2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Spencer

17. Daniel Makabe vs. Artemis Spencer 365 Pro Wrestling 9/18

PAS: This was another Makabe grappling speciality with nearly all of it being grabbing limbs and necks and hard grappling. The only other Spencer match I have seen was an earlier Makabe match and they are fun dance partners. Spencer added This was a some very cool flourishes of his own, including a straight kick to Makabe's knee from his back which dropped Makabe into a triangle, and an especially nasty version of Danielson's head stomps which started with a foot rake. I love all the different ways Makabe can maneuver onto Spencer's back, including catching a skytwister press. I could have done without the NXT style hesitation by Spencer on the forearm - this is violent stuff from the start, hesitating on a forearm seems pretty hack. Otherwise I dug this from bell to bell, felt like the kind of layered thing that you would pick up new cool moments each time you watch it. 

ER: A great match that actually fills its 15 minutes instead of seeming like a match that was trying to fill 15 minutes. There are a lot of guys who think they can work a tight 15 and it almost always feels like it would have been a more worthwhile 9. This is match is a great use of time with a few different cool stories running throughout. These two are frequent opponents who always deliver on their ideas (check out their cool 2019 match to see how their ideas and strategies have changed in two years). I liked Spencer's strategy of targeting Makabe's arms. Makabe has long arms that play visually well, bending in satisfying ways and looking believably hyperextended on Spencer's multiple armbar attempts. Spencer has a lot of quick armdrags and Makabe is really great at whipping around on armdrags. That's a skill of his I don't think I really noticed until this match. Armdrags usually lead to match resets, cooling things down and spacing out sequences. But Makabe turned them into real offense the way he sold them, really putting over the torque a tightly turned armdrag would put on the shoulder joint. For a move that's been so ubiquitous to pro wrestling for long before I ever began watching, you rarely see someone put over the fundamentals of an armdrag's purpose and damage. 

There are plenty of great moments to work around that arm damage, some of it some high concept stuff. Early on Makabe dodges out of the way of a corner yakuza kick, but instead of getting his leg draped over the top rope Spencer leaps to the top rope with no hands (unnoticed by Makabe) and flies off the top with a whipping armdrag. Makabe yelps when Spencer yanks his arm to force a knucklelock, and it's another thing that makes you realize how seldom effort gets put into selling an armdrag. A knucklelock with a hyperextended elbow would hurt enough to make you yelp, and I love a match that will mix innovative sequences with close attention to small basics. Chris Hamrick working fake blown spots into his matches made him one of my all time favorite guys to seek out, and Makabe has done similar stuff. Spencer goes for a handholding armdrag bouncing off the top rope but slips, leaving an opening for Makabe to grab a waistlock takedown off that top rope. Makabe effectively ties up Spencer's legs on the mat like an passive aggressive Twister champion, and Spencer was good at getting frustrated as he got blocked and pretzeled at every submission turn. 

There are so many ideas on display here, but the match never devolves into a presentation of ideas. Makabe has a great Saito suplex, and he had a cool way of trapping Spencer in one when he throws his weight into the ropes to bounce Spencer and create space, then grabbing the waistlock for the suplex. There's great use of actual logic to reverse spots, as instead of complicated reversals of reversals we got gold like Makabe dodging the third in a series of Spencer armdrags by throwing his arms up and sucking in his stomach. Spencer locks in an awesome triangle when he pulls guard and kicks an approaching Makabe's knee out from his back with a straight kick, faceplanting him right into the triangle. I liked more of Spencer's elbows than I disliked, and there was one in particular in the corner really stung, and his leg kicks looked really punishing. But, my favorite strike of the match was the excellently placed Logan Gilbert right hand by Makabe, sidestepping a Spencer rope run and leveling him with a cross to the jaw (selling the shockwave in his hand after, naturally). This was a great match, with fun pacing and strong twists, and I can't wait what ideas they pull off in their 2022 List match. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST