2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Kingston vs. Garcia

 

21. Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia AEW Rampage 4/20 (Aired 4/22/22)

ER: I've spent most of my Wrestling Writing Time the past couple years writing about 1997 WCW, meaning there's a comical amount of wrestling from 22/23 that I've not seen. Meanwhile, my absolute favorite modern wrestlers have been racking up nothing but heralded matches in my viewing absence, and I get to experience them years after all my peers. This match was not "heralded" and some would say it is "baseline" Kingston, but something like this being completely under the radar is a testament to how much high end work there's been, and also a testament to just how good "baseline" Eddie really is. This is 10 minutes of Eddie attacking Garcia's body, and Garcia making big openings going after Eddie's ribs, and it rules. Eddie doesn't just chop at Garcia's chest and welt him up, he punches, palm thrusts and just hits this man's body, throws the back of his head into the ring steps, just beats him up. Kingston is wearing a brand new singlet that looks great, and he's keeps those palms open the entire match, making me long for several Kingston UWF runs where he mostly loses matches to shooters. 

Garcia is great at bringing a nice varied attack to King's ribs, and there are few things I love more in wrestling than Eddie Kingston selling a damaged skeleton and torso. Garcia is throwing knees to different parts of Kingston's upper body, running him into the steps, throwing front kicks, push kicks and knees, shoving him belly first into the ringpost and guardrail and apron, even breaking out a meaty senton I don't remember him using. My favorite bits were his two chestbreakers, putting quick stops to the danger of finding himself grabbed at arms length by a guy trying to twist his nose off. Kingston sells his body like a man having difficulty breathing. I've never broken a rib, but I remember those long epic workouts trying to do as many sit ups as possible, and how much breathing hurt the next day doing literally anything that would expand my abs. Kingston's faces and the way he held his body was the most accurate version of that feeling. King throws an enziguiri like a man with minimal core strength and his exploder hits like a wave crashing into jagged rocks. His call for the backfist perfectly baits Garcia into grabbing a single leg and gives him a freebie Saito suplex, making it too easy to hit the backfist. Both guys felt like they were each constantly going for their gameplan and there was no second where things weren't absolutely humming. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST