2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Kassius vs. Darby

36. Darby Allin vs. Kassius Ohno EVOLVE 117 12/15

PAS: The year of Darby Allin continues, as he has put forth one of the best singles match runs in US Indy history over the last year. This follows the classic Allin structure of taking a 1993 level Kikuchi beating while mixing in 1993 level Rey Mysterio Jr. lucha highflying. Hero is really great at basing for lucha moves, which is even more impressive as he approaches Kraneo level fatness. It is one thing to watch skinny fat Hero take Quackenbush ranas in 2002, quite another level of impressive to watch him eat Allin armdrags at Buddy Rose size in 2019. I really like how Hero used his girth in this match, he broke out a legdrop that looked like it flattened Allin's head and a senton on the apron which felt like it powdered his ribs. Allin had some fun comebacks, but the end of the match was Hero brutalizing Allin with elbows while Allin refused to lay down. Ohno is the Ricky Jay of the leg slap, one of the few guys to make that trick look great, and he really seems to be concussing Allin with every shot. Good use of the one count here, as Allin wasn't no selling, he was more like a gutter punk who wouldn't give up his lucky guitar pick no matter how many times you stabbed him.

ER: I've been on an Ohno kick lately (for the last 20 years or so), and scrolling through some recent matches I realized I had forgotten that he and Allin had crossed paths one time, about a year ago. Phil wrote this up around the time it happened and I forgot about it, but the two of them haven't matched up since so it still feels fresh to me! And while I do think we got a few too many kickouts down the stretch, this lived up to the on paper potential for me. It's hard to work a compelling 20 minute match where the offense is split 90/10, but most 90s aren't as great as Ohno, and most underdog 10s aren't as great as Allin. The first half of this felt like a Yokozuna/1-2-3 Kid match that might have popped up on Coliseum Video, Ohno just using his weight and size to brick wall Allin and then topple those bricks onto all parts of Allin's body. Ohno tossed out big sentons, a heavy legdrop, his flawless full extension kicks, elbows to the jaw, and far too many elbows to the back of the head. Ohno is super punishing and he only looks more punishing against wrestling's best ragdoll. Ohno boots Darby into the crowd, catches a dive and chucks him into the apron, yanks him around by the wrist, really lays down the kind of beating that Ohno and few others can lay down. Allin made the most of his comebacks: his early armdrags got breathtaking height on his early armdrags, makes the code red look credible with the size difference, and is always so quick to hit his low rope dive and springboard tornillo pin that it really does seem plausible that Ohno could get beaten by speed. I did think we went a couple kickouts too far, as there were a couple of shots that felt too big to kick out of, namely the elbow shot that saw Ohno King Kong Darby's airplane out of the sky. But I do like that the kickouts weren't actually leading to some big comeback, and that jumps out as a positive. Darby was only hurting himself by kicking out so much, as Ohno can be both incredulous at the kickouts and still have no problem throwing another elbow at Darby's cerebellum. And isn't elbows hitting cerebellums all we really wanted?


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST