2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Talbain

124. Daniel Makabe vs. Kaden Talbain 3-2-1 Battle! 9/7

ER: Now this was a cool fight that started with snug matwork and sharp sequences and steadily built to some big bomb throwing and hard throws. Talbain is a guy with a big Saito suplex and Makabe is a guy with a bunch of cool ways to avoid getting suplexed, and a guy who can build nicely to getting suplexed. Makabe brings the squirrelly wrist control but can't get in too close without the risk of eating a suplex, and we get a few cool Makabe roll throughs (he always has good positioning on these), rolling in the way of Talbain during an Irish whip to catch him off guard, and we get a couple of awesome moments of Talbain going for that suplex and Makabe using his weight and leverage to get a cool headlock takeover. We got one of the coolest spots I've seen all year with Makabe basically jumping his full body weight up into Talbain's arms during a headlock (basically picture Makabe leaping up into Talbain's arms like Scooby Doo leaping into Shaggy's arms), forcing Talbain to drop him so that Makabe could roll him into a kneebar. Both guys hit hard, Talbain had really nice body shots and a great headbutt, all his strikes were short and too the point, and Makabe's punches are awesome. We get some cool learned behavior reversals, and some cool uses of the ring and surroundings to create drama. Makabe bull rushes Talbain while holding a sleeper to send both sprawling out of the ring, which felt like a cool self sacrifice moment where he knew he'd take some damage on it, but knew it would be worthwhile to cause more damage to Talbain. And both seem real smart about their use of positioning and use of the ring, like when Makabe shoved Talbain chest first into the turnbuckle and caught him with a great snap German on the rebound. Makabe was able to weather Talbain's storm while taking some mean spills, and they pay off Makabe's match long arm attacks when Makabe holds onto Talbain's trunks on a superplex, keeping him close so he could grab the arm and fold that wrist in for the tap. I didn't love the minimization of the superplex, but it was a minor nit in a match with so much great stuff. This really made me want to see their other singles matches.

PAS: Makabe is a guy who will break out a ton of fun shit in a match, and really delivered here. Talbain was a fine guy to tag along and be part of the cool shit, although I didn't think he brought a ton to the table outside of being an opponent. Eric said both guys hit hard, and while Makabe threw some nasty stuff, including a great short jab right to the kidneys, Talbain would just threw dozens and dozens of weak looking forearms, more mustard would have really helped. Still there was a ton of great stuff here, Makabe seemed to invent a ton of neat moves I hadn't seen before. I loved when he pushed Talbain chest first into the ropes and snapped off a German, and the set up for the kneebar was impossibly slick. He did about three counters to set it up, and it was so fast that it didn't come off contrived like some similar British spots can. I can't fully endorse shrugging off of a superplex, but that last armbar was some nasty stuff.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST