Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 9: Matches from HOG High Intensity 7 8/17/18

80. Low-Ki vs. Sami Callihan

PAS: This is one of my favorite matchups in current wrestling. They had an AAW match last year that was an awful ending away from being our MOTY. At their peak against each other, they approach Ikeda vs. Ishikawa levels of insane stiffness. This is only their third singles match, the first being a 2011 JAPW match, then last years AAW and now this one. I don't think this got to the dizzying heights of last years match, it only got really crazy at the end, but it was a lot to love. Callihan really pushes pace, and this was much more of a sprint then some of Ki's MLW matches. Ki took some huge bumps to the floor, including laying out a guardrail and a couple of rows of seats while taking a Callihan basement tope. We got some great chops and elbows from Ki too, and an awesome heavy bag combo of bodyblows to Sami on the outside. The finish run took it to the next level with Callihan hanging Ki by his tie and thrust kicking him in his head. Callihan does his thumbs up/ thumbs down taunt and Ki responds with a huge uppercut that looks like it could have knocked Callihans teeth through his eyelids. Then Ki tries to rip Sami's jaw off, before Callihan lands an enormous uppercut to nuts to lose by DQ, but keep his title. I selfishly wanted to see more violence, so the finish was a bit deflating, but it is hard to complain about an uppercut to the nuts ending a match.

ER: Phil is right about last year's match. That was one of the stiffest matches in wrestling history. I legitimately don't know how those two didn't KO each other at several points of that match. I liked that match a lot more than this one, as that one had a lot more focus on strikes and violence, whereas this one felt more abridged and a little disjointed (much of it taking place around the very dark ringside area didn't help, unless you feel the poor lighting lent a feeling of creeping despair to the match, as if it was the wrestling equivalent to a Pedro Costa film), but these two are exactly who they are and they're always going to hit each other hard and take some not recommended bumps. Callihan flies around a couple times off running Ki dropkicks, both guys crash hard into the guardrails, Ki gets dropped throat first on a rail, Callihan crashes into him hard with his low tope, all mean stuff. Fully with Phil that things really jumped up once Sami tied Ki's necktie to the ropes. I love integrating the ring or somebody's attire into a match, and you'd think you'd see more of Ki getting choked by his holster or strangled by his tie but it really doesn't happen, so this was a nice payoff. Ki slipping out of the necktie and popping Callihan with an uppercut perfectly placed under the chin was the moment of the match, not a strike I see out of Ki and it's no shock that it looks like murder. The finish makes a ton of sense in context and looks great, with Callihan taking that uppercut, reeling, and immediately looking for a way out by dishing out his own uppercut square to the balls. Two of the finer uppercuts I've seen all year, can't complain about that.

16. Red vs. Anthony Gangone

PAS: Hell of a brutal spectacle, this was a no-ropes match and an absolute apocalypse. Red is a 20 year vet and semi-retired, I have no idea why he is taking these kinds of brutal shots and psychotic bumps. Haven't seen Gangone before, and indy cult leader is a pretty played gimmick but I have to respect his willingness to take this kind of drubbing too. They did a bunch of cool stuff with the no-ropes gimmick, both guys took early awkward spills into the exposed turnbuckle posts, including Red hitting a fancy lucha armdrag which sent Gangone forehead first into the exposed bolt, I also liked how Red lured Gangone to the edge of the ring and Spanished flied him through a table.

We have three refs go down very violently. One eats a thrown chair to the head, one gets thrown through a table, and the commissioner gets violently chair shotted by Red after Red refuses to pin Gangone. When this gets to the big bump section, the bumps are enormous. Red dives off a super high ladder to double stomp Gangone who has a chair necktie. That is when Red refuses to pin him, instead bodyslaming Gangone on tacks, and then removing the padding from the mat (which has become a bit of a 2018 cliche, but this is my favorite use of it so far). Red climbs on top of the giant ladder, but Gangone is able hurl a chair at his face and superplex Red off the ladder onto the exposed boards, totally insane bump for both guys, and I have no idea how someone didn't shatter an elbow on the fall. Red at one point gets Gangone to tap after putting a chain around his mouth, with no ref to count it.  Gangone gets Brian XL (who looks like D-Lo Brown now)  to throw in the towel after nearly breaking Red in half by falling with all of his weight on the ramp with Red on his back (basically the move Foley tried with Vader at Halloween Havok when Foley was trying to end his career on purpose) and wrapping a chain around his neck and stomping him in the head. Gangone refuses to lose by surrender, and wakes the last KO'ed ref and forces him to count the pin. I liked how the lack of refs, allowed both guys to sell the beating they were taking, I never though any of the huge moves got shrugged off. My only nitpick might be the weak blade jobs by both guys, both guys bleeding a lot would have even added to the spectacle.

ER: Phil picked up on a lot of the things I loved about this so excuse the repetition, he makes a lot of great points about the logic of working the length they did, with the bigs moves they did and the placement of the out of commission refs, and fairly points out the weak blade job (seems a waste when both guys just looked like they had blood that would be notable if we were grading on popped zits, but not worthy of mention when graded against wrestling blade jobs). This was a New Jersey-bred version of a modern NXT TakeOver main event, it was overblown in different ways and indulgent in similar ways. But the violence was great and it did justice to the overindulgent story. Red is a guy who needs to have a Cruiserweight Classic built around him, a guy who we all enjoyed as an almost novelty 15+ years ago (like he was the new Blitzkrieg or something) and now in 2018 he seems far more comparable to a new Rey Mysterio. His whole game is tight, and as we came for some innovative offense when he was new, now we show up for stiff strikes, big bumps, and there's something about an older guy working death wish spots that creates different emotions than a young punk kid doing death wish spots. Young daredevils feel almost disposable, you expect them to burnout quick and you enjoy them for what they are; old daredevils have a weird built in sympathy combined with an almost can't look away freakshow factor. This match was violent enough that I had one of those "Why are you still doing this!?" reactions, but what they did undoubtedly added to the match.

We got a bunch of insane spots, but I much preferred the early focus on simpler and greater bumps, like both guys showing off how violently they can get whipped into a guardrail, or both of the ringpost spots. Those two ringpost spots were some of the coolest and nastiest spots of the year, with Gangone bouncing off ribs first and Red flying face first into it, wrapping around the post to the floor. Red's eyeball could have easily hit one of those eyelets, and eye stuff is an instant nope for me. The big moments are cool, Spanish Fly off the apron through a table, Gangone flying backward through a guardrail, a freaking ref flying backward through a table, Red hitting a frog splash off a ring post onto a still standing Gangone, and the piece de resistance is a superplex off the top of a very tall ladder onto exposed ring boards. Superplexes are a crazy spot anyway, definitely something that's finisher worthy to me. Then you add a ladder, then you take away the padding, then you do it toward the edge of the ring instead of the center...and man you wonder how that affects a man's back longterm. One of the boards is left popped up and I wonder if anyone fell on the edge of that board. Good god boys. I thought they did good justice to the big spots, positioned the big ref bumps and interference moments well to allow them reasons for both surviving through the big spots, and by the time Gangone is stomping cruelly on Red's face this more than felt deserving of the epic they were striving for.


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