A Re-Evaluation of Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Samoa Joe

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Samoa Joe NOAH 10/27/07

ER: I know this match got written off as a disappointment in 2007, and because of that I never actually watched it. I absolutely loved NOAH from inception to around maybe '08, arguably my favorite overall fed in pro wrestling during those years. Segunda Caida were definitely high votes on Unforgiven Misawa era title matches, both of us loving his running on empty charisma. His Bison Smith defense several months prior was really great, and it just feels like I need to see Misawa vs. Joe with my own eyes. Were people at the time disappointed because it didn't have the same aura as Kobashi vs. Joe? Or was it genuinely just a bad style clash with a dash of "off night"? Even though Misawa passed away 18 months later and worked a full schedule up to then, he was clearly winding things down in a way. He had less than 10 singles matches after this match, and that's notable. It might be a very fun/very sad project to look at the very last Misawa singles bouts (two vs. Nakajima, one vs. Sugiura, a Makoto Hashi match I'd love to see, and obviously one vs. Keith Walker - the most important of the Misawa singles). This match vs. Joe turned out to be a big deal as it was his last successful title defense.

Misawa was only 45 in this match, but moved and reacted many years older. Part of the allure at the time of this era Misawa was his natural surliness played more like pain and weary vulnerability. We knew he was tired as hell from holding this company up on his back, but I don't think any of us actually expected what happened. Watching Misawa from this era now, and it all just plays sympathetically. He's a guy who more HAD to be there than actually wanted to be there, but that attitude combined with his still present charisma made him a unique character, a guy punishing people for the punishment he had to endure, due to cultural obligation and occupational choices.

This was not a great match, but it sure had plenty of moments. It appeared like they were billing this as a kind of interpromotional dream match, with Joe representing TNA. That's really weird! In retrospect I assume Joe only got this title match due to the hype from facing Kobashi, but that doesn't make much sense as it was literally 2 years prior and hadn't happened in Japan. How did Joe get a GHC title shot? Those didn't happen frequently, and Joe was hardly a known star in Japan. When this match happened, Joe hadn't worked Japan in several years, and wasn't ever a major part of Zero-One during his stint there. Samoa Joe is one of the weirder NOAH main event title contenders in the first 8 years of NOAH. Were fans supposed to be excited that a wrestling journalist really liked his match against Kobashi 2 years prior? What was the actual reasoning behind Samoa Joe: GHC Title Contender?

I think there was a good match in here, but the layout needed to be a little different. This was pretty unimaginative, just Joe dominating for the first 75% of the match, until a switch flips and he gets pummeled by Misawa for awhile. Those kind of frontloaded dominant matches are probably my least favorite layout, and would only be made interesting by the dominant guy convincingly selling exhaustion from dishing out a beating. I'm not sure I've seen someone do a very good "my fists and legs are tired from punching and kicking you" sell, but it's something I'd like to see. I liked Misawa's selling during Joe's assault, dug Joe scraping that boot across Misawa's face and seeing Misawa repeatedly check his nose for blood after. Old Misawa excels at selling during submissions, his seemingly constant pain expressed well when Joe locks in a nasty twisting facelock, and we get a good nearfall when Joe has the gall to plant Misawa with his own emerald flowsion. This all of course builds to a big Misawa comeback, which was not as big as they used to be, but not without its charms. Old retired gunslinger Misawa still had a shooter's chance, and could throw elbows as hard as anyone, and it's a joy watching him light Joe up with left right combos. I liked that Joe got to kick out of Misawa's emerald flowsion, because the actual finish right after was much cooler: Joe sits up after kickout out, framing his head perfectly for a hard Misawa elbow right to the back of the head.

So, no, this was not a great match and people at the time probably were not unfair to it. But it's a match that obviously has different meaning and sympathy now than it did then, which boosted the drama in unfortunate ways. And I still really wish the Keith Walker match had been taped.    

Read more!

WWE BIG 3: Gulak, Gallagher, & Lorcan, 6/23 - 6/29

Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Tony Nese Stomping Grounds 6/23

ER: This definitely starts out as Gulak and Tozawa working a Tony Nese match, which I understand that's how this was likely to go. Nese is the champ, you work the champ's stupid match. I'd much rather see them just running a Tozawa/Gulak match, or Nese vs. Gulak, or Nese vs. Tozawa, but we get the worst option and it's fine. Gulak and Tozawa are GOOD at working a Tony Nese match, so it works. Nese even wears 205 Live colored gear which...feels like I hate Tony Nese. But after they got the early dance party out of their system, this settled into a really exciting 3 way. Pretty much from the moment Tozawa hit his great high impact cannonball off the apron into Gulak, I was on board. It was very "I hit this guy into that guy and that guy winds up suplexing me into the first guy" but I thought they were mostly good at avoiding dumb waiting around set-ups. This got into some pure fire territory when Gulak sunk in a nasty dragon sleeper on Nese, with his ankles locked tight in a rough body vice. Nese kept breaking out in various ways forcing Gulak to adjust the hold as his own limbs would break free, totally great way to advance drama throughout one submission. And then, with the absolutely best exclamation point, Tozawa flew from out of nowhere with a heavy as hell senton off the top, right into Nese, with Gulak underneath. Great involvement of all three guys. Tozawa was really fun here, and really he always is. He's a guy I hope lingers under the radar on the roster for a decade, like Funaki. He's already almost 3 years in! His solo stuff with Gulak is fun, loved his exchange with Nese that ended with him popping Nese in the jaw with a right, he took a cool backwards bump falling off the apron, just a great guy to put in matches like this. I wish they let Gulak tee off on Nese a little more, but I'm too genuinely excited for Drew Gulak: Cruiserweight Champion to much care. Gulak has been nothing but great during his WWE run, and I'm so happy that it will presumably start paying off with more feature matches. This match got better the longer it went, I thought, as we started feeling like a 6 minute rush job and we instead got a fun 12 minute fireworks show.

PAS: This was really fun stuff, and considering we have this feature now I hope Gulak has a long reign. Nese is what he is, not my favorite guy for sure, but at least he hits hard, those running knees are really brutal looking. Loved all of the chucking of guys into other guys; if you are going to have a three way, you might as well throw people into each other. The out of nowhere Tozawa senton was one of my favorite spots of the year, great camera angle, love when people fly in out of nowhere like that. I did think the finish was a bit abrupt, but Gulak winning is such a crowd pleasing moment for the one man crowd in my living room. Hope we get to see Gulak defend against the other two of the Big 3.

Jack Gallagher vs. Mike Kanellis 205 Live 6/25

ER: This is not going to stand out at the end of the year as one of the better Gallagher matches, but it was a fun TV match against an opponent who I hadn't thought about him matching up with. I mean,  really, I hadn't thought about Kanellis at all, let alone as a Gallagher opponent, and I'm not sure I even  remember the last time I saw a Mike Kanellis match (and it's probably been upwards of two years). But at this point I'm convinced Gallagher can have a fun match with anyone, and I still think Kanellis's music is hilarious and I enjoy his and Maria's act. He's not going to work the mat with Gallagher, but they work some decent mat comedy with Gallagher eventually running a race on Kanellis's chin while Kanellis is trying to stretch his arms. Gallagher is great at setting things up for him, and he might be one of the few guys able to convincingly leap off the top rope and eat boots, really flying into Kanellis's feet far more convincingly than you usually see that spot. We got some cool stuff on the floor, with Gallagher turning to throw Kanellis into the barricade but stopping when Maria gets in the way, allowing Kanellis to smack the back of Gallagher's head into the ringpost and then hit a nasty almost-brainbuster on the floor. I was also pleasantly surprised by a great Kanellis right hand during a punch exchange. He wouldn't strike me as someone with a nice punch in his repertoire, but it's a good one. The finish was a little too cute, with Kanellis arguing for way too long about the ref stopping a count due to some held tights, but I'm never going to complain about Gallagher finishing a match with his headbutt.

PAS: This was pretty nifty, I had completely forgotten Mike Kanellis existed and if you had told me yesterday he was in the WWE I would have called you a liar. He is pretty basic, but his basic stuff looks OK, he had a nice straight punch, and the suplex on the floor was nasty. I enjoyed the Gallagher World of Sport comedy stuff at the beginning, and he sold all of Kanellis's offense well. I do think the finish was a bit OTT and I am not invested in the Kanellis vs. Drake Maverick feud at all, but Gallagher has got to have one of the highest floors of anyone in wrestling.

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Dick Murdoch! New Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams! Infernales vs. Villanos in TJ!

Dick Murdoch vs. Johnny Rodz WWF Kuwait 1984

PAS: Murdoch is on one in this match. Three stooges selling, phantom air punching, multiple shoving matches with the ring announcers, just the full Murdoch. Rodz was a fun foil in this match, but my goodness what a Murdoch show. It was clear that he was going to take everything to 11 in front of a crowd who may not be familiar with wrestling, so he was especially off his rocker here. There may be five minutes of shtick before the first lock up, some all-time atomic drop sells, everything you would want from a showman in front of a small crowd of Emir’s in a carpeted soccer stadium.

MD: We had a few Kuwait matches to take a look at. After a scan of a few matches (including a pretty fun Adonis/Murdoch/Smirnoff vs. Morales/Johnson/Gama Singh cage match and a 25 minute tag with a fake Masked Superstar, Don Muraco and DeCarlo/Bellomo!) this was the way to go. Two immediate thoughts. First, one of my favorite matches of all time is Funk vs. Martel from Puerto Rico from 1986. In it, Funk wages an indirect war with the entire country of Puerto Rico. This kind of feels like that, with Murdoch spending more time arguing with the crowd and menacing the PA announcer than fighting Rodz. Second, you know how even in the most serious matches, Murdoch ends up stooging in the third act. Like in the amazing Karl Kox match? Here, you don't get anything but the stooging. It's the purest distillation of comedy house show Murdoch and it's a thing of beauty. The way he shooting gallery walks across the ring after getting hit by Rodz is amazing. His reactions to the PA guy calling out every bad thing he does? Brilliant. His stagger shadowpunch selling? He wasn't wrestling for the empty back rows; he was wrestling for someone on Mars. The crowd was a constant buzz. Rodz did his part, but you get the sense he was just happy to be there. This is in no way good but it is in every way great. Dick Murdoch, walking contradiction.

ER: You see some on paper potential for a Murdoch being Murdoch match, and then something so bizarre comes along and ends up out-Murdoching any kind of Murdoch you were hoping to see Murdoch. First, let me say that I really loved Johnny Rodz here. It's tough being the straight man forced to play things normal and not look like a nerd while your opponent is duck walking around the ring and starting fights with timekeepers. Rodz bumps really big for Murdoch to keep him looking like a threat while Murdoch is hilariously stooging to fill in the gaps. There's no chance anyone in the crowd knew who Murdoch was, but because of the work of both men they all got to see Murdoch as a very believable threat and total buffoon. I loved Rodz' big bump off Murdoch's 2nd strike of the match, staggering fast 3/4 of the way across the ring and spilling hard into the ropes, and later Rodz does an awesome twist on Flair's corner bump, flipping over the top and landing hard on his butt on the apron. Murdoch is a great striker, but Rodz had a big variety of shots that made him look super credible. I especially liked him hitting a leaping punch to Murdoch's beer belly, then tags him in the chin when the gut punch causes him to buckle. Obviously Murdoch is a master. He was his own one man Ministry of Silly Walks here, doing this absurd straight leg/straight arm waddle while being punched, and clearly peaking with his atomic drop sell. Murdoch sells an atomic drop like someone who is dangerously close to shitting their pants, knees buckles, on his tip toes, asshole clenched, rubbing out his tailbone, while also moving his hips as if he was working out a major wedgie without using his hands. He punches the air and flops face first with his butt in the air, he punches the air and gets kicked over onto his butt, and every second of it is great. These two men reached people who - honestly - they couldn't have actually known how to reach. They just did what they knew how to do in the most exaggerated way possible, bringing the gift of stooging to Kuwait.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Kenta Kobashi vs. Doug Furnas/Dan Kroffat AJPW 10/7/92

MD: There are a lot of batches of these handhelds. For instance, there's a batch of AJPW dates that we've barely looked at because they were followed so quickly by first Fujiwara vs Fuchi and then by the new NJPW set. This was part of yet another group where we knew these aired on TV but generally JIP or clipped and sometimes just as part of a digest of finishes. As best as I can tell (and I double checked it with Ditch, so we'll call it the best I could tell), only four minutes of this actually aired on TV.

That means that we have for you a never-before-seen-in-the-wild Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can-Ams match, another iteration of one of the best tags of the 90s.

This is a good and interesting, but lesser version of the match-up. For one thing, the crowd, while definitely abuzz, isn't quite as electric. Also, there isn't quite the same commitment to a singular theme that makes the May match such a great Southern Tag.

This had another six months of history behind it and definitely some of the same elements. I love how Kroffat and Furnas can draw heat in this setting. Every time they cheat or even take a shortcut, the crowd boos. Some of that is Kikuchi's charisma or how beloved Kobashi was, but I think a lot of it is respect and admiration for Furnas and Kroffat. They really lean into it. There are two moments in the match where Furnas comes in behind an opponent who is fighting back against Kroffat and grabs him for a belly to back; the fact they repeat the spot later on adds more than it subtracts because it doubles down on the theme and it gets a reaction each time. I do think overall, there are a number of individual reactions instead of the sort of building one you get in the May match. Ultimately, they instead build to some pretty cool spots and a moonsault that the world for how hard Kobashi had to work for it. Ultimately this was good stuff that couldn't live up to what they'd already laid down months before.

PAS: I thought this was tremendous, their May match is of course an all time classic, and it is so neat that this big run of HH’s had given us two other versions of that match up. Kikuchi is of course a legendary face in peril, and he takes the expected level of beating here. Kroffat was especially nasty throwing knuckle punches like he was trying to open up his eyebrow, Furnas also bends him in two with a variation of a torture rack, which really looked like a guy being tortured. Lots of cool cut offs in this, Kikuchi flies into Furnas when he was about to leap into a rana, Kikuchi grabs Kobashi so he won’t get double team, only to pay the price when Kroffat lariats him off the apron. Video blips out a couple of times so we miss a shot or two, but we are still totally blessed to be able to check this out, and all four guys are at their prime.

Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Villano IV/Villano V/Atlantis Tijuana 2001

ER: This was from a real hot time in TJ, tons of big talent was coming through fresh off the demise of WCW, and more talent was coming in from CMLL than any time since. This was also around the time me and some friends made some trips down there to finally check out Auditorio Municipal de Tijuana. I got to see some cool things there, and now Roy Lucier is posting a ton of handhelds that not many others have ever seen. This is a great house show style match with some great bits, spirited performances from everyone, and a nice build to a big dive finish. Satanico was an absolute machine in his early 50s, punching everyone in sight, working as ringleader of his Infernales goons, and throwing in a genuinely hilarious spot where Atlantis gets him to flinch and take two fast back bumps in anticipation of getting hit. All of the comedy worked, and there was a really good Bugs Bunny Duck Season/Rabbit Season joke where guys kept turning over sunset flips to favor their side, so the tecnicos flipped it on them and made Infernales flip their own man over, a really fun take on an old spot. Later I laughed when Atlantis started chasing UG around the ring and UG was running full speed but also Atlantis threw out practically a dozen tilt a whirl backbreakers (I know he's slower now, but I have no clue how he has any knees left at all) and worked with big energy; both Villanos looked good, and one in particular (I'm not going to bother to guess which one, as there's no way I'm reading a roman numeral IV or V on a handheld that I'm watching on my phone) has this awesome sequence where he hits a pop up rana, armdrag, and sticks the exclamation point with a cool cutter. All of Infernales alley oop avalanches got real good height, and I laughed at Bucanero/Guerrero locking on their overly complicated rolling leg bars and armbars, because everytime they would roll through Satanico would stroll over and just grab a free limb and start yanking. This was also during the period where Bucanero was maybe the biggest bumper in wrestling, and here he slides to the floor to challenge a Villano to slugfest, then brings it to the apron and takes his big vaulting bump over the turnbuckles to the floor. This all comes to a head with both Villanos hitting stereo dives, capping off the kind of fun and charismatic 15 minute match that anyone would love to have seen live.

MD: This was a blast. The New Infernales were one of the best acts in the world at the turn of the century. Satanico is probably the best guy in history at directing rudo violence. Atlantis was at the height of his power here and the Villanos were Villanos, nothing more said. The initial beatdown was fluid and solid, with everything the Infernales did smooth and practiced. They made each bit of complex tandem offense look natural, like it's obviously what would happen if these three goons teamed up. Even when something didn't quite work perfectly, it still felt like it fit into the match. I really liked the corner alley-oop. I've seen a million GdI matches and they very rarely use it. It made for a great transition. The back half of the match was mostly them feeding comedy spots for the tecnicos. You can hardly imagine Ultimo Guerrero running from Atlantis like that even a year or two later. His knee-bump over the top was at hyperspeed and Bucanero did this twisting trip flip bump over the other turnbuckle which I don't remember seeing him do too often (probably for good reason). I liked the extra (post-)post-dive wrinkle to the finish as I thought it'd end in the ring between Atlantis and Satanico. Just crowd pleasing lucha with some of the best acts in the world at the time.

PAS: This was a very CMLL trios for 2000 Tijuana. Pretty trippy to see these guys work in a different environment. Infernales were just such a smooth lucha machine, the first fall is rudo dominated and dominated in a pretty perfect fashion. Bucanero and UG's shtick eventually began to tire me in 2000, but I can really appreciate it looking back 20 years later. It was fun to see the Villanos who are such master rudos themselves work as technicos against another rudo force. Atlantis is great in this too, he was so fast and agile back then, and having watched him for so long, I was really getting a lot of joy anticipating where he was about to go. Beautiful bumps to the floor from Gdl, in a way that felt totally safe but looked totally dangerous which is really the best way to do it. Great stuff, had a grin on my face the entire time.

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: 90s Terry Funk

Branding Iron Match: Terry Funk vs. Virgil NWC 2/11/95

ER: Funk had a really fun formula for these 90s indy matches, and it's a formula that really gives the crowd their money's worth. He really makes sure he does a ton of stuff on all sides of the ring and even into the crowd, really giving so many of the fans an up close shot of a legend acting like a lunatic. Funk comes out with his large open flame branding iron and is literally waving it inches from peoples' faces, jamming it at the ring announcer, chasing ref Jesse Hernandez around ringside with it, almost lighting his own hair on fire rolling into the ring with it, constantly looking like a man going through with a completely terrible idea. And then he stooges around the whole damn building for Virgil. 

The match opens with Funk taking a punch from Virgil and falling off the apron through the timekeeper's table. The match literally starts with a table spot, and we brawl through the crowd from there. Chairs get thrown (and they're those solid as hell hotel conference event chairs), Funk takes spills over the ropes, gets hung up in the ropes, elbows the promoter in the head, literally hits a fan that gets too close (and if it was a plant it was extremely well done as Funk got him and then security from all over the building swarmed in and they never went back to it), throws garbage cans all over the place after emptying them, gets busted open (with the announcer regularly noting that Funk was covered in blood and ketchup and mustard), hits a big piledriver on the floor, staggers straight off the apron, eats two nasty DDTs from Virgil, just total chaos. 

The finish is overdone, but played well by Funk. He gets locked in the million dollar dream and headbutts the ref to get out of it, then wallops Virgil with the branding iron. Promising the loser getting BRANDED is an absolutely ridiculous stipulation, as who is going to actually get branded!? But Funk brands Jesse Hernandez who sells it as well as you can sell getting your flesh pretend burnt. This was not a great Virgil performance (and nowhere near as good as his genuinely great WCW heel run) but obviously Funk was going to show up. We even get a fun JYD appearance at the end (NWC was the home of the very last JYD matches) and he blasts Funk right in the chest with a hard lariat.

Terry Funk vs. Mark Henry WWF Raw 6/1/98

ER: This match is so cool, and one of the first genuinely good matches of Mark Henry's career (need to go back and watch his debut match against Lawler, and the Raw match vs. Owen from a few months before this Funk match). This is Terry Funk crafting a tight 5 minute match around a still limited opponent, with Henry shining right at the moments he needed to. Lawler was obviously the expert at these matches (there's a reason so many people were sharing his King Kong Bundy matches after Bundy passed) but he's 53 year old Funk taking it to a massive Olympian. There are moments where you can see Funk guiding Henry through things, but they happen early and by the time this match gets going Henry looks like a natural. Funk dishes out chops and a neckbreaker, then more chops and another neckbreaker...except he instead heel kicks Henry in the balls while standing with the neckbreaker. Ridiculous. 

This gets really crazy when they go to the floor, as Funk tries a Vader bomb from the middle rope to the floor (!), but gets caught by Henry and slammed into the ringpost. Very unexpected. Henry takes an awesome bump tumbling into the ring steps, and Funk throws out arguably his craziest moment of his WWF run when he hits an Asai moonsault on Henry, crashing with almost ALL of his weight directly into the guardrail. I mean holy shit. Lawler's "How many 106 year olds do you know?!" response to JR's "middle aged and crazy" quip is genuinely funny, but seriously this spot was pure insanity. Henry had to have zero experience catching a moonsault, and Funk just burns leg and hip first into the guardrail. Truly nuts. Back in the ring we get a cool shoulderblock spot, with both slamming into each other, Funk going flying, and Henry merely staggering. The smack on that collision was LOUD, and I dug all of Henry's elbowdrops and standing splashes, and it was super impressive seeing how fast Henry could scramble to his feet. I really love how these two matched up. At this point Funk wasn't really being put in a position to carry young talent in a match, and it was awesome to see that he could still craft a cool match around a talented but green newbie.

 

Terry Funk/Bradshaw vs. Too Much WWF Shotgun 7/14/98

ER: You knew this was going to be a mauling, and it was a fun one. Bradshaw honestly may have been at his best in '98/'99, as his work may have gotten somewhat smarter a few years later, but he lost a lot of that intensity and energy. He was super imposing and moved really quick, so he could have fast exchanges with smaller guys like Scott Taylor, all while it was obvious that the quick exchange was going to end with Taylor getting flattened. This was a lot of Too Much stooging, which, of course that's what it was going to be dummy, and it was great seeing those two stooge while getting occasionally punched. I think the most offense they got was a couple of tandem dropkicks on Bradshaw, and an eyerake to set those up, but there was so much movement that it never felt like an outright squash, even though 95% of this was dominated by Funk & Bradshaw. Brian Christopher takes three big bumps to the floor, Scott gets to throw a couple nice punches at Funk's jaw, Funk locks Taylor in a rolling abdominal stretch that sees Christopher running after them in circles not knowing how to stop it, all great stuff. I really liked Funk hitting a southpaw lariat to send Christopher over the top, and Bradshaw during this era really carried himself like a guy who I desperately would have sought out in All Japan and later NOAH. I like Bobby Duncum Jr., but damn Bradshaw would have been so much cooler in late 90s All Japan than Duncum. The clothesline from hell was a clothesline that should finish a match, and both of these teams ruled.

Read more!

Lucha Worth Watching: Arandu vs. Miedo Extremo! Blue Panther in Alabama!?

Arandu vs. Miedo Extremo AKE 4/6/19

ER: I am listing this as Lucha Worth Watching, though I wouldn't actually personally recommend it. It's a match that's been recommended to me a couple times, and one I've seen talked about in the weird corners of the internet that talk about small attendance Tijuana lucha shows. It's a match I've seen praised, so I wanted to at least show my work that it crossed our desk. And while there were several individual moments to like, but this did not need to go 25+ minutes, and it really felt like they wanted to do every kind of match they could in that time, regardless of it fitting or not. This starts on the mat, with Arandu working as dime store Navarro and Miedo working more MMA style submissions. It's fine, and it builds nicely to an Arandu tope after shoving Miedo off the top to the floor, with nice brawling around ringside (especially liked Miedo's hard kicks to Arandu's spleen). There were a couple of big bumps before then, including Arandu hitting a real beast of a lariat after a brief chop exchange, really flipped Miedo upside down and inside out. But the match suddenly devolves into a bad American indy match, and I hate when my indy lucha suddenly gets plagued by the worst American indy tendencies. They do a German suplex exchange completely out of nowhere, and both sold them less than any move that had happened to that point in the match. These were two neck crunching Germans, Arandu in particular really ate a rough bump on his head, and there was nothing else to this point in the match anywhere close to as big, but they each treated them like a simple armdrag exchange and quickly moved on while I checked out. The improbably take this to a gigantic garbage spot, with Miedo taking some time to set a large piece of particle board on two freaking tractor tires (were those there the whole time?!) and putting lighttubes on top of that. Of course he's the one who goes through it, and it is a pretty spectacular bump off the top, bouncing off those tires and coming up with a bloody back. It gets a 2 count. A package piledriver immediately after gets 2. A nice tapatia gets the win for Arandu, but it's anticlimactic after the big stuff they suddenly felt justified in doing. This wasn't it for me, but your mileage may vary.

Blue Panther vs. Antonio Garza IMLL 6/8/19

ER: We are living in an era where old lucha maestros get flown in to work shows in states they've likely never been to, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Blue Panther showed up working in Alabama, but it still is. And we get 12 minutes of a really fun match before a silly kendo stick run in by two masked tubs (Kato Kung Lee Jr. and Elemento?) which I'm sure might eventually beget a tag match that won't be as interesting as the singles match they interrupted. I wrote earlier this year about Panther finally transitioning into Rusher Kimura, but I'm clearly incorrect. I think the problem is Blue Panther in CMLL, as he's trying to do rope running and base for flippers and work way younger than he should be working, but in a maestro environment he's still clearly sharp. If he had Negro Navarro's touring schedule and the ability to work more Navarro maestro matches, he would still look in his element, as he does here. Garza has been around for awhile working small southern indies and small southern lucha, and they bill this as Garza facing his idol. As recently as 2016/2017 we got to see a lot of Panther matwork in CMLL matches, even getting to see him in lightning matches. That's not really the case now and I lapped up every second of seeing one of my all time favorites break out some mat tricks that even I hadn't seen. When I watch BP in a match like this I am endlessly satisfied if I get just one cool trick, and I love when I see something like BP hooking his left leg behind Garza, then maneuver into better position by shifting his left ankle with his right. I love that stuff and it's a crime we never got luchadors working the World of Sport guys, it would have been mat trick paradise. BP even maneuvers him into a cool inverted Gory special, and the strength to hold Garza up while Garza starts to climb out of it and ends up on and near Panther's shoulders was really impressive. Garza hits a nice cannonball off the apron, and I was really excited for how this was going to wrap up, but then the run in happened. Normally I'm through the roof for fatties getting involved in a match, but this wasn't the time. Still, this is more than worth it to see Panther working the mat for many minutes in an Alabama strip mall in 2019.

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: The Johnny Polo vs. Marty Jannetty Feud!

ER: Raven didn't work many matches during his first WWF stint, and it's a shame because his house show appearances are filled with on paper gold. I'd love to see a 1993/1994 matches like Polo vs. 1-2-3 Kid, Polo vs. Owen, Polo/Jacques Rougeau vs. The Steiners, one of those cool house-only Royal Rumbles, and I don't think we have any of that. He worked exactly two matches that made TV, and both of them were against Marty Jannetty. The two of them later worked a match in ECW, and two more in WCW after that. It's probably one of the few singles matches to have happened in every single major 90s wrestling fed. That's weird, and really cool.

Johnny Polo vs. Marty Jannetty WWE Raw 12/13/93

ER: Polo had been taunting Jannetty for weeks, claiming he could beat 1-2-3 Kid and Jannetty at the same time. Then during a singles match between Kid and Jannetty (or, you know, Marty Confetti and the Snot Nose Kid as he referred to them, while also calling Vince "McMoron", which we can probably flag as the beginning of Vince hating Raven) he interfered against both men, eventually shoving Jannetty out of the way of a Kid tope con giro, meaning Jannetty went into the rail, Kid took a mean Chris Hamrick-style back bump to the floor (that made me wonder if it's actually Chris Hamrick that was taking Waltman-style bumps...), and both were counted out. So, one could argue that Polo did beat both men at once. Polo's ring gear is a zazzy singlet top (think if RVD was designing something for the Steiners), tucked into billowy pleated white pants, which are tucked into black wrestling boots. Was Polo-the-manager put in loose Day-Glo windbreakers to hide his size, because he is much larger than Jannetty here. Also, this match is super fun and kind of weird! Most fans watching would have had no idea at the time that Polo was a wrestler, they'd think of him as a manager, and here was a manager working equally with a guy who had been the IC Champ just a few months prior (on commentary, Jacques amusingly says that Jannetty is now on the downside of his career which, well...). But I don't really care about that as these two match up in fun ways, and Jannetty is a real daredevil during this period. Jannetty crashes to the floor in a big over the top bump, and later his a plancha off the top to take out Quebecer Pierre. Polo did his great "Raven kinda did a pescado" where vaults himself over the top and tumbles to the floor onto Jannetty, and there was a bunch of great stooging from Polo throughout. I really liked Polo missing a punch by a mile to set up an atomic drop, selling the atomic drop with a 0.7 Rick Rude sell, then missing the exact same punch - again by a mile - to set up a Jannetty backdrop suplex. A lot of Jannetty's offense was basically grabbing Polo by his hair and slamming his face or hair into the mat, and Polo is a good guy to tantrum sell that kind of offense. The whole match is filled with several convincing nearfalls, as Polo felt like a guy who could be put down with a school boy or a crossbody, and they kept an exciting pace for the 6 minute run time. Pierre did held hold Polo's hands during the winning roll up, so I guess we're just going to have to run this back in a month!

Johnny Polo vs. Marty Jannetty WWE Raw 1/31/94

ER: Polo has opted for a chambray dad jacket and colorfully striped polo (sleeves cut off) for his ring gear, and this is another fun match to...well, end their feud. Grand opening, grand closing! This was all big bumps from Jannetty, basic offense from Polo (all axe handles, kneelifts, and back rakes baby, and we're better for it!), a fun pace, and a nearly 10 minute run time (which, again, is weird because Polo was not an onscreen wrestler!). Match starts with Jannetty getting the mic from Polo and hitting a lariat with the mic cord, then tying Polo's legs together with the cord. This is extremely excellent bullshit, and gives us an opportunity to see Polo stooging and flopping around for microphone based offense. Jannetty goes back to his plan of grabbing Polo by the head and ramming it into things, getting an enthusiastic 10 count from the crowd after knocking Polo's face into all the turnbuckles, mixing in a heavy crossbody and nice flying back elbow. Early in the match Polo bails to the back, but charges at Jannetty and takes a nice backdrop bump on the floor. But this match has a ton more Polo control than the first match, and that's pretty cool. There was a great moment where Polo ran hard into Jannetty with a kneelift, and Jannetty flew out of the ring hard like he was channeling Buzz Sawyer. Polo had a lot of fun with his control segments and even broke out some sick wedding dancing at one point, getting heat with an electric slide in 1994 in a WWF ring is pure joy. There were a couple weird moments, there's a cross up on a backdrop that sees somebody out of place and Jannetty kind of dangerously and weirdly taking the bump on his own, but they also do a good job of calling back spots, and that's satisfying. Polo had that backdrop earlier, Jannetty turns it into a sunset flip later; Polo hit an axe handle to a kneeling Jannetty earlier, later Jannetty gets the boot up and Polo bounces halfway across the ring. The finish is a really odd one as it comes totally out of nowhere and really looks like one of those moments where they got called to go home and it ended 5 seconds later. That happens, but usually it looks better than this: Polo hits a kneedrop/Bret Hart elbowdrop, and Jannetty just stands up not selling it, and hits the rocker dropper. Oof. Still, match was a ton of fun, and I have no idea why they only had Polo work TV twice during his first WWE run, both times against Marty Jannetty.

Read more!

Monday AIW - JT Lightning Invitational Tournament Night 1 6/14/19

Lee Moriarty vs. Colin Delaney

PAS: Fun opener with Delaney being pretty great in the role of the nasty veteran against a flashy young guy. I really liked all of the arm drag stuff at the beginning, Moriarty had a bunch of fun armdrag variations which Delaney took great, and I liked the idea of Delaney trying to hang early, getting frustrated and just bashing the side of Moriarty's head against the ringpost. I did think some of the Johnny Saint stuff by Moriarty felt unnecessarily cutesy, but this was mostly good stuff and I was really impressed by heel Colin.

ER: I really liked this, thought they had some really inventive exchanges, and I liked that they wouldn't end those flowery exchanges with a stand-off or another dumb exchange, it would usually end in a hard elbow show. It's so awesome that Colin Delaney went from being one of the weirder WWE signings, to a guy who is clearly a much better worker than most of the NXT roster. If it's what he wants, I really hope he gets back there, as he's become one of my favorite guys on the indy scene. Delaney can work super quick exchanges with anyone, but it's rooted in a veteran bully persona that always makes the sequences more satisfying than "athletic guys having an athletic match". All of the armdrags from both looked really good, and we had some quick sequences that took some unexpected turns, but the match was made by little cocky Delaney gestures. I loved when he dropped Moriarty with a hard suplex, and Moriarty's body kind of recoiled back up into a seated position, so Delaney just threw a chop to knock him back down flat. The Johnny Saint stuff did feel a little out of place (even Kingston on commentary tossed out a "uhhh guess we're doing Johnny Saint now") but again, I love when a flipper gets cute and gets elbowed for his troubles. Delaney's Diamond Dust-style cutter out of a suplex always looks cool, he really gets the physics of his move, and I actually liked him climbing up to the top rope to hit another cutter while Moriarty was frozen in a silly Mortal Kombat "FINISH HIM!" pose. Would have loved to see Delaney in later rounds, but this opener delivered.

Pat Buck vs. Swoggle

PAS: It's a Swoggle match, so we are going to get some comedy spots, a improbable suplex or two, and some weird stiff shots from a tiny guy. Buck has been around forever, he was an ex-OVW guy, but a Swoggle match isn't where you are going to show your stuff. I liked some of the AJ Styles comedy spots, Swoggle setting up for a springboard elbow is amusing, and I liked him trying for leapfrogs, but this isn't really for me.

Joshua Bishop vs. Tre Lamar

PAS: No Consequences explodes!! Bishop is really getting good, he is starting to work really stiff, and has great impact on his throws. Lamar is a fun pinball for Bishops big spots, including bumping huge on chokeslam and spinning sidewalk slam. I also liked the story of Bishop getting advantages when he used his speed and hit and run, but getting goaded into throwing hands and getting smashed. I did think the Wes Barkley interference was unnecessary and took some of the steam out of the finish which got a little overbaked. Still this was an impressive performance by two guys pretty new to wrestling.

ER: Phil is right about Bishop and Lamar being maybe the youngest guns experience-wise on this show (other than probably Zach Thomas), and I was super impressed with both here. Lamar is a real risk taker and he isn't just a guy with nice flips, he really makes his kicks count. Bishop really reminds me of Scotty Flamingo in style and confidence, and that's a fun thing to be in 2019 indy wrestling. Lamar takes a couple cool bumps into the crowd, and he could really make some big Bishop moves shine. Towards the end of the match Bishop hits this zillion spin sideslam that landed in such an aesthetically pleasing way, like how a baseball bat can feel almost spring loaded when you make absolute perfect contact on the sweet spot. I liked all of Lamar's kicks, think Bishop is like a cool Baron Corbin, so I dug this. Now, I also think the finish went completely off the rails at one point, and the interference and set up for it was the derailer. The match didn't need that, they were doing really good things on their own. Kept this from being really highly recommended.

Savio Vega vs. MJF

PAS: They seem to have MJF work the nostalgia acts they bring in, and he is a good choice as he can bump around and work shtick around their limitations. This was similar to the Shane Douglas match, although Savio may be a bit less mobile at this point. He still works pretty stiff, so when unloads it looks good. I am a Savio fan, but I didn't get the sense he has a big Dustin or PCO style run in him.

ER: Man I loved this. It's perfectly timed at 7 minutes, it's up there with my favorite MJF performances, and I thought Savio looked really cool on offense and totally nailed his spinning heel kick as well as he nailed it in 1996, only with 50 lb. of additional bulk. This whole match is Savio throwing hard chops, a big headbutt, nice punches, and these great open hand thrusts to MJF's throat. MJF throws a bunch of great downward angle left hands and hard kicks to the stomach as if he was actually working a show in Puerto Rico. I didn't need anything more than kick and punch, because both guys worked some compelling kick and punch. The spinkick was so much better than I expected, and I really liked both guys here. I've enjoyed a ton of Abdullah the Butcher matches where he did less than Savio did here, Savio needs to just embrace being the new Abby and his career has a second life.

Mance Warner vs. Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham

PAS: This was a relaxed rules match with DCR trying to prove how tough he is by jumping Mance. He gets in some big shots, but most of the match is Mance pummeling Dr. Dan, including running him into chairs held by audience members and stapling self help pamphlets to Dr. Dan's forehead. I find staple gun stuff kind of gross, and the match was kind of a waste.

KTB vs. Flip Kendrick

PAS: Fun big guy vs. little guy match with KTB having a bunch of great ways to toss around Kendrick, and Kendrick having a bunch of ways to squirm his way out of trouble. Really good KTB performance, he has good wild energy and keeps on the attack. I loved the powerbomb where he steps on the bottom rope to add torque, and the top rope TKO where he stepped on the middle rope before hurling Kendrick was spot of the show so far. I would have liked a little more flash from Flip, he can be one of the most spectacular wrestlers in the world, and he felt a subdued on offense. Still very nifty match.

Marko Stunt vs. Tim Donst

PAS: Match had some real moments of excitement. Stunt is the size of a third grader, but is an electric bumper and really gets tossed to the celling by Donst on some of these moves. I also really dug some of Stunts dives into the audience. Unfortunately there was also some real stinkers: they do a Malenko/Guerrero roll up sequence which was as bad looking as anything I can remember seeing, some moments where both guys were bumping early for spots, and the finishing roll up looked slow and awkward. In this case, I think the bad outweighed the good and I can't recommend the match.

Kid Kash vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: Lots of this I liked, although I don’t think it came together as a great match. Kash is really good at eating someone up, it has a very Benoit or Dynamite feel to it, he really works over Lyndon with simple violent offense. Lyndon is a guy I normally like, but he felt a little out of his depth here. There was another awful looking Malenko/Guerrero roll up section here, which should be banned from wrestling for life. Kash’s finishing brainbuster was super violent, and I would love to see him back against Kingston or Lawlor, someone who can give it back to him.

Matthew Justice vs. Danhausen

PAS: This was a no DQ match, and basically was Justice vs. all three members of the Production (RIP Frankie Flynn and Magnum CK). Like you might expect it was a bunch of really crazy bumps by everyone involved. Justice takes a superplex onto the ring apron (which was truly nuts, this was a first round match for fucks sake), Danhausen gets suplexed over the top onto Derek Director and Eddy Only. There was one pretty egregious Justice no-sell of a german suplex, otherwise this was fun garbage stuff. I really love the Production as an act, and they are all really fun crash dummies.

ER: I thought this was great, but I also fully admit that I'm over the moon for The Production at this point. I think they're the best Special K since Special K, and I loved Special K. They attack the same way, like dangerous and mildly ineffective ninjas, but they all have unique repertoires that all complement what the others are doing, and it makes the matches into fun car crash spectacles. This was the biggest Danhausen showcase I've seen, and he has a lot of cool stuff, but really everybody involved breaks out some crazy moments. Justice is really fearless, and I could not believe they went through with that top rope suplex to the apron. Both guys' legs looked wobbly and so much could have gone wrong, but you know this is going to be a production, baby! I loved Justice throwing the Pros into each other, at one point stacking them rudely, wedged into the corner of the guardrail, tossing them all on the pile; later he tossed Danhausen to the floor onto Eddy and Derek (and now I want a Danny & Derek & Eddy shirt). I think they're really good at causing constant problems for opponents, while seeming completely beatable, while not looking like pushovers. It's a real tough balance that I think they nail, and it's part of what makes them so damn appealing. Crazy bumps and neat spots throughout, their match seems like it's regularly the most fun 10 minutes on a card.

36. Eddie Kingston vs. Zach Thomas

PAS: Eddie Kingston continues to be unassailable. Thomas is basically a rookie (he doesn’t even have a Cagematch profile), and Kingston brings him along to a really great match. Kingston beats on the kid early, and Thomas comes off really tough taking Eddie’s chops and punches. Thomas is a thick kid and is able to take over with some big power moves, including a nasty spinebuster. There was maybe a kick out or two too many at the end, but Eddie is so great at portraying frustration that I minded it less then I normally do. I also really liked Thomas’s glassy eyed selling, and his runs of offense were pretty great. I like the idea of Eddie making young guys on his final run, he did it with Thomas Shire, and this match should vault Thomas into someone to watch.

ER: This was really good, a really impressive performance for Thomas and another notch in Kingston's arguable best ever year. Thomas has a nice moveset; he's a big kid, and does a lot of throws that look really heavy, no obvious leaping into any of them, just big throws that lift heavy and land hard. Unfortunately for him, Kingston has that same skillset, and makes sure to try and top him and knock him back into place any chance he gets. Kingston works him into a nice belly to belly, later hits a crazy one off the top that could have gone badly for both (and really, set up with a savage chop to Thomas's neck, the belly to belly was definitely worse for Thomas), and I loved the moment where Thomas tried to set up his unnecessarily complicated powerbomb (can we put an end to moves that need a large man seated on someone's shoulders to complete? Unless someone can actually find a way to make it plausible?) but can't get King on his shoulders, so King turns it to his advantage and folds him in half with a tiger suplex. King threw tons of big chops and hard punches, and the backfist was always a danger; he generously leaned chin first into all of Thomas's pump kicks, and I really dug Thomas's big offense explosion down the stretch, running in with all kinds of kicks and a big cannonball to cap it off. Kingston had so many great reactions throughout, surprise at being hit harder than expected, anger at being hit harder than expected, trash talk before hitting back harder than Thomas expects, there's always so much going on with his body language and facials. At one point he sells a rydeen bomb like it immediately caused a pinched nerve near his shoulder blade to act up, and sells a spinebuster with equal parts annoyance and pain; he sells one punch like it split his finger nail, and I absolutely love that stuff. I think this should have ended on that backfist to follow up the tiger suplex, but I also think that Thomas earned it to wind up standing at the end of this, really hard fight from both guys.

Nick Gage vs. AJ Gray

PAS: Gray is clearly excited to work a Nick Gage match, and brings some real zest to the normal proceedings. He jumps Gage at the bell and works him over with the chain, until he misses a senton off the ring apron and smooshes a chair. Gray takes most of the biggest bumps in this match, including two nasty unprotected chair shots and a piledriver on a cinder block, although Gage eats a brain buster on a chair. Cool Gray performance, and Gage did his thing.

40. Dominic Garrini vs. Erick Stevens

PAS: Hell of a nasty fight. Stevens is coming back after a 10 year retirement, and had a list of guys he wanted to work, which seems tailored to hard hitting quasi shoot guys, and they really lace into each other. A year or so ago, Garrini’s big issue was that his strikes were hit and miss, he has fixed that completely, and now he throws cool different stuff with real pop to it. I loved how he mixed in his Ju-Jitsu in this match, trying for a calf slicer, sinking in a triangle choke, and jumping a rear naked choke. I especially loved the spot with the triangle: Dom locks it on, Stevens tries to slam him out of it, only for Dom to sink it in more, and finally Stevens breaks in by spiking Garrini’s neck on the bottom turnbuckle. Stevens has some stuff which looks slightly dated, but he unloads with cracking chops and thick knees, and a couple of his slams and backbreakers looked great. Great main event, and I am excited to see what Stevens does on his comeback tour.

ER: I dug this, tons of good ideas, though I did think it went on a bit long after Stevens took some pretty major damage. I really liked late 2000s FIP Stevens, until he went nuts and ate nothing but nuts and got down to 0% body fat. I'm glad he's back and seemingly wanting to fight a ton of guys who will hit him really hard. Garrini is a guy I still have some issues with, I think he still needs to get better about not just waiting around to get hit (he does it more obviously than most, but honestly he's still fairly new at this and it will improve), but he's certainly great at hitting hard and that's a much bigger point in his favor. I thought he was almost too effective here, as he laid such a good beating on Stevens that I thought it was fairly unbelievable when Stevens was up doing his own big moves after. It felt like Garrini burned some really awesome stuff like a short piledriver and a sick brainbuster. Those deserved better treatment from Stevens. I loved Garrini's knucklelock turned into a tight triangle, loved all his submission stuff really, but the stuff around the triangle was really cool, and ended with a painful as hell buckle bomb by Stevens. Stevens is lean but he always feels believable slamming Garrini, and Garrini being bigger made it look like he landed harder. There was some fat I wanted trimmed, a fighting from knees exchange and Stevens getting a run of stuff right after Garrini had him convincingly beat, but this was overall a really cool match up that I had no idea I wanted.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

WWE Stomping Grounds Live Blog 6/23/19

ER: I don't know a ton about this card, only know the early online "WWE is dying and putting on terrible cards!" vulture chat. I write up all these damn things, and usually it's these kind of under the radar cards that end up delivering, whether its because of the low expectations of me the viewer or the wrestlers themselves knowing there are low expectations. Either way, let's hope for some good wrestling to kill time with until I gotta watch Meryl Streep's weird ass fake teeth.

Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese

ER: This definitely starts out as Gulak and Tozawa working a Tony Nese match, which I understand that's how this was likely to go. Nese is the champ, you work the champ's stupid match. I'd much rather see them just running a Tozawa/Gulak match, or Nese vs. Gulak, or Nese vs. Tozawa, but we get the worst option and it's fine. Gulak and Tozawa are GOOD at working a Tony Nese match, so it works. Nese even wears 205 Live colored gear which...feels like I hate Tony Nese. But after they got the early dance party out of their system, this settled into a really exciting 3 way. Pretty much from the moment Tozawa hit his great high impact cannonball off the apron into Gulak, I was on board. It was very "I hit this guy into that guy and that guy winds up suplexing me into the first guy" but I thought they were mostly good at avoiding dumb waiting around set-ups. This got into some pure fire territory when Gulak sunk in a nasty dragon sleeper on Nese, with his ankles locked tight in a rough body vice. Nese kept breaking out in various ways forcing Gulak to adjust the hold as his own limbs would break free, totally great way to advance drama throughout one submission. And then, with the absolutely best exclamation point, Tozawa flew from out of nowhere with a heavy ass hell senton off the top, right into Nese, with Gulak underneath. Great involvement of all three guys. Tozawa was really fun here, and really he always is. He's a guy I hope lingers under the radar on the roster for a decade, like Funaki. He's already almost 3 years in! His solo stuff with Gulak is fun, loved his exchange with Nese that ended with him popping Nese in the jaw with a right, he took a cool backwards bump falling off the apron, just a great guy to put in matches like this. I wish they let Gulak tee off on Nese a little more, but I'm too genuinely excited for Drew Gulak: Cruiserweight Champion to much care. Gulak has been nothing but great during his WWE run, and I'm so happy that it will presumably start paying off with more feature matches. This match got better the longer it went, I thought, as we started feeling like a 6 minute rush job and we instead got a fun 12 minute fireworks show.

Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans

ER: This was messy, but in a way that I think benefitted the match. Lacey doesn't have great application on everything, but the story of her just attacking Lynch's stomach was more than enough, as Lacey was really good on every single shot she threw to the stomach. When a match has a ton of someone punching and kicking at someone's stomach, that's a cool thing I'm going to enjoy. I think it was also a really smart way to get around having Lacey do more complicated offense, just have her able to cut off Lynch with a low punch to the gut or wrapping her around a ringpost or jamming her boot in Lynch's ribs. I liked Lacey fighting to get out of the Disarm-her, and like how Lynch would throw her around (although Lynch did a few of her really dumb extended Woody Allen reactions after an Evans kickout, sitting there and doing this stupid stammering "Um well, yes, I guess, um, well, you see, I thought that would, gulp, thought that would get the, heh, you see, the pin" face. It's awful). They really push the pace in this too, and so the kind of messy moments combined with the fast pace gave this a cool runaway train vibe. I wish Lynch would have paid more lip service to her worked over stomach, but I liked this.

Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens vs. Big E/Xavier Woods

ER: They're keeping everything on this show at 10-12 minutes so far, and I think that benefits everyone. No guarantee we keep it that way, but three matches in and it's turned this into a fun, quick moving card. We get a long FIP segment from Woods, with both Zayn and Owens being really fun in their roles of taunting Big E on the apron. Owens especially would stomp on Woods' face, then look over at E holding his face and mocking him. But I also like how Owens and Zayn went for quick pinfalls right out of the gate, throwing out superkicks and sentons and cannonballs and a big Owens top rope splash. Obviously the Big E hot tag was going to be great, he's always been awesome and running through people in quick order, with Zayn right in the line of belly to belly suplex fire. Nothing on this show has hit next level, but it has made the show highly watchable, and that's really all I care about in the end.

Ricochet vs. Samoa Joe

ER: We've hardly seen any Joe vs. Ricochet, almost all of their matches have been on house shows, so this has a cool fresh feeling to it. This match really felt like they gave people the match they would want to see. It got tons of time, and both guys did their cool stuff against a new opponent, and Ricochet got a big ol' clean win! This is all crowd pleasing stuff! And, perhaps not surprisingly, the crowd has been making genuine noise all damn night. That's a good sign! They also threw in a bunch of slo mo replays, so it gave parts of the match a "AJPW 1995 Comm Tape" feel to it that I will always love. Ricochet taking a uranage on his shoulders? Great. Seeing an All Japan sweat flying off bodies slo mo replay? Impossibly better. Joe hitting a hard elbow? Awesome. All Japan slo mo of floppy haired Joe channeling floppy haired Misawa and crushing Ricochet with an elbow while sweat flies off? Impossibly better. This was what I assume everyone wanted. Joe hitting all of his classic Joe offense in classic fashion (really loved him hitting a big German suplex and turning around and laying him out with a lariat), Ricochet landing his flying moves where they were supposed to land (though he kind of whiffed on a springboard elbow). I do think they really front-loaded the Joe offense as Ricochet felt a little bit too Superman coming back after all of this beating. I wish they could have kept him a little more in this over the length of the match.

Heavy Machinery vs. Daniel Bryan/Erick Rowan

ER: Fans going nuts for home state boy Bryan is fun to see, and continues the trend of the crowd starting loud for this show and getting louder. I am far more excited for this match than I should be, as Bryan vs. Otis is a match-up I can't help but get excited for. Otis is someone I'm really happy is on the roster, the type of shape that just hasn't been around enough lately (I mean his shape is plenty around, but you know what I mean). Otis' arms are shaped exactly like his legs, he has cool strength, and he seems like a great unique partner for Bryan. And I'm not wrong, as the Otis/Bryan moments are incredibly fun. The whole match is incredibly fun! This is another fresh match and it leads to a ton of new cool stuff. I could watch Bryan kick away at Otis's pork barrel chest all damn day, and Bryan throws more kicks on Otis in this match than any match this year, and Otis hits a big damn press slam, big powerslam on Rowan, big capture suplex on Bryan, the big high angle sitout powerbomb on Bryan was awesome, he passes off a vertical suplex to Tucker, and  - even though the fans are booing Heavy Machinery the whole match (and I loved that Otis was somehow getting the most heat of the night so far) - he still did that damn worm. Tucker showed a ton of agility I didn't realize he had, there was this killer early moment where he somersaulted over Bryan to get into position to lariat him out of his boots, and later he missed a big moonsault, took a big bump over the top to the floor, and was a part of a neat double team powerslam on Bryan. I do wish they would have made slight alterations to the match structure once it was so obvious that the crowd was going to treat Bryan like the face and HM like the heels, it made things a little silly when Tucker was fighting to the Otis hot tag while the crowd booed. Still Otis clearly knew what was going on and made a bunch of faces to show that he was just rubbing it in to the fans. His dorky chunkster hype movements while Bryan was lacing kicks into his chest made me laugh, and I just thought the pairing was insanely entertaining the whole match.

Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley

ER: This one didn't do much for me. Bliss worked too long and too dry a control segment, and Bayley's comebacks often leave me flat as they can look clumsy and revolve way too much around her opponent getting into an unnatural series of positions to take her specifically ordered offense. There were good moments, dug Bayley taking out Cross with a dive, dug Bliss hitting knees on the rotating splash, but this was pretty dry overall. This was the first match on the card I couldn't get into.

Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns

ER: This show appears to be dying fast after a legitimately fun and exciting first couple hours, as this is filled to the brim with Shane interference, none of which is interesting. It really chumps McIntyre when he not only can't put Roman away, but has to also get out of the way while Shane does his thing, and still can't beat Roman. It's not a very satisfying match structure. Just like the prior match, there were some exciting moments: Roman hit one of those big Undertaker no hands dive (and he gets nutso height), but this all felt too predictable, and it spent too much time propping up a feud I have no interest in.


ER: And with that, I'm sad to say that I have already filled my life's quota of Dolph Ziggler/Kofi Kingston matches. We've been seeing 10 minute + singles matches from these two for literally a decade, sometimes enduring stretches of TV where they were happening every other week, and they do not have anything new to add to their match story. And there is no chance I'm going to sit through a Seth Rollins main event when I can be watching a bananas new season of Luther. I had a great time with the stuff I liked, and I pulled the plug by using common wrestling sense. Bless.

Read more!

WWE BIG 3: Gulak, Gallagher, & Lorcan, 6/16 - 6/22

PAS: This project is going to a bit of feast and famine. After getting four matches last week, Gallagher and Gulak were AWOL from 205 this week, and no one showed up on NXT or NXT UK. Still the match we got was pretty great.

45. Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Daivari 205 Live 6/18

ER: This match didn't thrill me on paper in the same way last week's bounty of matches did, but I really liked this. It's probably true that you could give Lorcan 10 minutes with anybody on the roster and it would be a compelling match, but I appreciated what Daivari brought to this, and it certainly wasn't a one man show. The specific, personal timing of this match was good for me as well, as I tweaked my left elbow earlier this week while exercising (that's what I get for attempting exercise), and every single time I slightly flexed my damn left arm I felt that sharp little needling pain in my elbow. Every time I put on or took off a shirt, there was that elbow. So seeing Lorcan get his left elbow worked over for the bulk of this really landed well with me. This started out looking like it was going to be Lorcan easily running through Daivari, which honestly would have been fine with me; Lorcan's uppercuts, chops, hard landing dropkicks, and lariats would be cool to watch for a few minutes, but  I'm glad we got another layer with the arm work. Daivari had a lot of cool ways to wrench an elbow, and Lorcan is really great at running hard into things, so I was into him getting that shoulder and arm rammed into the buckles. Daivari breaks out a big single arm DDT off the middle rope, and that's a cool move that has mostly disappeared from wrestling, so that made me happy. The arm work didn't overstay, and I loved little things like seeing how damn hard Lorcan could still land chops while his dead left arm flopped limp at his side. Lorcan's comeback was dope, he's one of the most explosive guys in WWE, an absolute monster when he smells blood in the water, so once he gets those crazy eyes you know you're getting a big lariat, violent blockbuster, and another crushing uppercut. Also, can we please retire the "guy hits move, runs to opposite ropes, gets hit with move on way back" bullshit? Lorcan hit a crippling uppercut which saw Daivari so a really cool sell, recoiling into the ropes and falling back into Lorcan, only getting held up because he happened to fall into him...only to ruin it by hitting a derpy superkick 1 second later. Hate that shit. It's always going to be weird seeing a half nelson suplex done on WWE TV, and I love the messiness of Lorcan's tope con hilo, it always makes up for the lack of grace with a heavy landing. I'm not really sure why we couldn't get a clean ending, unless this is building to a No DQ match or something (which I would be A-OK with), but they ended the segment super strong with Daivari delivering an awesome hammerlock lariat on the ramp, hooking Lorcan's worked over arm before hitting it, and there aren't many in wrestling who can get absolutely upended by a clothesline better than Lorcan.

PAS: Lorcan is consistently great, there is a reason we started a feature dedicated to writing up everytime he wrestles, but this was a pretty great Davari performance. I loved Davari's sleazy silk patterned shirt, he looks like an asshole who manages his dad's hookah bar, which is a way better heel gimmick then the 1000th version of a Sheik. The top rope divorce court which set up the arm work was awesome, as was a lot of small work on the shoulder, good stomps, good punches. I loved how Lorcan sold the shoulder, he would sell it on stuff that didn't necessarily attack it, the bad shoulder made it harder for him to break the Million Dollar Dream, one time he blocked a punch with the bad arm and just crumpled to the turnbuckle in pain.  Lorcan's comeback was appropriately frenzied, and I had no beef with the DQ finish. The post match beatdown was super nasty, and it is clear that they are running this feud back again, which I have no problem with.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

New Footage Friday: 1986 Crockett Cup!!

MD: Anyone reading this site will know the backstory here and how we thought it was always possible we were going to get this but never entirely sure. I know second-hand that people like Cornette had doubts as late as this year whether or not it existed. We lose five matches here, including Dundee/Landell vs Doc and Taylor and the Sheepherders vs the Guerreros, but what we got was great. Obviously we dropped everything to review it.

Fantastics vs. Fabulous Ones

PAS: This is a cool concept with heel Fabs facing the team that ripped off their entire gimmick. I didn't think there were any particularly excellent performances in this match, but the Southern tag formula is so solid, that even a baseline match in that style is going to be entertaining. I did like how vicious the Fabs were, gouging at eyes and spitting. I would be pissed if some LSAT tutor named himself Bill Schriber and stole all of my test tricks. Tommy Rogers had this weird open eyed smile on his face for much of the match like Forrest Gump, and Bobby Fulton sold pain with this over emotional cry face, I have a feeling the close up filming of these matches will do the Fantastics no favors. I really liked the finish, with Rogers doing a blind hot tag blocking a backdrop and rolling up Keirn

MD: Quick spoiler. This was the Fantastics' night. I can imagine other people are going to disagree, but out of their three great matches, this might have been my favorite. It was the most traditional of the three. There was such a novelty to see them against the Fabs, and picture perfect, totally on point, scraggly heel Fabs. I write this at the back end of four hours of wrestling, most of which being tags, so my memories aren't great, but this was just solid, solid tag work with two teams that were, on paper, mirror images of one another.

The shine was beautiful. The transition with a Lane superkick over the top rope while the ref was distracted was great. This was a show where every limb in the world was going to be worked over. Here it was the neck including the first of ten neck-clotheslines-over-the-top rope. This was the only one that ended with Keirn mocking the Fargo Strut though. Fulton, as much as almost anyone I've ever seen, was the distilled embodiment of (endearingly folksy yet somehow still emotionally true) Southern Pro Wrestling. Sometimes it's almost too much, almost too engaging. The look on his face after a hope spot when he realizes Keirn still has his leg so he can't make it to the corner is perfect Pro Wrestling. The finish was one of the freshest and most interesting on the whole show, with a blind tag and complex body positioning for the roll up.

Buzz Sawyer/Rick Steiner vs. Koko B. Ware/Italian Stallion

PAS: This was an awesome bit of business. I love that the WWE Network has become a Buzz Sawyer delivery system. Sawyer was incredible in this, just so many cool moments. He takes an insane bump into the ropes from a Koko dropkick, does this great amateur drop down instead of leapfrogging Stallion, suplexes Koko on the floor, misses his huge superfly splash, and does this awesome catch of Stallion leapfrog into a power over powerslam. Just an awesome show, everyone else was fine, and Koko takes a great bump to the floor, but man was Sawyer electric.

MD: This was really good. For some reason, it always amazes me just how giving Buzz Sawyer was considering all the stories about him. The way he bumped for Koko here was out of this world, or at least the normal physics for this world. He was an incredible stooge too, and not just with the big motions. There's a shit-eating grin on his face after a leapfrog but before he takes a body press by Koko that's top notch.

Here I thought at first that the shine might have been a bit too long, but ultimately, it just made the transition, a brutal suplex on the floor, one of the worst you'd ever see, all the more weighty. Koko's selling of the back was completely engaging and Buzz targeted it enthusiastically. Steiner and Stallion were fine in their roles, but this was the Buzz and Koko show.

Brett Sawyer/Danny Peterson vs. Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin/Black Bart

PAS: Shortish semi-squash, Sawyer and Peterson get in a little offense early, but basically go down pretty quickly. Bart had a nice clothesline, and Garvin's short brainbuster was super nasty looking, neck trauma for Peterson.

MD: I have a soft spot for Bart, having started watching wrestling in 1990 and watching as much as I could. He was all over WCW, WWF, and GWF if you watched everything in the year or two that followed. That said, I was not a fan of him on this night. Sawyer gave everything he had and frankly, for this part of the tournament, it was too much. He hit both an Alabama Jam and a top rope kneedrop onto Bart's arm, two of the biggest moves of the whole show, and they meant nothing. I thought it was too much even before Bart decided not to sell any of it. The most over thing in the match wasn't any of Sawyer's big offense but when he spat towards Garvin. That tells you something. Anyway, Garvin's brainbuster was great though.

Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton/Dennis Condrey) vs. Nelson Royal/Sam Houston

PAS: Really short match with Houston really getting fed to wood chipper. MX really moved through their stuff fast and violently. Houston does get a tag in, but Royal puts on a abdominal stretch and gets hit with a axehandle and pinned. Maybe 2 minutes.

MD: This was a whole lot of nothing, just a minute or two, but that whole lot was the Midnights looking amazing. They were the team you wish that you saw more of on this night. Eaton had the best punch of the night and that was saying something.

Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin vs. Buzz Sawyer/Rick Steiner

PAS: This was only about 5 minutes, and I really wish it went longer. Just love both of these teams. Garvin is pasting people as usual, and it is really fun to watch him treat Rick Steiner the way Rick Steiner would treat everyone else he wrestles. The Maddogs beat on TA for a bit, including some punches to the forehead which seem to bruise him up good, then we get a great hot tag to Garvin who is throwing taters, and a quick belly to belly pin. These teams had great chemistry, and I wish we got a longer run from Sawyer and Steiner, what a pair of asskickers.

MD: The most interesting part of Magnum's game to me is always his selling. This is a guy who is supposed to portray a double-tough leather jacket Americana mustache biker ideal and he's not afraid to give and give and give. I think some of it is the explosiveness of the belly-to-belly which he can hit sort of out of anywhere, but I wonder if it's something he got from tagging with Wrestling II and being groomed by Dusty. The fans went along with him for the ride here. My favorite thing in all of this was probably Garvin slapping Steiner in the face after he wouldn't budge on the shoulder blocks. His peppering in of punches after the hot tag was good too. Steiner seemed a little lost at the end and that Belly to Belly sure was close to the ropes. This was perfectly fine and perfectly fun.

Road Warriors vs. Wahoo McDaniel/Mark Youngblood

MD: Not a lot to say here. You get the sense that Wahoo just wanted to get out of there before the crowd booed him too much. The best part of this was Tony and Ross trading off on the mic to open the evening session. I did like when Ross started to mention piledrivers and off the top rope moves and everyone booed until they realized he was saying they were legal on this night.

Ivan Koloff/Nikita Koloff vs. Jimmy Valiant/Manny Fernandez

MD: All of the pre-match stuff was fun. For a totally unnecessary moment on a packed show, Shaska cut a good promo on Valiant. I liked the Russian solidarity trying to get Gorchenko over. The Russians' formula was a bit bonkers by this point, with Ivan 1970s stooging and Nikita coming in to dominate. Obviously the fans loved every time he ran into Valiant's fist, but it's pretty dissonant. More about that the next time they show up.

Sheepherders vs. Rock and Roll Express

MD: Ah, our hated enemy, New Zealand. The Rock'n'Roll stuff with the flag at the beginning was great. They felt like such a big deal even though this was only sort of a cameo appearance for them. I caught this one on the bus, sans notes. Robert was FIP (body part of choice: shoulder/arm after a missed corner charge). Lots of interesting varied, relentless offense by the Sheepherders, including a bit second rope hammer to a prone Robert. The hot tag was super hot but the finish was BS as they hit an interfering Victory with the flag, not even one of the Sheepherders. They start a solid bullshit chant, complete with a "Blind Ref" sign in the crowd, after the fact though.

PAS:  Pretty by the numbers R+Rs match which is a great number to listen to. Sheepherders are pretty basic, but their basic stuff looks good, if you are going to stomp a shoulder,  stomp that shit. Gibson is as good an FIP as Morton and Morton is an all time great hot tag. That was an awful finish though, lots of ways to have the R+Rs lose and look strong without that fart.

Fantastics vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard

MD: This was excellent. They were laying it in to one another, especially Tully. I liked the comfort food and novelty elements of the Fabs match, but this was worked as hard as possible, with everything basically hitting. What really took it over the top, though, was just how committed everyone was in their reactions. If it comes off like it matters to the wrestlers, it's going to matter to the crowd, and no one could make it feel like it mattered quite like Arn and Tully. When Arn really gets to come in against Rogers, we hear him say "I'm gonna enjoy this" while rubbing his hands together. The sheer offense he manages to express a moment later when Rogers tells him to kiss his ass popped the crowd huge.

I loved the comeback here. They just couldn't put Fulton away, so everything finally escalates to another suplex attempt on the floor. Fulton's able to escape by the skin of his teeth and after some real hard work, a minute later he's rolling for the hot tag. They went around the loop one or two times more before the finish (with the heels reacting again, JJ flying into the ring, Arn slamming his own head repeatedly onto the turnbuckle in frustration. These guys made you care).

PAS: This was really good, you don't think of Tully and Fulton as all time great punchers, but they looked like Dundee and Lawler here. Tully and Arn are great vicious pricks, and we have J.J. wandering around outside being a sleazy fuck. God is JJ great, he feels like a Southern Preacher who preaches about Jesus while owning 50 percent of a Miami youth hostel with a pool boy he met on vacation. Arn's two big spots, the spinebuster and gordbuster are both huge spots that always feel like finishes, and I love how sure he is of himself when he hits them.

Giant Baba/Tiger Mask vs. Jimmy Garvin/Black Bart

MD: This felt surreal, though not as surreal as the next Baba/Misawa match. The biggest thing to point out here was how the fans more or less booed or were indifferent two the Japanese wrestlers to start and how thoroughly Misawa won them over with his big spots. Bart probably didn't earn a trip to Japan with his selling. If Precious had swung at Baba post match like it looked like she was going to, she might have though?

PAS: It is weird how Jimmy Garvin worked both Misawa and Hashimoto in tag tournaments. He actually was a pretty good foil for Misawa's fast stuff, and Baba worked hard for mid 80s Baba. Not a great match but a pretty fun one.

The Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express

MD: I sort of liked the story here where the Midnights were good enough to keep getting opportunities but just couldn't hold the offensive against the Road Warriors, which led to Cornette trying to escalate things with the tennis racket and getting caught. There's not much else to say here except for how good the Press-into-the-Ring spot with Eaton was.

Steve Williams/Terry Taylor vs. Nikita Koloff/Ivan Koloff

MD: First of all, it's a real shame we didn't get Bravo/Martel vs Williams/Taylor. Ah well. This was ok, but definitely worked towards a draw. It's also a shame, because in another setting, it could have been built to Doc and Nikita matching up with the crowd wildly behind Doc. As it was, the heel-in-peril on Ivan lasted forever and when they finally got to Doc vs Nikita, they defused it too much with stalling. I thought they could have worked the last minute of the draw a little more excitingly too. The post match carnage was something else though, just a total heel mauling in the Bill Watts style.

The Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders

MD: This became a bloodbath and an outright brawl towards the end. It's a heck of a spectacle and a testament to both the Fantastics (who wrestled three very different matches in one night) and the Sheepherders (who we only have a few minutes of vs the Guerreros). Phil will probably disagree with me, but I'm not sure it quite had the narrative meat it needed to stand up to the other two Fantastics matches on the show, no matter it's rep over time. They got some solid heat on Fulton on the outside but the comeback turned into a big blur. Blood's an awesome tool and it was used well here (as was the king of the mountain stuff we didn't see in the other tags), but all anyone's going to really remember is the pledge at the beginning and the flag shots and bleeding at the end (especially the blood on the bottom of Fulton's heels on that last dropkick. Wow). Near the end of an exhausting day of wrestling, I think this shut down the crowd for the next couple of matches.

PAS: I was surprised at how much of this was a standard tag until the blood started flowing. Once Fulton is cut the match skips a gear and we get a pretty exciting bloody brawl. Fulton's OTT selling work better here, as I bought his seizure selling as  guy bleeding to death more then I bought it when he breaks in out in random tag matches. By the end it got pretty out of control, but I wouldn't call this match legendary, the juice was a nice touch, and I like the match being thrown out, but for a match with the big rep it was more unique in context then in execution.

Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin vs. Giant Baba/Tiger Mask

MD: Totally surreal. Some of the biggest stars of decades and this felt like a piss break match that had to take the crowd back after what they had just witnessed. You got just the tiniest hint of Garvin and Baba firing back and forth on one another and an amazingly cool finish with Magnum just barely catching Misawa off the top with the belly-to-belly, but this was mostly dead, and I'm pretty sure I was too by this point.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Dick Slater

MD: We had this before, I think. Duggan was really over at this point. Slater had real heat at this point. The crowd remained dead for most of this. I liked the transition cementer with Duggan going through the rail. I liked the hope spot with Duggan chasing Slater around the ring. They started to wake up a bit for his big comeback and did light up for the finish.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair

MD: Paul Boesch is the best. This we only had 15 minutes of before. Back in late 92, WWF did these "Manager Cam" segments for CV, including one of the only Dibiase vs Santana matches we have in WWF on tape, where it's entirely focused on the manager. I love that we got this show without commentating, but there's a chunk of this that felt like the Baby Doll show. To their credit, the fans were back up for this. Dusty bled. Flair missed the knee drop to cause a transition and then missed the butt down on the leg in the ropes for another, which were both good inversions that you didn't see ALL that much. Flair bled. Dusty was smart enough to not lose on the boot shot, but to lose on the DQ and get to take out the ref as well. It's Dusty vs Flair. You've seen it.

The Road Warriors vs. Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin

MD: We had this before as well. I don't have a lot to say about it. It didn't feel like a dream match but it did feel like a culmination to a degree. I think nothing wore out its welcome (they could have spent too much time with the arm control work early, for instance, and they didn't). Magnum gave up a ton and the back focus was good. For the most part, until Animal's late chinlock, they kept it varied and interesting. I'm not sure this was the right match up to end the night. The fans seemed split. They popped somewhat for the belly to belly, but less for the hot tag that followed. Then they popped huge for the finish. Mrs. Crockett calling them the "Road Runners" at the end made the entire night worth it.

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: Stan Hansen in ECW

How awesome would it have been to see Stan Hansen wrestling in a small building with only 500 or so other lunatics cheering him on? Stan Hansen was not a guy you could just go out and see on the indies working old man faded glory matches. He was a guy who started making a name for himself immediately and then just stayed in major feds right up until his early 50s retirement. The only opportunity anyone had to see Hansen work a small indie was a few dates in 1993, when he worked a handful of ECW shows. Seeing Stan Hansen at the ECW Arena would be like getting a straight injection of pure uncut joy, so I figured I would take a quick look at Hansen's quick look at the east coast independent wrestling scene.


Stan Hansen vs. Jimmy Snuka ECW 8/7/93 (Hardcore TV #19)

ER: This was only about 4 minutes, but really great. How cool must it have been to see *this* era Stan Hansen at Viking Hall? I would have been losing my mind. He's a big loud bully and I could have watched him shove Snuka around the ring for another 10 minutes. Snuka was 50 at this point but still unexpectedly a bump freak, as right out of the gate Hansen hits a hard shoulderblock, and then without any running momentum just hits a standing shoulderblock that sends Snuka backwards over the top to the floor, a cool way to integrate the Harley bump. Snuka obviously realizes who he's working - not that he had a choice - and throws punches at Hansen as hard as he's getting them. He is someone with enough guts and career clout that he can walk right through a nasty chair shot and keep fighting, and not get punished for not selling it. The chair shot was great, Hansen hitting him with an already unfolded chair and wrapping it perfectly around his head. Hansen drops perfect elbows and even wrecks Snuka with the western lariat! I wasn't really expecting that. Some of these older guys were getting good paychecks once Eddie Gilbert got the purse strings, I didn't actually expect Snuka to work so hard. Eddie runs in to break up the surefire finish, and then Hansen ragdolls "Freddie" Gilbert (which was Jerry Lawler's son Kevin playing Eddie's kid brother), and there's not much in wrestling I love more than Stan Hansen disposing of a dweeb.

Stan Hansen/Tito Santana vs. Don Muraco/Shane Douglas ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #21)

ER: Short but fun tag that may have actually been much longer than we actually saw. The match - as several of these Hardcore TV matches are - is interrupted with an "emergency announcement", which is a nice excuse to show Abdullah the Butcher highlights leading up to his tag match opposite Hansen. But they weirdly opt to just clip the match right in the middle, and I have no idea how much we missed. What we got, was good. Muraco is a fun stooge for Hansen (and it's amusing to see such a big guy beg off, but I get it), and I was really looking forward to Hansen just mauling Douglas, but we don't really get that at all. It's possible we got it during the break, but alas. What we do get is a fine FIP Tito performance, with Hansen doing a great job coming up with a couple ways to miss a potential hot tag. Hansen somehow always finds a way to surprise me, and he breaks out a really cool tragic timing spot: He comes in to rescue Tito, but Tito manages to surprisingly break free on his own, except now Hansen is getting admonished by the ref for getting in the ring just as Tito is actually getting to his corner. Hansen rushes back to the apron and swipes for the tag just as Muraco grabs Tito and tosses him back across the ring. Muraco throws an awesome headlock punch in this, but Tito's fired up comeback punches are really great. Sadly the whole damn locker room interferes at the exact moment of Hansen's hot tag, starting with that damned Eddie Gilbert. This match clearly had the bones of a really good match, and what we got was good, but it really feels like we missed out on a large chunk of the middle.

Stan Hansen vs. Don E. Allen/Herve Renesto ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #22)

ER: Tough draw for Twisted Steel & Sex Appeal. Hansen is an all time great squash match or handicap match worker, as he works fast enough to bounce back between two different guys, and he hits hard enough that whichever guy isn't eating a beating is still convincingly selling his prior beating. This is all a tornado of hard kicks, nasty stomps to the head, big beals, lethal back elbows, none of them by Twisted Steel OR Sex Appeal. Renesto threw a dropkick at one point, but it didn't slow down Hansen one bit and only made Renesto more of a target. The whole arena was flipping out for this massacre, and I love how Hansen throws his back elbow as a charging move, running at his opponent like he's hitting the lariat but instead decapitating him with a back elbow. Neither feels like a good option to take. Allen eats a nasty elbow shot while standing on the apron, and Hansen graciously brings him into the ring with a damn quick snap suplex. Allen came into the ring so fast it looked like he was thrown from a car. Allen almost wimps out of the lariat, flinching hard as Hansen grabs him by the ponytail and starts swinging the arm, but it landed. From the ring, Hansen grabs for Renesto on the floor after the match, but Renesto dodges, which just enrages Hansen who rushes to the floor and strangles Renesto with his bullrope, tying him to the ringpost by his neck.

Stan Hansen/Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Kevin Sullivan Ultra Clash 9/18/93

ER: Now this ruled. This was part of one of ECW's first supercards, and this is some legitimately big talent in one match. The whole thing is worked as a chaotic brawl, no tags and no attempt at order. Funk obviously thrives in this kind of environment and drags everybody else with him. Hansen mostly pairs off with Abby, and I like them as a pair because Abby doesn't budge on strikes, and Hansen doesn't hold back on strikes, so the whole time he's just throwing knuckle punches and clubbing arms and the hardest stomps possible to the back of Abby's head and Abby just takes the stiffest shots and occasionally stabs at him. Sullivan climbs up the scaffold to escape Funk(there was a Doug Gilbert/JT Smith scaffold match right before this match) and Funk naturally follows, and Sullivan starts punching him right in the head the second Funk climbs up close enough to get his head punched. Terry is the king, so of course he finds a few ways to fall down each level of the scaffolding, holding on and hanging, limbs dangling, dropping down bit by bit as he's getting attacked, before eventually dropping into the ring and onto his head. Funk wraps a chair around Abby's head and holds it there while burying his boot in Abby's back, while Hansen punches away at Abby, there's a fork stabbing that misses it's mark and becomes friendly fire, Funk panics and takes down the ref and starts beating the shit out of him, Abby slams Funk's face into the mat a bunch, the ROPES BREAK because they can't handle big as hell Hansen and Sullivan running hard into them, Eddie and Doug Gilbert run out for the DQ, and this was literally just 8 minutes of cool old dudes punching each other really hard in the head. That's never not going to be a win, people.

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: Goldust on WWE Main Event

Goldust vs. Seth Rollins 10/22/13

ER: Wow, I had never seen this match before, and I loved it! Goldust was absolutely on fire as a singles match babyface, and this match was filled with his perfectly timed and excellent offense. Rollins worked this match like he was Stevie Richards working HHH cosplay, which is infinitely better than whatever style Rollins has been working the past few years. Outside of a couple punches, an enziguiri, and a nice grounded headlock, literally every piece of Rollins' offense was just him sending Goldust into objects with an Irish whip. I counted no less than 8 Irish whips, into the buckles and into the ringside barricade, and goddamn is Goldust a great enough worker that he can easily work an incredibly compelling 12 minute match based around being run repeatedly into stationary objects. He's a great control babyface because he has great, dominating offense. I love when he shows off that he can outfast a smaller, younger heel: quick armdrags and hip toss, throws his best in the company punches, and he keeps fading classics like the atomic drop and the bulldog alive (while also executing them as well as they've ever been executed). Once the focus of the match becomes Rollins whipping him into the buckles, Goldust shows just how much mileage he can get just selling the fact that he ran into things. He uses it as a great opportunity to sell damage, while also leading to a great unexpected moment of offense: Rollins whips him in, charges after a delay, and - stumbling out of the corner - Goldust catches him with his finisher worthy quick rotation powerslam. The match easily could have ended there and it would have been great. Rollins is great at taking Goldust's masterful offense, and Goldust even gets revenge by whipping Rollins into the barricade, and even dishes out a snap suplex on the ground! The finish had some good shenanigans, with Reigns threatening to get involved, only to get waylaid by Cody. Rollins wins with a schoolboy, which isn't a finish that anyone would actually hope for, but credit to Rollins as it was a deeply sunk in, finish-worthy schoolboy. This was excellent.

Goldust vs. Ryback 12/3/13

ER: If you give Goldust 10+ minutes on TV, he's going to work a compelling match. He works his speed against Ryback, although Ryback can't take armdrags and his offense in general as well as Rollins in Goldust's prior Main Event match. But Goldust breaks out a few tricks he didn't use in that match, including his heavy crossbody off the middle buckle. Goldust was good at flummoxing the big guy, hits his great atomic drop and bulldog, and I loved when Ryback got knocked to the floor off a dropkick: Goldust walks out to the apron and stomps right on the big guy's hand, then slams his arm over the ring barricade. Suddenly Dust is working as Finlay against Ryback and it's the best. He really does a lot of the best Finlay qualities (and it's possible that just means "great at wrestling" qualities), like cutting low on clotheslines and also just hitting hard clotheslines. We get some fun arm work (doesn't go anywhere at all, but looks great while it's happening) with Dust dropping knees on the arm he smashed into the barricade. Ryback grounds Dust with a body vice - and I like body vices - but things go a little awry on a powerslam. Goldust rotates fast as usual, but he's typically not slamming guys Ryback's size so Ryback does not rotate as quickly, and kind of gets spiked while landing headfirst on Goldust's body. Oops. But Dust is a pro and easily gets the crowd into it, really knows how to do that "calm before final stretch" slow clap build better than anyone. When they spill to the floor again, we get an awesome moment where Curtis Axel makes his way over to interfere while Dust/Back are tussling on the ground, and Cody leaps over both and blasts Axel out of the frame with a superman punch. Goldust even gets the visual win over Ryback, hitting the curtain call, before Axel runs in for the full DQ. Pretty lame that we get an awesome 10 minutes of this singles match, building to a tag match, and the tag (taped later at these tapings for Smackdown) only gets 4 minutes. Still, I really dug this singles.

Read more!

2015 Ongoing MOTY List: BJW Big Boys Go WAR

Twin Towers (Kohei Sato/Shuji Ishikawa) vs. Ryuichi Sekine/Ryuji Ito BJW 10/29

ER: What the hell took me so long to watch this match? This was the best WAR tag since WAR, a total baton pass that gets every damn thing right. They got a lumpy guy in Ishikawa, they got two different guys who throw hard kneelifts to the stomach, everyone throws a hard lariat, Sato throws a tough piledriver, everyone lands hard on every suplex, and these guys all take shots to every single part of their body. This was 17 minutes of breathless heavyweight tag wrestling, no wasted moments, always somebody eating a nasty shot or getting their neck twisted or getting slammed with someone's full weight. I kept waiting for this to come up for air, but they never did. We get a couple nasty trips tumbling and sliding through ringside chairs (always with nasty follow up attacks), constant hard clubbing arms, omnipresent kicks to the stomach, those knees from Sato kept making me want to barf, just total punishment. Sekine is the smallest guy in the match and tries to make up for that fact. He lands full weight on a top rope splash, and always voluntarily goes toe to toe with the Twin Towers, even when that ends up poorly for him more often than not. The long finishing stretch is Ishikawa and him throwing each other into chairs in increasingly painful ways, with Ishikawa dropping him with a side slam into a set up chair, and Ishikawa eating a superplex onto a stack of them. But much of the run was Ishikawa punishing heavyweight ways: an over shoulder piledriver, a high as hell angle powerbomb, a big lariat used as a killshot, making damn sure Sekine wasn't going to kick out. This is the kind of regularly surprising beating that would hold up in any era, really made every guy look like a cult legend.

PAS: This was a really good Big Japan Heavyweight tag, although lets pump the breaks a bit with the WAR comparisons, these guys are all good, but none of them are Takeshi Ishikawa, much less Tenryu. I always dug Sato in WAR and he is still a guy who will kick your lungs out, and Ishikawa is lumpy and nasty. Loved Sekine in this, really great underdog performance, I loved the spot where he squirmed his way out of a piledriver, only to deadlift Sato for a powerslam, I could hear the hernia's forming when he was squatting Sato. I really didn't like all of the chair stuff, didn't look particularly good, a couple of times guys were holding chairs waiting to be hit, and when guys are hitting this hard they don't need RVD spots. Finish run was really nasty with Ishikawa smushing Sekine and Sekine dying on his shield. Good stuff.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!