RIP Jimmy Rave

Jimmy Rave vs. Bryan Danielson ROH 4/25/09

MD: Very role-driven and giving performance by Rave here. Despite a successful heel hook towards the end to make it exciting, one that Danielson wasn't afraid to sell as dangerous and damaging, this was almost all Dragon. He had this way of just crashing downwards onto Rave from any angle with brutal elbows, nasty holds, a dive, or even just these little grounded kicks whenever Rave actually did buy himself a moment to gloat. And of course, when Rave tried to hit one of those kicks himself, Danielson dodged it leaving him looking like a fool. Rave took everything, fed, and sold that the crowd was getting under his skin from the glorious pre-match moment where he had toilet paper on his shoe to shouting that he hated them as much as they hated him. Still, when Rave hit a knee out of nowhere or landed a quick pinfall or hold, he came off as credible and capable of turning the match around with a lucky shot or some help from Nana, even if he was ultimately at Danielson's mercy. Even as a wrestler that could have hit all sorts of things, he did exactly what he was supposed to serve the match and give the crowd what they were there to see.

Jimmy Rave vs. AKIRA NJPW 5/31/08

MD: Great showing by Rave, who felt like he more than belonged in this setting. I actually kind of loved the layout here, though I wish they leaned just a tiny bit more (not even a ton more) into it with the selling. After an even opening exchange of hard-fought but classy chain wrestling, Rave got knocked to the floor with a dropkick and turned on a dime, as he was so good at doing, by cheapshotting AKIRA as he was opening the ropes for him to get back in. The big turning point after that was Rave catching AKIRA with a gutbuster reversal off a plancha on the floor. Throughout the rest of the match, AKIRA's stomach and Rave's knee would be entry points to cutoffs and comebacks for each wrestler but wouldn't necessarily be overtly sold. They'd have other offensive focuses, but Rave would be able to cut off with a quick knee or by hitting a dropkick counter to shut down a top rope move by AKIRA, while AKIRA got some hope by working Rave's knee after catching him in a tree of woe. It all led to a big spot where Rave got his knees up to counter a top rope splash and both guys ended up reeling to set up the finishing stretch. So it was a big part of the match and interestingly used, but didn't wholly dominate the match as a whole, letting it be other things as well. I still would have liked a little bit more buckling of the knee for the last set of counters, but considering Rave was going over, it probably protected AKIRA a little bit that he didn't show that damage. Anyway, this was a really good showcase for a lot of the different things 2008 Rave could do and could be.

ER: Did you know Jimmy Rave worked a BOSJ? I certainly did not. I somehow remember Rave working Dragons Gate but had no idea he worked some New Japan dates. This match is the same length as the Slim J match down below but paced very differently, working some slower deliberate grappling and saving some bigger spots for the finish. I still think Rave was somehow faster at age 36 than he was at age 26, and it's neat to see how his skillset evolved over the decade. One of his best skills is really committing to running into offense, and it provided some of the best moments here. I love the way he charges into AKIRA's boots and holds his jaw after, occasionally going back to that jaw even while selling his knee later. He's great at taking hard dropkicks right to the chest, never bumping early to cheat. I always praise Jerry Lawler for fully understanding punches, not just how to throw them but how to sell them. Jimmy Rave is like that with clotheslines. 

Rave throws a killer clothesline and lariat, throws excellent missed clotheslines, and takes and sells clotheslines in an incredibly aesthetically pleasing way. Like Lawler, he's also great at taking and selling punches. Watch the way he whips his hair after a few straight AKIRA punches and marvel at how good he is at getting his hair whipped off his face as an incidental fallout from being punched. Next time you see an old HHH match (if you're the type who revisits HHH matches) you'll immediately notice how each hair whip sell just looks like a guy whipping his hair, disconnected from the strike. Rave's running STO is one of my favorite moves and I'm not sure anyone else does one like it. There are plenty of people with bad spears - a move much harder to hit and damaging to your own body - and yet Rave looks like he steamrolls people with his STO. In the same way Bill Dundee would set up his sleeper by hitting a lariat (before wrapping the arm around), Rave throws a lariat into an STO, and it looks awesome. Very cool seeing Rave get a win in a BOSJ tourney, and even cooler to see the ways his game kept evolving. 


Jimmy Rave vs. Slim J SFCW 6/4/16 - EPIC

ER: Man 2016 feels like an eternity ago, and it doesn't help that this may as well have taken place in 2002 Wildside. Slim had a boy band bowl cut and both moved as fast as I've seen them. The best part of Slim J is how he combines his awesome speed with some super hard hit strength, and the best part of Rave is how he uses his surprising speed to shut that down. It's kind of unreal how fast Rave takes Slim J's armdrags. Rave takes an armdrag as fast as I've ever seen Psicosis take one, but Rave also takes his with ring-shaking impact. I'm not sure the last time I rewound armdrags, but I kept wanting to see what Rave was doing and how he was doing it. The speed from both kept surprising me the entire match, like that slick Slim J monkey flip into armbar, done as quickly as possible after Rave had continually rolled to the floor to avoid a lock up. Rave took over with a short clothesline that flipped Slim into an incredible bellyflop, looking like someone running as fast as they could without realizing they were about to hit, well, a literal clothesline. The way Slim's body kept traveling forward after hitting Rave's arm looked like it defied gravity. Rave has so many great tricks and a very impressive spatial awareness, always knowing how close he is to the ropes and right where he needs to be to catch Slim. 

There were some great Rave STO cutoffs, used more like a brick wall that uses Slim's momentum to put him down, Rave shooting forward with his weight at just the right time put Slim hard on his back. Slim bumps hard, runs into offense harder, and makes big impact when it's time for his comeback. He nails Rave with two hard lariats and swings even harder and lower on a miss, but winds up bouncing Rave off his shoulder with a flat footed southern lariat that looked like it would have put down any man. Rave tries to duck Slim again by sliding past the ringpost on an Irish whip, leading to this great moment where Slim - sick of Rave rolling to the floor any time there's a momentum shift - doesn't miss a beat nailing a tope con giro over the post without hardly giving Rave time to turn around and catch him. These two are true highlight reels and always have at least a couple surprises, like Slim deadlifting Rave into a northern lights suplex, or Rave throwing Slim with maybe the farthest flung superplex I've ever seen, practically throwing him into the opposite corner turnbuckles. That Slim's great Manami Roll finish (and how Rave took it) isn't even one the 10 coolest looking things they pulled off here is a testament to their creativity, and you get the sense they could have wrestled a half dozen other times in 2016 and given us something new each time. 

MD: For some reason I figured these two were at least slightly more married to each other in their career. According to cagematch, at least, that really wasn't the case as it says that they hadn't wrestled each other for twelve years before this. It's such a natural, effective pairing though and you wouldn't have known it by this match. Rave, by this point, was so good at the little things, looking out to the crowd during holds, taking his time, maximizing the value of moments, not to mention the great punches and chops. Slim J's always excellent at working from underneath and could pull out that explosiveness and completely change the composition of a match just like that. His bump off of Rave's clothesline was wild, and to be fair Rave paid it back later in the match by taking Slim J's clothesline with really close, snug contact. Despite running the gamut from chain wrestling to strike exchanges to Slim J's crazy flip dive over the turnbuckle, nothing ever felt stilted or inorganic. The best example of that was probably towards the end, after a late strike exchange when each guy rushed to the corner to create distance and build momentum only for the other one to charge after. I wouldn't at all call it no selling which is how that usually plays out; instead you could really feel the ground down desperation at play as they worked to cut the other off before the advantage could shift too far. This came off like an inevitable collision, a match that really just had to happen. Hopefully the 2/3 falls match from a couple of months later is out there as well.

PAS: This is a classic hidden gem, really on the level of the best 2010s juniors matches anywhere. They really felt like classic dance partners, with Rave selling and bumping for everything Slim did perfectly, laying in the leather when necessary and working some complex exchanges pretty organically. The flip dive over the ringpost was insane, and fit perfectly with the pace of the match, Rave protected him really well, but turned right into it without ever having to stand around and wait. What a pair of pros these guys were, roll out of bed after not wrestling each other in a decade and look like a pair of guys touring the country with this match every weekend.