Beyond Wrestling Greatest Rivals Round Robin Pt. 1

4. Chris Dickinson vs. Tony Deppen 2/25/21

PAS: This is a new mini Greatest Rivals round robin tournament, which I imagine will place a bunch of matches on our MOTY list. Dickinson is really peaking over the last year, and I think he has an argument for top 10 in the world at this point. He is really great at making wresting look violent, the veins in his bald head pulsate really evocatively when he is put in holds and when he applies moves the muscles in his forearms really look like they are straining. Deppen is good as the faster leaner guy, pushing pace, being slick and trying to get the lactic acid chewing up Dickison's muscles. The early section of the match has both guys with some slick grappling, with Deppen able to take the advantage when he quickly scrambles out of an exchange and drops a knee hard on Chris's arm. We get some vicious Deppen arm work, headbutts to the bursa sac, uppercuts to the humerus, nasty stuff. Dickinson does a sick looking dragon screw and works a figure four before we get to our bomb throwing finish, which included a gross brainbuster. Very good hard hitting pro-wrestling and a great start to a mini tournament which is pretty exciting. 

ER: 15 minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time, but there are plenty of wrestling matches that don't need 15 minutes to be good. And a lot of wrestlers don't have 15 minutes of material to work with, but that's not a problem for Dickinson and Deppen. There aren't many indy workers left who I like more than Chris Dickinson. His brand of big match feels like it could eventually get as good as Eddie Kingston's big match. Dickinson and Kingston both have that quality where they are still themselves while working in any style match. Plus, he gives commentary guys good things to say about him, like how he's described as having "the best second wind in wrestling". That's the kind of way I like a wrestler to be hyped. Deppen is a guy  I like, who has a couple qualities I don't like. He wrestles a bit like if MJF was trained by Drew Gulak. He's got a lot going on with his face, probably a bit too much bared teeth, and some of his holds really have a "Dickinson needs to hold still for a bit" feel to them. But he also aims to kick a dent in Dickinson's arm, and that I love. All the kicks looked real hard, and he also stomps it, digs his knuckles into it, knee drops it, really uses and blunt part of his body on that arm. Dickinson is good at working through it. Dickinson comes back by catching Deppen in two whipcrack dragon screws, the kind of thing that would have shredded Deppen's ACL and MCL if they had miscommunicated. Dickinson's kicks are thrown to land, he gets to take some revenge on Deppen's knee as payback for the arm, and his brainbuster is the best. Good start to a promising tournament. 

Matt Makowski vs. Wheeler Yuta 3/4/21

PAS: Makowski is one of the most fun guys to watch in wrestling right now. You are almost guaranteed two or three completely new cool things a match, and his grappling fundamentals are really solid. Yuta seems like the odd man out in this series and he was a bit hit and miss here. He looked very good when they were on the mat, but he had some really puzzling decisions when it was time for offense. At one point he does this leap into weak looking ground and pound and then follows it up with a CM Punk level top rope elbow. I did really like him trying to put on a surfboard and grinding his foot into Makowski's head, little touches like that can really make a match that is mostly babyface versus babyface grappling. Makowski as expected did some bad ass stuff, including actually finding a new way to do Malenko vs. Guerrero rollups, and an awesome second rope straitjacket torture rack flipped into an armbar.  

ER: Makowski is a real compelling wrestler, easily one of my favorite new guys of the past few years. So far he's been worth watching in every match of his I've seen, a guy who brings a unique set of skills to make any opponent a little more interesting. Wheeler Yuta is a guy I don't really like, and here he's the guy in the tournament whose name stood out as not like the others. He wrestles like Humberto Carrillo, only without the timing or pretty execution. His armdrags are a touch slow, he always makes opponents wait on his dropkicks, his elbow drop looks like an 11 year old kid jumping into a pool. But he's a fun opponent for Makowski, who spins around Yuta's body and attacks limbs. Makowski can get into zones where it looks like stopping him is not possible, has some impressively quick ways to grab an arm or slip on a choke. He hits like hell, and my favorite part of the match may have been when he just unloaded with one big Cro Cop kick across Yuta's chest, which Yuta sells by quickly rolling through the floor and lying on the ground like someone who legitimately had the wind knocked out of him. Makowski of course breaks out some cool tricks, like slingshotting through the ropes into a rear naked choke, and finishing things by flinging Yuta out of a torture rack from the middle buckle directly into an armbar. Makowski's inclusion was the main thing that got me interested in this tournament, and he hasn't disappointed me yet. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST