2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Spencer

47. Daniel Makabe vs. Artemis Spencer 3-2-1 Battle! 3/9

ER: This whole match was worked as a really frenetic sprint, and it had this unfocused quality that added to the match. Sometimes I say a match is unfocused if it feels like the guys in there had no actual real plan of how to work things out, so they just try a hodgepodge of indy matches and squish them all together. But for this match I think unfocused is a compliment, as it felt like both guys were working for a finish from the opening bell (opening chant?) and kept that vibe up through the finish. The strategies and attacks were manic so you didn't get either of them going for one specific finish, so the unfocused nature benefitted the match as it felt like the whole thing could end at any time. They made good use of rope breaks so neither guy was hanging out in a submission for too long, and they did a great job of constantly butting up against each other to try to cancel each other out during the grappling. They end up in a bunch of cool tangles, like Spencer locking in a kneebar and then locking up Makabe's free leg, or the few cool scraps that resulted from blocked roll-ups (like a triangle out of a Makabe sunset flip) or knucklelocks, Makabe getting a hold loosened by digging his elbow into Spencer's thigh, Makabe always grinding his forearm on Spencer's chin during pinfalls. Makabe gets his arm worked over with some Fujiwaras (liked Spencer getting big leverage on it, bridging up his legs), and I loved how Makabe kept selling his arm throughout, loved how he still used his punch and great elbow as a blunt object with the hurt arm. The finish with a bunch of flipping knucklelock trickery ending with Makabe suckering him into an STF was killer. This match was super fun, almost like a scrambly version of a Hideki Suzuki match.

PAS: I thought this was really good, with Spencer looking like he was on Makabe's level in this weird garage rock bassist Battlarts that Makabe has going on up in Seattle. I loved how both guys kept going for prawn holds that would get countered: Makabe went for one that Spencer flipped into a triangle, and later countered a Makabe prawn into a sleeper. They went back to it for the finish with Spencer trying a prawn hold and getting caught in a nasty STF. Not many strikes, but they all looked good. Makabe has such boney elbows that they really look painful when they land. I love a mat scramble and this whole match was a long mat scramble with both guys doing cool memorable stuff.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST