna losing with that and it wouldn't make me upset. But Jessamyn Duke sneaks in a shot just behind the ref's back and immediately allows Baszler to lock in the clutch again. Both rear naked sequences were handled really well, by both parties. Baszler made it look like something that should finish a match, and Sane looking like a person getting choked out. I really liked this one.

PAS: Really great performance by Baszler. I don't think Sane is particularly good,  she is a stylistic daughter of Manami Toyota without Toyota's otherworldly athleticism. She can take a good beating though, and Baszler delivers one. That arm work was so vicious, that Sane should almost be out six months with surgery, rather then delivering offensive moves (the selling issues were what damaged their last NXT match, it wasn't as bad here, but still present). I just loved the way Shayna would manipulate the arm, the set up for the stomp on the elbow looked almost as painful as the stomp itself. The move where she hung her over the top rope by the arm was so violent looking, and I loved the mock salute afterwards. Some of Sane's offense looked ok, the plancha was nice, and I love a good backfist (and like an OK one, and this was OK). Finish angle sets up some cool stuff, although both Shafir and Duke have the same horse girl straightened long hair and thus are hard to tell apart, one should get a different haircut unless they are going to do Killer Bees tag spots. Still I am excited for a distaff Makai Club running shit.

Last Man Standing: Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

ER: You know, I've never been a major fan of either, although Lynch has really won me over since the turn, and I really like how both of them are playing their face/heel dynamics. Charlotte is playing it up perfectly smug, cold bitch straight-facing those boos, snottily bouncing off the ropes to steal a little thunder from Lynch's name being announced. Lynch, the champ, holding up that belt knowing she's going to get cheered? I'm into it, and they have immediately got me into this match without locking up. They know exactly what they're doing. And this sauce has some heat to it. Both of them look downright pissed when the other comes out ahead and it is simmering fire.

But overall I thought the match was pretty so so. I thought it was overly sloppy, had an abundance of time stand still moments (and not just during prop set up moments), had some glaringly bad ref involvement, had weapon shots that looked piddly, and jacked a big moment from literally the last Last Man Standing match in WWE (and didn't do it anywhere close to as effectively). However, the reactions they got for nearly everything was tremendous. The crowd was extremely invested in this from beginning to end. There were some pretty nasty spills and the intensity was a plus at times, but for every intentional nasty spill (like Becky taking a back suplex into a big pile of chairs) there was something that looked bad, like Charlotte overshooting a moonsault and knocking over a table leading to Lynch landing right on top of her, and then both selling because neither knew what to do. We got a too long segment of Lynch lying perfectly still while Charlotte could do a convoluted figure 4 set up with Lynch's leg for a stretch of leg work that doesn't really go anywhere interesting. We got Lynch absolutely burying Charlotte through a table with a huge legdrop, but then we get a total repeat of Ciampa burying Gargano in anything he can do keep him from getting up, except Becky gently lays down several things on top of Charlotte and we get an odd ref count as Charlotte inevitably gets up before 10. I remember Ciampa wasting Gargano with these weapons as he buried him in them, and  this was just Becky tipping over a chair onto Charlotte and then placing things on her the way someone might see how many flip flops they could put on their sleeping cat to get the best Instagram picture. We get the cliché reaction of Becky being terrified when Charlotte feebly stands up from the rubble, and Becky eats a spear really nicely, but Charlotte fights back with a bunch of weak looking cane shots and middling chops (I've said before that it's a shame she's forced to cosplay her dad as she's really clunky with a lot of her Flair cosplay offense). The fans were still fully along, and I'll give them credit for that, and I was happy Lynch kept that title and Charlotte really flew through that table to the floor...but this whole thing I thought was decent enough, but underwhelming in a lot of ways. It's possible I missed some nuance, but I was pretty stunned to see some of the hype that was being thrown on this, as I thought there was just too much awkwardness to ignore.

Nikki Bella vs. Ronda Rousey

ER: Now this totally owned. I thought the layout was super smart, the use of Brie was smart, and Ronda's selling was awesome. Match starts with Ronda completely toying Nikki, showing her several ways that she can toss her ass over elbow and break her arm, repeatedly letting her get up after having her likely beat. And as you're wondering if this is just going to be a total Ronda mauling, Ronda eats two of the best shots to the ringpost you've seen, I mean full Lawler, just fantastic looking post shots on the floor (and another great one inside the ring) and the spends the rest of the match shaking off the cobwebs. Ronda made those post shots so important, not just by making them look as great as they did, but really treating them as a big deal throughout the match. I had just watched a match with several potential big moments that could have been treated this way, that were moved on from pretty easily. Seeing Ronda taking the postings so seriously, and really turning in an impressively evolving sell throughout the rest of the match, was a real treat to watch. Nikki takes over and Ronda feels like she's in it but also struggling to stay focused, working like she got her bell totally rung and went spaghetti legged and was now fighting from behind. The Bellas throw her around ringside, into the barricade, Nikki hits her big kick off the buckles and locks in an abdominal stretch, Ronda misses a huge crossbody when it looks like she was possibly turning it around, all of it was handled really well and turned what could have feasibly been a 3 minute match into an exciting 15 minute match, great turns and build. Brie finally gets hers when Ronda rolls through an ankle pick into a fireman's carry (and I LOVED how she did it, playing up her dizziness and looking fully unsure if it would work, relying on muscle memory, awesome spot), and when Brie has to reach too far over the ropes to stop it, Ronda uses that leverage to her advantage and also drags Brie in to dispose of them both. Brie gets tossed over the announce table and we get an awesome nearfall as Ronda takes a nasty Alabama Slam and the Rack Attack; easily could have seen the match ending there. But Nikki goes up and Ronda rolls through shakily (which, seeing as how she was selling during that rolling fireman's carry, easily could have been more of the same selling paying off those postings) and yanks that arm. I thought this was completely awesome, a really terrifically laid out match, and a killer main event. I cannot imagine this match being better than what they gave us.

ER: A fun, fresh PVV, if a little overrated. But I liked the concept and it was nice not having to write up a Rollins or Ziggler match. Nikki/Ronda was white hot fire, far exceeded my already high expectations, and we dug Baszler/Sane as well. Both land on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Live Report 10/27/18

Tim Livingston Reporting:


Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report – 10/27/18

I made a day out of my trek to east San Jose to see LA Park at a high school gymnasium, getting matcha soft serve at Matcha Café Maiko in San Francisco and finishing my scenic trip down Skyline Blvd with a pizza cheesesteak at Amato’s in west San Jose. I still remember Delco’s when I was working with the Blue Jays in Florida and it’s difficult to find a good cheesesteak anywhere out here; Amato’s is basically the only place to go in the bay area for your cheesesteak needs.

Pro Wrestling Revolution has been around for over a decade and does a good job with its presentation. My first exposure to them was going down with Eric to a high school gym in the Mission District in SF to see Timothy Thatcher literally carry Blue Demon, Jr. to a very good match years ago, and they have a good following with the Latin fans in the Bay Area. The gym had the entrance across from one section of the bleachers with a ramp (short version of the old WCW ramp) and a full lighting setup that made it look pro. Gym was pretty dang full, probably 750-1000 in total. Sartorial choices were of the Bullet Club variety if they weren’t lucha-themed shirts. PWR is always good for bringing in a big name or two, and bringing in LA Park in 2018 certainly qualifies, along with Silver King (with his mask) in the semi-main. No-brainer $15 ticket here.

Card was subject to change here as it looked like Misterioso was unable to make the show which set a domino effect all the way down the card.

Show began with La Migra interrupting the Mexican National Anthem to cut a promo on how they’re gonna send Park and Damian 666 back over the wall and the Lucha Horsemen were gonna take the tag titles. It’s cheap heat, but damn it, it was good heat. Colt Stevens was looking jacked here, as was former Phoenix Pro Wrestling champ JR Kratos. You also had Sparky Ballard out in his suspenders looking like guero Tirantes (referee hate became a theme throughout the show). But it set the tone, got the crowd off to a hot start, and allowed the show to grow from there.

Cu Cuy/Grappler III/Fuerza Azteca vs. Mariachi Jr./Pantera Jr./Ultra Hashi

Fun opener that did a lot of basic stuff well to build off the promo. Hashi is basically a mini, billed at 120 and if he’s any taller than 5 feet, he’s lying. Cu Cuy is only a few inches taller than Hashi but weighs nearly 300 pounds. Does well moving around for all of Hashi’s armdrags, and has great fat boy offense, including a running splash that looks like it crushed poor Hashi. Grappler is Rik Luxury (the ¼ pound during the intro gave it away) and he gets some cool stuff in as he always does. The other three were kinda non-descript, with the tecnicos trying all types of armdrags but not landing them in the most graceful of ways. Pantera’s big high spot was him doing a pescado onto everyone for the stretch run, leaving it down to Hashi and Cu Cuy for the finish, where Hashi gets the win with a crossbody off the top. Kids were doing his pose to him as he left the ring post-match, which is basically everything you want out of the fan experience for an opener.

Ultimo Panda vs. “The Flying Lion” Marcus Lewis

Lewis wasn’t on the original card so I’m guessing he’s the Misterioso sub as he lives in San Jose, which is cool because I love watching him work. Panda is, of course, Vincenzo Massaro working under the hood, and he comes out to Gangnam Style and is over with the kids. Comedy stylings to start out as they get to do the ol’ “Panda gets tired running the ropes sequence” bit, but when it breaks down into a 50/50 match, it gets fun. Panda using his size against Marcus, Marcus using his speed and his strikes, and then some good nearfalls down the stretch. Marcus even gets sat on attempting a sunset flip. Panda wins with his FFF variation with him seated on the top rope, which Marcus bumps big on for the finish. Then they do the Gangnam Style dance together afterwards. Crowd has been hot all night and on that kick, they’re 2-for-2.

PWR Jr. Heavyweight Title: Bestia 666 © vs. Vapor

Vapor is sometimes PPW hand and DDT hand Royce Isaacs, who’s worked the gimmick in a few spots in California and it’s a good look, kind of like Bane but not on the gas. Bestia is Bestia and I kinda figured he might phone it in here, but they really go at it for a good 12 minutes or so. Vapor controls and hits a bodyslam on the hardwood before leering out into the crowd (I can’t undersell how much the crowd went after the rudos during this show). Also counters a slam into a nice Island Driver variant for a near fall. Bestia eventually comes back and hits a DVD on the apron before retaining, which is the only finish of the match I can’t seem to remember offhand. I remember liking the stretch run, but the finish didn’t stick with me. Odd.

PWR Tag Team Titles – Jungle Boy and Prostipirugolfo © vs. Lucha Horsemen

The Horsemen are Papo Esco and Arkady, with Esco’s tights literally saying “Fat Boy” on them as if they’re booking this show specifically for me. He hits a chokebreaker on the referee during their entrance so that Sparky HAS to be the referee, as he’s the only other guy who could do it, but the champs jump them before the bell to take advantage. This was the Jungle Boy show, as he was flying around and hitting his offense really crisp (along with good basing from Esco and Arkady), and then plays a good face in peril before Prosti gets caught for the longer section. When he gets the hot tag, he takes it up even another notch, clearing the ring and hitting a nice tope to the hard camera side. Of course, the match is full of Sparky shenanigans with either slow counts or not counting or derisively pointing out who the legal man was. That did lead to the finish, where a distraction by Sparky leads to a foul and a quick count pinfall and there’s new champs. For the shenanigans, at least it played into the finish. Jungle Boy was fantastic in this, though, and he seems to be getting a good run in the bay area and with good reason. Slight of build, but he can go. Also of note is the fan next to me continuing to razz Sparky throughout the match, offering him and Esco to eat some chicken nuggets. Popped some of the folks around me, but he did it literally the entire match, which got annoying pretty quickly with me. We get it: Fat guys like fast food.

Silver King vs. El Hijo de LA Park

King comes out wearing the mask, which I was a bit confused about because I remember him without his mask way more than with it. This is where they lost me with the ref stuff, as King and Parkcito take turns trying to coerce him to hit the other one, only for both of them to gang up on him and chop him down. Some matwork to start, where I hope King would work more maestro stuff than try and go 50/50, but Parkcito can go and they trade some nice holds. King starts trying to lay in the strikes but most of them whiff, sadly. Parkcito hits a tremendous tope that pushes King right up against the guardrail. King rudos it up during the second half and unties the mask which leads to him whipping the mask off on a charge and rolling Parkcito up for the win. I have this feeling it might have come off better on tape. Might be worth a second look if I can find it out there.

Cole Stevens/JR Kratos vs. LA Park/Damian 666

Place comes absolutely unglued for Park, who plays the chair as a guitar on his way down the ramp and just absolutely oozes charisma from every pore, posing on the chair in the ring and looking like the legend he is. There isn’t too much structure early on (spots were easily visibly called here) but the chaos adds to it, especially with Sparky having been involved in the shenanigans earlier on. Kratos mauling on Park is a good visual, and Damian is cool just brawling with Stevens wherever he can. Sparky gets run off (complete with going through the crowd to escape Park), which leads to the ref from the previous match coming in and becoming a part of the match AGAIN (kinda tired at this point), but he at least bumps huge on a corner charge and goes back to doing his job. Park’s belt gets involved and everyone gets whipped with it, with the ref taking the most punishment, of course. Park and Damian hit stereo topes right in front of me which makes my year. After a big miscommunication spot, Park grabs the chair, hits Kratos with it, and spears him for the pin. Folks throw money into the ring afterwards and Park acts like he’s ready to Chippendales it up for even more. He then gets on the mic and cuts a promo thanking folks for coming out to support the show (even with his “terrible fucking English” as he put it). Fun, chaotic brawl that was completely charisma driven and held up by everyone just going for it with the molten crowd, a great way to end the show.

I mean, it’s LA Park in 2018 working a high school gym in Northern California; I’ve now seen both him and PCO in the flesh in high school gyms this year and they both come off as huge presences even in that setting. Pretty sure him being there galvanized the entire card because this was good top to bottom. Nobody wanted to go out there and have a stinker with Park ready to show everyone why he’s the man, and it paid off. Well worth trying to find if the tape shows up somewhere.

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Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 8

Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura

ER: I had a feeling this was the full bore Storm push, but I thought she stepped up here and looked better in this match than any of her other MYC matches. The layout wasn't my favorite, as we would get a long period of Storm, then a long period of Meiko, repeat, and I didn't really love Storm kicking out of a bunch of nasty Meiko offense down the finishing stretch only to win with a double underhook powerbomb. The powerbomb that won the match looked great, Meiko even made sure to take it differently than the prior Storm Front that Meiko kicked out of; Meiko took the one earlier in the match more flat back, the match ender she took up on her neck and shoulders and that made it at least look like more of a ramped up version of the move. I thought the execution was strong throughout, and I think Storm peaked with her STF, that was probably her strongest looking moment of the tournament. The STF looked really nasty, hooking her arm deep under Meiko's neck and I thought Meiko's selling was fantastic. Meiko had a way throughout this tournament of making me buy into potential finishes, like making a Lacey Lane crossbody look like it landed on her head and may have knocked her out, and here we get a STF several minutes in - in a match I assume is getting some time - and I fully buy that the STF can finish it. Storm made it look good, and Meiko knew exactly how far she was from the ropes, knew exactly how to milk the drama. But Storm worked hard throughout, I liked her opening wristwork, she got a super impressive high bridge on a northern lights, hit a great low tope and smashed her elbow on that metal grating (god that grating is really the ultimate heel in this tournament), and I liked all her kicks around the back of Meiko's head. Meiko looked like pure class, and it's really nobody else's fault that they didn't look as good as Meiko in this tournament; Meiko is one of the few people who could feasibly lay claim to currently being #1 in the world, so others just aren't going to look as good. All of Meiko's comebacks here were strong, that cartwheel kick looks like a straight guillotine, all of her strikes outclassed, and she knew how to strongly build nearfalls down the stretch to keep ramping up the intensity, and she really had this uncanny ability to properly sell Storm's strikes throughout. I noticed early when Storm hit a headbutt, and it was a decent enough headbutt but nothing coconut shattering, and Meiko looked up with more of an annoyed expression than a hollow daze. From there it just made me notice how great she was at knowing just how hard or soft a move or strike looked, and reacting to it accordingly. That's got to be one of the most impossible things to recognize and react to, but, she is a master. I obviously wanted Meiko going over, but this was as strong a way as any to have her lose.

PAS: This was really good, Storm is not a favorite of mine, but she definitely worked hard, I will second the love of her STF, although Meiko's Figure four variation right before it was even nastier. I also loved Storms snap kick right to the chin, it felt like that should have cut her chin open. Meiko is incredible though, all of the early grappling was such class, her early wear down strikes were withering all of her big offense was so big looking, she is out of this world. I just can't buy anyone beating her, she is just too good so it is hard to like a match she loses as much as one she wins. I also think the finish run got a little your turn my turn, with big dramatic near falls from one wrestler leading immediately into big near falls from another wrestler. Still Meiko batted 1000 in this tournament, I need to check all of her random Euro indy work, she might be the best in the world

Rhea Ripley vs. Io Shirai

ER: Damn could I get maybe a consolation match between the losers? I don't know if there's anybody in the tournament who raised her stock more than Ripley during this tournament. I don't think there's a person out there who could keep a straight face and tell me that Shirai outshined Ripley here, or that Shirai has shone at all during the MYC. I have seen and liked Shirai before this, but she didn't come off any better than most of the way less hyped and way less experienced people from both MYC. Ripley is not nearly as giant as the big women they've brought to work both MYC, but for someone 5'8" and a little thick, she was really able to play bigger and more domineering. Ripley comes off like what they originally wanted Natalya to be, and Ripley hasn't been doing this nearly as long. Shirai had nice fire whenever she had to fight back, both those uppercuts that were knocking Rhea around the ring didn't look as good as literally any shot that Ripley threw in this match. And Ripley just looks like she owns this ring, whether she's on offense or setting up Shirai's less plausible offense, she just reads bigger than she is. I thought her grounding Shirai to start was awesome, tons of hard shots, raining down ground and pound, shots to the body, and then goes after my heart by working a stomach claw on Shirai. The camera work was great and the announcers were great at talking about it, then Ripley works a cool body vice and a long hanging vertical suplex and I'm officially a Ripley fan. Shirai's comeback at least gets the crowd involved, even though a lot of it wouldn't look like it would harm Ripley. She gets a rana out of a powerbomb and hits a nice suicide dive. The strike exchange didn't really work mainly because Shirai acts like she's throwing kill shots, and they never look great, but she hits a nice missile dropkick. Although really, I mainly just like how Ripley took the dropkick, whipped over fast and landed with her butt comically in the air. Shirai wins by violently whipping her own knees into the mat, connecting her body more with Ripley's body at least more than her other three matches. Genius! I assumed this was the finals we were getting, and maybe it will work out with them on the big stage. But if we don't get Ripley vs. Meiko as a run off for the bronze, I'm going to be pisssssssed.

ER: Meiko is the best. Three of her four MYC matches land on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and I'm sure her match against Lane would have gotten there if it went 7 minutes instead of 5. Meiko is god, god is Meiko.

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Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 7

Lacey Lane vs. Meiko Satomura

ER: Killer 5 minute Worldwide match, tightly worked, no extra fat, worked evenly without feeling like trading off, both looking like they could potentially win. I'm extremely happy Meiko won, but I thought Lane looked strong in a loss. The work was really fun, Meiko looks like such a natural that she could sleepwalk through a match like this, she has every single step down, is able to convey great emotion while also coming off like a flat out cold blooded killer. Meiko hits kick combos with precision, and is great at setting up Lane to do the same, really anticipating her opponent, and Lane importantly knows she's in the ring with Meiko Satomura and lays it in. Meiko leaning in to spin kicks and Lacey firing off elbows? Yes, please. I really wanted Meiko to win (even though I've enjoyed Lane in the tournament, I just wanted as many Meiko matches as possible) and I think they did a great job of making it seem like Lane had a real chance. The crossbody nearfall was legit, totally bought it as a finish and I have to give Meiko the credit for making things into such believable finishes. She is able to build so much drama with her selling, body language, and timing. In many matches that crossbody could have just felt like another move, but Meiko knows just how to take it, just when to kick out, all for maximum effect. She comes up holding her jaw with absolute daggers in her eyes, and I knew Lane was finished at that point. This delivered what I wanted.

PAS: I could have easily seen this make a list if it went a little longer. Lane is clearly green as goose shit, but Meiko has been training wrestlers for two decades and is masterful at putting together something interesting. They even do some Red vs. Ki Jackie Chan spots and make them look cool. I loved the early grabbing of the leg by Meiko and how she drops it instead of breaking it, just to let Lane know she was drawing dead. It felt like something Fujiwara might do. Finish felt a big abrupt, I usually don't complain about a short finish run, but it felt like we were two minutes away from something pretty great.

Io Shirai vs. Deonna Purrazzo

ER: Pre-match package is amusing as Cole keeps calling Shirai the "Genius of the Sky" while clips are showing her doing a bunch of moonsaults with the shittiest landings, just clips of her mostly missing her opponents or landing short and hurting her opponents. The clips made her looked like she was a Lita trainee. A true genius. And I thought Io looked really good for the first minute of this, and then proceeded to look the worst she's looked for the rest of the match. She started with some cool knees to Purrazzo's stomach, and hit a hard crossbody dive that Purazzo just took full force on the entrance grate, and Purrazzo got a nice schoolboy off Io's missed double knees in the corner. Then Io started throwing these really flimsy elbows and Purrazzo just completely outclassing her. Purrazzo started throwing these violent fast German suplexes that would have looked fine on their own, but Io was doing her best to making them look hokey by leaping into them way more than necessary. There's a lot of really engaging stuff around Purrazzo getting the Fujiwara, really wrenching it in and locking Shirai's free arm around her chin for a weird modified Rings of Saturn. The move was effective as hell but was marred a bit by Io's mawkish "Ohhhhhhh I hurrrrrrrt and I might just tappppppppp!" Before long Shirai is up and running around with no pain whatsoever, and Renee Young asks, "Where is Io getting the momentum, the energy!?" Well, you see, Shirai is a parody of a joshi babyface, so she has the power to make opponent's offense meaningless and pointless in the scheme of a match. The sweetest icing of all is when Shirai whiffs the match-ending moonsault completely, flying right over and past Purrazzo and slightly grazing her with arms, bad enough that the three person announce crew had no idea how to cover for it other than saying "Well she didn't get all of it but still won!" Shirai is very much not good, which is only magnified by putting her matches on directly after Meiko's matches. She comes off like a backyarder whose favorite wrestler is Meiko. I refuse to believe people thought she looked good for most of this match.

Tegan Nox vs. Rhea Ripley

ER: This was both a shame, and a damn impressive performance from Nox, and likely lead to a better  and more intriguing match than it otherwise would have been. Nox wrecked her non-wrecked knee in this one, immediately, after landing hard on that damn entrance grate on a dive. I didn't actually know about the injury before this happened, having successfully avoided tournament spoilers. But I noticed something was weird the way she stood up by pushing up off Ripley with all of her weight. Also,  she was suddenly selling *really* well. But I gained a ton of respect for Nox, as she kept trying to work on it, through a couple of match stoppages as the ref and trainer checked on her. She kept persisting to such an extreme degree that I began thinking that maybe she really was just putting on an amazing knee selling job, because she continued taking a furious beating from Ripley and kept fighting back for more. Ripley was a beast, muscling her up hardway for a huge flapjack, throwing some awesome clubbing shots to the back, and just plastering her with her sweet high dropkick. And because Nox was such a lunatic and kept taking all of this punishment and getting up for more, I really thought the only thing that made sense was Tegan Nox: Master of Sales. But soon she starts crying and the match is stopped, and I could not be more impressed and shocked by what she went through. Gutsy as all hell, as apparently her injury is quite bad (and likely made worse by working a few minutes on it). What awful luck she's had, but what huge respect she assuredly gained from everyone. Even truncated due to the circumstances, the match was a fascinating story and incredibly effective.

Mia Yim vs. Toni Storm

ER: I came away from this really impressed with Yim, and still very much unimpressed with Storm. They clearly want to make Toni Storm a thing, and Toni Storm is definitely not a thing, not in this house. She has a good look, and she's not sloppy, so she has at least a somewhat high floor, but she's very overrated at this point and not as good as they pretend she is. I really loved Kaitlyn/Yim last week (and was surprised to see that many people didn't think much of it), and Yim follows that match up with a real nice performance with a dull finish that we saw coming a mile away. Yim threw plenty of nice strikes, especially loved her muay thai knees, liked her locking up Storm with an Indian deathlock, a bow and arrow, and a guillotine, and dug her great powerbomb and even better Saito suplex. Storm was selling a lot throughout, just taking a lot and I just had a big hunch it was going to end with her taking a bunch of offense and then just winning with a move or two. That's exactly what happened, though she had some nice isolated moments in the match: her headbutt to cut off Yim was good, fighting through the guillotine for a spinebuster was nice, but I'm just not very impressed with Storm relative to how impressed they are with her. Satomura/Yim and Ripley/Purrazzo seem like potentially WAY better matches than what we'll be getting, but I suppose we will see.

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MLW Worth Watching: Brazil! Reed! Hager! Gotch! Callihan!

Kotto Brazil vs. Myron Reed  MLW Fusion #15 7/19 (Aired 7/27/18)

ER: This is a pretty shameless spotfest that has a few dumb moments of one guy taking a big move, then selling that move by getting up immediately to do their own big move. That stuff's dumb and it makes no sense, but sometimes it looks pretty enough or cool enough that I laugh and enjoy it anyway and stop being a total critical nard. It had a fun vibe as Reed was a total unknown to me, and now that I've watched 15 episodes of MLW TV over the past couple weeks, so the patterns they've established are pretty fresh to me. They've often started episodes with a match that never starts due to interference, or a quick-ish squash. They've been establishing a "Brazil climbing the ladder" story and I assumed this would be a Brazil dominant showcase to give him his first dominant showcase win. But it grew into something with a little more fireworks, and the fans reacted really big to it (like maybe they were also surprised at the competitive spotfest nature). There was a lot of mirror action in the beginning that usually feels played out, but these guys move interestingly enough that it feels a bit more fresh. Nice senton, nice corner dropkick, big collision on a mirror crossbody, all worked at high speeds. But the match ramps up when Kotto bends Myron's spine over the guardrail on a great tope and follows it right up, but then Reed cuts off a third with a dropkick and hits a nutso plancha, landing more like a Super Calo senton and landing right on Brazil's face. Reed hits a springboard elbow to a running Brazil, and Brazil leans way in and gets spun nicely by it. The finish is dumb fun and brainless big spots, but you knew what this was at this point and you don't totally regret it. We go into a few cutter variations that actually looked good, especially when we got to Reed hitting a really cool unexpected Stunner/Diamond Dust when Brazil was lifting him up for a back suplex. Brazil naturally sold it about as much as if he had been the one doing the move, and got up and hit his own (admittedly nice looking) Sliced Bread to immediately win the match. MLW Fusion has given us more lame finishes than not, and now that I think about it the only major weakness of the Fusion show so far is more lame endings than not. There have been a lot of run-ins or sudden or otherwise flat finishes. It's a problem with an easy fix, at least.

Jake Hager vs. Simon Gotch  MLW Fusion #16 7/19 (Aired 8/3/18)

ER: I'm really liking these compact Hager matches, this felt like one of those competitive 4 minute WCW Saturday Night heavyweight sprints. Hager jumps him before the bell, then jumps him at the bell, hits a great double leg slam and the Vader Bomb. He works over Gotch's arm, slams it into the post, and Gotch has a nice fired up one armed comeback, throws some running strikes onto Hager in the corner and hits a boss Saito suplex. Team Filthy has nicely babyfaced themselves after Lawlor's great match-long performance in Battle Riot, and to his credit Hager has been an effectively stoic heel. Lawlor battling through Hager's ankle lock was easily the best part of Battle Riot, Lawlor crawling up the ropes and clinging to the top, kicking at Hager to break. It was such a great babyface performance that it easily turned him, and now Hager is taking it out on his boy. Hager hits a really nice gutwrench powerbomb and then just kicks him in the face for the win, and I am digging this feud.

Sami Callihan vs. Kotto Brazil  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: A match that happened when Brazil saved his boy Barrington Hughes from a Death Machines beatdown turns into Callihan assaulting Brazil for 10 minutes while Schiavone yells like he thinks it's a shoot. Which is all pretty great. Sami works really violently the whole match, every move looks like it would basically snap me in two. Apron powerbomb, headbutts, fast Flatliner, ground and pound, hard kicks to the face, choking him over the ropes, brutal lariat, just a rough beating. Brazil was lucid and fighting back, reminded me of some of this year's Darby Allin vs. Monster matches, as he would pepper in his own strikes, hit a Code Red, a big tornado DDT, always in it, always working to surprise, but fighting an uphill battle. Callihan sets up chairs on the floor and puts one chair with the legs facing up, and Schiavone's flip out is awesome. "Who would do that!? Who would set up chairs like that!? Someone is going to get impaled!!" Schiavone is filled with passion for pro wrestling these days and I'm kind of surprised at my own reactions to it. Maybe I've spent too long listening to death years Tony, but I'm really loving him on commentary in 2018. Dude sounds like he's having a blast. Brazil's luck runs out when he goes for a rana and Callihan spikes him with a powerbomb, then the piledriver. Schiavone says that Callihan looked like he was trying to murder Brazil and I don't think he's incorrect. Callihan fought this with such viciousness that it made me even more excited for WarGames. He was working fast and violent, like it was the blow off to a big stip match. If he works like this in the cage? Daaaaaamn.

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New Footage Friday: Jake the Snake, King Tonga, Piper, Dick Slater, Inoue, Steamboat

Mighty Inoue/Ashura Hara vs. Dick Slater/Ricky Steamboat AJPW 5/14/82

PAS: What a nifty match. Steamboat and Slater were working as a workrate heel team, dominating the natives with hit and run offense,  which is one of the only times I can remember Steamer working heel  The late Dirty Dick was an offensive juggernaut he had this great amateur scramble with Hara and lands some nasty jabs and knees to the throat and a dope piledriver. Inoue had a great series of rolling sentons, but this was mostly the native team fighting from underneath. So weird to see Steamboat hit his big crossbody as a heel double team, there is an alternative universe where Steamboat/Slater was the Midnight Express as opposed to a random one off team on an All Japan tour.

MD:It's hard to understate just how much we have to watch right now. We're looking at dozens of matches virtually unseen by the eyes of the community over multiple years of AJPW TV as well as handhelds and whatever else pops up. Just on what we have available to us in this moment, we could probably run this feature for six months or longer. That said, when Dick Slater dies, you probably should watch a Dick Slater match.

He gets a rap for being a Terry Funk clone/tribute act, but if you're going to be a tribute act for someone, you could do a lot worse. As a kid, I first encountered him as one of the Hardliners, with Murdoch, and while both guys were past their prime and while the act was short lived, they left a mark on me and probably set the stage for my enjoyment, later in life, of that sort of mean, gritty meat and potatoes heel tag team that would just credibly beat babyfaces up. Later on, I encountered him as heel ace while Flair was away being champ in 84 Crockett or attached to Dark Journey as a heatseeker in Mid-South or as a wild babyface in Southwest/Houston and that's not to begin on the stuff we don't have much of his like his big runs in Florida or his reportedly excellent team with Orton. He's a guy I really like and that I'm always glad to get more footage of.

This is just a straightforward, well worked, tag with a bit more substance/narrative than you often get from this setting. It might be the best I've seen Steamboat look in one of these random AJPW matches and maybe the closest to a heel I've ever seen him look. After the initial workrate-heavy (and very good) back and forth, it settles in with long stretches of dueling legwork, well-executed, and Slater and Steamboat working well together as a heel unit. Steamboat doesn't do anything outright dirty, but he's focused and unrelenting with just a hint of flash. It's a trip to see him breaking out a tandem elbow drop or atomic drop with Slater.

TKG: Aw man, I dug this a bunch. I am a big fan of Slater as WCW 89-97 rudo who you can just stick in anything and he’ll make it work, and that’s what this felt like. We need some scientific wrestling with Steamboat on one side and Inoue, Hara on other…get Slater and let him take over body of this. This is some fun scientific wrestling here and a neat Dick Slater showcase. I think my favorite section of this match was the early mat work where Inoue/Hara are working over Slater’s leg. Slater is just super active as a guy getting body part worked over, constantly looking for escapes, ways to break hold, ways to reverse etc.

Brett Sawyer vs. Jake Roberts GCW 10/23/83

MD: We watch footage. That's how we get at wrestling. That's how we understand it. Footage is our language. Most of the time, that's a blessing. When it comes to conventional wisdom and remembered narratives, sometimes it's a curse. It's disheartening to watch Ray Stevens matches and not see evidence of what everyone said made him special. It's downright aggravating to see Brody's offense look terrible time and time again. Then there's Jake. Jake Roberts, the self-professed master of psychology, the grand manipulater of the crowd. If you watch a hundred Jake matches, more often than not, it's either not there, or it's there to no great purpose. If it's there at all, it's there, instead, to replace greatness, as a lazy crutch to make it through the match, one that might bring a crowd up and down a bit, but never too up and never too down and never, ever all the way over the top.

Here, in the midst of one of the most legendary nights at the Omni, buried in the middle of a card that they had to structure somewhat carefully to leave the crowd with something left for the big main events, here against Brett Sawyer of all people, we get to see the Jake we were always promised and frankly, it's glorious.

Sawyer came in with a taped up leg, but despite giving up size to Jake, took the early part of the match. That is until Jake caught his leg in the ropes and starts in on it. After that he's just unyielding, attacking it from every angle, utilizing the full breadth of his tall, lanky frame to dive onto it for the sake of the last row, preying upon the weakness to bust Sawyer open, using dirty tactics like tying him back up in the ropes or hitting chop blocks from behind even when he didn't have to, and soaking in the rising tide of boos from the crowd. He oscillated between tearing it apart and letting everything sink in, slinking around the ring as Sawyer writhed. There was a palatable anticipation in the crowd for Sawyer to maybe make it back up in those moments and downright outrage when Jake rushed back in. Buzz came out as did your elder statesmen babyfaces in the form of Ole and Wrestling 2, making this seem downright momentous.

In the end, after the towel came flying in, Jake was escorted out by four police officers, and even then, I think the only things that halted a riot were the promise of the main events to come and the hope that sooner than later, Buzz was going to get his hands on Jake to avenge his little brother. It's everything we were always promised, finally.

PAS: It is pretty crazy on the night of Buzz Sawyers most legendary match, that Brett Wayne had the better match. This was masterful stuff by Jake, such a sleazy cheapshot artist abusing a poor babyface. From the moment he points to the knee brace, you could tell he was going to unleash some violence. I loved the early knuckle lock section where Jake kept climbing to the first turnbuckle to gain leverage, and even put his knee on Brett's shoulder. I also loved all of the knee work, it felt less like a scientific wrestler working on a limb for a submission, and more like a sadistic child torturing an animal. Roberts slinking around and chop blocking the knee, kicking Sawyer, lifting him up by the knee (which led to a great spot where Sawyer climbed up his body to land a big punch). Sawyer really leaks all over the ring too, and it brings out the council of elders 2, Ole and Buzz to eventually throw in the towel and save this kids career, as Jake just starts punching at the knee and staring down the crowd and the babyfaces. Bizarrely they didn't run Roberts vs. Buzz in the Omni after this, because this was one of the best set ups I can remember seeing.

TKG: I don't know man. I always like Brett Wayne Sawyer, and normally dig Jake egging on crowd. And liked some of the little moments like when bleeding Sawyer firing himself up by shaking fists and slapping mat and Jake cuts it off by stomping on his mat slapping hand. And loved the big Ole, II, and Buzz stuff ringside. Ole wanting to prevent Buzz from getting involved while interjecting himself and trying to fire up Brett was cool, but didn't do a ton for me

It felt like it just stayed at one level of intensity for 15 minutes, never felt like I wanted it to go from Jackass taunting audience and attacking leg to jackass challenging audience and trying to break leg...it went from jackass attacking leg and egging on audience to him continuing to do it until match ends

Roddy Piper/Cowboy Bob Orton vs. King Tonga/Superfly Afi WWF early 1986

MD: There was a moment right at the start here when I saw the paltry, somewhat disinterested crowd and all those empty seats, when I realized it was 1986 and not 1984, when I saw the two teams standing in the ring, seemingly calm, that I thought they might just phone it in. What gain was there to give this crowd, in this setting, anything but chinlocks? Yeah, it was Piper and Haku and Orton, but I had my doubts. No one's ever talked about this match, or even really this tour. There's not much evidence of it anywhere.

So, I was wrong. Very wrong. Piper saw this as a canvas full of possibilities and gave a performance that reminded me of Terry Funk in Puerto Rico as much as anything else. Some wrestlers see empty seats as an opportunity to have a night out. Piper saw them as hundreds of weapons with plenty of space for them to be thrown. It became less of a match and more of an open world battle, down to Haku chasing Piper across a field to tackle him.

Eventually, it more or less settled into a normal match with the heels getting heat and the crowd slowly but surely figuring out how to react, but even then there's the ever-present possibility that Piper was going to run off into the field at any moment. He'd settled down a little since 84 but really only a little. My biggest regret with this one was that the camera didn't stay on him all the time. Orton's great but it's the manic unpredictability that you can't look away from. When I watched this, it only had about 130 views and it still has less than 200 as of this writing. Go watch this now and boost that number. You'll thank us.

TKG: Was this good enough to have made the WWF 80s set? It’s not as good as any JAPW or Puerto Rico arena tour match but it is a fun arena tour match. And doesn’t have the inexplicable heat of the Spoiler v Rocky Johnson match from the same Kuwait tour, but this is so much more entertianing. The arena tour stuff is fun as all the attached chairs seem super awkward as they got tossed around and I dug big chunks of the in-ring stuff. Was this a smaller ring than they normally use? Really felt like the heels could hit a top rope knee drop to anywhere in the ring. I dug all the top rope knee drops to cut off faces. I think there were three or four. People complain about big finishing moves getting used in body of matches, but fuck those people. The Sivi Afi eating death finisher also looked as nasty as you wanted it to.

PAS: On the eve of one gulf state stadium show we get a look at an earlier version. There have to be max 150 people at this show, and for some reason Piper/Orton and the Tongans go completely crazy, I can't remember any 80s WWF match being worked like this, as it was closer to a Memphis arena brawl then anything else. They immediately spill into the crowd and guys in thobes are fleeing as the wrestlers are stumbling through the crowd hurling chairs at each other violently.  Piper and King Tonga was especially great with Tonga open field rugby tackling Piper in the soccer stadium grass and whaling punches at him. Afi some how ends up busted open and is really bleeding badly, and one point he is trapped under a table as Piper tries to crush his chest. Both heels take some athletic bumps, and Piper does his awesome blinded shadowboxing. Totally off the wall match, which would have been legendary if it was on a Saturday Night's Main Event instead of in front of two dozen Kuwaiti shieks.

ER: I had no idea WWF did a Kuwait tour in 1986, though I found an LA Times article from that year talking about how Hulk Hogan's single was popular in Kuwait. I always love wrestling matches held in unfamiliar areas, wrestling fans arranged around a ring differently than you're used to, and most importantly a crowd filled with people who don't seem like they typically go to wrestling shows. I have zero clue what the Kuwait wrestling scene was like in 1986, and it's not too much of a stretch to picture Piper and Orton talking backstage before the match and saying "Let's put on a show for these guys in dresses." And almost immediately the match spills into the crowd and the people in the crowd respond as if they have zero idea how to handle what is happening. People are scrambling to get out of the way, Orton takes a flying bump over the guardrail, all the chairs in the crowd look like every single person just brought their own chairs from their kitchen, Orton jams a chair into Afi's groin, Piper runs from Tonga and gets tackled from behind at the knees like a fleeing perp, there's a good chance the commentator thinks Afi is actually Superfly Snuka (which could help us timestamp this match more to the first 3 months of 1986, as the Superfly nickname certainly didn't last long, and Piper was gone after Mania and came back months later as a babyface feuding with Orton), chairs get thrown and there's a genuine sense of confusion and chaos among the crowd. Nobody has identifiable Event Staff gear, so there are some random guys just running up to the action, really could have been any old psycho. In ring there's some classic ring cutting off, Orton especially is awesome doing false tag claps and actively talking trash to ringside fans. We spill out to the floor again, Piper upends a table and throws it on Afi, stomping on it. Fans genuinely seem unsure how to react to any of this. When we get back in the ring we get a great spot where Orton and Piper cheat enough to make Tonga get in the ring, and as the ref orders him back out Tonga gets rushed and knocked off the apron, taking an absolutely nasty bump, falling backwards while getting his foot caught in the bottom rope and lands right on the back of his head. The ref checks on him while a double team front suplex easily finishes off Afi. Phil is totally right that none of this at all felt like a WWF tag match from this era or the next couple eras. Do we have any info on what else was on this show (other than the Rocky Johnson match that also showed up)? Do we have any information at all on why WWF ran Kuwait in 1986? Hogan popularity? Sold show? Fascinating discovery.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Yehi vs. Lawlor

44. Fred Yehi vs. Tom Lawlor MLW 5/3

ER: This was a match-up I'd never seen before between two favorites, and it delivered in the exact ways I had hoped. We got cool reversals, great strikes, some big throws, some good twists, and the kind of professional execution you'd expect from these two. Yehi is an awesome bear trap, turning things in an instant to his favor, and I like how Lawlor worked to keep up and get ahead. Yehi stomps Lawlor's bionic arm (we've seen 20 years of people working Stone Cold Steve Austin spots into indy shows, Lawlor may be the only one currently working Colonel Steve Austin spots), Lawlor catches another stomp and tries turning it into a kneebar, Yehi almost turns a simple Lawlor pinfall press into the Koji clutch, both guys always a danger to the other. Yehi is a compact Gary Albright, always looking like he can grab and hurl guys at will, breaking out a cool fisherman's suplex and reversing a second Lawlor German into his own snap German (Yehi really throws his German the same fast violent way as Albright, maybe the greatest suplex wrestler ever), with a follow up dragon suplex. He throws a bunch of awesome looking knees while holding Lawlor in a cravate (really throwing so many that they looked nastier than most finishers). He worked the body in cool ways, loved his shots to Lawlor's ribs, and I think Lawlor's punches and strikes were among the best ever that I've seen from him. Lawlor was good at working head and arm chokes, a dragon sleeper, leaping full weight onto Yehi with a guillotine, it came off like he was scrambling, yet calculated. Ending is amusing BS that I might not like from lesser guys, with Lawlor throwing the pad from his bionic forearm as a distraction, and then clocking Yehi with it, and sinking in a choke for show. This made me want to see Yehi gun for a rematch, and I laughed when the ref went to raise Lawlor's arm and Lawlor made him raise his "good" arm. Lawlor shot this great "This idiot" face, pointing at the ref.

PAS: Yehi is one of the least formulaic wrestlers in the world, and I loved how they just opened this match with jujitsu rolling, both guys kept countering the counters and attacking limbs and it was great stuff. Lawlor can sometimes get caught up in shtick (although I liked his shtick here) but when he just hits the mat he is one of the more compelling guys in the world. Yehi looked super comfortable rolling with guy with a black belt in JuJitsu. Liked the finish, with Lawlor striking fast after the distraction and grabbing an awesome choke with a full bodylock to put Yehi to sleep. I loved how Fred sold it, his eyes were open but nothing was on behind them. Fun stuff, would love to see these guys match up again.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Step Into Ki's Zone and Get Blown

Low-Ki vs. The Amazing Red NWA-TNA 7/24/02 - EPIC

ER: This provided the exact blend of dynamite and Piccolo Pete I was looking for. This felt like a really cool, forward thinking move for TNA to bring in Red and let he and Ki have a showcase for their exceptional talent. This was probably the first time these two got to do their thing to a national audience. I have no clue how many thousands of people ordered TNA PPV #6, but it was surely more than had been seeing them work this match in East Coast indies. It's the absolute best kind of juniors wrestling, as not only does it feel fresh and completely innovative (even now, with 15+ years of guys bastardizing matches like this, there were moments that stood out as unique in 2018), but you get the stiff strikes and big bumps, and most importantly ALL of the strikes are good. These two don't go through the motions on transitions. When Ki needs to be farther back to take a move properly, there are at least 5 different occasions where Red straight boots him in the stomach, hard, knocking Ki believably backward in recoil. Red really was amazing, so early in his career and his ring placement is phenomenal, dude somehow knew exactly where he was going and how he would land. Ki hits a nasty koppo kick and Red bounces off his shoulders and nearly flips through the ropes to the floor, hanging himself from the bottom rope by his armpits. Amazing indeed. They do a lot of cool strike stuff that isn't just timed combos, my favorite being Ki grabbing Red in a knucklelock and backing him into the corner with headbutts, Red trapped...until he uses the knucklelock to his advantage by posting off the buckles and heel kicking Ki in the face, trapping Ki in that knucklelock. It's great seeing new fans reacting to the Jackie Chan moments, there are more lightning fast violent spin kicks here than in Bloodsport, Mike Tenay drops knowledge that Ki takes his name from the Blackstreet song No Diggity (is this true? Either I learned this and forgot it, or Tenay is pulling the deep knowledge from Ki's enjoyment of popular 90s R&B), and this all rules.

PAS: This is one of my favorite match-ups in wrestling history, and was always great whenever it hit a new territory. This minimizes the Jackie Chan stuff, throwing near the end of the match, rather then the beginning, and instead has more of a juniors focus. Red was such a great in-ring bumper, he makes all of Ki's stuff look amazing, he flies insanely off the kappo kid, it was like Wile E. Coyote recoiling after an errant explosion, he really gets smashed by the Ki Crusher at the end of the match too, total full body compression. I loved how they worked out of the knuckle lock, and even after seeing a million variations of it the Code Red looks amazing. So much fun, and another example of how this match universally delivers.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Tony Halme's Slowly Dying, And I'm Jumping Outta My Jeans

Tony Halme vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow  NJPW 12/16/91 - FUN

ER: Tony comes out clearly made to look like The Terminator, all sunglasses and demeanor, yet with his large puffy leather coat with bullet shells across the front it comes off more like an alternate timeline where Steven Seagal got cast instead. This is a nice pre-cursor to Bam Bam/LT, not worked too differently, from what I remember. Bammer might have had a formula for working against big lugs he had to put over. Sadly this is JIP, as there looks to be a cool early match moment where Bigelow takes a big bump over the top from a Halme punch. What we get is mostly Halme selling, with Bam Bam lighting him up with a dropkick that sends Halme into his own bump over the top to the floor. We get a cool tease when Halme gets back in the ring as he starts dishing out gut shots from the apron and tries suplexing him to the floor, sending a buzz to the floor. Bigelow suplexes him in, drops a headbutt, hits the enziguiri, but then misses a big headbutt off the top with a big crash over halfway across the ring. Halme immediately pops up and starts firing shots, and the camera crew knew how to shoot Halme punches already at this point, filming them from angles that rely more on the selling, and Bigelow takes one big one and staggers from it perfectly. Halme hits a big flying shoulderblock and lands in that way you land when you don't know how to land after doing a big flying shoulderblock. But my man doubles down and hits an even bigger one off the top to seal this deal.

Tony Halme vs. Scott Norton  NJPW/WCW Starrcade 1/4/92 - GREAT

ER: Another big win for Halme, now in front of 50,000 people, going over the guy who would be if not the biggest NJ gaijin of the next 15 years, at minimum the most omnipresent and among the more well protected guys there. And you get the sense that Norton is going to lose here, because the first 5 minutes of this are Norton taking out his upcoming loss in Tony Halme's flesh. Norton is a total monster, running through Halme with lariats and shoulderblocks, throwing knife edge chops that Halme really doesn't like, exploding around the ring and pretty much overwhelming Halme. It peaks with Norton headbutting Halme and blitzing him with a lariat as Halme recoils off the ropes from the headbutt, and as Norton grabs a nasty cravate you see Norton opened up a nice little cut with that last headbutt. Norton's cravate looks great and this is shaping up to be quite a mauling...but Norton gets so, so greedy and gets caught up top. Halme keeps things pretty simple here, throwing a bunch of nice body shots and hitting his great jumping elbow, and Norton leans into the top rope clothesline. Halme came away from this with the win, but Norton looked like a real star here and kind of steamrolled Halme in just the best way. Halme looked like he didn't quite know what to do at a couple points, and Norton filled in those moments admirably. Super fun hoss battle. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE TONY HALME

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MLW Worth Watching: Low-Ki! Lawlor! Hager! Havoc!

Low-Ki vs. Ricky Martinez  MLW Fusion #12 6/7 (Aired 7/6/18)

ER: This was Ki's TV wrestling debut here (he had shown up before to assault Strickland and yell at people from dimly lit hallways backstage), and we get to see him savage some guy. Martinez took a rough enough beating that I'd like to see more of him, as we got no offense from him, but a guy who can take his ears being boxed can't be that bad. Ki sprints at him at the bell and really hammers him with strikes. As Martinez is on all fours Ki stands over him and throws these nasty swiping strikes to his ears and head, and throws some violent downward elbow strikes in the corner that looked like they'd bust open the top of Ricky's head. Ki boots him with his running dropkick, then grabs Ricky's beard and uses it to bend him and then snap the back of his neck over the top rope. Damn. Sure, this was merely a squash, but Ki is a guy I'll go out of my way to watch squash someone. Martinez was a good sport and I hope they give him some time.

PAS: This reminds me of the way Kevin Sullivan or Ronnie Garvin used to mess up jobbers. Ki running over and kneeing Martinez in the head and then following with hooks to the body and head was super nasty, as was Ki grabbing his nose and flying backward. Purpose of this was to make Ki look like a vicious bad ass and it delivered. Great call by Schvione too "Why are people like this?" Why indeed.

Tom Lawlor vs. Jake Hager  MLW Fusion #13 6/7 (Aired 7/13/18)

ER: This was really cool, much more of a grappling and submission match than maybe any other Hager/Swagger match I've seen, and a perfect style match-up. Lawlor's plan is to just swarm Hager, leap on him and work for counters, and Hager's plan is to try to throw Lawlor off of his body. Any time Hager would grab Lawlor, Lawlor would latch on and work for a choke, or a limb. Hager goes for a Karelin lift and Lawlor instantly gets scrambly, locks him up, climbs up his body, just acting like a total nuisance. Sometimes Hager is successful at shaking him off, but it's always fleeting. Hager gets a big belly to belly and starts grapevining a leg, and there's Lawlor scrambling to get a kneebar. Lawlor is the one to start working strikes, hitting a couple hard mule kicks to the stomach and some nice elbows, seemingly one step ahead of Hager. Hager gets the ankle lock but Lawlor rolls through and works for the rear naked choke. The whole thing was a much more interesting style than we usually get from Hager (although I've liked his recent power style), and it's clear he has the ability to work this style more often. I assumed a big Stud Stable/Team Filthy brawl was going to break out, and naturally it does, but they at least gave us a good 8 minutes before it got to that point. This was really good, the grappling and struggle was great, and the trios feud should be gold. Give them a few matches, and we all win. It keeps the Blondes away from having to sell for Jimmy Yuta and actually puts them in with some talent. This could be a killer feud.

Tom Lawlor vs. Jimmy Havoc  MLW Fusion #14 7/12 (Aired 7/20/18)

ER: This is one of those violent matches where you hope the owners of GILT Nightclub aren't actually watching the professional wrestling that's taking place every month in their establishment. The death match worker is certainly a bizarre niche within our bizarre niche. Necro Butcher gained fame doing death matches and also having a fantastic name, but once he started getting work in normal indy feds he toned down death match elements and kept the big brawling, stiff work, and stupid bumps. Havoc is keeping the stupid bumps and #PopularJapaneseFinisher, but he's still slicing himself up like he's working a match in the parking lot of a metal festival. It's not really that weird I guess, but it stands out on a nightclub show. Sure, nightclub owners are used to seeing shootings, but a dude blading his fucking arm might be too unexpected for them. This match has plenty of geek show elements, but also had some big time crazy and some nasty bumps, and would have landed on our 2018 MOTY List if the finish hadn't been so flat and cut short.

Havoc hits an early dive into the crowd and both guys take bumps through chairs. A cheese grate and stapler get introduced almost immediately, having getting a permanent sheet of blood running down his face as his forehead gets grated, then gets various staples into the head and we get a gross shot of him frantically pulling the staple out of his head. There's an adorable young girl near them in the crowd who is simultaneously terrified that these bloody sweaty guys might fall into her, and loving this professional wrestling. There also does not seem to be an adult claiming her or shielding her. They're good about not just trading geek show spots, instead nicely fighting over these weapons, Lawlor fighting off a stapling, and Lawlor bridging gaps to these weapons by kicking Havoc. Schiavone is damn funny on commentary as he dives into his knowledge of cheese graters, what each side is best used for, detailing different ways to grate parmesan depending on the dish, and how grating parmesan with almonds is delightful; important to note, that Schiavone made the almonds comment right after Havoc fought his way back to control by getting ahold of the grater and slashing it across Lawlor's nuts. 

We get some painful stuff on chairs, Havoc ends up taking a German on some and later gets dropped hard on a set-up chair that had fallen on its side. Damn, son. Havoc always amusingly transitions back to offense by producing an unexpected weapon, and while fading in a choke he gets a piece of paper, and eventually cuts Riddle in the finger crotch. Afterward he produces a lemon and squeezes it onto Lawlor's hand. It's like sadistic Bugs Bunny, but was plenty fun to see. The ending comes so suddenly, and it's really odd: Lawlor slices Havoc's arm with a pizza cutter, drops him on that chair I mentioned...but then Havoc just kind hits him a couple times and does a really sloppy Rainmaker to win. Huh? I don't mind a sudden finish to a match, but this just made no sense to me. It felt like they had a hard 10 minutes allotted to them and they suddenly had to go home. Very unsatisfying finish, and it's also a weird visual as you had Episode 13 ending with Lawlor  nearly beating Swagger before a DQ, and then the first actual match of the next episode is Lawlor just losing after a clunky lariat.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Skyler vs. Hollis Unsanctioned

56. John Skyler vs. Corey Hollis PWX 10/21/17

PAS: I got interested in this feud from reading a great article by Mike Mooneyham in the Post and Courier. This feud is the southern indy version of Gargano vs. Ciampa, long time tag partners have an ugly breakup and a vicious feud. This nicely mixed the more 2000s aspects of brawls (big showy bumps, weapons shots) and some really great 70's and 80's punching and bleeding. They start out by brawling all over the arena, both guys get slammed hard into concrete walls, and Hollis even gets his head stuck in a urinal. Skyler (who is the face in this feud) comes up bleeding badly, at points he even looks like IWA Cactus Jack. Hollis is pretty relentless on the cut, including pounding Skyler with a heavy chain wrapped around his fist. It is hard to do great looking punches with a chain like that, and Hollis really looked like he was waylaying him  Loved the false finish, they set up the table spot really well, with Hollis getting smacked by a ring bell and collapsing on the announcers table, and Skyler diving off the metal post and splashing both guys through the table. They do a whole stoppage with the announcers doing "Owen Voice" and everything. Security starts helping Hollis to the back but Skyler gets a second wind, jumps him, throws him into the ring and starts smashing his head into a chair. Unfortunately the finish brings this down a bit due to the run in by Brady Pierce and Gunner Miller and them triple teaming Skyler until Hollis pins him. I did like the visual of the heels ripping back the padding and exposing the wood beams under the ring although a 3 on 1 beatdown is an unsatisfying finish to a war. This was a balls out killer fight though, and got me excited to check out their I Quit match.

ER: This was definitely Gargano/Ciampa before Gargano/Ciampa, and this had a lot of what I've enjoyed about their big matches only we get blood, a more southern feel (especially during the early crowd brawling), and no Gargano faces! The crowd brawl was really good, making nice use of the venue and the camera was right there with cool shots. Hollis gets thrown far over the guardrail onto concrete, and Skyler climbs the guardrail to leap after him with a clothesline, and we get a cool shot of through Skyler's legs as Hollis climbs to his feet in the background. Both guys lay it in and we don't get any tired "walking and hair holding", just a couple guys kicking asses around an events center, faces slammed on merch table 8x10s as other wrestlers look on, hard strikes thrown, tough whips into brick walls (it's hard to make "getting thrown into a wall" read well, but these looked great), and of course a brawl into the bathroom. The bathroom stuff was great, and I'm happy we didn't get a commentary reproduction of Dusty shrieking about a lady in the men's room (which I'm sure was tempting as they scanned the faces of fans in the bathroom), with Hollis doing the lord's work by flying face first into a couple of toilets, including getting flushed in a urinal. The toilet stuff is disgusting, but I think also weirdly important to establish just how crazy these two are. Once you get thrown face first into a urinal that tells me "well these guys are down for any damn thing in this fight".

And, they really are. Trash cans and ladders and kendo sticks and chairs get involved, but they thankfully shy away from prop set up and instead focus on beating each other with all of those things. Trash can lids can come off flimsy and lame, so the workaround to that is hitting someone with the edge of a lid, slicing open their head in gruesome fashion. Hollis hits a slashing lid blow on Skyler and then works that cut, Skyler's boss Jack Burton tank top getting messed up beyond the damage even Burton himself sustained. They don't linger on these items for too long, there's no Tanaka/Awesome moments, weapons are picked up, used, discarded, but kept around for potential later use. Hollis introduces a chain and I think even the worst chain-wrapped-fist punch would look good, but Hollis hits him with a real blow. I thought the false finish was splendid, Skyler really flew threw that table to crush Hollis, and they just lie in the wreckage for minutes while being tended to. I loved security bringing Hollis to his feet, and really it may have been my favorite part of the match. Hollis' selling was perfection; as he was dragged to his feet and basically carried out, he looked like someone who accidentally took too much Ambien on a flight and had to be carried off by flight attendants and one of the pilots upon arrival. Skyler runs him down, throws him into the ring and goes wild, true babyface comeback. Alas, the finish let the wind out of the sails, even though I fully understand what it was setting up. Once it becomes clear that three guys are just going to beat down one, and nobody is likely coming out to help the one, it becomes more of an exercise in reaching the inevitable win. To get over the desire for a rematch, the 3 on 1 beatdown needs to almost be worse than the match-long beating that preceded it, and I don't think we got there. Country Jacked holding Skyler while Hollis punts Skyler in the balls was a great moment, but to really put it over I was wanting excess. I wanted Hollis to keep punting those balls, build that sympathy back up, make it something that transcends the played out "he hired these goons to help him" No DQ trope. The finish sets up the I Quit, and I'm excited to see the I Quit, but I thought this specific finish could have been worked into the match better.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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1994: UWF-I'll Make Love to You, Vader

Super Vader/John Tenta vs. Gary Albright/Kazuo Yamazaki  UWF-I 10/8/94

ER: Crowd was intensely hot for Albright vs. Vader, and they know exactly how to tease them, starting with a big pull apart to start and then not seeing those two actually square off until we're 2/3 through this thing. It's fun seeing Tenta on the mat, as it's a total fish out of water situation. He doesn't look like he can really do a whole lot there, but he's enormous, so it creates a ton of fun visuals. At one point he's clasping his hands around nothing, and keeping his hands together for reasons I couldn't figure out, and Albright is maneuvering around him having no clue how to move him. Albright has amazing throwing strength and there's a moment where he moves in to deadlift Tenta, which...that's just not going to happen. Vader and Tenta are fun bullying Yamazaki, and Yamazaki gets a nice backpack choke on Tenta at one point, which is how I assume this will end. After all, Vader isn't going to lose, right? This whole match was basically a nice slow burn and build to get to a Vader/Albright showdown, and my god do they pay it off. Tenta and Albright come to another stand off and Vader starts excitedly waving his arms from the apron, wanting that HOT TAG and the fans go from murmuring to chattering to yelling after seeing how excited Vader is to clash with Albright. Outside of that pull apart before the bell, they were not in the ring together until this moment, and it totally explodes.

Vader bullies him with strikes and Albright, beaten down, roars out of the corner with elbows and freaking THROWS Vader with a gorgeous belly to belly. The form on Albright's belly to belly is second to no man, but performing it on a 400 lb. man without losing any of the form is just astounding. We really need to go back and reevaluate Albright. The book for years on Albright was "Kawada carried him to a great match once" and considering I've never not loved an Albright performance I've seen, I don't think that is anywhere close to accurate. I need to find the Albright gems. And IZU. Nobody gave a shit about lumpy 90s AJ dudes. They need a modern voice. Anyway, now Yamazaki tags in and has renewed confidence against Vader, throwing big KO kicks and working an armbar, frustrating Vader so much that he pops Yamazaki in the mouth illegally, and this makes the fans want Yamazaki MORE. It's a great moment. Tenta squashes him a bit, hits a great uranage and his powerslam with the specific powerslam grip that only Tenta uses. You are picturing it now. But you know this is gonna come down to Vader/Albright, and it comes down with a brutal sudden downpour. Vader gets tossed with another gorgeous belly to belly, then Albright - being an absolute man beast - tries to drag a belly flopping Vader to his feet with a rear waistlock, just trying to deadlift drag freaking VADER back to his feet, like nobody at all can do, but Albright drags him there and bounces Vader across the ring with an amazing German suplex. Vader almost rolls through it and is back to his feet throwing bombs, but Albright throws him again and taps him with an armbar. Albright's selling on his celebration felt like an actual sports victory, very excited and emotional. The suplexes were outstanding, and he threw them with the same violent grace he would a guy half Vader's size. What a way to start this feud.

Super Vader/John Tenta vs. Gary Albright/Kazuo Yamazaki UWF-I 10/14/94

ER: This is a real treat as Vader mostly came in to work one shots every few months for UWF, so a rematch happening barely a week later feels like a big deal. This is slightly diminishing returns from the first match, as the first is longer and this loses some of the freshness of the match-ups, but this still has the electricity of the first match, especially since you know it's building to a big Vader/Albright blow off. A lot of the dynamics from the first match are repeated here: Yamazaki starts with Vader, Tenta comes in to work Albright, we build to Vader working Albright, and then this time Vader and Tenta finish off Yamazaki, escaping Albright's wrath. Yamazaki/Vader is a fun match-up with Yamazaki peppering Vader with leg kicks, and Vader is always great at showing the right amount of vulnerability with him, stumbling in the right ways and always building to a great moment where he falls into the ropes as his legs knot up. This era of Tenta is one of my favorite looks in wrestling history. He's absolutely monstrous, looking like the most menacing cross between Ricky Jay and the guy who chases Pee Wee around the Cabazon Dinosaurs. He laughs his way through Yamazaki's leg kicks and shoves him into the ropes, and is again flustered on the mat by Albright, lying one his stomach and basically refusing to move, effectively blocking a choke and refusing to budge. His presence alone is cool, and it feels big when he powerslams Albright and wrenches him into a Boston crab. Of course we get the big Vader/Albright showdown with Albright calling for Vader to tag in, and seeing Albright throw Vader with Germans is just one of the more impressive things in wrestling, Vader gets bounced hard by Albright, and Albright is great and selling the energy it took to pull off the throw, and Vader was great at selling the impact of the throws, slowly rolling over like someone who threw their back out. When it came down to striking Vader threw some awesome combos to overwhelm Albright, knocking him silly and sending him falling through the ropes to the apron, practically landing on his head. Tenta squishes Yamazaki with a powerslam and Vader polishes him off with a powerbomb that no mortal could get up from, and in just 3 long months we get to see Albright and Vader mano y mano, the two wildest bulls in UWF-I.


MINI COMPLETE AND ACCURATE VADER IN UWF-I

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New Footage Friday: KKK, Harley, Baba, Jumbo, Wrestling 2, Roop, Dream Machine

Network and Dan Ginnety continue to deliver the goods, and now we have too much footage each week. In this very specific way (and really only in this very specific way) what a time to be alive. Tomk jumps on a couple of these as well. 

Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Killer Karl Kox/Harley Race AJPW 2/11/81

PAS: Dan Ginnety's 1981 TV set delivers another Killer Karl Klassic. I might even like the Race/Kox team more then the Kox/Murdoch team, even though I don't like Race as much as Murdoch. He brings a variety to the attack, more big bumping, more suplexes, plus the legit credentials of being an NWA champ. Kox was the star again though, what a nasty killer he was, everything was done with such force and viciousness. At one point he just drives a half a dozen elbows into the side of Jumbo's neck, it felt like he was trying to chop off an especially knotty piece of wood. We also get a gorgeous brainbuster to finish the first fall, and a great drunken sell of a Baba chop. I loved the finish of the second fall too, with the American's getting counted out as they stomp Baba on the floor. Finish of the third fall was unusal, with Baba tripping Race when he had Jumbo up in a suplex, with Jumbo landing on Race for the pin, that is a classic heel finish in a tag match, and I had never seen it done by faces before.

MD: Kox with Race felt very different than Kox with Murdoch, interestingly. With Murdoch he was much more of a stooge (or maybe a stooge's big brother). Everything was bigger and more sweeping. Here, everything was meaner and grittier. When he was using the object, he looked like Bulldog Bob Brown but had the aura of Abdullah at his most fearsome. Race, on the other hand, was less effective than Downtown Bruno. Every time he came in, he lost the momentum and got clowned by his opponent. This wasn't a heel title defense against a local challenger. I have no idea what he was doing. I just don't think he could stop himself. I thought this was really good whenever Kox was in though. Baba can portray sympathy after a beating so well given his almost skeletal frame. Jumbo's dropkicks were amazing. The way that they got to the finishes of the falls all had a bit more though to them than you normally get in an early 80s AJPW tag match. Good stuff even if Race couldn't get out of his own way.

ER: Karl Kox is a total superstar. He just comes into this All Japan ring and completely owns things. Harley Race worked this as a bizarre Stevie Richards, bumping all over for Jumbo and getting next to no offense, as Kox sat on the apron constantly looking for the advantage. The dynamic was incredibly fun, and kind of weird, in the best way. I love how Kox worked Baba, just bringing a constant attack, and for a guy already in his 50s Kox had such a cool and well utilized offensive arsenal. He punches and kicks Baba all over, drops elbows, throws the best back elbow in wrestling, throws downward elbows to the neck, somehow comes off the top rope with elbow strikes (which is something we've seen in his AJ matches, and he never looks comfortable up there but always hits exactly what he's trying to hit, and the fact he looks like someone who shouldn't be coming off the top only makes it that much better), grabs a tag while Race is taking a bump, and works the apron better than maybe anyone. He drops one of the finest brainbusters I've seen, and Jumbo gets in the match as we're nearly approaching mercy killing time for Baba. 

So we get a lot of Race/Jumbo, and Race is just hammier than a Hormel factory in this whole thing. He bumps a backdrop on the floor from Baba, takes two huge suplexes from Jumbo, takes a few of those Race bumps where he takes a back bump and then slowly flips his whole body over to bump again, tries a bit *too* hard to take his over the top rope bump, hits the most absurd spit take bump I've seen (the sheer amount of spit he shot out could have filled a shot glass), and is all about frantically getting Kox back into the ring. Baba was great and super aggressive here; I loved how violent he was with his big boots. I'd gotten so used to seeing old Baba have opponents getting thrown into his boot, that it's almost jaw dropping to see him running towards someone and kicking their face, throwing them exactly like prime Taue (well, Taue was throwing them like prime Baba, but you know what I mean). Jumbo is all fired up babyface in this, throwing awesome dropkicks, chucking Race with a high belly to belly, constantly punking out Race. The match has a spot I've never seen, something really cool, something I didn't see coming, where Jumbo runs up the buckles on one side of the ring to hit a headlock takeover. Then, he tries it on the other side and gets his legs grabbed out of the air by Kox from the apron, who yanks him from Race and Jumbo ends up spilling into the ropes, falling on his head. This tag is kind of weird, and completely great, and I just cannot get over what a huge deal Kox still feels like in his final year. True legend.

Dream Machine vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 1/15/82

MD: Graham, while we have decent amount of footage, most of it is from one or two territories and all of a similar style. We know what he can do in southern tags and Memphis-style brawls. I'm a big proponent of taking holistic looks at wrestlers, at seeing them in a lot of different situations. This is absolutely a different situation.

The big questions here would then be: Could he hang in AJPW and could he hang with Jumbo? The answer is absolutely. Honestly, this felt more like a Hansen match than anything else. Once they got past some really fevered chain wrestling to begin, he just kept coming at Jumbo, to the point where, at times, Jumbo seemed almost visibly frustrated by it. He jumped into every bump, leaned into every shot, and traded bomb for bomb. They really ran the gamut between the chain wrestling, grinding holds, the striking, big throws, a table shot on the outside, flying knees, and Jumbo's killer suplex out of nowhere to end it. It seemed like Dream Machine brought grumpy Jumbo to the surface years early and the match was all the better for it.

TKG:  So yeah, 1982 Dream Machine debuting John Walters innovative offense is absurd but everything about this is absurd. Pre-Choshu sprint everything was contested in heavyweight AJPW. 70s Baba is awesome as him and opponents will fight to fend off every hammerlock, arm drag and whip. At worst Jumbo in 70s, early 80s was this guy who would be really awesome spending 2 falls fighting off opponent’s atomic drop, or backbreaker or atomic drop…then would eat it pop up and do all his offense…But even there a good chunk of the style was about non-cooperativeness. This match was completely cooperative, this wasn’t Choshu sprint this was more worked like a Fujinami juniors match from same period. Like I went into this hoping that Jumbo would give Dream Machine enough that it would be like a cool Dream Machine v Dutch match…instead this was a juniors Dream Machine v Nightmare Danny Davis match. As such both of these guys have cool offense, beyond the big suplex into frontcracker monkey flip, Dream Machine’s 2nd rope knee drop was top rope knee drop looking nasty.


PAS: I really enjoyed the stylistic shifts in this match, the early armdrags in this match did feel really juniorish, but they do end this up with some big time moves. Dream Machine really had the offense of a guy who could have had a career working Puro heavyweight wrestling. The top rope knee to the throat, and brutal piledriver combo really felt like it should have beaten anyone. Hell that top rope knee to the throat should have started a long feud where Jumbo sits out two months and comes back in a neck brace. The back suplex which Jumbo ends it with was really brutal, and I have no problem with it finishing the match, although the match almost felt clipped when it wasn't, we go right from the mat wrestling section into the huge finish with out much of a middle. Still a great look at Dream and one of my favorite early Jumbo performances too.

Bonus text dialogue between Tomk and Phil

Phil: I liked Dream Machine vs. Jumbo more then you did

Tomk: I liked it a bunch but it was a juniors match. Like Fujinami vs. Keirn which is not what I was expecting at all. Did my write up come off negative? Didn't mean it to be.

Phil: John Walters can't be a compliment

Tomk: There was a front cracker into a monkey flip spot. I lost my mind at a fucking front cracker spot in 1982. Did Alex Shelly do back cracker/front cracker variations?  Is there anyone who did it who wouldn't come off as insult?

Phil: Fair Point

Tomk: Shelton Benjamin?

Phil: Cerebro Negro?

Tomk: Cerebro Negro is a good call.

Mr. Wrestling 2 vs. Bob Roop GCW 10/23/83

PAS: The Network uploaded the entire Omni show headlined by the previously released Last Battle of Atlanta, and this was clearly the on paper undercard standout. Great chance to see 2 working the Omni which was an arena he ruled for decades. This was a mask match, with Roop repping an injured fake Mr. Wrestling who was putting up his mask against Wrestling 2. This was worked more like a crowd pleasing undercard match then a huge stips match (makes sense with the huge bloody blowoff in the main event.) It certainly pleased the crowd, 2 has a ton of charisma, and is one of my favorite dancing babyfaces of all time, I really dug Roop running full speed into a 2 knee lift with 2 sitting on the second rope, and the indignation of crowd when Roop clocked 2 with fake 1's crutch. Roop was working more of a brawling stooging heel, then the wrestling machine he was in Mid-South, I love wrestling machine Roop, but he is fun as a foil too. Would have liked a bigger finish then sort of the banana peel end we got, but this was a total blast, and the idea of semi-regular Omni show uploads is mindblowing.

MD: I'm with Phil on this one. They could only go so big given the card placement and what was to come. Context, when we have it (and it's great that we have it here), is important in understanding matches. Roop is such a mean bastard. Everything he does looks nasty. Wrestling 2 has this almost magical way of hitting a shot out of nowhere. He comes off as a complete star, almost as a folk hero. Phil noted Roop doing the work of running into the kneelift on the second rope, but what stuck out to me was the timing in 2 getting his knee up at the absolute perfect second.

The transition with the crutch was one of those moments in wrestling where time just stopped as the shot rang through the crowd. It was wrestling perfection. I liked the finish, if only for the amount of effort they put into the escape from the shoulder breaker. Post match was a little underwhelming, but the fact that a rabid fan reached over the barricade and pulled off Wrestling 1's shirt that he was using to hide his face just shows how great and celebratory this crowd was.

TKG: We don’t have a lot in the way of Arena footage of either of these guys and the idea of them matching up for an apuestas was really exciting to me. I’m a big fan of the guy holds onto headlock while opponent stays mobile trying to escape a spots and the variations on it here were really cool. I especially liked the Roop gets out of side headlock by pushing II off into ropes for II to bounce off ropes into a front facelock. I liked a bunch of the body work after the crutch to body shot and crowd clearly got the desperation of II trying to escape Roop’s shoulderbreaker finisher, but I wanted five more minutes after that escape.

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