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.