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.