2021 MOTY List: Matthews vs. Makabe

29. Daniel Makabe vs. Nicole Matthews NEW 9/11 

PAS: Matthews is a Shimmer veteran who also works a technician gimmick, and this was a cool version of your Makabe maestro match. I liked how they let the counters sit a bit in this match, it wasn't just super fast holds immediately countered, which is a problem with a lot of the indy grappling matches. Here the holds got cranked a bit before being reversed. I liked how Makabe got more frustrated that he couldn't get the upper hand on Matthews on the mat, and wastes her in the corner with a dropkick, and dumps her on her head with a sick figure four German suplex (which he lifted from off the mat). I didn't love the moonsault attempt by Matthews, felt a little out of the spirit of what they were doing, but I did like how missing the move super charged Makabe's attack on the knee. The finishing submission was fucking sick. Makabe has clearly spent all pandemic dreaming up horrible ways to hurt people. Unfortunately the camera angle in the video isn't great, but check the clip on Twitter:

I Mean What the Hell is THIS

ER: This was cool as hell, cool venue, cool match up, cool wrestling, you get the idea. Makabe is really a master at not letting his trademark offense get stale, and this match had some of my favorite instances of that. He's a guy with a lot of cool stuff, enough to easily coast on, but I sure don't think I've ever seen a Makabe match where he was coasting. He has already established so many holds and reversals that it's cool to see him developing new holds and reversals based on established holds and reversals. My two favorite moments in this match (outside of the bananas Volk Han God level submission that he wins with, see link above) were twists on his bridging arm trap pin. That bridging pin used to win matches, but now it's anticipated and more often leads to cool twists. I loved how Matthews slipped out of the first attempt and wound up with her leg intertwined with Makabe's, and they fought for control from that trapped position. It easily could have looked like a slap fight but it came off more like some trippy UWF-I open hand neutralizing until Makabe grabbed a cranked in headlock. Later in the match he tried the same bridging arm trap pin, but this time he planted both his feet firmly on the back side of Matthews' knees. I don't know if there's another wrestler currently going who finds as many ways to branch off his own offense than Makabe, and the dedication is what makes his matches really sing.

 Matthews was fun working cravats and kicking at Makabe's knee, Makabe hits a blistering running dropkick in the corner to pay her back for some of those neck cranks, and we get some pretty satisfying suplex drops. Matthews had two different moments of strong "on her feet" selling, which is incredibly difficult selling to pull off. Most people who try to sell on their feet just look like a Mortal Kombat character wobbling at the waist while waiting for a Fatality, but Matthews looked awesome taking that wicked figure four German and rolling to her feet, only able to stand with her head between her knees. She did a similarly effective sell late in the match, showing good instinct on just when in a match to use a sell like that. Makabe was in return really great at keeping the timing of everything in check, slowing down or speeding up to match Matthews' timing (not easy with a few of the complicated sequences they pulled off), and this was a super satisfying look at some modern Canadian indy wrestling pillars. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Throw a Punch and Eddie Kingston Counters it Quick

Eddie Kingston vs. Orange Cassidy SLA 1/11/19 - SKIPPABLE

ER: I really hated a lot of this. Orange Cassidy is someone I like watching in AEW, but this version a year before AEW could be downright interminable. Kingston is probably the only guy who has the high end facial reactions to salvage these bad jokes that fall flat. This match had the cursed vibe of Kingston working default heel by getting really upset with a ringside fan who was recording the entire match. Kingston smacks the guy's phone out of his hand and swipes at it a second time, while also yelling several times for the guy to stop. The crowd doesn't quite know how to handle it and the reaction for Kingston gets colder (they were chanting for a title change during the ring announcements). But at the exact same time that is happening, the crowd simultaneously decides that Orange Cassidy's comedy has gone on for too long and Cassidy begins getting heel reactions. And, they're right. Cassidy's comedy went on way too long and worse, wasn't funny. He belly crawls through Kingston's legs, rolls out the other side of the ring SEVERAL times after getting rolled in, and the crowd finally turns when he starts doing his stupid "I can barely lift my limbs to strike you" chops and kicks. This might be the only time I've heard people in the crowd audibly groan when Cassidy's comedy keeps going. 

Kingston's beating is satisfying, and he treated the comedy with more dignity than anyone else outside of maybe William Regal would have been able to handle. It's tough to be the guy who keeps being made to look stupid by fake offense, and any part of it that was entertaining was because of him. Things were way better when Kingston was fully on offense wasting Cassidy, but Cassidy didn't even take that great of a beating. It's pretty amazing how much tighter his work has gotten in AEW. Had I watched this match when it happened I would have been even more shocked by the first Jericho match. His offense didn't look like anything that could put down Kingston, but King did a great job at leaving himself vulnerable after a shoulder injury slowed him. Really, the best part of the match was Kingston's honest and open-faced post-loss promo, where he apologizes to the fan and explains the wrestling economy, and says he was in a bad mood because he might have dislocated his shoulder, and also because he got blown up chasing after Orange Cassidy and all his bullshit. The promo is good enough that it might have made the journey through that unfortunate match worth it. But this era of Cassidy was fully Not For Me. 

Eddie Kingston/Darby Allin/Jon Moxley vs. Daniel Garcia/Matt Lee/Jeff Parker AEW Dynamite 8/4/21 - GREAT

ER: I was excited to see Ever-Rise immediately show up on TV challenging my favorite AEW wrestler, that's the kind of thing that just endears them to me even more. They've felt like the weirdest duo of wrestlers signed to WWE for a couple years now, and this match felt like when the Horsemen battle a team of Men at Work/Joey Maggs on the Pro and the latter team gets more offense than you expect. I loved Lee getting in there against Kingston and hyping himself up to hit the King, doing a full circle all the way around Kingston while King just stands in the middle, before delivering a chop that Kingston immediately laughs off. 2.0 and Garcia get a full control segment on Kingston, and it's really good. It happens entirely during the picture in picture, but I suppose I can't argue with that production choice. Parker does little things I like, little pieces of offense that are rarer and rarer with every passing wrestling year. Here he does something like that whenever he's tagged in, like sliding in with a fist to Kingston's face (Parker was also the only guy in WWE doing fistdrops over the past year, this was similar to those) and scraping his boot eyelets across King's eyes. 

Lee gets completely obliterated by a blindside Darby tope, Darby crashing into and through Lee while Lee was standing in awe of Sting, Garcia takes a big backdrop bump over the top to the entrance ramp, Moxley murks Parker with the Paradigm Shift and Darby flattens him with the Coffin Drop. The Darby tope was especially insane, as Matt Lee didn't appear to cheat at ALL and sneak a peek. He was turned completely to the side and HAD to know a tope was coming, but he somehow resisted the temptation to take a peek, not even gauge where Darby was at. You rarely see that kind of commitment to a spot, making it look 100% like a tope that only Allin knew about. Incredible. This match was what it should have been, it obviously could have been even better if Garcia/2.0 had been treated like actual threats but....that wouldn't have really made sense within context.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Sullivan! Martino! Caclard! Noirs! LeDuc! BATMAN! BATMAN! BATMAN!

Albert Sanniez/Francis Sullivan vs. Tony Martino/Bernard Caclard 10/21/67

MD: At some point in this one, you just need to stop and sit back and relax and watch the thing. We've seen some very, very good middleweight tags over the last few months and this is where I wonder if they didn't go just a little too far, well on their way to the trampoline space catch match where you know they got too far. This was full of absolutely spectacular and amazing spots, spots that we hadn't seen yet in the footage chronologically, as best as I can tell. Sanniez had a way of contorting himself upside down and back to his feet that he used to high effect. Sullivan, past his great headbutts, was a tiny burst of terror able to fly around. Martino and Calcard kept up, certainly, and based and stooged and whatever else. At times, I think it felt too cooperative which is not something I've felt about almost any match too far, though everything had oomph behind it. They were countering counters, cartwheeling, headcissoring, rana'ing and blocking 'ranas. While the fans were appreciative throughout, everything shifted somewhat around the fifteen minute mark when the heels started to act that way. Martino especially was nasty. Now, the comebacks felt more earned and the big spots felt like they were worth something. There was a bit too much of the ref asserting himself (which made things feel almost like a midget match towards the end) but the moments of triumph came to feel triumphant. This match was at its best when it felt like a match instead of an exhibition, but at least the exhibition that we got for the first half was absolutely spectacular.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. This was one of my absolute favourite French matches when I first saw it, and even so much more French catch being unearthed, it still stands out head and shoulders as one of the absolute top tier tags. What made this stand out among the dozens of French face vs. Heel tags was the technical skillset of Martino and Caclard. The opening minutes were just some beautiful wrestling, just basic throws and holds executed with a unique touch, such as the guys being dragged all the way over the back on snapmares as if they were judo throws, or guys being prevented from making headscissor escapes. Martino and Caclard largely stood their ground, and the first fall was basically 20 minutes of edge of your seat lightweight wrestling with a serious competitive streak. Eventually Caclard and Martino wanted to start roughing their opponents up and tried cutting off the ring, but Sullivan and Sanniez wouldn‘t let it happen. Eventually they just let loose and start beating the shit out of their opponents. 

Sullivan was awesome, like a mini Tenryu who could also do acrobatic moves, and during the heat segments he would just explode kicking the shit out of opponents with nasty kicks to the mid section, punches and those explosive dropkicks. Caclard looked snotnosed but was quite the fucker too, and you get the sense the heels were really trying to bruise up the faces kidneys. I also really dug the use of the hammerlocks and chickenwing. So the 2nd fall has the rudos evening the score through rough methods and the 3rd fall was all out with the faces having to step up to those foul moves. The athleticism in the match was just amazing, even by the standards of French wrestling. I think both Sanniez and Sullivan had an acrobatics background and it showed as they both busted out beautiful athletic counters, dropkicks and ranas left and right. They weren‘t afraid to throw hard shots too, and so the match just became a frenzy of beautifully executed and timed sequences and brutal strike exchanges. At one point Sanniez was bouncing around hitting like a dozen dropkicks to the left and right, something that would even make most athletes throw up. They went about all this in such an elegant and seamless way as if doing this kind of match was natural for them. Total classic, and still a stone cold contender for the best of all the French tags which would pretty much make it a contender for the greatest tag of all time. Just 30 minutes of the most beautiful and violent pro wrestling ever filmed.

PAS: Wild stuff. The match was worked at a incredible pace throughout, but there were spots when they would amp it up to 11, which were some of the fastest things I have ever seen in a wrestling match. Sanniez especially could flip out of anything and land on his feet. I also really liked how it broke down into something more violent at the end, with some really sharp and nasty punches and kicks. That ability to get down and fist fight was something that really separated the magnificent French Catch lightweights with those that followed them. They were brilliant acrobats, but it wasn't just acrobatics wrestling needs that grit to really make it work. 

Gilbert Leduc/Batman vs. Blousons Noirs 12/1/67

MD: Our first hair match and maybe the most iconic Blousons match possible, with some interesting structural flourishes we just haven't seen much of. After a bit of even wrestling and babyface shine (with some unforced errors as the stylists miss a kneedrop here or there), the Blousons undo the corner protection and toss Leduc in to start the heat that'll extend past the surprisingly short first fall into the second. Just amazing tag work here as they cut off the ring and make sure to follow up every kick out or but of hope with a nasty kick to the back. As always, Manneveau is the stooge, constantly grabbing from outside and mugging and cheapshotting and Gessat is the meanest guy in the world with his shots. By taking the early fall, it means that the next twenty or so minutes has Leduc and Batman at risk of losing their hair. Ultimately, though, Leduc is able to counter an attempt at a double team and we get one of the hottest tags we've seen in all the footage. 

The second fall is very long, with Batman and Leduc having to come back from a severe disadvantage due to the beating in the first one. They'll get one up on the Blousons but then fall to cheating and double teaming until something ultimately backfires again. Here, Leduc gets to do all of his headstand spots and Batman gets to get in plenty of cartwheeling, but they almost always end up in the wrong corner and have to fight back from underneath once more. Ultimately, after the third big spot where they knock both guys out of the ring, they are able to tie up Manneveau which allows for the pin. After that, the third fall is academic and the only question is eliminating the other Blouson so the pin can actually happen. Therefore, the crowd goes nuts when Leduc runs around the ring to grab Gessat's legs from the outside preventing him from coming into break up the pin and leading to Manneveau getting shaved. There were a few moments in the second fall where it dragged just a little and they didn't quite press hard enough into the peril of the faces losing their hair, but in general, this was excellent, just an amazing, classic heel tag team performance by Manneveau and Gessat with the good guys more than holding up their end. There was more thought put into this one than normal too and it showed.

PAS: So cool to see an apuestas match from this time and this country, wager matches are one of my favorite things in wrestling history, and it is cool to see how the concept is adjusted in France. Fun dynamic with the Noirs being this killer heel tag team, nasty cheapshotters and hard hitters who have a bozo side as well. Both Batman and Leduc are escape artists, and much of the match was the Noirs trying to corral them, only to see Leduc and Batman slip out. I am a mark for LeDuc's master of the headspin spots, and he has some cool ones here, Batman is a bigger guy and he also has some very cool escapes along with some great looking dropkicks. I am used to hair matches in Mexico building to a violent climax, and this had a much more standard French Catch tag ending, with Gessat getting tripped up an Manneveau getting cradled. I would have liked to see it break down a bit more, but the work we got was very cool. 

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Borga & Boogie: A Tale of Nordic Strongmen

Tony Halme vs. Boogie Commando  FWF Super Star Wrestling 7/27/97     Pt. 2     Pt. 3 - GREAT

ER: Tony Halme was a fascinating guy, and had one of the coolest careers of any human in history. But you might not know that he worked shows for a Finnish outlaw mud show promoter! Halme essentially ran backyard wrestling shows with three other bodybuilder/strongman types. Four huge jacked Finnish guys who all looked like slightly different versions of each other decided they didn't want to start Finland's version of the Power Team, and instead of tearing phone books in half for Christ they opted to wrestle outdoors in front of a couple hundred people, everything set up on grass. 

Boogie Commando was one of the other bodybuilders (there was also one with a Viking gimmick because obviously one of the four Nordic strongmen was going to be working a Viking gimmick). This is Boogie Commando's retirement match, and he comes out to Van Halen's "Jump", wearing short jean cutoffs and a tactical vest over his gassed physique and yellow/black striped wrestling singlet. The tactical vest comes off, but the cutoffs stay on. He is wearing an ammo belt and looks like if WCW had added a beefcake stripper to High Voltage. He hands out 8x10s to the crowd during his long entrance (I guess it was give them to the crowd or have a box of 8x10s taking up space in your house during your retirement). He poses in the ring for the entirety of Jump, makes small but aggressive rolling pelvic thrusts at the crowd, and when Jump ends they just start it over while he continues to walk around inside the ring, thrusting. A Finnish woman says some things that seem to be about Boogie Commando, and we can assume she was listing accomplishments and talking briefly about his retirement, as the fans keep politely clapping while wondering if they're going to hear Panama and the rest of 1984's A side or just a third run through of Jump.  

While fans are distracted thinking about their prospects of hearing Hot For Teacher, Halme just walks out wearing a white USA tank top (curious) and sweat shorts, Finnish house music replacing the chunky squawky guitars that American teen boys and Northern Europeans love. He looks exactly the same as his Ludvig Borga run other than sporting a now completely shaved head. He gets the microphone and speaks quickly and angrily into it. I have no idea what he said, but it sounded incredibly threatening. His face wore the seething expression of a man explaining to terrorists how he's going to get his teen daughter back. However, his threats/well-wishes get an enthusiastic reaction from a group of girls in the crowd, who have short fashionable haircuts and beers. 

The match is a sincere warts and all look at the late 90s Finnish backyard bodybuilding wrestling scene, and has a weird shoot element due to Halme's permanently angry face and Boogie Commando appearing to be non-trained (but also the champ, on a show with only this match). The ring is low and has no give, and you better believe that the Finnish house music Halme walked out to will continue for the duration of the match. This certainly felt like bodybuilders doing wrestling, and it was a really entertaining version of bodybuilder wrestling. Boogie had a couple of powerslams and some preposterous dropkicks that looked like first attempts. Halme sidestepped one and sent Boogie crashing fairly recklessly into the corner, and Halme flat out ignored another one. The dropkicks are a reasonable facsimile of what most pro wrestling trainers see on the first day when they ask "okay who wants to try a dropkick?" But what FWF champion Boogie Commando might have lacked in dropkick ability, he made up for by running neck first into a very stiff Halme clothesline. The ropes break while Halme runs his full weight into them, and from here there are several moments where Halme appears to step through the ropes to offer to fight fans...or maybe tell jokes? It's hard to gauge what is being said when you're basing your guesses on the reactions of pale backyard wrestling skinhead fans in bomber jackets. 

There are round breaks, and the second round seems to end when Halme just decides the round is over because he needs water. There is no bell, Halme just waves off the ref and walks to the ropes, signaling to a woman at ringside for water. Both men look completely gassed at this point, with Halme putting his hands on his knees several times and Boogie leaning chest first so heavily on the turnbuckle pads that it looks like he's falling asleep. With the ropes no longer an option, the entirety of the match is two gassed hulks lifting each other and slamming each other onto an unforgiving mat. And I can't see a scenario where that won't ever be really cool? Boogie hits a heavy Samoan drop that knocks the wind out of Halme, Halme keeps knocking Boogie off his feet with brutal body shots and kneelifts. Halme torches his elbow on a high missed elbowdrop and Boogie hits a sincerely great elbowdrop of his own. The slams all look painful, with Halme's waterwheel suplex a highlight. We also get a long Halme STF that Halme appeared to improvise once he saw Boogie Commando was too tired to get off the mat, and had in fact rolled over onto his stomach to rest in the middle of the ring. 

Boogie loses his title, poses for pictures and signs autographs for fans (even signing the forearm of a man in his 40s, by request). And, while saying his final goodbyes to the world of Finnish backyard wrestling, we get to hear Jump a couple more times. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE TONY HALME

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WWE Extreme Rules 9/26/21 Live Blog

Peacock is concurrently broadcasting the commentary of every single language they have right now, so watching and reviewing this PPV live certainly feels like a dubious way to spend my Sunday evening. 

Liv Morgan vs. Carmella

ER: This was a fun way to open the live show, a spirited match that went for more drama than these openers usually aim for. Carmella is quietly having a really nice year and is operating from a real natural character, leaning into a nicely balanced annoying heel role. Liv has been pretty aimless for a couple years now, and I'm not really in love with her current style. She used to be one of the women (along with Mandy Rose) who I kept seeing in strong house show performances without having any TV matches as good. Morgan doesn't feel anywhere near the person who was gluing together good house show tags, but now someone doing some bad indy offense with off rhythm timing. It's an offense that doesn't work with someone bad at taking offense, but Carmella is good at taking this dumb yet complicated offense. There are some hard strikes and kicks, and Morgan maintains a good enough 2:1 ratio of nice folding bumps to every off-timed flat back bump. The Liv win was a real surprise. Carmella has been the way more interesting TV character, and this feels like the weakest Liv work we've gotten. 

AJ Styles/Bobby Lashley/Omos vs. Big E/Kofi Kingston/Xavier Woods

ER: Quality trios with a big Bobby Lashley threaded throughout, kind of taking away from Big E's recent title win even with Big E getting the win here. Lashley looked like a dynamic traffic director, usually the role Styles inhabits in a match like this. New Day split the ring time well with Kofi playing the most effective babyface. Styles was a cool guy asshole and Lashley had some explosive stuff, hitting big on his spears and shoulder tackles. Omos was integrated well and is still good at playing into his big moments. This felt a bit more like a house show match than a big stops pulled out PPV match, but house show style always gives a high floor to a match like this. Lashley's big spear to Styles looked good, and I liked Big E instantly capitalizing on it. Weird to see the new champ E in this kind of opener though. 

Street Profits vs. The Usos

ER: Very good tag that didn't quite hit the heights it could have, but hit all the notes of the strong match you assumed they would have. I think Jey has had a real breakout year over the past calendar year, while I think Jimmy's return has been welcome I think Jey pulled ahead of him as a worker in the latter's time away. Montez Ford has also been on a tear this year, really standing out as a unique high flying babyface in a promotion with several prominent versions of that. He gets great height on offense and defense, and here he has some real standout moments. Ford hits a huge tope con giro over the ringpost, and eats knees painfully on a sky high frog splash. Dawkins came in hot on his hot tag and both Usos really fell into and threw the ropes for his impact. Crowd got more vocally involved in the match the longer it went, which is a good sign they were doing the right things. The crowd responded big to the extended nearfall home stretch, which is what you'd want in a long title match. I thought the build to the home stretch was a bit more interesting and felt more organic. Still, very good tag match. 

Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: This is a real battle of disappointing 2021s. Both could use a strong performance in a big singles match. Bliss has been trapped for too long in a gimmick that is antithetical to good wrestling matches. Charlotte has been working with an attitude that I'm not sure anyone understands. I personally don't understand what the chip on her shoulder is supposed to be, but she comes off like a real asshole because of it. And in a match like this, where her being an asshole is supposed to be the focus, it works best. She does not make any sense to me as a babyface, and this match was a much better use of who she is right now. She still badly apes offense, with her doing fewer bad Flair knife edge chops and more difficult timing Andrade offense. She's at her best when she is taking surprising bumps for Bliss, and I think her cocky heel facials after getting knocked on her ass are one of her best features. Bliss feels a little off timing wise, but it also feels like she has consistently barely seen the inside of a ring for too long. This was the weakest match on the show so far, but it was one of the better Charlotte matches of the year. I have no comment on anything that may have happened to Alexa Bliss after the match, as I turned it to the 49ers game. 

Sheamus vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Damian Priest

ER: This was pretty dull for the most part, but they saved their good fireworks for the final two minutes. Going out on a high note earns a match a lot of forgiveness for what came before earlier. Because again, a lot of this was dull. Hardy figured out early the best way to work this, which was to let Sheamus and Priest work a one on one brawl that he stayed would mostly stay out of, then fly in with a dropkick or plancha when neither was paying attention. It was some of Hardy's best offense in months. But then, once Hardy went on a long run against Sheamus, he looked as lethargic and completely washed as I've ever seen him. He entered in fits and starts, with perhaps the best entrance being his swanton that landed heavy on Priest's back (while he was pinning Sheamus). The move chain finish lifted this out of the realm of total disappointment, but this was a drier match than it should have been. Then again, the build for this match was probably the weakest of any match on the card, so that couldn't have helped. 

Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch

ER: I love Becky's striped tube sock hear, but don't love the horse hair. And the match was about on the level of the Carmella match earlier, but went on too long to only to end with Sasha running in and elbowing Lynch. I'm happy to have Sasha back, but I'm not quite feeling the motivations within the Bianca/Sasha/Becky program. This had some cool Bianca strength spots, like a great high arcing fallaway slam, a press slam that Lynch managed to reverse, and a big Backlund spot where she stood to her feet with Lynch sitting on her shoulder. Lynch threw her forearms with her whole body and has some nice looking suplexes. Both have a couple of nice suplexes, actually, with Bianca hitting a nice delayed vertical. Looking back with knowledge this was going to end with a Sasha run-in, I wish they would have worked a more go go pace, and it made some spot placement seem odd. I didn't like when Bianca was raining down on Becky with hard corner elbows, the crowd was counting along with them, and Lynch just escapes out the bottom to yank Belair's braid. I always like Belair's hair getting integrated into things, but hated Lynch shrugging off Belair's best strikes of the match like she hadn't taken eight straight. The eventual triple threat match/es we're going to get won't be as good as any combination of straight singles matches they can run, but I Believe In Sasha. 

Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor 

ER: We finally get rid of The Fiend and now we just have to deal with the Rasta Demon whose special powers I do not understand. Head of the Table Roman has been my least favorite iteration of Roman Reigns. I do not like the slow paced main event epics, nor do I like the meandering weapon brawls. This was a lot of meandering weapons brawl with some stunt falls peppered in, and it never grabbed me. Luckily for them, it grabbed the crowd and seemed to keep their interest. Roman has been on a hot streak and has worked some tight TV matches, and his biggest hand to hand stuff here looked great. I loved his strikes, and his spear was skeleton damaging. Balor took some big falls through tables and took a big tackle through the ring barricade. It was a lot of damage, but I forgot that the Demon has super powers and is the Undertaker/Fiend. He is able to fully shrug off every bit of pain that Roman put him through...but sadly the Demon's kryptonite turns out to be ring ropes. Lightning crashes, the top rope breaks, the Demon is put down by and unexpected fall. This felt like it was really really dumb. Pretty sure this was dumb. 

This was not a very Extreme show, which was probably a blessing in disguise. I wasn't really in the mood to see ladder matches or whatever else they could have done. The show ended on a down note but had a strong first 2/3. The final two matches were intentionally overshadowed by match ending angles. Extreme Rules started with a good head of steam but ended too flatly to recommend as a show. 

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ohno vs. Scala British Rounds!

25. Kassius Ohno vs. Sid Scala NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 9/18/19) 

ER: I loved this entire angle. It was a simple old school angle that nailed all the notes it should have and finished just as it should have. Ohno was supposed to face Jack Gallagher, Gallagher was pulled at the last minute, Ohno demands an opponent anyway. Sid Scala, who hadn't been an active wrestler in NXT UK for a year, filled in as the only option and got beaten handily while still wearing his dress clothes. It easily could have ended there and they could have had someone else step up and challenge Ohno in defense of Scala, but Scala himself stood up and demanded a British Rounds match against Ohno. Now, this was the 60th episode of NXT UK, and it's pretty amazing that the idea of a match under classic World of Sport rules hadn't even been mentioned until Ohno showed up calling himself the best British wrestler on the planet. It was only a two week build, and it didn't need to be more than that. They had Regal, Saint, and McGuiness do promos talking about the importance and difficulties in British Rounds rules, people tried to talk Scala out of taking the match, but Scala insisted. Simple build, simple payoff, excellent execution. 

Ohno really makes this match by coming in with the exact right attitude, but Scala deserves a lot of credit for wrestling the right match. This was an awesome Ohno show, but Scala did everything he needed to do to make this concept work. At no point was he ever treated like Ohno's equal, and at no point did Ohno ever sell a piece of offense inappropriately. They were great at creating nearfalls for Scala when he was able to leverage Ohno's size into a crucifix or backslide or flash pin, enough to get the crowd keen for some kind of upset, but Ohno was smart about not getting into a position where he had to sell anything silly. The size difference was extreme, more than against any other of Ohno's NXT UK opponents, and I love how Ohno kept leaning jaw first into everything Scala threw. Ohno had the right mix of cockiness and killer instinct, wanting Scala to know that his elbows weren't going to move him, that his dropkicks could be brushed off, and that Scala was always one moment away from getting wasted by a rolling elbow. 

We've seen a ton of guys try to appropriate Johnny Saint offense over the past 20 years, but Scala using Saint feints and submission escapes here makes much more sense than almost any other appropriation of Saint moves we've seen. Most of those instances felt like "I saw a Johnny Saint match for the first time and now I want to do those moves" and then we got a stupid lady in the lake spot on every indy show for a decade. Here the Saint aping made total sense and fit perfectly into the match, never used for the sole purpose of "I recognize that spot!" Scala used Saint's tactics as a strategy to beat Ohno, used Saint as his mentor, and it actively added to the match. Scala's gains were always temporary, as Ohno was quick to snap in a cravat or toss him with a few snapmares, dropping elbows and knees (that all paid off in a fun finishing stretch). I loved Ohno taking Scala dropkicks full to the face before getting the first fall with the elbow. 

But I love how the match never got stupid after that first fall. Ohno didn't change his strategy, knowing he didn't NEED to win another fall, could easily just play defense and win out. But Scala also didn't start doing stupid things, and they avoided the temptation to have Scala tie things up off something that never would have otherwise pinned Ohno. Scala gets a great run in the 6th and final round, rolling out of the way of elbows and kneedrops and getting his knees up on a senton (and again, Ohno sells ALL of this exactly the way it should be sold, no overdone dramatics, not acting like Scala's tiny knees would have done anything other than temporarily slow him), and Scala ends up getting what would have been a match tying backslide right as time expired. There was no realistic way to give Scala a win here, and luckily they recognized that him merely lasting 6 rounds was him winning his war. 

PAS: Ohno had to be thrilled to be able to run a "true heir to Johnny Saint" angle on something that was technically WWE TV. What a weird thing NXT UK was and I am assuming still is. I liked how Ohno got frustrated by getting outslicked by Scala in the early rounds and just went with violent hard shots to get an advantage. Ohno was brutal in this, twisting Scala's neck, headbutting him in the back of the neck, and just wasting him with huge single shots. Scala's moments of advantage worked really well, and Ohno gave him those moments without ever making Scala his equal. Working on top is a real skill and Ohno is great at it. I liked the tease at the end of the match, and this was a really satisfying time limit finish. Great match.

2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: Faulkner~! McMichael~! DUSTY~! MX~! CHOSHU~! RED BULL ARMY~! FUJINAMI~!

Vic Faulkner vs. Mick McMichael WOS 7/1/72

MD: It's not every day we get a new UK match from 72, though, of course, we know there's a lot out there locked in a vault. This was six rounds and generally worked blue eye vs blue eye, with Faulkner more the trickster and McMichael more grounded and dogged. Faulkner had all of his tricks: elaborate escape attempts, "look up" spots, not letting go of the handshake between rounds, and so on, but he let himself get clowned and countered and kept in holds a lot too which made this balanced and even and made those times when one of his tricks did work mean even more. McMichael was a great foil (I don't think base is quite the word here but it's in the right genus of words), patient, steadfast, solid, but also able to take it up not just one but many gears when it was time to. One of the most unique elements of this style of wrestling is that draws can be satisfying and even preferred; Walton indicated at such at the end, that it would have been a shame if either of these wrestlers had to be the loser and you sort of have to agree with him.


Dusty Rhodes/Magnum TA vs. Midnight Express NWA 9/11/86

PAS: This hits every beat you would want out this match. Dusty doing a chicken dance with a rubber chicken stuck in his pants, Cornette taking a big Baby Doll assisted pratfall, Bobby Eaton dinging his awesome punches off of Dusty's skull, Big Bubba standing around looking mean. Just a pitch perfect shtick heavy 80s wrestling match, Dusty is so great in these matches, rock star charisma, pitch perfect timing, signature spots, awesome selling, so awesome. Dusty was past his athletic prime at this point, but man did he know how to squeeze every drop out of the orange. MX are tremendous foils, especially Eaton, lays it in when they need to, but feed and bump their ass off when the time comes. This kind of tag is a perfect bit of business, and these guys did it so well. 

MD: Everything you'd want out of ten minutes of these guys. I loved the opening with the chicken flapping, Bobby's awesome cheapshot punch in the corner and his subsequent flapping, and Magnum trailing right behind him, nailing him, and doing the flapping again to a big pop. There are a few different ways to achieve perfection in wrestling but that's definitely one of them. It was followed immediately by Dusty elbow dropping the rubber chicken which was more transcendent than perfect? Once they rolled over to heat (and given how the fans were going nuts for every bit of stooging BS before it, I wasn't convinced it was going to happen in the first place) with Cornette sneaking in a racket shot on Dusty on the outside, the fans just went nuts. It was southern as it could be with Magnum emotionally drawing the ref and the MX laying in cheapshots not to keep the damage up but to keep Dusty down. His selling was amazingly sympathetic, at one point clinging to the ropes prone and in agony after a racket shot as the Dusty chants rang on neverending. The place became absolutely unglued with the hot tag with everyone on their feet. To be fair, they were popping for everything they should have been the whole match from Dusty elbow dropping a chicken to Magnum taking guys out with the racket at the end. What a show.


Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Osamu Kido/Masa Saito vs. Timur Zalasov/Wahka Evloev/Victor Zangiev/Vladimir Berkovich/Salman Hashimikov NJPW 5/22/89 - GREAT

MD: If I'm figuring this right, this was three days before the big Vader vs. Hashimikov title change and it absolutely served its purpose of heating Hashimikov up for the run. In general, it's 35 minutes of guys grappling, getting positioning for suplexes, hitting those suplexes, and then using said suplexes to lock in holds. That was true with Fujinami and Zalasov who started out, with the two of them setting a good, believable pace until Fujinami broke the code by hitting his suplexes one after another instead of immediately going into a hold with them which wore Zalasov down enough for the dragon sleeper. Kimura felt like the weak link on the Japanese side. There were moments where you thought he might be able to start getting strikes in, but Eveloev caught his leg before he could get momentum going and he was just fighting to get to the ropes again for the last minute or two of their match. Kido and Zangiev came off as very evenly matched until the end when Zangiev got momentum with a series of suplexes in a row (much like Fujinami's in the first bout). Zangiev just got pro wrestling and theatrics a little more than his countrymen.

With the (2-1) stage set, the last two bouts really did the heavy lifting for what they were trying to accomplish. Berkovich targeted Choshu's arm and Choshu sold accordingly, but one thunderous lariat off the ropes and the Scorpion took him down quickly. Then, after back and forth and a struggle that matched the Fujinami and Kido bouts, Saito hit the same pattern on Hashimikov only for him to survive the Scorpion. Saito leveraged that advantage into two Saito suplexes however, but kept going for more instead of pinning him and Hashimikov got under him and dumped him on his head for the win. It felt like a big, triumphant moment, one punctuated with Vader coming out to cut a promo on him before the trophy ceremony. If I was in that crowd, I'd wonder how even Vader might be able to put Hashimikov down.

PAS: Red Bull Army are great, hairy pasty Russian dudes who will just grab and throw anyone they are wrestling. Zalasov, Evolev and Berkovich are the lesser know members of the group and all looked good although didn't leap out the way Zangiev and Hashimikov did. I did really like Evolev's quick fireman's carry into an armbar which took out Kimura. 

Zangiev is a treat to watch, his signature headscissors escape is so cool and such a smart bit of business for a guy who was clearly new to wrestling. Kido is a UWF alumnus and seemed very into working hard grappling with Zangiev. Man when Zangiev puts you away, you go away, some really great looking belly to belly throws which landed Kido awkwardly, and a cradling scissors kick takedown into a kneebar for the tap. Choshu really brought the Choshu in his fight, landing a right hand to the temple, and some big supelexes and a lariat before the tap, he seemed the least willing to play along with Red Bull, and just did him. I love Choshu and it worked. Final match felt like a final match. This was a series of matches with a lot of Saito Suplexes,, but man you can see why the move was named after him, such torque and force. Hashimikov feels like a beast and really can get explosion on his shot, he is at Saito's legs with such speed. Very excited that our friend Loss has dug out so much of the stuff and I am excited to dig in. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki vs. Ninja Mack

30. Low-Ki vs. Ninja Mack Loko Wrestling 9/18

PAS: Ki as a base for a wildly athletic guy is an aspect of his game we haven't seen a ton of, but he is really good at. Mack is a guy with big big spots, who hasn't always had a ton of connective tissue, and Ki is a guy who is great at providing that tissue. This was a killer 9 minute match, where Mack got to showcase his stuff inbetween Ki kicking in his lungs. Mack has maybe the smoothest kip ups I can remember seeing, he just moves from his back to his feet like he teleported, and a lot of the early match is him evading Ki's attacks by flipping in and out of things. I don't know Mack's background, but he wrestles like a college gymnast, with tons of crazy spins and a signature multiple backflip Space Flying Tiger Drop which Ki viciously cuts off with a kick to the back. I really bought Mack's near fall, he hits an uppercut so hard that it sent Ki's prop holster flying into the crowd, but then ate knees on a 630 senton. One Woo kick and Warriors Way later it was over. Totally delivered the big moments and showed that Ki can still keep up with the kids. 

ER: It's a pretty bold move to work a ninja gimmick opposite Low Ki, the man who moves more like a ninja than any wrestler ever. It made me skeptical before even watching the match, which just made me more vulnerable to being blown away by Ninja Mack. Mack is smaller than Ki, and it's cool seeing Ki work a match where he's the guy being evaded by a quick small guy. Mack doesn't move like a pro wrestler, he moves like a ninja, or a circus performer, and there's a no-contact exchange that made me do the 10 second rewind over and over again just to watch their movement. Ki was running the ropes fast and Mack was doing leapfrogs over him, and on the last one Mack just leapt backwards into the air and his trajectory looked like he was going to backflip directly onto the top of his head. Instead he landed pillow soft on his upper shoulders and just glided up to his feet. It didn't look like the movements a man could have made without the assistance of wires. It's awesome to see someone outquicking Ki and Ki having to find his way back into the match, and I don't know if there are many more spectacular ways to transition to offense then to kick a man in the stomach after a multiple back-handspring Space Flying Tiger Drop. Moonsaulting to nothing is bad, but hitting nothing while also getting a boot to the gut on the way to nothing is just cruel. Mack's 630 senton also looked spectacular, and I love how Ki got a hard knee up into Mack's back and then sold that knee accordingly. The Warriors Way that finishes everything is sick, with Ki just sticking straight into Mack's sternum like a lawn dart. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/22/21

21. Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega

PAS: This match started as a Bryan Danielson match in the first section, and moved into a Kenny Omega match in the finish. I am always going to prefer the Danielson match, but can't deny the effectiveness of the near fall heavy final. It is fun to watch wrestling with such a wild crowd, going crazy for the lock up, so much of wrestling over the last year has been in front of video screens or tiny crowds, and it really works only as a live event. Super physical match, Danielson especially had a bruised up chest and a gross purple bruise on his forehead, I don't love Omega's style, but I appreciate him laying it in. My favorite part of the match was Omega viciously working the bad neck, the full sprint V-Trigger was gross, and Danielson really looked loopy. It got really into near fall 2 count wrestling by the end, and I thought we probably two many kick outs and shifts of momentum. I did love Danielson breaking out the Cattle Mutilation and head stomps though. I understand the reasons for the draw, but I think they probably just should have had a finish. A loss doesn't hurt either guy, and sets up the rematch better then the draw.

ER: This might not have 100% been the match I wanted to see from these two, but full credit that AEW clearly knows exactly what its fans want to see and does their best to deliver that, and I think that's awesome. Dream Match Wrestling got really out of hand 15 years ago and before long every single indy main event (and a few on the card below the main event) was worked like a Dream Match Epic. But there are truly only so many dream matches to go around, and Danielson vs. Omega is undeniably a dream match for most modern pro wrestling fans. Dream matches are a funny thing, as when you look at your personal dream matches it really speaks to your specific pro wrestling interests at that specific moment in time. My current dream match would probably be something stupid like Eddie Kingston vs. Ron Bass Jr. or Omos vs. Otis, but I remember how excited I was the first (and second, and third) time I saw Mike Modest vs. Christopher Daniels live. It was the exact match I was dying to see in 1999/2000 and my energy couldn't have been higher when it finally happened. I love that energy and it was exciting seeing a huge crowd simultaneously having that reaction. 

I would have liked to see their 20 minute debut match, but fighting forever is what the fans wanted, and they did a really great job of fighting forever (forever being their allotted 30 minute time limit). They were smart about not telegraphing a 30 minute draw as every fan in there would have started groaning had they suddenly started doing 5 minute announcements. Omega and Danielson weren't working like they were trying to finish within 30, they didn't do any cute "2 count right as the bell rang", it was just two guys beating the hell out of each other until they were told to stop, and that's a cool first match for them. They played off the live atmosphere really well, and they really laced into each other so every person in every back row could feel it. Danielson had a purple chest minutes in and eventually wound up with a nice wound on his forehead that looked like the beginnings of a gnarly hematoma, and meanwhile he was kicking away at every part of Omega. They did a lot of back and forth and move trading without it ever really feeling egregious until the 3rd or 4th V-Trigger, and it's hard to work a stiff 30 minutes without things getting too egregious. 

Things really jumped up for me with that Snapdragon on the ramp, with Danielson skidding his way down the ramp on his neck. The ramp run V-Trigger that followed was finish worthy, and really my only problems with the match were that there were several finish worthy moments that obviously did not finish anything. I honestly would have loved that ramp run V-Trigger leading to a stoppage, as they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of Danielson's injured neck and it could have lead to a huge return match. I loved the buckle bomb that sent Danielson bouncing over the ropes to the apron, and I loved how Danielson fought to neutralize Omega. Watching Danielson holding the turnbuckle with one hand and ring post with another to block a top rope Snapdragon was the kind of detail that you expect from Danielson, and it's the kind of detail that most guys forget about during an Epic. I'm a big fan of only getting one OWA attempt, as it's a completely preposterous move, so seeing Danielson immediately get the poison rana to shut the door on further attempts was nice. I didn't love the stretch, where they did devolve a bit into Omega selling a head kick by being the first to go back on offense, and I wish the final V-Trigger was closer to the ropes so Danielson didn't need to kick out. But we still got great stuff like Danielson taking advantage of Omega's sillier offense and doing cool reversals, like grabbing the LeBell Lock out of Omega unrolling his arm. This was always going to be an intensely scrutinized match and I don't think they could have done much better first time out. 

CM Punk Interview

PAS: I think these happy Punk pep talks have a shelf life. They aren't there yet, but eventually they are going to need to switch something up. This worked fine, and the "tuck you into bed" line was nice.

MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr. 

PAS: This was OK, it probably didn't need as long as it was and I thought the first part wasn't great, but it picked up with the arm work after the commercial break. I thought using Julia Hart as a shield was a nice bit of heel business, and the Fujiwara counter of the Air Pillman was a cool idea. Still not an MJF guy, but he has improved a lot in the ring.

Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black

PAS: I thought Black had some cool individual moves here, like his scissors kick into the ankle lock, and he really wasted Cody with his wheel kick. Still they seemed to be on different pages for much of this match. The spot where Cody ran into Arn was mistimed and I don't think Cody's entire act is working right now. Not sure what I would try with him, he clearly is a big part of the promotion, but they need to try something.

16. Darby Allin/Sting vs. FTR

PAS: This was delightful. FTR have the gimmick of an old school tag team, but their AEW stuff has been mostly modern workrate tags. This was an classic Southern tag with FTR really working over both Sting and Darby, with two great hot tags and two good long heel beat down sections. Sting was really impressive, he moved really well, and still has great timing on his big spots. Even his simple stuff like the big right hands and kicks looked good, and FTR was clearly having a blast bumping for him. Darby's explosiveness is so much fun to watch, and the Coffin Drop on the apron to clean out Cash for the Scorpion was the kind of big memorable moment which Darby excels at. 

ER: Excellent tag match, I believe FTR's best match of their AEW run. This felt like the FTR they've been promising us (and a thing the confusingly named Dirty Dawgs have been doing all year) and extended the Sting mileage to a point I wasn't expecting. I didn't have the nostalgia for Sting's return, and yet here he is as a very important part of a very great match. FTR looked like they were having the time of their lives getting into position for everything. You could practically see the glee in Dax Harwood's face every time he slid into position to cut off hot tags. FTR was incredibly in sync, got perfectly into position for two guys with very different ring styles, and knew just when to come flying in to cut everything off. Sting looked like he was hitting hard for an old man, all his strikes really landing with explosive speed. His punch/backhand combo was really effective, he knows how to cut guys off with a strong stomach kick, and they worked a couple of strong Scorpion Splash spots really well into the match. 

Sting missed one splash chest first into the turnbuckles, and then later when Dax was trying to sucker him into missing another one and hitting a chair, they did a great twist where Sting stopped himself and then threw Dax threw the chair, past the turnbuckles. The nearfalls were all really effective, and Darby/FTR were awesome at milking hot tags. There was an awesome moment where Wheeler and Harwood came together at the perfect time to catch a midair Darby hot tag, holding him on their shoulders inches away from Sting's hand. Sting had powerful lariats and shoulderblocks, loved him sending Wheeler to the floor with a clothesline, and the finish of Darby stopping Cash by hitting a Coffin Drop to the apron was insane. This might have been my favorite tag match of the year, and it happened on a show featuring one of the most highly anticipated matches of the decade happening (and delivering). 

Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Ruby Soho

PAS: This was a good match with some very big moves which was hurt a bit by Danielson and Omega doing a blown out version of the same kind of match as the opener. It is tough to do two big near fall matches on one show, and that opener burned me out a bit for dramatic two counts off of huge top rope moves. Really liked Ruby's offense here, and the BS ending worked for me. I think Ruby is over and talented enough for her to branch off into a second women's angle on the show. Let Britt feud with other women for the title, let Ruby get into a big feud with someone else and keep them apart for a bit.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Tejero! Bordes! Mantopoulous! Lynch! High Chief!

Anton Tejero vs. Walter Bordes 8/29/67

MD: Phil and Eric reviewed this back in 2014, and thought it was epic and a good addition to the slowly building canon, but we know so much more now and can put this into context. The fact that Tejero is from Peru and teams with Peruano means something. The fact that Bordes is only 20 and a disciple of Ben Chemoul means something. The fact that Marshall is the ref means something. And so on. This was a welterweight match (which generally means something too) and it really felt like a slick, sly guy with a lot of stuff, in Tejero, up against a very game young stylist who was going to do every ambitious spot he had in mind. There was elaboration on some of the chain wrestling reversals and in and outs of holds that were as complex as anything we've seen lately in the footage and it all looked very good. 

Tejero kept it clean for the first ten minutes and even when he started introducing knee shots after that, there was a strong sense of back and forth and quick escapes and kick offs until he really started to get dirty. Once he did, this had a good flow to it, building to a comeback moment of Bordes hefting Tejero over the top, but one he couldn't fully capitalize because of Marshall slowing him down in the ropes or Tejero trying anything he could to ground Bordes (none of which really worked except for an eye rake). They had another transition where Tejero trapped Bordes' neck in the ropes and then took over with grisly neckbreakers and a tombstone and when Bordes came back again, it was the real comeback, firing hard at him with everything, from forearms to sweeping dropkicks to just trapping him again and again and headscissors looking great. Tejero tried to turn the tide again (including a beautiful uppercut to the back of Bordes') head but the tide was against him at that point. This was excellent, made all the better when you keep Bordes' youth in mind. I'm not sure how many 20 year olds in history could have had a match like this, even with a guy like Tejero on the other side. 

ER: I really liked both guys here. Bordes immediately reminded me of Johnny Saint, not only in the way he moves but in specific things he does. It's not too much of a stretch to watch Bordes and assume he had a major influence in how Johnny Saint wrestled. Bordes has all sorts of cool escapes and will occasionally surprise you with some stiff shots. At one point he hits a mean shoulderblock that sends Tejero sprawling into the ropes. Both guys are super athletic, doing all sorts of cool roll ups and escapes that need to be stolen by some non-lousy indy worker. Tejero's athleticism is surprising, as at first glance he looks like my old landlord. Then he does intricate armdrags and takes crazy bumps and he seems nothing like my old landlord (who admittedly was really good at landlording). At one point he flies ass over elbow into the top and middle ropes off a monkey flip, like an absolute lunatic version of the bump Eddy used to take. My favorite thing about their exchanges is how natural they come off. Not necessarily uncooperative, but somehow done without looking like rehearsed-to-death dance recital. Somehow they're able to weave these intricate exchanges and make them look like the natural course of action. I'm not sure how it's possible to move at the speeds these guys do without each guy knowing exactly where the other is supposed to be and how he's supposed to get there, but there's no tell in either guy's face. It really breaks down everything I've experienced in wrestling, as they're able to make silly things like leapfrogs look like something that would believably happen.

PAS: Crazy to think Bordes was that young in this match, that is definitely not something we knew when we watched it the first time. He looks like a super nova here, Jun Akiyama, Rey Mysterio Jr. level of having it all together at his age. Tejero is clearly a maestro, making all of Bordes' offense look great and really getting vicious when he needed to with body shots and a pair of nasty neckbreakers. I am really excited to see how Bordes develops, and how he looks when he isn't opposite such a masterful rudo. 

Peter Maivia vs. Johnny Lynch 10/21/67

MD: This is our one look at Peter Maivia in the footage. He's around 30 here. We have four minutes here and this felt more like an attraction than something more attuned to the style. Maivia looked like Snuka with the hair and patterned Polynesian gear. Lynch was a big bruiser with a lot of heft and hammering blows. This was mostly him bullying Maivia until the headbutts could begin. They quickly led to Lynch being busted open, flying over the top, and eating a bodyslam for a loss. This match could have happened anywhere in the world and the crowds would enjoy it once. Maybe not more than once though. 

ER: Johnny Lynch is a small boulder, a man who appears to be 5'8 or 5'9, but shaped exactly like a rock solid little King Kong Bundy. You can call him Little Daddy or Ding Dong Bundy, but he is a big bumping round man and I love it. Maivia looked pretty simple in the ring here, with a big uppercut his best feature (and even was helped out by Lynch flying hard for it). He had a funny babyface caveman movement to him, which is different from later islanders being more babyface Tarzan. He was explosive enough for his look, but Lynch was the real find. He had a big missed avalanche in the corner that drooped all of the ring ropes as he bounced and hung on them, and his huge over the top bump to the floor was humongous. Think the exact midway point between Jake Milliman and Bundy, flying fast to the floor. That bump was so damaging that I bought him staggering back into the ring to get pinned by a bodyslam. 

Vasilios Mantopolous vs. Anton Tejero 10/21/67     Pt. 2

MD: Mantopolous is amazing to watch. Once they get into the holds and counterholds, he's just endless twisting and torquing, snatching up limbs whenever he can to incredible effect. Tejero's a game opponent, a base that feeds into one holds after the other, that can credibly escape through skill or strength or, more likely, by cheating. Unlike the Bordes match, he never really had a shot at control, but he was always competitive. Mantopolous always just had an extra flourish, an extra hold, an extra counter. He was relentless, always able to slip through the legs or get a monkey flip or kick up or headscissors flip in. When there was distance between them, Mantopolous stooged him all the more, jumping in to causing him to recoil, giving a limb freely only to capture Tejero as he tried to take advantage or turtling so Tejero could do nothing. They went slow, they went fast, Tejero bumped around the ring. Occasionally, rarely, he'd get some shots in, but more likely it would be Mantopolous running a circle around him to get his own shot, and Tejero not even able to sneak up on him. But since Tejero had the size and the persistence, and was so eager to cheat, it never felt like a wasteful mismatch. The fans ate up every moment of it and now, decades later, you sit back and watch this, just glad to see the mastery and imagination and commitment in the next exchange whatever it may be.

PAS: I think if we hadn't had Petit Prince, Mantopolous would be completely brain breaking. Prince is slightly faster and jumps a little higher, but Vasilios is still incredible for this time period. Tejero is a perfect opponent for all of his horseshit. He is a great lucha base, big bumper, hard hitter, sort of like La Fiera or Bestia Salvaje. He's he guy you want on the other end of a phenom. I loved all of the tricks Mantopolous played here, like teasing an arm only to trap Tejero when he goes to grab it, a killer series of straight jacket reversals, big monkey flips and ranas which sent Tejero flying. Tejero never seemed close to solving the puzzle, but it was a blast to watch Mantopolous construct it. 

ER: Tejero is so great, the perfect person to be opposite a wild energy sprite like Mantopolous. Tejero as a La Fiera is a really great comp, as they have a very similar bumping style that is all about the highest backdrop bumps and the farthest distance on monkey flips. Tejero is a master of taking bumps that go past where a normal man's stopping point would be, getting flung into the ropes several times, bouncing off the bottom ropes and recoiling back into the ring. He's really great at utilizing the ropes into his bump physics, and good at keeping Mantopolous's sillier (and be sillier I mean "extravagant and cool") stuff grounded in reality. There is a lot of Mantopolous offense that requires Tejero to get kicked or launched chest first into the ropes and then stumble back into something cool, and Tejero comes off like a skilled guy who is always stumbling into another Vasilios trap. Mantopolous had all of these cool ways to tie Tejero up, grabbing a wristlock and then intertwining his own wrists and arms, getting enough leverage to flip a larger guy like Tejero believably over his back. Tejero is so wary of Mantopolous and has the body language to back it up. It's not easy to get tricked 30-40 times into getting flipped onto your back or splatted onto your stomach, but Tejero has this great foolhardy attitude while also making all of these "why ya gotta flip me again?" faces. 

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RIP Bobby Eaton Pt. 3

Bobby Eaton/Tony Halme vs. The Hellraisers (Road Warrior Hawk/Kensuke Sasaki) NJPW 6/14/93

ER: Bobby Eaton only had 30 matches in Japan, and this might be the only one we have, maybe the only document of how Japanese crowds reacted to this god. And what an all time great Odd Couple the Eaton/Halme team was! They teamed together every night of Eaton's first tour of Japan, going 12-2 as a team before getting this title match (beating everyone other than Chono/Muto). Were these two hanging out for those two weeks? Eaton teaches Halme a couple things in the ring, Halme shows him his favorite weirdo Japan spots from his 2+ years there, it's something I would certainly watch. They're a weird team, but I love the team dynamic of a skilled smooth technician and a big lummox. Halme really did come off super lummox-y here, like he was on downers or something. He was a little sluggish and kind of wandered around more than I'm used to in matches that aren't from 80s World Class. His timing seems off throughout, but Eaton is so good at covering for him and making it almost seem like part of the act, that it turns into a real charming Bobby performance. 

Eaton/Hawk had a great thread throughout, with Hawk working a more Memphis puncher style with him rather than a Road Warrior style. They have a few punch outs that are really great, Hawk clearly having some kind of bet with Eaton over who could throw a better worked right hand. I don't know the last time I saw Hawk throw right hands this often during a match, usually throwing more chops and shoulderblocks and not having stand and trade exchanges. Eaton bumped big but wasn't necessarily working this as the small man who takes all the bumps. He was working as Hawk and Sasaki's size equal, using those hooking punches as the ultimate equalizer. Match starts with a bang and a big Sasaki high rotation powerslam on Halme, and while the Eaton/Hawk stuff was my favorite (I mean sure Hawk no sells Eaton's piledriver but we also get Hawk's great fistdrop so), but Eaton/Sasaki is a fun pairing I'd never seen. Eaton takes a high backdrop bump but convincingly holds off Sasaki, throwing incredible headlock punches, putting him down with a perfect swinging neckbreaker and then drops the Alabama Jam. 

Eaton was also busy the entire match wrangling Halme, but it really gave a cool insight into his ring general capabilities. The fans really wanted to see the Hawk/Halme showdown and they were LOUD with "HALME" chants before they locked up. But there was a awkward spot where Hawk went to Irish whip Halme but Halme held on too long and just kind of got tossed sideways into the ropes, and it gets awkward getting him back to his feet in a way that isn't just "stand up and repeat this spot". Eaton recognizes it instantly and comes charging in to get in a punch out with Hawk, allowing Halme to reposition. Halme, while he was much more sluggish than I've seen him and did hardly any offense, did at least lean into big clotheslines. Eaton took some big damage down the stretch, including Hawk rocket launching him into a Sasaki powerslam AND taking the Doomsday Device, and I really hope someday I get to see another match with this weird team. 

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, I loved how Halme can just go to the body and cut off everything, but this was an Eaton master class. He felt like he was conducting the whole match, getting everyone in position and taking these huge in ring bumps to tie it together: backdrops, eating press slams, and getting doomsday deviced. He made the Hellraisers look incredible which also made Halme look great when he went toe to toe with them. That is one of the great things about Eaton, he was going to make everyone in the match go up a level when he was in there. I would also love to see more Eaton and Halme, man they would have been a fun WCW team. 

Bobby Eaton vs. Jerry Lawler Power Pro Wrestling 2/17/01

ER: The two greatest punchers in history throw down, and the punches are as great as expected. I don't think Lawler/Eaton were ever in the same place once Eaton left Memphis in the early 80s, and I love the selling point of an 18 year old grudge exploding in 3 minutes of violence. The punches in the first 10 seconds alone make this match must see, and it's more evidence that Lawler arguably sells punches even better than he delivers punches. Seeing him get rocked in the corner by Eaton right hands is seeing two legends with 100% trust. Lawler knew right where those hands were going to be when he bounced around in the corner, and Eaton knew exactly where to deliver them. The fight to the floor and Lawler blocks a post shot (I love when Lawler blocks a post shot with his hands as he always makes it look like his stiff arm straining to not go into that post) and Eaton takes the shot instead. Eaton even takes a biel on the concrete floor! 

Brian Christopher on commentary talks about Lawler being a slow starter, but not long after Lawler hits a mule kick and then the strap comes down. Lawler uses his punches to build to two Stunners, a Lawler spot I usually hate, but here I like it and it's because Bobby Eaton is really great at selling a Stunner. Brandon Baxter starts interfering, which leads to Stacy Carter crotching him on the top rope, which brings out Victoria (totally forgot Victoria was built like Leyla Hirsch in 2001), which brings out Bill Dundee. Dundee looks like The Gorch here, all that was missing was a pipe or a chain, and they set up a Dundee/Lawler/Kat vs. Eaton/Baxter/Victoria match that I can't find any record of ever happening. This was a criminally short match, the only match Eaton actually had in Power Pro, but every single interaction between he and Lawler was EXACTLY what you want. 

Bobby Eaton/Dennis Condrey vs. Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers/Chris Hamrick) IWC 12/11/04

ER: Dennis Condrey comes out of a 15 year retirement to work some MX tags, and THAT is the kind of indy dream match that excites me. This was only the second of his comeback matches, and Condrey looks pretty good for a guy in his early 50s who hadn't wrestled since his late 30s. I also like dream matches that pair legends with veterans, not young guys. Smothers and Hamrick were already old guys on the super indy scene at this point, and I like that team against a couple old legends. The match is great, with a lot of really snug matwork that built to a hot tide turn when Chris Hamrick started his bullshit. Hamrick worked the mat well with both, doing hard wristlock takeovers and building to some cool stuff around a side headlock and a neat Condrey half Indian deathlock. There's a couple nice old Midnights double teams, the nicest a Condrey drop toehold into an Eaton jumping elbowdrop.

But match gets up-fucking-turned when Hamrick goes for a Johnny B. Badd style jumping moonsault and completely wipes out on the ropes, hanging himself disgustingly by his knee. Now, if you know Chris Hamrick - and if you know Chris Hamrick you love Chris Hamrick - your yellow lights are flashing. Hamrick is the master at taking calculated body destroying bumps-as-strategy. Hamrick intentionally blows out his knee doing a complicated rope bump and it's allllll part of the plan. It's a spot he has variations on and it's my favorite kind of southern wrestling theater. Smothers runs to Hamrick's aid, the crowd leaps to their feet thinking something went wrong, Smothers waves in people from the back, and it all takes so long that IWC opted to do a time lapse. There are four people helping untangle Hamrick's leg from the ropes while keeping him steady and not injuring him further.....and of course Hamrick then lands a superkick right under Beautiful Bobby's chin. Hamrick's face as he shrugs to the fans and to the men helping him is just part of what makes Hamrick the best at that kind of bullshit. 

Smothers goofs off a ton on offense with his karate chops and silly dancing, all while dishing out stomps to Eaton's ribs. Things swing back for the Midnights when Hamrick does another of his insane bumps, flying feet first to the concrete floor after Eaton undraped himself from the middle rope. I love how indies never expected Hamrick's biggest bumps so they always came off as shocking, closer to the reactions of Bigelow going through a ring than any modern WWE stunt fall. Condrey gets the hot tag and throws a couple nice stiff arm southpaw lariats, Eaton hits a hard lariat to send Hamrick over the top to the floor, and the flapjack gives us old man indy champions, one of the purest experiences in indy wrestling. 

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Matches from PWG All Star Weekend Night 1 1/5/08

Low-Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - EPIC

PAS: This was their first match against each other in four years, and their last ever indy match (they had a couple of FCW matches during their time in WWE Developmental). This was the matchup that launched modern indy wrestling, but this is one of their least hyped matches (PWG footage used to take so long to show up, that sometimes their stuff would fall a bit through the cracks). This was really great, as good if not better then their matches earlier in the decade. This was structured a bit differently, as these weren't young guys trying to prove themselves, but established stars. Danielson worked this as a heel, really trying to torture Ki by ripping up his arm in gross ways, he also had mixed in a fair amount of MMA spots in his arsenal, and there was a couple of really slick moves in and out of the guard, I especially dug him working an armbar, jumping into guard to throw down elbows, and slipping right back into the arm bar. Danielson also kept attacking with Goodrich elbows, setting up the finish nicely. Ki breaks out a bunch sick kicks to the chest and face, including catching a Bryan tope with a head kick. The finish run was awesome stuff, as they are fighting on the top rope, Ki actually bites Bryan getting him in position for the Warriors Way, Ki then hits the Ki Krusher, and spins it into the Ki clutch where he pays Bryan back with Goodrich elbows of his own. This is a undercover classic, I think it had too much matwork for the people who were really pushing PWG in 2008, but I am always going to love these guys banging the mat. 

Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong

PAS: This was a fun match, although fell a little short of what these guys can do at their peak. Evans, at this point especially, was completely rubber-spined, and Strong found a bunch of ways to twist him into pain pretzels, at one point he had him wrapped up the ropes and nearly touched his ankles to the back of his head. Strong also unloaded some blistering chops, and Evans took a gross bump to the floor when he missed a dive and nuked his ankle. Evans always had a bit of an offense problem, he is kind of the Lugentz Dort of indy wrestling, he ends up going over in this match, and I just had a hard time buying the stuff he threw putting Strong down, although the 450 always looks great.

Eddie Kingston/Claudio Castagnoli/Human Tornado vs. Necro Butcher/Chris Hero/Candice LeRae -EPIC

PAS: This was a total blast, a wild brawl which ebbed and flowed had great pacing and told a bunch of little awesome mini stories. All six hit the ring fast and start brawling, and they eventually spill into the parking lot. Necro starts throwing rocks at the heel team, I mean big stones tossed hard, the kind of reckless insanity which made Necro special. This was a Necro masterpiece, he wilds out smashing the shit out Tornado and Kingston with crazed punches, at one point he comes in as a hot tag a just throws these totally gross JYD no hands headbutts. Tornado is a great gross cheapshotting prick, he absolutely obliterates LeRae with a superkick to the throat which puts her on the shelf for most of the match. Every time Kingston and Hero matched up it was as borderline unprofessional as you want from those two, and the finish was great with LeRae getting back into the match only for Eddie with a full wifebeater smirk, line her up for a backfist, with Hero diving in front of the bullet only to lose the match. On paper this looks awesome and in ring it delivered on it's promise.

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Corino Family Feud

12. Steve Corino vs. Colby Corino PWF 8/27

PAS:  This is Corino's return the the ring after five years, to fight his son on Colby's 25th birthday. There have been a handful of father vs. son matches over the years and it is a really great way to insert real emotion into a match. This wasn't an overblown NXT emotional tour de force, the acting was relatively subdued but you could feel the history. It started mostly on the mat, but got much more personal with Steve throwing some really nasty overhand slaps and Colby getting more desperate, focusing on his father's bad neck (after agreeing not to attack it). Steve had some really great looking punches, including some of the nastier mounted corner punches I can remember. He really looked like he was going to knock divots off of his son's forehead. I really dug Steve barely being able to stand at the end and egging his son on to hit him more, and the brainbuster Colby hit was really beautiful (and really should have ended the match instead of whatever Nova looking thing Colby actually used to pin him). I did think some of Colby's offense was a little indy wrestling for this kind of generational war, but when he kept it simple it was great. This was a hell of an old man last stand from Steve Corino, who adds one last classic to his pretty impressive resume.

MD: This told a unique story in a unique way with a ton of emotion and a narrative throughline, without seeming rote or stereotypical in any way. If anything, it reminded me of the last few big Regal matches against Cesaro and Hero, except for the emotional connective tissue in those were symbolic and this was thoroughly and deeply real. Instead of developmental polish it had earnest indy grime. I enjoyed Colby's cocky enjoyment early on and I appreciated the wirey sea of hair that ran down Steve's face, a mask of age and seasoning even if not of blood, shielding us from his wrought emotion and forcing us to imagine the feelings that lay underneath. They worked this match with the crowd but never quite for it. When working from underneath, Steve would hear clapping but never lean into it. When firing back on Colby later in the match, Steve would keep his mounted top rope punches slow and measured, uneven so that the fans couldn't count along, though you could feel the sheer effort in each shot. 

Maybe Colby's offense got a little too cutesy at times, but Steve leaned hard into each leg lariat or what not and made it all look far better than it ought to have. They didn't turn up the speed often, but every time they did, it absolutely worked. And then they brought it back down to the grinding, groaning elemental battle between father and son. As the match went on and Colby survived Steve's second and third winds, it seemed somehow more inevitable than it should have (this helped along by Steve's own words that he only had a good fifteen minutes of wind in him), but even that inevitability felt satisfying because of the sheer heights of oppressive and yet still somehow triumphant emotion that they were channeling. Steve said it himself after the match: the chance to do this in this way and with this freedom was so unique and so unlikely, and they took advantage of the opportunity for all it was worth.

ER: I think I liked the build, the fact that the match happened, and the narratives they built from within the match a lot more than the actual match proper. And I thought this match had some of the same problems as the NXT main event 30+ minute epics. But it had a lot more hard and unique story than those matches had, so some of the melodramatic moments were going to come off better here, where you can more easily buy into the emotional stress of the match. A father physically fighting his own son is a weird thing, even within pro wrestling, and for me that gave it more of a freakshow appeal than an emotional family drama typically has. I played catch with my dad, but we've never worked a collar and elbow, I've never ground my boot across his face, and I've never been potatoed by him. The whole thing is strange and fascinating to me, working a violent interpretative dance with your father. 

Part of me thinks this could have better as a babyface/babyface Bryan/Cesaro structured match, as the opening matwork was snug enough that they could have kept things professional that a straight 20 minute match with less emotional drama would have worked. I knew it wasn't staying in that realm but I think they had the skill to do it. Colby's twisting headscissors on his dad's hurt neck was way more interesting to me than a lot of Colby's actual "moves" offense down the stretch, and Colby was at his best when he went with more of a Finlay-type approach of being active in negative space. I liked the guise of keeping this professional (knowing it wouldn't stay that way) and how Colby edged into that with double stomps to his downed dad and later scraping his boot in his dad's face and holding his boot on his dad's neck. Steve was in awesome shape for a guy who hadn't worked a match in 5 years, and I appreciated Brad Stutts on commentary pointing out details such as Steve losing 28 pounds in the six weeks since the match was signed. Stutts got over strong points of strategy, like how Colby was leaving for St. Louis right after this show, but Steve has been training ONLY for this one match. Those things elevate a big family feud. 

I thought the match was a tremendous Steve performance, one of his great singles matches. Colby is a guy I thought got really really good during his Evolve run, but I thought most of his Evolve performances were better than this one. None of those matches had as much personally at stake, and he was more of an interesting New Jimmy Jacobs in Evolve. Steve is really great at working Jacobs-types, and I wish Colby had leaned more into that style. I bought into Steve's dramatic heft, and loved whenever the 48 year old would fire back at his progeny. Steve's corner punches were excellent, and he saved a light Colby boxing exchange down the stretch by fighting back off rhythm with some thud. I thought a few of the transitions were weak, as they kept leaning on Steve doing things he wouldn't have otherwise done (including twice going up top for the sole purpose of getting knocked off by his son), and the match seemed to blow past several different good endings before landing on the weakest of the bunch. I would have liked this more had Colby gone into kill mode when the ref was giving Steve recovery time and Steve begged his son to keep going. The brainbuster would have been ideal as the final coffin nail, but at minimum I loved how Steve sold during all the kickouts. Still, some melodrama is expected and encouraged in a once in a lifetime match like this, and what they did was a net positive. I'll always get excited for unique pairings like this, even though most won't have the same kind of built-in quality story as they pulled off here. 

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New Footage Friday: FLAIR! MURDOCH! DOUGIE! FUJIWARA! TAKADA! BURKE! GORDY! ULTRAMAN

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Nobuhiko Takada vs. Rocky Della Serra/Leo Burke UWF 7/24/84 - GREAT

PAS: This was early UWF, before they were really a shootstyle fed, so this was a standard pro-wrestling tag match. It was mostly hard head Fujiwara, which is far from my favorite Fujiwara, but he does hard head spots really well. Burke especially leaned into stooging big from punching or elbowing Fujiwara in his rock hard dome. Takada continued to underwhelm me, lots of kicks which only semi-hit (although he did waste Burke with a top rope dropkick).Burke was the revelation here, he has a big rep, but not a ton of footage, and he was on one here. Great looking bumps, awesome offense (he hit the best inverted atomic drop I have ever seen) totally looked like a super worker. 

MD: Fun stuff. Della Serra is a guy we've seen pop up in a few places since we started doing this and Burke is obviously one of the greatest journeymen of the 80s. What I liked about them here is that this, in early days UWF, felt almost like a different style battle where they were utilizing the sort of pro wrestling they'd do anywhere else and Fujiwara and Takada were Fujiwara and Takada. That might be a series of overdramatic elbow drops from Della Serra or an inverted atomic drop from Burke or whatever. It obviously meant that they knew how to play into all of Fujiwara's head spots for the best effect. Adding to this you had Takada bringing a little more flash with whips and dropkicks on top of things like the belly to belly right into a submission. It all came together pretty well despite it all.

Ric Flair vs. Dick Murdoch NWA 9/11/86

MD: Maybe not the best week to cover Flair, but what the hell, it's footage, it's new, it's Friday, and it's of historical value since, unless I'm mistaken, we just have a couple of minutes of garbage footage from 78 over two matches of Flair vs Murdoch, so this is a new, iconic pairing. I liked the creativity and the variation here, much of which I'll credit to Murdoch. After the initial matwork (not Flair's best, but it was fine) they made the most of the relatively short fifteen minutes of match time, just throwing out interesting transition after interesting transition to the point where it never felt like a your turn/my turn match but like a real struggle where both guys were trying to outfox the other. My favorites were probably Murdoch catching the knee on an early knee drop attempt and Flair causing Murdoch's elbow drop to the leg to overshoot forcing him to wipe out on it. But Murdoch also got a snap turning backslide counter and Flair jammed him on a fireman's carry attempt by punching him in the face, and so on, combined with what you'd expect like Murdoch answering the chops with punches out of the corner or Flair getting a cheapshot in after begging off towards the ropes. 

The finishing stretch was, of course, BS, but still had enough wrinkles to feel creative. Murdoch hit a running power slam instead of slamming Ric off the top. They had a ref bump, Flair tossing Murdoch over the top, a phantom pin off a punch by Murdoch, before the actual finish of Murdoch inadvertently back body dropping Flair off the top onto Tommy Young and then hitting the brainbuster but getting DQed. If you're going to have a finishing minute like that, at least it was dynamic. You didn't know if Flair would win by cheating after Young went down or if it'd be Flair tossing Murdoch over the top that would cause the finish or if Flair would win after the phantom pinfall, etc. On the other hand, if you're having to stack elements of a Dusty finish one on top of the other on top of the other to keep it fresh, maybe there's something problematic with your booking?

ER: I thought this was excellent, just the panacea I needed after a long work week with some late nights. The chemistry between the two was great and they kept upping the ante in ways I wasn't expecting. This match had a ton of activity to it and they kept pulling off sequences that I hadn't seen done quite this way. That always excites me, when I see a new match with two guys I've seen a ton. I can't really get excited about Flair matches these days. I imagine if an unseen Flair/Steamboat there's a good chance I'd watch it, but probably a better chance that I would just watch a random episode of Sunday Night Heat instead. And yet I loved everything Flair did here and loved even more how Murdoch worked with him. The opening was some light matwork with them moving in the familiar ways, but it really kicks up when Murdoch catches and blocks a Flair kneedrop inches from his nose, drags himself to his feet by Ric's leg, and before long is dropping elbows on Ric's leg. That leads to Dick missing one of them when Flair shifts and then Flair starts working over Murdoch's side from his nasty spill. 

Now, this match had a lot of "stuff". Murdoch and Flair are guys with a lot of stuff, and Flair more than most is a guy who is going to get his stuff in no matter what. But this match managed to have a ton of stuff while feeling like all of the stuff served the match. This didn't feel like Flair giving the fans Flair, it felt like Flair giving the fans a good match with memorable Flair moments. And Murdoch was there with some incredible selling and super impressive body work to make Flair look even better. Murdoch's execution was all time great in this match. His misses landed like a man who didn't expect to miss, his punches looked as punishing and sharp as ever, but his technical ability was amazing. He had a nice tight reversal on a Flair abdominal stretch that he then rolled into a tight cradle, and later he hit one of the most finely executed sunset flips I've ever seen. Murdoch understood the physics of wrestling, and his move execution legitimized his fighting. It wasn't just his offense, but the way he took Flair's offense was a real mastery of physics. Murdoch is able to look heavy while taking offense but you can tell he's getting up for everything with ease. He hangs in the air taking a Flair back suplex, and makes a hiptoss look like Flair really has to muscle him over. Murdoch's selling was excellent throughout, taking a Flair kneelift and holding the left side of his belly like he got stuck, or the painful grimaces when Flair would raise his arm and punch him in his left side. 

The dedication to every small spot made every big spot look fantastic, with the best being Flair going up top and Murdoch running across the ring to plant him with a huge powerslam. And we got an all time great punch out, with Flair dishing a hard knife edge in the corner that sends Murdoch responds instinctively to with a three punch combo, and Flair bumps his way through these fists in great ways, leading to ref Tommy Young stopping Murdoch from hitting his big wind up right, only to have Murdoch throw a just-as-nasty left jab over Young's shoulder. It wouldn't have looked better if it was a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and I'm not sure Bugs could work that punching sequence as expertly as Murdoch or Flair. I loved all of this match, bullshit finishes don't bother me when the journey is this much fun. 

PAS: There is an apocryphal Murdoch vs. Flair match from Mid-South which Joel Watts called the best match he has ever seen, but the tape melted in a hot car. From this relatively abbreviated version you can really tell that they had special chemistry. This was way more reversal heavy then I expect from Flair matches, with lots of cool counter wrestling by both guys. This was counter wrestling which felt organic rather then two guys waiting around to dance into another spot. Murdoch especially found neat ways to pick the leg or sneak in punches. I loved Young catching the haymaker and Murdoch sneaking in a jab, I love when punchers have a bunch of different signature punches and Murdoch unloads the arsenal. 

Doug Gilbert/Keizo Matsuda/Tiger Jeet Singh?/Ultraseven/Takashi Uwano vs. Terry Gordy/Shoichi Ichiyama/YUJI KITO/Yukihide Ueno/Tomohiro Ishii IWA Japan 2/4/01

 
MD: Full disclosure: I'm not super familiar with some of these guys, but I found this overall pretty compelling. The story here was good, with eliminations possible by going over the top too, which meant Gordy was a beast here just due to the size differential. I know he was diminished, but you put him in a tag like this where he could be dangerous in the corner or come in and have some guys run into his stuff or just throw his body around and he could still be incredibly effective. I wouldn't want him working a twenty minute singles match necessarily but he had size and presence and meant something to the crowd: when Ultraseven (who was bigger but could still move pretty well) faced off against him the crowd had a real buzz. Anyway, this was ultimately the Keizo Matsuda show. Mostly thanks to Gordy it became 5 on 2 pretty quickly, with a long beatdown on Matsuda, to the point I thought we'd get ten minutes of Gilbert vs the World, but they were able to get it to 4 on 2 and then Gilbert did his job by double eliminating himself and Gordy. After that, Matsuda had some real hope and momentum and it looked like there might be some heel communication and another elimination but the double teaming works and then works more and then works even more and after a valiant attempt to hang in there, the numbers game ends up as just too much. Matsuda is probably stronger for his showing though.

PAS: This was a couple of months before Gordy's death, a full year after his last listed Cagematch match (Hardy Boys vs. Gordy/Hayes, which is pretty intriguing). I thought he looked great. In some of his 90s work he looked addled, but here he moved well, hit some big hard shots, great clotheslines, nice suplex. I liked how he was a real obstacle for everyone he faced, and I dug Dougie needing to sacrifice himself just to give Matsuda a chance. That was definitely not Tiger Jeet Singh btw, it was some guy in a mask, which is always the trouble with translated match listings. Matsuda was fun as a guy dying on his sword, but be valiant all you want, you are still dead. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Coffin Match

6. Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page AEW Dynamite 7/14

PAS: These two had a series in EVOLVE I had a lot of time for. It was what really made Darby into a name guy, mainly because of the shellacking he would take. This was as good as those matches, although worked a bit differently because of Allin being a bigger star than Page at this point. It is pretty hard to show me new things in a street fight at this point, but this had a bunch of pretty cool unique spots. Loved Darby coming in with the metal back brace to make his senton's nastier. I thought the Scorpio Sky and Sting section worked well, Sky popping out from the casket was fun and Sting showed some real verve cleaning house. Page using the ring post hook to yank off Allin's chain was really nasty looking, as was the revenge Darby fishooking. Your pair of monster Darby bumps, a couple on the floor and the Splash mountain on the stairs were appropriately huge Darby bumps and the post match Coffin drop through the coffin was nuts both for Darby doing it and Page taking it, and feels like the kind of iconic thing which will be part of video packages for years.  I imagine it is unavoidable at this point, but having Darby take such big bumps in picture in picture during commercials kind of sucks. I hope eventually AEW has some sort of network where we can watch these matches in full. I also would have liked to see Page bleed more. Either blade big or don't, but Darby's Pirata blood mist would have been way cooler if he had been able to get more of a mouthful. Still those are minor quibbles for an otherwise excellent match, one of my favorite AEW bouts to date. 

ER: This was tremendous, the perfect amount of chaos and escalating violence. I really can't believe Darby Allin is still in tact enough as a human to be giving us matches like this. I keep waiting for him to be sidelined with a broken torso but at this point he just feels like the kind of guy who tries to jump off the roof into a swimming pool at a party, lands fully on concrete, doesn't remember even jumping, and is totally fine. Page is a true goofus, does dumb stuff like talking to weapons, but will always be reliable for being in the ring while Darby Allin murders himself to a great match. Darby wearing the metal body brace is the most Fury Road he's ever been, and it made his corner body attacks look even more painful. But nothing is ever going to look more painful than 5 of the bumps Darby takes in this match. His tope is probably the best in wrestling because it is the most "body as weapon" dive we have, where the wrestler doing the dive clearly doesn't care about the damage done to his body as long as he's damaging his opponent. 

I really liked the Scorpio Sky/Sting involvement, as it came very early in the match and the surprise of Sky in the coffin was handled well. Sting was really landing hard stomach kicks to buckle Sky (there are literally over 150 people on this roster who should be asking Sting how to throw a kick to the stomach) and the crowd brawl building to Sky getting crotched on the barricade was great. A Darby plancha off the second level gets caught by Page, and Darby gets swung violently into railings and walls. And, the best Darby matches will always see him swung violently into railings and walls. Allin's bumps have such thud and snap to them, he really sends himself to the mat quicker and harder than anyone. His splash mountain bump on the stairs was disgusting, and the way he whipped the back of his head into the mat when Page hooked and snapped his chains looked neckbreaking. 

The most incredible thing about Darby's bumps might not be how eagerly and painfully he takes them, but how unexpected he makes them look. There is no person better in wrestling at making a planned crash landing look like a man who was not expected to crash. Chris Hamrick took body breaking bumps and you knew he was going to take them, but he *always* looked like a man who expected to hit a move, not a man planning how best to take this dangerous fall. When Page yanked Darby to the mat by his necklace it looked like Darby had no idea the spot was coming. Nobody makes his dangerous bumps look as unanticipated as Darby, and the number of wrestlers in history who you can say that about is less than 10. Darby landing an ollie off the top rope off of Page's back is such a sick way to lay a guy out. A full skate deck with trucks is deceptively heavy, and the spot itself looked like a graphic the evening news would show during a Dangers of Backyard Wrestling piece. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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