Otto Wanz Upload Challenge 3: Slaughter

Otto Wanz vs. Bob Slaughter CWA 12/18/82

MD: This dropped a few months ago but I'd been hesitant to watch a 54 minute video. This initiative got me over that hump. The match is closer to 45 with round breaks as well. That said, any match that goes long has to justify the time. What can be accomplished in 40 minutes that can't be in 20? Is it just to make it seem more impressive/epic, to give the fans more value? There's a huge celebration at the end of this so I think that's part of it, that this was the culmination of something bigger, being a tournament or whatever. The narrative of the match itself didn't entirely make it work. There were repeated themes, such as Slaughter taking advantage out of the corner and beating Wanz around the ring, or Wanz damaging Slaughter's leg or back and keeping control that way, more than a general sense of build and escalation. There was an excellent fifteen to twenty minute match in the start which would have ended with Wanz, who had been beaten around the ringside area, no selling a few jabs and coming back, and some exceptional bumping and limb selling from Slaughter later on, but I'm not sure it ever came together to be more than the sum of the rounds. Wanz took too much of the back half too as Slaughter's control segments seemed to be shorter and shorter. The fans were happy with this and Slaughter kept it interesting from underneath with his bumping, stooging, and selling, but that doesn't make for the most compelling story. I did like the finish, as Slaughter's back ended up damaged and he got caught on a dropkick and turned into a crab. This has given me hope for the shorter 83 match at least. 

Otto Wanz vs. Bob Slaughter CWA 7/9/83

MD: Great slugfest, almost a sprint really. This had no rounds for some reason and had an ebb and flow to it but they went at it hard right from the get go. Lots of brawling on the floor, with Slaughter taking at least half of it and Wanz bleeding big. There was an air of inevitability in the back half as Otto hit some big clotheslines and Slaughter bumped out, to the point I thought it might end on a clothesline, but they brought it back in for a pretty good finishing stretch. I'd say it escaped the Wanz formula we've seen so far and stands better as its own entity than almost all the other matches. It might not feel as important as the longer match but it's easier to swallow and probably more enjoyable.

ER: I thought this was pretty incredible. A big powerful match with an Austrian crowd that kept roaring like a thunderstorm. Watching this made me feel that Otto Wanz must have been the biggest pro wrestling star in the world. Few wrestlers in history have played to reactions like this one, and that's something that moves me. Slaughter is a big guy, and he flies around this filled Graz arena in a way that makes Wanz come off like a real superhero, while making sure to take plenty of opportunities to punch Wanz right in the head. They start with some long lockups, all building to Slaughter taking bigger and bigger bumps as he's propelled away from Wanz, including an absurdly high backdrop bump. Slaughter begins to avoid Wanz, collecting himself on the floor and breaking counts in the teens, and this just makes the crowd swell louder with joy every time Wanz sends Slaughter pinballing into the ropes and onto the floor. Slaughter finally punches his way to control, sends a couple of short headlock punches into Wanz's head to finally slow him down, punches him in the ropes and chokes him over the ropes, using his large weight against him. Slaughter grounds Wanz with a nice side headlock, and the roar when Wanz started to power up out of it and finally turned it into a hammerlock was like sweet ambient noise washing over. 

We build to some great brawling on the floor with Slaughter throwing Wanz hard into the ringside barricade a couple times, throwing him into the ringpost, and throwing more and more hard punches at his head. Wanz gets busted open and it all makes the crowd wilder still for him. This was worked like a Texas Death Match, with both men having to answer a count every time they were knocked down, and the home stretch is this great drawn out back and forth with both men getting closer and closer to being down for the count, with a long run of Slaughter barely hanging on. Wanz hits his rolling cannonball and big clothesline, Slaughter punches back and hits a heavy ass bodyslam, and it all comes off very dramatic and important. I really thought this whole thing was tremendous, feels like it should become one of those matches with a legendary crowd reaction, deservedly so. 

MD: I think that covers most of the recent uploads. I can see myself coming back for some of the greatest hits (Andre, Funk, Murdoch, Bock, Vader) at some point now that I have a very clear baseline. And hey, if there's anything specific anyone ever wants me to look at, just leave a comment. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Israel! Corne! Duranton! LeDuc! Black Diamonds! Cesca! Rene Ben!

Ischa Israel vs. Jean Corne 1/15/65

PAS: We have seen these two guy as a tag team before, and this was a pretty spectacular friendly match. Just two very skilled guys working at a fast intricate pace. It was an exhibition, there was never really a sense of escalation or narrative, but it was a really cool exhibition. It felt a lot like a faster version of a lucha maestros match, or a WOS match with out a heel. This was a really fast match, even when they slowed it down with a long knuckle lock section, they were constantly doing stuff, dropping down, beeling, trying to counter. Really nifty stuff. 

MD: Hell of a match. It only went 15 and didn't wear out its welcome, with a lot of the trappings you'd want at a speed that we've rarely seen in the chronological footage so far. There isn't a huge difference between the heavyweight and the middleweight footage we've seen so far. It's just that the middleweight stuff goes faster with a bit more rope running. Here there was another wrinkle, one that we probably wouldn't have noticed so well if we had cherry picked this match, an evolution of spot where they invert the expectations of what we've seen already. Corne will do the up and over to try to get out of an armbar or top wristlock, but instead of it working or Israel jamming him, he goes all the way over but the hold's maintained. Only on the third try when he makes it into a headscissors takeover, does it work. It was the same thing with the extended bodyscissors spot that they worked out of. We've seen some real elaboration before they reenter it, but this match had the most. A flip side to that is how commonplace some of the roll up exchanges were. There was one point mid-match where Israel caught Corne on a 'rana and turned it into a powerbomb that I knew he was going to bridge up and 'rana out. We've hit the point where that feels more novel than natural. Anyway, this had a bit of everything, with Corne taking more of an aggressor's role and Israel containing him more. There were some absolutely brilliant escapes, like Corne getting both Israel and the ref to look one way so he could sneak out the other, and Israel throwing some boots while in a short leg scissors that made Corne commit to blocking, which allowed Israel to sneak a short leg-scissors of his own on, forcing the break. It wasn't quite as smooth as the best of the stuff we'll see a few years down the line, but them just barely hitting some of it only made it feel all the more organic. Just good stuff all around with an exciting finish.

SR: 1 fall match going about 18 minutes. This was compared to Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey, and it felt like a good gateway match to the French style. It also felt extremely British, more so than the stylist matches we've seen so far. Of course these guys work super fast and with a real snap to even things like spinning out of an armlock. I really liked the bodyscissor sequence they did where the guy followed his advantage by following up with a bearhug. It builds very well to an exciting little ending run that has one guy taking a big bump to the outside and some great looking rope running. There was also an obscenely beautiful backslide. I thought the match wasn't as intense as previous classics we've seen, but that is a high high bar.

Robert Duranton vs. Gilbert LeDuc 1/15/65

MD: I don't thinks this really worked. Some of that was because it had to follow Israel vs Corne, but a big chunk was on Duranton. Occasionally, they'd run a big spot or sequence that was really good, like a highly kinetic series of hanging on to a Duranton chinlock over multiple escape attempts, but more often than not, he was pretty sluggish in there. He was always a body guy sort of heel and aping the Gorgeous George act was good for him, but given his natural deficiencies, he should have leaned even more into the act. He got heat. There was a great moment where some trash was making it into the ring and he picked up a piece and tossed it at LeDuc. I don't know if we're still hanging on to the 50s when he came up, but he tried to wrestle too much, when really, the crowd would have been happier with LeDuc doing the headstand escape out of a few holds and then pummeling Duranton. At one point, it was pretty obvious Duranton was just sucking wind in a hold which you never see in this footage. The valet was a great prop, but ill-used here as well, hanging out on the apron for no reason, interfering when he should have hung back and hanging back when he should have been interfering.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minute. Duranton is full on the goonish bodybuilder he was in that one Louis de Funes movie here. He still hard Firmin with him. This was very similiar to Duranton/Carpentier from a while back. Meaning it was good, but it stuck to Durantons formula. That means some hold for hold wrestling, then some tantrums and short kicks, and finally Firmin getting involved. Firmin angered the folks in attendance so much someone threw a chair at him (and it was a big wooden chair), and the ref had to calm things down by throwing Firmin over the rope in a funny spot. The match felt like a very good TV bout. Maybe it's due to Durantons experience from his US work, but it seemed everything lead to another in a very organic way. And Leduc is not the most charismatic guy in this kind of spectacle match, but he is really good at doing his thing.

PAS: I thought this was kind of the French Catch version of a solid but forgettable WCW Thunder match. We got to see Duranton strut and preen, got to see the master of the headspin do a couple of headspins, some shtick with the valet, and they took it home. It's like looking back at a match list and going "Chris Adams versus Super Calo? I wonder how that is" and the answer is "It was OK".

Abe Ginsberg/John Foley vs. Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca 2/28/65

MD: The blog covered this one years ago but seeing it in context makes a huge difference. This felt like the next evolution in French tag team wrestling. The Black Diamonds had a similar look, with beards and dark tights, would control in the corner, would switch when the ref was distracted, would do exchanges where they switched off by doubling up submissions in order to keep control on tags. The match would build towards them doing some sort of fairly elaborate double team, only for it to fail the second time and Ben Chemoul and Cesca to do their own version of it to the crowd's delight. My favorite of this was a double cross choke, but the tandem set up for a victory roll that finished both the second and third falls were the most impressive. Cesca was great as always but there's something transcendent about Ben Chemoul. He has an extra spring to how he moves, this almost elastic charisma where the laws of physics bend just a little as he winds up and recoils. Anyway, if they could just work out how to really make hot tags happen, they'd have something, but I feel like this successfully refined the frequent heat-and-revenge structure we saw in those Hayes and Hunter tags, for instance, and made it all just a little more focused.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 35 minutes. I was delighted to see Abe Ginsburg, a guy who had a sole appearance in one of my favourite WoS bouts, show up in a long French tag. This was quite the tour de force from the Black Diamonds. They had lots of heel shtick, double teams, cut off spots. Lots of original stuff, some amusing, like the weird 2 on 1 hanging move they did, some a bit odd, like how one guy kept falling off the top rope. I liked them most when they laid violent punches and forearms on their opponents and worked wringing holds. Chemoul and Cesca are slick as always here. Chemoul threw some great punch combos. Finish was downright ridiculous. Good match overall.

PAS: I think I liked this more on a second look then reading my review years ago. Just head over heels for the Black Diamonds, what a pair of classic asskicker heels. Constantly cutting off the ring with cool violent double teams, including a sitting tapitia where the partner unloads with uppercuts. Serious something To Infinity and Beyond should steal, their double cross armed choke was really cool too. When it came time to bump and put over the faces they were great too, both guys too some of the best monkey flip bumps I can remember seeing from our boy Rene Ben. Loved the finish with the victory roll which ended the second fall, getting countered with a doomsday device style dropkick. I had this as a GREAT match when I first reviewed it, but would happily bump it up to an EPIC now.

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 1

8. Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Akira

PAS: One of the longer Hoodfoot UWFI matches I have seen and one where he sold a lot. Akira took most of the match, including landing a couple of big knockdowns, one with a stiff liver kick and one with a flurry ending in a running knee. Akira is good at bringing an appropriate amount of stiffness to his shots, and I bought him taking a lot of this match even though he was smaller. Finish was a classic Hoodfoot finish, with Akira rushing in and getting obliterated with that looping right hand. It felt like King Kong swatting a plane out of the sky.

ER: I expected this to be a kind of Hoodfoot steamrolling, but what we got was much more special than that likely would have been. Atlas is great at steamrolling guys, but he's perhaps even better at showing believable vulnerability. The mat scrambling looked really good, and Atlas is strong at little mat details the whole match, like grabbing Akira by the meat of the calf on the ground, or holding down Akira's elbow late in the match while in a triangle. Akira's striking looked like it was legitimately taking Atlas apart, and I exclaimed out loud to nobody when the liver kick knockdown happened. I went from expecting Hoodfoot in a walk, to not expecting Hoodfoot to get up from that kick. Akira rocks Atlas with a back elbow, goes back to that kick in the corner (Atlas is so good at using the ropes to save him from a knockdown, I've seen him rely on them in cool ways a few different times now, great way of integrating the ring into his matches), and drops him again with an awesome running knee. You knew Atlas was going to throw big hands, and all of them looked predictably great, loved him going for heavy kneelifts, and I can't believe Akira got up after that right hand sandwiched between two Saito suplexes. I'm glad he did, and I love how the wrapped it up instead. Great stuff through and through, so much better than the match I thought I wanted.

Robert Martyr vs. Nick King

PAS: I though this was good stuff. King is listed as having a folkstyle and judo background and there was a lot of mat scrambling at the start including King throwing a really seamless fireman's carry, and a nice snap german. Martyr actually uses the ref to block King's view, stomps down on the ankle and hits a big german of his own, before he gets a chicken wing for the tap. Lots of energy in the early mat work, and I would be into seeing King again.

ER: Great bang for your buck, under 3 minutes and all of it great. This was my first time seeing King, and Paradigm is really making me think they have a bottomless supply of interesting new guys at their disposal. King was really gluey on the mat, looked like he hardly let go of Martyr's left ankle and kept rolling and pivoting into new holds from that ankle control. His fireman's carry alone was great enough that I think I was counting myself a Nick King Fan one minute in. Martyr stomping King's ankle while the ref was clearly obstructing King's view is a real dickhead twerp move, and commentary was super sharp to point out how Martyr would likely get a point docked for that but gained a point and damage from following it up with a German. The chickenwing was a surprise quick finish, but a good one, and King was great at looking like a guy who got caught in a chickenwing. 

Isiah Broner vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: Felt like they were writing Flash out of the territory here. Both these guys have boxing backgrounds, so I enjoyed the timing and movement. Broner is able to shoot in and grab a quick double leg and clean out Thompson quick with ground and pound. They do a post match angle with Bobby Beverly turning extra heel by turning on his heel group and joining another heel group. I like this sub-promotion a lot, but all of the angles that aren't just one guy calling out another have been misses. 

ER: This was mostly angle, which is fine, but the execution was muddy and the implications were unclear. I'm not bothered by the 1 minute fight, even if the stand-up slapping thrills me less than any other options open to guys under these rules. But I did like Flash's selling on the shot that made his legs wobble, and thought Broner dragging Flash to the mat with a papoose takedown kicked ass. But you have Broner getting a stoppage in a minute, then Flash beating Broner down after, then Beverly cheapshotting Flash, which leaves Broner slumped there waiting for an angle to play out, his quick finish already in the rearview. I think filming something separately with Beverly and Flash could have played better, as a big Broner win should have been played up as a bigger thing than a Bobby Beverly stable change. 

Austin Connelly vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: I have compared Connelly to a shoot style Buzz Sawyer before, and he has really leaned into it with a chain and barking, which is great. Like always, Connelly is a missile aimed right at his opponent, constantly moving forward throwing reckless forearms. He run rights into a forearm by Blade which busts his mouth, and they are moving with such speed and wildness that it doesn't seem possible to control the force of blows. Blade grabs the ankle and really cranks it until the ref has to stop the fight. I am into both of these fighters, Connelly especially is one of my favorite wrestlers in the world to watch right now.

ER: My god Austin Connelly rules. There have been a ton of standout moments and standout wrestlers on these Paradigm UWFI shows, so it's high praise to say he might be my favorite. I like Phil's Shootstyle Buzz Sawyer description, and while I harp on other guys not really adhering to UWFI style, I hypocritically love how UWFI rules cannot contain Connelly as he rushes headlong into kill or be killed. These two were throwing elbows straight at mouths and not pulling things, and we got a great visual of Connelly yelling through a mouth filled with blood while trying to break an ankle lock. Blade hung in with the mad man and weathered the storm, fighting for that ankle lock even while Connelly was pounding on her knee to get her to break. I would have liked another minute or two of this, but also love experiencing the joy of Connelly in these starbursts. 

PAS: Filthy Tom Lawlor comes out and introduces Matt Makowski as the newest member of Team Filthy, which is awesome. Love Makowski, and I am excited to see what he does in this format. They do another angle that sets up Makowski vs. Hoodfoot which is of course great, but there is some stuff with Bobby Beverly and Lexus Montez which wasn't great and ended up with some shoving, and the angles continue to leave me cold. Makowski vs. Hoodfoot should rule though.

ER: Getting more guys than necessary out there to do some shoving was really not necessary, as the purpose of the Lawlor segment should have only been to build excitement for Makowski/Hoodfoot. That match is something to be excited about, and I left the segment excited for it, but everything else distracted from that excitement. 

Derek Neal vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This didn't work for me, the striking had a real Lisa Simpson windmill feeling, and there were some New Japan forearms and even a knife edge chop. It had some nice energy and Neal threw a good clothesline, but it felt out of the style and too many thing didn't land but got sold anyway.

ER: This didn't bother me as badly as it did Phil, but you know when Phil breaks out the Lisa Simpson reference that he is getting ready to really hate something. I don't know what part of the match those punches are referring to, as it's a tough criticism to levy towards a match with no closed fists allowed. When you're only allowed slaps (technically), you are going to be walking that fine line between hard strikes and "kids having a slap fight with 90% of them missing". And from the looks of this match, they landed in that unfortunate valley of strikes that likely really hurt, without actually looking good. That's a shame, because you could see how hard Neal was laying things in with his clubbing shots to Jay's back, and I liked the big powerbomb Neal used to start the match. He has 60 pounds on Jay, hell yes he should Sapp him up into a powerbomb. That kind of stuff worked for me, and I also liked how Neal kept getting solid knockdowns for the first minute: That powerbomb, a kind of waterwheel suplex, a couple of strikes, good way to keep Jay down early. But by the time they started in with bad looking chops and some real bad looking Jay roaring elbows, I was ready for it to be over. I'm sure it's possible to hit a cool roaring elbow that would fit right into the vibe of a Paradigm match, but these elbows wouldn't have looked good in any setting. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Matt Justice

PAS: This was really cool, and a great main event for a season premier. Garrini had only lost once in this style, to Hoodfoot, and Justice had been a guy working primarily superfights against UFC guys. Garrini controlled early with grappling, although Justice showed some skill there including a great gator roll and some really nasty elbows to the side of the head. We get a camera close up of the shots and they were brutal. They get back to their feet and Garrini shoots right into a KO knee. Felt like it was building to something bigger before being suddenly finished, and I liked how it really felt out of nowhere.

ER: Really impressed with both guys here, but it's hard to not be more impressed with Justice. Justice went for a single leg to start and really took a grappling match right to Dom, an ambitious strategy against a world class grappler with a notable gas tank. Dom is really good at being calm and cool on the mat, using his low gravity to put a lot of weight on Justice, to tire Justice out. Justice decides to break this by throwing two brutal back elbows at Garrini's head and face, another that scraped hard across Dom's face, and then rained down with a few more after shifting positions. On a weekly show filled with stiff strikes, these elbows were among the heaviest blows we've seen. The finish was so so, as Dom gets his hands way out in front of the knee that leads right to the finish. I obviously can't really blame anyone for not diving face first into a KO knee, but still a match finishing knee needs to look like a knee that will lead to a finish. Still, I love these guys, and would love to see this run back. 

ER: You could make the case that this episode was the best episode of the UWFI rules series so far, with nearly all of the matches delivering at minimum something memorable. We added Hoodfoot/Akira to our 2021 Ongoing MOTY List. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing MOTY List: Panther vs. Satanico

58. Satanico vs. Blue Panther Cara Lucha 7/25

ER: This is the kind of lucha match I will always seek out, working a style of lucha that I'm constantly afraid will wash away for good. I just love how these two move, love watching their dance. Give them 15 minutes, I'm good. I would be fine with these two just going through the motions as their lucha muscle memory alone is a treat. But this match is a little more than just their muscle memory. Panther really needles into Satanico in a few great moments, the best being Panther fighting for a drop toe hold and Satanico fighting to not go down, so Panther starts elbowing the back of Satanico's knee to get him to go down, then starts kicking at the back of his knees. Satanico showed his wonderful wily side, my favorite being a sequence with Panther coming off the ropes and Satanico setting out to kick him, but faking the kick to sucker Panther into a grapple, which Panther turns into a nice abdominal stretch. There's no bad blood or even strikes in this match, just a fine masterclass in lucha leg drags and old man grace. There aren't many things in wrestling I love more. 

PAS: I started writing this review five years ago, and stopped for some reason. Interesting to rewatch this with 2021 eyes, as it really was the end of an era. Six years later this generation of maestros has passed out of real relevance. Satanico is 71 now, insane he was performing at this level into his 60s, Panther is 60 now, was a spry 55 during this match. They could still really go in 2015, and there were a bunch of nifty little tricks. Loved Panther ripping down on the arm and Satanico finding little ways to free himself. Satanico isn't as intricate but is still really smooth with all of his movement, like watching lake period Baryshnikov: He isn't going to jump as high, but will still awe you with his movement.

2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Drew Gulak Will Stare Straight Into Nothing

Drew Gulak vs. Angel Garza WWE Raw 12/22/20 - FUN

ER: Having a match like this go 2 minutes is never not going to be Total Bullshit. If you watch the Gulak/Cesaro match from WrestleMania, you can see what kind of genuinely special match Gulak is capable of putting together with just 4 minutes, but 2 minutes? When a match doesn't go as long as the ring intros, several different people running a multi million dollar TV show fucked up several segment time allocations. What's even more cruel, is that this was the first time these two have ever been matched up, and it's very clear from these 2 minutes that their chemistry is real. We get a great gag to start, with Garza throwing his just removed pants into Gulak's face while attacking him, setting an aggressive pace that I'm glad they worked for the 2 measly minutes they were allowed. I liked the struggle they showed during the 2 minutes, nothing ever looked like part of a sequence, everything they did looked like some kind of fight was behind it. Gulak muscling up Garza with a backbreaker, all the forearms and punches and shots to ribs, and Gulak jamming his elbow into Garza's thigh to reverse an abdominal stretch (only Gulak can make an abdominal stretch look like a finisher worthy sub in 2020, even digging his fist into that soft portion of Garza's side underneath the ribs). This was an awesome scrap, and the way they tangled and threw off balance could have turned into something really special with just a couple more minutes, but the finish we got was way too premature. 

Drew Gulak vs. AJ Styles WWE Raw 1/11/21 - FUN

ER: Disappointing 3 minute match that could have been much more worthwhile with another minute or two and some better time management. There was a frustrating amount of time dedicated to a set up shot of Gulak starting at the size of Styles' bodyguard's foot, and an unsatisfying battle up top over a superplex that didn't really go anywhere but ate up significant match time. When they stuck to grounded interactions it was great, loved how Styles started things with his nice dropkick and kicked Gulak right in the chest upon landing. Gulak falls really well for Styles, and gets to hit a cool unexpected tiger driver and this awesome bridging fallaway slam, also takes a big bump over the top to the floor. But this was about as low end as you can get for a match between Gulak and Styles, mostly due to time. 

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo WWE Main Event 1/18 (Aired 1/21/21) - GREAT

ER: Now here's a cool match, and one of the strongest Carrillo performances I've seen in at least a couple months. Gulak is obviously going to be a great opponent for a flyer, but Carrillo's flash landed a lot better here than it can. They start with some fun matwork, with Gulak working an American lucha maestro style that Carrillo can roll with nicely. But I loved how the matwork and bridging wasn't really getting Gulak anywhere, so at some point he just says Fuck It and starts bending at Carrillo's arm. Gulak is great at taking Carrillo's armdrags and leaning face first into his spinning kicks, and the whole match is him getting sick of taking that flippy trickery and just slugging Carrillo in the stomach or throat, or planting him with a kneeling bodyslam or driving a knee into his torso. We get an Actually Good strike exchange that built nicely. There was no trading, nothing that looked like a prepped combo, just Gulak getting in a shot before being thrown off balance by a kick, giving Carrillo a chance to throw another kick while Gulak tried to fire back off balance. It looked great. Carrillo hits one of the smoothest version of his handspring armdrag, Gulak goes purple trying to snap Carrillo's arm and making it look like Carrillo is fighting for his damn limb. It's a lovely yin/yang. Carrillo's springboard spinning kick saw Gulak leap to take it in the face as if he was heading a soccer ball, looked fantastic, and the moonsault finish was academic. Give me 8 minute Gulak matches on a C show against weird Main Event opponents (Tucker? Slapjack? Riddick Moss?) and let's see how much cool shit he can pull off. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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New Footage Friday: ROCK N ROLLS! MX! DANDY! PSICOSIS! REY JR.! PANTHER! SUPER CALO!

Rock and Roll Express vs. Midnight Express NWA 9/7/86

MD: Pretty rare RnR vs MX match from WCW Sunday Edition featuring Dusty on commentary with Tony. It was what you'd want, flashy opening stuff that didn't at all wear out its welcome and a couple of heat segments with all of the roll-up hope spots you usually get from the RnR. Everyone looked great but Eaton looked like one of the best in the world, feeding big, hitting huge offense (the Alabama Jam here was used to cement the first bit of heat and really give the Express control, for instance), and doing tiny things like taking out a leg with a small kick to stop a block on a suplex. There were a couple of cuts due to commercial breaks but they didn't mess up the flow. We saw the transitions clearly, including them using the replay to take us back after a break. The finish was wonky with Dusty literally causing the MX pin to be reversed, but the post match with him sacrificing himself to a Bubba splash was good pro wrestling. It made me want to see a six man at least.

ER: Outside of the finish, I thought this was great, and a real strong Loverboy Dennis showcase. Everyone was part of this showcase, though, Dennis just had a performance that made him look like one of the toughest men in wrestling. A big chunk of this was MX taking apart Robert's leg in real sicko ways, and even though it didn't actually lead to anything, it was work I loved to watch. Condrey has a ton of fascinating work out of half nelsons and 3/4 grapevines, so good that I want to see the entire alternate timeline of Condrey working shootstyle in Japan once his stateside gigs dried up. Condrey's Alabama U Style, where are you? He really knows how to tie up Ricky and Robert on the mat, and the pins he forced them into with his leg grapevines looked impossible to escape. And when he wasn't tying up their legs to work headlocks and pinfalls, he was dropping his knees into Robert's thigh, into his shin, violently twisting his ankle, and then handing it off to that savage Beautiful Bobby! At one point Bobby is hyperextending Robert's entire leg over the edge of the ring apron. Robert is on his stomach, and Bobby is slamming the front of Robert's femur into the apron, then pressing and forcing his leg down over that edge, truly disgusting legwork. Cornette adds one of his all time great racket shots to the match, flying in from offscreen with the handle of the racket aimed straight at the jugular. HHH always looked like a dweeb for using the handle of a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice, but Cornette really looks like the master of making a short handle look like a deadly weapon. Hell, in the post match melee, Cornette even shoulderblocks Ricky Morton through the ropes to the floor, like a man tripping another man into a fountain display. Rock n Rolls looked great and matched strikes with the fierce strikes of MX, and even with the actually stupid Dusty finish, this whole thing was classic stuff. 

El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzales CMLL 8/26/95

MD: A lost Dandy title match. Interesting primera here. Gonazlez controlled with fairly simple armbars, with Dandy working from underneath with a few hope spots, only to get cut off and contained with the arm again. I don't know if they didn't trust Gonazlez to do more complex matwork or not but it still worked because Dandy was working so hard to sell everything. I know on paper, that doesn't sound like much, but you don't often see a primera in a title match worked like this and I'm not sure there are many guys who could have done it quite like Dandy, so it stood out. The segunda was quick with a short bit of revenge with Dandy working over the leg and then a beautiful Northern Lights Suplex. The tercera had some back and forth and chicanery but eventually settled down to them returning to what worked in the primera, Gonzalez working a bodypart (the leg) and Dandy selling. They rolled out of the ring on a figure four and both got counted out and it ended up pretty anti-climactic. If this was building to an apuestas match, it would have worked but it seems like this was the end of the program. Still, a good look at just how great Dandy was at selling.

PAS: A new Dandy title match on paper is really exciting, this was a miss though. Gonzales is a guy who got pretty great in Puerto Rico later in his career, but he looked way out of his depth here. There was one of the worst clotheslines I have ever seen and Dandy really had to dumb it down for him on the mat. His little heel struts and stuff looked bush league too, just a zero of a performance. Dandy had a nice moment or two, his selling of the leg in the tercera was cool, and I like the figure four roll to the floor spot, but you are hoping for a missing gem when this passes by your youtube feed and this wasn't that.

ER: I had no idea Gonzalez ever showed up in CMLL, even though just a few years after this he became the reason I started trading for Puerto Rico tapes. The Ray Gonzalez I traded tapes for was not the Ray Gonzalez here, and many of the flaws in this match look like they could be blamed on miscommunication. I think Phil tuned out early on once Gonzalez hit that flying "clothesline" but considering Gonzalez follows it up with a crossbody block using the exact same form he used for that "clothesline", I assume it was just a spot that wasn't supposed to happen. It's amazing how much poise Ray had just a few years later, that was mostly absent here. It was a mistake to work this as Gonzalez trying to fit into Dandy's lucha setting, as while he had a nice missile dropkick and a couple decent bumps to the floor, he couldn't facilitate the level or speed of work Dandy was capable of. The most interesting this got for me was the beginning of segunda, where we got a glimpse of what could have made for an excellent title match. Ray got rudo heat during the break between falls, and knew it. The fans were rejecting him and it looked like he was going to really run with that, approaching Dandy with an extended right hand, left arm tucked behind his back, and a telegraphed double cross kick getting caught. Bringing some Puerto Rico rudo bullshit into the elegance of a skilled tecnico lucha title defense would have made for a great style clash, like a southern US heel just punching his way through a match opposite Blue Panther. But almost right after that Gonzalez falls back into line, and the rest of the match is worked like the boring end of the Flair vs. Terry Taylor spectrum. Dandy really did a lot to try to make this work, but it's hard to deny that Dandy could have likely had a better singles match with any wrestler on the CMLL roster. Let's all just go back a few days and remember how cool "El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzalez" looked on paper. 

Misterioso/Rey Mysterio Jr./Súper Caló/Volador vs. Blue Panther/Heavy Metal/Piromaniaco/Psicosis AAA 8/11/95 - FUN

MD: Not your average atomicos. You had Rey as captain, Signo as Piromaniaco, maskless Volador, and Calo in hatless, sleeves-only shirt, dancing glory. The story was Rey vs Psicosis, first delaying it and then paying it off. As they cycled through the pairings in the primera, Panther made sure to intervene and rob the fans of that first Rey vs Psicosis exchange. After a mini-beatdown, Rey would mount a comeback and allow the tecnicos to take the primera. The bigger beatdown came in the segunda, and watching Heavy Metal toss Rey around made me really want a 95 singles match with them. In the tercera, Rey came back again and we finally got a killer little Rey vs Psicosis exchange with a spectacular finish. Piromaniaco looked good using his size to bully tecnicos and eat their stuff, but the gimmick had no legs. Panther didn't do a lot but everything he did (the aforementioned cut off, choking Misterioso with part of the ring, ripping up what I choose to believe to be an anti-Tirantes sign, stooging with Psicosis on miscommunication spots) was very good. At times this was fast and loose and all over the place. The camera work missed half the dives. It's really hard to go wrong with cleverly building a match around Rey vs Psicosis though.

PAS: I thought this was mostly pretty forgettable outside of the Rey vs. Psicosis stuff which was incredible. I kind of enjoyed Signo adding some 80s style bumping and brawling to more 90s style lucha, but it didn't really lead to any exciting moments or anything. Psicosis taking the segunda caida with a brutal top rope guillotine was great though. The tercera exchanges between Psicosis and Rey were the highlight. Rey at this point was as elusive and fast as anyone ever, Psicosis was his perfect dance partner, and the finish top rope spiked spinning DDT was awesome. Is that a move they only broke out once, or is there a WCW Pro match which ends in it too?

ER: I was really excited for this one just to see Signo as Piromaniaco - a hood I've never seen him under and one with next to no footage of - and he did not disappoint. In fact, most of the guys in this didn't disappoint, but none of this really turned into anything that felt like a full match. Things were a little disorganized and a lot of the threads got abandoned, but there were plenty of individual moments to make this an easy, fun watch. Obviously, with these names there are going to be some moments. Heavy Metal worked fast and a little reckless, lead to a few moments of clear miscommunication and awkward repeat spots with Super Calo, but when Heavy Metal ran into someone with that speed it looked great. Volador had this fantastic huge hair, like Stefanie Powers in Hart to Hart, and based on the crowd reaction we missed a big late match plancha and bump off the top from him (This is AAA, my friend). I liked Piromaniaco working like El Brazo was great, using his status as stockiest man in the match to absolutely run over Rey a couple of times. He even no sold a Rey missile dropkick by acting like a cartoon kissed him, then did a silly dance. We got a decent dive train with Calo hitting a high quebrada crossbody and Misterioso getting out quickly, and of course all the Rey/Psicosis moments were what you'd want. The tornado DDT with Psicosis on the middle and Rey swinging from the top was wild, with such a high starting point it landed them past the middle of the ring! 

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WWE 305: Moondog Spot!! Cousin Junior!! Big Show!

Moondog Spot vs. Cousin Junior WWF 11/10/85 - EPIC

ER: This kicked so much ass. I loved this match. They built to big spots well and Moondog had a real great carry job, working a match around Cousin Junior's surprising bursts of speed, his good bumping, and his 2 or 3 cool highspots. Moondog would fill in the downtime with great cutoffs, and I'm not just talking about his jeans. Gorilla and Jesse turned in an excellent commentary performance, going on some genuinely laugh out loud tangents, like Gorilla laughing about Pigeon Forge, TN while Jesse is telling him that Gorilla's career isn't as impressive as he thought it was, since Gorilla had never main evented a show in Pigeon Forge. Later they go on about what cut of meat Moondog's bone came from, with Gorilla detailing just how long it's taken Spot to get the bone as clean as it is, picking off all the meat scraps. It's genuinely great material. 

Moondog was really great at letting all of Junior's spots shine, like his cool mule kick or heavy crossbody, and they kept working fast impressive rope running with nice dropdowns and leapfrogs. Moondog cuts off a bunch of Junior's charges with knees to the gut or great punches. Spot throws a headlock punch with a fist shakeout afterward that made me want to write up every Larry Latham match I have access to. He hits two cool as hell fistdrops off the middle rope and throws Junior into a hard bump on the entrance ramp (where a Maple Leaf Gardens security guard literally tickles Junior's feet???). The match also has an unexpectedly cool finish, with Moondog catching Junior and about to hit a big powerslam, but Junior rolls through the slam with a really nice cradle! Everything about this was a real gem: Great Moondog performance, super spirited Cousin Junior performance, and some classic Ventura/Monsoon commentary. 

Big Show vs. Mark Henry WWE Raw 6/29/15 - SKIPPABLE

ER: This must have been during a period where they needed to make Big Show look strong again, so they did that thing where he beats someone really big really quick. Like, we need to make Big Show a main event title threat again, have him beat Mark Henry in under 90 seconds! And it was kind of like Henry was being directed to not go as hard on Show as Show went on Henry, so that Show looked more dominant. Henry held up a bit on his standing splash and wasn't throwing his punches as snug as Show was throwing his. If I was there live for this match, I would have been losing my shit knowing I was getting a Show/Henry singles match. And then I would have been livid seeing Henry downed by a KO punch in under 90 seconds. In 2009 I went to a Raw taping in Oakland that was supposed to have Mark Henry vs. Shawn Michaels. I was not a fan of Michaels by 2009, but Henry/Michaels is a singles match that only happened once before, and I think a 2009 singles match between them would have been really good. The match ended by DQ 1 minute in and I drove home pissed (the rest of the show was not great either).

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWE 305 LIVE

 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Kingston vs. Coyle

Eddie Kingston vs. Rory Coyle North Wrestling 2/1

PAS: This was part of Eddie's UK tour, which was his last run as an indy wrestler before signing with AEW. Coyle is kind of a Newcastle Kingston, a brawler with good mic work, who clearly idolizes Eddie. This was a fun weapons brawl with Kingston pounding on Coyle with punches, choking him with a plastic bag and hanging him with booster cables. Coyle breaks out a VCR and videotapes, and gets a videotape smashed on his head before eating two backfists. But he stumbles to his feet and hits an air raid crash on a VCR, which is a sick bump for Kingston to take in this kind of special appearance. Fun example of the big name coming in to take on the local barstool legend.

ER: This really is Kingston going to the UK and fighting an acolyte, and it is exactly what you want. Eddie Kingston playing UK rock clubs feels like a natural fit, no doubt has better crowd mic work than a guy making small talk while tuning his guitar. The match gets changed to No DQ as soon as it starts, and something tells me the match would have been worked exactly the same way if it hadn't. I liked the crowd brawl, always fun to see how tightly Kingston throws strikes in the middle of a packed in crowd, and - while this might sound blasphemous to some - I think Kingston is a more consistently high end crowd brawler than LA Park. Kingston is more consistently engaging and his brawls are more relatable, whereas Park is more like being in awe of a celebrity walking past you in the supermarket. Kingston wraps a plastic bag around Coyle's face, clamps a jumper cable on Coyle's tongue and cheek, and we get some gnarly spots around a bunch of VHS tapes and a VCR that Coyle brought out with him. Getting a VHS tape smashed into your face would hurt like hell, and that pain comes through. Coyle takes a couple bumps on the tapes and you can see his body bouncing off awkward tape corners, it's great. King's backfists have never looked better, both looked like real KO shots. That's my only real problem with the match, as Kingston has established one backfist as something that almost always wins, TWO backfists definitely shouldn't see a man getting back to his feet. But I think Coyle selling the backfists and his struggle back to standing were good, so it was handled as well as possible. King's post-match promo is unsurprisingly great, man knows how to sell injuries during promos so well, and he knows exactly what tone to take with the crowd after a loss. The man knows how to connect with people out in the Moors as well as he connects with people in Queens. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day:Les Copains! Blousons Noir! Said! Kader! Bernaert! Double Dip of Manneveau!

MD: As promised, let's talk quickly about 1963 and 1964, and really, why we have so little from 61 on. Over at PWO, Phil Lions stopped by and told us the following:

"How come there were so few shows in 1961, you may ask? Well, in April of 1961 Maurice Herzog (the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports at the time) put pressure on the network not to air catch anymore, because he considered it a "degrading spectacle" and wanted them to focus on other "more noble" sports such as athletics, boxing, skiing, volleyball, and basketball. Despite catch being one of its most viewed sports broadcasts, the network could no longer air it regularly so they'd only do a handful of broadcasts per year. So that explains why there's so little footage from 1961 and onward."

So we're suffering here, 60 years later, from a cultural backlash. Phil also looked through French newspapers in 1964 and found about ten TV listings for Catch, including a couple of Rikki Starr matches (including one vs Gastel), but we don't seem to have those from the archives. Hope springs eternal that they might one day show up.

If you haven't already seen Phil's article on L'Ange Blanc, go check it out. It's phenomenal: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=005393

Le Grand Vladimir vs. Bernard Vignal 5/16/64

MD: We'll take whatever we can get in 64, obviously, but this might not have been my first choice. It's 9 minutes JIP and fine. Vladimir is a guy who we have British footage of decades later but seeing him young is new. He hits hard (including slaps/chops at the neck), had the sort of chokes and nerve holds you'd expect, some nice throat-based offense using the ropes, and an interesting entry into a cobra clutch off the ropes I haven't seen before. Vignal is someone we've seen before, an older scrapper with the fans behind him, but this never really escalates into the slugfest you'd want it to, and it ends on a pretty lame low kick DQ. Certainly ok stuff, and we're beggers and not choosers for this year but nothing high end.

Les Copains (Dan Aubriot/Bob Plantin) vs. Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) 5/16/64

MD: If we're only going to have one full match from 64, this isn't a bad one to have. Manneveau and Gessat are such a great unit and I'm glad we get at least a few more matches with them upcoming. They are such a well-oiled machine, constantly drawing heat, constantly cheating, constantly looking for an advantage or a double team, and when it's time, feeding and stooging. We know how good Aubriot was and he lived up to that here, with flashy offense, sympathetic selling during the long FIP stretches, and fiery comebacks when he had the chance (though always cut off in the back half due to the backwork; even after he snuck the fall on a bridge, he couldn't get out of the bridge without Plantin's help). Plantin showed a lot of fire here, especially being great on the apron. After the super fast, tricked out opening exchanges and some great hold exchanges, the rest of the match was heat and more heat, with some southern tag tricks, that heavy back focus on Aubriot, and some hot tags. Finish could use just a little more weight to it, but at that point, you got the sense that the Copains were just worn down from the constant assault.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. The French love their tag matches. This started out as a fantastically athletic match, with guys busting out sick looking kip ups and working holds with fantastic resistance. Then it turned into a total asskicking. That was due to Manneveau and Gessat, who cut off the ring and beat their opponents like they owed them money. Aubriot and Plantin fired back like any French babyface would, with massive european uppercuts and throwing their opponents around the ring with blindingly fast headscissors. The Blousons ruled the show though, with those nasty short kicks, stomps, kneedrops to the face, and throwing hands. While Aubriot and Plantin were supposed to bring the spectacular, the Blousons had some big moves of their own, including probably the highlight of the match, a crazy headscissor counter into a huge backbreaker. The 3rd fall was just a house of fire with Aubriot and Plantin having enough and just stomping their opponents on their face. It‘s not hard to see from performances like this that the Blousons Noirs act is up there with the Anderson Bros, Misioneros de la Muerte, Ikeda and Ono etc. as an incredible heel unit.

PAS: This was killer stuff, a fine 1964 MOTY representative, even if we only have one match. Noirs have shown signs of it in the other stuff we have, but man was this a master class of showing out for the babyfaces and when given a turn just unleashing a bruising. The opening section was really fast and elaborate, reminding me of a great opening Caida in a lucha match. When it got down and dirty in got down and dirty with the babyface landing big shots and being matched with even bigger stuff Manneveau almost leaps into his uppercuts spinning the babyfaces around with them when they land. He also hit almost a springboard jumping roll up for the for the second fall. The third fall was furious stuff ending with an assault with Manneveau stomping and punching Plantin right on the throat,  he landed a disgusting knee which looked like it crushed his windpipe. The final big bodyslam almost felt like a respite. 

Arabet Said/Abdel Kader vs. Pierre Bernaert/Marcel Manneveau 1/10/65

MD: This was extremely heel-in-peril, with very few periods of extended heat, despite Bernaert and Manneveau sure trying their best and taking every opportunity. In some ways, that's a shame, because you could tell from the get go, this was a really game crowd and they would have near-rioted if there was any actual heat. At one point, some lady swipes Manneveau's leg from the outside and he barely even deserved it at that point. That's a lie. He always deserves it. What a pest. He's almost like a combination of Delaporte's mustache and smugness and willingness to show ass with Bollet's manic energy. He threw himself into everything, including bumping out of the ring repeatedly and hitting a crazy fast spinning and twisting sunset flip to win the first fall. Bernaert was more than happy to play along. He's always a great slugger and so good at being smarmy with the ref and his opponent. Said looked great here, with one extended short arm scissors bit where he kept getting each guy into it and a lot of legitimately funny stuff worked around his hard head. Kader could garner sympathy and had solid striking but he was in there to lose the advantage so Said could get it back. They built to some fun and elaborate heel miscommunication spots late. Bernaert's come a long way and Manneveau is just one of the most entertaining guys in all of the footage.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 38 minutes. This was another good match although slightly overshadowed by the above tag. Bernaert and Manneveau, the heel team, didn‘t fully let loose like the Blousons did above. There was still plenty of asskicking going on, with Arabet Said doing some fun hard head work, and we got treated to some quality wrestling from the faces including some great short arm scissors work. There was a genius moment where Mannevau from the apron tripped somebody up, who fell perfectly into a Bernaert front headlock and set him up for Manneveau to come in with several flying stomps. That is high end heel work just thrown out casually in a match that is basically a fun house show main event by the standards of this stuff.

PAS: Fun match and a look at a slightly different shade of Mannevau. He was much more of a goof here, getting caught in the ropes, spun around by armdrags, stooging for Said hard head. We never got to see him unleash the brutality he showed in the previous match, but he was great in a more overtly comedic role, as was Bernaert who just got angrier and angrier the more he got flummoxed. Love a hard skull gimmick and Said did it well, including Baernert basically breaking his arm trying to forearm him. Great week with two different but hyper enjoyable tag matches. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! Jinny! Storm! Ligero!

Jinny vs. Toni Storm NXT UK 2/23 (Aired 4/10/19) (Ep. #37)

ER: These two have worked together a lot, and always manage to bring a couple unique things to each subsequent match. Some things won't always work, but there is enough creativity to overlook some lesser moments. I don't think this was as strong as their first NXT UK match (way back in episode 10), as this match had a couple of strike exchanges that I think were out of place and unnecessary, and that first match was a little tighter because of it. There was a strike exchange in their first bout, but it felt more in place within the match. This match started with a bad hockey fighting spot, but improved once they quickly moved past it. Jinny always does at least a couple little things in her matches that I love, and one that caught my eye here was how aggressively she tried to trip up Storm on a dropdown. So many wrestlers use dropdowns as part of an accepted wrestling sequence, without seemingly knowing what the purpose of a dropdown should be. Here Jinny slides into Storm, flinging her body towards her while dropping down, showing that she aims to take Storm out at the ankles.

I liked their mat struggles, think Storm's STF with her elbow crook hooked around Jinny's neck looked great, and I think that there aren't many - if any - better submission sellers in NXT UK than Jinny. There is a cool battle over a pendulum, and I love how Jinny incorporates possible mistakes, turning them into things that make a match better. Here she loses one of Toni's arms and instead of abandoning the submission, she just pulls on the arm she still does have with both of her arms. I thought their reversals were strong, and it's impressive that they'd worked together so often and can still do a lot of sequences that come off organic. I imagine the more familiar you are with a fellow worker, the easier it can be to dance through sequences. But their reversals felt surprising, and I liked when Storm turned the tables and got Jinny in a pendulum of her own. Jinny was great at selling her back (Storm didn't really sell any of the damage Jinny inflicted), paying attention, and I like how it played into her strikes and axe kicks and stomps. There were some hard suplexes down the stretch, with a cool sequence around Jinny fighting to prevent rolling Germans, before Storm is finally able to dump her. Jinny taking suplexes is one of my favorite things in wrestling, because her long limbs fly all around and really make it look like she got ragdolled. Alicia Fox used to have this same gift. There's a great nearfall coming off Jinny spiking Storm with a faceplant after catching her on the ropes, totally nasty looking spike made even better by Storm's foot almost naturally landing on the bottom rope, making it look like the match was Jinny's if not for bad luck. I really didn't like the end run strike exchange, thought it felt really shoehorned and it just feels like wrestlers now think every "big match" needs one to show people the war they are having. It's dumb, as they had already done a good job showing this. But the strengths of the match outweighed the few weaknesses, and I hope we get another singles between them some day. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Ligero NXT UK 4/6 (Aired 4/24/19) (Ep. #39)

ER: This started out like a mean Ohno squash and then built into something that felt like a big upset was imminent, with several neat twists. And honestly, had this been an Ohno squash, I would have loved it, because a big portion of this was Ohno trying to kick Ligero's horns right off his head. Ohno was really pasting Ligero with kicks, big running front kicks, and when Ligero was on the mat Ohno would run in and boot him again in the side of the head, for good measure. Ohno felt one step ahead for much of this, every duck and dodge pulled by Ligero, there was a boot waiting for him the second he turned around. My favorite was Ohno grabbing Ligero's right arm and bending it back, and as soon as it approached the breaking point Ohno rained down on him with a kick to the ear. Ohno drops knees on Ligero's jaw and then digs his forearm across the jaw during a pin right after. And we got this really great spot I don't think I've ever seen, where Ligero caught an Ohno boot, but Ohno kept his balance and pushed through, so we wound up with Ligero on his back still holding Ohno's boot, while Ohno is still trying to push and connect with chest. 

Ohno was great at getting the advantage back, taking sure advantages for Ligero and twisting them immediately to his advantage. Early on Ligero hits a cannonball off the apron, but Ohno uses his momentum to throw Ligero into the ring steps as he is falling from taking the cannonball! Later, Ligero actually got a boot up in time for a charging Ohno...who merely stopped in time to catch the boot and then violently twist his ankle. Things weren't looking great for Ligero. But he did finally catch a charging Ohno, and went on a little tear himself, including throwing some nice kick variations and now, finally, staying one step ahead of Ohno. There were some nice reversals, nice dodges (that cool sequence with Ohno refusing to give up a boot, then whiffing on a follow up senton), and I love seeing Ohno take code reds and big roll ups and make them look like close escapes. Ohno is so good at giving opponents convincing near wins, dominating a match while showing he is beatable. We got a cool reversal where Ohno caught Ligero and immediately turned into what I thought was going to be the sudden match finishing tombstone, but Ligero rolled through that as well. The finish was what really put this over the top for me, as Ligero springs off the bottom rope with a cutter, but Ohno catches him, traps him in a cravat, unties Ligero's mask a bit....and then turns it to the side!! Ligero is looking at the inside of his mask, and before he can hardly react he gets absolutely waylaid by an elbow to the back of the head. Awesome. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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WWE Fastlane I Didn't Know If I Had Peacock or Not Blog 3/21/21

ER: I didn't know if I had Peacock or not, and it was kind of annoying to figure out, so I wasn't going to bother watching Fastlane. But then I realized it was still on the Network, and I know how to work that!! 

Matt Riddle vs. Mustafa Ali

ER: This was active enough, but I didn't like where they took most of their activity. I like how they worked both of the Riddle lands on Ali's boots/Ali lands on Riddle's knees spots, but there were some contrived set ups for a lot of the big stuff. I thought the Koji clutch after the fisherman's buster was dumb, and the set up for the middle rope piledriver was ridiculous. But the post match Retribution angle was hilarious. It's so funny hearing Ali address them by all their silly names, and how they all acted the walk out with gravitas but it comes off next level because Ali is doing serious acting with them. "No, Slapjack come on. Don't you walk through those ropes Slapjack. You're nothing without me Slapjack!" Ali running down Mace and T-Bar was funny, because Slapjack and Reckoning just had this standing up to my boss moment, but these two are making growling sounds and acting like Ninja Turtle villains. Like who the fuck is Retribution? What do they stand for? What's in the Retribution Mission Statement? What's their ethos? Are they a union? A cult? It's really funny. 

Sasha Banks/Bianca Belair vs. Shayna Baszler/Nia Jax

ER: This tag was well managed and competently worked, but it never built to the level of interest it should have, and the Banks ego stuff at the end came off flat. Sasha's 2021 has been a major drop from her 2020, the character is just not right and the match work is suffering for it. Shayna and Nia controlling Belair made for the compelling parts. Shayna really dropped her with a knee that she would pay for later, Nia gets dropkicked into a nice Belair rana, Belair takes a big spill to the floor, it's good stuff. But Sasha looks messy on her hot tag, reaching to catch Baszler kicks before Baszler has thrown them. But she absolutely tags Shayna with a knee, and I loved her pouncing with the Banks Statement because of it. The ego drama at the end was bad, filled with dumb WrestleMania sign pointing and a stupid reaction from Banks. Nobody came off looking good because of this. For some reason I did like Belair still leaping to almost break up the losing pin on Banks, but this segment didn't help anybody. 

Big E vs. Apollo Crews

ER: They won me over a bit with the deliberate pace and stiff work, but that finish was a real loser. The match proper was filled with good looking stuff, but a disputed 3 count finish will never help any wrestler in any angle. Nobody gets excited by whether someone's shoulder wasn't actually pinned, and it leads to two awkward 2.5-3 counts where nobody is quite clear on what happened. But Big E hits Crews with the spear through the ropes and then hits two of those disgusting apron splashes he does. I don't know how much he actually pulls that apron splash or how much he just wrecks dudes' ribcages, but it feels like the WWE roster move I would least want to tank. He really gets a ton of impact on those standing splashes, they're really remarkable. His belly to belly suplexes looked good, and Crews' comeback looked decent. The finish was a real fizzle, but Crews looked a ton better during his post match beatdown of E than he looked during the match. Crews would be better off doing cool as Olympic slams and less jumping spinkick combos. 

Braun Strowman vs. Elias

ER: Elias was a decent Rick Rude-as-Johnny Polo here, and all of Braun's heaviest stuff looked heavy. Elias took bumps in fun ways that were a slight twist on standard back bumps, loved how he landed on Braun's big scoop chokeslam. Braun laid Elias out with a great clothesline that looked like Elias blindly running into a tree branch, and I dug how much Elias relished his brief time in control. This filled its role on a card. 

Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

ER: Rollins PPV matches are such a drag. He's always a villain taking way too long to explain his evil plan. It is so hard to stay interested in Seth Rollins and the ways he chooses to pace his matches. Nakamura looked good when he fought back, and took a great bump to the floor after getting knocked off the buckles, really fell to the floor like a Chris Hamrick in leather rather than vinyl. Rollins does hit a very nice bullet tope, throwing his whole shoulder and side into Nakamura's torso and hurtling himself into the barricade because of it. That is a Cool Seth Rollins Moment. But Rollins also worked to Rollins up the rest of this, and by the time we got into a bunch of memorized sequences it's just impossible to stay engaged. Nothing can ever come off organic with this guy, always has to be the most focus grouped version of a wrestler every time. 

Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus

ER: These two have really good chemistry, and I do not mind that we're getting the same match up run several times. I like the way these two beat each other up, and it's been a highlight of 2021 wrestling a quarter of the way through the year. The only thing I don't like about their matches is when McIntyre inevitably does his nice headbutt and Byron Saxton says in a leprechaun voice "Give us a kiss, Sheamus!" Byron Allen is more like it. This match was hard hitting as expected, but was more interesting when they kept things in the ring. Drew throwing Sheamus with several belly to belly suplexes (and Sheamus knowing how to land heavy on the suplexes) was engaging stuff, because no spot was moved to without one of the guys throwing a stiff body shot, or a chest welting chop, or a punch to the cheek. The brawl through the video screens had a lot of hard landings on non-mat surfaces, but it was a little meandering no matter how stiff it was. Still, a rolling senton on the floor will always look cool, and Sheamus getting thrown crashing through a video screen was a neat stunt spot and good looking fall. But Sheamus hitting a sick knee to Drew's chin in the ring is something I'd rather see more. And behold, things get immediately better the second they get back into the ring, and the slap exchange looked like two guys trying to KO each other with slaps. Crazy how much speed Drew can get behind a slap from his knees. Let these two keep kicking the hell out of each other. It's made for some great TV. 

Randy Orton vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: Maaaan who even wants this? Who out there wants this? Show yourselves! I liked Burn Victim Thing but I do not care about any of this! 

Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns

ER: I thought this was a pretty tremendous Bryan performance contained within a match that didn't hit what it was going for. This was way too long in the tooth and didn't work on as grand a scale as they were hoping it would. Roman's extremely slow and methodical newer style may work for some, but for me it usually feels like gratuitous time padding, and saps a lot of a match's drama. Bryan looked great throughout though and kept this buoyant. He was good at filling time by purposely annoying Reigns, getting under his skin, and all of his stick and move strikes looked like they were actually slowing Roman. Bryan's knees all looked great, and the Yes locks kept looking more and more like they could get an actual tap. The Edge involvement was as bad acted as expected, but Uso made the most of the situation with his interference. I think Roman's slow as hell pacing was driving me nuts here because it was always very clear that things were ending with Edge and Uso involvement, so every long minute we weren't getting to that point was just one more minute until the inevitable. Bryan was put into the position of having to make a decent trade for a player who just very publicly demanded to be traded, and it's a testament to his abilities that he kept this one as interesting as it was. 

ER: A pretty underwhelming show, with McIntyre/Sheamus really the only full match worth seeking out, although Bryan purists would love his performance in the title match. I guess it was pretty obvious this show would only be filler due to not actually needing a PPV in between Elimination Chamber and Mania. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Blood In, Lights Out

6. Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Thunder Rosa AEW Dynamite 3/17

ER: Blood is maybe AEW's greatest contribution to modern TV wrestling (outside of giving Eddie Kingston a contract), and this was a match with some great blood. This started with Baker hitting a nice spear through the ropes during Rosa's entrance and dropping Rosa with an air raid crash on the ramp, which felt like a cool way a NOAH title match would have opened in 2003. It was a hot start, but lead to a little pedestrian patch, as the NOAH start turned into a kind of meandering ECW house show feel. These two have shown good hate through this feud, and while I like the old school feel of narrowly missed chairshots and chair choking, I'm glad we moved past it. After the hot start I think they ramped things up well, getting slightly more dangerous or violent before giving us a truly great Baker blade job. The big spots looked good, like that crazy Death Valley driver on the ladder. Baker's superkicks were both used really well, making contact at full extension to look really impactful. There were a couple of big reaction table spots, with Rebel getting knocked off the apron through one, and Rosa hitting a wild air raid crash of her own off the apron. 

The double juice was a real treat, something that still feels shocking on television in 2021. Baker hits a real gusher, a real classic mask that mats her hair and darkens her braid roots. Usually the most blood dentists see is when they floss a delinquent flosser. The thumbtacks were really well done, and had strong psychology with the way they were used. Commentary was surprised when Baker kicked out of a powerbomb into the tacks, but in this case the tacks were used as a revive. If you fall into fire, your brain will respond to the pain of the fire as more important than the pain of the fall. These tacks overwhelmed the back bump. Baker is a total nut to get thrown into that many tacks, and I loved how Rosa used them in the finish. I wanted to see Baker win with the lockjaw, but I exclaimed loudly when Rose broke the sub by rolling Baker into a cradle, holding her down in the tacks. It was real gross and a surprise, and made it all feel worthy of a feud culmination. 

PAS: I agree that the blood really made this match. Without it, this was basically a 2020s plunder street fight match with all of the ladders, tables and chairs which have become really perfunctory lately. When you add that claret though it really makes all of the big spots and bumps way more meaningful. Baker doesn't just get her face smashed into a ladder, she gets her face smashed into a ladder and pulses blood. All of the thumbtack stuff is a bit passé too, but I did like how gross Baker's bumps into it were, and countering Baker's crossface submission by rolling her into the tacks was nasty stuff. By the end it really did feel like a war, and a heck of an effort.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: New AAA 4/30/95!

PAS: Roy Lucier continues to do yeoman's work uncovering lost classic stuff, including this AAA show which wasn't in circulation.

AAA 4/30/95

Mascarita Sagrada/Ninjita vs. Los Espectritos (Espectrito I/Espectrito II) 

MD: Fun, long minis match. I'm generally a stickler for the standards in lucha, 2 out of 3 falls matches, both parties getting pinned in tag matches, etc., but I probably would make exceptions for minis matches. This was standard structure and I'm not sure it helped things. The timing on the pinfalls didn't do anyone favors. The finish, instead of being dramatic with Mascarita Sagrada sneaking in a pin, had to be extended to Ninjita getting pulled back in by MS post-dive for the countout. Plus it was all more back and forth without that serene lucha moment of comeback (I could see them saving that for later in the card). Little things. That said, the match still worked, and a lot of that was due to the credibility of both sides. The Espectritos (especially I) were great bullies, great bases, able to take back over at a moment's notice or sneak in a well-timed bit of interference to keep the advantage. There was a power bomb in there where Espectrito I just picked up MS like he was nothing at all. And the tecnicos could believably take back over at a moment's notice, turning literally any physical contact into an arm drag just like that. For the first half of this we had a bunch of Ninjita when you really wanted MS in there, but halfway through the segunda we got what we wanted and he was spectacular. This took up most of the first quarter of the two-hour show and I can't imagine anyone complaining about too much it.

PAS: This was cool stuff, you don't normally see minis get this much time, and the Espectritos have plenty of stuff to fill that time. They just toss Mascarita Sagrada around like he is a wrestling buddy, Espectrios are both little people, but it looks like Rey vs. The Big Show when they are in there with Mascarita. Both technicos of course are armdragging and ranaing machines. Most mini's matches of this era have a pretty high baseline, and this doesn't push it pass that level but no shame in that. 

Aguila de Acero/Super Calo/Winners vs Los Diabolicos (Angel Mortal/Marabunta/Mr. Condor) 

MD: Fairly complete trios match here. I was definitely higher on the Diabolicos than the tecnicos. They were a well oiled machine, both feeding early in the primera and especially during the beatdown in the segunda. Some timing issues from the tecnicos, not getting up on the ropes at the right time, coming into the ring too early during the beatdown and having to stand around, Aguila de Acero coming into the ring too late for the fast count finish which meant the submission lasted way too long. I didn't mind the finish otherwise. When you're looking at this as a card instead of a bunch of individual matches, you need to switch things up and while it got over Pepe Casas more than any of the wrestlers, it's obvious the fans were pretty happy by it. Also, there were a couple of good dives to set it up and a nice tangible feeling of mild dread when post-dives, it ended up two on one for Calo.

Los Power Raiders (Power Raider Azul/Power Raider Blanco/Power Raider Negro/Power Raider Rojo/Power Raider Verde) vs. Heavy Metal/Juventud Guerrera/Karloff Lagarde Jr./Perro Silva/Picudo 

MD: Yeah, this was a mess. You knew it'd be a mess coming in but it wasn't as fun of a mess as I was hoping. The rudo side controlled most of the match, with little hope spots peppered in and there was a lot of talent there but they just didn't mesh. A long beatdown is fine, good even, if the rudos are on the same page and if they keep things moving and interesting. Here they kept Verde in there for way too long and there were a bunch of moments where Juvi just seemed at a loss. He was teaming with Lagarde and he'd hop up on the second rope to do something, and Lagarde would take things in another direction and he'd just have to hop back off. That sort of thing. The focus of the finish was on Perro Silva and Rojo but given the rules of the match, they were absent for most of it. I'm not saying there's not a situation where that could work but I don't think this was it. When things were moving, this was fine, but if this was going to be chaos anyway, I'd actually want more and not less.

La Parka vs. Jerry Estrada - FUN

PAS: This had been out there on a AAA yearbook, but I hadn't seen it before so I figured I would write it up. This was mostly a Tirantes match, which is about my least favorite kind of lucha. Most of the match was focused on Tirantes slow counting for Parka and fast counting for Estrada.  We did get three crazy Parka dives, an almost Sabuish flip dive off the top, a great tope, and a big plancha. Estrada hits a crazy tope into the second row, so we did get a lot of good even with all of the Tirantes. 

El Hijo del Santo/Octagon/Perro Aguayo/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Scorpio Jr/Shu El Guerrero

MD: The good stuff. As always, when you get this level of talent and experience and charisma in the ring, it really can't go wrong. Even Perro, who was more physically limited at this point, is such a character, so hard hitting, so spirited and fun that you just can't look away. He's such a folk hero, out there slapping hands on the way to the ring, and then mentoring Rey later. Rey's amazing, of course. What stands out the most to me is how comfortable and willing he is in his role. There's no sense at all of a Napoleon Complex. He doesn't veer in the least, leaning into all of his strengths and vulnerabilities (which are, of course, narrative strengths). Panther hammed it up against Octagon and showed flashes later, like hitting the double stomp or a huge slap on Perro as insult to injury. He was so broad and versatile in the 90s and doesn't get a lot of credit for that anymore relative to his maestro rep. Santo was smooth as could be. Shu was a great bully and Scorpio a perfectl y acceptable stooge, and even Octagon didn't bug me much. Of course, Psicosis was the guy I really wanted to see and he didn't disappoint. Just the perfect mix of basing (feeding and catching Rey) and attitude (shadow boxing on the apron) and flash (amazing twisting senton to end the segunda). It doesn't have a real finish but since it has an awesome and brutal surprise angle, it's hard to be too upset about that.

PAS: Just a murderer's row of legendary all time great luchadores (and Octagon, although he is fine here). I really loved the first fall, with tremendous exchange after tremendous exchange, including some great Rey vs. Psicosis stuff, ending with one of my favorite Star finishes ever, with Perro running around stomping all of the guys in the star. Rudo beatdown in the second and beginning of the third fall was nifty if a bit formless, and we get a wild finish run with tons of crazy dives, and constant switching of the camera from one bit of mayhem to another. Santo/Negro angle at the end was really cool, and pretty unexpected. Too bad Santo's family put a kibosh on the gimmick, because what potential that had. 

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head 2003: Lesnar vs. Mysterio VS. Honda vs. Kobashi

Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio WWE Smackdown 12/11/03

ER: Talk about perfect match atmosphere, perfect location, perfect opponents; every element that makes a match a classic was right out in the open, and we get the pure glee of watching two of the most charismatic performers of all time do their thing. Mysterio has the hometown crowd on his side, his entire family in the front row, and Lesnar has the unreal nuclear heel charisma that makes this whole thing feel like Little Mac taking on Mike Tyson. 2003 Brock is a top contender for my favorite wrestler of all time, and I challenge anyone to watch his performance in this match and not feel the same. This was the perfect heel for Mysterio to be going up against, and Lesnar knew it. I'm a high voter on modern Lesnar, and still think he's the most unique performer in wrestling, but you watch him in 2003 and notice so many details, so many little touches that he doesn't really bother with anymore. 2003 Lesnar is the complete package, the ultimate T-800, only this Terminator also knows how to stooge wonderfully for a 160 lb. man while being a big bumping lucha base.

The kind of swagger Lesnar brings to the beginning parts of this match was exactly the kind of swagger the crowd wanted to play off. Lesnar works crowds the way a top 80s territory heel would work crowds, and that's something he kind of skips past now. He mocks Rey's size, jaws with fans like it was a 500 attendance house show, makes Rey eat dirt on a couple of lock ups by merely stepping aside, a real jerk. But he's a jerk who is so good at showing ass, and you can see that once Rey initiates a cat/mouse game and tricks Brock into chasing him all around the ring and through. By the time Lesnar realizes that Rey is just trying to gas him out (it was a long and very well done chase), he gets this impotent anger across his face, rips the ring steps from their base with the body language of a frustrated teen (or adult, ahem, couldn't be me) throwing a video game controller. And Rey gets exactly what he wants, takes Lesnar out of his zone, and flies through the ropes with a dropkick that sends Lesnar and the stairs crashing into the aisle. Lesnar is so great at doing atypical bumps, no standard flat back bumps, he falls in a way that is theatrical while realistic, not comically over the top athletic bumps, but large unique bumps that only magnify offense. Not long after his sprawl into the aisle he takes a gloriously arcing bump over the top to the floor, and it's time we just acknowledge that somehow this massive pile of lunchmeat is better than anyone else in wrestling history at bumping to the floor. Oh, and this pile of meat will also kick you in the balls from behind and then laugh about it.

I loved the vulnerability Lesnar shows for Rey's offense, and the creativity he uses in setting it up. It's weird to think Rey's best foil might be a man twice his size and not Eddie or Psicosis, but looking at how Lesnar sets up all of Rey's offense and twists it in little ways at least has to put him in the discussion for best opponent. We get the added danger knowing that anything Rey snaps off could be reversed at any part of the process, so for every time Lesnar is taking a 619 or eating a rana as fine as any lucha base you've seen, there's equal (or better) chance of Lesnar catching one of those ranas and powerbombing Rey into the ringpost, or attempting to powerbomb Rey directly through the ring in the ugliest flattest splat of a bump. 

My favorite little moment of the match was the way Lesnar got into position for the 619. I always appreciate creativity around setting up someone's trademark offense, the way Finlay would be off balance and drop to a knee before regaining his balance just in time to get plastered with Booker T's axe kick, instead of just bending at the waist waiting to take it. It's hard to come up with new ways to drape yourself over the middle rope to take the 619, and Lesnar shows just how smart his wrestling brain is here, setting it up in a way nobody else did and maybe nobody else could have: He's fighting with Rey on the apron, and Rey catches him with a kick as Brock is leaning down, and Brock - one of the most inventive bumpers in wrestling history - falls backwards, through the ropes diagonally into the ring, and in the struggle to gain his balance finds himself draped over the ropes, allowing Rey to pull off his tremendous 619 around the ringpost. It was a brilliant sequence. My only real complaint about the match was the finish could have used one tiny little hope spot from Rey, one little flash, and instead Lesnar flattened him with that powerbomb and bent Rey's body in horrible ways with a stretch muffler. But the complaint is minor, because Rey was getting so horrifically bent that it *should* have been the finish, I just wanted one tiny sliver of hope before the curtains fell.

PAS: Finding hidden gems is pretty much our raison d'etre here at Segunda Caida. You expect to dig up something off of a Japanese hand held or obscure lucha YouTube link, so it's weird to find a hidden gem on WWE Smackdown with two of the most praised wrestlers of the last 20 years, but here we are. This match has a pretty small online footprint, a PWO thread with two comments, no nomination over at the GWE board, it seems to have been forgotten to time. My goodness was this incredible, and honestly a career level match for two guys with incredible careers.

Hometown hero taking a shot at a dominant champ is a classic wrestling trope, and Lesnar is amazing as traveling Ric Flair here. He is great as a taunting jock bully early, the way he says "You're just a little guy Rey" chefs kiss, what a marvelous asshole. I love how Rey just sends him on a wild goose chase in and around the ring, until he gasses and infuriates Brock, and the pissed off rage when he can't get his hands on this little shrimp. He is such a master at portraying terrifying menace and surprising vulnerability. Brock's basing and bumping in this was incredible. It is like someone used a supervillain ray to supersize 1996 Juventud Guerrera. I am not sure anyone ever took a Rey Mysterio headscissors as well as Brock Lesnar, which is fucking bonkers considering how enormous he is. He is so good at eating offense in a way which doesn't make it look cooperative,  he always seems completely flummoxed and out of control when he is getting spun around the ring, but also seconds away from wiping someone out. 

Rey is of course a master, we get some of his incredible timing and athleticism, he gets thrown to the top rope and lands as cleanly as anyone ever has, and rips off a bunch of big spots, and he is also amazing at timing things perfectly to bring the crowd along. I actually had no problems with the finish, Rey gets a bunch of really plausible near falls on Brock with ranas and headscissors and Brock is finally able to to smash him and bend him into a horrible pretzel. I don't think Rey needed another hope spot, because he was less then a minute removed from getting the win. It wasn't one of those drawn out Brock beatings which sometimes drag down his post UFC stuff, it was a lightning strike.


Honda vs. Kobashi Review

Verdict: 

PAS: I am pretty surprised that I am going along with Eric on this one. I was expecting a fun TV match that he was overrating due to his nostalgia for 2003 Brock, but this was a perfect match, with two incredible performances from two all timers. It was actually a similarly structured match to Kobashi vs. Honda, and while Honda might have slightly inched Rey in his performance in that match (no diss here, Honda's performance in that match is my favorite title challenger performance ever), Lesnar's dominant champ performance smokes Kobashi, and I really liked Kobashi in that match. The upstart takes this.

ER: The abrupt finish was my only complaint about this match, but the rest of it was classic pro wrestling with an unbeatable atmosphere and two larger than life performers. Honda/Kobashi had its own great atmosphere, but I thought Lesnar created and thrived within this atmosphere even better. The creativity, execution, and rabid crowd puts this one ahead for me. NEW CHAMP!

ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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Three Months, Three Oney Lorcan Matches

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Joaquin Wilde/Raul Mendoza 205 Live 9/11/20

ER: This has been part of an ongoing 205 Live feud that includes Ever-Rise, and it's something I always enjoy seeing. I think they should start mixing up the feuds with singles matches, but for a promotion that's been traditionally more about tags than singles they've been rerunning tags a lot more. Wilde is someone who I like a lot more in tags than singles, and think he's really come into new strengths within the short span of Legado del Fantasma. I dug his headlock/headscissors takedown exchanges with Lorcan to start, with Lorcan working the kind of engaging holds that he works best and Wilde tossing in some nice color with a hand stomp and a dropkick. Lorcan gets his arm worked over by LdF, takes a cravat from Mendoza, and I like how sometimes these combos of teams work actual long heat segments, and then this time they'll keep them quicker. Lorcan getting worked over isn't the match, he gets to Burch fairly quickly and then Burch runs wild on Mendoza for awhile. There's enough mileage to these pairings to run them back the next week only work the match around Burch taking heat.

But Burch and Lorcan working over Mendoza is fun for this one, with them hitting a double suplex, Oney grinding in a facelock, Burch throwing big uppercuts, and Mendoza eventually coming back to hit a nice enziguiri and springboard crossbody. They're a fun group to keep going back and forth on each other, and it's a neat way to change out 2 on 1 pairings. LdF hit a double spinebuster and sandwich Burch with a basement dropkick, and there's good energy kept in the match at all times. It all builds to the most energy, and everyone knows that means an Oney Lorcan hot tag. Oney hits one of his big clotheslines that take him and Mendoza to the floor, comes back in with chops, big uppercuts, and a hard blockbuster to Wilde. Ever-Rise come out to interfere, and AGAIN I hope and hope and hope this leads to something more interested than a 3 way tag match. Those always blow, and it would be far more interesting to bring another team into the mix and work that way. Or, force Ever-Rise to work face with Lorcan/Burch and find a 4th member for Legado del Fantasma. I want that. Add Brian Kendrick into this feud as a total wildcard gun for hire. They're keeping it fresh, but 205 Live has been bad at feud blowoffs. So far so good.

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Tyler Breeze/Fandango NXT 10/21/20

ER: Well I've been saying for several years that I have just been waiting for them to actually give some kind of big win to Oney Lorcan, and now they've finally done it. Was it perfect? No. Did they only win because of interference from the returning Cole Carrier Pat McAfee? Almost certainly yes. The match was a little disjointed and the in ring story was all over the place, but within story perhaps that makes sense as neither of these teams expected to be facing each other. Lorcan worked some cool headlock takeovers and I dig the slow burn start, but we get one of those annoying commercial breaks where you get the sense something interesting may have happened while we weren't watching. We went to break with Breeze starting to work over Burch's knee and wrap it around the ringpost, and when we come back Lorcan and Burch are working over Fandango. That has to be one of my biggest pet peeves in wrestling TV: leaving with one man in control and coming back to the exact opposite. Fandango matches up nicely with Lorcan and Burch, throws some heavy clotheslines, hits a nice guillotine legdrop (less style and grace than others, but a nice heavy landing) and we build to a moment where Oney gets stopped during a dive attempt, crashing to the apron and floor. Lorcan and Burch tried working Breeze over with a crossface/half crab combo and we get a couple pinfall saves (though even one of those seems overly planned, the fashionable kind of pin break where you tackle your opponent into the pin and everybody dogpiles). McAfee (under a Doom mask) shoves Fandango off the top and Burch lowblows Breeze behind the ref's back, then they hit the elevated DDT to win the tag belts. Obviously we'll find out more and see where their apparent heel turn is going, but I don't think they needed the lowblow in addition to interference. Let's at least make it look like they could have maybe beaten Breezango of all teams. A Burch headbutt or a leveling Oney uppercut would have been an excellent way to set up the DDT win, and would have had them KOing the champ with one of their own signature strikes, not a shot to the balls. Was this role originally going to have been filled by Ridge Holland? I don't know, but I'm happy for the new champs. I wish they could have won the belts in a bigger match on their own terms, but I've also thought they've been the clear best men's tag team in WWE for some time now and deserved these belts. 

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Drake Maverick/Killian Dain NXT 12/23/20

ER: I liked the dynamics of this street fight, the fun size difference of Dain and Drake playing out in fun ways. It had that WWF street fight problem of the action slowing down for some spot set up, meaning the match was built into a series of crash landings instead of those spots being worked a little more organically into the match. Also, they weirdly decided to settle the match down into traditional tag rules, which at least kept things from completely devolving into a series of prop set ups. Things were at their strongest when Lorcan and Burch were isolating Maverick, as Dain would come in as wrecking ball, and someone like Lorcan is great at getting wrecked. There was a sick spot where Lorcan took a backdrop kidneys first over a couple set up chairs. The Dain/Maverick drop toehold senton combo is nice, and Lorcan's wild blockbuster on the floor felt extra crazy considering that bump he had just taken across the chairs. Dain gets to crash through and off of tables and bodies, sticking up for his little buddy, hitting avalanches and a big powerbomb, getting knocked off the apron that bounces him off a table instead of through, which leads to a great final Maverick blowout. Maverick comes in with low blows, takes off his belt and whips the hell out of the champs, including a belt shot literally across Lorcan's face. WWF are idiots because they don't have enough awesome belt whipping in their No DQ matches, instead opting for played out cane shots. Maverick's belt shots were really great, and I love how Lorcan responded to that belt to the face by paying back the low blow, before the champs absolutely stuff Drake with the elevated DDT. Cool stuff. 

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