Matches from Pizza Party Wrestling 4/3/19

ER: I somehow wound up at this show, the first show of WrestleMania weekend. You know, the Wednesday evening portion of the weekend. This show was nowhere near most actual WM happenings, at least a half hour north of where we were staying in Jersey City. We landed Wednesday evening at Newark, dropped our stuff off at the Air BnB, and immediately Uber'd our way up to Ridgefield Park. The venue was smack dab in the middle of a quiet upper class neighborhood, and the colored lighting inside was soft and warm. They had so-so pizza slices for sale for a good price, and an old American Legion member making cheap cocktails in the back corner near the pizza. It was the kind of place that I would happily go to watch wrestling every couple months, although I can safely say that I will never watch wrestling in this venue ever again (nothing personal, just what are the odds of me winding up in Ridgefield Park again). Makabe vs. Yehi was the match that made this a no brainer show to attend, and it delivered everything I wanted. I was still pretty bleary eyed from travel so don't have a fresh memory of the rest of the card, but let's rewatch to jog that memory!


Tony Deppen vs. "Tyrannosaurus Flex" Ezekiel James

ER: This was a bummer, just because there were at least a dozen people on this show who would have made a much more interesting partner for Deppen than what we wound up with. James is someone who I know nothing about. He flexed his arms, he froze up on more than a couple spots, and they weirdly worked this as if James was a giant. James is bigger than Deppen, but not demonstrably so. The best parts of this were when Deppen would just throw strikes, with the best being a hard right hand to the jaw followed up immediately by a headbutt. James couldn't catch dives in an interesting way, and he wasn't quick so it didn't leave Deppen with much to do. Deppen takes a nice bump on a DDT, James completely whiffs on his pop up uppercut that was supposed to directly set up the finish, and then they just go to the finish anyway. Super disappointing use of Deppen.

Alex Zayne vs. Robbie Eagles

ER: This had moments that hit, and then some of the absolute worst half speed dance fight wrestling I've seen. There were several moments where the missed strikes looked like the two of them going over sequences back stage, like they forgot they were in front of an audience. There was a Zayne missed legsweep that was thrown so light that it wouldn't have swept the leg of a child. There were several moments where Zayne worked like he was concussed, like a hilarious moment where Eagles was on the apron, and Zayne literally walked towards him, with Eagles already waiting in position to hit the enziguiri, and here's Zayne walking right to the spot where the kick was supposed to land. It was such a pathetic disconnect, Zayne not even bothering to make it look like he was attempting to charge in with any kind of move, just walking dully to the position he needed to be in. Eagles had some nice running knees and a couple big power moves, and was at least putting some energy into things. Nearly every single move Zayne hit fully relied on Eagles bumping to make it look good. I've seen Zayne hit a great dragon rana in the corner, here Eagles had to catch Zayne's legs around his armpits and waist and do the rest of the work. I had long checked out by the time we got to a heatless strike exchange, and at least Zayne took a reverse rana with a nice vertical pause and flattened Eagles with the match ending spiral tap. Still this was an awful match from Zayne. He worked it like he was told his father just died right before he went through the curtain.

ER: I would have written up the 4 way Street Fight, but resent that the promotion tricked me into cheering for a pedophile without letting me know he was a pedophile. Now there's video footage of me literally standing next to a pedophile, cheering for him. So long political career.

Oswald Project vs. Ezekiel James

ER: This wasn't a match by any means, but was certainly a weird and memorable moment live. Tyrannosaurus Flex and his manager some back out to remind everyone of that disappointing Tony Deppen match and challenge any newcomers to take a crack at T-Flex. So they brought in a smallish young guy from the crowd with long curly hair, who introduced himself as being raised in a petri dish on some government site as part of The Oswald Project. And then when James tried to attack him, Oswald started bending in all sorts of freaky ways, like he was suffering from that "no bones" disease that so afflicted Richard Dunn. He got hit in the back of the head and scorpioned himself, rolling through it like some bizarre horror creature. It didn't function as a match, but it made for a great unexpected weirdo surprise. I know they've used him on future shows, and I'd certainly check him out in an actual match. Really, he's the only wrestler who could replicate the crab walk scene in Exorcist.

Van Valley vs. Champagne Douglas vs. Everett Cross vs. Matt Vertigo vs. Russell K. Best vs. Zacky Strutts

ER: This wasn't a good match. It was a fairly rushed 6 man with a lot of unknowns, a lot of waiting for dives, a lot of guys not good at occupying themselves, and a lot of head drops. We had a reverse rana within the first 30 seconds or so, and a lot of lying around in wait. But let me tell you the thing I genuinely love about this match: On paper, every single person in this match sounds like someone who is being paid in "exposure" to perform on Cedric the Entertainer's "Cruisin', Schmoozin', Laffs 'n' Gaffes" Caribbean cruise. You can just picture the days' schedule of events, and then twist yourself into knots trying to decide whether to see Champagne Douglas's afternoon set at the Lido Lounge, or go see Zacky Strutts at Guy Fieri's Deckside Burger Bar. Why did they book those sets to overlap!? But it will all be worth it to see the after hours adult sets from Russell K. Best and Vicious Van Valley. Russell K. Best's clean material frankly doesn't hold up as well, but you know his after hours set will slam! I'd have much rather seen a set of Zacky Strutts' catchphrase comedy ("You know Zacky don't run away from that mess...because you KNOW...Zacky Strutts") than this match. Just a bad match filled with guys who have done regional warm up work for Kat Williams. Champagne Douglas alone sounds like a fantastic once a season Martin character. The on paper names in this match probably gave me more joy than anything else before the main event.

18. Fred Yehi vs. Daniel Makabe

ER: This was the match that got me to go to Ridgefield Park, and one of the matches that got me to fly across the country (and since Makabe vs. Arik Royal got scrapped this match had even more pressure to deliver). And after sitting down and re-watching this show nearly a year after the fact, imagine if this match HADN'T been on the card!? This was a card saving match for sure, as I don't think there was anything else I would even casually recommend going out of your way to see before this main event. And luckily, this match delivered on its on paper potential and sent me back to Jersey City a tired and satisfied wrestling fan. I knew the grappling would be great, and I loved how these two moved off each other. Makabe controlled a lot of action with quick go behinds, and a Yehi kept relying on his fantastic single legs to upend Makabe. The first single leg saw Yehi just grabbing Makabe by the heel and completely tossing him skyward, as if Makabe had been standing on a landmine. Yehi would really make Makabe pay for leaving a limb out there, like when Makabe did a quick dropdown that ended quickly after Yehi stomped his hand on the mat. Yehi had some great torture holds, loved him sitting on Makabe's butterflied legs and daring him to do anything about it. Makabe hit him with a slap, but it was a trap, Yehi seemingly knowing that Makabe wouldn't be able to do much damage at such close range, then pays him back with a harder slap. Makabe pays that back eventually with an amazing spot I've never seen, as he snaps the top rope into Yehi's face as he's getting into the ring, feeling like a use-of-ring spot that Fit Finlay would kick himself for not thinking of.

I liked how Makabe kept responding to Yehi's actions by moving the match to a more elevated direction, like how he was the first to throw a punch (and loved his hand sell afterward which set up a different run of Yehi torture) and starts working over Yehi's arm in different ways (throwing sharp knees to his elbow and tricep), and I love how great Makabe is at showing his work as he's going through holds. You really get the strong sense watching him that he's breaking things down in learnable steps, the way he forces Yehi's jaw toward the opposite arm by forcing his forearm down the length of jaw, leaving the arm wide open, the way he holds his weight against Yehi to prevent counters. Yehi pays him back later by trapping Makabe's arm in the top of the ringpost and kicking him off the apron in a real nasty moment. The submission roll throughs were all really engaging, with holds that all looked like finishers. Makabe had this ridiculously slick go behind off the ropes into a cattle mutilation that was so sudden and cool that I thought it was the finish. After Makabe's early match punch Yehi definitely worked in more strikes, big Mongolian chops, a great seated dropkick, big clubbing shots, and some big fists while trapping Makabe in the Koji Clutch. Now, the whole finishing stretch was fantastic, but those punches in the Koji were so beautiful, as they directly lead to Makabe's victory. Had Yehi just locked in the Koji Clutch, Makabe was likely done. But Yehi starts throwing punches, allowing Makabe the opening to catch and hold that fist, breaking the clutch, rolling through with the arm, and setting up the bridging pin. My god. I loved it all.

PAS: This is exactly what you wanted this match to be, two really solid hard charging grapplers, doing cool innovating painful looking shit. I loved Yehi's stuff with the ringposts, he has broken that out sometimes in ACTION and it is just about the coolest bit of signature offense in wrestling. I have no idea how Makabe didn't just tear all of the ligaments in his arm. They were able to do some very nifty different chain wrestling without it every seeming like a dance routine, which is super rare in today's wrestling. I loved the subtle mixing in of harder shots as the match went on. I am so immersed in all of this new French Catch footage I am viewing a lot of things through that lens, but this had that same feel. It started tricky and scientific and escalated into a fight and it is a real credit to the talents of both guys, that they can make both parts of the story look credible and impressive.


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