Matches from Glory Pro Thunderstruck 9/22/19

Myron Reed vs. Jody Fleisch

ER: Reed is one of my favorite young flyers, Fleisch is a guy who was a fun highlight on the first M-Pro tape I bought 20 (!) years ago, and it's really not a stretch to view Fleisch as someone who paved the way for the wrestlers who paved the way for wrestlers like Reed. Flyer vs. Flyer isn't really a match I love, but I was curious to see Reed against a doppelgänger and see some guys springing around, and was not disappointed. They kept it to a quick 10, and we certainly got some springing. Fleisch is a jacked old man now (he is the same age as I) but still seems as flexible and bouncy as ever, hitting several different flipping kicks and a super impressive no hands poison rana. He took a couple of comically large bumps, perfectly acceptable here, my favorite being him hopping up and bouncing over the top rope to the apron after taking a chestbreaker. Shades of Macho Man jumping over the top rope after a Yokozuna kickout in the '93 Rumble. Reed has my favorite current cutter in the biz, and after Fleisch spills to the apron, Reed hits a fantastic running cutter over the top rope, taking both to the floor. I love how Reed sticks the landing on his cutters, dropping jaws right over his shoulder and holding it. A couple things didn't go off as clean: Fleisch runs up a wall and kinda grazes Reed with something that I think was supposed to hit harder, and a one man Spanish Fly kinda mucks up the finish, but this was still a fun old Spider-man pointing at young Spider-man match, delivered what I wanted.


Rock N Roll Express vs. Mat Fitchett/Davey Vega

ER: I am into this very recent RNRX respect surge, suddenly feels like a few prominent current names dig them enough to champion them on shows and I'm way down for a couple guys in their 60s getting some new exposure and sell some polaroids. Fitchett and Vega are mostly in their to set up stuff for RNR, with most of Fitchett's offense being running at Robert several times to get hiptossed. What I was not expecting was 63 year old Ricky to look as good in ring as he did. Robert was a little wooden (though still does things like grab a sleeper off the ropes or even throw a simple stomach kick with the kind of professional snap that is lacking in many modern wrestlers), but here's Ricky looking like someone I actively want to seek out in 2019. he takes a leaping knee to the back and takes a nice bump through the ropes to the floor, throws hard kicks and punches, hard shoulderblocks (including a great spot where he collides with Vega, Vega goes down and Ricky crumbles to the mat grabbing his nose), Ricky is a guy out there looking motivated! I love to see that kind of thing. Match ends in a double DQ, but seeing Ricky still bring something to the table in 2019 left me with a smile on my face for days.


Manders vs. Myron Reed

ER: I was into this, liked what they did, liked how everything looked, but didn't like the layout at all. Reed had already worked a match against Fleisch, so not only was Manders the fresh man, but he's bigger and hits harder. Manders wound up taking basically the first 80% of the match, before Reed just came back and won quickly and without much trouble. That was a let down. But getting to the let down was fun! Because that meant we got Manders hitting a couple press slams, used well (one he hits early and really holds it, the next one he holds long enough that Reed slips out), big chops, big elbows, nice powerbomb, diving shoulder tackles, the stuff you want to see Manders hitting. They were careful about doing silly 50/50 strike exchanges, with Reed playing cocky and trying to go toe to toe but getting leveled each time. And I dug how Reed slipped in some sly kicks instead of coming straight at Manders, dug the cutter (and really liked Manders' surprised, hunched sell of the cutter), and we build to Reed hitting a great tope con giro that Manders catches perfectly, spilling them into chairs. Things as a whole just wrapped up a little too neatly, with Reed going onto offense a little easily and showing no effects. Manders being so dominant early made it hard to escape the feeling that he was getting a visual showcase before calmly losing, which is what happened. Still, Reed's winning springboard 450 was nice, and I liked everything they did within the match, just wish they had gotten to some things differently.