The 5 Minute Legend of Angus Legstrong

 

Angus Legstrong vs. Hex NJPW Academy 10/7/23

ER: The only known recorded match of the legendary Angus Legstrong. There have been rumors of dark matches, but those are only close whispers in darkened hallways. This is our only existing proof of the wrecking ball that is Angus Legstrong, and I want more. This is the only 5 minutes we have of a guy who I wanted to feature on DEAN~! earlier this year. That didn't work out, but I was hoping this many months later that there would be many more Angus Legstrong. There aren't, yet. But this is 5 minutes you will want to watch, to get on board for his inevitable return. This is a student match from the New Japan Dojo and could have played like a student exhibition, or been a glaringly obvious First Match. Instead it was built around real struggle and felt like an actual battle, while nearly everything else on the card was worked like a typical NXT match. There's something pure about two debuting guys having several standing grappling struggles instead of mapped out reversals, and they stood out in a way that no other match on this show did. Every match on this card would have benefitted from using the kind of struggle and resistance that Legstrong and Hex showed. 

They each went after the others' arm in ways I liked. Both guys were keeping their arms in tight in a preventative flex for nearly the entire match, and that feeling of wrestling resistance is cool. Legstrong is compact in a cool way, and larger than Hex. He's the one who starts breaking this out with an judo style arm takedown and a cool natural instinct fireman's carry. He has a wrestling base like Tamon Honda's, if Honda was built like a the world's toughest Bobby Hill. His armbar and brief short arm scissors were things that Hex had to really work to break away from, and that energy was there the whole match. Neither lets the other skip any steps. I dug how Hex held onto a sunset flip and tried to bar Legstrong's arm after, and how he later grapevined Angus's leg with everything he had just to block a gutwrench. Legstrong had a big slam, with a bit of a pause, after Hex came in high with a crossbody, and he hit a double leg that Hex couldn't have stopped if he knew exactly what was coming and when. The way Legstrong made a quick space before springing back forward with that takedown was something I want to see in wrestling more than endless reversals of reversals. After fighting over both sides of a Boston crab, they close out with more head and arm grappling. It's great. 

I wanted to see this story go 12. I wanted to see where this was headed. I wanted to see them get into a bit of trouble, out over their skis. But I like that the most striking we got was a quick open hand to the body by Legstrong, close to the end. I'm ready for more in 2024.