Matches from Southern Underground Pro 12/21/19

Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini vs. Warhorse/Graham Bell

PAS: I liked parts of this a bunch, Ku and Garrini are guys who come up with fun ways to really hurt people, and Bell and Warhorse also hit really hard, I especially liked the parts where Garinni would hold up Bell and Ku would kick him or stomp him in the back of the head. Still this had a bunch of winky shit at the beginning, Ku wearing a Christmas sweater to block chops,  Ku and Garrini bringing in crowbars and begging the ref not to DQ them,  Bell doing a dive that required both opponents to stand their agape waiting for him. Liked the finish run enough to recommend it, but disliked the bad comedy enough to keep it off a MOTY list.

Brett Ison vs. Zach Cooper

ER: I was really excited for this one when I saw the card. Cooper is a really young guy who hit the ground running in 2019, and feels like a real quick learner. I got to see him at SCI this year and at the end of my weekend his match vs. Manders and Big Beef wound up being my second favorite match of the weekend. It put all three of them on the map for me as guys I would be actively seeking out. Sadly the next night I was enjoying Cooper vs. Garrini, but Cooper got injured mid match and the match got stopped. Ison was a guy I saw in the main event of the same show. Ison won the main event, Cooper left the opener injured.  My eyes saw that story play out, and I wanted to see this progression. And it was fun! It wasn't quite the type of big hoss battle I like, but that's fine. This was more of the modern If RVD Was 60 lb. Heavier matches and while big guy handstand spots aren't really my thing, there are still going to be heavy guys slamming into each other. And if there are going to be cartwheels in a match, they may as well be Cooper getting his arm knocked out from under him on the apron. And there are some RVD spots that are much better as big guy spots, like their big corner dropkicks. Coast to coast dropkicks are going to look cooler from a 260 lb. guy. I thought things built well and had a nicely ramped finish, and both guys are going to keep getting better.

Big Beef vs. Adam Priest

ER: Oh yeah, this is a peak Worldwide match. Beef looks like if Chris Sabin was never able to control his munchies, almost to the point where it's a shame Beef isn't coming out wearing a Guatemalan sweatshirt. In another life Beef was the guy selling poorly made grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot of Dead shows, trying to bum a way in. This whole thing is 3 1/2 minutes, and it all rules. I don't think I've ever seen Priest before, but he makes a nice impression by cheapshotting Beef and hitting a big dive before a bell has even rung, and from there they work a quick sprint filled with hard shots and nasty spills. Beef struggling to recover from the cheapshot gives Priest believable openings, including a couple of believably thrown and nasty suplexes. Beef has a lot of size on Priest, so it would look silly if he was lifting him easily, so instead he hits a low angle fast German that is more of a leverage throw than a strength throw (bouncing Beef right off his shoulder), and later barely gets him up for a back suplex (which makes the landing look harder). Priest threw nice chops and was always smart about burying a knee into Beef's stomach before going for Irish whips, but Beef is what was for damn dinner tonight. He can really move and really lands with a thud; he hits an awesome crossbody while Priest is draped over the middle rope, just flying right through Priest to the floor, and he wins the match with an ungodly top rope splash that made me respect Priest more for not immediately puking his guts out. This feels like it would have been a legendary Worldwide match.

PAS: Really fun sprint. Both guys get a big to shine, and the highs were really high. I liked Priest coming out fast and fierce early, and getting some moments of real near falls, only to fall to that three move combo from Beef. His nasty powerbomb, into a smushy bodypress against the ropes, into a final top rope splash is about as cool a jab-right cross-left hook combo as you are going to see in wrestling.

Big Twan Tucker vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: Big Twan is a total stud and so much fun to watch. He would have these monster burst of offense, where he just slammed Newman through the mat, there was a tremendous spot where he caught Newman in mid air and just flung him like a bag of flour into a sidewalk slam. He also countered a dive by splitting Newman in half with a spear. Then Newman would fire back with some super weak looking shit, and make faces. Newman wins the match with a terrible looking flippy elbow to the back of Twan's head which he has to sell like he got hit with a lead pipe. Just a chasm between the credibility of both guys stuff, one of the most BS finishes of the year. Twan can take the beating that Manders gives him, and beat guys on TV like MJF and Ethan Page and he goes down to that?

AC Mack vs. Mr. Brickster

PAS: Man I loved parts of this a lot and absolutely hated a big chunk. Brickster is a super likable babyface, while Mack is a great asshole heel and this was a really classic pro-wrestling set up. Mack had put Brickster on the shelf for 8 months with a knee injury and Brickster was going for revenge and to take the title. It goes great for a while with Mack working over the bad knee and Brickster firing back. Then they do this long section where Brickster takes a dick pillow with Mack's face and has a bunch of people in the crowd hit him with it. This was the big babyface comeback to get revenge for a knee injury, having a bunch of hipsters hit him with a pillow. Just awful stuff, which ground the match to a halt. They then try to have have a bunch of dramatic near falls after we just saw the top heel sell a pillow fight like a chair shot. The finish with the GA vs. TN civil war stuff was cool, and it was smart to keep Mack on top and push off his eventual revenge, but I am losing faith in this fed's ability to keep their winking TikTok wrestling out of their main event angles.

Read more!

IWTV Worth Watching: BIG BOY SEASON! BEEF! MANDERS! KLD!

Big Beef Garvin vs. Mikey! St. Louis Anarchy 1/11/19

ER: This ruled, and kept getting better the longer it went. I wasn't sure what kind of match we were going to get, if it was going to be Mikey being silly but occasionally getting caught, or just Beef mauling him, and what we got was the best version of what I was hoping for. Beef works a nice side headlock to start things boiling, and I honestly would have been cool with a match based around a snug side headlock. But I liked the way Mikey both worked up to Beef, and the ways he avoided him. Beef is good at missing things, and Mikey has some simple offense that I dig, like his splash off the bottom rope. He doesn't play the splash for comedy, and it doesn't look silly. It comes off like a smart way of using the ring to your advantage, boosting off the bottom rope while getting back into the ring. They work a fun sequence where Mikey keeps firing up to chase after Beef when beef is trying to run the opposite direction to hit the ropes: Beef starts to run, Mikey runs right after and gets popped with a back elbow; Beef goes to run the ropes again, Mikey runs after him again, gets caught with a boot to the face. It was a great play on the beyond tired sequence that would have had Mikey run after and hit an elbow, then himself run to the opposite ropes only to get met with an elbow from Beef. We see so many of the same sequences in matches, and it really makes me take notice when a couple guys flip those sequences to something better, something fresh. They really ramp this up nicely: Beef hitting bigger and bigger slams, Mikey hitting countering with a big running knee to the face, just a super satisfying match. I didn't even realize these two were on this show when I started it, and this is one benefit of skimming through a show and not just skipping to something I want to see.

Manders vs. Matt Kenway Glory Pro 10/5/19

ER: This was a really fun 13 minute match that could have been an absolutely scorching 10 minute match. I don't think stand and trade or kneel and trade are automatically evil (well maybe kneel and trade) but every time they went to that well here it felt way out of place. The rest of this was a nice war with a cool story of Manders overwhelming Kenway before eating a Russian legsweep into the ringpost and a DDT on the floor and then getting his neck worked over. I liked the attention Manders would pay to his neck, and some parts of the match it actually looked like he was giving Kenway a cue to go back to the neck. Kenway didn't explicitly work the neck, but Manders would take a move and start holding his head and back of neck, and Kenway would at minimum throw a clubbing shot to it. Manders did the kind of Manders things I want, like catching a big powerslam, breaking out the Vader running bear attack, bringing the 3 point stance charge back to wrestling by using it with a running chop. Manders will barrel into guys, and he reads heavy enough that it always came off impressive when Kenway would toss him. Manders is already so good at little things, that I don't think he needs cheap pop stand and trade to prop his work up. My favorite thing he did - outside of that careful attention to his neck - was late in the match when he whiffed on a hellish clothesline. He didn't throw it any differently than he would have if it were supposed to land square on Kenway's Adam's apple, a shot that would have murdered Kenway had he not ducked. And, it made the lariat he hit moments later feel that much greater, as he threw that direct hit exactly the same as he threw the miss. When guys have basics like that down, their ceiling is vaulted.

Kevin Lee Davidson/Danny Adams vs. Matt Knicks/Nick Brubaker Glory Pro 10/5/19

ER: This was KLD's big return after missing most of the year, and he comes out to a huge match long reaction looking like he's ready to squish some dudes in a street fight. KLD is Midwest Akebono and he stomps and chops his way through this in a mighty return. He beats Brubaker around the ring and they set up a spot for KLD to chop the ringpost, except he sees it coming a mile away and chops Brubaker right in the back. KLD gets the chance to show off a bit, show that he's back and healthy, hits a fast dropdown and leapfrog into a nice spinning heel kick, and he even gets monkeyflipped by Adams as a giant cannonball. Adams hits a dive, KLD hits a monster flip dive, and The Heroes finally get rid of KLD when Brubaker gives him a sunset flip bomb through a table on the floor. Now, there's not a ton of room ringside and the ring was set up close to the ground, so it turns into Brubaker basically getting too far under KLD, meaning he basically pulled KLD on top of him and then both went through the table. But this at least disposes of KLD, allowing them to double up on Adams, with Brubaker always attentive to kick at Davidson when he gets close to making it back in. And we get a few twists along the way, with Davidson pulling Adams out of the way after Knicks had set him up on a couple of chairs, Brubaker hits one of the better nut shots I've seen on Davidson with KLD letting out a perfect "OOOF" and looking like a guy who got hit in the nuts, and later on Brubaker himself goes through a couple of set up chairs. This was a fun, quick moving street fight, they did plenty of painful things without getting stupid, and we got a good return from Davidson. That's worth watching.

Read more!

Two MOTY Additions from Progress Wrestling 12/15/19

91. Meiko Satomura vs. Jinny

PAS: I clearly need to do a deep dive on 2019 Meiko, as she still looks completely incredible here. Early in the match Jinny looked like she didn't belong in the ring with Meiko, but she kept scrapping and by the end this was a pretty great underdog match. Loved Jinny trying a drop toe hold take down at half speed, only for Meiko to do the same move with incredible speed and precision. I was ready to give up on Jinny at that point, but then she started throwing sharp elbows and actually standing toe to toe with Meiko Satomura. I loved how she flipped off Meiko, only for Meiko to kick her head off. I also liked how it played into the finish with Meiko pulling up at two, only to get pinned on a flash roll up when she was too nonchalant. If you have to take the belt off of Meiko this is a pretty good way to do it.

ER: I like Jinny a lot. She's one of a handful of people I actually go out of my way to see on NXT UK, and I love how her sharp features give her the most natural ice queen vibe, coming off like the Persian Tessa Blanchard. So it's even more fun seeing her pull off the underdog babyface role in her home fed, getting pummeled by one of the best wrestlers in the world. It's hard to work a match like this, where the champ takes 95% of the match without the match feeling like a total steamrolling, but I think they pulled it off. The mat scrambling was cool, with Meiko showing off her supreme talents with sick rolling takedowns, floating effortlessly in every pass she wanted to make through Jinny's body. Meiko showed she could hop from the legs to the arms to the neck essentially whenever she wanted, and every time they stood up I thought Jinny was great at showing she barely escaped with her arm or leg. Jinny is not a tall woman, but she reads like a tall woman. She has long legs and arms, and I like the way those come into play in her matches. They always seem to play into her rope break game, and here Meiko sank in a nasty hold only to see Jinny's long leg reach the ropes, big toe barely making it. When Jinny finally managed to get her head above water, she used those long limbs to throw sharp elbows, and soon she's hammerfisting Satomura's back to lock her arms and pendulum slam Meiko's chest repeatedly into the mat, and hitting a big dive into Satomura and a couple security guards. But I knew Meiko would go into killer mode, and when she does it's the very best, and I thought the big kickouts were very well done. They hadn't spammed any big moves early in the match, so by the time Jinny ate that decapitating cartwheel knee it was still feasible that she had some gas left in the tank. The end stretch felt like Liger/Sasuke to me, with a vet getting too cocky when met with insolence (middle finger fighting spirit spots have been used in some lame ways in the past 15 years, so I like that Jinny got her finger moment in and then got smashed), absolutely folding her with a death valley driver...but picking her up for 2? I loved Meiko's reactions to the crowd after breaking up her own pin, as the crowd really isn't into it, so Meiko feels the need to justify her decision, allowing Jinny to get a flash roll up crucifix pin. I really liked this, but it made me even more excited to see a rematch, curious how the dynamics would change with Meiko as the fired up challenger and Jinny the champ.

15. Timothy Thatcher vs. Kassius Ohno

PAS: This was tremendous violent wrestling. Ohno was in full brutalizer mode just beating Thatcher horribly, with Thatcher toughing it out and firing back with some really big shots of his own. Loved the transition with Ohno catching Thatcher's leg and kicking him right in the patella. Ohno then gets straight down to torture, just mauling with nasty submission holds and brutal stomps and elbows. At one point he ties up the legs in a modified Indian death lock opening up Thatcher's head for ugly forearms. Really liked Thatcher's knee selling, at one point he tries to plant and loses his balance briefly which was enough time to get kicked in the head. Finish was Fujiwarian, with Thatcher countering a rolling elbow with a headbutt right in the elbow, and snapped on a Fujiwara for the tap. Great stuff, didn't outstay its welcome, and every bit of it was violent and nasty.

ER: These two separately are always must see, but these two together? I don't know how much more must see you can get. I was there live for their first ever match in 2015 and it was one of my favorite live wrestling experiences of my life. They match up all through 2015 and have barely fought since, so you knew this was going to be a treat. And this was a quieter match than their prior bouts and I liked that. This really wasn't focused on bomb throwing or big spots, and as Phil pointed out it feels more like a classic Fujiwara match, with Thatcher being tortured and overwhelmed while always being fully in the match and pulling out a last second magic trick. Ohno keeps powering Thatcher down to the mat, and every time he has him there he unleashes something mean, primarily focusing on Thatcher's ankle. Ohno found all sorts of ways to step on, stomp on, and twist Thatcher's ankle: stomping it over the bottom rope, cruelly stepping on the ball of his ankle while getting to a standing position, wrenching and twisting it, doing clever leverage spots, even things like pressing his forehead into Thatcher's arch while cranking the ankle. The hard strikes and big spots we do get are used sparingly and came off effective as hell: Thatcher's stuffed piledriver sell was an all-timer, his arms stiffening and his back rounding into a C. I loved the moment where Thatcher went to put weight on his ankle and buckled under the weight, looking up in time to see a boot land flush in his eye. The finish was that sudden Fujiwara blast, Ohno setting up KO blow only to have Thatcher headbutt his ulna, sending a lightning bolt up Ohno's arm, allowing Thatcher to sink the armbar. Let's make sure these two don't go another 3+ years without crossing paths.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 12/22-12/28 + Bonus Lorcan

NXT 12/20 (Aired 12/25/19)

Jack Gallagher vs. Isaiah Scott

ER: I really appreciate what Gallagher did here, as this was a super selfless 15 minutes where he basically offers to give Scott 13 of those minutes, while finding interesting ways to get into Scott's overly complicated offense. Scott's offense often feels like he's doing a straight faced imitation of 2007 Chris Hero doing overly complicated athletic Jersey All Pro spots to confuse Japanese audiences. Scott saw a NOAH match of Hero's and liked the idea of doing a back handspring into a tuck and roll into an elbowdrop. And here's Gallagher, finding interesting ways to set up an Eliminators showcase. Most Scott matches are no different than those Eliminators showcases, where they wouldn't know how to get their opponents naturally into position for their complicated double teams so they would just move them as if their opponents were mannequins and then do the move. Scott requires opponents to take a lot of walks and turn a lot of unnatural directions just to get into position for the move, and Gallagher might have been the best I've seen at doing so. Gallagher was finding interesting twists to set up Scott's convoluted horse shit, like taking a huge backdrop bump to the floor that was to set up Scott's punt from the apron, and instead of rushing right back into place to get kicked in the face, Gallagher instead looked disoriented, heading the opposite way of Scott to see nobody was there, only to turn around and take the kick to the head. He threw two different turns into the spot that most wouldn't take the time to do, and that's what sets Gallagher apart from others. Gallagher spent the match doing little things like that, setting up offense across the ring because that's where he had to be to take Scott's stupid flipping cutter, trying to work a standing armbar so that Scott could show off a strong backbreaker, really the whole match felt like Gallagher was trying to get his buddy noticed, and that kind of selfless behavior should just make sure Gallagher himself gets noticed. He had some great individual stuff, loved the nearfall he got off the rebound headbutt, and couldn't help but admire the way he flew hard into every single landing. For his part, Scott paid occasional lip service to a sore shoulder he got from being tossed into the turnbuckle, but it sure didn't seem to slow him down any.


NXT 4/10 (Aired 5/1/19)

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch/Humberto Carrillo vs. Jaxson Ryker/Wesley Blake/Steve Cutler

ER: This ruled!! Forgotten Sons are a team I really dig who don't seem to get much praise. I'm not sure why that is. Lorcan starts this whole thing off by throwing his body into the Sons like only Lorcan can do, throws big chops, and smashes Blake with an uppercut that sends him to the floor  (with a great bump). Jaxson Ryker has a stupid name, but the guy has always been better than he's ever given credit for. He comes off like a wild eyed psycho leader of a gang, and that's exactly how he should be coming off. He bumps big (his fast bump through the ropes looked like it would have caused a muscle tear) but hits back twice as hard, and I love how Cutler and Blake do his dirty work while he comes in to finish the job. Cutler may take a big floating armdrag from Carrillo, but he doesn't even see it coming when Ryker catches him with a spinebuster. I like Ryker's hammer fist ground and pound and loves how he balances the roles of opportunist and sadist. Blake and Cutler are real fun flunkies, love their tandem hiptoss that flattened Carrillo over the middle rope, love how they stooge around and bump for Burch's big hot tag, love how they get clobbered when Lorcan flies into them with a tope con giro, they're just fun. The Sons run some misdirection and Carrillo accidentally hits Lorcan with a dive (sending Lorcan sprawling up the entrance), and we get a great final walking tall moment where Burch is left alone in the ring with all three Sons. Burch fights them valiantly before falling to the numbers game, and we are left with a 7 minute match that told several stories, never slowed up, and showed a cohesive and untapped team in the Forgotten Sons. This match aired almost 8 months ago, and Ryker has had only 4 TV matches since. Stupid. How long until The Big 3 is just me writing about Forgotten Sons matches?

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Satanico! Perro! Lawler! Fishman! Ringo! Taue! Air Paris! V3! Dr. Death!

Perro Aguayo/Fishman/Satanico vs. Villano III/El Jalisco/Ringo Mendoza CMLL 1983?

PAS: My god is this a whirlwind. We have six tremendous lucha brawlers just ripping into each other, and it keeps building and building. Cubsfan guessed this match was 1983, which makes this some of the earliest Satanico footage we have, and my god is he brilliant, he throws these multiple punch combos with such preciseness and force, it is like watching Sugar Ray Robinson footage. It is a great contrast to the more unhinged and wild brawling of Perro, Perro and Ringo Mendoza are mostly paired up in this match, they had two apuestas matches in the 70s which must have been classics, because this felt like an all time rivalry, by the end of the match they are both covered in blood on their knees just whirling shots at each other.  Don't know much about Jalisco, but he takes a bump to the floor in the match where it looks like he tears his ACL, but gets back into to fight more, so it must have just been a great sell. Villano 3 spends most of the match in an incredible boxing war with Satanico, and I loved his little dances before unloading shots. The match ends with a low blow, but there are six minutes or so of post match brawling where it gets so intense that it feels like the crowd is going to rush the ring. The point of this project is look at all kinds of footage, a lot of time we unearth fun curiosities, this however was a stone cold classic.

MD: This felt evolutionary. I wouldn't necessarily call it revolutionary, as you get the sense these guys were having matches this good all the time. Part of why I love wrestling is the structure, the patterns, the ritual, and that exists nowhere as much as in lucha. There are things you just don't see a lot of, whether you're watching a match from 86, 96, or 06. One of these are two distinct rudo beatdown segments. You just don't see it much. This had that, with the beatdown that opens the match an all timer. All three rudos absolutely shined, with Perro's boots the 1983 equivalent of Suplex City, with Fishman's punches more memorable than anything else he's done in any other match I've seen him in, and Satanico just holding court as the true king of wrestling villainy. Throughout this Ringo is sympathetic working from underneath and Villano III is tough as nails as the guy wanting to get in and save his partner.

When I say evolutionary, though, it's because not everything has been calcified yet. You still get the sense of reasons behind things we've always just taken for granted. For the first comeback, It's Villano III in there and it's a bunch of the classic rudo miscommunication that they've been doing for decades and that you can imagine in your mind just with those two words alone, but there's an element of danger and desperation that I've never seen. It's not just a given. There's still a chance that the rudos are going to win out with the numbers game and Villano III will get pulled back under. It eventually becomes ritual but here it, the element of lucha which however enjoyable has the least amount of actual struggle, felt just a bit more believable than usual. That was a testament to the rudos, to the tecnicos, to the viciousness of the beatdown, and yes, to the punctuation of Ringo just unleashing on Perro after the momentum shifts.

Even the stuff that feels a bit more out of place in a war like this, like the Estrella-rana combo after the second comeback in the tercera, works because of how battered Perro and Ringo were by that point and the way they sell their exhaustion as they move towards each other in the center of the star. Everything builds towards the end-of-match fouls and they feel less like a means to an end but meaningful ends in and of themselves.

ER: Matt and Phil covered this one before I had a chance (my family's Christmas is today due to sister working on Christmas, so I'm holed up in my parents' bathroom typing about pro wrestling to avoid their mockery), but I watched this last night before bed and my god is this era lucha as heated as any Mid South brawl you've seen. There's a vocal contingent that says they don't get lucha, but what is not to understand about a match like this? This is 20 minutes of fists flying and men taking dangerously fast bumps to the floor, before running back in to send more fists. Satanico is in his early 30s here, has his hair styled like Richard Dawson, takes at least 6 lightning fast bumps to the floor, and has the exact same hunched posture as 70 year old Satanico has. But here's Perro Aguayo also throwing fists and flying to the floor, and here's a luchador - Jalisco - I don't really know, taking a mammoth bump to the floor with a knee sell so convincing that someone could say "oh yeah this is the match where Jalisco blew out his knee and never was the same again" and I'd say "sure makes sense"; This is the greatest Fishman performance I've seen (the way he would square up and fire shots to the gut and collarbones!), the greatest Ringo Mendoza performance I've seen (I don't think I've ever seen such a majestic fired up tecnico performance from him, the perfect combination of tecnico intensity and peak athleticism), Villano III wrestles like Villano III, and the whole thing just washes over you in a perfect bath of dickhead relentless rudos and walking tall tecnicos. The striking is so tight, and yet so passionate that it probably didn't need to be as tight as it was, the message still would have shone through. Perro and Ringo go at it like dogs and leave bleeding, Satanico would fly to the floor and fly back in just as fast to gun for Villano's head, the crowd keeps surging closer and closer to the ring, the whole thing is just gorgeous. This is lucha perfection, the kind of match worked in a universal language with flair that only lucha can provide.


Akira Taue vs. Dr. Death Steve Williams AJPW 6/4/91

PAS: Thumping heavyweight wrestling which is exactly what you want from this match up. Really great Willams performance, he just puts so much pop on everything he does in this match. He does this great sliding dropkick where he just sticks both feet into Taue's ribs and send him flying to the floor, and then works an abdominal stretch by pounding on those ribs. There is a minor key AJPW finish section with some really nasty falling lariats by Taue and a fun near fall where Taue grabbed the rope on the Stampede and got a two count, only to fall to a big stampede for a three. The older I get the less I care about smoothness and both of these guys are rough as sandpaper.

MD: This was a Doc showcase, from the fans chanting along to his music at the beginning to him powering Taue around the ring with the second Oklahoma Stampede attempt (not counting the posting on the floor) that was the finish. Doc felt like a proto-Brock here, just full of energy and explosiveness. Taue was there to take everything, get in position, and bump around for Williams. When he fired back, it was memorable, be it the hundred-hand slap across the ring or the back brain kicks. The finishing stretch was each trading bursts of momentum before Williams won out. The whole thing was an absolute clash of the titans. Size in and of itself doesn't matter any more than speed but the way that these two went at it made it feel larger than life.

ER: I pushed a little extra for this one as Taue is a guy who is weirdly under-represented on Segunda Caida, and that's something that should change. Taue vs. Doc was almost always a once a year singles match, and this is the first time it happened (and the only time it didn't happen as part of the Champion Carnival). So they met up nearly every year after this in the Carnival, including the well known '96 CC Final, so it was a fairly rare match up and one that always happened as some part of big tournament...except for here. It's their only singles match without some kind of stakes, and that's pretty cool. The two shouldn't blend well, and maybe they kind of don't, and that's what makes it fun. Taue's clunkiness is part of his charm and makes his moments of athleticism that much more exciting, and it's fun seeing him take offense because he moves like the only two "How to Move and Stand" models in his life were Giant Baba and Bob Backlund. Seriously, watch when Taue takes a punch or stays standing on a shoulderblock, his butt out/fist cocked stance is pure Backlund, the way he takes suplexes is like Backlund...just a perfect Frankenstein monster of Giant Bob-uh.

I liked how Taue used his falling clothesline a lot here, spamming it as a guaranteed takedown on Doc, as it was a way to actually swing things back to Taue's favor while also still making it feel like he was working underneath the full match. Taue does a lot of simple things here to play into Doc's crazy strength, like just grabbing the best kind of chinlock (tight arm choke while pressing his weight down into Doc's back and shoulders, and also holding tight onto a side headlock. Doc is not someone you want to put in a side headlock, but Taue locking in a snug one actually adds some meaning to Taue eating a back suplex, making it feel like his actual offense was reversed (as opposed to the moments where someone with zero business headlocking Doc was merely doing it for the spot). Doc had some cool punishing slams, and surprised me with a great baseball slide dropkick that sent Taue sprawling to the floor. Taue sprawls better than most wrestlers, there's always at least one limb sticking up in a way that it shouldn't be. Taue reads as a hard guy to lift (another secret about the greatness of Taue), so when Doc press slams out of a pin and Taue goes flying, it comes off like an even greater version of that spot. Doc Stampeding Taue into the ringpost is only more gold, and the nearfall that comes from Taue holding the ropes on a Stampede, falling on top of Doc with a crossbody, fully convinced me it was the finish. Two guys who infrequently met in singles matches, meeting for the first time, just made me want to go back through their half dozen CC matches.


Jerry Lawler vs. Air Paris NAWA 4/18/03

PAS: Really simple, really pleasurable Lawler indy tour match. Weird heel/face structure with Lawler doing sort of heelish mic work at the beginning (insulting a big Air Paris faction in the crowd) but Paris and his manager Bert Prentice working heel in the match. Paris was a highspot guy in NWA Wildside (and in his one WCW match) but was working Memphis heel here, he had a great greasy haired laser tag attendant look, and threw some really great looking punches. Lots of complaining about pulling hair and other fun horseshit. At one point Prentice holds Lawler while Paris wraps a chain around his hand, and instead of Paris accidentally hitting Prentice, the interference actually works!! We did have a Lawler Stone Cold Stunner, which is my least favorite Lawler thing ever (outside of the young girls of course), but otherwise this was spot on.

ER: We've gone through and watched a ton of Lawler indy matches from the 2000s, and this is just more of that same fun Lawler formula. Lawler can have this match in his sleep, so a capable opponent will always lift things, and Paris was a fun jerk here. He was bigger than his WCW appearances a couple years prior (when it looked like he and Styles were actually about to be a pushed new TV team...in the very last week of WCW), and he's dressed like an undercover cop at a rave, so it's fitting when he's complaining about hair pulls and tights pulls to eventually justify his own cheating. Lawler is always capable of surprising me, in mixing up his formula and catering it to specific crowds and opponents; here he surprised me by absolutely leveling Paris with a standing clothesline out of a blocked hiptoss attempt. Lawler is not someone I think about when I think about guys with a good short arm clothesline, but it shouldn't shock me that he uncorked a beauty. Lawler punches Paris around the ring, with Paris eventually coming back by punching Lawler in the back of his head. It's also no surprise when guys tend to "punch up" when facing Lawler. I recently watched a Lawler/Aldo Montoya match where it looked like Montoya was trying to break Lawler's jaw, and here Paris throws several knuckle shots right at Lawler's eyebrow. We get Paris choking Lawler with a chain behind the ref's back, and I'm always going to love a chain in a Lawler match. Lawler knows how to work around a chain, whether it's his chain or responding to someone else's chain. We build to both guys eating backdrops, Lawler punching Prentice off the apron (with Prentice taking an impressive bump for a guy cosplaying as the Mayor of Flavor Town), a strap removal spot where Lawler request Paris stop advancing on him, and then we really do get the chain spot to beat all chain spots. Phil mentioned it, but the whole spot is drawn out the exact way you've seen it countless times: Prentice gets on the apron and holds Lawler prone, Paris theatrically wraps the chain around his fist, gives his fist a big kiss, rears back...and just punches Lawler in the head. Prentice hops off the apron. I made an audible "HUH?" type sound. This is like when Matt saw a match where someone hit an axe handle off the middle buckle to a downed opponent, a true in the wild rarity.

MD: Air Paris is always going to be the unfortunate answer to a trivia question, but he put on a good show here. Lawler's opening mic act was ten years out of date (even for this crowd) and Prentice's act half-hearted and probably fifteen. None of that was a certainty because Lawler as of a few years ago could still spend the first ten minutes of a twenty minute recorded match on the mic and you wouldn't mind it at all, but here it was all too homophobia driven and the fans only seemed partially into it.

Paris did have his own cheering section which he used well as a prop throughout the match. There was nothing 'air' about him here, instead playing up the mic work insinuating that if he beat Lawler, he'd get a shot at the following Raw. He was the upstart jerk, playing up every won exchange or bodyslam as if he won the lottery (through skill, not luck). He kept the volume up high and presented himself as an entertaining foil for Lawler. The strap-dropping felt particular satisfying even after only a few minutes of it. Pure formula, but so long as you lean into it, it almost always works and they leaned into it here.

Read more!

Mas Niebla

ER: The passing of Niebla has really made me want to go back and seek out Mr. Niebla matches that I either haven't seen at all, or haven't seen in 20 years. I first started watching lucha 20 years ago after happening across it on Galavision, with Niebla being one of the early standouts to my "Never seen lucha outside of WCW" eyes. I'll be doing several posts documenting Niebla's high end 1999-2000, a cool run spanning an entire millennium.


Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas/Shocker vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Black Warrior/Scorpio Jr. CMLL 7/9/99

ER: This was a big fun sprawling mess, a big Blue Panther rudo performance, a match that saw guys always running around on the floor without having tons of big high spots. We got a big Niebla tope con giro in the tercera, but this match was built with charisma and sustained to the DQ finish. Panther was constantly stomping at Casas and looks like he aims to dislocate three of his limbs at once in the primera. And I loved the contrast with Santo and Casas separating Scorpio from the pack in the segunda while Niebla keeps on eye on the helpless Panther and Warrior. The crazy spot we build to is Casas holding Scorpio prone on the floor, with Santo getting overhyped and crazily thinking it would be a good idea to fly into them with a tope. Scorpio breaks free and moves, but it doesn't matter as Santo's leg catches the middle rope and he hits the ground hard. I think the plan was for Scorpio to move and Santo to send Casas into the seats, but this worked even more effectively, and gave us the visual of Santo leaving on a stretcher. Santo feels like a guy crazy enough to work a badly blown painful spot into his matches, so it could have been part of it, but either way it was a hot start to this feud.

Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Pierroth Jr./Shocker/Ricky Santana CMLL 7/16/99

ER: Picks up where the last one left off, with a completely new set of rudos. Niebla/Santo/Casas are a  tremendous tecnico team that just ooze constant charisma, they make every rudo team come off like real dicks. And it helps that Pierroth kicks all kinds of ass and brawls with Santo all around the building. Everyone knows brawling Santo is the best Santo, and this was no different as he gets punched and choked up the ramp by Pierroth, but hits his in ring headbutt and perfect dive past the ringpost to the floor. Shocker is playing such an aloof douche the whole match, fake Niebla causing a constant Who Me? ruckus. Pierroth looks like a crazed uncle as this whole thing brings apart, taking his belt off and threatening everyone. I miss these crazed CMLL DQ ending trios that actually built to bigger matches. You'd think that would be easy to do.

Mr. Niebla vs. Shocker CMLL 7/30/99

ER: This is more angle than match, but sets up and finalizes the Niebla/Niebla mask match and gets there in unprofessional fashion. Niebla sends Shocker into the 3rd row with a tope to start things, and most of the rest of the match is these two grappling and dragging each other around ringside. Shocker starts working Niebla's leg early and soon is literally dragging him by that leg all around the big Arena Mexico ring. The in ring action is fun and played out more like a same era New Japan juniors match (which was a trait I remember about 99-02 Shocker matches), with Shocker hitting a great sitout powerbomb and Niebla hitting a couple of cool suplexes, and we get a genuinely very good kneeling slap exchange (Niebla's final shot gets rightly played as a near KO). But soon the fake Niebla is out, and he and Shocker just nuke Niebla's leg into the entrance ramp. They bash his leg into the edge of the rampway, slamming the front of his thigh right above the knee, with fake Niebla jumping on his hammies, and both delivering a wishbone in the ring. They sign the contract in the ring right after the DQ, and I appreciate this kind of cut right to the chase.

Read more!

The 1995 King of the Ring Qualifying Matches, Part 2

Duke Droese vs. Kama WWF Superstars 5/27/95

ER: There's something nice about these condensed big boy battles, I mean outside of the fact that it's a big boy battle and therefore the greatest thing in wrestling. The short runtime always turns them into sprints, and I love seeing these guys run around. I also amuse myself with the idea that somewhere, there is someone who champions Kama - the Extreme Fighting Machine - as the best era of Charles Wright's career. Wright is a guy who hung around for a LONG time without having many (any?) matches championed, but one era has to by default be his best in ring era. So why not Kama? I await the heated debates. And I can't get over how many people in the crowd love Droese! Since this was not an era I watched as it happened, all I've heard about was how lame it was that WWF had a garbage man and a plumber and a dentist etc. But the fans were clearly into Droese and he was clearly very good! There is a woman with an infant shown cheering elatedly for the Dumpster, and I wonder where that woman is today? 25 years on, does she remember how excited she was to see Duke Droese banging his trashcan down the aisle? I hope so. I hope that no matter her relationship with modern wrestling, she occasionally thinks back to how happy she was here, that one perfect day at the Superstars tapings. As for the match, I liked it. Kama throws some nice distance kicks, and I really liked his mule kick to counter Droese charging into the corner. But this was a MAJOR Droese showcase, and it's surprising how dominant he was here. He works really fast, really exciting on offense; he hit a high dropkick, really hard pair of clotheslines after some complicated rope running, and his big rotation powerslam on a big guy like Kama was impressive as hell. And my god, let me tell you, we also got my absolute favorite moment, which is Droese TAKING DOWN THE STRAPS OF HIS OSHA REGULATED HEAVY LIFTING BELT before going in for the kill. That's a flat out genius babyface character specific spot and Droese is so much better than I have ever been lead to believe. He and Kama worked a couple fun standing exchanges, and as nice as these sprints are it would have been nice to see them stretch out a bit. Instead, the match ends suddenly with a big Kama spinebuster. Million Dollar Corporation win again. That white male fan rubbing his fingers together during their entrance, eyes smug, showing he knew the international sign of Big Bucks? He was right.


Jeff Jarrett vs. The Undertaker WWF Raw 5/29/95

ER: This was tremendous, an awesome under 10 minute match. Jarrett was a real ace in '95, might be the very peak intersection of his specific set of skills. Here he was still a super fast, hard bumping, graceful moving stooge, a pretty boy in the most garish wrestling gear of the decade, a total non-threat who keeps somehow winning. Jarrett gets flung around the ring in glorious fashion, whipped hard into the turnbuckles, flying high on beals, big bumps off his shoulders. But with Roadie running distraction he is able to gain frequent advantages, able to control Taker convincingly while also seeming like a constant underdog who frustratingly stays ahead. Jarrett throws two stunning dropkicks, the second of which was a picture of a perfect dropkick, his feet perfectly together, body fully extended, feet squarely angled into Undertaker's face. This was the right way to work a back and forth match, and there were 5 momentum changes over a 10 minute runtime; that kind of back and forth can be tiresome in the wrong hands, but this was pretty expertly crafted. This had the feel of a real cool Coliseum Video gem.


Doink vs. The Roadie WWF Superstars 6/3/95

ER: Man I am a big fan of 1995 Ray Apollo Doink. He really served the gimmick well and was much closer to Bourne's style than Lombardi's. This whole thing was a really curious decision, even having Roadie in the qualifying rounds of the tournament. Roadie had one match in WWF at this point (the televised handicap match w/ JJ vs. Razor at the IYH that just happened) and was clearly just positioned as a non-wrestling manager. That's why it wasn't deemed an insurmountable threat that he was included as an odds stacker against Razor. The roster was filled with guys who would have made way more on paper sense to have in the tourney: Hakushi, Henry Godwinn, Lawler, 1-2-3, the debuting Candido (if they wanted a new guy in the final 8), Pierre, etc. I had said Jacob Blu was the weirdest inclusion in the tourney, since he had not wrestled any singles matches in WWF, but that's probably not as weird as the manager who had only been in one match to this point. Now the match itself is fun as hell, as Doink works this as he would a match against a non-worker. Apollo is really underrated in the gimmick, as his work is quick and he knows how to fill all of his time with action and gimmick. There is no dead air, he takes a cool approach to Roadie, hits a cool amateur takedown, grabs a single leg and works an ankle while stepping on Roadie's other ankle, flipping him and working for an STF, then passing to work on a grounded headlock, scrapes his boot bottoms across Roadie's eyes, holds him at distance in a collar and elbow, then pops Roadie's head between his knees for a piledriver and just stomps his feet instead to ring his bell. Doink's offense is great, and he comes off more like Mr. Wrestling II than the poor version of the Clown that Lombardi portrayed. Apollo is really great at getting the fans into his offense, knows when to include Doink, knows when to mock along with Roadie's stooging, really shakes his butt and taunts Roadie during the "piledriver" set up, and then his super high gorgeous kneelift while I was typing all of that just confirms that Ray Apollo was a 1984 territory babyface and was great at his job, the Hennig rolling necksnap a delicious cherry on top. Roadie does get offense in, has a really nice falling back elbow, but his strength here is stooging, and when Doink is dropping cool back suplexes like Jack Brisco that is not really an insult. And the finish to the match is far too simplistic for the quality work they had given the match: Doink goes up for the whoopee cushion, jumps down because Jarrett makes a fuss at ringside, then Roadie hits a kneelift to the back and gets a school boy. That's a shame. It's an ending that makes sense with the character and how he had been portrayed in limited physical appearances, but I just wanted something a little more clever. The match itself was super fun and gave me a new perspective on late period WWF Doink, might just have to seek out more Apollo Doink.


Owen Hart vs. The British Bulldog WWF Raw 6/5/95

ER: This was my least favorite of the KOTR Qualifying Matches. It is a 15 minute draw, and the commentary by JR and Gorilla had that exact same annoying quality that Jeff Blatnick's commentary during the Rulon Gardner/Karelin match had. The commentary was clearly dubbed over a previously recorded match, the live crowd clearly was not made aware of any time limit, so JR and Gorilla really started hammering home the remaining time in the last few minutes of the match, then immediately explained that neither man would be advancing since neither man had won. It was a real limp dick result to the match, and their scripted explanation was brutal. It was this blatant "Well you know neither man won the match, and if there was no winner then neither man can advance!" "That's right, rules state that winners advance, and there was no winner here, so that means that they lost their chance!" It came off extremely phony, a seemingly complicated situation shrugged off with some "Well what are you gonna do?" rules chat. It was Jeff Blatnick explaining the very obscure rules that zero people would know offhand, in the immediate moment after the bell, a man buoyantly pretending he didn't have the test answers ahead of time.

The match proper was a bit of a bore until a hot but meaningless finishing sprint. They telegraphed going long by the deliberate pace they worked for the first half, and that's fine, but once JR and Gorilla started talking about time limits that made me realize what we were working towards. Bulldog gasses after a run of offense that at least included a nice press slam and a hard delayed vertical suplex, but ended with him holding a chinlock and open mouth panting in Owen's face. Owen had nice comebacks and hit harder to make up the size, really whipping into Bulldog with his spinning heel kick. We got a long kind of awkward moment where Bulldog set Owen up for La Tapatia, which lead to him popping a squat while standing on Owen's knee backs, while the director scrambles to cut through all of the various camera angles to figure out which is the least provocative angle of Bulldog holding that squat. And then after he took all that time to apply and eventually roll Owen through it, the ref immediately counts Bulldog's shoulders down, which is very stupid. Not only stupid visually, but stupid because we sat through a minute of set up for a move that ended in 2 seconds. After planning. The stretch run of this was the greatest stretch of the match, as we go through a real good sprint through pinfalls, handled much better than the frantic Time Limit Remaining endings typically go. Owen and Bulldog are both really good at plausibly holding cradles and pins, making every single pin look match ending. Owen grabbed a small package to stop a rope running Bulldog that felt like a weird World of Sport round ender, and Bulldog hit a cool crucifix pin with a snug high bridge. The rush to that time limit was hot, but even that was marginalized because I was deflated by knowing exactly what they were rushing towards.


Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger WWF Raw 6/12/95

ER: Due to the flat tire that was last week's time limit draw, we get Yoko and Luger announced as the next to potential qualifiers for that 8 seed. They do a kind of hilarious and sad video package with a real insulting timeline: Yokozuna beating Hogan for the title at KOTR '93, Luger slamming him on the Intrepid the next month, Luger getting "the moral victory" at Summerslam, and after that...."Now Luger gets another chance at getting into the mix for the title!" The montage literally covered June thru August 1993, and then skipped straight to June 1995 to explain that this is "arguably" the biggest match of Luger's career. This match would be a big deal if say Barry Horowitz was getting a shot at being the 8 seed, but I'm not sure I should give them credit for painting this as Luger getting revenge after not winning the title 2 years prior. That seems like a hard stretch. And unfortunately for Luger, he comes off as big of a boner as he came off in not beating Yokozuna for the title two years earlier.

The match is really good, with Yoko working as sadistic big striking monster fat guy, buckling Luger with full arm windup chops, hitting him in the face with a big lariat, going down quick for missed elbows and a legdrop. Luger threw nice punches straight into Yoko's face, ran into him on shoulderblocks and axe bombers, hit a big flying clothesline off the top, and we built to Yoko's wonderful banana peel bump and his all time fat guy signature bump (the one where he crashes through the middle ropes to the floor). But the finish is rough and makes Luger look like a real doofus. He runs out to save his American flag, punches Cornette, Fuji chops Scotty Anton in the neck, Scotty Anton is there holding the flag for some reason, and Luger gets counted out when Yokozuna smacks him into the ring post and legdrops him. Yokozuna has haunted Luger ever since the Intrepid, and Luger is the high school QB who washed out in college.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

Read more!

2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Latigo & Atomic Star's Apuestas Blood Drive!

29. Latigo vs. Atomic Star RCH 11/17

ER: Mask vs. Hair, super libre, rudos interfering at will, blood everywhere, love to see it. Latigo must have made a ton of enemies because there are no shortage of rudos who want his mask and, apparently, want to drain him of his blood. When I thought this was going to be constant seconds interfering on Atomic Star's behalf, I had trouble getting involved in the action. But Latigo had such a big tecnico presence that by the time he was busted open, Atomic Star throwing knuckle punches right at his deepening cut, I started pulling for the guy as if he was my best friend. He gets launched into the crowd and within a minute his body shows the bruises from landing on hard plastic chair edges, Atomic Star bouncing those same chairs off his face and busting him open. Latigo's mask is ripped, and he starts bleeding so much that I wonder if he had been scalped. He can't make any headway due to the interference, but his big break does come and man does he make the most of it. He sets up a tope con giro on Star and some goon who has been involved the whole time, and it is maybe the most rewatchable dive of the damn year. The physics of it are violently gorgeous: as Latigo crashes into them, his body flies into the crowd, but the momentum of Latigo sends them whipping ass over crown with him a split second later, his tope con giro ending with a spectacular double lariat. My god.

And soon Atomic Star is bleeding too, and you can see literal drops and puddles of blood any time they slow down. Arena Naucalpan is covered with their blood. In one shot I saw their blood dripping and splatting onto a half dozen plus chairs, seats that are totally ruined for the main event, ruined by a couple of lunatics bleeding onto and then weaponizing them. Even the ref hits a great gusher. Lucha Underground just used blood packets, but give these men long enough and every single person in Naucalpan will be juicing. The fans really get behind Latigo and his mountain of adversity, and we build to some great final moments. Having extra bodies out there means we didn't have to have our guys waste time setting up prop spots. No, our boys continued to punch blood out of each other's faces while the props were set up for them, and Star hits a Spanish Fly off the apron through a table, chairs, and barbed wire...for a big damn nearfall. And when they're finally alone in the ring, and Star delivers that sure to be last kick to the balls, the bloodied ref refuses to count, and by the time a new ref comes in it gives Latigo just enough time to recover. The martinete he saves his mask with is as triumphant as it gets, completely playing off every second of bullshit the match had produced. It's tough to pay off that kind of match-long interference, and that bloodied up ref finally having enough of this mess was a great moment, and the beating Latigo was willing to take really added up to a great long-form lucha story.

PAS: A lot of the lucha extrema stuff I have seen is more about big gross spots than real traditional lucha storytelling, and I normally don't like ref shtick and lots of interference, but this match made all of it work. Eric was right about that dive, honestly it was one of the cooler dives I can remember seeing ever, like an even more violent version of the Super Calo WCW dive into the crowd. I got to give the ref a bunch of credit for breaking out the blade, I imagine that guy had some great apuestas matches in small gyms in the 80s. Big win for Latigo, as he had to basically run through the entire rudo roster to keep his mask, but I bought him doing it and it was a big moment when he finally was triumphant.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Mr. Niebla: Descanse en Paz

Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Black Warrior/Blue Panther CMLL 11/13/98

PAS: We reviewed an all time great trios match with a lot of the same guys from April of 98, and while this wasn't as good as that, it was still a total blast to watch. Really fun to see Santo and Casas as a tag team, especially so soon after their feud, and they really break out some fun combos here including an awesome flip rana by Santo off of a Casas Romero special. Fuerza vs. Casas was the highlight, with both guys breaking out a ton of full speed tricks and treats. Niebla was mostly matched up with fellow lost generation star Black Warrior, and they really had great chemistry. Warrior breaks out one of his incredible bullet topes which sends Niebla into the third row, where he barreled into what looked like a pre-teen girl. Just another example of how undeniable 1998 CMLL trios were.

ER: This was indeed a noticeable step down from that absolute classic 6 months prior, and Niebla may have been the guy least focused on the entire match. This is a Fuerza/Casas show, a match that essentially made me set out to watch some Niebla and 10 minutes in made me think I should just devote the next couple months to writing up exclusively 1998 Fuerza. Fuerza really appears to HATE Casas as he unleashes match long punishment on Casas's face and balls, the two punching and chopping each other through all three falls, Fuerza sticking him with a nasty inverted atomic drop, later tying him in the ropes and running into him with a straight boot to the jaw. Santo and Casas snap off gorgeous headscissors opposite Panther, Fuerza hits a gorgeous reverse powerbomb on Santo (Santo glides through moves so gracefully that it looks like Fuerza is lifting an empty plastic bag to slam), Black Warrior does indeed send Niebla crashing into a surly 11 year old girl with his trademark tope, and the whole thing felt like the kind of match where you could throw these same 6 together and routinely get something special.

Mr. Niebla vs. Mr Niebla CMLL 8/20/99

PAS: This was a weird situation where a guy had started wrestling in IWRG as Mr. Niebla, and eventually came to CMLL when the original Mr. Niebla was injured. OG Niebla attacked the imposter and it led to a mascara contra mascara match. This was fun stuff, it was one fall and either short or clipped, but what we got was good. There was a lot of pre match shenanigans with Dr. Wagner Jr. leading to IWRG Niebla getting the jump on CMLL Niebla and ripping his mask and bloodying him. CMLL Nieblas get the advantage back but misses a flip dive and lands hard on concrete. We moved pretty quickly into the closing run then, with some big near falls. I really liked how hard both guys were working to end the match or survive, really pressing on pins, and squirming out of holds. Niebla finally locks on the Nieblina to end the match, and IWRG Niebla would end up having a fun run as Mr. Mexico in CMLL.

Mr. Niebla vs. Abismo Negro AAA 2/15/08

PAS: This was part of the Niebla vs. Abismo feud over the leadership of the Vipers, and was a Bull Terrier match (aka Dog Collar). I liked Niebla attacking Negro at the bell and blooding him up, and trying to win the match before he even put on the collar. This was in the six sided ring days of AAA, and having to hit all six turnbuckles drags out that portion of the match even more then in normally does. The parts of this that were brawling were really nifty, but when it devolved into a game of tag, it got less interesting. Still fun to see Niebla in a different setting.

Read more!

In the News! Arik Cannon

The end of last weeks AEW Dynamite show had a mass attack by masked Dark Order members beating up the entire roster. A clip of one of those masked guys throwing embarrassing mounted phantom punches on Dustin Rhodes made its rounds on the internet, with Randy Orton (who isn't exactly Dick Murdoch) taunting the masked guy about his inability to perform something you should learn the first week of wrestling school. The big M. Night Shyamalan twist was that this masked Dark Order member wasn't some green rookie, but Arik Cannon, a guy who has been wrestling since 2001, and actually runs his own promotion, and is the head trainer of a wrestling school. There is a lot of Cannon I didn't like, but I do remember really digging an IWA-MS I Quit match against Chris Hero, so I decided to revisit it, and maybe give Cannon some propers.


Arik Cannon vs. Chris Hero IWA-MS 9/9/05

This was pretty long (40+ minutes), which isn't something I am looking for in a match at this point in my life, but they kept it moving and had plenty of cool moments and an appropriate ending for an I Quit match. The first section of this match is both guys throwing really nasty potato shots at each other, including some really sick sounding headbuts, thudding forehead to forehead blows, forehead to cheek bone, and forehead to jaw. Cannon had a nice looping Billy Joe Travis hook, which he landed a bunch of times with some real sound on the jaw. Hero posts Cannon's knee and really works that over for the bulk of the match with some big thumps on the kneecap and side of the knee, and really fun twisty submission holds, at one point he rolls him into a reverse Indian deathlock and does pushups. Cannon fires back with some big throws, including a super nasty Saito suplex and tries to lock on a hangman's clutch of his own (the feud apparently started, because Cannon kept using Hero's moves on other wrestlers to taunt him). The most memorable moment of the match was Cannon using athletic tape on his own mouth so he couldn't talk and say I Quit. It is kind of an OTT idea, but I did like how he had to remove it himself to breath, and almost ended up puking. Fun backfire spot which actually made a bunch of sense. Hero eventually got on his own Hangman's clutch after stomping brutally on Cannon's knee. I Quit matches are traditionally bloody brawls, but I liked how this was based more on torturing submission holds, and while Hero was the standout, Cannon was more then just a passenger.


Not sure how a guy in a match this good, can do something as bad as Wednesday's beat down, with fifteen years more ring experience. At one point in this match he even does a series of mounted punches, and while he isn't Mark Coleman he does make decent looking contact. It will remain a mystery, but I am happy I rewatched this 15 years later.

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: Bob Cook in WWF, Part 1

Bob Cook vs. Bob Holly WWF Wrestling Challenge 2/19/95

ER: This was a brisk 3 minutes with a great long section of Cook totally outshining Holly. They were pushing Holly as a kickass young part of the New Generation, and Cook gave him a cool grizzled vet beating actually made Holly feel like a young upstart babyface (even though Holly looked like a freedom rock Walton Goggins). Cook buries a great low knee in Holly's gut, throws several great punches, drops a beautiful kneedrop, and just makes a snapmare look the way a snapmare is supposed to look. Holly hits a big elbow off the top for the win, but this was a cool showing for Cook.

Bob Cook vs. Man Mountain Rock WWF Superstars 2/25/95

ER: This is barely a minute, but it is a great minute. Cook's stretch of offense is a kick to the stomach and 5 punches, but they are 5 excellent punches perfectly thrown to the Rock's jaw. Rock is a huge guy, a guy whose offense correctly consisted of him running into and falling onto people. It's a damn shame he didn't get to mix it up with many people on the main roster. There were a lot of potential great big man matches, and the crowd was clearly into Rock squishing guys. He threw a heavy elbowdrop, big shoulderblocks, and landed and missed avalanches with big speed. Cook sidesteps him on a fast avalanche and just lobs the most perfect pro wrestling punches at his face. It would be tough to rank these 1-5, they're all keepers. God they could have done Cook vs. Lawler for 10 minutes and it would have been one of the great gems of 1995. Alas.

Bob Cook vs. Doink WWF Raw 2/27/95

ER: This was the final Doink, Ray Apollo, and Bob Cook did not get a lot of play versus Doink. Dink had some nice moments, running across Cook's stomach while he was in a sub and then hitting a rolling senton, bouncing on the bottom rope to liven up the crowd during some long Doink matwork. A lot of this was grounded, but I liked Apollo's amateur approach to a jobber squash. He was working hammerlocks and drop toeholds, and there was one brief competitive moment where Apollo got his own really great drop toehold - the kind where you really force your opponent somewhat slowly down to the mat once you scissor his legs - but Doink quickly reverses. Doink muscles through a cool gutwrench suplex and drops the Whoopie Cushion, but this was a missed opportunity. Cook is a guy who could work simple compelling mat sequences, but also work compelling sequences with a midget, but they wouldn't let him get too involved in either.

Bob Cook vs. 1-2-3 Kid WWF Superstars 3/4/95

ER: These two were natural opponents for each other, a guy with some whip fast kicks and big bumps against a guy with perfect bunches and a desire to bump fast for whip fast kicks. Kid throws out some nice ones, and we get a famous gif sequence of Cook wheeling around and punching Kid in the face right out of the corner. Sadly the only video of this online appears to be from a garbage YouTube account who zooms way in on their videos and intentionally adds glitches (for effect?). I'm unsure why some people take so much time to upload completely worthless files, but it's a thing.

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Dougie! Dundee & Barnes! Eddie! Jimmy Golden! Pre-Parka La Parka!

Bill Dundee/George Barnes vs. Tojo Yamamoto/Jimmy Golden CWA 5/20/75

PAS: This clip starts with the end of Barnes/Dundee vs. Tojo/Eddie Marlin, which is a pretty entertaining double juice brawl which ends with Dundee and Barnes grinding salt into Eddie Marlin's eyes and a wild post match brawl around the arena including a whole section of Dundee and Barnes crawling under the stage to escape. The Golden tag was titles versus Jimmy Golden's hair, and we get a really good chance to see Dundee and Barnes as a heel team. Barnes was a real bruiser with his punches landing with more thud, while Dundee's landed with more speed. Golden is a bunch of fun in this, he is so tall and his offense has this nifty awkwardness, that makes everything look less polished and more violent. That top rope dropkick he finishes with, looks like might have knocked Barnes all the way out of the ring.

MD: This has the last few minutes of Tojo/Marlin vs. Barnes/Dundee and the post match, the back half of Tojo/Golden vs. Barnes/Dundee, and a few minutes of Bob Armstrong vs. Stomper. It falls more on the "rare" side than completely new but it's nice to see it in one place. Any chance to see Barnes/Dundee in action is worth taking. Here they were big bumping (look at the armdrag over the top in the second match), big stooging (especially Dundee, who was quick with the object), wound targeting (Barnes, to the point where the announcing noted that he liked to target the head), heatseeking heels. We got glimpse of fiery hot tag Tojo, at bloody, struggling Marlin, and a bit more of that of plucky babyface Golden fighting from underneath and launching a mid-70s missile dropkick to win the belts. The best part of this was the post match of the first match though, where the faces trapped the heels on the stage and got chaotic revenge for the way the match went.

ER: I'm not too familiar with Barnes so this was a treat, as he gets more time to showcase than the others. He's like if Memphis Jeff Jarrett was a better cheating stooge. He throws hard punches that are a nice counterbalance to Dundee's whipping punches, and they both bump all around for big Tojo chops and Jimmy Golden is this mammoth clumsy athletic babyface. Dundee looks like a teen idol, like the bassist for Sweet or an Australian Paul Williams, and when he's paired with Golden it looks like Big John Studd vs. Sky Low Low. It's amazing. Barnes is a real great bastard, takes fun banana peel bumps, Golden shocks the hell out of me with a missile dropkick to win, the whole thing was an awesome glimpse at Dundee as part of a cutie pie Nightmares. "Bobby Sherman except asskicking cheaters." After the match you get to see how great 1975 Bob Armstrong was, before this match you got to see how great 1975 Eddie Marlin was, this was a wonderful 22 minutes of wrestling.


Chavo Guerrero/Eddie Guerrero vs. Los Invasor Del Norte Monterey 6/19/91

MD: This is a young LA Park as Invasor 1. As best as I can tell, he's the one with the yellow boots. That's the one that comes off as the star at least. There's a ton to like here. Chavo's cool and collected, smooth as can be. Eddy's a bit rougher around the edges but works like he has a chip on his shoulder. You get a real sense of Chavo having to basically babysit his younger brother who has something to prove which is one of those narratives that exists in a lot of fiction but not a whole lot in wrestling matches. Between Chavo's showmanship and the Invasors' willingness to stooge, the end result is a lot of fun. The first few minutes of the match is just them teasing lock ups but hugging instead (first the rudos and eventually the Guerreros to pay it off). When Eddy gets in, first ends up in a hold but Chavo sort of waves him off on a tag to get out of it. "You take care of this one yourself, kid." was the gist I got, which isn't something you usually see.

They were willing to try a lot of stuff, from back body drops over the ropes to a proto-STO to Eddy clobbering IY on the apron to a forearm, to those swinging arm drags that defy gravity but that look so cool you don't even care, with the first fall ending with duel Germans by the Guerreros and the second with real pretzel submissions by the Invasors. The beatdown that followed in the tercera was fine but I wish that Chavo had a bit more oomph on his save on Eddy that set up the comeback. It ended with a foul on Eddy and I would have definitely watched a hair vs mask match between Invasor I and Eddy on the way to Stuka eventually taking the Invasor mask.

PAS: Every bit of Eddie Guerrero footage we get is a true blessing, and he was electric here. His pendulum armdrags are incredible looking, and I loved the way baby LA Park takes them. All of the falls were classic lucha structure, Invasor's bump and stooge big for the initial babyface run, and are signficanlty rudoish during their beatdown. I liked the heat of the post match brawl, although I agree with Matt that it would have been better with more steam. This wasn't a lost classic or anything, but it was really cool to backfill the history of three all time greats (and whoever the other Invasor was)


Franz Schuhmman vs. Doug Gilbert CWA 12/20/97

MD: Totally committed Gilbert performance here, from the moment he comes in (to Born in the USA which while seemingly used for every American, feels particularly poignant here) with his jacket airbrushed with his own face to the brawling on the floor and the Bret-like roll up reversal out of nowhere he ate for the finish. In between, he basically did everything right. The chain wrestling to start was fun and believable even if it went maybe one minute too long given the length of the match. Gilbert got frustrated first and went dirty and his control segment was perfect, with him working the crowd and the ref and his opponent with a bunch of good stuff. The comeback was mainly brawling in the crowd with one big posting and then they went right into the finish. Good showing with Gilbert presenting himself, if not exactly like a star, then at least like a great, memorable character that you want to see again.

ER: What is Doug Gilbert doing wrestling one match in Germany? Don't care, because we got it! And this is one of the best Dougie performances I've seen, just going to Bremen for a one-off and coming off like a genuine star. He stalked that ring with an absurd amount of confidence, and it was cool how he adapted his style to be more technical opposite Schuhmann. He's still yelling at the crowd and being a dickhead about removing his jacket, but he doesn't spend all match just winging punches. Technical Dougie is fun as hell, and it's cool to see guys showing off the spectrum of styles they can work to adapt to a specific environment. I like wild eyed brawler Doug, but seeing him bend Schuhmann around with a cool Indian deathlock or a wrenched in figure 4, to bumping big to the floor and spiking Schuhmann with a great piledriver, it really felt like Gilbert wanted to show off everything he could do. He still gets to color in a lot of things with brawling, but him working a Schuhmann match was much more interesting to me than him working a Doug Gilbert match. As I said, he looked totally in control of that ring the entire match, just came off like a big deal. I don't think of Doug Gilbert as a guy who could go anywhere and have a professional 15 minute match in any style, but he looked like a pro's pro here.

PAS: This was a CWA vs. The World card which was completely crazy, along with Schuhmann vs. Dougie we get Osamu Nishimura and Tony St. Clair repping CWA vs. Rhino and Robbie Brookside repping WCW (Rhino was in WCW?), Marshall Duke vs. Savio Vega repping WWF, Chono shows up repping the NWO, and there is WCW's Ice Train vs. CWA Cannonball Grizzly, yes Ice Train vs. PN News, lets hope that shows up. Dougie was repping the USWA and he repped the fuck out of the USWA in this match. This was Bremen, Tennessee and Dougie broke out all of his great tricks, and even a couple we didn't know he had (that Indian deathlock was totally dope). Schuhmann was a bit of a passenger, but I loved his hard punches to Gilbert's forehead (I thought he was going to hardway him). Pretty much everything you would want from a hidden gem Doug Gilbert match.

Read more!

2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Demon vs. Wagner

1. Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. AAA 8/3

PAS: This was one of the most viscerally violent matches I can remember seeing. Demon was a wandering dead eyed psychopath in this match, with Wagner doing a great job as a charismatic babyface fight back against a horror movie villain. I have seen plenty of matches with big weapons shots over the years, and this match was a great example of making each weapon shot a memorable moment. Demon opens up the match with by breaking a bottle over the head of Wagner, who had come into the match wearing his mask, which maybe stretched the rules a bit, but did allow for a bloody white mask which is always a great visual. The second huge moment came when a sickeningly bloody Demon goes out of the ring and grabs a claw hammer, and attacks Wagner like he was Richard Speck. He slams Wagner in the back of the head and spine, and hammers his hands like his knuckles were penny nails. It was a great bit of close magic by Demon, it really looks like an attempted murder, and I have no idea how you gimmick a hammer to the back of the head. The final huge moment comes at end of the match, after Wagner gets a bunch of close near falls with nasty Wagner Drivers, Demon’s kid runs into with a cinder block, he awkwardly stands around a bit before getting bums rushed by Wagner’s seconds. Demon Jr. gets his hands on the cinder block and smashes in over Wagner’s head, in a pretty gross tribute to Angel o Demonio,  KOing him and winning his hair. Hell of performance by two guys in their 50s as they just milked every bit of drama out of everything they did with Demon leaving puddles around the ring like an un house broken puppy.

ER: Just a couple years ago it was the safest bet possible that Blue Demon Jr. would spend the rest of his days in lucha casually making money off his established birthright while also doing the exact level of work that legacy sons can get away with, and not an ounce more. And then for reasons I'm not sure I've seen anyone properly explain, he turned 50 and just decided to hit the ground running and take terrifying death match beatings. It's the 2nd most unexpected plot twist for a 50+ year old wrestler this decade, and it's only 2nd because somehow David Arquette happened. But even that seems up for debate, as we'd have to weigh which was more unexpected between a) shocking return to wrestling *period*, before the near throat slashing vs. b) long time coasting legacy act deciding to suffer for his art and achieve genuine greatness. Blue Demon Jr. just might be the most intriguing wrestling story of the decade, and that makes this match even more special, makes it feel even more historic. The action is perfectly paced and the whole match is spiked with crazy violence. Demon smashes a bottle on Wagner's head and later smashes his hand with a freaking hammer like he caught Wagner counting cards for a buddy. This match really announces what the hell it's going to be and it never veers from that violent promise. I still don't know how Blue Demon Jr. can suddenly be Satanico, but here he is punching Wagner in the chin all over the ring, and Wagner gets absolutely nuclear reactions with fast schoolboy rollups, fast counted by Hijo del Tirantes. Blood spurts like mad, both guys covered, huge puddles on the mat, Demon ripping at Wagner's arm and hand, Wagner spiking him with some savage Wagner Drivers for more great nearfalls; the whole thing is impossible to pull your eyes from. It's amazing how high they kept the drama throughout; this was a huge match on paper and even more huge in execution. This match is the sweetest kind of wrestling gift, the kind of all time great match that nobody could have predicted, bloated in the best ways, shocking in even better ways, just a total classic.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: Hotstuff Hernandez in WWF

Hotstuff Hernandez has always felt like one of the notable guys over the past couple decades to have never worked WWE, but he's also not a guy who gets talked about much as someone who could have been in WWE. He feels like a guy they would have wanted at some point, and a guy who could have been a pretty big name in certain WWE eras. He's worked nearly everywhere else in his 20+ year run, has been a visible TV presence, but has never worked for WWE. However, he worked two matches for WWF, in the year before they became WWE. How many guys work a couple matches early in their career, and then go on to make good paydays everywhere else for 20 years? It's an interesting case. Here are those two matches:


Shawn Hernandez vs. Crash WWF Jakked 11/11/2000

ER: Little did they know that they had the spitting image of future shaved head Kurt Angle right here, in a match where they talked several times about Kurt Angle, yet never made the connection. And part of that was our cursed announce team of Michael Hayes and Jonathan Coachman mentioned the name Shawn Hernandez early, but not again once the match was rolling. What Michael Hayes *does* do, is make several non-jokes about women he would like to have sex with. You now, the kind of non-jokes where suddenly any kind of verb is flipped around and made to sound dirty. "So, Molly Holly got a big win this week." "Ohhhhhh, I'll let Molly Holly get a big win over me heh heh." "Well we're still running those XFL cheerleader tryouts..." "Ohhhhh, I'd like to tryout for those XFL cheerleaders heh heh." It's great stuff and obviously they are great jokes that you cannot NOT tell. And Hernandez gets a lot of play here, most notably throwing a great high arc powerslam early. Crash makes up the size difference by hitting nice and hard, nice punches to Hernandez's eye, flies into him with a couple of nice short elbows (one of which slumps Hernandez back into the corner), knocks him down with a big bolo lariat, then hits a good enough missile dropkick. Now Crash probably needed a better, flashier comeback, as Hernandez was more in control the first couple minutes, and with the size difference Crash should have gone for some more explosives. But the bulldog finish plays with this crowd, and the match itself is good enough.

Shawn Hernandez vs. Haku WWF Jakked 4/7/01

ER: This was cool, as Hernandez gets to be a hulking Kurt Angle, bigger than Haku, and Haku is enough of a man that he basically lets Hernandez run this thing. Haku can let some hulk in a singlet look strong, because he's Haku and he knows he can always just rip his eyeball out at any point. The whole match is remarkably simple and effective, with few moves and none really needed. Haku is in his early 40s here and gets to show how spry he still was, working some face rope running/dropdown/leapfrog sequences with Hernandez in a way that Haku really wasn't doing with anyone else at the time, and the match peaked with something as easy as Hernandez chopping the hell out of Haku. Seriously, it's so great. These guys have gotten by this whole time by just running into each other and being two guys butting heads, and we finally get Hernandez whipping Haku into the turnbuckles...and then he just starts beating him down. Hernandez throws heavy clubbing forearm shots to Haku's chest, then starts throwing big hard chops. And not super fast Kobashi chops, he's laying them in Ric Flair style, and Haku just yells louder every time another one lands. Hernandez is standing and chopping Haku as hard as possible, and the fans are getting into it, and Hernandez keeps chopping, and the fans are into this big man slugfest. Hernandez tosses Haku into the opposite buckles, Haku angrily headbutts the buckle, Hernandez gives chase...and Haku catches him dead to rights in the Tongan Death Grip. I had no clue these two ever crossed paths, had no memory of this match (even though Metal/Jakked was my favorite show during this era), but this was what you would want from 3 minutes of two hosses.

Read more!

Lucha Underground Season 4 Episode 18: Spiders and Skeletons

Matanza vs. Taya

ER: I liked how the mixed it up here, at least having Taya be maybe the only person who has not been sacrificed against Matanza this season. Worldwide Underground has been pretty absent from the last many shows, didn't think they'd show back up by the end of the run. Taya doesn't look great against Matanza, they overused the SFX, she threw two love tap kicks to the balls that really should have been made into a bigger deal; Matanza sold them like he didn't realize she had thrown a strike, Vampiro wasn't even sure she had kicked him low, and that's the kind of spot that could have provided actual drama. Has Matanza been kicked in the balls before? Do we know how he'd react? Does he possibly have no genitals? Was there an online graphic novel that explained that Matanza's genitals were burnt in a fire? I mean, so much time has gone by since the introduction of the Matanza character that it could have been the very first thing we learned about him. It's not hard to picture Dario yelling to the temple "Hees genitahls wur sacruficed...toothuh GODZZZ." But the spot is absolutely meaningless and could have been much more. Mundo makes his return and saves Taya from potential sacrifice, and then throws some of the worst grounded elbows mine eyes have seen. The man has murdered several people, you can lay in the elbows a bit.

TL: A match that had part of me thinking, "How are they going to book their way out of this corner by not killing Taya?" And that's how they did it, with her getting 2/3 of the match, kicking Matanza in the aforementioned questionable cajones, and then, somehow, someway, being in the best position to win the match? And then quickly, Matanza remembers, "Oh, right. I'm Matanza." Right in time for Johnny to kick and capoeira slide his way into the mount for those elbows. Look, Morrison has made a career out of making the flashy look good. There hasn't been a single non-flying strike I've seen him throw that makes me think, "Hey, let's have him lightly tap Matanza's mask with the point of his elbow. That'll make everyone look good." Do love the idea that we are going to see Matanza sacrifice them both at some point, sending Johnny back to Titan and Taya, er...elsewhere.

Mil Muertes/Fenix vs. Dragon Azteca Jr./The Mack

ER: This has to be the best LU match of the season. It clocked in just under 10, presented us a couple fresh match-ups, and had a real gem of a Fenix performance throughout. Also, the team of Muertes and Fenix is SO much more interesting than the played out Lucha Bros. team and it's cruel that this is the only time we've seen it. Power Guy/Flyer teams can't get too much more awesome than Muertes/Fenix, and Pentagon is just a lame Muertes who spends time doing stupid hand gestures to fill in the gaps while Muertes just fills space by punching people. Fenix breaks out some of his all time greatest rope work, bouncing from the top to the middle to the top to the middle to his back, working a fantastic sequence with Mack where Mack blocks a frankensteiner by taking out Fenix's legs, only for Fenix to keep blocking his block by hitting that middle rope and springing right back. Fenix also had a couple of killer saves, the best was him leaping into the ring and kicking Azteca right in the back of the head (but I do love him running in with a punt right across Mack's face), and he bases like mad for Azteca. Azteca hits one of his most awesome tornado DDTs, Fenix tossing him up into the air like a drunk uncle tossing a baby before getting wiped out on the way down. Muertes was a real wrecking ball, and he and Mack had a nice short punch exchange in the middle, Mack takes a couple big spills to the floor, and I just adore this speed and power combo of Fenix/Muertes. There were only a couple moments of the match I didn't care for: Mack really wedged his stunner into the match, and it's an unnecessary cheap pop minor league baseball stadium spot that he doesn't need to do, let alone several times in a match; and we got a weird moment that could have been awesome, when Fenix just leveled a ringside camera guy while swinging through the ropes, looked like he just clocked this guy with swinging legs. Camera guy goes down, dramatically rolls through, and springs back to his feet triumphantly. I...don't get it? Is that dude in some kind of angle? Or did they just not edit out a moment where a camera guy took a kick from arguably the most notable kicker in Lucha Underground, and immediately brushed it off. Vampiro handled it as well as possible ("Even our camera guys are bad ass!") but call an audible dude, stay down. For a fed that edits everything, it's really bizarre that this was left in, which makes me think it was left in for a reason....but why?

TL: Mauro gets a lot of righteous criticism, but holy shit, Matt Striker just made a Meek Mill pun for Mil Muertes and that has me on tilt. Azteca and Muertes are a good pairing, I like seeing what they do together, and after the Fenix/Mack pair off, this hits a different level. PWG has had a house tag style for a while that lends itself more to elaborate set pieces and spots that become more non-sensical as the match progresses, and while they do use that as a template for this match, they hit things much more crisp, they sell better, and the high spots are even more impressive. Azteca with an insane lifting tornado DDT, then, his dive gets one upped by Fenix. Then Mack is like, "Hey, 300 lbs. No hands." So the pace for this has picked up, but they aren't doing shit that defies the idea of what wrestling is and spits in its face, essentially. Muertes breaks up a pinfall attempt with a goddamn straight right hand. The best thing this match does is give you just enough of the pairings that are to come at Ultima Lucha, and then in the off-pairings, it's like they take it up another level. Fenix's rope running in this match is at the highest possible difficulty and he hits it all clean. And then we get a decisive finish to boot. I mean, look, that tag match really shouldn't have worked at all due to the layout, but they not only made it work, but they excelled in making the pairings that meant something stand out AND built awesome transitions in the process. I don't know if I liked it to the extent Eric did, but it's hard not to look at this match in the grand scheme of this season and wonder why it took 18 weeks for folks to look like they gave a damn. Then again, these are four of the most consistent guys on the roster and they got time to show out. Excited to see what they do in their singles matches.

Ricky Mundo vs. Famous B

ER: I thought this was a pretty terrific Ricky Mundo squash, and made me more interested in him than anything up to this point. He hits a big headbutt (that the camera foolishly shoots from above) and looked like he was really laying in shots. Famous B got to cut a funny return promo before the match, and bumped like a loon for Mundo. Mundo's match winning neckbreaker could have looked like the indiest shit ever, except B whipped the back of his head right into the mat. I had forgotten about the Mundo doll thing, and I'm not really feeling a Mundo/Taya blowoff, but I liked what they did here.

TL: Ricky gets to wrestle! So does Famous B! This was fine. Famous B knows how to bump like a goddamn crazy person, at least. I'd like to bring up the psychosexual pretenses of Ricky going after Johnny's wife, but then you have Ricky doing the goddamn crossface on Brenda while laying on top of B and it's like the pretense is right there out in the open for everyone. I guess I'm trying to say Ricky wants to both kill Johnny and have sex with him. There. I said it. Now I feel dirty.

Pentagon Dark vs. Reklusa

ER: I must be back on that LU hype train baby, because this was another really good match! This was also one of my favorite matches on the season, coming just 15 minutes after another Match of the Season contender. Two in one episode? Lucha Underground is the greatest! This match gets several things right that have been lacking this season, and they worked a cool match without any extra gimmicks. It helped that I think this was Pentagon's strongest performance of the season, and Reklusa may have been his most interesting opponent. Reklusa dove off the top during his entrance and proceeded to land grounded shots far harder than Johnny Mundo threw at Matanza earlier, and we get cool stuff on the floor like Reklusa going for a cannonball but getting caught and powerbomb tailbone first on the apron, and her selling Pentagon's leg kicks more effectively than anyone else has all year, really looking like she gets the nuance of a kick to the meat of the thigh. Pentagon based like hell here, catching a big rana from the top to the floor, and taking a tope/tornado DDT, both moves that could have easily flopped. He turned up the sadism, dropping Reklusa on the apron with a package piledriver, and Reklusa's bumping was really good throughout, taking some really tough spills and getting up each time. They even used the ball kick - the one I railed against earlier due to how sloppy and half-hearted it was used in the Matanza/Taya match - effectively here, making it look like Reklusa really could beat Pentagon. The match ending package piledriver was insane, genuinely looked like Pentagon's goal was to break the ring with Reklusa's head. This could be the best Lucha Underground match to feature someone who will only be in one Lucha Underground match.

TL: I actually haven't seen much of Chelsea's work, although I know she has a good presence and she's extremely athletic from the clips of hers I've seen. Love the plancha to start! You can also add, "Will recklessly take bumps on her tailbone on the apron" to that list. Dear God that's sick. Even when Pentagon goes on offense and he looks a bit more fired up than usual, Reklusa is selling like a QUEEN for him, glassy eyed, wobbly kneed, and actually making the sound effects seem worthwhile. And then she hits a goddamn rana from the top to the floor and follows up with Candice LeRae's tope con tornado DDT. This has been the Reklusa show and Penta is totally along for the ride, but I'll give him credit that he's at least bringing it more than he has in other matches this season. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that folks are kicking out of package piledrivers on the apron and Canadian Destroyers, but at least there was finality with the Fear Factor to finish. I now want to seek out more Chelsea Green, incredibly impressive stuff. Get her on NXT TV immediately. Dug the post-match angle, too, as Marty looked like he stepped out of a Creed video to absolve Penta of his sins. Absolutely wild how the intergender main events have killed it these last couple weeks. They've been the best part of the season by far to me. Somehow don't think Ricky/Taya will keep that run going.

COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

Read more!

WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 2019 Catch-Up

Another week, another TV absence from the B3. Gulak had a dark match on Smackdown, that doesn't help me much.

Oney Lorcan vs. Kalisto WWE 205 Live 4/2/19

ER: These two aren't very frequent dance partners, and its kind of a style clash match up that wasn't always on the same page, and yet it felt like there was a potential great match here. Kalisto missed moments and there were a few spots that didn't come off as clean, but it didn't feel like Lorcan was the guy responsible for that. In fact, Lorcan took some of Kalisto's offense better than I'd seen anyone take it, really felt like Cesaro getting an unexpectedly great match out of some Chikara undercard goof. Kalisto's problems were the kind that won't necessarily be there one match from the next, things like a couple ropes slips that he normally doesn't do. I don't think he falls off the ropes too often doing armdrags, or slips off the turnbuckle doing a Salida del Sol, so those things just felt like unfortunate mistakes rather than flaws in the match. Lorcan is a great underdog, but this is a great showcase for Lorcan as the dominant asskicker, the guy who hits way harder but doesn't steamroll. His chops and uppercuts looked cruel, but then he would do stuff like take Kalisto's tornillo better than anyone (the way he sprung across the ring was perfect), and he's someone who can ground an exciting guy like Kalisto with a body vice and choke, and have it all build to something. Fans were excited for Kalisto to come back, not just bored with Lorcan holding him down. This felt like a Darby Allin match at times, with Kalisto in the Darby role, peppering in exciting comebacks before eating death. There was a fun thread of Lorcan going for the half nelson suplex but Kalisto getting out of it, while Lorcan kept avoiding the Salida del Sol. Eventually Kalisto hit it on the apron, but couldn't get Lorcan pushed back into the ring in time to finish him. That's a thing WWE doesn't do enough, allowing someone to hit their finisher in a decisive way, but not being able to get the win due to physics. Instead they opt for guys just kicking out of finishers, or more commonly they would have just have Kalisto sell for a long time, apparently completely wiped out by merely hitting his finisher. These two have only been in the same ring three times in WWE, but this match really made me think they have something potentially awesome in this match-up.

Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese WWE 205 Live 4/30/19

ER: I don't think this was the best Tony Nese performance of 2019, but I think it was the best instance of working all of Tony Nese into the most compelling match possible. I think the best Nese match we have is his Brian Kendrick bout from the CWC, and that took an all time great "veteran hanging on" performance from Kendrick. Kendrick lifted Nese to another plane, and here's Gulak trying to do the same. And really, outside of one stretch where Nese was hitting a bunch of really bad strike combos, and typical Nese stuff like whiffing on his split legged moonsault, this was laid out to give a long Tony Nese match that maximum amount of success possible. There were going to be Nese moments, but they came at the best possible moments of the match. Nese did hit hard when a couple moments called for it (there was a great rolling elbow on the floor after a silly cartwheel off the apron that really stood out), and his comebacks were fit in nicely. His offense runs were kept small, so that he wasn't out here hitting 5 moves in a row, each looking more dodgy that the last. Gulak controlled this tough, so Nese would pop up with some flourishes, including some clever learned behavior shots. His biggest offense run came after the no good very bad strike combo, but it ended with Nese wiping out Gulak with a great Fosbury Flop dive that crashed his hip right into Gulak's face. And the learned behavior wasn't cutesy dance party stuff, it was stuff like Nese sidestepping Gulak when Gulak goes for his flying sunset flip, then kneeing Gulak in the chin. Gulak worked a couple of sick gutbusters in, and we had this gorgeous pro wrestling shot of the slo mo replay of Gulak hitting a middle rope gutbuster on Nese. Just planting that knee on the mat while flipping Nese into that femur, really highlighting the risky and savage nature of that move. Nese's best attribute is his ability to miss, as his big faceplant on a 450 is always welcome, and adds a great moment of Gulak snagging him directly into the Gu-lock, Gulak desperately holding that even if it meant taking Nese's scalp with him. Nese's nearfall when finally managing to flip off the ropes while in the Gu-Lock was really strong, great false finish, and the running knee in the corner after a German to the buckles looked like something that should finish. Gulak looked glazed and it felt like a good time to wrap up. I don't find Tony Nese matches engaging. Tony Nese is a guy who has been shackled to our damn ankles just because of how often he is paired with a guy we actually love...but this was a long Tony Nese match that was engaging, and that's why we spend so much time writing about Drew Gulak.

Read more!