WWE Royal Rumble 2021 Live Blog

Nia Jax/Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka/Charlotte

ER: I thought Charlotte and Nia looked like a real mess throughout their whole Raw match earlier in the week, and they seem to have less chemistry a week later at the Rumble. I think it's pretty shocking how much Charlotte especially has regressed in the past couple years, and I wish they would hurry up and get Asuka away from her. I've mostly been a high voter on Jax but she's been noticeably slow and lazier in exchanges since coming back (ACL tears in both knees will do that to you). Things get clunky whenever Charlotte is in this one, and part of that is Baszler and Jax not being great at getting into position for Charlotte's offense, but a bigger part is Charlotte requiring people to too often be in specific position for offense that doesn't look great. She made a great diving save to break up a pin, but every one of her stomach kicks looked like she forgot what move she was supposed to be replicating. I'm also well beyond the point of needing to see Ric Flair on TV more than once or twice a year, and do not care about this angle with him and Lacey. I don't think this match ever came together as anything resembling a satisfying tag, the Asuka/Charlotte pairing does nothing for me, and the Baszler/Jax pairing has been very underwhelming. They need to separate all four of them and see if that helps freshen any of them. 

Goldberg vs. Drew McIntyre

ER: I am here for MMA shorts Goldberg. Really, I am here for Goldberg, so. This didn't really have the same kind of impact or sustained heat of the other Goldberg comeback matches, and ended really flat. It had a lot of promising steps throughout, like the spear nearfall to start, or the spear through the barricade, and I fully bit on the jackhammer kickout. Once Goldberg hit it I actually thought they were giving us another Goldberg run. And while I liked Goldberg's missed spear chest first corner bump, McIntyre needs to find something a little more interesting to do than making dumb Edge faces in the corner for FAR too long while Goldberg sells damage. I know part of the modern WWF dogshit style is to make dumbshit faces in the corner for too long before hitting your finisher, but this felt way too long, and ended this on an unfortunate note. 

Carmella vs. Sasha Banks

ER: A lot of this match really was not hitting for me, until things picked up with the Reginald involvement. It felt like they kept skipping steps within the match, like there weren't any kind of transitions between offense, they just went right to moves. Except Carmella was doing the moves deliberately slow, because heel I guess, and then when Sasha took over she was already doing "frustrated by only a 2 count" faces. It all felt really underbaked. The Reginald involvement added something unique to the match, loved him catching Sasha and eating a headscissors, this guy rules. But he's quickly sent to the back and Carmella does a dive that lands her right on her face. It used to be Sasha's job to almost break her face on dives, so Carmella is trying to do the equivalent of stealing her rival's finisher. Ending felt abrupt and not set up super well, with Carmella getting a couple nice reversals of big Banks spots, but then just getting tapped anyway. This was not a strong title match, and there aren't any weaker Banks title matches coming to mind. Major disappointment. 

Women's Rumble Match

ER: Bayley/Naomi is a good way to start the Rumble, but MAN has Naomi been a complete afterthought for seemingly 2 years. Her whole career has felt like her having a big showing on one of the big WWF PPVs, then them mostly not doing anything with that. She really could have been a major star a few years ago and they just repeatedly stall out on her. This is the first time she's been in any kind of match for 5 months, but I'm not sure if there were injuries or just a lack of interest. This really should be Bianca Belair's match. It has to be. If they just pull the trigger on her, come on baby! How awesome is Belair, skipping to the ring and removing her earrings for a fight? I've really been enjoying Billie Kay's solo run. I thought she was sunk for sure, but she's done far more interesting things than Royce since the split. Still would like it more with them together again, but oh well. I don't love Shotzi coming in and just doing all of her offense, the way she would entering a tag match. Everyone running at her, one at a time, the way you would in a hot tag or in a ninja movie is just dumb. It's one of the main reasons there aren't many good battle royals anymore, because "working a battle royal" is not the way most wrestlers work battle royals now. I don't like regular match in my battle royal, I get that in regular matches, which are plentiful. Watch a Rumble match like '89 or '90, and it's all those guys just filling the time with fighting. It's all punches and clotheslines and choking with boots. Now it's offense and I don't think it's better. 

Jillian Hall seems to be doing a Judy Tenuta thing now, and I think it works? Maybe it's an indication how well Peyton Royce is doing post Iiconics that I had no idea who her entrance music was for, and the Titan Tron video took forever to say it was Royce. Ohhhhhhhh shit I've been typing about it this entire time and I just realized they might get the Iiconics back together for this and I fucking want that so bad. It's a good way for them to get back together. Let them eliminate a couple people together and it's a great way to organically show that they're better when they're together! It would actually be a smart way to freshen up the roster, get an interesting team into the lifeless Asuka/Charlotte and Jax/Baszler stuff. But, of course, they don't do any of that. Royce almost immediately blends into the background of the match, and Kay is eliminated a few minutes later. A fruitful storyline abandoned without mention. 

Not a fan of the early and tossed off Toni Storm elimination. I've kind of unexpectedly become a big Toni fan over the past year. I am not interested in this becoming The Charlotte Match. But it really feels like a dumb thing WWF would do. "Ric had what we've defined as the Greatest Rumble Performance so now we need to give Charlotte her Greatest Rumble Performance." Please don't give us that. Too many people have been entering with missile dropkicks. It is stupid that so many have entered the match by immediately climbing to the top rope, and nobody has been punished for climbing to the top rope in the Royal Rumble. The ring is FILLED with people, someone should knock this person off the top rope while they are voluntarily standing there! This is another reason why people cannot work battle royals. The handstand set up for it was dumb, but I did like Dana Brooke hanging off Ripley's neck in a headscissors while Ripley tried to shake her off from the apron. Brooke was memorable in elimination. The layout of this has been weak for long stretches, like a couple instances of someone getting eliminated right before a new entrant, losing any impact of the elimination. BAYLEY'S elimination happened DURING Mickie James's entrance!! Who fucked that up!! Bayley was clearly one of the favorites to win this match, and they moved on within three seconds!! They showed her elimination as a replay, because the cameras were on James and not the arguable biggest name in the match being eliminated. That's really really bad layout for a Rumble. 

WWF could use Alicia Fox back. She would be a fun NXT act at minimum. Give me a Foxy/Aliyah pairing, that would be great. Strong inside cradle on R-Truth to get the 24/7 title back from Fox, good weight on the back of the thighs. I love Dakota Kai, and goddamn did she get eliminated. Ripley just dumped her face first on the apron. Not happy seeing Mandy and Kai eliminated back to back. I'm jinxing the hell out of my personal favorites. They do ANOTHER elimination RIGHT BEFORE a new entrance!! It has to be intentional at this point, and that is so stupid! Nikki Cross gets eliminated one second before TAMINA comes out. Eliminations with zero fanfare are a battle royal curse. There is a way to make eliminations sink in and at least let the announcers talk about the implications a bit, no need to be doing all of these at the exact same time as a thing that everyone is more interested in. The Naomi/Bianca stuff was good, they need to focus more on how long both have been in and they've been a little background, but I like how they're getting more screen time the longer they're in. 

They're going to do dumb Alexa Bliss stuff, aren't they. Yep. But THAT is a good elimination by Ripley! Thank god they had at least some Rumble decency, to have a dozen people in the ring just watching someone go through a long "transformation" without doing anything about it. I am so happy we didn't have to spend more than a minute on that. Ember Moon is yet another person coming in and doing all of their offense like a a normal match, but she dropkicks Naomi right in the face in a way that didn't seem intentional. Ember Moon looked really bad on her elimination, with that slow motion "setting up a spot" run she did to get backdropped by Shayna. Loved Nia's "I can't, she's family" excuse to not go after Tamina, but her hockey fighting with Shayna after Tamina's elimination looked bad. I'm not into the Nia/Shayna thing, just doesn't feel like it's going anywhere and the journey to get there isn't interesting. Do I hate Natalya's new gear? My instinct says yes, but is there an element of it I'm underappreciating? Perhaps. I'll level with you, I did not know there was important emotional history with Natalya and Lana. Was that elimination effective? I could not tell you. I have not been closely following the Natalya/Lana relationship. Charlotte has felt like a complete non-factor the entire time she's been in the Rumble. She was not working to stand out at all, so I am fully not interested in her valiantly battling against two foes, and I also don't understand her treating her elimination like a drunk sorority girl getting thrown out of a bar that overserved. 

I'm a big fan of Bianca going to WrestleMania, it's a great choice and the most interesting direction to go. But I wished I enjoyed her and Ripley's final two. I thought a lot of it looked real bad, like them doing really slow reversal sequences and slow thrown missed strikes. Ripley was hanging on the ropes dangling, and Belair just stood there waiting instead of kicking at her hands, literally standing there waiting to do the spot that came next. Working battle royals as a normal match suuuuucks. So I thought their final two stretch was not good, but the end result was great, and they did a genuinely great job of making it look like either Belair OR Ripley had a chance. That's important. Bianca's winner's speech was the kind of thing that would have been nice to see in front of a live crowd. 

Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns

ER: This didn't hook me until they started fighting up into the "crowd", and I liked some of the stuff up there. Owens had all these nasty chairshots to Roman's knees. He was jabbing the edge of a chair into Roman's patella, then just bashing them from the side, all really nasty stuff that should be sold throughout a match. They looked really hobbling but Reigns didn't treat them as such a moment later, which is disappointing. Owens had a nice bump off the riser and a good moment of him beating the 10 count. But once they went backstage it just felt like the same kind of slow Shane McMahon prop show that they've been doing into the ground. This whole thing is going too long, and I am so tired of these slow epic brawls that always make 20 minutes feel like 30 and 30 minutes feel like 45. These matches are more "ideas" matches than interesting fights, but none of the ideas are as good as any of the homebrew shit cooked up in the Last Battle of Burke. Sitting through an endless 25 minutes with a handcuff spot at the end taking up over 10% of the match is such a punishing waste of time. Michael Cole was right when he described this thing as brutal. I thought it would never stop. 

 

Men's Rumble Match

ER: I have not been following the storyline here, and that is just cruel to start this thing with Edge/Orton. This feels like they're fucking with me. Edge is at least a more compelling character now that his gimmick is that his body could break at any minute. Sami Zayn is looking, dressing, and wrestling more and more like Buck Robley, and I think it could make him one of my favorites. Has Mustafa Ali had his first name back since joining Retribution? Is Retribution a stable where getting back your own name is important, and that's why most of them have names like their parents were "child can choose their own name" parents? Edge has a better spear now than he did 10 years ago. When I'm not too into a match, I usually don't find myself saying "You know I bet this thing could get better if Dolph Ziggler got involved." I want to see a run from super gassed Carlito!! He looked like peak 80s gas Jimmy Snuka with cool Dick Anthony Williams facial hair. 

These things kind of stink now that the moments are all planned in the exact same way. Guy comes in, does his signature offense while people run at him one by one, do pose to hard cam, storyline for next elimination starts once new entrant is done with his offense, elimination culminates with 10 seconds until next entrant. They have gone to that exact same pattern in this and the women's rumble, and it sucks. 

Kane comes out looking more like the local guy playing Kane on an Australian knock off indy. That other guy might look better in ring at this point though. I wish Otis would have been in the match longer, thought his discus clothesline and capture suplex looked really great, but at least his elimination bump was the nastiest of the men's rumble so far. Dominik got big height, and Hurricane would be a nice guy to have back somewhere, but this rumble is not great. There are no compelling stories here, and it's felt like it's been full of restarts. Christian return is cool, and here's a thing I cannot believe: When Christian, Riddle, Big E, and Bryan all teamed up to force Lashley over, that was literally the first time in EITHER rumble that a group decided to go after one person. It's been all these stupid paired of "stories" that aren't really interesting, instead of people actually thinking like someone IN a rumble. That moment actually felt like a rumble, like a few people suddenly remembered a rumble strategy. What I said earlier about Edge having a way better spear in 2021 than he did in 2010? Still holds, as his spear on Styles looked great. Victoria Beer, seen in the background of every lucha match I've been watching lately, is now sponsoring Royal Rumble entrants? Nobody else got sponsored? Kane and AJ Styles were in there, StopTheSteal didn't want to sponsor them? Christian and Sheamus always had great chemistry. I'd love to see a 2021 Christian/Sheamus match. 

Cesaro lifting and throwing Strowman over the top would have been far more interesting than Strowman eliminating Cesaro, and Sheamus deserved better. Bryan and Riddle really laced into each other during their portion, and Bryan would be my easy pick if asked "Who would you like to win this rumble?" This is the first time these two have had an exchange of any kind, and it all looked really great. What looks riduculous is every person still left in the match lying around the ring while Bryan and Riddle can just have a 4 minute match. Nobody should be lying on the mat for that long, let alone four people at the same time. I thought the finishing run was pretty bad, thought the Bryan elimination was a pretty big nail in the coffin. The Edge story is not something I can get too interested in, but all of his spears looked great in this match, and I could actually see him being a part of a good match now. I'm not expecting it, but he is slightly more interesting now than a decade ago. 

ER: Disappointing show top to bottom. Both Rumbles were really uninspired and badly laid out, the Last Man Standing match felt endless, the tag title match was bad, and the Sasha match was below her level. That's a bummer of a show right there. 

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WWF 305 Live: Hogan! King Mabel!! Bam Bam! Volkoff!

Hulk Hogan vs. Nikolai Volkoff WWF SNME 10/5/85 - GREAT

ER: This was a flag match, so you get Volkoff out singing the Russian anthem, Hogan comes out waving a gigantic American flag and wearing his resplendent whites. This is unquestionably the greatest gear of Hogan's career. The white boots, kneepads, and trunks, but with a proper sheen so it doesn't look like he's wearing a diaper (see Akiyama, Jun). The match is good, good enough that I wish we had more Hogan/Volkoff showdowns. This gets the added Red Menace heat, and it's worked at a quicker pace than a lot of era Hogan matches, and benefits from more back and forth (less Volkoff taking his share up front so Hogan can come back). It's more of a slugfest brawl with Hogan fired up (because of America), hitting an early axe bomber and awesome elbowdrop. Hogan had a really great elbowdrop in 84/85, something he dropped almost entirely not long after. It was a fistdrop like elbow, dropping down like Dibiase but placing the elbow perfectly across the throat. It's honestly one of the finest elbowdrops in wrestling, which is funny as I don't think of an elbowdrop as a Hogan move. He knocks Volkoff through the ropes, onto the time keeper's table, and Volkoff only takes over by running Hogan into a ringpost. His control is good, slamming Hogan and bullying him around, lifting him up with a super impressive overhead press, holding Hogan over his head by the trunks before crashing him down with a backbreaker. The finish is tight and sudden, with Hogan dodging a charging Volkoff, sending him high up on the turnbuckles into the post, leading to a quick Hogan legdrop. After the match Hogan actually spit shines his boots with the Russian flag!

King Mabel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Superstars 8/19/95 - VERY GOOD

ER: This is a literally and figuratively BIG match to show up on Superstars, maybe the two heaviest guys on the roster at this point. My only complaint is that Bigelow really needed to lay in shots, just to put over this ring-stressing clash of colossus. Bigelow is someone who always pulled his shots, never worked stiff, and used his agility to bump around generously for opponents. I appreciate a nice worked shot, but Mabel is such a tower of mass that you need to really run into him to back him up. That said, obviously this was a (ahem) ton of fun. Mabel is a real beast and really aims to smoosh Bigelow. The best parts were obviously when they would just run and leap into each other. A match like this basically needs to be nothing but avalanches, over and over, until one of the big fat guys falls on the other big fat guy. Mabel is good at selling for Bigelow, and my favorite thing might be Mabel selling the pyro during Bigelow's intro. Now there *was* a lot of fire in that ring, but Mabel sold it like he got maced. Bigelow runs the ropes really cool, always leaning deep into them to show how much is size can bend them, and it really puts across any extra spring he might be getting before hurling himself into the King. Bigelow runs into a big Boss Man Slam and Mabel chokes him in the ropes a bunch, whips him hard in the buckles, drops axe handles, Bam Bam bumping around for all of it. We get a fantastic spot, where Bigelow tries to surprise Mabel with his enziguiri, but Mabel ducks it and when Bigelow gets back to his feet MABEL hits an enziguiri! I'm not sure I've seen Bam Bam's enziguiri countered and used against him before, and it rules. Mabel hits an avalanche but crashes hard into the buckles on another one, and then Bigelow nails the enziguiri. Mo gets involved and takes a huge bump off the apron when Bigelow immediately shuts that interference down. Missed headbutt off the top and Mabel puts him away (a little easily) with a nice belly to belly. I would have liked to see one more Bigelow kickout before Mabel crushed him for good, but this had the kind of squishing you'd want from two behemoths.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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New Footage Friday: FUJIWARA! SUPER TIGER! MASCARA CONTRA MASCARA! JUMBO! TAUE! FUCHI! MISAWA! KAWADA KIKUCHI!

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger UWF 1/16/85 - EPIC

PAS: Tiger vs. Fujiwara is in the discussion with Lawler vs. Dundee, Santo vs. Casas, Misawa vs. Kawada of all time greatest matchups. Our pal Charles from PWO DM's me and says "I think I found a HH Tiger vs. Fujiwara that wasn't out there before" 2021 is already turning the corner.  

I am not sure where this stands in the pantheon of their matchups, but it was a hand to god wrestling treasure. The story in this is familiar, Fujiwara works for various submissions, while Sayama unloads a Dresden level firebombing on his body.  Can Fujiwara find a tendon to snap before Tiger beats him to death? Sayama just mauls Fujiwara's thigh with gross kneedrops and kicks. It is so relentless and violent looking that it seems like Fujiwara might never walk without a cane.  Fujiwara does land some nasty body shots, but he is mostly overwhelmed on his feet. There are very few wrestlers in history who are as brutal strikers as UWF era Sayama and some of the kicks and punches seemed to violate the unspoken agreement of professional wrestling. Despite that onslaught, Fujiwara is who he is, he can be getting blown out and beaten up, but if you stick out your arm or leg even a little bit, it is getting snatched. Fujiwara looks absolutely done, he is lying on his stomach while Tiger whip kicks him in the head and drops knees on his thigh. The ref pulls Tiger off to give Fujiwara a count, Fujiwara stumbles into the corner glassy eyed, but as Tiger approaches to put him down, Fujiwara catches the spin kick, grabs a fast waistlock and pulls him down. He then tries several attacks on the arm, until he maneuvers it into a key lock and snaps it like a breadstick. Wonderful mix of violence and skill. I am a Fujiwara guy, and finding a unseen prime classic like this, what a treat. 

MD: Absolutely elemental battle. Sayama is the wind, absolutely relentless, constantly driving forward, battering Fujiwara with piercing kicks, tearing apart the knee again and again and again, squeezing out of holds to restart the assault at the earliest opportunity. Fujiwara is the sea, repeatedly dissipated by Sayama's barrage but ever reassembling, patiently enduring the storm, calm and consistent, the wave of his arm able to reach around at any moment to pry off one of Sayama's limbs and recover the advantage. For all of the effusive, medium-criticism-defining praise of decades for Sayama's grace and execution, I connect with him most when he's tearing away at Fujiwara in the corner with his kicks. Later on, Fujiwara fluidly seeps out around Sayama's attempt to contain him and returns the favor with brutal punches in the corner; there's none of his occasional playfulness here given the stakes and the ferocity of Sayama's offense. Sayama wins on points by never stopping, by absolutely decimating Fujiwara's leg, but he's never able to fully take advantage of it, and all it takes is one opening, one mistake, one possibility for the sea to sweep forth and swallow the wind whole.

ER: This is listed as a Death Match, and while I'm not sure what that means within 1985 UWF, it's awesome that Fujiwara worked something billed as that sandwiched between days where he fought Terry Rudge. Can you imagine that schedule? How insanely tough is this man, who was taking on perhaps his greatest rival in a Death Match on a Wednesday, while no doubt getting pummeled on Tuesday and Thursday by Rudge. Handhelds are a pretty amazing glimpse at how our favorites worked when the cameras weren't on, and they almost always show us that a lot of them never held back no matter who was watching. Fujiwara is a punisher, but the most iconic images of him are of him taking a punishing beating. I loved the shots we got of him lying on his side, covering his body with one arm while keeping a hand in front of his face, only surviving because Tiger decided to catch his breath lest he get too tired kicking Fujiwara's ass. Fujiwara is the man this crowd wanted to see, hearing them chant his name while Ride of the Valkyries hit was like hearing AJ crowds go crazy for Misawa. And they kept willing him back into things even when Tiger looked like he was trying to cripple him. Tiger was a real monster here, and it occurred to me that there are probably a ton of people who know Tiger from the Dynamite Kid matches, that have never seen him in full UWF asskicker mode. His kicks to a grounded Fujiwara's head were disgusting, but his leg attacks were what really set this apart. His knee drops were incredibly cruel, dropping down as hard as possible on Fujiwara's hamstrings, including off the middle buckle. You knew at a certain point that Fujiwara was only going to target a keylock, and I loved seeing him weather this awful storm to get there. 

Aguila Solitario vs. Al Rojo Vivo CMLL 12/15/85

PAS: An unseen 80s mask match is pretty exciting, it gives you hope that more is still out there to be unearthed. This was pretty formulaic, but it is a great formula to watch. Rojo takes the first fall entirely rips the mask and bloodies Solitario a bit. Solitario is able to fight back and take the second fall leading a near fall heavy third. I liked the Solitario superfly splash he used to take the segunda, and how he came up short trying it again in the tercera. I could have used one more big moment, a huge bump, a crazy dive, a ton of blood. It was just missing the hook which would push this to another level. Still it was really cool to see, and a big moment in two wrestler's lives we got see play out.

MD: This was exactly what I wanted it to be and hugely refreshing to watch. Rojo Vivo launched the ambush right at the start and controlled the primera with a very solid beatdown. Very little pomp or bs. Aguila's comeback spot in the segunda was actually worked for more than you'd usually see in these. It wasn't a bolt of lightning but instead an errant, desperate backhand followed up by more desperate swipes and revenge-driven offense that really embraced selling the damage already done. At the same time, Aguila threw himself into it, making even armdrags feel like punishing revenge spots. The tercera was exciting, full of nearfalls that had me for a moment. Rojo Vivo turned the tide with a low blow on the outside and Aguila used that to express vulnerability and peril off and on in the stretch. He didn't have the world's best execution but it really didn't matter here because everything was believable and he kept the crowd connected.

Akira Taue/Jumbo Tsuruta/Masanobu Fuchi vs. Mitsuhara Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi AJPW 3/29/92

MD: Great lost six man here. You look for the big things and the little ones with these. For big ones, you get the relative novelty of Kawada and Misawa working together, Kawada going at it with Taue, the huge feel of of Jumbo vs Misawa, and after spending a good chunk of the match avoding everyone and getting little shots in, the sheer inevitability of Jumbo crushing Kikuchi starting a really enjoyable peril segment for him where Fuchi demolishes him (including an amazing neckbreaker hold over the top rope) and Taue lawn darts him into the turnbuckle. The little stuff would be the specifics, like Misawa doing his headstand flip and going for a tag early on, only to realize he'd lost his ring positioning and was in the wrong corner, or Fuchi playing his usual bulldog self from the apron and rushing in to go straight for Kawada's eye to break a hold, that sort of thing. I thought the finishing stretch went on a bit too long, maybe, but that's a me thing. Otherwise, this was really good stuff with a pretty legendary four minute beatdown on Kikuchi that everyone should see.

PAS: Pissed off at the kids Jumbo is my all time favorite Jumbo. He seems to take such glee in brutalizing Kikuchi and man does he kill him here. Kikuchi taking these beatings multiple times a week really shortened his career, but he was one of the best ever at spunkily taking a pasting. Fuchi was a real fucker in this match too, he comes in and tries to rip Kawada's eye out, and enziguiris him right in the kidneys. Kawada was a great supporting player in this match, he was a level below then his opponents at this point, and it was fun to see the ultimate asskicker coming off the back foot instead of firing forward.  This was a Kikuchi show, bravely dying on his shield, and the barbarians who slaughtered him. 

ER: I love these six mans, and it's so incredible to see them working their charismatic, easy to follow formula at every house show. A special thing about this nearly 30 minute handheld, is that we have a genuine wrestling handheld maestro behind the camera. Our footage  shakes wildly for the first 30 seconds, and by the time the match starts the guy is doing perfect framing zooms, keeping all the action perfectly squared up the entire LONG match. When the match would break down and everyone would pair off, he'd manage to jump between all three pairs without missing action. This guy did some shots that made it seem like he knew exactly what moves were going to be happening, just an awesome familiarity with these guys. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a handheld match keep the action this well. I have to imagine he was part of some kind of community, the way Grateful Dead fans know the names of certain prominent tapers who got the best sound mix. I want to see his other work. 

The match was an awesome heel performance from grumpy Jumbo and his goons, Masa Fuchi and Akira Taue. This is the era of Jumbo I love, such a magnetic superstar in that ring. The handheld really gets you in with the crowd, and every time Jumbo showed off just why he still had reasonable claim to being the top dog, the crowd OOOOOOHHH'd along with him every time he pumped his fist. The whole match really picks up when Jumbo's team gets Kikuchi away from the pack and really lay in the kind of beating that Kikuchi took in 1992. Kikuchi is one of the toughest lunatics in wrestling history, and most prisoners don't see the kind of abuse this guy took in the early 90s. Taue lawn darts him face first into the turnbuckles, Fuchi hung him out to dry on the ropes, and Jumbo confidently injured him with a stiff Boston crab while keeping him away from his corner. We get the great fakeouts where Kikuchi is held back from making the tag, and all of it works really well. 

You really get to see how far Misawa came when you see him here versus him as the absolute top guy. Jumbo still comes off like the main hoss in All Japan here, and Misawa doesn't have quite the impact for me he would just a couple years later. Jumbo was practically out of wrestling just a few months after this match. Misawa is such a boss within two years, but here he still looked like a guy who wasn't quite able to move Jumbo around the way he wanted. Fuchi is so good as the second in command ass kicker, behind Jumbo. He never uses Jumbo to hide behind, but you can sense he feels emboldened having Jumbo there. He really rips at Kawada, and you always get a sense of glee when you know he's standing across from Kikuchi, like Kikuchi is his violence muse. But really this left me feeling like the perfect kind of match to soak in the 1992 brilliance of nearly/suddenly retired Jumbo and what might have been in the 90s, with more from a great year of underdog babyface work from Kikuchi. A great find, and a more complete look at one of the most fruitful rosters in wrestling history. 

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Andre is Hit on The Head With A Frying Pan, Lives in A Garbage Can

Rumble Match WWF Royal Rumble 1/15/89 - GREAT

ER: Andre is in the Rumble for 15 minutes, but it's easily one of the best performances in the whole match. It's not news that Andre is an incredible presence in any battle royal he's in. There's a reason Andre in a battle royal was such a durable pro wrestling draw, but this is an Andre battle royal performance completely different than any other. This is 15 minutes of Andre as an aged mastodon, with Demolition, Mr. Perfect, Ronnie Garvin, Greg Valentine, and Jake Roberts as the cavemen trying to bring him down without getting stepped on or gored. Demolition started the Rumble, and Andre was the 3rd entrant, and the second Andre stepped into the ring Demolition were beating the hell out of him. It's so cool seeing Andre immediately reeling, and his wounded mastodon performance was incredible. He's taking constant kicks and punches, lashing out almost blindly, and when he connects it always does serious damage. Every new guy that enters the Rumble goes right after Andre, with Perfect coming in and immediately punching Andre in the face only to nearly get headbutted over the top. Garvin comes in and he, Ax, and Perfect tie Andre up in the ropes, leading to a great spot as the agonized giant kicks all three of them off. Perfect is great bumping around for Andre, with he and Garvin each trying to attack him while Andre is sitting on Ax in the corner. There are all these tiny moments of Andre's mounting anger getting interrupted, the giant reacting with gritted teeth, one second away from nuking someone before getting blindsided by someone else. Andre never knows who to focus on, so he just keeps absorbing shots until he gets his hands around someone's throat. 

Once Jake comes in, Andre puts his blinders on to everyone else, and just goes off on Roberts. Andre lets Roberts punch him a few times and gets a big grin on his face before clobbering him, then uses his singlet strap to strangle him. Valentine is hilarious the whole time Andre is smashing Jake, as he keeps running across the ring with huge swinging clubbing shots, and Andre completely ignores them until finally turning around and headbutting Valentine. Andre tosses Jake (and several others throughout his 15 minutes), and I'm sad to see his run end so quickly. Roberts runs back to the ring with Damien, and Andre nopes the hell out of there, eliminating himself. Andre running the hell out of the ring was a great spot, and a fine way to defeat Godzilla when conventional weapons weren't working. But I wish it happened way later in the match, would have been much more satisfying to have Jake come out 10 entrants later, give Andre a 30 minute run. Still, for 15 minutes, it was impossible for me to watch anyone but Andre, a man who knew how to fill battle royal time better than maybe anyone. 

Andre the Giant/Mighty Inoue vs. Cactus Jack/Texas Terminator Hoss AJPW 4/5/91 - FUN

ER: I love that we have these kind of oddball match-ups preserved, how we get a 25 year old Cactus Jack going up against a top 5 all time legend, and putting in one of his greatest early career performances. We do not get an Andre vs. Hoss match up, which is honestly probably for the best. Hoss is great at hitting big slams on Inoue, and while it would have been fun seeing him bump for the still much larger Andre, it probably protected both by having them not cross paths. Besides, Cactus vs. Andre was so damn fun that I didn't miss Andre vs. Hoss. Inoue takes a pounding but the crowd is hot for an Andre tag, and Andre - still  looking like a total mountain mover - punches Cactus right in the head and throws chops like Col. Steve Austin swinging a tree branch into a heavy. Andre looked like a gigantic Punch Out boss dwarfing Little Mac, and Cactus made Andre look like the legend he still was. Cactus took two big backdrops, one on the floor and one in the ring, Inoue hit two terrific rolling sentons on him (there is presently nobody who does a Mighty Inoue style standing rolling senton, and that's idiotic because it would be a solid add to anybody's moveset). Cactus runs valiantly into the middle turnbuckle in a Grade A bump, and then makes Andre's big boot in the corner look like a pipe to the face. Andre looking at Hoss on the apron with "Go ahead, break up this pin, motherfucker" eyes while he just falls on Cactus for the pin is some classic final years Andre presence.

PAS: Fun stuff, turns out Cactus and Andre are pretty perfect opponents. Late era Andre is going to stand there, be huge and have people bounce off of him, and Cactus is willing and able to bounce off of people. We get a crazy Cactus shoulder bump into a post and a backdrop on the concrete, and he absolutely gets flattened by an Andre elbow. That's really all you need to make something like this work. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 1/27/21

What Worked

Eddie Kingston vs. Lance Archer - GREAT

ER: Opening a show with Eddie Kingston is always going to give you a good shot at landing up top, and the bonus here was getting one of the best Lance Archer singles matches. Favorite Archer Match is basically like saying Favorite Car Insurance Payment, but this was more Archer working Kingston's match before blowing Kingston up, and that's going to land well with me. Kingston makes Archer's offense look better than a lot of his offense against juniors. He has modern big man syndrome, meaning he too often tries to work down to his opponents when they're juniors, and seeing his offense take down a bigger guy like Kingston is more effective. Kingston takes offense really well; not athletically, but in terms of making offense seem effective. He lands in ways that you can feel. I loved him picking Archer apart with punches. He threw a straight punch right into Archer's kidney, followed that up with a couple body shots on the other side, kicked at the back of Archer's knee, bit and clawed at Archer's face, King shit. JR on commentary nicely pointed out that "Kingston knows all the right spots to hit someone" and they talk about him being a street fighter from childhood. 

Kingston takes an insane bump to the floor, looking like they were trying to recreate the Vic Grimes XPW bump from half the distance. King lands hip first on the apron, gets upended to the floor, could have easily landed on his head. Nuts. And King continues to get beaten around the ring (there's a great moment where Kingston gets run face first into a camera, which feels like the kind of shot that winds up in TV show intros), takes a bunch of hard slams, Archer hits a cool standing splash out of the corner, all building up to what looks like a Kingston dying on his sword performance. The finish could have been more interesting (Archer gets distracted by Butcher and Blade attacking Jake, Kingston hits the backfist) and would have played better if Kingston just won with a loaded backfist. You want to protect Archer, have him decimate King but then eat a roll of quarters to the jaw, don't make him stare away at his opponent for a long time and then lose. 

PAS: Great Kingston performance, which he really could have had against anyone. Eddie isn't really a stunt bumper, so that chokeslam hip first on the ring apron was really shocking. He also really laid out for some of Archer's slams, and did a tremendous job selling a back injury. Archer was pretty shitty in this though, constantly making "I'm Evil" faces in the camera, what a cornball. He stopped after every move to do a bug eyed glare, and mouth things like "you are in my playground" "death has come to take his reward". Just the worst home movie horror film shit. There are so many 6'6 guys who have washed out of WWE in the last decade, can't they dig up Mike Knox and give him Jake Roberts? Vladamir Koslov? Hell even Snitsky would be better then this. Archer also really has trouble moving, he executes his moves OK, but he can't really run the ropes or even walk well. Kingston is incredible and this is a virtuosos one man show, I just want a better dance partner. 

-Jericho ending his match with a great Lionsault and smug look to the camera is an awesome way to end a match a week after bouncing his head off the mat on a Lionsault. It's petty, but it was the right move. I liked the tag, liked that MJF is getting better at being a stooge heel, better at stooge heel bumping. Pillman and Garrison had good fire even though a bunch of their offense didn't look great (Pillman has weirdly been throwing a lot of his dropkicks over the shoulder just past his opponent, often enough that it has to be intentional), but I liked it. 

-Segment went way too long, but I liked Arn's promo, understanding that Cody's head wasn't all in the ring, focusing on the importance of his baby. It will probably end up feeling like a dumb thing to construct an angle around, don't think most within the feud have the acting chops to pull off that kind of family drama, but Arn is one of them. Arn's promo up here, segment as a whole down there. 

-Baker/Shanna is another match that felt too long, but it's the best I've seen Shanna look. She was on Dynamite in a couple longish matches a year ago and looked completely out of place. She whipped herself over on suplexes really well, missed a gnarly low dropkick that landed her hard on the bottom rope, and really I liked how she took all of Baker's offense. I even liked her jumping stunner! Baker had an awesome crossface chickenwing that looked like she was trying to misalign Shanna's jaw, and I think that viciousness throughout the match was more important than showing the ways Shanna has improved on Dark. Baker has a big match with Thunder Rosa coming up. She shouldn't be taking close 2 counts against Shanna. 

-Truthfully, I didn't pay a ton of attention to the main event. But John Silver really stood out above all the rest, a guy who has really been justifying his increased TV time and has been working like he's having the time of his life. That kind of thing is infectious. 

What Didn't Work

-I hate how Adam Page works his showcase "squash" matches. I mean it's kind of cool that a guy who washed out of WWF developmental could get a chance to show off his 2013 WWF offense for an extended TV look, but it's also kind of weird. Another thing I don't understand is him keeping his rope flip clothesline as his finisher. In this match alone he hit two clotheslines BETTER than his finisher, including one where he just brick walls Ryan Nemeth. If Page dropped the rest of his frilly shit, he's not far from being a guy I'm interested in seeing. 

-Feels rude to put Harwood/Jungle Boy down here but this went twice as long as it should have. I think things would have been just as effective as a normal match, and I thought the extended finishing run did them no favors. Jungle Boy worked a long fast home stretch segment without really missing a beat, but my problem with it was that it felt like a guy focusing on not missing a beat. He didn't look like a guy who had taken a pretty body tenderizing beating from Harwood, he looked like a guy keeping his steps straight. I really really liked everything up past Harwood's awesome slingshot sitout powerbomb, but once things went into overdrive I was ready for it to end at any point for several minutes. JB showed me some neat things in the first half, like I noticed how he was really sliding for Harwood's ankles on a dropdown, attention to basics showing how he's improving. Harwood ran into him hard a few times, and this felt like a really good Bret/Waltman tribute match. But then things shifted pace and it just felt like the exact same kind of match we get a couple times a week on AEW. The thousand yard stare on Jungle Boy's face, not thinking a lick of the beating he took, and practically mouthing the beats as he thinks about how to properly roll out of the kickout to the next spot, is the stuff I hate. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Bayle! DR. ADOLF KAISER! Strangler! Drapp! Vignal

MD: Couple of programming notes to start. First, we've been doing this for a couple of weeks more than a year now and I can't begin to tell you how great a part of my week this has been during these tough, isolated times. Thanks to everyone who has watched, commented, shared, and shown passion towards this project and this footage. We had no idea just how lucky we were going to be with it when we started. We could guess from what we already had, sure, but who knew that the week to week quality was going to be so high? That said, we're about to hit the dark period in the footage. Due to a cultural blowback, wrestling was much less frequently shown on TV between around this period and 1965. We still have a few scattered shows in 1961, then a handful of 1962 shows, just a couple of 63 ones, and only one for 64. It starts back up pretty steadily after that, and we've jumped ahead a couple of times to see that while different, everything's absolutely worth watching. That said, you can't help to be a little sad for what simply wasn't shown on TV for those missing years. Still, let's enjoy what we do have, including some really good ones this week.


Jacky Corne vs. Remy Bayle 4/14/61

MD: We get a good 25 minutes of this before it cuts out abruptly but it's well worth watching. This was right after Gagarin went into space and the announcer starts by referencing that which adds just a little bit of historical pinpointing to all of it. Just excellent stylist vs stylist stuff here, with Bayle younger and hungry. This had some of the best, most aggressive chain wrestling we've seen in a match like this, with each wrestler constantly trying to jock for position and escape holds and more effort than usual in the attempts to prevent escape (and there's usually a lot of effort so that's saying something). They even started with lockups instead of the usual double knucklelock/test of strength hand to hand entry points, which we haven't seen a ton of. Bayle went to the uppercuts first but Corn shut him down almost immediately with the leg nelson. They worked back up to more striking and Bayle followed with bodyscissors. They worked the intermission escape on that and then right back into it, then spent the rest of the match going between holds interspersed with spots and striking. It's a shape it cut off because if we had a finish on this, I could see it ranking pretty high for 1961. We get spatterings of Bayle all the way through the 80s, so it'll be interesting to see how he develops.

Jacques Bernieres vs. Jean Martin 4/21/61

MD: We get the last four minutes of this and it was pretty spirited. The announcer got confused which guy was which at the beginning, which messed me up too, but I'm pretty sure we come with Bernieres getting some revenge on Martin, who bumps and stooges big. The most memorable bit of this is Martin eating a back body drop over the top by the ref and after some good slugging and spots, Bernieres goes to the shoulder throw well one too many times and Martin hits him with a knee trembler. Post match, someone throws something (I think candy?) at Martin and he catches it and eats it, which is just brilliant stuff.

Andre Drapp/Bernard Vignal vs. Rocco Lambam/Dr. Adolf Kaiser 4/21/61

MD: Another week, another great tag. This is our first look at Kaiser in a while and I think our last look at him in general. Here he was spry and coy, emanating an air of gingerness that drew heat, even as he consistently worked to trap his opponent into his corner to lay in punishment. Lamban is, of course, El Strangulator. He has a dozen ways to strangle you (chinlock, cobra clutch, his finishing dragon sleeper, the very cool horizontal lift finger-into-throat when the ref can't see). Drapp and Vignal are a pretty perfectly paired tag team, with Vignal a little older but capable and fiery and Drapp one of those guys like Corn who have a real "ace" feel to them. Both can control on the mat, portray vulnerability, and come back strong. They took a huge chunk of this to start, but when you're wrestling two guys with strangleholds who can turn the match on a dime and then keep it turned due to chicanery and cutting off the ring, it more or less worked out.

PAS: The good doctor returns! Kaiser is one of my favorite characters in French Catch, and I love to see him sleaze around the ring. Cheapshotting, begging off, back jumping, all with that prim aristocratic affect. You can just see him walking into the farmhouse and drinking the fresh glass of milk. I love a strangler, and Rocco finds so many different ways to choke and torture, that lifting choke thing Matt mentioned was awesome. They are such a despicable pair. These weren't amazing babyface performance opposite them, but they did the job, delivered a beating when it was called for, added their own bag of tricks and were sympathetic victims. Match just kind of ended, without a big moment or two, which would have elevated it, but I wish we had another two dozen matches from Dr. Adolf and El Strangulator.  

SR: 2/3 Falls match over 30 minutes. The seemingly last appearance of the nefarious Dr. Adolf Kaiser. His partner here was Rocco Lamban, said to be a Spaniard. Lamban was another guy with a massive upper body and spindly arms and leopard trunks. If there‘s one thing to learn from old pro wrestling it‘s that guys in leopard trunks are likely douches. Lamban also knew how to finish people off with chokeholds. And that is what made this match really fun, as Dr. Kaiser & Lamban were constantly looking for a strangle hold, with Drapp & Vignal doing a lot of fun wrestling to squirm out of potential submissions. The animalistic behaviour of Dr. Kaiser is always highly entertaining, too. This developed into a quite intense beatdown on the faces. I‘ve been wondering whether the deal with Dr. Kaiser is similiar to the British deal that they wouldn‘t show his most violent matches on TV, but he and Lamban were surely and kicking ass full on here. I thought the match ended a little abruptly as it seemed to hint at the faces administering an epic counter-asskicking, but as it was it was a really fun romp.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Dar! Jinny! Devlin! Yim!

Noam Dar vs. Jordan Devlin NXT UK 1/25 (Aired 2/13/19) (Ep. #29)

ER: Dar turned in two great performances in the first three weeks of NXT UK, and then disappeared for nearly four months. This is his first match in 26 episodes, and he didn't miss a single beat. I had both Devlin and Dar in my Top 5 through my first ranking period (1st and 4th respectively) and it's always exciting when two of the very best match up. So I had high expectations, and they easily met them. This is one of the few hardest hitting matches we've seen on UK, and Dar put on this great Monty Python knight performance as Devlin kept working over different parts of Dar's body. Dar does World of Sport style trick spots better than anyone on the brand, and I really liked his Phillie Phanatic tabletop trip after elbowing Devlin into the ropes, and Devlin was great at playing into that and the spinning backslide. Once Devlin stops playing around, he unleashes some hellish kicks on Dar, going after his leg, working over his arm, and kicking him incredibly hard in the ribs while Dar was on all fours. I loved Dar limping around, holding his arm, holding his ribs, still bringing fight to Devlin while Devlin would strike him back down, harder. That would lead to nice moments like Dar taking two really nasty kicks to the chest and catching the third to turn it into an ankle lock. Devlin is great at not telegraphing spots, didn't throw that third kick any softer, just relied on Dar catching a really hard kick. The build was really good and it never felt like Dar bit off more body part selling than he could handle, and I thought Devlin was great at punishing him while Dar struggled to get to his feet. They worked in new injuries nicely, like Dar kicking the ring steps when Devlin moved, and the finishing inside cradle (after Devlin tried one and had his feet pushed off the ropes by Travis Banks) looked like a cradle that would finish a match. Come for the nasty kicks to the ribs and elbows to the jaw, and stay for the solid storytelling!

Jinny vs. Mia Yim NXT UK 1/25 (Aired 2/13/19) (Ep. #29)

ER: I thought this was an excellent Jinny performance, a real set of highlights that illustrates why I think she's not only easily the best women's wrestler in NXT UK, but one of the very best in WWE. Mia Yim is someone who I think is too focused on hitting her planned spots to ever really get fully into a match. And outside of some of her lousy ground and pound and a rana sequence where she stood waiting with her feet planted for the reversal before Jinny even ran out of the corner with a rana, I thought she went along for Jinny's ride really well. I liked the opening matwork, and always like the tightness Jinny brings to the mat, so things never seem perfunctory. She always seems like she knows exactly where she is in the ring, uses her long legs for leverage and rope breaks, and does cool things like rake the inside of Yim's arm with her nails while working her wrist. Jinny's form on her striking is really strong. She doesn't work stiff, but makes it look like she really putting her whole body into everything. She's good at in ring trash talking, and I got a laugh as she looked at someone in the Phoenix crowd and said "You want Mia to win, right?" and then began smashing Yim's face into the mat. 

Jinny makes simple things like throwing someone into the mat look like actual offense, but can also lend legitimacy to cool submissions, like her rolling wheelbarrow. She never takes half measures on those kind of moves, never afraid to abandon a spot if it isn't going as planned, never cuts corners. When she lost Yim's arm on the wheelbarrow, most workers would have had an awkward time stand still moment to wait for their opponent to give their arm back, but Jinny works it into the spot. Yim's comeback offense all looked good, her forearms and chops hit hard, her cannonball picks up speed nicely, and her German suplex into the corner is a fun bit of recklessness. The finish seems a bit too abrupt, but I liked Jinny groggily rolling to the floor to buy time after the corner suplex, leading to her sneaking in a cheap kick when Yim naturally went after her. There are not many wrestlers that I currently love watching more than Jinny. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Last Battle of Burke!!

50. Big Donnie vs. Wildman James Brody NAWA 11/26

PAS: This was a brawl in a garage with a cage and no ring and some rusty weapons sitting around. This was the Burke County Boys tag team exploding in their final match against each other. There is clearly decades of history between the two in the indies of Burke County North Carolina, and it is cool to see a micro indy feud reach its peak. Big Donnie is one of the fattest wrestlers I have ever seen, he looks like a third McGuire twin. James Brody looks like Dick Gregory and might be in his fifties. They start out brawling on the bed of a truck, with both guys taking awkward bumps and throwing weapons recklessly at bodies. Donnie had some nice looking punches, and while Brody's stuff didn't look great he had a good crazy presence, kind of like Roughouse Fargo. They move into the cage and smack each other with stuff. Donnie even puts on a nasty looking leg choke, that fat leg smothering you looks like a finish. Brody was mostly weapons shots and punches, he was more a vibe then a worker. Donnie hits a sit out powerbomb on the concrete which looked gross, and won the match by shoulder blocking Brody through the cage. Nothing in this match was particularly well executed professional wrestling, but it was a nasty grimy fight in a filthy garage between two guys with history and charisma. I would rather watch that than a 45 minute Jay White match all day long. 

ER: Phil jumped on this the moment Highspots put it up, and I can see what got him excited. I watched the hype video for this match on Facebook (in full on the Highspots vid) and despite never seeing these two before in my life, even though I've seen a dozen of people who look exactly like this over a weekend in Tennessee. There is no pro wrestler polish on either of them, instead it comes off like backyard wrestling with men in their 30s and 40s who great up idolizing southern punch out wrestling instead of guys in their teens who grew up idolizing highflyers. Brody looks like he would have played Grady Little's younger brother on Sanford & Son, and Donnie looks like every guy in every town in the south who can shut down the Hometown Buffet after Sunday Service. We get great character details and extra characters, like LITTLE DONNIE and the fact that Brody had just done time, and possibly not for the first time. This looked like a parking lot fight between a Waffle House line cook and a regular who broke a 2nd barstool with his weight. 

Both of these guys look like dudes I don't totally *want* to see taking bumps, and definitely not on concrete and wood, but also I definitely want to see it? Donnie is someone who takes some pretty wild bumps in normal wrestling matches, and has great form on his standing splash. It helps that Donnie has such a fantastically large stomach that if he turns himself horizontal on midair, gravity will do the rest. But whatever, Donnie has a standing splash better than Mark Henry's, and that means something. I like pro wrestling that doesn't seem informed by anything. A lot of the execution in this Battle wouldn't hold up to high def WWF cameras, but you can clearly see they're working to their best abilities here, while doing things they shouldn't be trying. Donnie does a couple cool surprising throws, one dropping both of them in a flatbed trailer, another like a rolling Saito suplex on concrete. Brody throws headbutts and fists, rubs a cheese grater over Donnie's forehead, rubs a barbed wire bat on his own forehead, great wild man energy. When I talk about surprises, well Jack, Big Donnie is full of them. He's my new favorite. He does a fucking ENZIGUIRI on concrete, hits a gnarly sitout powerbomb on concrete, works an insane fat man Koji clutch that looked like it was going to snap Brody in half, and flat out destroys Brody with a pair of avalanches. His first avalanche into the cage sends him recoiling with a sick out of control fat guy bump, and the second knocks the whole cage down, with Brody the victim of a dropped piano. We get an interview after with Donnie, who looks right into the camera and says, "I can't help it...I still love him!" I get it buddy. 

 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWF 305 LIVE: KAMALA! BOOGER! HEAVY MACHINERY! AUTHORS OF PAIN!

Kamala vs. Bastion Booger WWF Mania 6/27/93 - EPIC

ER: When you see on paper what match you're getting, and you're the kind of person who would be excited by this match on paper, I cannot imagine you leaving this one disappointed. I didn't even realize they were in WWF at the same time (there was about a month of overlap) and had no idea this match existed. Even in match lists it doesn't turn up on most searches (if you go to cagematch they only list a couple of house show matches and no TV match) but it doesn't appear to have aired on Europe-only TV so who knows why the Deep State has been hiding this match from people. On Superstars the day before, Vince referred to Booger as "a disgusting endomorph" which sounds like a hilarious bodybuilder bubble HHH insult (like when he called Punk "skinny fat"), and so we have a disgusting endomorph vs. a Ugandan Giant, obviously that is going to be epic. Booger bumps around in real fun "can he get up!?" ways for Kamala, with the best parts being these sick cross chops Kamala threw right to the Adam's apple and lead to fast back bumps from Booger (and I love Booger's back bumps because he is so round - one could call him an endomorph, in fact - that he bumps like someone threw a jello sculpture to the mat). I am filled with glee as Kamala chokes Booger over the middle rope, as I picture the white rope as a sentient rope who just has a big frown on his face as the two fattest dudes lean their weight on him. They brawl to a double count out and Booger takes a nice ring posting, and obviously there wasn't going to be a clean finish when you're dealing with specimens like these. It was either going time limit draw or double KO baby. 

Heavy Machinery vs. Authors of Pain NXT 7/12/17 - VERY GOOD

ER: We have a major dearth of fat guys in pro wrestling these days, so I imagine this will be one of our later 305 entries. These guys are four of the biggest guys that have ever appeared on NXT, so thankfully they gave us at least one TV match together. What's cruel is that they know exactly what they are giving us, because every time they show a graphic for this match throughout the episode they talk about how much damn beef is going to be in the ring at once. There are so many small people in NXT, they obviously knew what a treat a match like this was going to be. Confusingly, it was taped before 4th of July and easily could have aired around the holiday. That would have been a good reason to turn the match into a hot dog eating contest or something cool and patriotic like that, but instead they just had them wrestle a normal match with no competitive eating. 

Akam and Rezar don't do a ton for me, but I really like their knees to the face and it's cool that they go to that a lot. There was a long heat segment on Tucker and a lot of it was him trying to get to his feet while getting clubbed and taking short knees right to the face. I could probably be won over by a team that did nothing but big clubs, decent clotheslines, quick tags, cranking cravats, and knees to the face. The hot tag to Otis is the real highlight, with him coming in throwing hard shoulderblocks and lariats, with my favorite lariats being the ones he throws just to block AoP lariats. It's a cool visual when two huge guys are throwing arms as hard as they can while trying to block, and I wonder if either wound up with some big bruises on their inner biceps. Tucker really muscles one of AoP over the top to the floor with an even better lariat, and Otis chucks one of them with a big boy belly to belly (and you know his belly is REALLY up against that belly). Wish a little bit of an extended stretch this could have been a real standout tag, but just went things are really looking to get on fire they go home quick. I liked AoP's DDT and their lariat/legsweep finisher works well with their size, but it's disappointing when you know something was close to being awesome and only didn't get there due to not having an extra 75 seconds.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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New Footage Friday: FUJIWARA! KIMURA! FUJINAMI! MAEDA! NAVARRO! SOLAR! KATO! DIABLO!

Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akira Maeda/Nobuhiko Takada/Yoshiaki Fujiwara NJPW 3/1/86 - GREAT

MD: The handheld nature of this one let us really hear the crowd, and they were super into this. The makeup of these wrestlers and this feud meant that there was so much anticipation for almost every exchange; just a constant feeling out process that got the fans ready for the payoff of the actual contact each and every time, which almost never disappointed. Whenever one of the NJ guys would switch in, the fans switch the chant for them like clockwork. The first minute or two was really fun as Fujiwara controlled the center of the ring and drew people in however he could (including a slap punch in the corner) and then just dominated on the mat. Lots of brutal kicks from the other two UWF guys and a healthy amount of Koshinaka getting tossed around. Towards the end, the NJ team figured out they could hold an advantage with some teamwork but it broke down pretty quickly into a chaotic and violent scene.

PAS: New Japan versus UWF maybe the greatest in ring feud in wrestling history, and it is a real mitzvah to get another installation. Unsurprisingly I loved Fujiwara in this, swaggering badass who is so slick in the way he counters attacks by all three New Japan guys. Fujiwara and Fujinami tragically never had a singles match during this period, but they were incredible dance partners, and had some very cool exchanges here. Maeda really ramps up the violence in the end of the match pinning Fujinami against the ropes and winging kicks, including a headkick which felled him like an oak tree. Love Akira starting the 10 count with the rent, felt like the kind of taunt Alan Iverson might do. Finish was a wild breakdown and the crowd was going bonkers. Great stuff, super glad it showed up. 

Solar/Stuka Jr./El Gallo vs. Negro Navarro/Barbaro Cavernario/Rafaga CMLL GDL 12/1813

MD: It's been a while since I watched any 2013 lucha even though that was probably the height of my writing about it here and this was a mix of comfort food overlaid with maestros. The Rafaga vs Gallo pairing wasn't much (and good on Solar for clapping for them from the apron; nice guy) and Cavernario and Stuka went all out with their primera pairing but for less than a minute. The primera then was therefore all about the five minutes we got of Solar vs Navarro, which had all of the charm and skill you'd want out of these two in this setting. About half the time, it shifted to a close-up, high quality camera shot which really let you see what was going on. My favorite bit was early on when Solar hooked Navarro's arm with his legs and took him over into a cross arm breaker and Navarro responded by waving his hand in a "Yeah, that was so-so, I guess" sort of manner. Cavernario wasn't in much here but whenever he was he brought a ton of energy and motion. He let Solar catch him head-on to set up the finish and post-match everyone posed together. Hopefully we get more like this soon.

ER: This was really fun, and I loved some of our HD camera angles that we got. I always love seeing Solar and Navarro play their hits live, as they never play them exactly the same. Most of the highlights of this were Solar/Navarro, and while I wish we had gotten actual significant Stuka/Navarro and Barbaro/Solar interaction, I loved all of our maestros. Solar broke out a few tricks that are super impressive for a guy in his late 50s, and I thought he was excellent at playing into Navarro's subs. Like Matt, my favorite moment came when Solar totally caught Negro, flipped him halfway across the ring with a leg drag, and Navarro sat there on his butt, doing a 50-50 ehhhhhh shaky hand. I love the way they tangle their legs, and each knows the right amount of pressure to apply to not slip out of holds and made them look strong. Stuka and Barbara looked really exciting when they were in. Barbaro came off hyper and fun (and skinny!), and Stuka's rana, handspring headscissors on the floor to Rafaga, and his match finishing torpedo splash all looked great. I love nearly every Navarro/Solar match I see, but I think I like this format more. It gives the two maestros natural breaks while keeping the match centered around their work. We get some entertaining sideshows, and seeing brief flashes of them working with their younger new partners, then they come back to escalate their own personal 30+ year battle. 

PAS: Solar vs. Navarro is something we have in numerous variations, but it is cool to see a 2013 version pop up with both guys in their 50s not in their 60s. There is still some athleticism in their exchanges, not just pure skill, grab an arm, grab a leg spin counter, reverse. They always have a new wrinkle or two in their game, although here this really felt like a them doing their thing for a different audience. Everyone else in this match was fine, and Stuka Jr. has one of the great top rope splashes of all time, but this was getting to watch two Jazz greats noodle away and that is a pleasure.

Shigeo Kato vs. Diablo Mumejuku Pro 2/5/17

SR: By god, is Segunda Caida the Shigeo Kato superfan blog now?! Diablo is a guy who is also around for a really long time, he was a +20 year veteran in this match. This was the best Diablo match I’ve seen, as it is a bloody brawl, which was worked exactly like how a bloody brawl should be worked. Kato was a part time wrestler at this point and for a guy who was a skinny ratboy in his heyday, he seemed to have no muscle mass at all here, but he could still go like a wrestler. Really loved how he just stomped on Diablos face during the opening brawling portion. Then an exposed turnbuckle comes into play and Kato is soon bleeding all over the place. Katos selling was a millions bucks here as he looked to be hanging on by a thread (maybe he was also legit blown up) . I’m not going to pretend Diablo was brilliant, but he knew exactly what to do, punch the cut and waffle Kato with a chair out of nowhere. There’s an actually great Figure 4 Leglock spot and the ending felt appropriately murderous. Not gonna see these guys are superworkers, but I respect them for producing a match like this even with little athletic ability. Proof that structure is everything.

MD: Nice focused brawl. I have no idea who these guys are. Kato took it to Diablo early, working the mask. I loved the ref bump where Diablo caught Kato's kick and spun it into the ref's groin. High comedy there. After that, he landed a low blow on Kato and pulled the corner guard off and just unloaded on Kato. Once he got him upon with his chain, the woundwork was incredibly on point. He got a lot of value rubbing his head against the top rope, more than you'd think, but it felt pretty nasty. I liked Kato's hope spot where he went to the top and shouted woo just to get thrown off. He finally took over by taking out Diablo's leg, though they went away from it before long and Kato shouted out "Brainbuster!" like he was pointing into the stands for a home run and then couldn't hit it. A for bloody effort though. Lost focus towards the end but some great woundwork and it didn't wear out its welcome.

PAS: I thought this was cool shit, a couple of guys who have been around for a long time, beating on each other like veterans do. All of the stuff with Diablo and the chain was sick, there was some real thump on those punches, and his opening a cut punches with the fist would have made Harley Race proud. Kato had good fire as a bleeding old guy coming back with vim and vigor, and really took it to Diablo in the early going. I want to see all the variations of this feud, really feels like something a territory could work around the horn for months.

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Fujiwara Family: FOLLOW ME, FUTENS GOTTA BE, THE BEST THING SINCE CLARK AND WALLABEES FUTEN 45 1/22/12

Ryuichi Sekine vs. Kotaru Nasu

PAS: FUTEN is the ultimate in all killer no filler wrestling. This was so good, and the kind of thing which would completely stand out if it happened today, and was a 9 minute opener, overshadowed by the shinier stuff to follow. Nasu is a Style-E guy and Sekine is a K-Dojo trainee, but they can do FUTEN, nasty kicks to the body and head, and slick takedowns and submissions. Nasu was a little smaller and a little slicker, and Sekine was throwing hotter heat. Sekine goes for a Finlay roll only for Nasu to sneak out with a choke, but is able to hit it later and it felt like a bomb. Lots of moments where I felt a finish was coming, but it gets switched up. Both of these guys are still wrestling and I wonder whether this is something they are still doing.

Satoshi Kajiwara vs. Braham Shu

PAS: This wasn't it. Shu had some nice kicks to the chest, but outside of that this wasn't particular FUTEN style. Kaikwara actually does a lionsault and then puts on a kimura, and Shu spends most of the match choking with his wrist tape before he finally gets DQed. Not what I get FUTEN for. 

Takuma Sano vs. Katsumi Usuda

PAS: Two all time shoot style greats. I wasn't aware these two had matched up before I got this show, and while it isn't an all time classic (Sano seemed to have slowed down a bit at this point) it had a lot of what I loved about both dudes. Usuda really dominated early picking apart Sano really cracking his arms and legs. Sano started slow but when he got rolling he took him out with this brutal run of offense  winning an elbow exchange with brutal multiple hard elbows to Usuda's head, a sick looking released german suplex, solebut to the gut and a head kick for the KO. Felt like Usuda let a fighter with KO power hang around too long and paid for it. 

Great Sasuke/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Fujita Hayato/Manabu Suruga

PAS: Two delicious slices of toasted bread with a piece of rotten baloney in the middle. In the early sections of this match Sasuke seemed to playing along, throwing kicks and grappling, scrambling for kimuras etc. We had a great Ishikawa vs. Hayato section, Hayato didn't work a ton of FUTEN but man he was perfect for this style, scrawny little shit who just threw reckless dickish head shots, like Takeshi Ono's even more assholish younger brother. The sections with Ishikawa had some Ishikawa vs. Ikeda vibes, with Hayato headhunting the old man, and Ishikawa fighting back. Then Sasuke has to get on his bullshit, he hits a suplex on Suruga and does this super long comedy spot where he keeps telling the crowd he is going to hit his Randy the Ram elbow, it literal takes him two minutes to go up for the elbow, which he misses and planks on his head so Hayato and Suruga can kick him in the but. The match recovers a bit at the end, as they have a nifty finish run, but man that was just such a bummer, I love Sasuke, but man fuck Sasuke. 

Hikaru Sato/Kengo Mashimo vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono - EPIC

PAS: This was really excellent, not at the absolute peak of FUTEN tags (which are as good as anything in wrestling ever) but only a small step below. This is one of the matches of Takeshi Ono's career (according to Cagematch, it's Japan there are so many micro indies, that he could still be working weekly) and the last one we have on tape, and it is a hell of a capper. FUTEN tags have a certain formula, where they build and build to a big one on one match up at the end. Here we really get two of those, first Sato and Ikeda brutalize each other with punches to the face and sick headbutts, Sato is right there driving his forehead right into Ikeda and eating a huge clubbing lariat to the head and some gross kicks. At one point they are on their knees throwing straight rights. Just when you figure that is going to be the crescendo, Ono and Mashimo tag in and they go at it. Mashimo is a big guy and it is really a power versus speed striking battle, with Ono peppering him with sharp shots and Mashimo landing bigger thudding stuff. At one point Mashimo hits a leg sweep which looks like it sliced off Ono's legs at the knee. It doesn't get much better then when these matches ramp up, and I kept getting more and more hyped as they killed each other. Just the best.

FUJIWARA FAMILY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE IKEDA

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 5 Finale

Ron Mathis vs. Akira

PAS: This wasn't really a UWFI match, more of a highspot sprint. It had some nice stuff in it, like Akira landing a gross Low-Ki double stomp and some big high kicks. He is a fun Minoru Tanaka style shoot junior in this garage BattlArts. Mathis had some fun throws, but was almost doing comedy spots at the beginning.  For what this was it was fine, it was pretty out of style though. 

ER: Yeah the Mathis comedy at the beginning really threw me, come off like something we didn't need worked into this series. Felt like the wrong vibe to bring, maybe would have played better in front of a crowd. But every minute of the match was stronger than the minute that preceded it, so it's hard to dislike a match that keeps getting better and ends with the best stuff. There were a bunch of exploder variations, and one of the commentary guys called one of them "a real sack of shit toss" which made me spit coffee out a bit. The throws got pretty big by the end, and I liked Mathis leaping onto Akira with a guillotine. I thought Akira's bridging reversal of the guillotine was fantastic, and his leaping double stomp into Mathis's chin was disgusting, one of the great spots of the season. 

Big Beef vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: I am into Connelly. He does relentless really well, and comes right at Big Beef, only to get rudely and violently rebuked. Some of those forearms that Beef threw were Vader on Cactus level of concussive. For a second I didn't buy Connelly getting off a suplex, until I saw the size of his thighs. He looks like he could squat a mobile home. Quick and violent seems to be a Connelly special, and he is a guy I want to see more of. Beef hits appropriately hard, and I think him versus Hoodfoot could be great.

ER: I couldn't wait for this one after Connelly's last fight and Beef's performance all season, and this delivered. Connelly is a nut, and I buy into the way he keeps popping up and charging in until he can't. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for his career, but I love it! He rushes Beef and runs right into a boot and a powerbomb, and that kind of thing keeps happening. His throw was really impressive, and his ability to eat shots is even more impressive. Beef cracks him across the face and jaw with some vicious forearms, There's also some awesome post match body wrecking, with Connelly running down Beef and laying in full arm forearm shots just as hard as he took, and then Beef powers Connelly up and runs him back to the ring to dump him disgustingly with a powerbomb on the floor. Another season 1 highlight from these two. 

Lexus Montez vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: More of an angle then a match, Beverly does a Fuerza handshake gimmick at the beginning and catches Montez with a couple of his Saito suplexes. Montez is able to bully him into the ropes and hit some shots and the ref does an quick stoppage. There ends up being a locker room brawl setting up Hoodfoot vs. Beverly in Terminal Combat which is five minutes of UWFI rules and then a hardcore match, which on paper seems kind of silly. I needed Montez to land harder stuff for me to buy the stoppage even if it was supposed to be fast.

ER: Yeah none of this worked for me. The referee is wearing a mask so I can only assume it's Steve Mazzagatti under there, because this stoppage was bad, and looked bad. I get the angle, but you need to actually play up to the angle and "bad stoppage" is just about one of the least interesting angles around. Nothing Montez did looked like it warranted a stoppage, his Superman punch just looked like a bad avalanche, and his match stopping slaps were arguably the worst strikes we've seen during this 5 episode UWFI rules run. If not worst overall strikes, then definitely the worst strikes used as justification to stop a match. My grandma really hated my beard, and would always tug on it and give my face these little slaps when she saw it, and those slaps looked harder than the slaps that stopped this match. If a match is going to be used to further an angle, you have to actually a) sell the angle convincingly, and b) make the angle interesting. The match this leads to sounds cumbersome at best, but the execution that got us there was even worse. 

Chase Holliday vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This was pretty good stuff, with Blade showing their skill on the mat, including pulling guard with a jumping kimura, only to be caught with some big shots when they stood up. There was a nasty short hook which dropped her, and a big spinning back elbow for the KO (better then Holliday's first spinning back elbow, still not as good as Akira's or Broner's). I liked Blade a lot, and this was a better Holliday performance, excited to see more from both. 

ER: I thought this was a nice little snack. I really liked Blade's tie up matwork, her guard seemed really difficult to pass and she had really dangerous upkicks, and strong use of her legs in general. It looked like she had a good plan and I really liked her heavy knees to the ribs while standing. Holliday's worked back elbow finish looked good, and I dug how Blade sold it. 

Aaron Williams vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: I like Justice's fish out of water gimmick in these shows. It was cool how this match kept threatening to spin out, before being brought back in. Williams was fun shit talking on the mat, as he was clearly the more skilled grappler, and I loved his body shot/hook combo which sent Justice to the floor. I thought the buckle bomb and death valley driver were a step too far away from the style for me, but those finishing KO grounded knees were nasty looking. Post match Justice calls out Josh Barnett, which would be a big deal if they could actually deliver. 

ER: This landed a bit short for me. Justice is a "main event" worker I really like, but this didn't have the main event season ending heft that a lot of Justice matches come with. I do like Justice as fish out of water, challenging any Pride or UFC vets in an open challenge (how much could it cost to bring in Gerard Gordeau or Zuluzhino?), but I wanted more out of the last fight of the season. There were several individual things I liked, like Justice breaking a guillotine by trying to drop Williams back of neck first over the middle rope, and those nasty match ending knees from Justice. I also liked Williams talking trash ("I'm gonna get my shit in too!") and his triangle attempt. I thought the dvd was worked in as well as you can work something like that into a shootstyle match, but yeah I'd rather not see it. 

PAS: This is the end of season one, and I think overall this was a successful experiment. Not everything worked on every show, but everything was kept short, and I can digest a four minute failure pretty easily. This introduced me to a bunch of wrestlers I want to see more. Isaiah Broner, Hoodfoot, Austin Connelly, and Jordan Blade being people I hadn't heard of and have left big fans, and there is a whole second tier that I am excited to see more. We are in, and will cover Season 2 for sure.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Drapp! Vignal! de Lasartesse! Duranton! Rene Ben! Daidone!

Andre Drapp & Bernard Vignal vs. Jack de Lasartesse & Robert Duranton 1/20/61

SR: 2/3 falls match. We get about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, the third fall seems to be missing. Then again, it seems before we only had the 1st fall of this match. This was a tremendously entertaining affair, mostly thanks to the heel supertandem of Lasartesse/Duranton. These two had to be the most pompous tag team in all of wrestling at this point. There‘s certainly no two wrestlers who embody the „nasty european“ type like they did. Every moment of the match was characterized by their mannerisms, outrageous bumping, and vicious tactics. Not to disparage the faces in this match. Vignal is another very solid wrestler, who really makes his uppercuts and dropkicks look great, and Drapp is of course great, but this was one where you couldn‘t take your eyes off Duranton and Lasartesse. Durantons diva like antics and struts were especially spectacular. They also had Durantons valet with them, who at one point confronts the ring announcer and gets the shit slapped out of him with policemen jumping into the scene in an awesome moment. He gets involved in the match more and eventually thrown around like his big boys in the ring. Gotta say, Lasartesses knee drops have to be among the best ever in wrestling. He just drops right on their throat. No idea how he doesn‘t kill the guy. Too bad about the missing ending, because this felt as fresh as anything in the last 60 years.

MD: First, sorry but this one can't go up, at least not in full. Our archivist friends have a minute of Couderc swiping at the valet online that's frazzling any attempt at it. I tried. I'm sure I'll work it out eventually and someday you'll have that to look forward to. We're still going to talk about it to keep the historical record up. Duranton and Lasartesse are a natural pairing, with the valet looking after both. In a lot of ways Lasartesse (billed as living in the US now with a love of chewing gum) as a larger version of Duranton. It creates a sort of big dog/little dog vibe with Duranton giving us his best, most entertaining performance yet, craven, cowardly, cheap-shotting, just completely over the top. There's a spot where he gets caught in the stylist corner and dives through their legs to make a tag, which if done by the good guys, would have gotten adulation instead of jeers and laughs. He draws a ton of heat, not just from the crowd, but also from the other wrestlers. At one point, Vignal sacrifices a chance at the advantage to go after him on the apron because he had such a great trash talk game. We haven't really seen that so thoroughly in this footage so far. Lasartesse utilizes his size and reach advantage so well, including just leaning on guys or taking them over with his headlock suplex. He has that lead heel way of always fighting back, even when he's getting clowned, which is one of those things you'll see in guys like Ultimo Guerrero that subconsciously gets over their toughness and primacy to the crowd. They have some good double team stuff including a tandem backbreaker and their finishing move of a power body slam followed by a knee drop off the top. Vignal had spent the last few years in Canada and he's older but fiery, with a lot of great striking comebacks and bits of punishment that the crowd gets behind. Drapp's less of a factor ring-time-wise but he has a few good escapes as always. Narratively, there are a couple missed opportunities for limbwork control and hot tags, but no one really cares because it was all so entertaining and heated and they got to see the heels pinballed around and the valet used as a projectile weapon in the end.

Rene Ben Chemoul vs Giuseppe Daidone 3/10/61

MD: At this stage of the footage, it's always good to see wrestlers we're familiar with because it helps reaffirm what we've learned so far and because some of these guys have become favorites already, but that probably pales a little to the chance of seeing some new historical figure for the first time. Daidone, for instance, is a guy we don't know a ton about, but one thing we do know about him is that he lost his beard against Blue Demon in Mexico City in 1955. If you're going to know one thing about a guy, that's a hell of a thing to know. That probably colored how I saw him here a bit. He was a base and a heavy for Ben Chemoul. While he had great looming presence and really laid in knees from a few different directions and was quick to lean on Ben Chemoul or keep him down with repeated hairpulls, he was really there to make his opponent shine. And did Ben Chemoul ever shine here. He got to show off all of his great escapes and takedowns. He'd have these three or four motion set-ups (either a point or a feint or a roll or sometimes the combination of the three). Instead of hairpulls, he'd use facewipes to keep holds. Everything he did was a combination of small leverage set ups and big visual payoffs. Stuff we've seen out of Ben Chemoul before, like his torpedo in the corner, was over the top great here. They used repetition well, either with a rule of three full nelson smash in the corner or to set up the finish by having Daidone crush him with a corner whip only to get reversed on the second and go sailing into the crowd to set up the count out. Stylist vs stylist matches will always be fun but a stylist vs a solid base match is always going to shine up the babyface best.

PAS: Chemoul has such a charm to him, he comes off really likable, and Daidone is a nice foil for that charm. Chemoul actually brings the nasty first with a bunch of sick looking leg scrapes across Daidone's eyes. Daidone wasn't as flashy as some of the heels we have seen before but hat some good looking forearms and stomps and was a good dance partner for Chemoul's fanciness. He also took a big enough bump to the floor that I bought the countout finish, which is to his credit. Chemoul is one of the real high end guys in this footage, and this was a nice addition to his dance card. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Barthel! Aichner! Mark Coffey! WALTER! Mustache Mountain!

Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Trent Seven/Tyler Bate NXT UK 1/13 (Aired 1/30/19) (Ep. #27)

ER: This was great, probably the best UK tag match so far. This was a more successful version of the GYF vs. Mustache tag from TakeOver, with all the fat trimmed out and nothing but action remaining. This is half the time of that tag and really hits the target. The first 2/3 of this felt like a great early 90s WCW tag, with no overly long heat sequence or too long shine. It had quick tags and constant momentum changes, making it feel more like a Brainbusters/Fantastics match, which is a great thing to see in modern wrestling. Barthel is really great at getting into position for offense, and that's important against someone like Bate who goes through a lot of "same moves in the same order" offense. The quick tags by both sides made this match feel more epic than it probably was, as I was shocked it was only a 13 minute run time (felt longer, in a good way). Aichner and Barthel control with cool suplexes and body scissors, both Bate and Seven get runs at wild hot tags (I really liked Seven running wild with a DDT, snapdragon, big lariat, and Bate going wild with a no hands running plancha to the floor), and they did a great job of ramping up the crazy. 

The teamwork from Barthel/Aichner is excellent, and they're smart about using Bate's actual best strength: running into painful offense. My least favorite parts of Bate matches is when everyone has to line up to take his offense in a specific order. I never like when guys selfishly derail things like that. But he has a real gift for taking some stupid bumps and crash landing his body in very unselfish ways. There was an awesome moment here when he went to do his Ray Stevens shoulder spring into the ropes, except he springs directly into a Barthel enziguiri. Bate has a way of committing to these spots that I truly admire. It always surprises me, because when he does his own offense there is always him waiting for guys to make sure they're in proper position; but when the plan is for him to intentionally miss a tope or something he just does that tope the exact same way he would have done it if someone were catching him. So he flies into that top rope and just catches Barthel's boot between the eyes, and it looked so great I was hoping it would be the finish. Bate's willingness to die at some point of a big match always makes it more annoying when he comes back with his planned comeback, but again, Barthel/Aichner are great at taking fast offense (it's not easy to plausibly take that rolling double kappo kick but GYV and these two make it look good). The finishing stretch is hot, and while I wish Barthel and Aichner would have won (Mustache Mountain is already established and I'm really not sure losses would hurt them at this point, the others have far more to gain with a win), this whole thing was great action. 

Mark Coffey vs. WALTER NXT UK 1/13 (Aired 2/6/19) (Ep. #28)

ER: NXT UK is great at delivering on these compact ass kicking matches that get out of there before any of the violence is deemed pointless by repetition. If two guys are beating the hell out of each other, you really only need several minutes of it, as the longer it goes the more redundant the damage becomes. WALTER debuted in ring last week, crushing Jack Starz, and I like how they sent him out the next week against someone much closer to his size. A WALTER squash is plenty fun, but seeing him trade chops and clotheslines with another big guy is much more fun. Coffey does cool things with his control, and I think a lot of his offense hit even harder than WALTER's. Coffey's chops can't come close to matching WALTER's, but his body punches sure as hell hit harder. Coffey also throws hard kicks to WALTER's back, stomps his calf to set up a chinlock, works in and out of a snug back stretch, and a truly great elbow smash to WALTER's jaw. Having a big meaty opponent gives a nice canvas for WALTER's offense, big strikes landing hard across a broad surface. He drops Coffey with a nasty backdrop on the apron, throws loud chops in the corner, hits a nasty running kick, and stretches Coffey over the top rope by jamming his boot underneath Coffey's chin. More chops, uppercuts, clubs to the chest, both guys really dealing, all of it heavy. Match ends a little simply, with a WALTER dropkick and powerbomb. It wrapped things up a little neatly, but I much prefer the match wrapped up neatly in 6 minutes than seeing 10 more minutes of chop exchanges. This is one of the harder hitting NXT UK matches we've gotten so far, here's to more!

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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Another Year With Nothing for Brian Kendrick to Do

Brian Kendrick vs. Che Cabrera WPW 5/29/14 - GREAT

ER: This was weird, as it had some odd wrestling show/strip club emcee doing live over the crowd play by play, so when the bell rang we got "This is going to be a great match, folks. I think we're going to see a lot of technical wrestling here tonight!" in just about the most "Come on let's give this gal a hand." Not long after a woman in the crowd yells out words of support for the "Guatemalan Beast" and Cabrera replies that he's Cuban. That's a bold assumption for a woman to assume Cabrera was Guatemalan. But this match was pretty awesome, in a weird tiny room like those early Revolution Pro shows. Cabrera is a guy who has been on the SoCal indies for quite awhile, but hasn't broken through to bigger indy shows. He's stocky and powerful and a nice guy for Kendrick to play off. Kendrick looked really great here, flying into the ropes off throws, running hard chest first into the buckles, purposely ties himself up with the ref to break a waistlock, all cool stuff. His dropkicks and sliding kicks all landed hard, all of it had snap. Cabrera hit knees on a wayward moonsault, but had a couple pretty big slams down the stretch, really good match up.

Brian Kendrick vs. Seville Alvarez Santino Bros. Wrestling 5/30/14 - GREAT

ER: Unfamiliar with Seville the Thrill before this, but he's a local undersized loudmouth heel, and I will always enjoy small loudmouths in wrestling. He gets into it with the crowd the whole match, including taunting a couple of guys in the front row who are at least 3 times his size. This starts with a lot of really well done juniors wrestling, quick mat exchanges with roll throughs and kickoffs that felt almost lucha maestro style. The strikes really smack loudly in the Santino garage with nice chops from both, hard elbows from Kendrick, and two nice yakuza kicks from Alvarez. What's funny is he threw those kicks the exact same way Kendrick throws his, except those kicks weren't really as much a part of Kendrick's offense then. The body movement is exact, and it's a great looking kick. There's a great moment where Seville throws Kendrick to the floor and then has people move for a dive, then just gets out of the ring and tosses Kendrick back in. It's a spot I enjoy any time I see it, but here it's even better as the guys he made move were those giant aforementioned fans. Seville standing in the middle of two big goons and still talking trash makes me like him even more. Couple disjointed moments down the stretch, but still played out like a nice juniors stretch run, and while Seville may have been the reason for a couple of hitches, he always followed it up with something I liked (like his cocky pin straddling Kendrick while pinning his hands), and the sliced bread is academic. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BRIAN KENDRICK 2014-NOW

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Fujiwara Family: RINGS Astral Step 3rd KAMUI 9/14/91

ER: Last RINGS show we got a cool pre-show video showing all of the combatants warming up in the arena, and this time we get a couple of Maeda trainees (there is a chance they are known guys, but I'm at the age where I am not going to be recognizing every Japanese young boy on sight) doing a demonstration for the crowd on what strikes are allowed under RINGS rules. It's presented like two flight attendants going through the machinations of how to apply your oxygen mask or use your seat as a floatation device, but instead showing how to legally use palm strikes, upward elbow strikes to the cheekbone, and soccer kicks to the haunches. 

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting

PAS: This is a rematch from an earlier show, but was a way more killer version. I got the sense that this was both guys figuring some stuff out. It starts tentative, but gets nasty quick with Nagai trying to behead Renting with a soccer kick. Renting responds with a soccer kick of his own later, and some very cool takedowns. Nagai hits this somersault enzigiri which was the single coolest spot of RINGS so far, before Renting is able to take him down and choke him out. Cool energetic fight that got me more excited about future RINGS undercards. 

ER: Yeah this match was a huge step up from their opening fight from the last show. The highlight of that match was Nagai missing a spinning heel kick that would have rearranged Renting's face, and here Nagai got to hit a version of that kick. Before that awesome kick (a rolling kappo kick that connected with a real hook), this really kicked up to a new level when Renting checked a hard Nagai kick with his bicep, and Renting goes full wartime beast mode and demanded Nagai kick him harder. From there this was intense as hell, with hard fought rope breaks and big swinging knockdown attempts. Renting really made me buy into his psycho kamikaze routine, and Nagai tried to stay measured while being more careful with his hard shots. The finishing stretch of knockdown to rope break to knockdown was really exciting. 

Willie Peeters vs. Bert Kops Jr.

PAS: Peeters continues to be super entertaining, both guys had some really impressive throws, full hips, big tourque high air. That was pretty much the extent of what Kops could do, but they looked cool. He also hit a body shot or two that looked good. Peeters also had some great looking shots, including a cool moment where he gets thrown by Kops but comes up with a slick little uppercut to catch him. Peeters also put him down in convincing and nasty fashion. This was pretty long for a RINGS match and at one point Kops tweaks his knee, I think with a minute or two shaved this is a hidden gem. Even at its length it was entertaining stuff. 

ER: I thought this was exciting as hell, I thought it really turned into a big time movie fight. This was long for the big swings and throws they were taking, and it sustained the craziness for a longer time than most are capable. We had a ton of cool moments, like a GIFable 3 seconds of them going Low Ki/Red when Peeters misses a convincing front spin kick and Kops dodges 2 inches away from a follow up right cross. Kops fights for and gets a bunch of really impressive lifts where he really sticks with them until he wears Peeters to the mat. Kops had some annoyingly persistent strikes, at one point it looked like he kept targeting Peeters' hip with kicks right to the bone. This kept evolving into such a slugfest, and the finish came off insanely violent. Peeters hit Kops with this quick 5 strike combo that looks kung fu deadly. It was like Peeters hit in his 5 pressure points ending with a knee right to the mouth. Peeters even has this great expression on his face afterward, this real "Why did you make me kick your ass like that?" tenderness. If Shawn Michaels was able to pull off Peeters' face, body slumped over the ropes after getting the match finally called in his favor, it would have been way better than I'm Sorry I Love You. 

Dick Vrij vs. Ton Van Maurik

PAS: This goes five three minute rounds, which you know, why? I like both of these guys and you could clip this to a fun 7 minute match. Van Maurik bullies Vrij into the ropes and strafes his body with knees and body shots. There is a fun spot where they fall awkwardly to the floor. Vrij nearly beheads van Maurik with a high kick, which really should have been the finish, but they go another round and a half and end things with a C- armbar. I have liked how RINGS kept it tight and fast on previous shows, this one has started to feel the bloat. 

ER: I really do not like rounds in my RINGS. I think the breaks in between are too long, and I would much rather see my fighters get out of a bad situation with cunning, rather than end things with a clock. I think RINGS matches can really benefit from some short length, and I think a long match like this needed more of a flow and no round breaks. This had a lot of these two doing things I liked, it all just felt too broken up and stretched out. All of the knockdowns looked good, and Vrij showed a kind of tantrum heel here in certain parts, like a frustrated teen athlete who gets frustrated at being shown up and shoves a ref. Phil is right, this could have really been a throw down if the time was cut in half, but this felt like a bad use of two cool personalities. 

Akira Maeda vs. Willy Wilhelm

PAS: This was pretty nifty with Maeda opening by catching a Wilhelm kick and spinning into a big snap german suplex. Wilhelm controls the middle of this, hitting some big judo throws and trying for submissions, including a deep single crab for a big near fall. I liked Wilhelm no-selling the Maeda body kicks by slapping his fat belly like Kamala. The finishing rush by Maeda was super impressive, he hits a cool low kick into a head kick, and a spinning kick which looked as nasty as the one which cut Fujinami, before ankle locking him for the tap. 

ER: I thought this was two really great characters telling a really great story, loved this as a showdown. I've been really getting into Wilhelm as a RINGS heel, he's like a Dutch take on Scott Norton. He's an Olympic judoka working a Crusher iron beer belly gimmick, and it rules. I loved last show when their intro video showed all the fighters warming up and sparring, it only showed Wilhelm sitting in the crowd with this arms crossed over his belly, talking about how he's going to beat everyone. He's cocky and kind of a wrecking ball, and Maeda is this cool stoic figure who had the right strategy and stuck to the plan. Viewing these '91 episodes of RINGS as a season, I really like the Maeda bad left knee as a returning theme. We've seen promos every show where he's getting his knee iced or rubbed down or taped up, and now I can't take my eyes of Maeda's left knee in matches. 

Wilhelm makes a big show of being too large to absorb Maeda's strikes, trying psych out Maeda by requesting Maeda target his stomach, and Maeda sticks to the plan and keeps hacking down that tree. Wilhelm was smothering early, walking through strikes to hit nice judo throws, working (the right) knee over with a great single crab. Is he targeting Maeda's better knee because Maeda is really hurt? Or was it just the leg he happened to grab? But it keeps getting harder to walk through the strikes, because Maeda was not psyched out. And soon Wilhelm isn't walking through strikes, he's absorbing strikes. I love how Wilhelm begins to realize what he's done, you can see these leg kicks really affecting him, and Maeda is able to land an insane German suplex that absolutely dumps Wilhelm. He starts landing harder kicks as Wilhelm is becoming a slower and open target, and nails him right in the thigh with a hard kick and sneaking in his surprise left high kick. The final submission was a terrific shot, Wilhelm trapped in Maeda's leg lock and stretching out as long as possible, still not near the ropes. This was some great RINGS storytelling in an awesome match. 

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