WWF 305 Live: Andre vs. Blackjack Mulligan!

Andre the Giant vs. Blackjack Mulligan WWF 6/5/82 - EPIC

ER: What a fight! Matches like this are the reason we watch wrestling, the kind of thing you'd really remember seeing live. This had a strong vibe similar to my Memphis love, the Eddie Marlin vs. Tommy Gilbert Cowboy Boot match. This was that match, only both guys are humongous. It's a real off balance slugfest, both guys fighting dirty and spilling around the ring, leaning heavy into the ropes, gripping each other by the face. Mulligan is throwing punches with his gloved right hand, Andre is throwing headbutts as often as possible to counter. Mulligan works this match the way Hansen would work Andre, comes right at him with punches and clubbing arms, gets swatted away, then comes back with more of the same. Mulligan fought up in size incredibly well, coming off as Andre's equal and like someone who knew several Andre weaknesses that nobody else knew. Andre had to use a couple of desperation escapes that he rarely had to use, including a wild one to set up the finish. 

Mulligan convincingly dragged Andre to the mat a couple times, using a nasty nerve hold on his trap that Andre sold like the most painful submission possible. Andre's selling was great throughout, and it only got better once Mulligan started going for the claw. The look of fear on Andre's face as he blocked that claw was tremendous, and I loved the ways he would block Mulligan's offense or strikes. There's this great spot where Andre is on his back and catches a Mulligan stomp, and Mulligan brings the right balance of perseverance and "shit got caught by a giant" to the whole moment. The match peaks incredibly, with Mulligan rushing at Andre with the claw, and Andre intentionally throwing Mulligan and himself over the top to the floor just to break the hold. The match ends in a double count out, but the work on the floor is compelling and chaotic as hell, with Mulligan like a madman with his Claw blinders on, and Andre headbutting and clawing at Mulligan's face to keep that glove off his head. I really loved this, and it feels like it should be talked about with the best WWF 80s matches. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Zapata! Castillo! Aubriot! Bayle! Bollet! Delaporte! de Zarzecki! Wiecz!

Pancho Zapata/Vicente Castillo vs. Dan Aubriot/Remy Bayle 11/28/65

PAS: Zapata is Joaquim LaBarba and Castillo is Quasimodo and that is a killer pair of grotesqueries. Twin Igors clawing at faces and slamming skulls into the mat. It is a great act, although this match needed more dynamic babyfaces to really justify it's run time. Zapata seemed to slow down his nutty bumping under this gimmick, but still had great execution, as did Castillo who hit a killer rainmaker elbow along with his stalking and looking creepy. I liked Bayle targeting the growth on the back of Castillo's head. This was good overall, but more a cool look at a pair of creeps then anything that will stand out.  

MD: What a heel side here, the unholy unification between La Barba (as Pancho Zapata) and Quasimodo (Vincente Castilla here). These are, by far, two of the most interesting bad guys in all of the footage, with La Barba able to turn on a dime from being an arch stooge to the most vicious guy in the world and Castilla absolutely fascinating in the way he moves, the way he reacts, his varied and imaginative offense, how he portrays power. Here, when they were in control, they were just a cycling wave of brutality, trading off on holds and controlling the ring. Aubriot and Bayle were spirited in their comebacks. While Aubriot had the cartwheels and more rope running, I thought Bayle looked best out of the two; his stuff was just sharper and his shots were chippier. This didn't feel quite as focused and structured as some of the tags we've seen lately, but that played well into the chaotic nature of Castilla and Zapata. Towards the end, you knew it wasn't going to end clean; I figured i t was heading towards a DQ but instead, Bayle got one last comeback only to get back body dropped over the rope as his own momentum was used against him, rendering him unable to continue. I think this is it in the footage for La Barba and Quasimodo and what an absolute shame that is.

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Eddie Wiecz 1/9/65

MD: The fans absolutely loved this one, and it felt heated at times, but always had sort of a party feel to it that maybe meant that it didn't have the weight you'd hope it would, especially because, for once, Delaporte and Bollet got what was coming to them. I just can't get over how canny Wiecz is here. Sometimes I think I'm reading too much into it, but there are a dozen little things. Whenever someone's getting beaten on here, it's usually Zarzecki. Zarzecki eats the first fall. Wiecz is the one rushing across the ring and allowing for the distractions. He's the one who gets to take the hot tag and clean house with big shots and dropkicks. During a key celebratory moment towards the end, he hits his back flip off the top but then runs over to get Zarzecki's guy too and sort of takes his moment, that should have been equal. Delaporte and Bollet begged off from him far more than from Zarzecki and it's not like Zarzecki was some rookie or slouch. The fans don't care because they love it but watching back, it's impossible to miss. Anyway, this was an arch Bollet and Delaporte performance, as funny as ever, maybe not quite as mean, though when they were stomping and taking liberties, they were as good as anyone. There seemed to be more girls in the crowd than usual and they were horrified by Bollet and Delaporte's middle-aged transgressions and excited for Zarzecki and Wiecz and that added to the feel. This wasn't the most balanced (wrestling and comebacks and cheating and bullshit and comedy) match we've seen, but it was very fun.

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Drew Gulak is Lost on His Sea Again

 Drew Gulak vs. Mansoor WWE Main Event 2/25/21 - GREAT

ER: It hit me during this match that Gulak is probably the closest thing we have to a Barry Houston in WWF, and it's cool to see a mature Barry Houston style worker on WWE TV in 2021. He is great with any kind of opponent, hits honestly on shoulderblocks and elbows, throws his whole arm into lariats and clotheslines, and locks in convincing headlocks and holds. It's the kind of style that does work with any other style, but Gulak is also smart about changing little things and integrating any kind of size or opponent. Mansoor is coming along well, quietly improving faster than others in WWE working his same kind of style. It's perhaps notable that I think Mansoor has been better at his kind of matches this year than guys like Humberto Carrillo or Gran Metalik have been at their similar matches. Gulak really takes some stiff strikes to Mansoor, you get that Finlay sense of "I have 5 minutes on this Thunder episode, I'm going to grab someone by their jaw, and hit the hardest safe lariat I possibly can." Mansoor's sequences looked smooth, he's maybe the only guy in the fed who actually lands atomic drops, and I thought while Gulak bumped well for Mansoor's flash and set it up nicely, that Mansoor delivered his end. He was where he needed to be, and outside of maybe the slingshot neckbreaker at the finish, I don't think Gulak ever looked like he was waiting on him. Gulak has a great way of getting from one thing to the next, someone who knows how to fill time well. He can expertly turn an O'Connor roll into a match finish worthy rear naked choke, or convincingly sock you across the ring. He doesn't really win much, but I like him in his current role. I just like that him, and his role, are on TV. 

PAS: Gulak is buried as deep as you get in the WWE (is this deeper than NXT UK?) and it really doesn't matter as he is having these very cool "if a tree falls in the forest" matches. Gulak is a perfect person to pair with a green guy who is basically learning to wrestle on TV. He trained guys for so long, that he is a master of not only making all of his stuff look really good, but making sure his opponent looks great too. Not sure if Mansoor has a great atomic drop, or Gulak is amazing at taking atomic drops, but that might have been the best atomic drop in decades. Gulak gets a moment or two to shine on his own, the corner lariat was teeth rattling, but he was there to put over Mansoor and make him look good and he did both excellently.

Drew Gulak vs. Mansoor WWE Main Event 3/4/21 - FUN

ER: I love how Main Event gives these guys the opportunity to have minor feuds that carry over week to week. They don't necessarily get storylines (in the way that there are actual storylines and promos on 205 Live), but they get a chance to build off results and actions from prior Main Event matches and that gives it more of a Worldwide or WCW Pro feel. In other words, they freely acknowledge a wrestler's history with their opponent, without adding any additional story to why they are wrestling. Gulak is going to be someone who is good at having in-ring feuds with, and Mansoor is benefitting heavily from working with him, showing a lot of improvement over the past year. This was evenly paced and had a few moments where it looked like Gulak could get his win back. 

I'm really getting into watching Gulak lose, as - unlike every time they've ever done a losing streak gimmick - I am actually really getting excited to see a Gulak win these days. They're always way too obvious about their losing streak gimmicks, there's never any nuance and it's always screamed at you that the guy is losing a lot. I don't think they're working that angle with Gulak, he just happens to be a guy who loses a lot. He's 5-40 over the last two years, which would make him the worst baseball team in history. But wins do happen, and I love watching for them. I like how he takes Mansoor's offense, like a neat upside down springboard armdrag that took a twist I wasn't expecting, and he makes Mansoor's already painful atomic drop/spinebuster even more painful. Gulak really crunches Mansoor with a German suplex, and they have a cool battle over a Gulak O'Connor roll that turns into a Mansoor rear naked choke. All of it is great, and I still think Gulak might get him if they pair up 7 or 8 more times. 

PAS: I liked how Gulak came out more aggressive in this match, two really nasty German suplexes and then going for a top rope reverse suplex, he seemed like a guy who wanted his win back. I didn't think Mansoor looked as good in this match, there was a performative aspect to his offense which I didn't notice as much the previous week, and he made some really silly faces. The reversal of the O'Connor roll into a choke is a cool spot, but both Mansoor's choke and his body scissors were pretty loose. Gulak was great though, loved how he ate the top rope body press, leaping into and taking it as a big bump on the back, but still I thought this showed the seams a bit more.

Drew Gulak/Akira Tozawa vs. Ricochet/Mansoor WWE Main Event 3/11/21 - GREAT

ER: This Gulak/Mansoor feud has been one of the low key best things going in TV wrestling this year. This is just another awesome example of Gulak working as a WCW Saturday Night Finlay, and brother that's my favorite wrestling to watch. Gulak kicks the door in when he tags in, laying Mansoor out with full arm clothesline, then picks him up and bodyslams him legs first into the ropes. It's clear he's been watching his Finlay Orlando Studios tapes. Mansoor has a good moveset, filled with smooth spots he pulls off well (like his ropes feint armdrag) plus strong nearfall stuff like his excellent atomic drop/spinebuster combo. Gulak is always the best at taking offense, so I love when he chooses to shine by doing "small" things like work a half crab or stomp Ricochet's back. Gulak is a pro wrestler like Chris Hero, someone who understands the nuances and can deliver joy with elite execution on "simple" moves. Seeing him work a cutoff spot with a timed headbutt to the chest is a cool thing to still see in wrestling. 

It's good for Tozawa to work with someone like Gulak. He's been mired in the comedy ninja gimmick for quite awhile now and it's easy to forget what a great worker he was during some of those 205 Live years everyone has memory-holed. Working with Gulak allows him to up his game and show why he's remained employed for an improbable near 5 years. He's been a unique presence on Main Event for 2 years now, weirdly existing in this vacuum. He's a guy who will really benefit from the return of crowds, and it will be fascinating to see which guys blossom when that happens. The finish tricked me into thinking Gulak was going to get the win again, with his nice pinning powerbomb followed up with Tozawa's big senton. But Mansoor is unbeatable. Loved this tag, some inspired work on a C-show. 

PAS: This was a nifty little TV bout, showing some real chemistry between old Chikara guys Gulak and Ricochet (I wonder if there is a Helios vs. Solider Ant match out there worth watching). Ricochet puts some pop in his moves, and Gulak works pretty stiff. Best thing in this match was probably his back elbow to break out of a fireman's carry. I still feel like Mansoor is the odd man out. Gulak, Ricochet and Tozawa are such polished pros that Mansoor almost feels like a celebrity wrestler, like this is how Bad Bunny would work if he decided to go wrestle on Main Event. Still these are guys who can work around a celebrity wrestler in a tag match, and it was good stuff.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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What's the Best WWF Lex Luger Match? Is it with Perfect?

Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect WWF WrestleMania IX 4/4/93

ER: Lex Luger gets a great entrance, flanked by four women in bikini thongs, an outdoor arena filled with 10 year olds in disbelief that they're seeing butts. They hold him mirrors with sparklers on them, and it seems windy for that. Luger poses for a really long time, and heel posing Luger is so much better than face posing Luger. Perfect gets a loud reaction for his entrance music and Luger's girls are walking out as he's walking in, and he jumps out of the way of one of them while making an ewwwwww face. Perfect just working a bit out here. And this match feels like it should have gotten a bigger reaction. Maybe it was half the crowd looking directly into the sun, or maybe they were burnt out from a day just spent out in the sun, or burnt out from the Hogan segment. But this is quiet. It is good, but feels like it should have been better, and there were some miscommunications that looked clunky. But it still should have gotten a louder reaction. Perfect is really smart and senses the silence, so starts playing to the crowd by working stiff and making some loud noise. He hits a super loud chop in the corner and laughs along with the crowds louder reaction, so he goes back to that in a couple fun ways. He hits another chop for the crowds approval, slaps Luger in the stomach off an Irish whip, and starts kicking him in the hamstring all around the ring.

Perfect's knee work was really cool, and it's a shame they didn't let that play into the rest of the match. And, Luger's back work was really cool, and it's a shame they didn't let that play into the rest of the match. Each had nice powerslams, Perfect almost wrecked his leg on a missile dropkick, Luger knows hot to take a catapult into the turnbuckles really well, there's a really fast rope running exchange with a slick Perfect leapfrog, a fun match. The finish is a bad one (par for the course on this show), with this cursed idea that's a bad idea on paper, and a poorly executed idea in reality. It was supposed to be a battle over backslides (that's not the part that sounds bad, battles over backslides should always be cool), and Luger sets it up by swinging a full 360 on a missed clothesline. Except Perfect doesn't duck or anything, so Luger just spins in a circle and then they clumsily lock arms back to back. Luger gets it and Perfect's entire body is in the ropes, but Marella counts the 3 anyway and it stands. Marella was given some bad finishes on this show, making him look like a guy purposely trying to get fired for the duration of this PPV. Luger salvages things some by blasting Perfect with the forearm after the match. I loved that KO forearm as a killshot.

This was not Luger's best WWF match. 

1. Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

2. Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect WWF WrestleMania IX 4/4/93

3. Lex Luger vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan WWF UK Rampage 93

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Shinya Hashimoto Saw Me Standing Alone Without A Dream in My Heart

Shinya Hashimoto/Masa Saito/Koji Kitao vs. Bam Bam Bigelow/Steve Williams/Big Van Vader NJPW 5/24/90 - EPIC

PAS: Look at this absolutely murderers row of badasses. I mean who is the softest dude in this match, Bigelow? Maybe Kitao? This is worked like you wanted it to be worked, just big beast dudes throwing escalating hard shots at each other. I loved Saito in this. He seemed to inch up the intensity with every interaction, and the gaijin seemed shocked at how hard this little teapot looking guy was hitting them, and there is nothing Steve Williams loves more than escalation. Kitao is green but legit, and was right there looking like he belonged in this fight. There were a couple of great Williams and Hash exchanges, including Shinya hitting a weird high bodypress and Williams breaking up a pin with a headscissors. Post match has a big Vader vs. Kitao face off, which really makes me want to search for that singles match. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO

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New Footage Friday: All Japan 1/8/90

FULL SHOW

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Mitsuo Momota

MD: For a first match young guy, Kikuchi looked to have a ton of promise here. The dropkick stands out but he sold well and just looked like he belonged in there for the most part. Momota is a guy you want to see as an underdog, so watching him tear apart an arm in interesting ways is compelling but not what I enjoy the most out of him. They dropped the arm stuff in the last third which didn't necessarily do the match justice but you could see hints of the wrestler Kikuchi would become here.

ER: This felt more like a 1990 WWF house show match than a 1990 All Japan match, which still has some pluses. Much of the match is Momota grinding at Kikuchi's left arm, and Kikuchi's screaming during the arm work really made a lot of it resonate. But once you know that the left arm is never going to come up in any way once they go into the home stretch, it kind of renders the bulk of the match as "lets see if these front rows fill up a little more before the bigger matches". So you lop out the long arm section, and you're still left with a couple of cool things. Kikuchi's dropkick is fantastic and the way Momota sells it makes it seem like it hits with as much force as it looks like it's hitting. Later in the match Momota merely tosses Kikuchi to the floor and Kikuchi flies through the ropes as if he's hitting a tope on an invisible man, just a nutty bump to be taking in a "work the arm" match. I really loved how Momota blocked a Kikuchi hip toss by holding the ropes in the corner, then violently shoved Kikuchi to the mat. But I just can't by a single DDT finishing off Kikuchi, not after I seeing the decades of coconut clonks his head would end up enduring. 

Goro Tsurumi vs. Steve Gatorwolf

MD: Man, Gatorwolf's chops suck. I'll just lay that out there. He's big, has some presence, but Wahoo he is not. You know who could have had a good match against Tsurumi? Wahoo. Tsurumi's stuff is all good though. Good knees, took up space well, etc., but this was too long and Gatorwolf disappoints. We go deep on these cards, look under the overturned rock, but there maybe should be some limits? This feels like a match that no one's ever seen certainly, including the people that were actually in the crowd that night.

ER: I liked this more than Matt, and disagree about Gatorwolf's chops. Bad kneedrop? Sure Gatorwolf had a bad kneedrop. But All Japan fans had different ideas of what overhand chops to someone's forehead were supposed to look like and I think Gatorwolf's chops worked really well within the context of All Japan. What is kind of odd about Gatorwolf, is that his overhand chops are easily his weakest strike, but also the strike he uses 75% of the time. It would be like a pitcher with a terrible curveball who still used his curveball almost every pitch. There's a traditional chop exchange out of the corner, and Gatorwolf really blisters Goro's chest with a couple. He also threw this short right hand to the jaw a couple times that looked really good, but mostly it was the tomahawk chops. Goro Tsurumi is always an entertaining low card guy for me, but I think of him as a mid 80s AJ guy, not a 1990 AJ guy, and his offense that is primarily eye rakes and punches doesn't seem like anything that would fit into AJ (outside of Rusher Kimura). 

Tsurumi essentially works like Tarzan Goto working as Rusher Kimura, and that is a thing that I like. His punches look really great (and I love how he shook out his hand occasionally), he has a nice jawbreaker (which Gatorwolf bumped nicely), a couple of fun kneedrops where he just dropped both knees down into Gatorwolf's stomach, and a few eye rake variants. I couldn't believe Gatorwolf got the win here. Early 90s AJ had this weird habit of bringing in WWF job guys for tours, but it's not like they were giving those guys wins! Gatorwolf worked Tsurumi far more than any opponent on his tour, and was 8-2 against him! He lost to everyone else, so this might have been Baba really blatantly saying "You do not belong in All Japan any longer, Goro. Also you will be losing to David Sammartino and Joel Deaton in a couple months."  

Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Rip Rogers

MD: Rogers was just infinitely entertaining. If I was Baba, I'd have put him right in the comedy six mans (That weren't quite comedy six mans yet, but we'll get to that). He's a super over the top parody babyface here with lots of clapping and oh yeahs! He carried a kid around the ring on his shoulders before the match, which felt unique but was something he did multiple times on the tour. And if this was 1997 Ogawa or 2002 Ogawa or whatever, he would have been able to react and respond to it and it would have been amazing. 1990 Ogawa? He played grumpy with a chip on his shoulder as Rogers is just having a good time. I liked this a lot better than his Kobashi match a couple of days later, because Kobashi, in the midst of a big 7 match series against various opponents (including allies like Kabuki and Yatsu) just took it all way too seriously with the ability to take it to Rip, forcing Rogers into more of a heel role, where here he felt like a bizarre attraction. 

ER: I love the Rip Rogers All Japan tours, and Rip really should have been a regular undercard gaijin for the rest of the decade. Mike Modest basically secured a long term NOAH gig by getting a simple thumbs up gesture over, and Rogers has 5 or 6 different bits that are a definite hit with the AJ crowds. I've looked at some of his other matches from his two tours (here are matches against Fuchi and Sato, and here are matches against Kobashi and Eigen), and the act is a hit. Clapping, toting around kids, taking an eternity to hand off his robe, checking out his hair in his hand mirror, it gets a reaction every time and I have no doubt that he would have added to the routines with a longer stay. Rip has the shtick (which Ogawa plays into a little, mussing up Rip's hair), but he also works stiff, and this was when Ogawa was more of a stiff younger worker too, so we get a great mix of goof off yelping from Rip and then some stiff arm lariats from both. Rip has great punches (and he shakes his fist out too! A bunch of guys after my heart on this show...) and both bumped convincingly for the other. I loved Rip finishing with a superplex, too, but I just couldn't shake the idea that this guy should have been a gaijin undercard star.  

Mighty Inoue/Isamu Teranishi vs. The Fantastics

MD: Inoue was really good. I don't think he gets enough credit. Huge energy. Everything's crisp. Everything's mean. He has something special in how he moves and hits stuff. Teranishi, on the other had, does not. He was in there to lose offense and get beaten on. Fantastics kept taking advantage on him with teamwork and then Inoue had to come in and fix things. Fulton and Rogers had good stuff, like always, and fed well for Inoue, but I like them more when they get to lean into either face or heel roles generally.

ER: The Fantastics are so great during their 90s All Japan run that I have to imagine a ton of people just weren't seeing their matches, or else they would have been talked about as one of the greater 90s tag teams. The are total asskickers in All Japan, small, but packing a wallop. Matching them up against the still very fast and hard hitting Mighty Inoue and the super tough sumo Teranishi is just a super fun pairing. Fulton kept cutting off Inoue and Teranishi with his great right hand, Rogers had a lot of force behind everything he did (he hit a legdrop on a hot tag at one point and it felt like he was trying his hardest to destroy his tailbone), but perhaps his greatest strength is in taking all of Inoue's nastiest shots. Inoue sticks Rogers with a disgusting gutbuster/senton combo and looks like a truck tire rolling over Tommy. Teranishi hits a great kneedrop off the top and it felt like a possible finish. But the Fantastics were too good with cutoff spots and watching them peel Teranishi far enough away from Inoue was great, loved their Drive-By finish, and Fulton's running punch to keep Inoue from breaking up the pin was the sweetest icing.

 

Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura/The Great Kabuki vs. Masanobu Fuchi/Motoshi Okuma/Haruka Eigen

MD: You can't say that they didn't make good use out of Fuchi in these matches. He was able to switch on a dime between hanging with his legendary opponents and stooging all over the place for them. Due to the HH, I had a hard time telling Fuchi's side apart at times, but that's more on me. Baba's more mobile here and Rusher hasn't shifted over completely to the bit where he just stands around stoically as people hit him, but I'm not sure that's even a good thing. The matches get a lot funnier a few years later even if they're probably more technically sound at this point.

ER: I thought this was great, and maybe the best fusion of comedy and the guys still being able to work. Everyone in a trios having the average age of 45 just feels like a modern WWE match, and most of these guys could still go in the ring. It's much more wrestling with some comedy, as opposed to comedy with a little bit of wrestling like this style of trios would become. A lot of these guys (Eigen, Fuchi, Kabuki, Okuma) are still real ass kickers, Baba was still able to hit with a surprising amount of force and was still quite spry, and Rusher was inflexible but still had several cool tricks. 

Baba and Fuchi were a great match, with Baba hitting him with some really impressive stuff for a 52 year old giant. His Russian legsweep makes him look like an actual powerful giant, he hits one of the loudest Baba chops I've ever heard to the side of Fuchi's neck, Fuchi runs super fast directly into Baba's big boot, it honestly looked like they could have had a great singles match in 1990. But for some reason Fuchi hardly worked singles matches in 1990, not defending his World Junior title for a six month stretch. It's not just those two with chemistry, everyone works really well with everyone else, all get nice moments to shine. Kabuki looked as violent as ever, starting a match long trend of Eigen and Fuchi getting kicked in the shoulder blades. Kabuki makes kicking guys in the back and look so fun that Baba throws several great ones of his own. Eigen is really spirited and mean here, throwing stiff chops, slapping the taste out of Rusher's mouth with a hard fast combo, taking a quick flipping bump to the floor; he didn't look too old to be out to pasture, but he was working 90% tags and trios as one of the lowest totem pole guys on the roster. It's a real testament to how deep the native roster was. 

Okuma is a guy I always forget about, but contributed nasty headbutts (including a big standing splash variation) and has some great battles with Rusher and Baba. Even Rusher has his vicious moments, taking a ton of headbutts and throwing heavy chops, choking Eigen hard in the ropes. The comedy is well integrated and smartly played, not nearly so much a focal point of the match style, but a fun added feature of a quicker paced match than you'd expect. There was a lot of movement for a match that would become the old man style, and the few comedy spots provide nice breaks in the action. We get the Eigen spitting spot, except nobody has newspapers and he makes it to the 3rd row. And we get a great comedy callback spot to play off an earlier Baba moment. Kabuki had hit a hard bodyslam on Fuchi and Baba stepped firmly down onto Fuchi's stomach with his gigantic foot, then firmly walking on and over him. Fuchi later tries to do the same, only to get his foot grabbed, tripping him on his way over. The finish is a bit abrupt, which is a funny thing to say about one of the longest matches on the show. But I thought this was really one of the best matches from a style not known for it's high end in-ring. 

Shinichi Nakano vs. Randy Rose

MD: You feel a little bad for Rose to have to follow Rip on the card. He tried hard, though, including hitting an axe-handle off the apron, but his stooge stuff (like getting pulled off the ropes in a double leg or teeter-tottering like Funk in the ropes while getting chopped or getting atomic dropped onto a chair) wasn't going to play post-Rip. Nakano, like usual, was just there. This was fine but the crowd didn't come along.


Shunji Takano/Akira Taue vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Ivan Koloff

MD: A nothing match. This was a good tour for Koloff, but you don't really get to see that here so just take my word for it. Taue wasn't even close to being The Taue at this point, and watching him here, you couldn't be blamed for thinking he'd be another sumo guy who didn't make it. Takano (who was a couple of years younger actually), on the other hand, seemed like he would have been a player.

Yoshiaki Yatsu/Kenta Kobashi vs. The British Bulldogs

MD: This was mostly Davey Boy putting young Kobashi through his paces, but that was a lot of fun to see. Davey looked great and like he could have been feuding with Jumbo or Tenryu for the Triple Crown if he didn't go to the WWF towards the end of 90. I'm iffy on late Bulldogs matches because it's not very enjoyable to watch broken-down Dynamite, but he wasn't in much and mostly threw headbutts or did a little bit of grinding on Kobashi when he was in. Yatsu got to clean house towards the end but this felt about getting some more miles on Kobashi.

Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask II/Isao Takagi vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Toshiaki Kawada/Samson Fuyuki

MD: This came just a few days after Takagi brutally ambushed Tenryu before a singles TV match with Koloff. It's also one of Tiger Mask Misawa's first matches back after missing most of 89 with an injury. Tenryu had faced Jumbo dozens of times over the last year, but generally, Tenryi had the younger guys (in Footloose) on his side and Jumbo would have older warriors like Kabuki or Yatsu on his. There wasn't a lot of opportunity to see Tenryu be a grumpy bastard against the youth. He made up for lost time here. Every time he got into the ring and got his hands on Takagi, it's great. He just brutalizes him for a few seconds and then dismissively tags out to one of his partners. He's equally a jerk to Tiger Mask (chopping him for no reason whenever he gets too close to the corner while he's on the apron) and, of course, Jumbo (just leaping into the ring, running across and tagging him). 

My single favorite bit was him wrecking Takagi after Isao had the impudence to pull Tiger Mask out of the way of the Tenryu top rope elbow drop. It was obvious that he took it personally and no one was better at taking things personally than Tenryu. Even though that was my favorite, the match was just full of great Tenryu moments: dropping a table on Takagi from the outside, eating some Tiger Mask kicks only to yank him down to the mat by his mask, smugly dodging a double knee by Takagi and Jumbo. All the while, he's incredibly giving, letting Tiger Mask and Takagi both have big moments against him. Jumbo and Footloose play their parts well and this ends up being as a really nice piece of business and a great lost match.

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What's the Best WWF Lex Luger Match? Is it with Hacksaw?

Lex Luger vs. Jim Duggan WWF UK Rampage 93

ER: I had no idea how big of a star Jim Duggan was in early 1993 UK, apparently. This would have been just a couple months after Duggan was the first to knock Yokozuna off his feet - a moment I remember watching - but I wouldn't have thought that would have had a huge impact across the pond. Yokozuna did an in ring promo before this match, and Luger's entrance was treated basically like an afterthought. Yokozuna stays at ringside and the place comes unglued when Duggan's music hits. This is a 12,000 strong crowd and Duggan is wearing his USA singlet and USA kneepads, and gets the entire crowd to chant USA. Can you even entertain the IDEA of a foreign crowd chanting USA at a WWE show any time during the past 20 years?? You'd think this was in Alabama, not Yorkshire. Seriously, USA chants. Luger might as well not have even been in the ring. 

Luger works this as a stooge for Duggan, bumping around for Duggan's running clotheslines and playing into spots like trying to smash Duggan's head into the turnbuckles, only to have it reversed. Duggan was treated like Hogan and it was like I was watching this match from some weird alternate timeline. Yokozuna ends up sitting on Duggan on the floor, leading to the DQ, and Perfect runs in after Luger lays Duggan out. As loud as the crowd was for Duggan, they react to Perfect as if he was the biggest name on the show (which was true, so that checks out). The main thing this match accomplished was making me genuinely want to see a Luger/Yoko vs. Duggan/Perfect match, which is a match they set up wonderfully here and then never mentioned it again. All they did was run Luger/Perfect and Yoko/Duggan singles matches the rest of the tour.

Lex Luger's best WWF match was not against Duggan, but this was unique and weird in a good way. 

1. Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

2. Lex Luger vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan WWF UK Rampage 93

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What's the Best WWF Lex Luger Match? Is it with Tito Santana?

Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

ER: This was a really good start to the Luger project, a nice strong contender right off the bat. Tito was getting his usual strong babyface reaction and heel Luger played off it great, being real slow to tie up in any way and slowly circling to make the crowd restless. The lockups are good as they avoid a typical collar and elbow, with Luger instead bending Tito's arm back straight over Tito's shoulder, then hitting a hard frustrated back elbow when Tito turns it. Luger really sets up his own win early by routinely going after Tito's neck, and smartly sets up a ton of Santana nearfalls just by intensely missing offense. Luger really swung for the fences on everything he did, making the hits look great, and the misses leaving him off balance and wide open for Santana to take quick action. There were two different missed Luger clothesline that were thrown so low and so fast that they would have wrecked Santana's neck had their been a crossed signal, and it made Tito's inside cradle and small package nearfalls all the more believable, and Luger made little things like being rammed face first into the turnbuckle look like he had chipped a tooth. 

I liked all of Luger's offense directed towards Santana's neck, punches to the back of his neck, downward elbows strikes to the back of his neck, STANDING on Santana's neck, and some nasty Bret Hart style elbowdrops right to Tito's throat. The home stretch is fairly surprising, as Santana calls for and hits his flying forearm, but Luger kicks out at two. The fans were rabid at this point, actually jumping out of their chairs thinking they had just seen Luger beaten in the middle. I wish they would have set up the finish a little differently, as Luger just gets up and obliterates Tito with the running forearm, basically shrugging off Tito's finisher. But the forearm looked like such a devastating KO blow - Santana went down like he was shot, really different than any other bump in the match - that it just made Luger look superhuman. Gorilla and Alfred speculate on whether that was the hardest KO they've seen, and what Luger could have done to generate such force.

This is a strong champ to start off with, already feels like it will be difficult to unseat. 

1. Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Rouxel! Delaporte! Wiecz! de Zarzecki! Mr. Montreal!

Andre Bollet/Jack Rouxel vs.  Eddy Wiecz/Warnia de Zarzecki 11/14/65

MD: Another week, another show, another really good tag. Here Rouxel was positioned as Bollet's understudy (I think they said Delaporte was off fishing). We'd seen him even four years earlier, but whatever; it worked. He was a snippy goon who would make mistakes or get let down by Bollet and come back mean. While the last fall ended up a bit nebulous, there was a fairly clear shine/heat/comeback structure for a good chunk of this, with more of a southern tag feel than usual as Wiecz kept drawing the ref away in frustration to allow for the double-team. I've said it before, but he was a guy who really got how to get over. There was a moment where he'd been beat on for a bit and Zarzecki finally got in and tossed Rouxel out. Weicz went right after him to the floor and got revenge and then whacked Bollet when he came out for good measure. The finish of the last fall was really him just blocking a punch and firing back bit. He was endlessly flashy with the cartwheels and backflips, but also more inclined to take advantage with a cheapshot out of the corner or rushing across the ring to whack his opponent on the apron. Zarzecki was a good partner for him and Rouxel a good punching bag. Bollet was as over the top as ever and endlessly entertaining. The last fall was celebratory and lacking drama, like an old lucha match where the tercera was about the tecnicos clowning the rudos, but there was enough heat in the middle to make up for it.

PAS: I was really into Rouxel, he has such a hateable face, sneering puckered lips, you just want to see him get pounded and he really gets his comeuppance in the third fall. Wiecz (Carpentier) is the biggest legend (outside of Andre) we have in this footage and you can see why he was such a world wide draw. While he was known as a huge highspot guy in the US, he is hardly the flashy worker in France. But he has great timing, really knows how to make his flips and dropkicks mean something, and knows when to just let his hands go. He reminds me of Carlos Colon without the leaking. Bollet seems like his legendary opponent, and is such a brutal buffoon that you want to see him get his just desserts, and he goes big flying and stooging when it happens. Matt is right about the third fall lacking a bit of escalation but the entire ride was super enjoyable. 

Roger Delaporte/Andre Bollet vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Mr. Montreal 12/12/65

MD: Last week had our last Cesca and Ben Chemoul tag and they felt like one of the best teams ever. We have a couple more with Delaporte and Bollet, including this match-up once more a few years later, and it's not exactly a tough statement to say they're one too. In 65, they were just off filming Left Handed Johnny West (or maybe the release of the movie) and they felt like stars. Bollet was as irritating as possible in every moment, a proto Buddy Rose who could go and stooge and hammer and jaw with the crowd. Delaporte moved more gingerly than any wrestler ever, like when Regal looked like he swallowed something vile, but turned up to 11. Here he seemed a little older, somehow even more toiled in his movements. As they aged, they came off like the world's most violent Statler and Waldorf. Zarzecki is a completely competent stylist and Montreal is one of the best surprises of the footage, relative to expectations. You have every reason to expect an empty musclehead but he's great just slugging it out and has a natural babyface charisma. We watch enough of these tags over the years and you can see tropes and tools develop. In late 65, we're seeing much more in the way of babyfaces trying to run and and the ref getting distracted by them than a few years earlier. When they're on top, Delaporte and Bollet control the ring well and they get real heat, even if there's always a patina of fun and the fans almost being in on the joke with them here as opposed to years earlier. The comeback in the second fall is downright celebratory, just a constant buzz and pop for one moment of comeuppance after another. And then, on a dime, the bastards can turn it right back on, with Bollet crushing Montreal at the end with a harsh slam into the corner and one of the first actual power slams we've seen.

PAS: Another really fun tag, with Montreal being the focus of the babyface team, and the killer heel squad of Bollet and Delaporte back on their bullshit. Delaporte and Bollet are like clownish hotel owners in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, you expect Delaporte to accidentally eat a hot pepper and have steam come out of his ears. As comedic as the heels were, they could switch and kick some ass too. There were some pretty nasty beatings laid on Montreal and the finishing powerslam was brutal stuff. The quality of these weekly tags is just off the charts. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! WALTER! Andrews! Seven!

Kassius Ohno vs. Mark Andrews NXT UK 6/16 (Aired 7/17/19) (Ep. #51)

ER: This was a different match than I was hoping for based on the build, but unsurprising that Ohno is going to craft another cool match around a different NXT UK opponent. I went in (perhaps unfairly) wanting a superkick battle, like the amazing Chris Adams/Great Kabuki match from Texas. Ohno took a great jab at Andrews on TV, saying Andrews is a guy who does a superkick because of his idol Shawn Michaels, instead of respecting his British wrestling heritage and using it because of Adams. Ohno has the true greatest British style wrestler is hands down the best gimmick going in NXT UK, and that's enough to make me not as grumpy about not getting Ohno working a superkick match. We get a cravat match and it's as cool as expected. Andrews occasionally finds an interesting way out of a cravat and gets an armdrag, slips around into his own headlock, but keeps winding up getting his neck twisted in different ways. 

It peaks with Ohno catching an Andrews pescado, walking him to the ringpost, unwrapping the turnbuckle pad from the hoist, and throwing Andrews throat first into it. But that's probably not even the meanest thing Ohno inflicts on Andrews, as his cross chops to the throat are maybe the most painful looking strike on WWE TV. Andrews gets his weakened neck worked over more while Ohno also finds ways to trap limbs, and Ohno is great at making openings for him, although in the end I think Andrews got far too many openings. Ohno usually has perfect instincts for how much to give an opponent, especially a smaller opponent, but I think Andrew's comeback was a bit beyond. Ohno is great at taking his offense, helping pull off a dragonrana to the floor, a nice in ring rana, and a poison rana that Ohno took convincingly as a heavier man. Ohno's reversals of flyer offense are always a highlight, and he splats Andrews with a tremendous pancake, really slapping Andrews into the mat. Ohno built to the finish as well as possible, and even though I didn't fully buy into Andrews getting the win, I don't think anyone else on the roster could have pulled off this match layout as effectively as Ohno did. 

WALTER vs. Trent Seven NXT 6/16 (Aired 7/24/19) (Ep. #52)

ER: This was a really really great 8 minute match that was 15 minutes long, but they were doing a thing and they did that thing well. This was a big Trent Seven dying on his sword match, so that was a lot of fighting back and WALTER refusing to finish and instead choosing punishment. I thought the first half was really great, and then we had more slowdown and more fighting back down the stretch, going a bit long but making its point. The steam was really good to start, with Seven hitting WALTER with a tope on his entrance, another dive after, then keeping on him, even when it became apparent that more defense would have helped him. He would fire at WALTER with chops and WALTER would endure them, then fire back with kicks to the face and chops of his own. WALTER locked in a mean half crab and snug STF, tying up his arms. This was a real good slugfest, neither man with anyone to hold them back, WALTER hitting big uppercuts and Seven firing back with a convincing lariat. I wasn't as convinced with all of Seven's comebacks, but thought WALTER sold strong for them and I liked WALTER punishing him for his insolence with powerbomb after powerbomb. I would have preferred them slugging it out until one of them fell on their face, but this worked well for the angle. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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WWE Hell in a Cell 6/20/21

Mandy Rose vs. Natalya

ER: I really liked this, living up to the usually strong level of 8 minute match that happen on the pre-show. Natalya is so boring, and so confoundingly mad, because she has a good performance like this once every six months. Occasionally she'll bring actual shooter personality into a match, and Mandy has no problem doing that either. You can tell when a match is a little more chippy than expected, and this actually made their little confrontation building this match more interesting. They treated it seriously, had a match with some really good moments and a great pace. This felt like an interesting fight atmosphere that had a ton of one-upping, so many matches can feel totally disconnected from the reason the match is happening in the first place. They had an abdominal stretch reversal sequence that I really loved, with Mandy wrenching one in and slapping Natalya in the face, to have Natalya reverse it by grinding her elbow into Mandy's knee, and then they were both grinding elbows between ribs and over kneecaps, a really great sequence. They kept things snug the whole match, working tight headlocks and convincing submissions, and it's just really annoying that Natalya can do this twice a year. The broken clock of wrestling. This was Natalya's best match this year; Rose has been a consistently strong TV worker all year, but this was her best work in 2021. Two people coming together to have their best match in at least 6 months is always going to be a great thing. 

Bianca Belair vs. Bayley

ER: I liked this a lot though I do think it lost steam at the end. I don't think this match really needed the Cell and once they finally built to using it I think it shifted focus. Up until then I was into it all, thought Bayley was great at running hard into everything, and I loved the focus on Bayley distracting Bianca by going after her hair. Bianca whipping her hair into a chair is a funny spot, but Bayley tying her braid to ropes or a chair or standing on it was awesome.  Bianca was great at fighting out of it and Bayley's heel ringwork was good. The use of the ring steps and a chair was good, less interested in seeing the kendo sticks and have kendo stick prop set up time for a spot that would have been nastier as just a suplex on the floor. Bayley's strong presence playing off Bianca gave it a high floor, but I don't think this was as good as Mandy/Natalya. HIAC gimmick makes them think they have to go long, but it's fine to have a hot 12 minute HIAC rather than a 20 minute one that drags in spots. They have been trapped into associating this match with "long main event" regardless of feud or card placement. 

Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins

ER: There aren't many things that excite me less than the promise of a Seth Rollins match, but I think I like these non-main event Rollins matches so much more that my opinions have to course correct a bit. He's been on a nice in-ring run since Mania, and this was a good match that felt fresh, even though these guys have been having matches on WWE TV for many years now. Rollins was going after Cesaro's eye and I thought his punches at the eye looked great, and thought their chemistry was strong the whole match. I bit at all of the nearfalls, especially loved Rollins' small package roll up as Cesaro grabbed the legs for the big swing. Rollins gets good height on Cesaro's big stuff, it's a good match-up for this part of the card. 

Shayna Baszler vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: It's a shame because I think Bliss's work during non-horseshit parts of this match were great, every one of her cutoff elbows made for a great moment, I just will not ever enjoy this mind control "Shayna is scared to make eye contact with Bliss" nonsense. Even when they do it "well" like with Nia being forced to slap Reginald, it's the thing I'd rather not ever see in wrestling. Call me a crank, I'm fine with that being a line for me. The actual wrestling in the match made me just want to see a straight match between them. Bliss is good at elbowing Shayna in the mouth and actually finding ways to be the smaller aggressor, and I don't think I've ever seen them wrestle before. But it was always going to come down to boogeyman stuff and I can at least thank Shayna for spiking herself on a DDT and Abigail even though she had to make a lot of derpy hypnotized faces. 

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens

ER: This was their match, and they have managed to have their match in various interesting ways for longer than maybe anyone else in WWE. They always know how to add a little extra edge and Zayn especially is on a fine role. His conspiracy theorist asshole character works great with his ring style (or vice versa?) and he's been putting in some of my favorite work of his decade. Zayn gets his mouth busted open and both guys throw strikes that count, and both always seem to have a special desire to bounce on their shoulders and heads for offense. The always have lightly different ways to have the same good match, and this was no different. 

Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair

ER: Didn't care for this. I swear I looked at the clock during this and the number went down. 

Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre

ER: Didn't care for all of this either, and it was mainly due to the 25 minutes. We've seen these two match up several times since Mania and this felt like the least necessary of the bunch. There was a lot of good damage in the match, but ending a long HIAC match with a distraction roll up feels like a tough finish to pull off in 2021. Both landings through tables looked gross (Drew's death drop to the floor looked great) but the vibe just wasn't there for me here like it's been with the Mania, Backlash, and Raw matches. 

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Lucha Worth Watching: Pandemic Lucha! Santo! Zumbido!

Zumbido vs. Mr. Jerry Chinampalucha 9/5/20

ER: This is certainly some Covid lucha right here. It's held outdoors on someone's lakebed chinampa, so we get a lot of bumps and spills into tilled agriculture beds that are all lit by tiki torches. Jerry is a short fat guy who's built more like a gamer than a former athlete, but has great taste in neon tasseled tights. Zumbido, however, is the king of tasseled lucha tights (post-Jerry Estrada class) and you can tell he doesn't want Jerry infringing (ehhh?) on his tassel game. Zumbido throws a ton of left jabs at anyone who gets close to him (Jerry, refs, seconds, photographers), Jerry takes bumps into dirt hills, Zumbido hits his great somersault senton on a dirt hill, and from there doesn't seem to do anything he wouldn't do in an actual arena. He hits a nice tope con giro and takes a fast Jerry (Estrada, not Mr.) bump to the floor, and that bump leads to a great fat guy tope from Mr. Jerry. There are a couple dicey exchanges, like some headbutt back and forths where several don't make contact, and Zumbido slips bad on an in ring moonsault, but there is plenty of good to sustain the match. I liked a lot of their standing striking, with Zumbido peppering his great jabs and hard overhand chops, and Jerry firing back with slaps and even a couple wicked backhands. A bunch of other wrestlers get involved, Gran Felipe Jr. hits a big plancha into everyone, and then things take a turn I was not expecting: I am not sure if this was a buried alive match or not, but Zumbido tosses Jerry into a ringside shallow grave, tosses his second, tosses Felipe...and then the rudos bury them alive under branches, fronds, and dirt! Zumbido literally stands on the grave and poses!! All three men died. 

El Hijo del Santo/Mascara Purpura vs. Hijo del Fishman/Pentagon Black Martinez Entertainment 12/19/20

ER: Old man Santo turning up the week of Christmas? It's a Christmas miracle! This was on a cool sounding Texas lucha show where all people wanted for Christmas was to pretend they weren't in the middle of a pandemic and sit close to strangers indoors. The show had a lot of big names, but none bigger than Santo. They took their enjoyable time building this match and finished with some dynamite dives, but the whole thing was littered with cool moments. I loved Pentagon being a real hit and run prick, throwing hard slaps before beating a retreat to the floor, and I loved how his retreats got more hasty the longer he kept them up, leading to him taking a couple of fun pratfall bumps into the ropes after getting caught. He kept going after Santo's mask, and this kind of hit and run rudo routine is made so much better knowing that Santo was the one who took Pentagon's mask so many years ago. It builds to a big moment where Santo finally yanked Pentagon's mask off, and Santo threw him into a bunch of chairs. Purpura works quick and throws himself into turnbuckles, and hits a really nice flipping senton tope onto Pentagon (and the hard ass indoor soccer field floor). Santo and Fishman work through Santo's ankle crossed headscissors, and we build to the big moment that 57 year old Santo still somehow builds to, hitting his somersault senton off the top, adjusting for Fishman's position on the floor, and hitting a gorgeous tope. I'm not sure Santo can do the senton/tope all in one fluid motion anymore, but it's a real marvel that he is still hitting these moves at all, let alone as well as he still can. 

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New Footage Friday: ROSE! TENRYU! TAKASHI ISHIKAWA! FINLAY! FUNK!WAR GAMES!

Buddy Rose/Alexi Smirnoff vs. Tenryu Shimada/Takashi Onome Big Time Wrestling 9/2/78

MD: This was a TV match to get over the Rose/Smirnoff tag team and build to more Texas Red/Dean Ho matches where Ishikawa and Tenryu (with their modified names) were there to put up a fight but put over the heels. What's so fascinating about it to me is how naturally Tenryu worked in this setting. You could see him take a different path and be an ethnic babyface throughout a bunch of territories into the 80s. After some pretty good armwork, he comes in off a hot tag and he was like Tito Santana or Rick Martel for a couple of minutes. I know the prevailing thought is that Tenryu doesn't become Tenryu until after Choshu comes in and it's true; this was a different guy, but he was a more interesting guy than we usually see before the transformation and it was his role and his setting. You just don't have a lot of hot tags and "house afire" moments in turn of the 80s AJPW tags. Here he generic babyface stomped instead of the sharp kicks and had the generic wind-up punch. Just a different world from where he'd be ten years later, even if he did get to to the sumo palm charge and rolling cradle as well. If he was going to be this version of Tenryu, he would have done a lot better with it in the States. The heels looked good, with Smirnoff having a couple of interesting submissions, and Rose maximizing every moment, jawing to the announcers about what they'd do to their future opponents and just making everything look vicious and entertaining. You're watching this because it's a Buddy Rose match you probably haven't seen, always worth watching, but also to see a weird Americanized babyface version of Tenryu that might have been.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Steel EWR 5/18/01 - GREAT

MD: We're working off of two data points, but from what we've seen lately, Finlay was pretty damn good at being in three-ways. A lot of what makes this work is the interplay between he and Funk, the way they reacted to things and were presences in the match. Funk headbutting people. Finlay broaching no foolishness. Them working together only to turn on each other. Tiger Steel is Butch Masters and he makes a really expansive canvas for getting beaten on here by two of the real experts. He had some good moments of striking down upon Funk's skull too. The use of weapons was generally fun, with my favorite bit being a big piece of wood used as a springboard for Funk as it hung all the way across the ring on the bottom rope. There's a set up for a fire extinguisher that never gets paid off but that's chaos for you. The post match promo where Funk works to get the crowd to turn on him is almost as fun as the match.

PAS: Tiger Steel kind of wrestles like a poor man's Kevin Nash, and poor man's Kevin Nash is actually a pretty great third guy in a Finlay and Terry Funk 3-Way. He is there to get pounded on by both guys, gives each of them a little break where he works the other guy and lets Funk and Finlay catch their breath. This was a pretty fierce pace for guys in their 50s, and Funk and Finlay really vamp, it is a cool contrast with Funk being one of the great maximillist wrestlers of all time and Finlay being the ultimate minimalist, it isn't a contrast at all, it works in concert. Funk is pinballing himself in the ropes wilding around flinging punches, and Finlay is dropping short sick knees and hard forearms, while Steel is there to be hit.. It really works well, and the formlessness keeps it from being an EPIC, but I enjoyed every bit of it


Team Anarchy (Slim J/Azrael/Brody Lee Chase/Jeremy Vain/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Geter/Jagged Edge/Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 3/30/13 - EPIC

PAS: Always glad to see another Anarchy War Games match show up as the NWA Wildside youtube account has been dropping gems lately. This is a nifty bookend to the War Games matches in my book, as like 2006 Jerry Palmer has a 5 minutes in the cage stipulation, except this time as a heel, and like 2007 this is Jeff G. Bailey vs. Rev. Dan Wilson, although Rev. Dan was purely a babyface and didn't have a huge role in the match. Lots of great performances and a ton of blood, Slim J and Azrael and the Urban Assault Squad had been feuding and they are the first four in the cage and I really dug all of their interactions, including all of the ways Azrael used his partners body as a weapon throwing him into a flippy splashes. Vain was the big surprise and gets a big pop, I really liked Jagged Edge coming in with a cowbell and wrestling like a Black Bunkhouse Buck (Blackhouse Buck? Bunkhouse Black?). Geter is enormous and laid everyone out with some really punishing looking power offense. When the Match Beyond starts the face team really goes after Tempers, spraying him in the eyes and Slim J applying a sick looking STF for the tap out. Iceberg says he has too much history with Palmer to beat him up in the 5 minutes, but turns it on him and brings out Mikal Judas who lays waste to Palmer (including a sick kick to the face, which a littler birdy told me was a receipt for Palmer potatoing guys). This really had a lot to love about it, and it is the same neighborhood as the 06 ad 07 classics. 

MD: You knew you were going to get good stuff here anyway, but when it was Slim J coming down for the opening 5 minute period, that was basically cemented. He shined during the first couple of periods, wrestling evenly but gaining advantage at first, leading to the early blood from Jackson, then just getting lawn darted into the cage and bleeding himself once the Urban Assault Squad was at full strength, and finally showing off a hundred double team moves in a two minute span once Azrael made it in to even the odds. He was able to show off a full range of what you'd want from a War Games participant here, down to the big dive and nasty submission (and subsequent emotion with Palmer) at the end. There was so much local history in that ring and the weight of it made everything resonate all the more. The weapons added a bit of variety and made the blood flow even more conveniently. I liked how they handled Vain's return, as he had to clean house and get some shine but couldn't overshadow either Iceberg battling cleanup after him or the surprise for the Palmer 5 minutes. There was a real sense of attrition and advantage from the Elite having the numbers game for so long so even though he made a difference, it made sense that he got swept under even before his period was over. The post-match was a tricky balance. They needed to have Palmer get his comeuppance and take enough damage, but not take so much that the fans were elated and frothing to the point of not accepting the reconciliation; I was a little iffy as it was playing out but it worked for the crowd in the end.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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NXT Worth Watching: Ciampa/Thatcher vs. Strong/Cole

Tommaso Ciampa/Timothy Thatcher vs. Roderick Strong/Adam Cole NXT 2/3/21

ER: NXT has been the most entertaining part of mainstream wrestling TV of 2021 so far, and it feels like a lot of guys recognized to hold back on a lot of the melodrama. There is a lot more personality on NXT lately, beyond "I am serious about this and am shocked when you kick out of my moves". Guys are figuring out how to do "serious" without looking ridiculous, and this tag is a good example of a Mid-South style tag fusing with the modern NXT style. Modern NXT style is too obnoxious uncut, you need to cut it with an older, better regional style to make it bearable and much better. I think Ciampa has really excelled with these changes, going from seeming comically overly serious throughout the latter parts of the Gargano feud, to reigning in the sillier aspects and coming off as much more of an asskicker than before. He is wrestling more like Roderick Strong, which is a good thing. He hits hard on chops and elbows, and makes simple forgotten moments like kicks to the stomach look actually damaging. When a guy makes you notice how painful a transition kick to the stomach looks, it means he's really focusing on all details. Strong is as good as ever, maybe the most underrated worker of NXT brand history. Preposterous to think of him not having the role Cole occupies, while also excelling in the role of the clear #2 of a stable. 

Ciampa and Thatcher spend much of the match cutting Strong off from Cole, and both teams blur the line of face/heel without it ever getting dramatic and scowly. Strong is great at eating a beating while fighting back, and I especially loved a couple of body shots he threw while Thatcher was prepping for a suplex. I thought Ciampa's timing was excellent throughout, thought a knee he rocked Strong with made for a real surprise kickout, and when I rewatched the spot I thought his action was so strong throughout the whole sequence. The pinfall he sinks on Strong really added to the kickout, feels like he's paying the kind of attention to his game that stands out when you watch Bret Hart singles matches. Cole is energetic in his hot tag even if some of his stuff isn't my favorite. He fit into the match fine, and as the match turned into NXT chain spots I thought they built through them well. Strong was really awesome on offense and defense the whole match, loved him flying through the ropes with a Fuerza bump when Ciampa scouted a baseball slide dropkick, love that immediacy Strong brings to his moments. The Dusty Classic has been a fertile ground for quality men's and women's tags, and this is my favorite of the men's side (so far?). 

PAS: This didn't really do it for me. I really enjoyed the Strong vs. Thatcher parts of the match as they really had some nasty grappling and Thatcher has really dug into the sadistic parts of his character. He really does seem to gain joy out of hurting people, and Strong has always been a solid if a little colorless wrestler. Strong hits the mat just as hard, and lands some big chops. I though Ciampa and Cole were pretty bad though, especially in their exchanges which were dancey reversals as bad as the worst of this modern wrestling style. Man do I hate when two people "know each other so well", and this was some very bad "know each other so well" wrestling. Finish run just felt like the same PWG tag finisher spamming stuff we have seen for years. The individual moves look cool, but it was kind of formless and didn't build to anything. That finish run doesn't play to Thatcher's strengths and he was the guy I came into this match wanting to see. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Dustin vs. Comoroto

19. Dustin Rhodes vs. Nick Comoroto AEW Dynamite 6/4

PAS: This was a bullrope match, and really delivered what you want a Dustin Rhodes bull rope match to deliver. Comoroto has a great look, kind of like Missing Link, and delivers some big moments while working within the Dustin structure. I loved his spear on the floor, and chucking Fuego Del Sol into the rest of the wrestlers in the crowd was a fun crazy beast spot. The dribble of blood on his forehead looked great too, he looked like a caveman who had just bit into a juicy bloody mammoth leg. I loved the story of Dustin being the bullrope match expert and knowing all the different ways to leverage the rope into advantages. Short, violent, some big bumps, really enjoyable TV main event. 

ER: This match had a few things going for it before it even started: 1. It was a bullrope in the main event of a wrestling show, 2. Dustin Rhodes was one of the guys in the bullrope match, 3. His opponent was our best chance at getting a modern 1987 Hercules. We've gotten a lot of fake Brodys, I want a fake 1987 Hercules. Comoroto doesn't have the same crowd connection Hercules did, and we're never going to see him gassed to those levels, but he's still got a lot of time and potential. He's a great opponent for Dustin now, and that's what matters. There's a bunch of cool awkwardness with them both getting tangled in the bullrope, the kind of realness that adds to a match like this. Two guys throwing punches and hitting each other in the head and stomach with a cowbell is going to be great, add in a bunch of excellent Dustin rope choking and obviously this is great. 

Both guys take great bumps to the floor, Comoroto took a hard bump on the apron, and I liked all their brawling on the floor. They did a good job of integrating wrestlers as props, like Dustin hitting Aaron Solow with a powerslam on the floor or Comoroto pie facing Fuego del Sol and tossing him to the peanut gallery. Comoroto gets cool blood after getting yanked into the ringpost, and all the beats they hit back in the ring were good. Comoroto's 1 count kickout after the spinning suplex was well done, loved Dustin kicking him low and Comoroto slowly powering up out of it. Dustin's doing a quick hog tie to pin Comoroto honestly might have been my favorite part of the match. Dustin pulled off the tie and pin really quick, and it was a cool wrinkle in the story of Dustin being unable to keep Comoroto down with his actual big moves. Dustin couldn't overpower him, but he could outsmart him. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Wiecz! Rene Ben! Cesca! Lagache! N'boa!

Andre Bollet vs. Eddy Wiecz 9/21/65

MD: This is the finals of the Salon Cup, or at least it's for the cup, and it's primal and personal and violent and fun. There's a certain familiarity here that we don't usually get in the footage. It almost feels like a big blowoff match in a feud as opposed to the sporting match of the week, which is how it usually goes. There's a little bit of wrestling to start, with Wiecz able to hang on to holds or go right back into them and Bollet, as always, able to stooge his way right out of small, skillful victories in the most entertaining fashion possible. When it starts to pick up (with Bollet throwing the first blow), it never really settles back down. They're constantly abusing the ref whenever he tries to intervene and while he gives public warnings, he's suitably bullied by them and likely afraid to throw the whole thing out considering the importance of the match. Bollet will choke and grind and hammer, but then Wiecz will come back with just huge shots mixed in with a little bit of his athleticism, like the backflip off the top, or fun moments like catching Bollet's foot in the ropes and then tying the ref up too when he tried to stop him. They do a very good job of selling the attrition as the match goes on, with Wiecz flopping on shaky legs and Bollet needing to lean on his seconds or hang on to the ref. Ultimately it spills onto the floor and they have a last thundering exchange before Wiecz is to put him away definitively in the center of the ring. Just a real classic slugfest. If you told me this was the most watched and remembered French match-up of the 60s, I'd believe you.

PAS: I agree this felt like a classic. We have had better matches in this footage, but nothing which felt bigger. Bollet is a real thumper in this, landing hard big blows through out, Wiecz (who is Eduard Carpentier) has a much more theatrical striking style, big winging hooking blows, which really land, I also liked his Anderson Silva like push kicks. When they combined to wail away at each other it really built to something special. Wiecz tying Bollet's foot into the ropes and then tying up the ref was a nice bit of table setting business before they really unloaded on each other. I really liked Wiecz, flipping sentons, he got some real snap on them and they landed with some real chest compression. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Pierre Lagache/N'boa Le Congalais 10/3/65

MD: What to even do with this tire fire? N'boa was Bob Elandon who we saw not too long ago as a real heatseeker. Now he's a savage from the Congo with a handler (a woman dubbed Franziska Von Biesen dressed like Kim Chee without the mask and with a whip). Elsewhere, he'd come out as N'boa the Snakeman with a giant python. So, basically Kamala, right? Most of us can watch Kamala matches, no problem. What makes this one different? It's the crowd. I don't think I've ever quite seen a French crowd like this, not with Bollet and Delaporte, not with Quasimodo, not with Von Kramer or Kaiser, not even with Elandon the last time we saw him. Likewise, as good as Cesca and Ben Chemoul were (and they're just a really great team), I've never seen the crowd so behind them, not against Bibi and Bernaert or the Black Diamonds or the Teddy Boys. While the commentator was going on about how, if N'boa lost, he'd be sent back to the jungle to live in his trees, this crowd wanted their countrymen to put the savage in his place more than I've ever seen them want anything. We're ten years in now, have seen so much, and it's the comparative view that damns this so thoroughly. What else to even say? The wrestling was very good?

PAS: I guess I am the counterpoint here, which isn't really a place I am comfortable being. I mean jungle savage gimmicks in wrestling are clearly racist, but in the spectrum N'boa wasn't Kamala level of subhuman, or even as racist as something like Crime Time. Between the ropes he basically worked like he worked as Bob Elandon, big hard hitter with some athletic stooging. Lagache played the role of the wrestling foil, and Cesca and Chemoul have their tag stuff as polished and down as any tag team ever. Racial heat is clearly a thing, from Puerto Rico vs. Mexico feuds, to the Caribbean Sunshine Boys to the Gangstas, and it did seem like an especially hot crowd, but the heels were also pretty great at cheapshotting and milking the crowd. I also don't think this was the hottest crowd we have seen, we saw people swing on Lio Pellicani and pelt Cheri Bibi with garbage.  I could enjoy this as a match, and while this wasn't the tip top level of some of the Cesca and Ben Chemoul stuff, it was in the mix.

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ACTION Wrestling Boogie Nights 5/14/21

Wes Barkley vs. Bobby Flaco

ER: Happy to see Maserati Wes in ACTION, but the match itself was a bit of an under-delivery. It really felt like they kept cycling through the same kind of moments, with the match resetting every couple of minutes so Flaco could slowly climb to the top while Barkley killed time, before Flaco was either knocked off the top of missed his flying spot, to then be hit with a nice Barkley driver or something. It built to Flaco hitting a nice crossbody but the build felt a bit stilted. I like both guys, so it's natural that there were things I did like, but it's odd that Barkley came off like the faster guy here. I was expecting Flaco to out quick him, but it felt like Barkley had to keep waiting around for Flaco, and Flaco's offense didn't always look like it would move Barkley the way Barkley moved. Still, I liked Barkley's driver and rolling clothesline, liked Flaco's corner elbows and loved Flaco hitting a double Fuerza dropkick on Barkley and Bishop (with Bishop taking a wonderful bump into the front row fans), and I can see them matching up better next time. 

Robert Martyr vs. Ashton Starr

ER: Super fun match, one that really felt like the match that should open a wrestling show. I think there were a couple too many kickouts, but I liked a lot of their ideas and came away impressed with both (in different ways). Starr is one of the only guys in wrestling to wear a Pimpi/Cassandro singlet, and that will always make me like a guy more. I don't love all of Starr's offense, think his strikes are weak, doesn't really have the strength to pull off some of his more complicated spots (like his pop up German, which, if it can't look good against a 140 lb. guy then maybe you should trim your moveset a bit), but he's great at taking offense and takes steps that a lot of guys don't. Starr is really good at whipping his face into the mat on moves, showing the damaged a move could cause. I loved how he made it look like he took Martyr's drop toehold right on his chin, how he snapped himself over the ropes on a neckbreaker, and it makes sense that his quebradora would look good (as he has the magic of the Pimpi singlet). Martyr has been a standout on Paradigm's UWFI shows, and he carried that over easily on pro style shows. He does little things like plant his knee on Starr's forehead during a pin, was great at taking all of Starr's runs of offense, throws a surprise kick at Starr's chest while Starr was getting to his feet, takes a nice Starr springboard dropkick right under the chin, and breaks out an awesome Tiger Driver that I thought should have ended the match. A bit of editing wouldn't have been a bad thing, but overall we got a good thing. 

Brandon Williams vs. Damyan Tangra

ER: I was excited for this on paper and they gave me exactly what I wanted. It's really easy to picture both of these guys being very good in a year, as both are fairly new but already do so many things that keep their floor very high. Williams had some really sticky grappling and Tangra had no problem being glued to him and waiting for submission openings. Dylan Hales did a really great job of point out small details in both of their games, talking up Tangra's "true double wristlock", explaining different grips and talking about the advantages of those grips. The first few minutes felt like a cool gym exhibition that kept getting a bit more heated, both guys getting nice subs that got quickly broken, getting in each others' head. Williams moves past the grappling with a tornado chop that should have been silly but hit like a firecracker, and when we move into a few throws and suplexes I dug how both stayed glued to their opponent. Williams hit an awesome fisherman's buster and held onto the arm, rolling it into a nice Fujiwara. Tangra had a strike combo that could have been tighter, and he took a bit too long getting Tangra into a rear naked with body vice, but the finish was fun as hell. I loved Tangra fighting for his STF while Williams wanted his ankle lock, and Williams might have the best looking ankle lock since who knows when. That's a move that's been about as dead and buried as you can get - once Angle was letting every referee he locked it on do the exact same forward roll reversal - but Williams' looked like one that should finish a match. Tangra getting him in the STF and then grabbing Williams' arm reaching for the ropes, and using that arm to strangle him, was a great way to finish. Very cool match. 

PAS: This felt a bit like a early version of those Thatcher/Gulak/Busick matches at the beginning of the 2010s, a pair of indy guys who were going to go out there and show what they could do with pure grappling. Williams is a guy I hadn't seen before, but I was impressed with how tight all of his holds looked. I am a guy with a high standard for Fujiwara armbars, and that was a great Fujiwara armbar. I also loved the finish, that was a nice looking STF, and I always love when someone shifts the application of a hold to stave off a rope break. We are in the middle of a grappling renaissance on the indies and I want to see these guys in there with the Makowski's, Garrini's and Makabe's of the world.

Liam Gray vs. King Garuda

ER: One of ACTION's strengths is how their cards are laid out, rarely giving us back to back version of the same kind of match. Two hour shows with good flow? That's why I watch full ACTION shows instead of cherry picking the stuff that sounds good on paper. Garuda is really new, this is his first singles match, and having a fun "rookie keeps a cocky heel off balance" match was a nice change of pace after our grappling and submission based match right before it. Skulk are a great tag act, and I loved Adrian Alanis at ringside interfering and getting into it with fans (like when Gray took his shirt off and threw it at a fan, and Alanis went over and played tug o war with the fan to get it back), and their entrance heat is fantastic. Gimme a heel tag team who can dance while cutting up kids' signs and I'm a happy man. Garuda hits Skulk with a plancha while they're getting into it with fans, and I immediately become a huge Liam Gray fan as he keeps flopping and slipping on the floor when Garuda tries to throw him into the ring. I like the match type where a rookie starts a match getting a near 3 count and then gets punished for it. Garuda didn't really get punished, as the story of the match wound up being "he would have won if not for Alanis at ringside!" but it's still a fun way to start a match. I wasn't expecting Garuda to take so much of the short match, but I liked his pescado, liked his wrist clutch suplex, thought it was great when Gray kicked him low from behind (thanks to Alanis distraction) to hit his cobra clutch backbreaker. 

Merrik Donovan vs. Jack Cujo

ER: I enjoy ACTION's honest approach to getting rookies onto shows. These guys impressed on a tryout show, weren't supposed to be on this show, ACTION realized they had time, so we get a bonus match. There's no phony hype around it, just an honest explanation explaining why these two were here. I'm always down to see rookies get 3:30 to show what they can show. They almost always show a bit too much, but hey, shoot your shot. Cujo has good charisma and a ton of confidence, and that will carry him a long way if he keeps at it. Do we have many indy guys working Second Line Dancer gimmicks? Donovan misses way high on all his missed strikes, but he gets a TON of power behind the strikes that are supposed to hit. He lands an elbow and standing lariat in the corner that looked like it shook Cujo to his core, and he had some ground and pound that he was intentionally throwing high to graze off Cujo's head, but he threw those grounded elbows with impressive force. Some guys have body language on strikes, others do not, and Donovan's body language looked like he was murdering a guy even when he wasn't connecting. I also liked how Donovan sold on his feet, leaving Cujo a lot of openings to hit his flash, staggering and leaning on the ropes. Cujo's missile dropkick landed flush, though some of his offense doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should work against larger opponents. His air raid crash over his own knee finisher feels a bit too 2006 indy wrestling, but I loved how Donovan sold it (even doing a bit of a kickout several seconds after losing).  

Orion Bishop vs. Alex Kane

ER: This was the match I was excited for when I looked at the card, and while it didn't live up to my own expectations it still gave me plenty of moments that got me excited for it in the first place. Kane has been a real standout on the Paradigm UWFI shows, and Bishop looked like a cross between Dr. Death and Donald Gibb and obviously I'm going to be into a guy like that. The match was all about Kane being unable to use his strength on Bishop, with Bishop staying on his feet and refusing to be thrown around. Bishop blocks a belly to belly and hiptoss, then catches a Kane avalanche and tosses him with a fallaway slam. Bishop is good at shutting down Kane, and he hits him with a spear hard enough that I would have bought it as a surprise early finish. Kane has a really cool transition as he grabs an ankle pick while on the ground and it was a cool reminder that Bishop could be caught at any time, even while in control. But Bishop is too much of a wrecking ball and escapes, then hits an exploder and Vader bomb. 

I can't decide how I feel about Kane's big opening in the match, as Gibson runs him across the ring with a buckle bomb, but when he charges back in that's when Kane hits him with a nasty overhead belly to belly into the corner. The suplex looked mean as hell, and Bishop's body got all hung in the ropes in a cool way, and I get that Kane was finally able to suplex him by using Bishop's momentum against him...but it doesn't quite sit right. Bishop was delivering too much of a beating, and Kane was acting too out of it. Kane is a much more compelling offense guy than a selling guy, and that corner suplex basically turned the rest of the match into a Big Moves Exchange. It doesn't go long after that suplex, an F5 from Bishop, Angle Slams from Kane, but it felt weak to have Bishop go down so quickly after all the damage he did. It didn't feel like the finish, build felt off, but the pairing itself was an absolute blast so it's kind of a wash. 

PAS: I liked both guys, liked their performance in the match, but agree that the pacing was a bit off. Kane gets steamrolled for 90% of this match, and two suplexes seem like an insufficient price to pay to win the match. I think we needed a couple of more moments for Kane, maybe a hot start, or one more big hope spot, instead it is all Bishop until he loses. I do love the way Kane pops his hips on suplexes though, really makes every throw look awesome.

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Kevin Ku

ER: This kept building into something I was more and more interested in, peaking with the best combo of their styles and both men crossing each other up and taking sequences in unexpected directions...and then shot past the peak for a few minutes and turned into something I did not like. At minimum, you knew this was going to feature a lot of Ku hitting Laroux in ways that Laroux wasn't going to like, so we had a nice burn with Ku throwing his hard chops, bruising up Laroux's chest, following him out to the floor any time he'd try to get away. We get our compelling Laroux opening when he's able to kick out Ku's legs, and I got really into what they were doing. They started doing some trading, but it was great because they kept switching things up, finishing an exchange with tricks to fake each other out. Ku starts throwing kicks and then fakes a chop, locking in a standing guillotine when Laroux flinches. Laroux lands some kicks and when he sees that Ku is inviting him to kick him in the chest, Laroux fakes the kick and then dives in with an eye rake instead. Laroux baits Ku into lobbing a kick at his chest and snaps off a dragon screw, and I am into this kind of back and forth! They even turn a Laroux trip into a more interesting spot, as Laroux stumbles while locking in a crab, commentary deftly covers by saying Ku scrambled to reverse, Laroux recovers nicely by making it look like a Ku reversal, throws some hammer fists at Ku's leg, and locks on a different submission. 

But before long it turns into one of those "I kick your knee and that makes you spin around and kick me and that makes me walk backwards into the ropes and then spring forward with a clothesline but you ignore that clothesline and then I superplex you but that superplex just makes you roll through and hit a fisherman buster" and I just can't focus on that shit. Nothing takes me out of a match faster. Once they started with all of that, I guaranteed that Ku was going to do some big move on his worked over knee, so when the finish of the match was a backcracker (with Ku shaking his leg out after) they completed my own personal modern indy bingo. 

17. Dominic Garrini vs. Arik Royal 

PAS: Big time main event title match which had some really special moments. Adored all of the early matwork, with Garrini sucking Royal into his world and finding really nifty ways to attack, shifting from kimuras to triangle chokes to some sort of leg stretch. Royal was able to use his size and power to counter out of a lot of it, and had some cool flurries of his own. Royal has such cool unique offense, like a nasty top wrist lock leg sweep, diving tackle to the ribs and some punches to the thighs. He also really unloaded with some cool combos of uppercuts and body shots. I also really liked how nasty he landed on throws. Instead of doing the big man thing of jumping into suplexes, Royal made Garrini lift him, and the landing went poorly in a very cool way. There was a section where they were trading snapmare back kicks which I didn't care for, and I am not sure if the finish really felt like a finish. Still I was really digging the chemistry between these two, and I would love to see Dom get another shot. 

ER: Royal and Garrini are both guys who know how to up the atmosphere for a main event, and that's what they did here. They had a ton of ideas and built to them well, maybe with a few distractions along the way, but a great build nevertheless. I had no idea what direction this was going to go and thought each guy could have taken this at any point of the 15 minute runtime. I wonder wondering if it would mostly stay on the mat, and they were so damn good at the mat grappling that I think it just made me *want* to see them work a full grappling match. Royal is careful but still goes into the lion's den, showing that he isn't a sitting duck on the mat and using his size to force a couple of cool counters. This starts to feel a lot like the incredible match Garrini had with Eddie Kingston a couple weeks prior. 

It doesn't quite reach that point that there were detours with slap exchanges and the snapmare kicks that Phil mentioned (and while I didn't love them I did unexpectedly find myself enjoying how nice both of their snapmares were), but these two were knocking the crap out of each other and that was the primary focus. Royal has some super impact on shoulderblocks, a flying tackle, and an even nastier tackle into the front of Dom's knee. Dom is great at absorbing punches and brutal uppercuts and throwing his own right back (his corner chops/punches looked and sounded devastating) and it was great seeing if he'd be able to catch and tap the Ace. Instead, though, he straight up crunches Royal with a muscle buster, and I loved the callback of Royal using his size to force counters when he dropped back onto Garrini during a rear naked and forced him to break or be pinned. Garrini wanted this on the mat, but Royal was too good there for Dom to stay the whole time, forcing this thing into a strike battle, and the combo of both was awesome. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST 

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NXT TakeOver: In Your House 6/13/21

We still can't rewind or start from beginning on Peacock, and I had Sunday errands. Why is Peacock this bad? Remember when we complained about the Network? Nobody wants to talk about it but this is clearly digital pro wrestling slowly turning into the lamest I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. I'll go back and pick up the stuff I missed once it's actually online. It's going to be really nice watching one of these with a decent crowd. There are so many of these acts who have barely played in front of people, and right on first sight this show has a great "packed local indy" energy to it. [Edit: Was I actually on time for this? I assumed it was 4:00 PM but if it's 5:00 then I guess I made it?]

Legado Del Fantasma vs. Bronson Reed/MSK

ER: I came into this one an unsure number of minutes, but it's one I was excited about on this card. Wilde and Mendoza are a pair of underrated in ring players right now, and you could say the same but lesser for MSK. The Dusty Classic was the best TV period for WWE this year and the energy hasn't been as good since that ended. The whole thing was great, and nearly every single participant has felt lost since. This whole thing is really great, as even when WWE has matches with actual luchadors in it, they don't always connect as actual lucha matches. But this really had the feel of a really strong lucha trios, and it's a shame we don't get more TV matches with the Legado del Fantasma trio. This is the best I've seen Reed look all year, a guy who appeared to be suffering from New Keith Lee syndrome. Here he was the great lucha wrecking ball, a large presence that could flattens someone to peak a sequence, like big Super Porky spots without any jokes attached. MSK were really fun getting set up over and over but LdF, and LdF's timing and rhythm were firing hard here. Reed acting as the big cut off to LdF's runs was a good way to lay this out, and I have no doubts that they could have worked a really good 2/3 Falls match (and there's no reason they still can't, ehhhhh?). Wes Lee is a good FIP and I just love Wilde and Mendoza do their thing. Mendoza was great at taking everyone's offense, getting just leveled by a Reed avalanche and having some great vocals and facials after getting flattened with more. Reed crashing Escobar through the hockey barricade looked like convenience store footage of a compact car crashing into the front beer display. Great moment. This match is literally only the 2nd time this year we've gotten the full trios version of Legado del Fantasma, and that needs to change, because this quality can't be denied. 

Mercedes Martinez vs. Xia Li

ER: I'm probably 2-3 months behind on NXT TV so I always see TakeOvers way before the set up, so I don't know how we got here, but I really like the energy that they take into it. Pretty early we settle into Li convincingly bullying Martinez around the ring and ringside, and you need a lot of ring confidence to bully Martinez. I'm a fan of Li's current thing, a little more Lucha Underground than the typical NXT gimmick. She runs Martinez into the ringpost and the turnbuckles, bends her around the post, and eventually throws a nasty high kick right into that same damn post in a great spot. Not only does the spot look great, but it changes the total energy of the match in a cool way, as now Li is the underdog babyface and Martinez is never more interesting than when she's stalking prey. Li is compelling when desperately fighting out of slams, and Martinez drops her with some nasty suplexes and slams. I like Li as a brow furrowed ass kicker, and I like her as a big bumping babyface. If you're taking a high backdrop on the floor on a show I watch? I am into you. I love how they had Li's big spinkick be the clean finish, made it feel like a huge singles win. This went the exact right length, and this is probably the best we've seen look in a longer match. Martinez gets a lot of credit, but Li now looks like a super confident performer who can work face or heel, and her look is excellent. Really loved the energy they sustained. 

LA Knight vs. Cameron Grimes

ER: I cannot help to love how Grimes moves to his To The Moon entrance song, it just fits. I'm pretty over ladder matches at this point, but I liked what these two did with the played out ladder match. Knight especially was great at turning non-spots into big moments, with strong stuff like trying to slam the ladder on Grimes and missing. To the Moon is a great way to get fans into it, and Knight was an old indy pro at keeping it a strong rallying cry. The build was really good and they knew how to start with bullshit, build to fighting around the ladder, then throw in your painful bumps. Knight has been at this game practically as long as AJ Styles, and he felt like a great AJ Styles heel here. Knight had a killer backdrop bump onto the ladder, and a Lawler level face first run into the top of a ladder. He was great at stooging to set up all of Grimes' comebacks, snapping over on Grimes' ranas (in ring and to the floor), and fed perfectly into two nice Grimes punts. Grimes gets crazier the longer the match goes, scaling a ringside ladder and escaping to ringside rigging, then does a sheer drop onto Knight with a crossbody. He tops that with a crazy CZW type spill, getting tipped in gross fashion from the top into the entrance ramp. I liked the Knight win, but that might be just because I really liked Knight in this match. Definitely exceeded my expectations. 

 

Raquel Gonzalez vs. Ember Moon

ER: Raquel has been such a wonderful presence in the women's division, a role that seemed like she might have been rushed into and yet all it did was make her immediately grow into the role. She is so good at selling for smaller opponents and is so good at pacing things out. She knows how to be dominant while leaving openings, and then her selling during those openings is so good that she seems actually beatable, before she slams the doors shut again. She uses her long limbs very effectively, lashing out with big clubbing shots and reaching out with kicks to the stomach, but when she's in close she unleashes different attacks. Her elbows really rock Moon, and she does this awesome over shoulder backbreaker while bending at Moon's neck and chin (then flipping her hard to get her back to the mat), and when Moon makes her big press back I loved how she paid Raquel back for all of the specific things she did. Moon hits a fantastic running clothesline, and Moon must love Raquel as an opponent as you can always tell she throws her offense even harder than usual and Raquel just leans right into it. Moon kicked things up a level when she locked in a deathlock variation and yanked Raquel by the ponytail, mouth, and throat to pull her deeper into the submission. Moon has complicated offense and I'm impressed she almost always manages to pull it off better than it could be pulled off, but Gonzalez is again someone who has an uncanny ability to take complicated offense, so, well. Ember Moon got to hang with Gonzalez and look like she belonged, Dakota Kai was a treat at ringside (I love the dynamic of the Raquel/Kai partnership), and I love how Raquel's wins are always big exclamation marks. Dominant champ who can sell, then wins definitively, is a simple formula. This could be absurd hype with a year of hindsight, and I wouldn't expect him to touch his peak, but she's progressing in a way that could be as impressive as Brock's initial rise. The potential is right there. 

Kyle O'Reilly vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Pete Dunne vs. Adam Cole vs. Karrion Kross

ER: Here's the one on paper landmine on the show, and the way they start does not make me optimistic that they'll escape landmine status. I think it will all depend on the runtime. But I did not need to see Kross work his Karate Rockette routine while everyone else busies themselves on the floor, really not liking how Kross is the denominator for all the early stretches. Everyone else waits their turn to go one on one or two on one with Kross and the Kross show is the weakest routine in the match. And you know what? This match wasn't totally for me, and it almost surely wasn't ever going to be. So, knowing that, you go in hoping that it will at least be good for what it is, and it was. If you are the kind of person who sees these 5 names in a main event and assume it's going at least 30, and you are EXCITED for it, then this definitely gave you every single thing you could have wanted. It went too long (obviously it was going to go too long) but was laid out well once they moved past the Kross one on ones. 

This is modern wrestling based around constant counters, constant commentary talking about the counters, and constant guys looking over the shoulder waiting for the timing to be right. It's distracting, but it's tough to time things perfectly with an odd number of guys, and if you were a fan of late 2000s PWG main events then I'd be surprised if you didn't enjoy this. I have no interest in going through 30 minutes of spots, but O'Reilly and Gargano took some heavy bumps (loved O'Reilly getting shoved off the top to the floor and basically cannonballing to the floor), Gargano got powerbombed into the edge of the apron by Kross in what looked like the worst possible landing, both guys really kept this pumping. Gargano went really wild here, my favorite stretch of the match was when he was flying all over the place. He hit a fast bullet tope that almost sent him straight into the announce table, and his tope tornado DDT on Dunne was a real feat for both. I also found myself rooting for O'Reilly when he had that sick Volk Han leg lock sunk in. Also a big fan of the timing it took for the double superkick to actually look good on Dunne's moonsault. This spots are an inch either way from either murdering a man or looking awful, and this one looked great. I think anyone would have taken that over a continued Reign of Kross. But hey, if you already wanted to see this match, you are happy, and that is what's most important. This is about the best this style can get for me, which means it was technically my least favorite match on the show, but it didn't tank the show at all. 

ER: This was a great show, every match delivered what people excited for that match would want. Seeing  Legado del Fantasma as a trio was a treat, Xia Li stepped up into the spotlight nicely, Raquel and Ember tore it down (Raquel has delivered on big NXT shows this year like literally no other person on the roster), and the ladder match was strong. Great show, kept a great pace, only really felt like it was dragging during some stretches of the main. Highly recommended show. 

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