2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Hungarian Shootstyle!!

66. Norbert Novenyi vs. Renato Makai HCW 5/26

PAS: Novenyi is a 60 year old Olympic Greco Roman Gold Medalist (in 1980!!) and Kickboxing champion, while Makai is a super jacked Heavyweight MMA fighter. This had a huge main event feel, sort of like Vader vs. Ric Flair if neither guy had a ton of wrestling experience, but it felt like Novenyi had that same sort of connection to the crowd. Really wild feel with Makai sending Novenyi into the crowd as Hungarians scatter. Novenyi took a pretty big beating for a guy in his sixties, but he was pretty barrel chested and looked like an old man who could kick your ass. I loved how he kept slipping into that choke and Makai did a good job of putting over all of his stuff. There was a bit of jaggedness which you might expect from guys without a ton of ring time, but that almost added to the match. Big props to our friend Jetlag for finding this, it is a treat.

ER: Bless the weirdos that we choose to run with in our online circles, for finding the readily available Hungarian shootstyle YouTube. I have a feeling there is excellent untapped YouTube wrestling out there, lurking in the unsearchable titles that don't get picked up by search engine algorithms. Novenyi won an Olympic gold medal before I was born, and I'm old enough that there are only 5 guys playing in Major League Baseball who are older than I am. This felt like the best possible version of current Kurt Angle vs. current Goldberg (though who are we kidding, both would do something crazy and get seriously hurt), but this was even more exciting due to the home connection to and maybe even pride the crowd had for Novenyi. Makai played a goon real well, and he had a stable of horror mask wearing MMA cannon fodder back-up that came off like skeleton costume Cobra Kai backing up Billy Zabka. If there had been a huge fight in the ring with Novenyi's boys scrapping with Makai's jacked MMA dudes, this could have been bumped up to early FMW Onita status. Makai knows his role as big lug well, and throws a bunch of hard knees to Novenyi's gut while Novenyi throws a bunch of low kicks to Makai's gut. Makai even takes a few big (unexpected) bumps, going over really fast on a dragon screw and then throwing himself backward over the ropes to the floor off a Novenyi kick. I liked the rough edges approach of these two; there were seams that wouldn't likely be there with more experienced guys, but that roughness made things feel more dangerous and added to the atmosphere. Makai was a good bully - I dug him getting a double leg on the floor and dumping Novenyi on the apron - who generously set up big moments for Novenyi even while burying knees in his stomach. I love these kind of surprises, two guys you've never heard of and likely won't hear of again, dipping their toe creatively and violently into pro wrestling.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST