Matches from Glory Pro 2/24/19

Tom Lawlor vs. Sharkbait

ER: Sharkbait is Anthony Gutierrez, a former MMA guy who was on a season of Ultimate Fighter, and Lawlor against other MMA guys has always delivered. Sharkbait is pretty raw, this was apparently his 30th match, but it's probably easier to thrive against someone who can work your own style. There are a ton of cool moments with he and Lawlor doing some inspired stand and trade, much more interesting than typical stand and trade as there is no timed rhythm to it, just awkward hard shots interrupting other awkward hard shots. I loved Sharkbait's hard kicks to the front of Lawlor's thighs and his snapped off inner leg kicks, and Lawlor would fire back with slaps, a hard chop to the neck, a couple of big heel kicks right to the upper ribs, all nasty looking stuff. There was a killer moment where Sharkbait jumped onto Lawlor to grab a guillotine choke and try to drag him to the mat, and Lawlor starts throwing hard as hell shots right into the ribcage until the grip is loosened, allowing Lawlor to muscle him up into a vicious vertical suplex. There are some moments where Sharkbait bites off more than he can chew (har har) almost murdering Lawlor with a standing Spanish Fly, but sometimes his overreach benefits the match, like when he goes for a standing shooting star and Lawlor shifts his weight so Sharkbait lands face to knee. This was a real nice, brisk 10 minutes, totally delivered what I was hoping for.

Eddie Kingston vs. PACO

PAS: This was the rubber match of a series between these two and my first look at Paco, who is kind of a white meat babyface highflyer. Fun opening fall with Paco getting a flash Code Red pin seconds in. Kingston then beats on Paco for most of the second fall and wins with a deep roll up. Paco jumps Eddie during the rest break and chop blocks his knee, and we get what we always want from an Eddie Kingston match, an injury sell. Paco basically turns heel in the third fall, working over Eddie's knee, refusing to break on rope breaks, etc. His offense wasn't anything special, but Kingston is magic at working a bum wheel, I loved how he threw his clotheslines, all arm because he couldn't plant on the knee. Paco gets a couple of near falls on nice looking short superkicks, but Kingston gets the win with a big flurry of backfist, backdrop, backfist. We get a nice post match with Kingston offering a hand to the youngster earning his respect, a meaningful hug, and then a Paco cheapshot. Kingston is so good at facially selling both the respect at the beginning and the hurt and fury over the cheapshot. Paco was fine in this, but this was Kingston doing his thing, and he does it better then anyone.

ER: As a 2/3 fall match, I loved how this was laid out and loved how Kingston handled everything in the match. I didn't think PACO looked great, certainly not a guy I'm going out of my way to watch, but I love seeing what Kingston can do with anybody. I'm not sure who would be an uninteresting Kingston opponent for me, he's a guy like Necro Butcher who even if I strongly dislike his opponent, I'd still be interested in that guy I hate getting worked over. I dug PACO getting a flash code red to immediately take a fall, then love Kingston effortlessly working him over in the segunda. PACO has pretty lousy offense in the segunda (ugly rana, spinkicks that are light as air), so it was great seeing Kingston shrug off some questionable strikes with an eyepoke here and a few palm strikes there, holding a vertical suplex for a long while, king of the body language and showing PACO that. Now PACO actually gets interesting in the third fall, as he chop blocks Kingston immediately after getting pinned, and as Phil says we finally get what we paid for out of a Kingston match: Kingston selling a limb.

PACO's offense appeared to actually get better as he got meaner, as all his stuff in the third fall looked far better than his stuff in the second fall. But, I'd much rather see someone bouncing their shins off Kingston's head than making him do all the work on a half-assed rana. Kingston selling his knee is great, not showy, just not forgotten, with cool touches like not being able to complete moves with full power, and not even able to lean in for a good pinfall due to also holding onto his bad leg. Lesser wrestlers would have made a big production out of those moments - if they acknowledged them at all - but Kingston always hits the right notes. I liked some of PACO's targeted attack, working the half crab and kicking Kingston's knee out at the perfect time when Kingston was going for a backfist. It did irk me how much damage PACO was able to take. I'm wholly unfamiliar with his prior work, but nothing he showed me in this match made me think he should have been able to stay in a sustained war with Kingston. I was especially annoyed at a moment where he hit knees on a frog splash attempt (where I thought the match should have ended) and just hopped up after almost getting pinned to hit a superkick. But Kingston must have felt my irritation through the screen (two weeks later) and immediately decides to ice this punk, throwing backfists and a major back suplex to end him. Wrestling isn't going to be as good without Eddie Kingston around.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST