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